Experts Tier round 2: Is there any hope that the US can eliminate its national debt in our lifetimes

1) Political Dichotomy"We must remember that by my opponent"s own admission, we were able to achieve a balanced budget less than 15 years ago. Which was quickly wiped out in the Bush years immediately afterwards..... "Politics had extreme polarity back then, and at all times in the past, just because it is more polarized now, does not mean that cuts cannot happen, or that taxes cannot go up"But polarity severely limits how easy it is for the government to actually pass a balanced budget, as we've clearly seen in the present and very recent past. Hell the polarity in Congress right now is so high that the budgets are being passed with TRILLION dollar deficits in single years. There were 4 years in a row where we added more than a trillion dollars a year to the national debt: http://money.cnn.com...Polarity in Congress, which happens A LOT, can combine with other natural factors like wars and recessions to severely hamper Congress's already crappy ability to try to pass a balance a budget, which only adds more money to the national debt with less time to pay it off. "My opponent also claims that republicans will never accept cuts to the military, he says specifically, "The GOP flat out hates reducing military spending""And where exactly did you actually see me say the word 'never' again? Cause I didnt say the word never, and If youre going to start putting words in my mouth then I'll just go ahead and ask for the conduct point from voters right now.... "even if the GOP doesn"t want to see it happen, if there is support from the people, the GOP will have to, or lose power."But the problem is that there IS NO SUPPORT by people calling for military spending to be reduced by $500 Billion right away.... You have to move mountains just to be able to reduce spending by $50 Billion, but ten times that right away? And maintaining that for DECADES? Its simply horrendously unrealistic to believe that the US will reduce military spending by $500 Billion and keep it that way for decades to pay off the national debt....."However, the source that I originally linked, suggested changing to 69 years old and having an automated adjustment factor so it updates on its own. That is a nifty idea, but it is more of the fine details. This debate is about whether or not there is any hope that this can be done."Yeah, in this is CONGRESS that we are talking about. The entity that will let you down no matter what and make you lose even more faith in them when you already think they cant do anything even stupider to lose your already microscopic respect for them. Congress consists of the most corruptible and power-hungry bastards you can find in this country, and putting all your chips on those people to somehow pay off the entire national debt in our lifetimes would require tons of commitment and responsibility, which are two things that are completely unheard of concepts to most Congressmen...... 2) Events"Most of the cases were us intervening, or a reaction to our intervention. We took that role up in the 50"s and 60"s largely because of the results of WW2 which left most of Europe unable to take actions. That is no longer the case so we no longer need to be the dominant military force"That is purely an uninformed opinion that again isnt grounded in the reality of the world..... The US is by far, BY FAR the most powerful and well equipped military in the world to the point that no other individual nation on Earth could come even close to rivaling it pound for pound..... If something happens anywhere that requires significant military intervention, the US is ALWAYS the first great power that comes to mind of possible entities that could resolve the conflict, and there isnt ANYBODY else who could fulfill that role.... Not Britain, not China, not the UN, not any European power, nobody..... The US is, and for at least the next several decades in the future will be, the dominant military force in the world with nobody else being able to even have the POTENTIAL to match the US's might, let alone the ability. It is therefore illogical to believe that the US no longer needs to be the dominant military force in the world and that the rest of the world can manage itself while the US reduces $500 billion from military spending...... 3) Not enough time"Our time limit was 70 years. The plan I provided would be done in 23 years"But the problem is though that the plan you gave isnt based in reality or the realm of probability at all. "if we continue with military cuts that we are currently going (10.4% every 2 years, or about 5% per year), then with the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid cuts and cutting the military 5% per year for the next 5 years would allow us to be paid off with in 27 years instead of 23."But im arguing that that wont happen since politicians devote all of their efforts to preventing cuts to these areas since that is what their voter base values the most. Spending cuts on very touchy parts of the budget are the most short-lived trends in politics. The longest span the US has ever gone in successive years of reductions in military spending was 5 years (1991-1996), and it wasnt even cut at rates of 5% between years, it was at half of 1%http://www.businessinsider.com...If you look at military spending in the recent past, the largest reduction in military spending EVER was about $150 billion, and it took place over 12 years..... How in the hell can you therefore reason that its feasible for the US to cut $500 billion spending all at once? http://www.cfr.org...The war on terror isnt simply going to end or be defunded, and the US isnt going to simply ease back to the same levels of military spending it had back in the 1990's, let alone make that jump in barely a year...... Healthcare spending meanwhile has almost NEVER been reduced, and over successive decades has consistently grown more and more expensive. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com...The point is: Its completely unreasonable and illogical to sell the idea that the US can cut 5-10% of its spending on both the military and all the massive health care services for successive years over the course of decades to pay off the national debt.... Wars will happen, recessions will happen, depressions will happen, all of these events that cause Congress to do what it does best (overreact and overspend) which will kill any attempt to produce a balanced budget, let alone maintain it for decades. 4) We owe more money then what exists"So even if there isn"t that much cash that has been printed, a debt can still be paid off"The point of the argument was as I literally said: "To put into perspective how big the national debt is since people cant readily wrap their head around how big of a number 17 Trillion is."...... If the US was only a couple hundred billion in debt, then it is reasonable to believe that the national debt could be paid off. But as I was saying with this argument, the US ISNT just a couple hundred billion in debt, its $17 TRILLION in debt, meaning that the odds are already heavily stacked against the idea that the US can pay off its national debt simply due to how much in the hole the US already is.