If you do the responsible thing and pay down the debt, The other side will spend like drunken sailors when they return to power. It comes down to trust and that has been shattered. I suggest paying down the debt with a legally binding provision that a SuperMajority (75%) of both houses is needed to raise the debt. Further, No court, other than the US Supreme Court has jurisdiction. Congress cannot modify or repeal this law without a supermajority. If Congress would act its age perhaps we would be better off.
Good luck with that. They’d never do it. Pipe dream.