Oh my gosh!
$12 Trillion!
We should be so lucky!
In your dreams! 
First of all, that is only the amount of debt government acknowledges. Remember that govt has long ago switched to a "peek-a-boo" system of determining what is, and isn't debt.
I'll get to "reality" in a second, but for now, let's go with that
$12T figure.
It means that right now, every man, woman, & child in the country basically is
$52,000 in debt, before they get to their personal finances.
Next comes the rate at which we are going into debt.
If you have a toddler age child right now, by the time they reach college age, each one of them (and everybody else) will be carrying
$400,000 on their back!
A brief explanation of why
this can no longer continue, in the form of a simple question:
Do you see anyone doing anything that will result in an economy 8 times larger than what we have today? (and I mean before/without inflation)
What that indicates is the amount of money that
will not be available for
anything else, because the government is going to have to vaccum it off in taxes just to service debt.
Think about it this way;
Where, in such an environment is a nation of college-age kids,
already carrying $400k in debt, going to go for student loans?
And
who, in their right mind, would loan it to them?
And now, "Reality";
If you go through government's books the way ea. of us, and every business in the country has to, instead of the "fairy tale method" Congress uses, you wouldn't talk in terms of, or use their definition of debt.
You would look at the
"total financial obligation" of the entity. When you do that for the US Gooberment, that includes all the Social Security payments, and medicare payments "promised" in the future. When you do that we are
not $12T in the hole.
We are roughly
$60 Trillion in debt!
And
neither political power in fashion will
STOP Spending!!
When you add up, state, federal, and local taxes, and fees, the majority of us are already forking over
50% of what we earn to government. They obviously don't think that's enough, or they would
STOP Spending!! To this they continually add the
insult that we are a
"free people".
Compare that to the fact feudal serfs only paid 25-30%.
Have a nice day
Fred