Exactly correct. As the monopoly issuer of US dollars, Congress can "afford" anything that can be resourced in the private sector. It must create US dollars before they are available to collect as taxes or borrow as bond issues. Any newly created money above taxation becomes someone's asset in the private sector, making it impossible to "balance" our way to prosperity.

Labeling what essentially serves as our net money supply as "debt" has caused more problems than we may be able to solve. The average voter simply can't grasp how one entity's debt becomes another entity's surplus and is open to being politically manipulated. If America faces a problem that could be solved or mitigated with additional federal spending that problem is entirely a political decision, not an economic issue.