I'm not borrowing billions. Are you? The only organization in America borrowing billions daily, that I'm aware of, is the federal government, and I certainly wouldn't want them involved in any Mars colony I'd join. Would you?
No, I wouldn't either. It's a safe bet that most everyone in the discussion of a mega space project like this one assumes the US gov't will (borrow to) pay for it.
Well, it appears that the two data points that you and I can validated don't corroborate that hypothesis.
There are plenty of organizations that could successfully fund a Mars colony, and I'm sure there are many, many people who would donate to a crowdfunding campaign to make it happen outside the scope of any existing formalized organization.
