As Carly says, this may seem crazy to you. But here are two of the brightest contenders in the 2016 Republican primaries repeating the same old Voodoo. When it comes to the debt, the GOP is the party of zombies.

The national debt in perspective

Consider what it means when the graph says 100%. It means the national debt equals one year of Gross Domestic (National) Product (GDP). So if we used the full value of what the US produces for one year just to pay off that debt, that would just do it. And 50% means the debt would be paid off in six months of using the full output.

That sounds outlandishly huge, but consider a family making $100,000 a year that buys a $250,000 house with 20% down and takes a $200,000 mortgage. No one considers this unusual or risky. But that family would be off the top of the graph at 200%. It would take all they made for two years to pay off their debt. And the US has a slight advantage over most families. It can print money. So there is zero chance of default.

And only about 1/4 of the national debt is owed to foreigners. Another 40% is owed to Americans, for example, pension plans own quite a bit of it. And the rest is owed by the US government’s “General Fund” to other Government Trust Funds, like the Social Security Trust Fund and the military’s pension fund.

Stop with the doom and gloom. If, as conservatives fear, the Chinese tried to bankrupt us by cashing in all their treasury bonds, we could simply print the money and pay them. Not a problem. And no, the high debt is not harming our credit. If you have bad credit, people will only loan you money at a high interest rate. Everyone in the world is willing to loan Uncle Sam money at almost zero interest. He’s got absolutely the best credit rating in the world.

Click for an explanation of the Green Line, balanced budgets, tax cuts and a bit of Keynesian stimulation.