How will we pay down the national debt?

Question

All are welcome to answer this question

military is by far the biggest portion of the budget

Answer 1

Some of it will never be paid.

The best way to look at the yearly deficit, and the national debt, is as a percentage of GDP. Under that measure, it is lower than in many other periods in our history. Carrying SOME debt is not in and of itself a problem, but clearly there is too much debt.

I believe that national defense, programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and INTEREST on the national debt are the largest portions of the budget. (Classic "welfare" - AFDC, etc. - is actually fairly small.) Social Securtity and Medicare are clearly underfunded and UNsustainable. Everyone would like to "reform" the system, but the devil's in the details. I could write all morning on that and still not have an answer.

Tax increases come to mind to help pay down the debt, but the major objections people have are that increasing taxes could hamper economic growth (there IS evidence that tax decreases DO increase total tax revenues, if done right - the Laffer curve), and that tax increases have typically been followed by increased spending, NOT deficit reduction. (And of course people would rather pay less in taxes than more!)

I think there would be more support for a tax increase if there were some ironclad agreement that 100% of the increase would pay down the debt. (Or more! Why not say for every dollar in new taxes, the government would also have to cut spending by a penny? Make it 101%!)

These are ways we COULD pay down the debt. How WILL we? I'm not optimistic that anything constructive will be done.

Sometimes I'm glad I'm not a young man . . .

:(

PS I can't resist on Social Security. When enacted in the 1930's, the age of 65 was something like 90 (or more) today in terms of life expectancy. So by merely doing nothing, the program has totally changed its focus, from a true "retirement" plan to something very different! And the AARP allows people 50 and over to join - that's just not as old as it used to be. They are a strong voting bloc, and that, and the partisanship in Washington, will probably block effective reform. And of course the money's not there in the Social Security Trust Fund anwyay - the government took it for operating expenses and replaced the money with IOUS!!! Any private pension fund that was run this way would make the Enron leadership look like choirboys.

Answer 2

Stop spending. The vast majority of the budget is wasted on unnecessary and unethical social programs (social security, welfare, medicare, medicaid, prescription drugs, etc.). There is also a huge amount wasted on pet projects for politicians to buy votes (the bridge to nowhere). The supposedly evil military industrial complex is only a tiny part of the budget.

All we have to do is stop all of that wastefull spending, and then we'll have massive surplusses, which will enable us to cut taxes.

Answer 3

Lower the federal interest rate.

That's about all that can be done to offset the debt at this point.

Also we need to stop exporting jobs and subsidiary companies to other countries.

Answer 4

Funny. If us average citizens ran our finances like the government runs its finances, we would all be in jail. Wouldn't it be something to borrow 2 trillion dollars and not pay it back?

Answer 5

Sell the US territories in the Western Pacific to China.

Go big Red Go

Answer 6

this is one of the few questions that there is not a plentiful conservative voice speaking on. the short answer is we don't have to pay it because we have NUKES! lots of them.

Answer 7

Invade and conquer all nations we owe money to.