The primary cost center for the US Government - and a rapidly expanding one - are entitlements, not wars and certainly not the tiny foreign aid budget (and of course the US should not repeat the mistakes of Iraq / Afghanistan).

Entitlement costs already dwarf defense spending, and it's going to get a lot more dramatic over the next 20 years.

Entitlement costs aka the people getting money.

> Instead people take out loans and go into debt to keep up

Well that certainly depends on who you're talking about. US households at the median and above are in decent debt shape, including debt interest expenses in relation to household disposable income. The payday loan context trap for the working poor is still every bit as bad as it has ever been.

The biggest household financial threat right now are real consumer prices - including rent/housing, education, energy - rising considerably faster than wages.