Final answer:
The statement is true; the government faced severe financial difficulties in paying the troops due to an inability to directly tax citizens, resulting in a heavy reliance on state contributions and methods like borrowing and printing money, which eventually led to a substantial national debt and price inflation.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, the government did not have enough money to pay the troops. During the Revolutionary War, financial challenges were significant due to the Continental Congress's lack of power to tax citizens directly. The Congress requested money from the states, which already had financial burdens of their own including funding militias. Consequently, the states failed to meet the funding requests, leading to a substantial national debt.
Furthermore, national governments often resorted to borrowing, selling war bonds, printing more money, and accumulating debt as ways to finance the war. This resulted in price inflation and additional strain on civilian budgets. When the war ended in 1783, there was a public debt of about $43 million. Even after efforts like selling liberty bonds during World War I, which brought in $23 billion, earlier financial strategies led to problems such as insufficient compensation for many veterans.