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

[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.

[freddy005]

Hey, Trump. The government doesn’t own anything. We the people do. The guy needs to pick up a constitution.
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And some how you were conned into believing that “WE” wouldn’t be stuck with the bill...right? You should learn more about the Federal Reserve Act and how “We” have been paying the interest on the Debt as Debt Slaves ever since 1913!

[MaxistheBest]

“It won’t work because neither party will use the money to pay down the debt”

Just earmark the money to pay down the debt

[freddy005]

End the Federal Reserve and have them cancel the $4.5 Trillion they are holding.
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PING!!! Give that person a PRIZE! You got it....

[builder]

And that was over 5 years ago. What happened? I will tell ya what happened. Those deceitful SOBs in D.C. did nothing about it. We got lip services. They talk and do nothing.

I was only pointing out that it had been proposed many times before. Your statement said it hadn't.

But I can give you a partial reason why it didn't come to fruition before - People in each of those states where the land was proposed to have been sold off - - started fighting against it. seems many in those states liked the idea of the Federal government owning the land and keeping open spaces. They decided they didn't want it sold to active users.

that seems to be the main reason so many of these proposals haven't gone anywhere before.

[Dick Bachert]

QUESTION 1: How much land is owned and controlled by Washington?

ANSWER: See the map below.

QUESTION 2: WHY??

ANSWER: Anyone...anybody...HELLLOOOO!  (crickets)

FACT THAT SHOULD CONCERN US ALL: The federal government owns or controls more land in the nation that there is east of the Mississippi. That's a great way to, if not totally destroy the states, erase their borders and the STATE sovereignty the Founders attempted to preserve.

What does the Constitution authorize?

Article 1, section 8 Clause 17: "The congress shall have power...to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings;"

Notice that all the structures mentioned are defensive in nature. Have recent federal governments been defending the country -- REALLY defending this place??

That clause has been twisted by decades of liberal congresses and allowed by a quiescent government school indoctrinated public just like they've twisted and we have also allowed, for example, the welfare, interstate commerce and other clauses to sweep into federal control just about every human activity in this formerly free nation.

Several really smart freedom lovers saw this coming 2 centuries ago! "...the natural tendency of things is for government to gain Ground and for liberty to yield...let no more be heard of Confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution." Thomas Jefferson

"(centralized government) will destroy the state government, and swallow the liberties of the people." Patrick Henry

May I be so bold as to suggest that millions do something that would scare the hell out of these ignorant, power-grabbing politicians and petty bureaucrats? That would be to READ and UNDERSTAND the approximately 4,400 words in OUR national charter, the Constitution? It's available FOR FREE ON-LINE EVERYWHERE!

You'd need to explain it to them as most of them NEVER HAVE!!

Oh yeah -- one more thing: While I still support Trump because he's probably the only guy with the cajones to muck that fetid stable on the Potomac, he REALLY NEEDS TO BETTER EXPLAIN HIS SEEMINGLY UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT FOR "EMINENT DOMAIN" which is more and more being applied in an UNJUSTIFIABLE MANNER to enrich connected developers and entities.

[Rusty0604]

Tell that to Bundy and the ranchers in Oregon, and to all the folks that were forced out of the national parks because Obama wanted to stick it to us for the sequester.

[VTenigma]

See post 38

[familyop]

He can sell the Postal Service to the Russians then. It wouldn’t be any more corrupt or incompetent than it is now.

[bigtoona]

Agreed, Obama used executive power to massively increase the size of agencies so why can’t it be used to reduce them? The president has total legal power to control a lot of the daily care and feeding of govt agencies. Trump could probably start deeming lots of staff non essential. Then start laying off many people. Once done, the empty buildings are simply no longer needed and can be sold!

[chrisnj]

Bravo, that is exactly what I am thinking - eliminate Fed reserve and forget the ‘debt’ !

[napscoordinator]

Both parties suck. That’s why trump is crucial. I actually wished he could win as an independent so he could tell both parties to go pack sand but alas he had to pick one to guaranree a shot. Trump picked the barely less evil party.

[kjam22]

Don’t ear mark it.... just put it in a lockbox....

[Eleutheria5]

And it would require slashing the federal budget in half? How terrible!/sarc

[kjam22]

Problem is he can only submit budgets. It takes congress to make one. Neither party is going to sell assets and use the money to pay down the debt. It ain’t gonna happen.

[cableguymn]

Let me know when you find one would ya?

[VTenigma]

At $20 trillion you would be basically selling your sovereignty. I’m pretty sure that’s unconstitutional.

[VTenigma]

I said we.

[freddy005]

See post 38
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You’re getting close! You see, “We” don’t own the Federal Reserve and there lies the problem. Ever since W. Wilson and Congress gave away the US Fed “Gov’t’s” sole authority to “coin” (or print) the currency over to the Federal “Reserve” ((i.e. a PRIVATE institution owned by banks- both US & foreign)... “We” the people have been on the hook to pay down the debt (and now we can only afford to pay the interest) which as you may have noticed....NEVER goes down! Guess what else passed that year for the first time in the US’ history.....that’s right: The Federal Income Tax! Funny how things work out to such coincidences!

[taildragger]

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

Depending if you listen to Stockman or Fmr Comptroller David Walker it is between 100 trillion and 220 Trillion + or - 5 thousandths....

So it is a great idea, but if you don't downsize / rand corp ring every dollar out of the beast and reduce duplicity out of Fedzilla, the core spending that is unsustainable remains...

[Canedawg]

You’ve proven yourself to be a candidate for the Idiocracy based on your posts here.