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 ...
Congress (which would need to ok the sales in any case) would need to tweak the laws to enable that, but that wouldn't be any big block either for them or for me. But such rules wouldn't make it possible to sell off $19T over 8 years as Trump proposed.
thank you for ignoring my typos ;)
I type one-fingered on a tablet. And when I get mad, it’s even worse AND I don’t check before i hit ‘post’.
If neither wins, we are toast!
Hehe..... sales are in gold then. Screw the fed.
“...and they should be left in federal control.”
Trump’s comment was in response to a suggestion that the lands be GIVEN to the states.
Giving the land to the states does NOTHING to reduce the debt so that is a non-starter if the intent is to reduce the debt.
I do not support GIVING these lands to the states but SELLING them to private interests.
So...you can just walk onto a military base and start watching TV any time you like?
Mt. Rushmore? Isn’t that private already?
The article doesn’t say to whom the assets could be sold. But you couldn’t resist putting words in the guy’s mouth, could you ? You Trump bashers spend way too much time trying to twist everything he or his campaign does. Why not spend sometime promoting your own guy ? I’m sure Bernie would appreciate it.
Keeping up just fine, thanks. Again, no mention of a reduction in spending...
Makes paying off the debt a moot point if we’re just gonna keep spending on crap the FedGov isn’t supposed to be doing.
Seems that I remember Charles Collins when he ran for President saying that it’s in the papers that were signed when the Federal Reserve was created that there is stipulation that we can buy it out for $60 million.
Folks still have too much to lose. Keeps goin the same direction, that’ll change and so will our destiny.
Keep your powder dry.
If he actually makes this a crusade about how many of our current problems stem from past deficit spending, then solves the problem with a slogan of “Never Again”, he might very well get a Balanced Budget Amendment passed. One that outlaws any government borrowing except in times of DECLARED war and then only by selling War Bonds.
When the eyes of the People are blinded, catastrophe ensues. The Bible shows us that over and over.
I was thinking some time back about how it is that we are BY FAR the most powerful nation in the history of the world yet, that power is hamstrung by the Left. Why can a small group frustrate the majority time after time? Then it became clear to me - the nation gets the leadership it deserves and our morality is so degraded that we get a Clinton and an Obama.
The people are desperate for a Patriotic and Nationalistic LEADER not a posturing ideologue fearful of offending the media and Left.
There is no contradiction between the that idea and the other.
If prospective foreign buyers know they’ll be limited to what current Federal rules allow done, much of the Federal land in the west isn’t worth much. You won’t make much from the sale. Debt reduction down in flames. Feds might as well keep the land until an administration willing to allow productive use can sell it from much more.
Sell our national resources to foreigners?
My guess is a Guliani or Christie as AG will unleash RICO investigators on the major gangs not already under attack.
We are selling it off to our own citizens.
Yes, I would rather we didn’t allow foreign ownership of real estate or businesses. When we ran a trade deficit with Japan, they spent our money buying up real estate and caused a real estate bubble. China has been doing the same thing over the last 20 years. I really don’t want to wake up one day and find that all “our” businesses are owned by foreigners and nobody can afford real estate so are left as renters to foreigner landlords. By definition, foreigners do not have Americans’ best interests at heart.
They are already doing that.
This is directed at reductions of the debt. Enviro-nazi money is private and eligible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.