Relax.

According a 2013 from the Institute for Energy Research (https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/coal/federal-assets-above-and-below-ground/) the United States has:

-More than 900,000 separate real assets covering more than 3 billion sq. ft.
-Mineral rights, on and offshore, covering 2.515 billion acres of land, more than the total surface land in Canada
-45,190 underutilized buildings, the operating costs of which are $1.66 billion annually
-Oil and gas resources on and offshore worth $128 trillion, roughly eight times the national debt of the country

All of that was valued AFTER a credit downgrade AFTER the Recession BEFORE the US became the worlds largest oil producing nation. Yes, the debt is astoundingly high. Yes the size of it encourages disquiet. But we arent on the cusp of debt related collapse.

The insolvency of Social Security is a concern, true enough. By 2032, more people will be withdrawing than contributing. This will require either reducing benefits, raising the retirement age, increasing the deduction, or monetization.

Same deal for Medicare. By 2026 it will be insolvent. Adding a $14 obligation to the payroll tax could counter this for a decade or more. So could restricting access or benefits.

I'm far from an expert on any of this and there is no guarantee that whatever Administration is in office at the time will be willing or able to convince Congress to, for once in their existence, act responsibly.... but, the sheer volume of assets the US has goes quite a long way towards convincing me that we aren't staring at the barrel of a gun regarding the economy.

Hell, there was a market collapse late last year. Did you feel any pain from it? Is there any sign the greater economy is in a downward spiral right now?

It took a week for the mass layoffs to begin when the Great Recession started. A week.

The Trump economy is far more diversified and resilient, it seems, than the Bush economy. The debt is a concern. But I'm not yet convinced that it's yet an unmanageable concern. Certainly not enough to begin prepping for the endtimes.

Wow ... lots of naysayers, ranters, and even conspiracist responses so far.

In the spirit of the OP:
Short term:
Pass a "balanced budget" law: Federal budget is balanced each year, or no sitting member of Congress is eligible for reelection.
Continue, even expand, current tax cuts: continue letting the economy grow and build steam, add jobs, and increase individual earnings.
Eliminate the 'war on drugs': legalize all drugs, and reap taxes from the legal sales. Pardon all criminals from drug-related offenses (unless they plea-bargained to avoid conviction of other criminal charges).
Eliminate all corporate subsidies: Why should the government pick and choose which industries and businesses we taxpayers fund, against our will?

Long term:
End Social Security: make it illegal for anyone born after 1999 to ever draw Social Security, for any reason. Cap all Social Security benefits - no more increases in rates, for any reason. Reduce rates, effective immediately: each year, all individual benefits reduce by 5% of current maximum rates.
End welfare: Cap all benefits - no more increases in rates, for any reason. Reduce rates, effective immediately: each year, all benefits reduce by 5% of current maximum rates.
Eliminate the privately owned 'Federal Reserve': return to the gold standard.
Deregulate all industries: government meddling increases cost, and lowers quality. Government licensing does not guarantee quality product, nor consumer safety. In this Information Age, where consumers have access to information from around the world in the palm of their hand, government regulation is unnecessary and counterproductive.

There is no intention to pay down or retire the National Debt . Before the debt could be retired , there would be no currency in circulation . The purpose of the National Debt is to encumber all real wealth , resulting in the end of individual property rights . The Federal Reserve gets real things . The population gets worthless paper. As the Chairman of the Fed said in 1934 , "When their credit runs out , the game will be over . "

Easy. A couple ways. Since it is imaginary money that they are printing...
Charge them with counterfitcy and lose the key.
Have them declared schizophrenic, delusional and incapable of taking care of themselves and forcefeed them ssri's and neuroinhibitors under judges orders.
Then throw your hands up in the air and wave em like you just don't care

There is no way out. The Globalist Bankers are smarter than us. Even if we get a leader interested in curing the Fed Reserve problem of fiat money and debt, if he begins to speak or act against them, he dies---Lincoln, Czar Nicholas II, Garfield, McKinley, JFK, Congressman Larry MacDonald, Charles Lindburgh (infant son kidnapped and killed). They have a plan, and I would hazard a guess that we are only a few years or less from global chaos--at which time the plan will be presented to "save" us.

End the drug war, there's numbers that suggest annually $80 bbbbbbbbbbbbillion!!!!!!!!! Could be turned around for the good by stopping the policing, adjudicating, and incarceration if drug users. Then putting the money saved into vocational training/ job placement, plus with all the new money from an influx of new money into the economy, successfully redirecting negative behaviors into thriving members of the country. Requiring less money for prison, more for schools. No one needs to illegally traffic drugs, bc it's at a designated place. Instead of being a country with the highest percentage of citizens in prison, keeping families together, helping to curve the next generation of at risk youth

First thing is to 'nationalize' the Federal Reserve. Let the Treasury print the 'money'...and Congress regulate the value thereof, according to the Constitution. Then, ABOLISH Interest collecting! This is not a sound, nor just, economic model.

Apparently it is hopes and dreams, not logic and good economics

No politician wants to do what it takes to pay down the national debt. It would involve taking away government handouts that people believe are now owed to them. They would be rioting in the streets. We have created a monster and don’t know how to kill it and/or don’t have the balls to do it