A Solution to the National Debt

This week, Doc takes on the staggering National Debt. Damn Doc, do I really owe that much? - Sailor




A Solution to the National Debt
Written by Doc Farmer
Wednesday, July 07, 2004


At this writing, the National Debt (a debt so big that it has to be capitalized) stands at $7,259,602,983,923.51.

Seven Trillion Dollars.

Those three little words, and that bloody humongous amount, are enough to strike terror into anyone’s heart. As well it should. Heck, couples file bankruptcy when their credit cards max out. Men and women jump out of buildings when their stock portfolios make a loud flushing noise. Now, imagine a debt where every American child born is automatically $24,651.05 in the red. The slap on the rump from the doctor is a minor inconvenience compared to that.

Well, that’s the theory. That’s the story everybody is told. ''We need more taxes,'' the politicians cry, ''to cover the National Debt!'' ''Our debt will be paid by our children’s children’s children’s children if we don’t raise taxes now.''

Well, politicians love to raise taxes anyway. They’ll raise taxes at the drop of a Spotted Owl. If politicians don’t get enough money in taxes, they just add more money to the National Debt. Then demand more taxes to pay for spendthrift and wasteful habits of those who stack the re-election deck in the favor of the incumbents. These days the only chance of being ousted from the House or Senate is to be caught in bed, on videotape, with three hookers, five rocks of crack cocaine, a Cub Scout troop, a goat with scrofula, Hitler's corpse, and Janet Reno in a thong.

The Washington Wastrels want to make you pay for their greed.

The National Debt is only part of the story, however. The other part of the story, the part the politicians don’t want you to hear, provides the immediate solution to the problem. Sadly, though, the politicians will never allow such a remedy. Because it will show them to be liars. It will take away much, indeed most, of their power. It will get them fired from their soft, cushy jobs, and never allowed to serve in public office again.

Sounds like a good-enough reason right there to tell everybody.

Y’see, debt is only one half of the balance sheet. Now, I’m not an accountant, and I don’t understand macroeconomic theory. But I do know that if you’ve got debts (liabilities) you should also have assets. Cash on hand, property, buildings, cars, investments, money in banks, precious metals, works of art, that sort of thing. And the Federal Government has assets. Just over $17 trillion in assets.

If you have more assets than liabilities, you’re fine. If you have more liabilities than assets, you’re in trouble.

Assets: $17,000,000,000,000
Debt: $ 7,000,000,000,000

Balance $10,000,000,000,000


So, we’re actually $10 trillion ahead of the game, even if all of the National Debt is paid off today. We’re not bankrupt. Not anywhere near it. That’s the dirty little secret of your government.

Here’s the bigger deal. The National Debt has an easy solution. One that most people, most businesses would turn to if they were paying off their fiscal liabilities. You sell off some of your assets, and pay your debts. The same thing can be done here.

The Government of the United States of America is the largest landowner in the country. The government owns all of the national parks, which comprise several million acres. It own tons of buildings, fleets of cars and trucks, fleets of aircraft (non-military ones), plus all the desks, computers, garbage cans, telephones, etc. Plus, there’s all the U.S. money invested in foreign banks all around the world. Then there are all of the unnecessary (from a Constitutional standpoint, anyway) government agencies.

So, it’s time to do some serious debt realignment. Time to sell off stuff that America can no longer afford. Like most of the Federal Government. Don’t believe me? Read the Constitution. In it, the Federal Government was supposed to be of limited size and scope. It only really authorizes the following institutions and agencies (tell me what I’ve missed, and give proof):

* Presidency (and associated support departments)

* Congress (and associated support departments)

* Judiciary (and associated support departments)

* Military/National Defense

* Department of Commerce

* U.S. Mint

* National Institute of Standards and Technology

* Library of Congress

* Post Office

* Copyright Office

* Patent Office

* State Department (Embassy/Consular offices)

* Immigration and Naturalization (or a functional facsimile thereof)

* Federal Prison System

You’ll note that the IRS is absent from the list above. Mostly because the IRS is a product of the 16th Amendment, which was fraudulently added to the U.S. Constitution. But that’s a discussion for another day. So here are some quick things that the Federal Government can do to pay off the National Debt, yet still keep the country functional:

* Closing down all federal agencies not sanctioned by the Constitution, and selling off the assets

* Selling back Federal (non park) land for private ownership

* A REALLY big bake sale at the Pentagon.

* Selling the gold bullion reserves for ready cash

* Buying back the gold bullion reserves when the price of gold crashes

* Returning to the gold standard again, just to honk off all the speculators

Personally, I like the bake sale idea the best!

Now, if you immediately liquidated $7 trillion of assets, especially those in banking institutions across the globe, there’d be financial chaos that would cause hardship throughout the world. It’d come back to bite America on the rump and cause us major problems. So, if you did this in simple stages over a ten year period, you’d liquidate $700 billion every year. As long as you didn’t liquidate any assets belonging to the list of constitutionally authorized departments listed above, no problem. If you want to sell off the assets of the Department of Education, Department of Heath and Human Services, National Endowment for the Arts, etc., be my guest. In fact, I insist!

I can hear all the lib/dem/soc/commies fainting, screaming, and gnashing teeth. Ah, what a glorious noise.

If you’re wondering about all those hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed people fired from the Federal Government, fear not. Those unemployed will find jobs. Why am I so confident? Well, for one thing, the National Debt will be gone. That will free up a lot of the drain on businesses, who have to waste billions of dollars every year filling out idiotic forms, performing unnecessary tasks, or forking over taxes to pay for all those salaries of the people who receive the idiotic forms or demand the unnecessary tasks. That money, now freed up, will not go into the money of fat cat white ''fascists,'' no matter what the lib/dem/soc/commies will shrilly declare. It will go into investment in new factories, new products, research and development. It will create jobs.

At long last, you’ll be able to go to sleep at night and not worry that your great-great-great grandchildren will be up to their umbilical cords in debt.

That’s worth selling off all that unnecessary Federal detritus in the first place.





About the Writer: Doc Farmer is a writer and humorist who is also a moderator on ChronWatch's Forum. He formerly lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but now resides in Indiana. Doc receives e-mail at docfarmer9999@yahoo.co.uk.


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