I'd like to go back to the fiat money question?

If we can just print money, why does it matter if there's a national debt? Why couldn't we say impose wage and price controls (like Nixon did) and just print more money. For that matter, why couldn't we just declare the national debt paid? All it would take is to put numbers in some bank accounts. I'm serious about the question. To me, money has no intrinsic value. It's simply a means of exchanging paper for goods. If that's true what's the big deal about a national debt? There seem to be all these economic "laws" and theories, but are they really based on fact? I wish someone with some real economics knowledge could answer that question.