How To Fix the Debt Crisis in America - A List of Top Ten Suggestions to Solve the American National Debt.

I asked this question on Hub pages. Then, I had more thoughts to add. But since I had already responded once, I was not allowed to do so, therefore, welcome to this hub.

When I first wrote this, Debt Tracker listed the US debt as 14.3 trillion dollars.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is TRILLION. In case you are wondering, that’s 12 zeros. I can’t imagine that kind of money. It boggles the brain. And to think, my nation, my beloved America owes this much money.

It gets so much worse. Today is 6-7-13, roughly two years after I originally wrote this article. Today, the US national debt stands at a whopping 16 trillion plus.

Better yet, check out this link just below. It shows a breakdown of how much we each owe, individually.

Do you have 46 thousand dollars in the couch cushions? Of course, that number from 2011 is over 51 thousand for each of us now, depending on whose numbers you trust. Some estimates run as high as 200 thousand per person with hidden fees, interest and all the warm fuzzies bean counters like to spring when in the employ of banks and government.

I, for one, would very much like to know exactly what I got for that insane amount.

Do you have that much money? Can you imagine how much it will be with daily interest being tacked on by the time you get it? Good Lord! We have to fix this mess, folks. Now!

1.) We send out millions, if not billions, of dollars in aid to other countries every year. While I’m all in favor of charity, it begins at home. If we can’t pay our own bills, should we really be sending money away?

Wiki Answers estimates this amount to be a paltry 25 billion a year and points out the fact that said sum is equal to less than .02% of the … whatever marker they want to use. The point is 25 billion is 25 billion. A penny saved is a penny earned.

Check It For Yourself.

2.) This one is not going to make me popular, but I’m saying it anyway. We have to revamp Medicare/Medicaid and Disability. These systems are abused on epic scales. I have seen, more times than I can count, students on Medicare/Medicaid, go to the emergency room to get a doctor’s excuse for missing school! I know it sounds crazy, but trust me I have seen it. Kids that are court ordered to be in school, and further, they will look you in the face and tell you they weren't sick but they don’t want to have to deal with their probation officer. I know people who legitimately collect disability benefits and I am all for them having it. Sadly, I know of others who collect it but seem to get around just fine in every way possible except a vocational one.

Depending on whose numbers you buy, estimations range from 30 to 60 billion dollars a year.

Check It For Yourself.

Somehow, I doubt the number has gone down since then.

What do you think?

Here’s a good one.

I think this video shows clearly and undeniably abuse has run

rampant.

You will love this. --->

3.) We are paying out untold billions of dollars to educate, medicate and generally better millions of people who are not legal citizens of this country. It has to end. It’s a lofty goal and I wish we could help anyone and everyone, but right now we can’t afford to help our own. We must be practical. Legal immigration helped build this country and made it strong. I support that one hundred percent. But this illegal inundation we are seeing, in my mind, is really close to an act of invasion.

I find it more than a little ironic that U.S. government lists the health care alone, in just California, just one state mind you, as costing over 10.5 billion per year.

Check It For Yourself.

UPDATE - Let's fast forward to today, 7-23-14. Remember, I wrote this article a few years ago. Now, thanks to President Obama, America shutters as hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are camped on our military bases. The President has border patrol agents and soldiers taking care of illegal children.

Medical workers in border states are terrified. They are warning the public as they can but have been threatened by DHS for even mentioning disease in relation to the invasion of illegal aliens. The President is currently spouting he wants to spend 4.7 billion dollars of money we don't have to deal with the illegals he called to this country against our laws, wishes and best interest.

4.) NO MORE BAILOUTS! We can never again waste money like this and further we must get it back. If the banks were really hurting so bad, they would not have given out huge bonuses. If a car manufacturer is failing, said manufacturer will have to sink or swim without aid of taxpayer dollars. It’s called capitalism and it served us well for 200 plus years.

Check It For Yourself.

5.) We should not be paying our elected officials as much as we do. They can all take a pay cut. Further, I am constantly hearing about this or that presidential vacation, or how the first lady took the kids off to who the heck really cares. What I do care about, what we should all care about, is that we are paying for it. How many of you get more than a week or two paid vacation per year? When you go on vacation, does your employer foot the bill? Why should we? We are paying not only for the expense of transporting but for secret service, lodging, meals, everything! It’s insane.

They also get the best benefit/retirement package in the entire country at our expense. This too must end, now.

Check It For Yourself.

6.) There must be more transparency in government spending. There are entirely too many “other” categories and ambiguous groupings. Proposed spending for the fiscal year 2012 in the “other spending” category is over 141 billion dollars. That’s other? Really? Seriously folks, if my budget were $141.00 over I would want to know where the heck it went and pronto! Federal spending is estimated to be more than three times income. Come on! Who makes a budget like that? I know children who can budget better.

Check It For Yourself.

7.) We have to revamp the entire election process and more importantly the campaign process. Only the rich really even have a shot at winning. A major reason why only the rich can realistically run is because only they can afford airtime. You might be thinking, well, Vix, anyone can fund raise and get the money. This is true but why is the question. What good does that money do other than to buy overpriced TV time? Why not allot a specific amount of air time to each candidate and that’s it?

While we are on the subject of money dictating the way of things that should be outside its realm of influence, let us look at special interest lobby groups shall we.

8.) Outlaw special interest and lobby group contributions, party throwing, taking out to dinners, general good old boy networking cash into the pockets of politicians and any and/or all influences said groups have through direct monetary means. OpenSecrets.org states that last year upwards of 3.5 billion dollars was spent by lobbyist. Why should those who throw cash at our elected officials be heard over those who do not? Do you really think that kind of money is not influencing those it is being shaken in front of?

Should policy really be for sale?

Check It For Yourself.

9.) We must stand up and stop allowing our government to take away our freedoms. More so, we must start taking back those already lost! Lack of freedom costs our economy dollars. There are millions of examples but let’s just go over a few shall we.

Do you remember, not so long ago, if you lived in the country perhaps your mother would send you to the neighbors to buy fresh milk, or eggs? It was pretty common for families to sell excess produce, butter, jams, candied fruits and so on. Look what happens now. Not only did this lady revitalize a piece of urban blight, but she also helped families to have access to fresh, affordable produce and look what the government did.

Check It For Yourself

We have all heard of the soda tax, elevated sin taxes, taxes for this and taxes for that. Said taxes are supposedly on things the government deems as bad for us. Perhaps they are. So what? As a legal, grown, citizen it used to be my right to chose to buy whatever I wished. Now, choice is restricted thereby restricting who gets my dollars. All the industries supplying the things that now cost more due to the government’s sin taxes suffer, which means their workers suffer, which makes the economy further suffer when they are laid off and have no money to spend. It is a never ending downward cycle.

More so, today it’s things they say are not good for us. How far off do you think the tomorrow in which they just don’t want us to have it is? Can you not foresee an elevated tax on things such as, oh, perhaps shall we say, movies, books and articles that criticize the government? What about things that might be construed as questionable such as the Bible, or just about any religious text you can think of other than one approved by the government picked religion of the day?

10.) Reduce the size of the government itself. If we were to consider the relationship between the growth of government in this country and its debt rise, I have zero doubt we would find a positive correlation.

Check It For Yourself.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Americans and fellow hubbers, we are in, as they say, deep sh#t. Everyone keeps talking about how can we leave this kind of debt for our children, and that’s a valid point. Consider this… It won’t take that long to catch up. This has always been presented to the masses as a this is a coming in the future type of problem. Well, guys and gals, the future just became the present and it’s rather smelly.

_{© Vix a.k.a. Rhonda Enrayne 8-7-11}

Considering all the money we send them, some free oil would be a fair exchange!

I wrote this hub back in August. Since then things have gotten so much worse. The President now wants to raise the debt ceiling to 21 trillion dollars. At the same time he wants to do that, he wants to slash the military budget by 1 trillion dollars, lay off 80 thousand soldiers, and cut benefits for their retirement, health care and the GI bill. I’m all about cutting spending, but this is crazy! His raise of the debt ceiling will weaken us even more economically, while the defense cuts will make us vulnerable as we have never been before.

Additions on how to fix the debt crisis, how to keep America strong, and how to keep her free!

Our government is constantly passing legislation. This sounds good until you read it, if you can read through the legal jargon and literally hundreds of pages of exceptions and loopholes.

I propose passing a new piece of legislation that reads as follows…

All laws passed from this day forth shall be limited to no more than one page of print. It will be written in plain, simple language that everyone can understand. It will address only one thing at a time. Said proposed legislation shall be made available to all citizens, at no cost, with phone numbers and email addresses to all parties that will be voting on it via the Internet.

This is needed more than you may realize. Most legislation passed now has tons of “riders” in it sneaking in that which has nothing to do with the proposed law it supposedly is speaking about. Much “pork” gets in this way. It must stop!

Many have mentioned in comments that we must abolish the Federal Reserve. I could not agree more. They have way too much power and currently have us by the proverbial stones. I heard a rumor, many times actually, that JFK proposed doing the exact same thing. We all know what happened to him and not too much later.

Think about this for a moment. When it comes to money, the government is not in control. The Fed has close to total control. The Fed is not part of the government nor is it under government restraint, regulation or influence, yet it can with the push of a button, the lowering or raising of a tenth of a percent, with the slash of a pen, send the entire economy in any direction it desires. Sure, the government can and does blow trillions. They are increasingly bleeding us dry. But, the fed can in the blink of an eye raise interest rates on them and then, BOOM! What do you think the interest rate could hit? Anything they want for the most part. It's nothing for someone with good credit to hit hard times. Miss a payment or two and they go from a less than ten percent interest rate to one well over 20. Think the economy is bad now? Today's economy would look like a blissful dream compared to what that nightmare would be like.

A citizen’s regulatory commission should be on the hill complete with the following…

Common people from each state, with no conflict of interest, that have never worked for a bank, super large corporation or the government, to act as a watchdog of the people. Said commission should have the authority to prosecute any elected official or appointee thereof who they deem is acting outside the best interest of the people. If the folks squandering our money were held more accountable, the waste would end.

Thank you, dear hubbers for your time, your reading, and for your support of America regardless of which party you may or may not agree with.

With the greatest admiration,

Vix

^{End capsule addition}

If you read a fraction of the comments below, you will find some really well informed, creative, practical ideas for helping to end the current crisis. I can't urge you strongly enough to check out what they have to say.

_{Capsule added on 8-20-11}

I challenge all of my fellow American hubbers, the vast majority of whom are better prepared to face such a topic than I, to hub your thoughts on this most pressing matter before our nation.

What is a challenge without a prize? Hm, I had not thought of that. What to offer for such effort?

The official winner of the Poetvix’s Raving Rant - Ways to End the Deficit Challenge will receive the honorary, assigned by Vix, means absolutely nothing, and will most likely be misspelled, award to proudly, or not so really, display on your own hubs at your leisure, or not.

Your efforts are worth so much more, but sadly... Welcome to America in 2011.

The Frog Prince

Wayne Brown

American View

Feenix

I have to wonder if we, the people, are even capable of getting together long enough to attempt to bring honor back to our government. If you read the comments below, you will see how we agree on some points and differ on others. Sadly, you will also see that since this is such a passionate subject, sometimes we let temper take the wheel. It won't help. Fighting amongst ourselves won't help. It's what they want. It allows this kind of thing to continue. We have to come together. We have to drop our petty sensitivities be they well earned or not. We have to comprimise and listen and think and cross check facts and examine things until our heads hurt. If we can't start to work together, what hope do we have?

Freedom of speech in my mind is a God given right. As with any other right, it comes with responsibilities and limits. All comments prior to this date will remain as they are, unless the Hub powers tell me I have to delete them or they will pull this.
Comments from any side or somewhere in between, even way off in left field are all welcome. With that said, I think we need a few ground rules for here on out. Any comment that is hateful and/or maliciously directed towards another specific Hubber will be blocked.
Play nice or go away. That doesn’t mean be politically correct for I despise the very notion. It simply means be respectful. Think of it this way, each of us have our on-line house. Just as in our real houses, when people visit we expect them to behave with a certain amount of basic civility. Just as in our real homes, if someone “acts a fool and shows his behind”, he/she will be asked to leave and not return in future.
I find such things a sad indicator of the state of our ability to unite.

Comments found below represent only the views of the person submitting each at the time, or the original author of said comment, however you wish to term it. PLEASE be responsible in your comments.