The national debt was over 120% of GDP at the end of WW2. What did we do? We cut spending and grew the economy. We can do the same thing now.
At the end of WWII we didn’t have Medicare, SS had only been paying out for about 5 years and over 41% of the citizens were not on some kind of govt assistance. There were no credit cards so most people had very little personal debt. Our manufacturing base is not close to what it used to be.
We could balance the budget and payoff our debt but the austerity package would never be accepted by a large segment of the voting public. The legislators don’t have the backbone to do it. Its not going to happen. First we have to have the crash and then we will recover over time.