Citizen: Our government has a large budget surplus, which our leaders wish to use to pay down the national debt.
Opposing Idea
Our government has a large budget surplus, which our leaders wish to use to pay down the national debt.
Conclusion
This [using the surplus to pay down the national debt] makes no sense.
Evidence
Because of underfunding, our military is inadequate, the infrastructures of our cities are decaying, and our highways are in disrepair. If homeowners used all their money to pay off their mortgages early, while refusing to pay for upkeep of their homes, this would not make them better off financially. The same goes for the country as a whole.
Evaluate
This argument follows a common pattern. The first sentence contains an Opposing Idea that the argument will eventually refute. The second sentence contains the argument's conclusion, which is a rebuttal of the idea in that first sentence. Everything that follows this second sentence is evidence supporting the conclusion.
One challenge in this question is that there aren't any clear premise or conclusion indicators, or even a clear pivot word like "but" in between the Opposing Idea and the Conclusion. We need to read the argument to get a sense for the logical connections between ideas in order to identify the conclusion.
The big hint here is the way that the first sentence describes a plan—using the budget surplus to pay down the national debt. And then the second sentence sharply refutes that plan: "this makes no sense." This second sentence is definitely an opinion about the first sentence. Together, they follow the common pattern of
Everything that follows the conclusion serves as evidence supporting that conclusion. This evidence describes alternative uses for the budget surplus—funding the military and infrastructure. This is followed by an analogy comparing the government to a homeowner. This analogy supports the idea that the government should use the surplus for these alternative uses, just as a homeowner is better off paying for upkeep instead of paying off their mortgage early.
Goal
Look for an answer stating that using the surplus to pay down the national debt makes no sense.