In economic terms, bond-buying and tax-paying are the exact same thing, real consumption forgone by current workers. IMO, the profligate deficit spending of the baby boomer generation's prime working years is a symptom of massive demand for government bonds rather than the cause of some moral failure by leadership.
Like, it is true that oversupplying government bonds creates some really nasty economic effects, but so does undersupply. The government budget is not a household budget, and it's simply not true that their debts can or should be paid back.
> bond-buying and tax-paying are the exact same thing, real consumption forgone by current workers
No. US Treasuries are one of the most liquid and easy to borrow against assets in the world. When institutions buy Treasuries, they use them as collateral to borrow against with new money created by the banking system. This money is then spent in the real economy. That’s very different from taxes.
Like, it is true that oversupplying government bonds creates some really nasty economic effects, but so does undersupply. The government budget is not a household budget, and it's simply not true that their debts can or should be paid back.