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>>"That is why just about every company and individual in the United States takes on debt at one time or another. "

Companies and individuals make things and perform services. They have cash flows. Governments do not have cash flows. Governments are leaky buckets.They live off an IV transfusion from the people who make things and perform services. They water their own beaks with these taxes and then they sprinkle the rest over their constituencies and campaign contributors. What goes back out is always less than what comes in.

Governments redistribute wealth, they do not create it. If they could create it, they would stop taxing. This is why the rules of debt are different for governments- government can only shove responsibility for its loans onto the backs of those capable of servicing them: those who work.

A government does not borrow on its own. No bank would lend to a government standing on its own. Governments only have borrowing power because they use the collateral provided by the citizens to convince their creditors to give them loans.