In the middle of a world war, facing a level of emergency that left civilisations of more than one continent shattered and reordered the world as it was known. As an emergency spike that lasted for around 5 years before they started paying people back. And although the debt was staggering and the US economy was in its prime as a global manufacturing superpower.

This is obviously different, the US government has just been spending because they can. If they even try to pay this debt off it'd be stupid. From the US perspective, why even bother? They're basically already committed.

> I can’t pay my mortgage in full right now. That doesn’t mean my bank loses money on the loan.

In that case you've defaulted on your mortgage. You may get on well with the US government.

And the bank may or may not be losing money for all I care, but on net the creditors to the US are clearly losing money. The numbers are too big for any other outcome.