Short summary: the federal debt is not a generational issue

The right-wing claims that increasing the federal debt steals from the future generation. This is wrong.

First, the federal debt never needs to be repaid, only the interest on the federal debt.

Second, most of the federal debt is held by Americans. When the future generation pays money towards that debt, they will be paying it to other members of the future generation. The federal debt held by Americans raises distributional issues, not generational ones.

Third, the remainder of the federal debt is held by foreigners. The generational issues surrounding foreign-held American debt are a function of the trade deficit, something reducing budget deficits or the federal debt wont address.