Don't forget that inflation reduces the National Debt in real terms, in 25 years the government could pay it off with loose change. What matters today is the difference in what the government is paying in interest and what is left over from taxes after they have paid all the bills, currently this running in the red hence the term Deficit.
At other times it was balance of payments that was the No. 1 problem but since we became a Service Industry nation, importing everything, the balance of payments problem has become unsolvable and so it is just ignored.
