Donald Trump's Unusual Plan to Lower the National Debt: Sell Off 19 Trillion In Government Assets

NBC News ^ | 4 hours ago | by ANNE THOMPSON and CHRISTINA COLEBURN

[DoughtyOne]

Revenue is a key factor.

Spending is also one.

Creative finance is another.

I expect to see Trump tap each of these to come close to his goal of retiring the debt in eight years.

What would normally happen over the next eight years. We both know it would go up exponentially.

Here’s a guy that won’t increase it, but will actually pay it down substantially.

What’s not to like?

It is doable.

[edpc]

My problem is – Trump is likely to “deal” on spending issues. Reagan once said he’s happy to get 70–80% of what he wants. That’s all fine, until 4 years later when you have accumulated 80–120% of what you didn’t want. You also have to trust that Congress will be true to their word. That is unlikely.

[DoughtyOne]

But of course no fear over Cruz. Why he’s just the second coming.

Not buying it!

Trump is fine and he attracted the most support among Republicans.

Worry about that.

[OutbackUSA]

Tell that to the American Ranchers.

[monkeyshine]

Whenever I read stories about the government being unable to balance the budget, and we read about this with states and cities and school districts too, I always think about this. The budget is a short term accounting measure. Like a business has an annual Profit and Loss report showing how much revenue they generated and how much they spent. But businesses don’t just have P&L reports, they also have a balance sheet. The balance sheet shows what assets are held that are not monetized, such as inventory and plants and land and equipment. But the news never reports about the assets held by the government and politicians don’t mention it either. It’s like a dirty little secret they pretend all this wealth doesn’t exist and that all they can do is ask taxpayers for more. Every government subdivision hold assets. Trump is right. If these assets were liquidated it would raise funds for the government to spend. We should unload these assets. They actually cost us money every year in maintenance costs too. Instead of turning to the taxpayers every time they are hard up, they should look to find ways to monetize these assets. The people are tapped out. It’s simply not right to demand more from taxpayers when in fact the taxpayers have already paid for these incredibly valuable assets. When a household needs cash, they don’t just ask for a raise, they,sometimes have to sell a car or bike or boat or extra freezer... It’s time for government to think this same way.

Which is not to say I am in favor of the current system. I am not. But as long as they continue to work this way, they should be required to monetize assets before asking that we pay for more stuff.