Fix the USA in 1 year: Contractionary Economic Policy in 10 Steps

[Millennial_Messiah]

1. Slash en lement spending by 70%. Only fund the very basic bones of basic necessities, minimize social security payouts and eliminate TANF and any state aid for unemployment, or other federal benefits in general. Slash the Federal Pell Grant to zero for five years. Fully enforce student loan repayment including wage and bank account garnishment.

2. Eliminate foreign aid, giving free money to 'help out' other countries / people in other countries 'in need'. Eliminate 'discretionary' programs, projects and foreign missions, including federal dollars spent on the Green climate hoax. Slash high-paid federal employee salaries; it starts at the top... slash all top congressional/Senate/POTUS/cabinet et al. salaries by 50%.

3. Slash military contracts spending, tighten VA benefits, and end all needless, expensive wars. Impose mass full-stack sequestration. Slash the federal prison budget (i.e. prisoners shall receive one meal per day, limited amenities, etc).

4. Implement strict anti-monopoly and anti-oligopoly regulation to reduce the sheer power of the very top private sector companies, and criminalize private sector lobbying of Congress and U.S. law making. Protect compe ion and small businesses by imposing a surtax, or value-added tax, on the very wealthiest companies operating in the U.S.

5. Raise the top corporate tax rate to 40% and make sure this is fully enforced. Raise taxes on wealthy corporations and set a salary cap on individuals to $5 million in new net income (including stock capital gains) per year, any income on top of that shall be taxed at 100% (since the Medicare/SS tax freezes at around a quarter million gross per year).

6. Eliminate tariffs to reduce and alleviate shortages of inventory of goods and products.

7. Freeze new work immigration visas until further notice, and solve the unemployment crisis by installing U.S. Citizens and current residents in such job positions. Eliminate chain migration by disallowing green cards by marriage or familial 'right'. Anyone may visit, but they must leave within 6 months and must wait 12 months to re-apply for a new visa if they wish to return for a visit.

8. Undo ented immigrants currently in the U.S. shall be returned to their original country of heritage or birth. No papers = no exceptions.

9. Default on all current international debt and commit to not undertaking any new international loans for a minimum of 7 years.

10. Raise Federal Reserve interest rates to mid-1990s figures, healthy and responsible rates seen in the Clinton administration years that actually carry a fair and reasonable risk and cost to borrowers, while rewarding responsible lenders and savers for curbing borrowing and spending.



With those 10 steps, the national debt can be eliminated fully and the USA can actually be in the "green" by 2024!! Not even kidding. But it needs to start now. We're neck-deep in debt so bad now that we've got to start digging ourselves out with our teeth, but it needs to get done. It's now or never, or the US Dollar and the USA will be forever mired in quicksand and relegated to third-world impoverishment.

[ElNono]

I mean, this is so bad, I don't know where to start...

78% of US debt is public. International debt is a minuscule amount. (~3 trillions?). Plus the debt is denominated in US dollars, so there's no scenario where the US cannot fulfill it's obligations. This very basic concept is largely why the US is in a completely different situation than third-world countries, that must issue debt in other currencies (like US dollars) and it's largely why they need to starve their countries to repay debt.

You can't force US citizens to take jobs they don't want to take. And you will kill industries and increase the trade deficit if you don't produce. This is why the whole immigrant, low-cost labor conversation is much more complicated than sound bites.

How many people need to suffer and/or die in the altar of debt and money? I'm all for increased oversight and crackdown on fraudulent en lement benefits, but that's basically where it ends. Also, social security is a fund that was paid into, technically not an en lement.

Changing Fed rates isn't a magic wand. They're simply one way to control the money supply, and has limited application (see 2008). There isn't one perfect rate, there are different rates for different economic contexts.

And the overarching problem with this analysis is the end goal. Why do we want to be "in the green"? Is there inflationary pressure so big that it's worth all those sacrifices? Is this even viable in a global economy?

Companies will have relatively little problem relocating to avoid the taxes, but the impact on the little guy is much bigger.

Once we're "in the green", what's the benefit? What are we going to spend that surplus money on? Pay down debt?

[Millennial_Messiah]

I mean, this is so bad, I don't know where to start...

78% of US debt is public. International debt is a minuscule amount. (~3 trillions?). Plus the debt is denominated in US dollars, so there's no scenario where the US cannot fulfill it's obligations. This very basic concept is largely why the US is in a completely different situation than third-world countries, that must issue debt in other currencies (like US dollars) and it's largely why they need to starve their countries to repay debt.

You can't force US citizens to take jobs they don't want to take. And you will kill industries and increase the trade deficit if you don't produce. This is why the whole immigrant, low-cost labor conversation is much more complicated than sound bites.

How many people need to suffer and/or die in the altar of debt and money? I'm all for increased oversight and crackdown on fraudulent en lement benefits, but that's basically where it ends. Also, social security is a fund that was paid into, technically not an en lement.

Changing Fed rates isn't a magic wand. They're simply one way to control the money supply, and has limited application (see 2008). There isn't one perfect rate, there are different rates for different economic contexts.

And the overarching problem with this analysis is the end goal. Why do we want to be "in the green"? Is there inflationary pressure so big that it's worth all those sacrifices? Is this even viable in a global economy?

Companies will have relatively little problem relocating to avoid the taxes, but the impact on the little guy is much bigger.

Once we're "in the green", what's the benefit? What are we going to spend that surplus money on? Pay down debt?

The benefit is that we'll no longer be running budget deficits, we'll be running budget surpluses like those famous 2 Clinton years in the 90s

Changing Fed rates is not necessarily a magic wand, but it does curb irresponsible borrowing and will go a LONG way to evening out the whacked-up real estate market that has been tilted hugely in favor of sellers for far, far too long and has been extremely hostile to buyers for far, far too long. The worst part? The buyers that are the biggest victims of this mass-artificial inflation in the real estate market are the most responsible of buyers, the high down payment and cash buyers -- as opposed to the non-responsible FHA/VA/5% buyers who get all these mortgage forbearance and even short term forgiveness plans which they shouldn't be eligible for in the first place. Foreclosures need to be enforced, and borrowers who don't pay back substantial interest should be severely financially punished. Responsible saving should be rewarded, not punished. It's been almost two years since anyone has been able to get a reasonable rate of return on any fixed-rate CD. That is a huge problem.

You may not force US Citizens to take low paying jobs, but they will take them if they are available and there is no public dole / state or federal unemployment to turn to as an option. Once the free money is eliminated, you either go to work or starve and get evicted, and people will choose to go to work in such case. To the victor go the spoils... a true market-based approach.

Yes, inflationary pressure is bad, and has gotten immensely worse in the past year or two. Everything from milk and meat to gas and energy has substantially increased in price since 2019, to the large detriment of the ordinary American civilian citizen. Not saying it's Trump or Biden's fault (it's partially both, partially Congress, part Fed, etc) but with the Dow Jones still running 30K's but people as a whole are worse off than they were pre-pandemic when the Dow was around 20-25K, purchasing power the lowest it's ever been -- stagflation is a huge problem of our time and it MUST be fought.

Right now we are in the late 1970s (Carter admin) times all over again economically, which is the worst phase it can possibly get.