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There are many ways to pay down the debt. Cutting spending, raising revenue via higher taxes, raising revenue via greater economic activity, or any combination of the three. You assumed ONE scenario. I didn't mention a scenario. What's that saying about when you assume it makes an ass of of you? IT DOES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE ON HOW IT'S DONE, despite what some schmuck who thinks he's a know-it-all because he once scored 96 on a test. P.S. There is lots of legitimate debate over the effect on the dollar, if all of the federal debt went 'poof'. People MUCH SMARTER than you (those who scored 97 and above) debate many sides of the issue.

Oh my dear Saint Peter hanging on an upside-down cross.
I am apparently making my way across the Valley of the Shadow of the Stupid.

No, there are NOT "many ways to pay down the debt". There are precisely TWO ways to pay down the Debt (and if you knew ANYTHING about Macro-Economic Public Finance, you would know that):

Full-faith Redemption via accrual of Fiscal Surpluses; OR
Direct hyper-inflationary Monetization of the Debt (whether through Devaluation, Monetization, or Repudiation, it's all effectively hyper-inflationary).

Cutting spending, raising revenue via higher taxes, raising revenue via greater economic activity, or any combination of the three. You assumed ONE scenario. I didn't mention a scenario. What's that saying about when you assume it makes an ass of of you? IT DOES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE ON HOW IT'S DONE, despite what some schmuck who thinks he's a know-it-all because he once scored 96 on a test.

Nah. from a Bond Market perspective, it's all really ONE scenario: "Full-faith Redemption via accrual of Fiscal Surpluses" (you probably don't even realize that, but that's hardly surprising).

I just assumed the least economically-damaging methodology of getting there, because I (mistakenly) assumed at first that you might be able to follow along with my argumentation.

Sadly, I was wrong.

In this case, it's not about "some schmuck who thinks he's a know-it-all because he once scored 96 on a test". It's about whether or not you're even a smart enough Schmuck to QUALIFY for the Test.

And buddy, based on our conversations -- speaking as someone who used to PREP my company's trainees for the Options portion of the Series 7 GSE -- I'd bet Cash-Money before God and Man that you've never even passed a single Accredited-College freshman Economics course with even a "B" grade or better.

Because you don't know crap... and you're not even as Wise as "cva66snipe", who at least knows that "Ya can't Spend more than ya Get".

Please re-read my #77, if you're not too Proud. Maybe you'll learn something.

No, there are NOT "many ways to pay down the debt". There are precisely TWO ways to pay down the Debt

Full-faith Redemption via accrual of Fiscal Surpluses

Wrong! I'm going to make this as simple as possible so even either self-aggrandizing, blotivating, puffed up idiot, or a 5 year old, can understand it.

The government could choose to cut spending by 10%, use those funds to retire the equivalent dollar amount in debt, and there would have been no accrual whatsoever of fiscal surplus, and the debt would have been paid down.