Kerby Anderson
When I talk about the US national debt, often someone asks: Why can’t we just cancel the debt? People do this with bankruptcy. Why can’t the government do the same?
The US currently has a $35 trillion national debt plus $217 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Government debt is issued by the US Treasury, through what are called US Treasuries. When you purchase a T-bill, it shows up in your bank account or brokerage account as an asset. The US owes $6 trillion in T-bills, $14 trillion in T-notes, and $4.5 trillion in T-bonds.
Why not just cancel all debt? Debt is a liability that the US government owes someone. Your elderly parents or grandparents probably own some T-bills. This government debt is an asset for them.
If you cancel all the US government debt, then those T-bills would be worthless. They can’t buy groceries or pay for utilities or medical care. Cancelling US Government debt would instantly impoverish millions of Americans, most of whom are retired.
These treasuries also may be sitting on the balance sheet of an insurance company that will need the money to pay out future claims. They are also sitting on the balance sheet of other countries. For example, Japan has $1.1 trillion, and China has $768 billion.
Even if we could cancel the debt, it would have no impact on this country’s unfunded liabilities. These are future promises that will need to be paid out and will eventually convert into debt and be held on the US government’s balance sheet. That is additional debt dumped on future generations.
This is why we cannot cancel the US debt.

Kerby Anderson
One of the attacks on the Trump campaign is to whip up voter fears about Project 2025. Kamala Harris said this on the campaign trail: “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party–and unite our nation–to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.” Her campaign website claims that Project 2025 will “strip away our freedoms” and “abolish checks and balances.”
Project 2025 is a 922-page document created through the Heritage Foundation by 400 experts. It is essentially a conservative wish list of policy initiatives these experts would like implemented. When asked about it, Donald Trump said he had not read it and it doesn’t represent his policy goals.
More recently, the leader of the project (Paul Dans) stepped down from the project. One of the Trump campaign advisors applauded the action and proclaimed: “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed.”
Although the document touches on just about every aspect of the federal government, it appears that the greatest concern from Kamala Harris and other Democrats is the section on how to rein in the administrative state. Although a Trump administration would like to reform the civil service system so it would be easier to remove some governmental workers, I think it unlikely any meaningful reform will occur. I think American voters should welcome more accountability from unelected bureaucrats, but few in Congress seem ready for such reform.
Another attack on Project 2025 is the fallacious argument that it would radically change Social Security. Donald Trump has made it clear he has no desire to reform Social Security or any other entitlement.
Scaring people about Project 2025 may be an effective campaign strategy, but it isn’t based on reality.