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 ...
Learn some history.
The FEDERAL government bought or conquered all land outside of the original 13.
ALL states following were CREATED by federal law.
Those states have NOTHING to do with the assets purchased by the FEDERAL government.
Land in private hands in those states were PURCHASED from or GRANTED by the federal government under various programs instrumental in the settling of the West.
Yeah, sell it to who though? China? Saudi Arabia?
I really like it as a concept. Especially resources, or drilling and mining rights. Of course you could lease out naming rights too. There are a bunch of ways to create revenue without actually selling stuff, so long as we don’t sell stuff we need or don’t fulfill Fight Club prophecies.
As others pointed out here, why can’t we renegotiate our debt with the Fed and others? Don’t we have leverage? Current deals and future deals that debt relief could be part of? The entire world has a vested interest in the continued solvency of the US. If we default, the world defaults.
Regardless, I’m glad to hear something other than “cut spending and grow the economy” added to the mix.
It should be investigated by the FBI as a criminal enterprise.
Yes, I agree Cruz took a lot of heat in the Senate and did a good job. He was my favorite until Trump started talking deportation. I kept waiting for Cruz to jump in, but hecwas strangely silent. I found that odd. Then he said ‘The American people don’t want to have that conversation’ about illegals here. That’s also exactly what Rubio started saying before he quit too.
I started thinking that Cruz wasn’t what I thought he was. Or that he had been corrupted, like so many that go to Washington. I still don’t know, because he’s done some pretty dirty things after saying he’d run a clean campaign. I wish he’d have removed my doubts so I could be happy with either.
And stop the Enviro-nazis from preventing it through concern for the Hairy Faced field mouse or some such.
Eminent domain is a specific power of government placed in the constitution.
You’re mistaking me for someone who cares about that. Btw, this place is pretty lenient, you got get pretty damn obnoxious to get thrown out. And some deserve to be thrown out more than others but I have no control over any of that.
I’m just looking forward to Trump taking a chainsaw to all this endless waste, fraud and corruption. D.C. has left me with nothing but contempt for them.
What crap. Any bullcrap and the land could be seized.
You think Hamilton (obsessed with creating a strong sovereign union) would have told Washington that the land sales funding the federal government was selling of sovereignty? Idiotic.
He is running against Pygmies.
Thank you for that input
One means of making more is to put this land in private hands allowing ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. This is a terrific idea with little downside other than making other politicians look like clueless dummies.
Let’s pretend that one method of doing this is to trade land for bonds. What would be the impact?
1- a scramble for bonds to swap;
2 - an increase in the value of those bonds producing;
3- a decline in the interest rate producing;
4 - more economic activity producing;
5- more taxes from that activity and
6- more JOBS from the projects undertaken on that land.
Now lets watch as Cruz stumbles around looking for any dumbassed way of attacking this great idea.
People in debt MUST sell SOME of the things the own, they cannot afford them. The Mercedes -gone. The Chevy - kept.
I scrolled down to your comment and had to stop, so I’m sure others have already told you what a stupid thing you’ve written. But just in case they haven’t, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve read all day.
Dear Dumbass;
Any land sold to foreign governments would still be subject to the federal laws in place, hence they would not be totally free to do ANYTHING. Stupid fear #1 - down in flames.
Any crap could also lead to confiscation. Stupid fear #2 - down in flames.
No sales should be allowed to countries which do not allow US land purchases in those countries. This means a US growing faster than another country would have greater power to buy land THERE than it is HERE. Stupid fear #3 - blew up on the launching pad.
No, UPS and FedEx are private.
We just throw bundles of money at it every year?
We should just let UPS and FedEx handle the mail and rent out all the Post Office buildings to them. Then they could throw bundles of money into the general fund.
Under Trump's plan, if the environazis want to protect land from development, they can buy it. And pay the taxes on it.
There is a lot more constitutional truth in other comments I left on another thread regarding the candidates tax plans... this group that calls themselves the “tea party” (which I used to be a member of here in SD, I even appeared on KELO news back in 2009) is 100% illiterate where constitutional taxation is concerned.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3417026/posts?page=13#13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3417026/posts?page=27#27
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3417026/posts?page=33#33
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3417026/posts?page=50#50
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3417026/posts?page=51#51
“they can buy it. And pay the taxes on it. “
I like it !!!
No one pays any attention to Cruz, that is the problem.
We need someone who cannot be ignored.
The article cast his idea in a horrible light. So I am not really sure what he was proposing. Sounded promising.
But the difference is turning land over to the states - terrible idea. They are just miniature feds, not to be trusted with increased power.
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