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.
I’ve been saying we should do this for years, but nobody listened. :-)
The government has thought of it. It either doesn’t work very well, or it works so well that the US loses strategic commodities without review.
Example:
Hamilton Field. A premier Air Force Base which was to be shut down and disposed at public auction during the Vietnam War.
Every time it goes up for sale, a pecking order of other government agencies have an opportunity to take control of it to save the government money.
About every 4-7 years, it has bounced between the Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Marin County, City of Novato, back to the County, back to Novato, homeless shelter, enterprise zone, housing, even the lease to keep pumps running so the San Francisco Bay doesn’t reclaim it have expired and reissued by other agencies.
Let’s also look at all the Cement and Coal the Clintons sold out to the Chinese, forcing the US into a cement and concrete shortage.
IMHO, the root of the problem is regulations. Get rid over the overwhelming qty of them. We need to get back to a regulatory environment of 100 years ago.
“It’s brilliant, simple and so blatantly obvious you have to wonder why no one has ever thought of it before? “
I know. That’s why we need a businessman. A successful businessman. They are much smarter about reality-based solutions than politicians.
Was thought of before: RON PAUL
Yup, and get rid of Air Farce One...Trump has a better version! I've seen it, and it's a beauty!
Go, Go TRUMP...it's gonna be a really GOODYEAR!
Selling government real estate has been discussed many times on FR.
As a related thought, I wonder how much change people have in home piggy banks in the US as a grand total of the nation? How much change would be found in couches and under car seats and at the bottom of purses? The reason why I’m asking s because if a “donate the loose change” fund was started to help pay the national debt, I’m thinking there are hundreds of billions laying around not doing anything. A quarter here and a dime there. My wife found several dollars worth in about 5 old purses she had laying around. How many times is that same situation repeated through out the nation. Services in kind can be worth money intrinsically. An otherwise decent person unemployed, but on some sort of government benefits could do needed work that otherwise the government would have to pay contractors for. There are lots of ways that the national debt could be reduced without throwing out the whole safety net(certainly it would have to be fixed) but it would take leadership and a citizenry who could be motivated to believe that they have a nation worth saving!
People could volunteer time by the hour for worthwhile government activities(not in the way communists would demand it) which could then be computed as a hourly wage which was then applied against the debt. This would be voluntary but if the people could be so motivated by a decent trustworthy leadership, we could get everything paid off in short order. We can save this country but can we muster the national will to do so? The accumulated private wealth inclusive of hidden moneys, precious metals, valuable tools, ect that just “sit there” must be staggering...many times the national debt! Yet I’m not talking about confiscation, but rather a sort of private/public voluntary asset fire sale as a means of facing up to our reality as a nation of spendthifts. Personal time donated to help pay off the debt can be also be computed into the mix as well! I know there are flaws in my thinking but I’m trying to put forth the notion that our problems are fixable....that we can step away from the precipice if we are willing!