"I consider the fortunes of our republic as depending in an eminent degree on the extinguishment of the public debt before we engage in any war; because that done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend it in war without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge of public debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government." --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1809. FE 9:264

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39

An interesting side note: Although Jefferson was born into a very wealthy family, he was deeply in debt when he died. It’s one thing to teach it and another to live it yourself.

Sources: http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1340.htm and http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Debt

The national debt is about $9.7 trillion. That $9,700 billion, or $9.7 million million. That amounts to about $31,600 for every person in the U.S.A. However, if you add to that $9.7 trillion the amount of unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare promises, the figure rises to a total of $59.1 trillion, or nearly $200,000 for every person in the U.S.A.

Where does congress spend all this money it doesn't have? The three largest categories are $680 billion to Health and Human Services, $580 B to defense, and about $420 B to interest payments to the holders of the national debt. Compare that to $61 B spent on education.