for starters, completely eliminating the debt is not a wise goal, it should reasonably be around 60% or so of gdp not 0%. that said, we're now somewhere around 120%, so that still means eliminating half of it.
then, why tariffs? any means of raising revenue has an adverse effect, but tariffs in particular are quite complicated as they impact foreign trade and foreign relationships and international relations. moreover, the amounts you're talking about wouldn't come close to paying down half the national debt.
with tariffs, you're making american consumers pay down the national debt, when in fact a lot of it did not go to their benefit in the first place. republicans are responsible for the vast majority of the national debt, largely through unfunded tax cuts that benefitted the big businesses and the rich far more than lower earners, and in some cases didn't even benefit at all the half of the population that doesn't earn enough to file income taxes.
tariffs would hurt poor people and lower earners coming and going. don't buy their b.s. that foreign companies pay. they don't; american importers pay directly, then pass the costs on to downstream businesses and eventually, u.s. consumers. a *small* portion of tariffs *may* result in foreign exporters lowering their price (in practice, it's maybe 10% of the tariffs) but the vast majority hits americans.
worse, tariffs allow domestic companies that aren't subject to the tariff to hike their own prices by almost the same amount as the tariff because the tariff makes their competitor's goods more expensive, leaving room for them to raise prices and still be cheaper. the whole market becomes more expensive, not just the imports.
evidence of the dislocations in the economy are all over, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is at record levels, even beyond the imbalance that led to the great contraction starting in 1929. this needs to be fixed anyway, and the outsized national debt is a reasonable justification.
one way or another, we need to levy taxes that reduce this dangerous overconcentration of wealth. find a way to tax their wealth directly, or their income, or eliminate their various tax dodges, whatever, but leave poor people, low income-earners, and consumers alone.
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