When you decide to join a forum, this is your study guide. The material in the National Issues Forum Issue Books is not handed down from on high, but springs from the concerns of citizens. A problem is set forth with unbiased facts, useful research, and a list of various solutions. Learn more at nifi.org/en/issue-guides/issue-guides. This issue guide is designed to support people deliberating together about how we should approach the issue of our nation's debt. There is no perfect solution but, by considering three different approaches for dealing with the debt, we can try to understand the viewpoints of others and reflect on what is most important to us. Each option sees the debt from a different perspective, and not all options address reducing the national debt equally.