When the national debt bomb goes off, voters will blame Washington, or the “robber barons” of Wall Street, or maybe China, the media, and George Soros — anyone but themselves. The reality is that there’s virtually no popular will to do anything about the problem.  

The Left, of course, has never had any inclination to reduce spending. It has long argued that we can squeeze the wealthy while endlessly expanding the welfare state. Conservatives have given us passionate rhetoric over the years but have done very little (other than, perhaps, blunting the Left’s agenda). Populists, who support a political philosophy that’s predicated on telling working-class voters whatever economic myth they want to hear, barely even bother pretending the debt matters.