"And we can't use the current system to pay down debt to fix the issues either."

"Debt", within the current system is only a column heading for money created by Congress. It includes "all" money it spends and the only interaction between that spending and tax collections is in accounting for the net money supply resulting from spending more than collecting.

Without deficit spending the real resources and labor used by the government and its programs are effectively "stolen" from the private sector via taxation and clawback of payments. A "balanced" budget on the books of the monopoly issuer of US dollars also leaves nothing in the private sector to save or retire private bank debt.

Experience over the life of our economy shows us that whenever we attempt to balance spending and revenue we almost immediately fall into recession or depression. I think that seven out of seven times is a good indicator that our priorities are wrong and we are being fed mostly BS by those benefiting from the status quo.

How much difference would it make if we simply renamed the "debt" as "private sector monetary assets"? The conversations surrounding spending and taxation would surely shift toward equity rather than quantity of dollars.