Noah Smith, America is heading for a debtpocalypse ($)
As I see it, the only hope here is to start scaring people. Bipartisan fear of deficits back in the late 1980s and early 1990s — probably spurred by high interest payments — forced every contender in the 1992 election to promise their own version of austerity. If we can raise the alarm now, there’s the possibility that both parties might be pushed toward fighting the debtpocalypse for populist reasons.
After that, we need practical solutions. Balancing the budget will require a politically palatable mix of spending restraint and tax hikes. …
Populism seems to behave mostly reactively, which doesn’t give me a lot of optimism. The phrase “palatable” is working hard in that last quoted sentence.