The title is incredibly misleading and relies on understanding what "foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities" in the description means and placing it in con

The title is incredibly misleading and relies on understanding what "foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities" in the description means and placing it in context: it's a small subset to the national debt. The vast majority of the national debt is actually "owed" to Americans: individual and institutional American investors, the Federal Reserve, the Social Security trust fund, and federal pensions. Only about 37% of the national debt is held by foreign investors.