The most critical and important plank in my “Chance for Sanity” party is our current national deficit of nearly a trillion dollars this year and twenty-two trillion debt. Before any of the other critical changes can be addressed our Country’s finances must be put in order or at least started. Fixing this disaster will need to be spread over all Americans. Cutting taxes may get people to vote for a person but it is on a track that ends at an abyss without a bridge across. My financial plank gives us the bridge.

An old adage says when you are in a hole stop digging it deeper. Every year we are digging it deeper. We must stop digging it deeper and start filling it in before we can address the other critical problems. Solutions for some of the other problems will require additional funding which would not be so disagreeable if the debt had not been allowed to accumulate in an effort to satisfy tycoons.

Reagan had cut taxes and the debt ballooned so he raised them. George H. W. Bush raised taxes
to reduce deficits and debt. Clinton raised taxes and almost eliminated debt. His budget had a $236 billion surplus to finish paying down the debt and fund Social Security when George W. Bush took office. When he left we had a $1.4 billion budget deficit. Obama couldn’t raise taxes because of the Great Recession recovery. Trump cut taxes and increased the deficit from $500 billion to almost $1 trillion and a debt now of over $22 trillion.

As much as I would like to start making payments to reduce the national debt, we first need to eliminate the trillion dollar deficit. Doing that will require increasing the income taxes from $2.9 trillion by at least 40% more to $4.1 trillion. The best way to raise that amount is to raise the top rate to 50% and adjust other rates higher while eliminating most deductions and exemptions. Another way is to bring the estate tax back to two million dollars. Reducing the deficit has to be the first priority. In 2018, we paid almost $290 billion in interest on the debt. Our 2018 deficit was 5.5% of our gross domestic product which was far greater than any of the other top 30 developed countries.

Most of our debt is owned by other countries, and much of that is owned by countries which might use it to extort us for concessions.

Additional taxes will be required to pay down the debt. It will take many decades to get us back to where our debt was before the Bush tax cuts. Other solutions to our many critical issues will require additional taxes.