Just over half of US government debt is in foreign hands at this point. About 22% of the US government debt is owed to Social Security. If we regard the Social Security debt as a polite bookkeeping convention (I do) then (after some math), about 2/3 of our actual government debt is in foreign hands. (50/78 = 0.6510...) And we are obligated to generate over 1.6 trillion for Social Security, on top of everything else we are over-obligated for.

The interest payment on all of this debt is the third largest line item on the budget. (After the military and entitlement programs.) It is spent in a way that I do not want my tax dollars spent. Of course the money borrowed with this debt goes into government services and thus into the economy. But spending now in return for moving money out later is not always a good idea.

We are therefore obligating ourselves to move large (and increasing!) amounts of money from our economy to other economies. Which sustains us for now, but eventually...?

Cheers,
Ben