You do realize that we could quantitatively ease 100% of the national debt?
Discussion
That is the plan over time
If you do it over time, then you still have to pay massive amounts of interest. You could also quantitatively ease the interest, leading to lower taxes.
QE is inevitable, at what pace is indeed the question
A simple answer to this is to do it when the bonds come due. So, over 1 ,5, 10, 30 years. Instead of refinancing the debt, you just use QE to pay the principal and interest. At that point your national debt is reset to zero. And you dont need to borrow more, since deficits are normally the same amount as interest.
Yes. The Federal Reserve could just raise its monetary base all at once from ~$6T to ~$42T and buy up all outstanding U.S. government debt. Or, it could more slowly raise the monetary base as necessary to pay off the debt as it matures... Of course, the faster the FED raises its monetary base (i.e. debases the USD) the faster the USD becomes less useful as an instrument for trade.
There's nothing "easy" about being unable to afford groceries.