In fact, national debt is a very very good thing. All of those debts that add up to 17 trillion dollars have hard-set timetables for completion, no, China cannot "call it in" and ask for all of their money back.

National debt is a good thing because it means that other countries are happy to loan to the United States, and they are confident that they will get their investment back and more. Confidence is the driver of economies in a virtuous cycle, so as long as other countries keep loaning money to the United States, the US economy will be healthy. The day the US stops borrowing money is the day that the economy crashes worse than ever before.