One problem is that the annual deficit still has to be eliminated to stop the debt from accumulating again. If you use assets to cover an annual budget shortfall, eventually you’ll run out of assets and your budget will be imbalanced again.
A balanced budget amendment is almost the necessary first step in a plan to really pay off the debt and keep it paid off.
Yes and no. The debt and deficit have become “unreal” to many people, convinced that they do not matter because there is no way to ever pay it off. If we can’t pay it off, and it DOES matter, then the world must eventually implode when the Debt comes “due”.
By paying off the Debt first and showing that it took selling off virtually all our assets to do it and there is nothing left to sell, people might finally embrace “no new debt, no more deficits”.