My opinion:
1. Yes it will be repaid as so much is held by pension plans, 401k, and other wide spread funds that most Americans hold some of the debt whether they know it or not.
2. Repaid - yes. If the federal government defaults once, future borrowing will cost more as part of the risk/reward balance in determining rates. Refinanced - no most of the recent debt was at historically low rates that I doubt will get better.
3. Yes the growing debt is definitely harmful. The current debt consumes something like 14% (from memory) of all federal spending (incl Social Security & Medicare) and something like 25% of the federal budget outside the self funding Social Security & Medicare. Unless the federal budget is balanced (cut spending and/or raise taxes), that percentage will continue to grow until essentially all that is left is tax collection & debt repayment as a federal budget. Meanwhile the higher tax rates will stifle the economy and needed services (law enforcement, courts, infrastructure, education, etc.) will be abandoned.
But that's the future and the voters believe the political promises so nothing changes.
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