Readers Respond: What's the Best Way to Reduce the National Debt?

What do you think will provide relief for the U.S. National Debt? Share Your Views

The Real size of the national debt

Convert each dollar to one second. One trillion seconds is equal to 31,709 YEARS or about the time our knuckles stopped dragging the ground.

—Guest Tim

legalize weed in louisiana

75 percent of money spent on ciggarettes in la goes to taxes. If weed became legal here you could sell it like ciggarettes 20 in a pack at 20$ per pack. 15 of it will go towards the US debt. Within a single year the debt would be paid. Not to mention it would free up a lot of jail cells.

—Guest robert brown

Growth

Just enact the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget. It stimulates the economy back to full potential (which will increase revenues), creates higher tax brackets and a Wall Street transactions tax, and cuts useless spending in the DoD and Medicare. And even though public debt rises, public debt as a percentage of GDP falls, which is what really matters (remember, Greece's public debt is less than 400 billion dollars, but it's a big deal because they have a much smaller economy than America).

—Guest Someone

Tax Wall Street.

Charge a 1% sales tax on all stock, option and derivative transactions. It defies common sense real work product gets taxed, while Wall Street gambling does not. Would quickly raise trillions and would be relatively painless. It would be like paying your broker an extra 1%, similar to the way we tax gasoline. Wall Street caused this current financial mess, why should they not be part of the solution? Also, just a thought, do we as a country need to outspend every other country in the world on our military by so much. We spend ten times as much as the next highest. Is the way we are interacting with the rest of the world really making us safer? or just more despised? Imagine what a REAL goodwill policy would do.... Lastly, why do we even consider money owed to ourselves, essentially, as part of the debt? And since the Federal Reserve Act gave a group of private bankers the right to declare their printed paper (money) as something valuable... let's forgive the interest "owed" on it.

—Guest NoMoAusterity

Bail bonds

bail bonds what happened to bail bonds if every single person in the us bought a bail bond worth $100 it would equal to about 31 trillion dollars, why is that not an option?

—Guest More to it

Smoke screens

Follow the money people. The Federal reserve is not a government entity. It is private. Who owns it? Who funds it? The banks are not Government entities. Republican/Democrat, doesn't matter. They are all pawns and puppets put there for us to watch while we miss the slight of hand. If you are stupid enough to believe that all this foolishness is happening by accident or even due to incompetence then you deserve the slavery you live with. The elite never pay taxes. Who are they? They are the ones controlling the world and we are left squabbling with each other and pointing fingers. Stop believeing the media people.

—Guest mike

An idea to help national or state dept

We should do something about how much athletes are paid. If that money was invested correctly in the states or government, we could make a HUGE dent in the debt that this country is in and increase the economy substantially!! Yes we all like football and hockey and basketball and baseball. But 60 million for one guy to play a sport just because people are too lazy to play themselves as they get fat? It's ridiculous. Invest the money right and we could get back what this country used to be like.

—Guest Benjamin Sylvester

Joan P

we need to get our national debt down Congress and Senators and even the President should not be paid to do nothing. they should pay for their own cars and vacations. I have not had a vacation in years as I have to take care of grandchildren. Inflation and greed are the cause of our problems and we need to keep jobs here in America instead to making other coutries rich at our expense, Everyon needs a job and needs to pay taxes, So many people work here and send their money back to their family in other countries and dont pay tax on it. We as Americans need to help ourself, Jerry Lewis started a Telethon for children with MS, Maybe we need to do that to get the National Debt down. I dont know the solution, but we cant keep adding to the debt by borrowing money from Social Security as it has never been paid back and and it is no longer there for the Government to take...Lets do something now

—Guest Joan P

not enough

Cindyjean suggests that if every man, woman, and child paid $12 per year that makes $4 billion per yearyear and the debt would be eliminated. True, but it would take 4,000 years! And, would only work IF the gov stopped deficit spending. The first step is just to stop incurring further debt. Then pay it down. How? Cut the military completely for starters. A standing military was never the intention of our founding fathers. Cut all welfare. I am not talking about social security - that is an entitlement, as in you paid into the system and now you are entitled to withdraw. Cut all federal support for health care. Those three eliminations alone would make a huge impact. Sure, cutting politicians salaries and pensions is a good and fair idea, but that would be just a drop in the bucket. Remember, we owe $4 billion times 4,000!

—Guest math whiz

Lower the Debt

What if we did away with the chauffeurs,chefs, housekeepers that these officials have and they lived like normal families and the government stops paying for these extravagances. No more government funded trips with an entourage of people to pamper the spoiled. If these officials learned to pull off their own toilet paper and clean up their own messes, the average hard working American wouldn't have to lose their homes and do without food to pay for their lifestyle. Also what if we limit the time someone can collect free money and we pre-purchase a standard menu ready for pick-up, instead if handing them a card they can swap out for money to buy drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. How about we put a lifetime limit on how many times they can collect free money to sit at home and watch cheap talk shows where people like them broadcast their dirty laundry for amusement. Wow! Might just work.

—Guest Shelly Baker

Just A Question

You state that Obama's first year of stimilus money was attached to Bush's budget year. This would tell me that Obama's numbers are higher than stated. That would also mean that Bush's were lower than stated. Did anyone notice that Clinton admits that the repealling of Glass-Steagall act during his presidency, and pushed by him, caused the melt down. So after all this, the Democrats admit that it wasn't Bush's fault. How come this isn't transmitted constantly on every news station there is? I'm just wondering where is the fairness and equality we always hear about in our news broadcasts.

—Guest Wondering

deal with each district separately

if a congressman votes to cut spending, then spending get cut IN HIS DISTRICT ONLY. watch how fast they compromise.

—Guest roro

national debt

I think the government should take $1 dollar from each working Americans paycheck each week or bi-weekly or a total of $4 dollars per month. Until debt Is paid off.

—Guest Joseph l harvat

US Debt

Anyone who bought something using either money or a loan is responsible for the debt. National debt is much less, percentage wise, than it was during the Eisenhower Administration when building our infrastructure was the national priority. Private debt is causing the current financial meltdown and is double that of the national debt. "Boom and Bust" is an inherent problem with our so called "Free Capital System". Letting the workers run the companies and paying the CEOs and Directors what they deserve will fix many of our economic problems.

—Guest Social Tinker

pay raise

Hello again this is Mr. Rowley. Do the elected officials continue to get the same pay after their term is over. If so they could cut on that to save on the budget. I think that is a heavy burdon on the tax payers who are struggling. I live on less than $20,000.00 a year. We are stuggling to make ends meet. I cant see how we can support congress while they sit on their butts and vote on things that take away from us while they live high on the hog. When we need help we have to beg and still don't get help. Or we have to buy permits. What is going to be next. When I put that sign out "have we been forgotten" 7 years ago, thats exactly what happened. go to this sit and you will see the sign : http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051219/NEWS/512190314/1026/NEWS01

—Guest Mrrowley