Government is government, not family, and not business although more like a business than a family. Next time your CEO goes to the board and announces he paid off debt but lost money lets see how persuasive that is.
In any event we've been in debt basically every year for our 200 year existence, and still had good times and bad regardless...not many families I know are like that. Nor can they print their own money and then tax and demand the tax be paid in that currency. And of course if a family went the bank for a loan and showed that budget the bank would laugh at them...when the US and Japan (two of the countries with the worst debt) issue bonds they're among the most popular in the world...people almost pay us to hold their money.
We can't just say "!@#$ it" but we certainly should not say the government is a household and it's time to do whatever it takes to pay everything off. We can implement austerity that would stall growth... the best solution to our problems...and see how that works...if we want to be the CEO losing money. But that's probably not the best route. Hence, some new revenue (we're at a huge low), some plan to get things in order and provide some stability in the coming decade (real cuts of course), and IMO some smart stimulus now to get help us get moving. A little shot of caffeine to get us off the coach and some confidence in our ability to govern and whala...nobody is coming for to foreclose on the Capital Building.
It's really not the huge disaster some like to make it out to be, just a problem in need of a plan that is well within our reach.