What happens when the annual debt payment on merely the interest owed exceeds the total amount taken in by all taxes, fees, and tariffs? That is not too far off and especially if interest rates are raised. At the outside it’s 30 years. Recently, as much as 30% of the annual budget has been borrowed money. Currently, the debt is approaching the GDP.
My guess is hyper-inflation Zimbabwe style will be the response at the time. They’ll prop everything up with printing presses. That will necessitate a totalitarian regime.
Prior to that, they really need to dumb down the American people and make them totally dependent. It’s really hard to have Zimbabwe without Zimbabweans to cower in corners taking it.
Being the reserve currency and having an unprecedented war capability can keep this going for as long as necessary. There is nobody to stop it externally and only "we the people" Taxed Enough Already can reign it in internally. The vehicle for collapsing the U.S.A. is debt. Bastiat - The Law, Freneau - Rules and others have spelled it out.
The shackles of debt enslave us, collapse us. We break these chains by defunding socialist collectives, foreign and domestic…and depopulating socialists (debt masters) from the body politic.
It's easy to live - free - republic. Sovereign and debt free.