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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: umgud

The EPA, Education, BLM, and Energy should all be cut back to advisory think tanks with no field offices or enforcement arms. Maybe a small team of investigators for EPA that responds to whistle blower reports about REAL pollution — offer $10M rewards for whistle blowers with EVIDENCE balanced by $50K personal fines for false reports.


401 posted on 04/03/2016 10:58:17 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: little jeremiah; napscoordinator; All

I think in Mexico and Brazil that foreigners are not allowed to own land along the coasts. In Brazil there is no private ownership of beaches, they all belong to the people.


402 posted on 04/03/2016 10:58:22 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: dp0622

What if we paid the debt down to a sustainable amount and enacted a budget limit as many countries already have done?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_budget_amendment

I would like the whole package:

Debt percentage to GDP
Term limits

A New Contract with American


403 posted on 04/03/2016 11:03:05 PM PDT by GeaugaRepublican (Vote Cruz so the RNC can select the nominee for us.)
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To: builder

Thank you for your input on this thread.


404 posted on 04/03/2016 11:03:44 PM PDT by LucienCA13 (sorry if you are microaggrieved)
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To: arrogantsob

True. Ignoring the Assets side of the ledger makes no more sense than saying a homeowner is in “debt” because they have a mortgage, even though the market value is much higher than the mortgage amount.


405 posted on 04/03/2016 11:06:54 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: dragnet2; Kellis91789; All

In DC almost no one produces or creates things. All they do is study stuff and push paper around. If someone wants to produce anything they have to get a DC Basic Business License, I think for any gross profit above $4,000. They also have to certify that they don’t owe the DC government $100 or more. There are a number of parking/traffic tickets that are over $100 and often incorrect and able to be fought. The Office of Tax and Revenue will go back 5 or 6 years and say you owe thousands of dollars that you know was already paid. You better have proof and even then it could take years to resolve the problem. One person I know was charged $20,000 Vacant Property tax for the house they were living in during the entire renovation. It took them years to get off the tax sale list. Don’t ever move to DC if you want to be a small entrepreneur.


406 posted on 04/03/2016 11:06:54 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: GeaugaRepublican

It sounds good. But how do you enforce a law that you yourselves can overturn?

couldn’t congress at any time overturn a budget limit law?

didn’t we have one already?


407 posted on 04/03/2016 11:07:28 PM PDT by dp0622
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To: marron

I’d be on board not allowing foreigners more than 49% ownership of any real estate or business anywhere in America.


408 posted on 04/03/2016 11:08:34 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: arrogantsob

Perhaps so to some...at any rate I do not like the idea of foreign governments or citizens of foreign countries buying large swaths of property or land in the US....and I’ve heard the arguments for this and against.

I know in Ohio a Chinese company bought a company close to where I lived....they drastically lowered the employees wages and eliminated almost all the benefits. The damage that did to this small community hit every business ....so I cannot agree this “does no harm” as you stated.


409 posted on 04/03/2016 11:14:19 PM PDT by caww
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To: drewh

From 0.3 to 81.1: What percentage of each state is owned by the federal government?

http://www.deseretnews.com/top/2318/0/From-03-to-811-What-percentage-of-each-state-is-owned-by-the-federal-government.html

The debate over federal lands in Utah is long and ongoing, but it’s an issue that extends beyond the Beehive State’s borders.

According to a 2012 Congressional Research Service report, the federal government owns roughly 635 million acres of the 2.27 billion acres in the U.S.

When states have federal lands within their borders, those states can receive Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), which are federal monies given to local governments as payment for property taxes lost to non-taxable federal lands, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 2013, the states received roughly $400 million in PILT payments, up from the $393 million sent out in 2012.


410 posted on 04/03/2016 11:15:02 PM PDT by Innovative ("Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." -- Vince Lombardi)
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To: caww

How is that different that what American companies do? Why do you think some are relocating to lower wage countries?

My suspicion is that the Chinese overpaid for the company and is trying to make it profitable.


411 posted on 04/03/2016 11:19:01 PM PDT by arrogantsob (Nationalist, Patriot, Trumpman)
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To: exDemMom

Nice !


412 posted on 04/03/2016 11:23:55 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: JediJones

Yes and no. The debt and deficit have become “unreal” to many people, convinced that they do not matter because there is no way to ever pay it off. If we can’t pay it off, and it DOES matter, then the world must eventually implode when the Debt comes “due”.

By paying off the Debt first and showing that it took selling off virtually all our assets to do it and there is nothing left to sell, people might finally embrace “no new debt, no more deficits”.


413 posted on 04/03/2016 11:39:49 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: Hoodat

You mean does he expect Archer Daniels Midland, Weyerhauser, KB Homes, 3M, Alcoa, Exxon, BP, Chevron, pension funds, real estate speculators, casino resort developers, et al, to show up at thousands of auctions all over the country over an eight year period with their checkbooks open ?

Sure. “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking REAL money.”


414 posted on 04/03/2016 11:53:35 PM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: arrogantsob

Buy T-Bills on the open market, exchange them for land, and then BURN the T-Bills ? I like it. Just like Americans used to have a party when they could BURN their paid off mortgage in front of friends. Another American tradition to restore.


415 posted on 04/04/2016 12:06:30 AM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: arrogantsob
Well if Trump has his way wages will ‘come down’ in the US in order to be as he says..”Competitive with the rest of the world”...and he said they would have to.

Oh he'll bring companies back....but you note he ever so quickly brushes past the question about wages.....before his supporters pick up on it.

His idea is wages would drop as an incentive for companies to come back, as for the employees he sees it as an “Opportunity for them to work their way up to better wages over time”..... Completley forgeting that companies no longer keep long term employees.

As I've said....the ones who will benefit from companies coming back here will be the Oligarchy Trumps going to put in place for all his “Friends” in the Corporate world.

416 posted on 04/04/2016 12:19:25 AM PDT by caww
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To: Innovative

$400M ?? Even in CA and NV where property tax rates are only 1% that would mean the assessed value was only $40B for all that land.

If private parties actually paid $10T for the land, the states would receive $100B rather than $400M. You would think that would make the states pretty happy.


417 posted on 04/04/2016 12:23:43 AM PDT by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: arrogantsob

He could sell off Puerto Rico.


418 posted on 04/04/2016 12:28:59 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: Dead Corpse

How dare you speak conservatism here!


419 posted on 04/04/2016 1:20:32 AM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: drewh

I have been a Trump supporter. I fail to see how this is in any way a good idea. Would it be a good idea to sell land for trinkets, jewelry? Isn’t that what some of our history books claim some Native American tribes did?


420 posted on 04/04/2016 2:39:40 AM PDT by Freedom of Speech Wins
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