The "national debt" is never going to be "paid off". The national debt is basically government spending that hasn't been taxed. When people are paid in dollars, they expect to receive a certain amount of value in exchange for those dollars. That's the "debt". When you keep inflating the monetary supply, this devalues the worth of those dollars. And reduces the value that you are going to get for those dollars. People who are left holding those dollars will be the ones holding the bag. Smart money is going to dump those dollars for appreciating assets or more financially sound money (ie. gold, foreign currencies with more sound monetary policy). Smart money isn't going to just keep their dollars in a savings account paying a pitiful amount of interest that won't cover the cost of inflation.