“So when the money eventually runs out”
Uncle Fed...that feckless pu$$y...won’t let that happen. He will generate as much money as needed to keep the Republic afloat.
Until the market will tolerate no more.
The debt of the US will never be paid.
Never.
And there will be a day when it is, by necessity, repudiated. That will be coincident with regime change.
But if they just print it, they will devalue it so much is like a big cut anyway in real purchasing power.
So my question is still, will seniors be glad that politicians “never touched it”, to offer potential fixes earlier, when they suddenly can’t make ends meet?
Yep, they just print off new company stock certificates (US dollars), renewing the debt to other hapless US Treasury investors in order to pay off the older obligations. They also print a little extra (deficit / dilution / inflation - call it what you will), backed only by "faith", to buy government toys, pay for early retirement, and grease the foreign aid kickback machine - this at the expense of everyone who has some (now diluted) dollars set aside and also at the expense of anyone living paycheck to paycheck who hasn't got the clout to demand a raise to counter the dilution.
Theoretically, if everyone accepts a routine and small dilution/inflation tax, the dilution can go on forever. But when the leaders' grift, graft, and greed begin to blind them, they start acting like the money grows on trees. They print a lot of extra certificates, and like all Ponzi schemes, diluting the money pool into a worthless swill, and soon bring on the scheme's inevitable collapse.