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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

Posted on 04/03/2016 2:28:33 PM PDT by drewh

As president, Donald Trump would sell off $16 trillion worth of U.S. government assets in order to fulfill his pledge to eliminate the national debt in eight years, senior adviser with the campaign Barry Bennett said.

"The United States government owns more real estate than anybody else, more land than anybody else, more energy than anybody else," Bennett told Chris Jansing Sunday on MSNBC. "We can get rid of government buildings we're not using, we can extract the energy from government lands, we can do all kinds of things to extract value from the assets that we hold."

In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post, Trump said he would get rid of the $19 trillion national debt "over a period of eight years." The article noted that most economists would consider Trump's proposal impossible, as it could require slashing the annual federal budget by more than half.

However, when pressed on whether the United States could sell off $16 trillion worth of assets, Bennett responded affirmatively on Sunday.

"Oh, my goodness," he said. "Do you know how much land we have? You know how much oil is off shore? And in government lands? Easily."

The federal government's assets totaled $3.2 trillion as of September 2015, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. However, that does not include include stewardship assets or natural resources.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2016election; abortion; andthenwhat; annethompson; barrybennett; bobwoodward; china; chrisjansing; christinacoleburn; cronycapitalism; cronyism; deathpanels; debt; demagogicparty; districtofcolumbia; election2016; energy; fascism; memebuilding; methane; msnbc; newyork; obamacare; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; opec; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; petroleum; plan; privitization; robertcosta; spendingandselling; trump; trump4sale; unelectable; usa4sale; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; whatthetrump; zerocare
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To: drewh

It’s brilliant, simple and so blatantly obvious you have to wonder why no one has ever thought of it before? Yes, sell off government buildings, SUVs, whatever. Pretty commonsense.


21 posted on 04/03/2016 2:37:08 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: ontap

if there is no IRS/Dept of Energy/Dept of Education=no employees


22 posted on 04/03/2016 2:37:19 PM PDT by drewh
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To: drewh

That is a fine idea, as long as someone who is serious about bringing back American businesses is in charge, and makes sure the whole mess is corrected.

Otherwise we’re just selling off our country.


23 posted on 04/03/2016 2:37:22 PM PDT by cba123 (http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html)
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To: drewh
Here's my idea which my mind is too simple to find fault with:

The Federal Reserve created money out of nothing for quantitative easing and then declared that it is trillions of dollars of federal debt owed to them. So why not just say "you created the money out of nothing, you get nothing from us". Let the mystery people who own stock in the Federal Reserve do without forever-payments to them.

24 posted on 04/03/2016 2:38:04 PM PDT by grania
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To: drewh
I guess if he claims government domain - he CAN sell of Florida to Putin.
25 posted on 04/03/2016 2:38:11 PM PDT by builder (I don't want a piece of someone else's pie)
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To: VTenigma

“Hey, Trump. The government doesn’t own anything. We the people do. The guy needs to pick up a constitution.”

I’m guessing you really aren’t this dumb, right. It’s also our debt, so sell some of the assets and pay off the debt.


26 posted on 04/03/2016 2:38:13 PM PDT by stockpirate (Rush is a low information talk show host concerning Ted sCruz and Marco foamboy Rubio.)
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To: drewh

We could sell large, thinly-populated tracts back to the Native Americans, who now have all that gambling wealth.


27 posted on 04/03/2016 2:39:22 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The world is full of wonder, but you see it only if you look." ~NicknamedBob)
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To: DoughtyOne

Absolutely. There are countless ways to make the country rich and great again and bring back Middle America from decades of decline.


28 posted on 04/03/2016 2:40:05 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: drewh

So.. Rather than reduce spending, find a different way to finance it?

How about reduce spending, then sell off the assets from all those alphbet agencies with no art 1 sec 8 purpose...


29 posted on 04/03/2016 2:40:26 PM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: VTenigma

Trump will eminent domain it, thanks to Justice Souter!


30 posted on 04/03/2016 2:41:09 PM PDT by drewh
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To: drewh

How about moving government offices to lower rent facilities?


31 posted on 04/03/2016 2:41:26 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: builder

Cuba refuses to sell it.


32 posted on 04/03/2016 2:42:11 PM PDT by Pelham (A refusal to deport is defacto amnesty)
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To: drewh

Cruz will ridicule it and then come out with the same idea.


33 posted on 04/03/2016 2:42:24 PM PDT by proust (Texans for Trump!)
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To: drewh

End the Federal Reserve and have them cancel the $4.5 Trillion they are holding.


34 posted on 04/03/2016 2:42:40 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: drewh

Here’s the bigger news, no President except Obama can do anything unilaterally. Because Trump voices an idea does not mean it’s going to happen. He’s used to throwing out solutions then working out the details to see if it fits.


35 posted on 04/03/2016 2:42:56 PM PDT by Kenny (e)
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To: drewh

The federal government has accumulated power and property for decades. The blob must be stopped. Reversal is even better.


36 posted on 04/03/2016 2:43:21 PM PDT by jimfree (In November 2016 my 15 y/o granddaughter will have more quality exec experience than Barack Obama)
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To: builder; drewh

Don’t sell Florida to Putin. Sell Putin California, that way all those California Commiecrats will feel right at home under Putin’s dictatorship.


37 posted on 04/03/2016 2:43:34 PM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: stockpirate

I don’t own The federal reserve. They can pay their own damn debt, they produce the ones and zeros. All you are doing by calling others dumb is showing your own ignorance.


38 posted on 04/03/2016 2:44:00 PM PDT by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: VTenigma
Hey, Trump. The government doesn’t own anything. We the people do. The guy needs to pick up a constitution.

Well, "We the People" also owe $19 Trillion in direct Fed.gov debt liabilities, and probably triple that amount in unaccounted liabilities.

39 posted on 04/03/2016 2:44:49 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: Kenny

watch him, those executive orders can be powerful...time to use them for the GOOD of the country!


40 posted on 04/03/2016 2:45:04 PM PDT by drewh
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