The national debt has always been an imaginary bugbear. When compared against rates of inflation and the increasing gross tax revenue--it's been a while since I've run these numbers--the national debt amounts to something similar to a car loan. It would take about five years to pay off and that chunk of it does get paid off. In those intervening five years, the nation acquires another "car-loan" of debt proportional to the rate of inflation and the rate of increasing tax revenue.

This analysis isn't considering the trustworthiness of the United States' credit. That's another conversation.