"Can the US pay it's debt?" is the wrong question. The US can pay off any amount of debt, because their debt is measured in USD and congress can issue new USD as needed.

"How does the debt actually effect the economy? (Does it?)" and "What is the long-term impact of various debt-maintenance strategies?" and "Will political deadlocks prevent effective management of the debt?" (among many others) are better questions.

Congress can't issue USD directly.

The US Gov will never have an issue paying their debt because they are sovereign over the currency they use (USD). Furthermore, they have an extra advantage because the USD is the most popular reserve currency and because of this demand around the world, it's easier to maintain its value or relative strength to other currencies. That being said, long term it's not looking good for the USD. If you check the DXY index, the USD has been trending lower against a basket of currencies, and the FED had to buy a lot of treasury bills in 2020, because of lower demand from other entities. Another bad thing for the USD is the long term liabilities of the US Gov, which will only be able to be satisfied by printing dollars. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpgfIfD_cRs)