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Bewildered U.S. piggy bank can't pay down
humongous U.S. public debt. Says, "PLEASE HELP!"
Pay Down the Debt
One trillion dollars is more than most of us can wrap our minds around. Yet the U.S. public debt is now almost twenty trillion dollars.
In the current fiscal year, the government is paying $229 billion just for interest on the public debt. This huge amount of money is taken from taxpayers--but not used to administer justice, fix roads and bridges, care for veterans, or do anything else that needs doing.
The Federal Reserve has held interest rates artificially low, but it cannot do that indefinitely. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that annual interest on the public debt will reach $808 billion in fiscal year 2025. Current interest already threatens the financial future of today's children. But the projected interest--just eight years down the road--could wreck that future.
Anyone who thinks about these dollar figures should worry about our huge public debt. Worry won't solve the problem, though. We must tackle it head-on and look for help from all quarters.
While we can't say that help is on the way right now, we can say that it will be if certain things are done. Turning toward a peaceful foreign policy, balancing the annual budget, and downsizing the government are essential steps.
Each step will aid the others--by proving that change is possible and by helping to restore confidence and optimism to our economic outlook. And when citizens see that the government is mending its ways, we can have a national campaign to pay down the debt through donations large and small.
There is already a Treasury Department account for donations to reduce the debt. It receives very little publicity, though, and in its best recent year it obtained less than $8 million in donations. We can do far better than this. Here are some ideas about the way to go:
✓ To lead the effort, appoint a well-known figure who has a good media presence, great fundraising talents, superb connections with wealthy donors, and the ability to donate his or her time.
✓ Recruit other key figures--from business, politics, labor, education, sports, arts, entertainment, and private foundations. Persuade them to make donations and to ask their friends and colleagues to do the same.
✓ Ask all of the former presidents to lend a hand. They certainly should, since the public debt increased under every one of them!
✓ Work hard for large, institutional donations from corporations and foundations. Let's have a dramatic contest to see which can be the most generous.
✓ End the $3 "Presidential Election Campaign" earmarking-option on the Form 1040 income-tax return. (These donations provide a subsidy for presidential candidates--one that has never achieved its goal of driving corruption out of politics.) Replace it with an option to give any amount to help pay down the public debt.
✓ Many citizens, though unable to make large donations when the campaign begins, might want to include Uncle Sam's debt-retirement fund in their wills. Encourage this!
✓ Send debt-retirement donation jars to shop owners around the country, provided that they agree to send back the money they collect every six months. Place them on the donors list when they send in their first donations. (Humor might help here: Donation jars could show a poor, raggedy, Uncle Sam who is holding out a tin cup.)
✓ Encourage local groups to hold bake sales, yard sales, car washes, raffles, benefit concerts, and golf tournaments to help pay down the debt. Put sponsoring groups on the donors list.
✓ Keep the campaign going until the economy picks up enough so that taxes alone will return a healthy surplus to pay off the debt in a reasonable time.
Again, this proposal is just one part of a package plan. To work, it must be accompanied by a peaceful foreign policy, a balanced annual budget, and major downsizing of the government.
When Americans see positive changes in governmental behavior, they will be far more likely to help pay down the debt. The government, in turn, must be humble, grateful, and determined to stay on a pay-as-you-go plan.
Stockphoto.com
A much larger, fatter piggy bank will say: "YAY!
We are really on our way now! Thank you very much!"
LINKS FOR MORE INFO:
Robert Bixby, "Trump Needs a Wall of Fiscal Discipline," Concord Coalition website, Jan. 30, 2017
Bill Bush, "National Debt Nears $20 Trillion; Kasich Has Long Warned of Troubles," Columbus Dispatch, March 6, 2017
Congressional Budget Office, "Updated Budget Projections: 2015 to 2025," March 2015
Keith Hall (Director of the Congressional Budget Office), "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027," testimony before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives," Feb. 2, 2017
James McBride, "How Trump Could Affect the National Debt," (a Council on Foreign Relations background paper), Feb. 28, 2017
Eli Saslow, "One Man's Quest to Reduce the National Debt," Washington Post, Dec. 25, 2012 (article and video)
U.S. Treasury, "Gift Contributions to Reduce Debt Held by the Public"
U.S. Treasury, "The Debt to the Penny..."