Posted on 01/06/2025 7:44:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Our national debt is a little over $35 trillion. That’s a lot. Addressing this head-on is not for the weak, the weepy, or those lacking gonads or vertebrae, or both. And it’s going to take more than simply balancing the budget. We must start to draw down the debt immediately.
The federal government (guv) takes in revenue from a variety of sources. This we know. We also know that the guv expends funds all over the place. The deficit is the difference of expenditures over revenue. Or is it? Actually, it’s not. The national debt calculation includes appropriations included in the annual budget that have not yet been expended. It also includes expenditures planned for future fiscal years.
Here are some suggestions for trimming the national debt right now while the 119th Congress and the Trump Administration hash out the final version of the FY-2025 federal budget (October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.) It should be ready within six weeks of the inauguration. No time to lose!
What is the process by which the fed bleeds green? Starts with the budget. Once that is signed into law, funding is deemed to have been appropriated for the purposes listed in the budget. This also includes the number of FTEs (full-time equivalent employees).
The Trump White House should direct every agency to list all positions included in the current FY-25 budget projection that are new and unfilled or have been vacant for, say, four months. Yes, it takes a while to bring people on, but if they have been identified and their clearance process is started, maybe count them as filled positions? That will be up to the new Office of Personnel Management.
Immediately halt hiring actions for new unfilled and vacant positions, especially any projected IRS positions.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
You could close 6 fed agencies tomorrow and the country would be better off.
1. It is a "blue" House district.
2. It's in a state that is represented by two Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
3. It has voted for Democrats in every election from 2012 onward.
This would be a good start.
How about giving managers bonuses for cutting deadwood?
Eliminate base line budgeting. The US Federal Government should not automatically grow every year.
The National Debt is a FEATURE of the fiat debt-based non-federal private-corp FED Bankstering System.
To eliminate this debt is a matter of a new “Bretton Woods” switch to PM-backed real-money-based Currency.
When that occurs, there is NO pay-down of the $36T “debt”, it just goes away.
How about a 25% surtax on government pensions?
RE: How about a 25% surtax on government pensions?
How much are they being taxed today?
I worked in a local government office. The number of employees were necessary in the pre-computer days. After we went “paperless”, 30% of the staff had absolutely nothing to do. They were playing solitaire 10 minutes after the office opened and played solitaire all day. But those positions supposedly couldn’t be cut because of “use it or lose it”. I can only imagine the scale at the federal level.
“ We need to eliminate the “Spend it all or your budget will be cut next year b.s.”.
That is something we should have done years ago. It is ridiculous. They should also extend the duration of working capital funds from 1 year to 2 years. Entities using such funds always have to scramble every August to spend that years funds even if they really need it the following year.
The Federal Debt is a systemic problem. Only once in American history has the debt been zero. That was in 1828. Milton Friedman had the solution decades ago: a Balanced Budget Amendment. The Convention Of States is the only that is going to happen.
Good suggestions (article and some in posts above), but, consider:
Interest on the US Federal Gov’t debt is greater than our defense budget.
If we cut ALL discretionary spending including defense by 50%, we’d still run a hefty deficit.
Worst of all, our debt to GDP is nearing the level @ the end of WW2. We recovered from that, but mainly because we were the only major industrial power still standing. We are in no such advantageous position now, and worse, we are in no major conflict (even adding up all the rinky dink expenditures like Ukraine and the ME / Israel.) A conflict (assumed non-nuclear) that requires half the military effort we put into WW2 would likely create nearly equivalent debt, due to our (relatively) lessened industrial base, that cost ADDED to our present debt.
[[How To Reduce The Federal Deficit Fast]]
Quit overspending, cut wasteful projects and kick lobbyists out- mission accomplished
!. Stop adding to it.
2. Keep paying it off.
3. Rinse, lather repeat.
I can’t speak for all agencies but in my old agency (DOD), I don’t recall ever seeing anyone whose job depended on physically taking care of paperwork. If anything, computers made most people even busier since they could be contacted in real time from anywhere around the world via email. For those that teleworked, they were able to work even on off hours or weekends if the mission required it. Almost everything (as long as it was unclassified) they needed could be accessed from their laptop.
Yeah it utterly absurd that the only thing that automatically grows every year is the US Government
The US Federal Government still runs as if the Great Depression, W2, and the Cold War are all still going on.
And who will save you from the climate ravages of gas fired water heaters, huh?
It is not about just discretionary spending. The other spending can be cut to. It is a matter of making things more efficient in the other areas as well.
If oil and mineral rights were sold off and the money used to pay down the debt the interest would go down. Likewise get rid of unneeded buildings and equipment.
You could also save money by getting rid of the prevailing wages. This is just a money grab by the unions. If the wages were set at what the local workers charge and not the union wage there is money to be saved.
The other thing to be done is to lower the tax on individuals and businesses. Think of it like this. If the money is left in the local economy it gets spent there. As is circulates around it is taxed over and over again. It would still be fully taxed but the people and businesses get to use it more fully. This would boost the economy and lead to more income created and more money to be taxed.
Another example of this would be like Walmart or Amazon. Once you make a purchase the money is taken out of the community. As opposed to the local store taking the money in then buying something across the street. Then the store there buys something across the street. The same goes with the workers for these businesses. They will be spending in the community as well. As the money is spent it is taxed over and over again.
A increase is realized when the money is used to created something of greater value. Say a cake or a shirt or a head of lettuce. All these items are worth more because of effort use to create them. But if that money is pulled out of the community the value it could have created is lost and will not come back.
If you look at what happens when these big chain stores are put into a community, you can see this in action. The local economy is slowly starved and dies. The same will happen if taxes are to high. For this reason, I think reducing taxes is one of the things that can be done to tackle the debt problem. But only if the spending is curtailed and the extra money actually spent on the debt.
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.