So the US is in trillions of dollars of debt... but who does it owe the money to? Is it the National Reserve? I'm sorry if I sound dumb but I'm just not very informed on this subject and I'd like to know more about it.

You could start your journey here. Though it's a big weird subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_debt

Because it involves money & is thus a subject more sensitive than sex: expect a lot of opinion, lies & dancing around the subject.

ps. People do not care to talk about it & it's not considered a polite topic. Best keep it to yourself. You. Have. Been. Warned.

the us has an enormous amount of debts to china ATM. thats partly why we get so much of our goods from them. if they ever want to collect, we're fucked.

Well, what is the reason why the Federal Reserve cant just produce all the money we owe them and just give it to them? I know that it is privately owned, but what could possibly stop the government from forcing them to do this?

Paper money has no intrinsic worth. Only the "faith" of the issuing country's citizens & that of the country's trading partners gives it worth. If there is too much money chasing too few goods: the money becomes less valuable & thus it takes more of it to buy the same or less.

I think we actually owe more money to Japan and Korea than we do to China.

The Gov had to rescue Fanny & Freddy because the countries who hold US debt have reinvested into F & F. They would be slightly pissed if their investments went to hell.

This, more or less. Remember W.W.I.I.? well, after it Germany's economy was in the shitter so bad that people needed wheelbarrows of german marks to buy a single loaf of bread. Just printing a lot of extra money does nothing to help anybody.

you cant, u will destroy your dollars worth like argentina and go bankrupt, paper money isnt worth anything

when the governments fiscal policy is in deficit, they normally borrow money from overseas.

if i were president, i'd just tax the extremely rich, extremely heavily for one year (and hope that they will understand)
i'd probably get kicked out of the white house, but at least i solved the national debt eh?