Wait a sec... "the debt is at a very manageable level?" I guess I have a different understanding of debt and the national debt. Is the objective to NOT BE IN DEBT? If it is, then we're royally fvcked. This administration and the congress has been borrowing and borrowing, like every other one that preceded it, and they cannot pay it back. Maybe my simple understanding is too... simple. That debt will never be paid, it will never even go in a different direction, or even slowed-down. I dunno what the objective is, but it better be something like "get in more debt" because that is the only outcome possible.
I read the book "The Creature from Jekyll Island". I dunno if you categorize that as conspiracy theory or not- probably so. Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve Act and the 16th Amendment, created an unprecedented condition to American economics and Americans, in general. The Fed was in-place in 1929. The Fed basically allowed the 2008 Great Recession to occur. You could argue that it may have been worse, but no one went to jail. Nothing happened except bailing-out TBTF banks. From what I have read, seen and heard, the Fed was doing its BAU screwing-up.
One thing I have come to realize, and accepted as basically a law of reality (a "fact of life" if you will); The poor are always getting fvcked-over by the rich and wealthy. The wealthy/ruling class will prosper and always own it, run it, benefit from it, never be accountable for it, and continue to manipulate it. I don't care what form of government is in-place. It's always been that way, and it will always remain that way.
I can always count on George Carlin to sum-it-up. the man was a sage.