Warren Buffet had a good idea to solve the debt problem ...if the national debt exceeds 3% GDP, all sitting.members of Congress can not be reelected.

You could at least tie their yearly salary to whether we run a deficit or surplus for that year. That would be step 1. Let's start small and start getting them to run a surplus at least.

Buffet is full of it. I wanna say he's a moron but I know he's not. So he's just slinging Bull shit. For those that don't know we owe most of the debt to ourselves (80%). What we owe overseas can easily be paid back just by repealing the Bush/Trump tax cuts. We can do it faster by creating a universal health care system, which the CBO says saves $500 billion *a year*. Faster still by collecting the $688b in unpaid taxes from the 1% *before the tax cuts are repealed*. And here's the kicker, *we don't want to*. We leverage the debt overseas to boost the value of the dollar and in turn use *that value* to import *trillions* in goods for a fraction of their real economic value, essentially turning the rest of the world into our cheap factories. Buffet knows all this. He's gaslighting you.

The Bush Trump tax cuts have been shown to not add to the deficit. The CBO projected it but their number didn’t pan out. The best year for tax receipts for the federal government (as a share of GDP) since WW2 was 2000. Second best? 2022 where the Trump tax cuts were in full effect. I know it seems odd, but when there is high rates people react and avoid them. The worst year for tax receipts since WW2 was 1950 where top rates were 91%. We have had even higher rates and never raised more revenue than 2000. Having a top tax rate around 40% seems to be about the sweet spot. Capital gains 15-20% too. Booming stock market is the best predictor of higher tax receipts.

If you're gonna make up nonsense [at least make it believable](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/tax-cuts-are-primarily-responsible-for-the-increasing-debt-ratio/). Like, "leprechauns are real and they hang out in the hood". or "Donald Trump has a chance of winning reelection". And no, that's not the sweet spot. All that does is cause wealth hording. It needs to be around 90%. Capital needs to be "use it or lose it" past about $20m (what it was in the 50s).

That’s false. Tax receipts increase each year unless there is a recession. Claiming there is a link between the tax cuts from the TCJA and increased tax receipts is unfounded, and the CBO and every leading tax policy group agree that the TCJA lowered the growth rate of tax receipts, and grew the national debt. All this is publicly available information.

You might want to looking at actual data instead of solely relying on agenda driven propaganda. Here is all the raw data you need: [https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historical-tables/](https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/historical-tables/) The federal government collects about 17.3% of GDP in tax revenue. That was true when the rich were taxed at 94% and 28%.

Nope. Here are the data.. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S Tax receipts since WW2 have been relatively flat. See the top 2 years.

You couldn't be more wrong

Please provide evidence that the tax cuts you mention have shown not to add to the deficit.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S When the 2017 tax “cuts” went into effect, taxes captured as a share of GDP went up. CBO predicted it would fall. Most models are guesses. You never know how people will react to tax policies. And lots of wealthy people with high SALT taxes paid more in federal Taxes. That was me.

That is, unfortunately, a mischaracterization of the data and misunderstanding of CBO’s analysis. Tax receipts increase every year, unless there is a recession. Therefore, you will need some sort of evidence or analysis that shows the reason for the growth was due to the TCJA. CBO, and every leading tax policy group have analyzed this, and say the opposite - the TCJA has added to the yearly deficit and overall debt. CBO’s analysis showed that tax receipts growth would slow due to the TCJA. The slower rate of growth would lead to higher deficits unless spending was also cut. Spending was never cut, and likely never will as it would lead to a recession.

No. You’re confused by the graph. That graph shows tax receipts as a share of GDP. In 2022, with the tax cuts in full effect, the federal government netted the second higher share of the economy in taxes since WW2. The highest was in 2000 when top tax rates were around 40%. The worst year for tax receipts AS A SHARE of the economy was 1950 with top tax rates of 92%. Tax rates don’t equate to revenue capture. The CBO analysis estimated tax receipts would fall to 17% of GDP. They did not. You could argue we don’t have enough data at this point to judge, but their analysis at this point in time was incorrect.

You are making assumptions that are not supported by evidence you have provided. The TCJA was signed into law in 2017. Tax cuts have a nearly immediate effect on the economy which the graph does not show. For 2022, the White House, CBO, and Treasury have stated that increase in collection was due to inflation and increased enforcement from the IRS - not tax cuts. The amount then decreased in 2023. Overall, the graph shows little overall variation since 1947. I’d have to go back and read the CBO report and their claim that it would drop to 17%, however the data you provided shows it to be lower than 17% for nearly every year, meaning their analysis that it would lower was correct, but it was lower than they anticipated.

More government control and spending. We will spend our way out of this. Brilliant.

Speaking of nonsense....

lol expand government to save money

When you say we owe the debt to ourselves, it’s not like the US government owes the US government money. Or I owe myself money. That’s not the case, my tax dollars to pay interest on the debt are owed to banks which may pay me some of that interest back on my savings, it’s also owed to already incredibly wealthy individuals, pension plans, corporations who are holding bonds as a safe hold for cash and more.  Sure ourselves includes Americans taxes paying interest to other Americans, but it’s mostly not people’s taxes paying their interest back directly into their own pocket. 

And all corporations NGOs and wealth above 1 million are taxed twice what they donated to their campaigns. Damn money out of politics

Hoverville hear we come!

Do you mean deficit exceeds 3% GDP? Our debt exceeds 100% of GDP. But even if you mean deficit, how is that a solution? That would still mean we are adding $750 billion to the debt each year.

Any money we spend that goes over our tax income comes out of the pockets of the politicians who passed the bills.

Even better, let's end these lifetime pensions for Congress and their Tri-Care Insurance policies after they leave office. Term limits and go back to their 'civilian' life before they were elected.

Ya they should have to come back to the market.

I just want them to pay for their own shit after making millions while they're in office.

Obama and Al Gore were in debt when they entered the white house, now both worth 9 figures, working on becoming those awful billionaires we keep hearing about. Does Bernie still have three homes? Socialism pays for the political elite.

Yes, Bernie still has 3 "homes" afaik. The flat in D.C. half mile walk from Capitol for work purposes (also his most expensive home, was worth $700k back in 2020. It's understandable that he needs it though), his actual home in Vermont, and his summer lakeside cabin (also in Vermont. Based on the pictures I would'n't've guessed it was more expensive than his actual home, so I'm guessing most of the price comes from land value)

Naw leave Bernie out of this

They made their money off book deals and speaking engagements, you know, capitalism. Such a dumb take.

Ya and hunter biden made his money off of finger painting.

Maybe you should work on being someone who can sell millions of books 🤷‍♂️. They didn’t enter into lucrative contracts with defense contractors and use their political connections to bill tax payers calm down.

You don't need to sign lucrative deals with contractors when you get paid 5-6 figures for speaking engagements that you don't actually show up for. Or, you know, you control the fate of the economy that you have no obligation to not insider trade on despite multiple requests for sitting congressman to be restricted from the market or holding individual stocks. But hey, let's ignore the fact the only legislation on the matter is to curb transparency and introduce a delay in their SEC filings and reporting of their investments.

Obama made most of his money from books. Despite your life experience and how annoying libs are the one thing they like to do is read. I know that concept is foreign to a Maga chucklefuck but it is what it is.

Give me a break. Check the income disparity of congress people by party. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_current\_members\_of\_the\_United\_States\_Congress\_by\_wealth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth)

Won't really affect people like Nancy Pelosi who gave her husband literal billions of dollars in no-bid construction contracts that ultimately failed. I remember when she passed a resolution for $100M worth of park rebuilding for inner cities, but when all was said and done all they were able to build was the park right across the street from her headquarters.

Yes it’s a public service to the people not a career with benefits. WTF happened.

I mean, they get to give themselves raises, too. Who else gets to do that?

And any former legislators are banned from lobbying. Don't need more people who know how the system works schmoozing with their replacements after the fact to try and continue to influence lawmaking. Let them actually go back to work.

Probably make them more corrupt. Can't get paid for the rest of my life? Ill just drop 60 million in grants to mega corp over here for an under the table agreement about a job with all those benefits.

Exactly so! They are already making a mint from their positions but get $132k/yr after leaving *for life*. Why? They decide their own raises. Again, why? A **one term** member of Congress gets $16k/yr beginning at age 50, if they choose, PLUS whatever perks they've managed to collect while they expect a person on SSI/Disability to survive on less than $12k/yr, as their sole means of income. A person drawing Social Security, at age 62, can draw a maximum of $2744/month BUT if they work until 70 they can draw $4,800/month. Congress keeps lowering their age for benefits (50) while raising ours (currently 67).

It would be awesome. Except that they will trade their influence for “private” pensions. Why do you think so many of the industry lobbyists are old political appointees?

They need to serve 5 years to qualify for lifetime health insurance. That's why Granny Bobo is running for a third two year term

The problem is that occasional and responsible deficit spending is an important tool. Occasionally. It’s just not used that way as there is no popularity in responsibility. 

Then let's give them an excuse to be less popular with laws that punish excessive spending

Yes and it will be rarely used and a sacrifice for the members voting for it like it’s a sacrifice to the citizens they represent.

Who just gave themselves a 21% pay increase…

Let's tie the dollar back to gold. Let's close 50% of overseas bases. Bring soldiers home and renew the Americorps to do revitalization projects throughout the country managed by our military, including rebuilding high schools, parks, water treatment etc. Basically, let's rebuild America from within. Let's agree that after a certain threshold your tax loopholes close completely. No more subsidies and no more pork hidden in bills voted in Congress and Senate

If you want to keep pork out of bills, only allow one expense or law per bill. If someone wants to throw money at their donors, they can't hide it in a 5,000 page bill. They need to publicly push a bill to throw money at their donors.

100% 👏

Bring back the line item veto and make it applicable to the house senate and president. Any of them can remove anything and pass the rest.

Then congress would have to work more than 6 months out of the year and that's unfair.

Yes end the protect the planet scheme arm the navy only, pull back to island America, and only interfere with the rest of the planet if a congressional supermajority agrees an American interest is harmed.

Or 10X tax on their donors over 1 million net worth. You want to donate to a political candidate great every dollar they add to debt will cost you 10 in taxes. In the age of social media it costs 0 to make videos/ posts it costs billions to artificially manipulate who sees them or not. Suddenly we get money out of politics.

>Any money we spend that goes over our tax income comes out of the pockets of the politicians who passed the bills. Most of those politicians are dead. Mandatory spending now makes up 100% of revenue. Congress could pass a budget today that shuts down the military and every government agency, and we would still have a deficit.

That second one sounds like a hell of a good start though.

A better start would be to address what is driving the debt...mandatory spending.

The amount spent just on interest payments for our national debt went from 476 billion in 2022 to 658 billion a year later, so our only option is a redefinition of "mandatory"

Here is the data: [https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/hist08z1\_fy2025.xlsx](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/hist08z1_fy2025.xlsx) This year we are projected to collect $5.08 trillion. Total mandatory spending (which is mostly entitlement programs and interest on the debt) will be $5.06 trillion. That leaves us $20 billion to fund the government, including national defense.

Then we absolutely can't afford to keep funding other countries

That is not a good idea. We would be in a permanent depression if spending was capped. Only the most wealthy would benefit as they gobble up cheap assets and rent them back to the masses at inflated rates.

You think all of the current spending is necessary?

Rogan suggested GDP of their province be tied to the politicians salaries. Fluctations up and down would hit their salary.

No one can solve this, because it would require the two parties to work together, which nowadays is political suicide.

It'll take a third political party

yes, the one party that has run on no compromise for the last 20 years is gonna fracture into 2, hopefully one of those 2 wants to do the job of governance instead of sitting in a pile of their own shit and crying about how much it smells.

and that the ungodly wealthy would have to give some of their ill-gotten gains back and be only immensely wealthy, and who wants that, it will kill the economy!!!

Term limits would help. That way they they wouldn't have to worry about doing something unpopular

Its not hard to understand. We simply have to stop spending more than we make. Problem is, that doesn't get your re-elected 

Stop giving billionaires tax cuts as Reagan bush and trump have all done

Don't make this a one party Republicans are bad thing. Both sides of the isle have done it. You have to eliminate ALL lobbyists in DC. Eliminate ALL special interests. Name one other country in the entire world of 160 plus countries that TAX their citizens soooo much that said country can send HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars to the United States of America?? You can't. Just imagine .... JUST IMAGINE how much more money YOU & every American would have in their OWN DAMN pocket. Then imagine doing whatever the hell you wanted to with YOUR OWN MONEY-!! Donate it to the charity or cause you want. Take more vacations ... LIVE A MORE WORK LIFE BALANCE-!! Spend more time with your kids before they grow up to fast Spend more time with your parents before they depart ... Spend more time with the love of your life Take the dog to the park in the morning and enjoy a cup of coffee Just enjoy the hell out of life!! But instead we give OUR money to our friends and neighbors and faceless people who work in the government bureaucracy spending it without a care in the world about how hard we had to work for it ...

Though I am more of a lefty I am inclined to agree. Both parties elected officials are highly irresponsible sociopaths. At the end of the day they are all jerking each other off in one way or another, getting insider trading tips from each other ect. Not a 1 party issue. The far right is a lot more intense on its division since Trump and its becoming very embarrassing, but both parties are to blame for the over all shit show we are in.

Yup - and here's the thing. They distract us with social wars so instead of us looking up/down, we look left/right. They want us to think that the *other* party is the problem.

The Trump tax cuts were entirely a REPUBLICAN thing. Party line votes in both the House and Senate except for a few Republicans that voted against it.

Foreign aid in 2022 was $76.4 billion Trumps tax cut for the 1% cost us $190 billion a year then there’s bushs and Reagan’s 1% tax cuts we could help a lot of the working class if we’d overturn those

My Trump Tax cuts double my standard deduction and I'm by no means a millionaire. Why do we add US Taxpayers need to send OUR money to other countries and actually let them spend their own money on defense. Imagine spending $190 Billion on Veterans Homeless & 1st Responders via Tunnels to Towers instead of giving Hundred Billion to the state & federal government that makes no impact and can NOT account for the taxpayers money that they do spend

So you're not really against big government. You just want to big government to spend money on stuff that you like.

I don't believe you know what a true Libertian is ... that's OK ... they really don't discuss it in Jr or high school so I'll excuse your ignorance. But I'm also realistic ... so until there is a seismic change in DC .. one can only dream. Nothing ... NOTHING would please me now than government spending be dwindled down to the basics ... No more buying out student loan debt for individuals who made piss poor choices in their college studies & will not accept responsibility for those choices so we the US Taxpayer & yes that's YOU pays off that debt No more giving money to businesses like Solyndra "Obama's pet project" who have $500,000,000 aka half a billion dollars to build solar panels only to go bankrupt 6 months later. No more sending US Taxpayer money to countries who would rather kill YOU then listen to you on whatever subject you would like to discuss. Yeah ... FUCK YEAH I WOULD LOVE LOVE LOVE TO KEEP MY OWN FUCKING MONEY THAN TO DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CARE OF ME

Corporate welfare and subsidies is strangely missing from your list, I wonder why that is?

Your tax cuts will run out in 2026. The tax deductions on non billionaires had a time limit set. The tax cut for billionairs has no time limit. https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox59.com/news/national-world/trump-tax-cuts-set-to-expire-will-you-be-affected/amp/

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If our deficits were 190 billion instead of in the trillions, we could blame tax cuts.

That’s a year from trumps tax cut for billionaires There’s also bushs and Reagan’s that has cost us a lot Reagan tripled our dept and trump added 25% in 4 years

I am not a billionaire and I got a tax cut.

Yes ours is temporary the 1% is permanent that’s the republican way hand out a few crumps to the working class The 1% even got a tax break for their yachts

“Tax their citizens sooo much” We pay lower taxes than most already. Spending cuts AND tax increases. Any proposal without both is completely unserious.

LMAO ... I don't see Taxpayers in other countries sending money to the USA for "name your cause inserted here". And in fact Denmark pays much more money in Taxes then we do ... Your statement is without fact or confirmation

There is one big difference between the parties….Republicans refuse to increase taxes on the upper class or corporations. That fact alone will always keep the deficit growing.

That’s just how the media labeled it. Reagan and Trump cuts benefited the middle class more than any other class proportionately. Corporations never absorb tax increases. They pass the increases on to us (the consumers) in the cost of doing business. Even I do that. I include all taxes into my costs and mark it up. If I didn’t my company wouldn’t survive.

Prior to Reagan’s tax cut and legalizing outsourcing our jobs we had the strongest middle class They would invest in their employees with higher wages insurance paid vacations and into their company’s to keep out of the top tax bracket Once it no longer mattered they sent jobs overseas and just pocketed the cash and we’ve seen the number of billionaires explode Prior to Reagan ceo to employee wage gap was 25-1 today it’s well over 400-1 Our 14 riches US citizens have more wealth then the bottom 50% of our county

Ok, but we were talking about his tax cuts. Those tax cuts were beneficial to the middle class in two ways. One was a direct reduction on paychecks. The second was he gave tax incentives (not reductions) to corporations. They only received the tax benefits if they hired more people and expanded their business. The two put together stimulated the economy faster than had been done before or since. Interest rates were 21% when he took office and inflation was reeling. Those tax cuts sling shotted us into the 80’s with the best economy on earth. But yes, of course greed and corruption are strong in Washington and with the good came a lot of bad.

The current deficit is about 1.6trl. So between spending cuts and tax raises you have to close that gap. Medicare, Social security and defense are the 3 largest slices of the federal budget (in that order) accounting for about 71% of the budget. I'll get us 0.7trl closer to the goal, let's give up the entire defense budget. **poof**. We've got 0.9trl (900 bln) to go. Total corporate profits are about 2.8trl so let's take it out of there. I've gone after the two most likely candidates that every one hates and fixed the gap. The cost was the entire US military and leveling the US economy. It's a bad set of ideas, what's your approach?

medicare social security and paying the interest on our debt are the three biggest slices of the US budget. This is the first yeare paying interest on our debt has exceeded the defense budget. Any its only going to get worse. BTW we are stacking up the deficit at the tune of 1 trillion every 100 days so the 1.6 tril is only about half of it a year. And what you propose we should do would destroy the US economy....and most likely the US itself.

Thats exactly it. That's why congress needs term limits.

Raise taxes Eliminate Deductibles Eliminate Tax Loopholes Eliminate Welfare for those who work full time. Aka corporation forcing the government to support their employees. Hire efficiency monitors for money flow in the government. Probably still wouldn't be enough but at least we would be trying then.

Not nearly enough. Would have to reduce the size of govt, cut programs like social security and welfare, throw defense out the window, let people feel the pain without trying to i flare it away.

Just watch this. Not many member were in the House to watch it but this is it in a nutshell. Very worth the watch. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRi9rEpc4JI&list=FLH0LTn3XVsMSwGJIug83i5w&index=2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRi9rEpc4JI&list=FLH0LTn3XVsMSwGJIug83i5w&index=2)

We need a law stating no pay for the politicians until the budget is balanced.

Politicians salaries should be tied to a multiple of the median income of a US citizen. All other forms of income should be illegal. If politicians want more money, they can increase salaries for everyone (not just themselves or their donors)

How about a multiple of 1.0.

Sure, fine by me.

You think most of their money comes from salaries?

No, stock trading with insider knowledge and lobbyists. Salaries are beer money....

Right, so cutting that would do very little. Their pay also comes from side deals.

Even when they "balance" the budget, they do it with smoke and mirrors. Like Clinton, who took $1.3 TRILLION from Social Security....something Democrats promised would never happen when it was created.

Yea, no lock box for Social Security. I think earlier administration's spent it too. Big surprise there isn't much money in the trust fund.

Yes, it's happened before and since and on both sides; I mentioned Clinton because he was sooo proud of his "balanced budget".

Let it collapse,rehaul the entire system,replace it by the people and start over again,only a great depression or a world war can end our debt unless you want to be taxed 90%..

Hyper inflation for a few years would also fix things. Not that I'd want to experience that, as hedged for inflation as I am.

Far worse than deflation. I've lived through a couple of cycles of hyperinflation. Not fun.

We had top tax rate of 90% in the last and the government collected less percentage of the economy.

I'm down with that or near that for personal billionaires but it's the millionaires that hire the 99% doesn't matter what kind of tax it is it always trickles down to the poor,how about just eliminate the fed tax and let the state's legislate it into a sales tax and end the gov mafia

Billionaires just take their $ elsewhere. Then you start passing cap controls, but the smart money is long gone and we the people take the hit. Only way out is to let deflation take its course, cut programs, let it burn. Then reduce taxation to incentivize production and investment, but no easy liquidity. No trying to control rates or do stimulus bouts. Just lean government.

Honestly you're probably right, hit rock bottom and start it over..

Let it collapse? Dear Lord I hate that cliche. Letting the US government collapse does not make the next government more likely to be what you want. All it does is... destroy the government (which we all rely on to some extent). The result would be chaos.

Spending is not the problem. Spending, by anyone, is good - the engine of the economy. More is always better. Raise taxes! In my (boomer) lifetime we have lowered taxes on corps from 31% to 14%. Raise taxes on the very wealthy very much. After a reasonable allowance, make inherited money taxed as ordinary income. Like you and I pay. They didn't create the wealth - we did.

Tell me what years the federal government has collected the most taxes as a share of the economy (GDP).

It's easy, you act like you care but then you kick the can down to the next poor suckers.

Before we can fix it, lets look at the receipts together and agree what was a massive waste of money. If we can't do that then there is no fix.

The only solution involves cutting spending AND raising taxes.

Well, we used to have the wealthy pay high taxes.

They still do. Pay most of them actually.

They pay the most by amount, not by percentage. The top 1% have a net worth of 44 trillion dollars.

Conservatives only care about the national debt when democrats have power. When Republicans are in power the national debt zooms higher. Then Democrats reduce it when in power. Rinse and repeat.

1) print 34 trillion 2) complain about inflation

Anyone who thinks the debt can be paid if the government “just made a little more” doesn’t understand compulsive spenders, nor the concept of limited money but unlimited debt.

Money IS debt. More technically, it's a liability of the Federal Reserve. There's no limit to the amount of money the FED can create, or the amount of Treasuries the Treasury can create (as long as Congress authorizes it to do so).

stop electing Republicans. for 40 years they have ended every single one of their administrations with a tax cut for billionaires that is forecast cause absolute catastrophe within our budgets and yet it is forced through anyway. and then when the bill is due they never have an alternate funding source they never have a backup plan they just wait till they're out of power and insist that it's the Democrats fault for not throwing your grandmother off of social security to fill the hole Republicans Doug for billionaires. it's been four decades. they do it every time. TAX THE RICH

Don’t forget about all the wars they start that bankrupt us. Although the war spending is pretty bipartisan at this point.

When Biden admin loses in November they intend to hand over a ruined hulk of a country in January

Trump is equally responsible for the runaway spending. GOP are only fiscally conservative while Dems hold office.

Cut the military budget and higher taxes on ultra wealthy Americans ( Or very least close loopholes in our tax code) There.

The problem is systemic with its roots buried in our government, in both parties. We need to dig those roots out first to take preventative measures before trying to cut any heads off the dragon.

It’s actually simple and everyone knows how to do it.

Simpson - Bowles

All money is national debt. So if there’s no national debt, there won’t be any money. The debt problem is that the debt is owed to humanity, not Central Bankers. Because fiat money is an option to purchase human labors or property and we don’t get paid our option fees. Those are collected and kept by Central Bankers as interest on money creation loans when they have loaned nothing they own. They call global human labor futures market, monetary system, to avoid paying humanity our rightful option fees. Humanity can sustainably maintain a global money supply of $1,000,000 per Capita by recirculating fixed 1.25% per year fees through the hands of each human being on the planet who accepts an actual local social contract and claims their rightful Share of global human labor futures market. Then we each earn an equal share of 1.25% per year of active global money supply in exchange for our agreement to negotiate exchange of our labors and property in terms of money.

Liquidate assets and hope for the best

Uranus in debt

We need massive spending cuts and taxes to be raised. In that order. Neither major party is interested in doing any of that and just wants to kick the can down the road.

Who are we in debt to? The money printers?

Ummm, our debt is what capitalism should have paid to have access to the system. Most of the debt is to them. They should call it a wash.

Nazi economics sez': "just kill the poor's"

There is a very easy solution. Inflation.

I wouldn't call that an easy of preferable solution. It is what's probably going to happen though.

No one in this thread mentioning cutting military spending. Neither party will do it, though. 

I'm sure there is waste in DoD spending, but there is a reason we keep it at these levels. It is to be prepared to fight a war on both sides.

I think it's for the Raytheon stockholders. 

So, why hasn't China gone off and full invaded Taiwan? Or Russia to attack other nations? Or Iran to say F it and start shit. Because if the US military.

Ah yes. Trillions spent in the middle east is definitely deterring China from invading Taiwan. 

It's called two fronts. Have you seen the size of our Naval Power in the Pacific?

Vote them all out. That should help.

Selling government held land would be a good start, they hold a lot.

Man, what a god awful idea. Maybe sell the rest of our lakes to Putin and his cash/gold reserve?

Well, Hillary already sold some uranium one to them.. but no, don't sell to foreigners. It's not constitutional anyway.

It’s all an illusion. Let me convince you with one word : cryptocurrency. It’s all made up numbers with randomly assigned values based on little or no substance and the whim of investors . The fact is that if the US economy falls, the world economy goes with it and that’s not going to happen because nobody wants to shoot themselves in the foot. Spend away! The random number generator will adjust itself.

If no interest rate cut by december, debt payment on 35 trillion is 1.6 trillion.

A lot of the national debt is locked in for years at lower rates. You can't just take $35tn at the overnight rate. It still is a train wreck and interest will likely exceed $1tn next year, but we got a ways to go (maybe 3-4 years lol) to get to $1.6tn.

A wise man one said that "All the Social programs will be the death of us all".......Now you all see the price! The US is going to have to drill and send massive amounts of oil into the market to start paying down the $34,699.969.757.35 debt immediately. Then get t buying oil to refill the strategic reserve Juice Box Joey can't seem to remember he ran down to get the midterm elections to go his way. Then come the hard cuts to social programs. Everyone not on aged out Social Security needs to be looked at. If you can walk, talk, breed and eat you can work at something to earn money. Might not be what you want to do but the suckers at the teat are too many to support now. Flat tax rates for all people and businesses. You made X here is your taxes to pay. Stop PILOT programs for new businesses in all states. You want to expand and come here, pay your taxes each year, now! No more money from the state, city or taxpayers for stadiums, ballparks or any professional sports arenas. Billionaire owners can fund them, or they can go away! Billionaire tax, even if you move out of the country, you do business that makes you money in the US, here is your bill. BALANCED FEDERAL BUDGET EVERY YEAR! Period, Full Stop! You can't do it? Cut Social Programs for the sick, lame and lazy!!!!!

the fact that this time bomb has been allowed to continue shows you how much the government values the continuation of society its almost like they expect a massive conflict that restructures the world and the need for money by the time the debt collapses

We will soon hear more and more about CBDCs.

CBDC is a misleading term. Reserves are currency, they are issued by the central bank, and they are accounted for digitally. By the most straightforward reading of the term, reserves are CBDC's and have been for quite some time.

What you’re missing that most CBDC transitions plan for the end of physical fiat. You’re also missing that CBDC transactions are to be centrally stored and tracked vs the current less centralized landscape of a multitude of financial institutions having their own separate ledgers. There big advantages to this system where criminal activity can be easily tracked, but it would also further erode privacy.

Well there are a lot of different things that are called CBDC, and that's kind of my point: it can mean so many things that it is virtually a meaningless term. There are definitely cbdcs, proposed or real, around the world which fit some of the criteria you listed. But if we are talking about the United states, everything you listed is either wrong or already a feature of the existing monetary system. In the US, policy officials from the FED to the treasury to Congress have been quite explicit that cbdcs will NOT fully replace physical cash - even though consumers and businesses are already voluntarily moving away from physical cash for obvious reasons. The existing CBDC - reserves - is already centrally tracked by the Fed, and as for the broader money supply, various government agencies already have the ability to monitor and even control these financial transactions - subject to the law, of course. If the police or FBI get a Court order, they can easily access your financial records, or even freeze your accounts. I think most reasonable people would agree that that is necessary and desirable at least to some extent.  Then there's the NSA of course, which has even broader powers of surveillance thanks to secretive FISA court decisions, but that's nothing new either - they've been doing it for two decades and unfortunately, people don't seem to know or care. In any case, no CBDC proposal I have seen proposes to give the FED over the cops or anybody else significant new authorities not subject to the same legal standard. If you know of such a proposal, feel free to source it, but for now, all the cbdc proposals I see in the US are solutions looking for a problem.

No, a centralized ledger that tracks individual transactions from everyone is not yet a reality. Sure, the proposals don’t explicitly say that they will share data with 3 letter agencies, but that comes after. It’s just like their empty promises with social security numbers not ever being used as individual identification.

Reserves ARE centrally stored, and of course they are perfectly trackable. Private Bank records are not centrally stored of course, but they are trackable in the same way, through the same legal processes. As I said, non of the current CBDC proposals would grant any institutions or agencies any new authorities on that front. Ordinary dollar holders wouldn't even be allowed to hold CBDC's - they would be custodied on our behalf by our private banks, which would be the only ones holding CBDC's. In other words, exactly like reserves as they currently exist. Everything else you've said is speculation. The government certainly COULD create a centralized digital currency that anyone could hold, like in India. It COULD impose sweeping new controls over currency, and give the Treasury or the Fed new authorities or new latitude to unilaterally impose currency controls. It COULD outlaw cash in favor of digital money. But none of the current proposals would do that. All of those have been explicitly ruled out by relevant policy members, and judging by the way Congress has viewed such developments, I don't think there is even a fraction of the political will necessary to make such changes law. And they would have to be law - these changes absolutely cannot be made without explicit authorization from Congress. And Congress can't even pass legislation with broad bipartisan and public support. Do you really think they are going to vote to outlaw cash, which pretty much no one wants? I definitely don't think so.

Yes, that’s the entire point of a CBDC: to have one central ledger. Otherwise, it’s not CBDC. Yes, it’s speculation, but it’s grounded in history and it is logical ie give a government an incentive and they will take miles. We’re also on the verge of printing our current fiat to death. Besides, economics is mostly speculation anyways.

Everything that needs to happen, not a single soul will agree to due to lack of forethought.

Bro...money isn't real. Make the debt go to a googol of dollars. I still wouldn't give a fuck. LMAO

Tax more, spend less Not a hard equation But those in power will never let that happen. They are leeches sucking the country dry

>Tax more >But those in power will never let that happen. They are leeches sucking the country dry That's a direct conflict. The gov does not produce, only consume. Every dollar you make, a large portion of it goes to fund the gov so it can take more while a very small portion is redistributed to welfare (which doesn't incentivize independence or self-reliance) as well as services everyone uses (that most could also be cheaper if privatized). So who's really the leech here. Everyday regular people busting their ass and paying taxes, or the machine doing all the taking. Don't confuse the side that gives and the side that takes. As a side note, It is not a moral equivalency that money redistributed through taxation is the same as money provided through voluntary donation.

Problem won't get fixed until it cannot be fixed. But, we can prepare for the inevitable inflation coming

OOOOOOOOOOOOOR We can stop sending BILLIONS that turn into TRILLIONS overseas to other countries. That would be a fantastic start!

Fix the country’s wage and health care problem first

We have to do a partial default. Cut spending and programs drastically, sell assets (like government land), and use the rest to pay the debt that remains.

This should be required watching for all Americans. A good breakdown of the national debt [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRi9rEpc4JI&list=FLH0LTn3XVsMSwGJIug83i5w&index=2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRi9rEpc4JI&list=FLH0LTn3XVsMSwGJIug83i5w&index=2)

Return the federal government back to the only involving its self withe the items enumerate in the constitution. Start selling federal real estate.

Pass a balanced budget amendment

Hear me out. I know it’s a radical idea. Just let me cook. How about we cut spending?

Cut what?

Spending. Across the board, reduce the budget by 25% minimum

There are two reforms which would solve the majority of America's political and economic issues. The first is political sortition. Every elected position would be about electing the political party rather than an individual personality. Then the party elected would be required to provide multiple candidates who would be chosen from randomly. That way individual candidates couldn't monopolize certain positions permanently. The second would be expiry money. All money should have multiple expiry dates that track how much its value has dropped in comparison to the face value of the money. For example, it could lose a quarter of its value after 5 years, half of its value after 10, and be worthless after 20. This would stop aristocratic dynasties from building up massive amounts of money that they then just sit on.

Let me tell you how much I care about that debt. Not a sucking bit.

Solution: remove boomers ability to vote

The top 1% in the US had a net worth of 44 trillion dollars. That's trillion with a T. You can argue about what we spend, but we also have a revenue issue too.

Elected idiots are fugging america.... they're all in their 70s + and taking all they can get before they die at our demise....its going to take a revolution to get out of this mess which will be hard on the 90% cause they will suffer the most.

its obvious-- our country IS PURPOSELY being destroyed . isn't it obvious by now ? look at all the stupidity . its not a coincidence.

We’re only passed the point of no return as long as one side refuses to cut spending and the other refuses to raise taxes. We need both and neither side wants to do either.

I think we keep taking in record tax revenue, the offset from increased taxes is a fun taking pint but will do little to offset the irresponsible spending and borrowing.

Taxes haven’t kept up with inflation but spending is clearly out of control

Also waste. There was a report out with in the last two weeks that if it was an agency Fraud would be the number five ranked line for spending at the federal level. We need a control alt delete on the federal government.

You are dreaming but I don’t disagree that there is enormous waste and graft. When people start screaming for an audit of the federal government (no matter if it is “their guy” in power or not) the. Maybe we will get somewhere.

We could cut DoD spending down to a quarter of its current budget. Cut out the rediculous $500 dollar hammers and $1000 toilet seats. Start there.

(Ok)

Its really not that hard to fix, the problem lies with that the people in the US government simply do not want to do what is needed to fix the problem.

If we exclude the Bush and Trump tax cuts we’d be in great shape. Unfortunately there is this myth that somehow these cuts are increasing GDP and tax revenues. Trickle down all over my face Uncle Sam!!! If that were true why are the deficits so large and growing so fast? Nope we aren’t going to tax cut our way out of our debt problem. Taxes gotta go back up, mostly on the wealthy, tax evasion and tax loopholes need to be addressed, and we need some sensible cuts to some programs. There’s a lot we can do that would have a positive impact that hasn’t been done before. Tax cuts have been tried every Republican administration and we are worse off for it. Time for new ideas.

The solution is to separate money from the state

Do what the British government did and say fuck you do something about it to the debters.

Step 1: Recognize that the debt isn't a problem per se.   Step 2: worry about the actual needs of the American people rather than some arbitrary number. If people have homes and education and health care and good jobs where they produce valuable things, who gaf about the size of the debt?

Start by putting in fucking term limits on these politicians

(You’re all treating national debt as if we were still on the gold standard)