The terms deficit and debt are mixed so as to confuse the general public.
For example, to pay down the deficit in a balanced manner leads many to believe you are addressing the debt. You cannot pay down a deficit you can only spend less.
So paying down the deficit by four trillion dollars in the next decade in reality means only that you charged four trillion dollars less. In each of those ten years the debt would be increasing if the budget is not balanced.
Having those with incomes over $250K pay a little more will not and can not balance the budget, nor will it reduce the debt.
To amortize the national debt would require over fifty years (and balanced budgets) if we were to pay an amount on the principal each month equal to the amount required by law to service the debt.