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 ...
You can tell the rabid Trumpeters by their well reasoned posts.
Is this the same Trump who, three or four weeks ago, was attacking Cruz’s proposal for privatization of some federal lands in the west? Back then he was going to protect our magnificent federal lands. Now he’s going to sell $19 trillion worth? I know, I know ... the shelf life of a Trump position is measured in hours.
One might include military hardware to your brief list.
Donald Trump. Talk first, think later (or not).
.
Selling $19T worth of assets, no one has that much cash at hand, but our foreign debt could be swapped instead. Swap that over a mere eight years and you'll end up with China and and Islamists owning large chunks of the western US. Trump wants that?!! And do you think anyone would buy them if the current no use regulations for them were left in place? We'd have to let them deforest, strip mine, etc. to make those resources productive, resulting in China level pollution. Can't the Trump supporters think longer than a tweet?
Simply ad a rider to the deals that require a purchase by US Citizens, inclusive of all water and mineral rights, rights of way etc.
That desert would be a garden in 10 years.
Those who hold grazing rights now would get the first right of refusal at the auction. Sell it a section at a time.
OK, so in 2 1/2 years we kick out half the aholes in the house and 1/3rd of the senate aholes. The rest fall in line. Capiche?
The US could sell Cruz birthplace for scrap -- oh wait, that's Calgarylolololol...
to be fair naps, he did say not that long ago that the fed gov needed to protect these lands from states ruining them.
i’m voting trump in two weeks but playing devil’s advocate
that oil reserves in the ground aint worth what they were at 100 per barrel.
still worth a 3#####ing lot!!!!
what’s to stop the fed from running up a whole new 20 trillion in debt?
and the fight from the left and greenies will be epic
I am glad someone finally pointed this out on this post. I didn't want to because the Trump supporters like to rain down grief on anyone pointing out a fact about him they dislike.
Neatly proving in two odious grafs that you don’t have to be on Twitter to make a dumbshit dumb-as-shit tweet...
It is what we did to pay off the debt from the Revolutionary war.
At least it’s a plan.
No one else has “a” plan, so how could Trump’s be “unusual”?
Compared to what?
Spoken like a true GOPer... Let me climb up on the table so you don’t have to bend over to kiss my rear end. Local ownership only. Take your GOP, TARP, CIA, NSA, NAFTA, TPP, NATO, UN, IMF, FED, EURO, AMERO & NAU, etc and shove it where the sun rarely reaches, if ever, avoiding your head of course. I am so sick of the acronyms. How about we call it like it is. Crooked BS pushes by crooked BS artists.
This is just one of many articles, describing Senator Ted Cruz advocating just what Trump is now - but many years earlier than Trump. Unfortunately the other party and members in congress fought against Cruz tooth and nail.
Cruz proposed this just again several weeks ago while campaigning in Oregon. I am glad to see trump finally join in with Senator Cruz in this good idea and great endeavor. I hope Trump sticks with it and doesn't change his mind rapidly on this idea too , like he has on so many others.
I like it, we spoke about this years ago..I think we keep the military bases and parks..sell off washington dc buildings as we empty them..
then pass laws that federal gangsta cannot raise funds at all. and monies will be donated by states and all states must have a balanced budget..in this way the states would truly have control, and the congress would have their power restored by the states..
Thats how it was...
Foreign aid was about $35 Billion in fiscal year 2014.
It is a nice chunk, but far from hundreds of billions.
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/spends-billion-foreign/
Just wondering what all you guys would do for "money" (currency really).
Almost all my "dollars" have their origin in US Government I Owe Me's. The Treasury prints some notes or bills (bonds really) and the Federal Reserve prints some notes; and they exchange them; and both think they are rich! The Treasury spends the FRNs which eventually make their way to me; and the FED thinks it's loaded with assets. (P.T.Barnum would laugh his @$$ off at this!)
Whenever the Treasury "pays off" the debt that the Federal Reserve holds, all that "money" disappears, because they no longer hold the so-called "backing" (which was originally, between 1913 and 1933, GOLD). I believe the FED has also in the last few years "purchased" Corporate debt but this is relatively recent, and scary.
ML/NJ
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