Why would it elect to pay interest when it could elect not to? It is a discipline. Let the government produce debt without limit, and the dollar ceases to be scarce - at which point the value of the dollar goes to zero. At which point it does not matter how many dollars the government prints, because it has lost the ability to print money. On the other side of the ensuing financial collapse, there is a man on horseback . . .
Currently, private banks create money by ledger entry and loan it to the government at interest. Private bankers use unlimited money-creation powers to control the media, academia, many pastors, corporations, and individual politicians. That is why the government pays bankers interest instead of creating its own money.