Well, let's face it:  This isn't only about the national debt, although that is not exactly insignificant.  Americans also carry super huge levels of personal debt, which has lately increased because Americans are apparently dumbfucks who can't learn anything.  Take a bunch of people who are low-skilled, fairly poorly educated, heavily in debt, committed to a lifestyle that routinely costs more than they earn, then fucking lay a bunch of them off (Twinkie, anyone?) while also jacking up tax rates.  If I owned a business, I doubt I'd be doing a lot of capital investment right now either.  The smart business leaders are probably just buying up palladium or something.