How the National Debt Climbs

I ran into this chart today and found it quite interesting in regards to both the cycles of debt, as well as the overall thrust upward since the time of Reagan.  As the Democrats are usually portrayed as the "spend and tax" regimes, it is quite interesting to see what happened during the conservative Republican terms in the White House.

Of course, given this steep increase - a debt passed on to future generations - it is unlikely that it can ever be paid off; except by a very steep (maybe runaway) inflation that while destroying the value of the US dollar, will also reduce hard-earned life savings to pennies in purchasing power. When a cup of coffee costs $1000 dollars, the national debt can be paid off easily in worthless dollars. Then whatever government that is left will shave off the many zeros on the end of the currency and issue a new currency. Probably tied to a gold standard.