Look at it another way. Our debt is like a 2% mortgage that we can pay off in 30 years using just 18% of our revenue. Back in boom times people could get interest only mortgages with those parameters.
The misleading aspect is because 40%, and even 18%, don't sound as absurd as they really are. Even cutting spending modestly is incredibly difficult. Cutting it by 18% is arguably impossible without completely reshaping government as we know it. Cutting it by the 40% required to actually make progress on the debt is completely unrealistic at any point in the foreseeable future. And these numbers are getting worse each year, with the difficulty of getting out of debt continuing to increase. And of course this repayment pretends we will both maintain or increase income while never increasing spending beyond growth in said income - for 30 years.
No, no private company is getting a loan in these conditions. Drowning in debt with the only means of possible repayment, both short and longterm, being to hope they can find other lenders to pay off you, as a new lender? That's like a mental version of something between a ponzi and pyramid scheme.