The US doesn't have a traditional empire but it does spend a lot of money on international military bases as well as protecting strategic infrastructure and res

The US doesn't have a traditional empire but it does spend a lot of money on international military bases as well as protecting strategic infrastructure and resources across the globe. It's difficult, if not impossible, to maintain that kind of global influence and service stratospherically high debts simultaneously. In that scenario, spending money to resolve internal problems always ends up taking precedent over global influence and other countries with rising bank balances step in to fill the void.