Choosing between the two main parties’ presidential candidates is like choosing between playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun and death by a thousand cuts. I’ve donated to politicians from both parties and as a result, I’m solicited for funds and receive issue surveys in the mail, asking my opinions from both parties. Yet, in this election cycle, neither party seems to be seriously addressing a key issue: the national debt.
Interest payments on our national debt exceed defense spending—but politicians are offering tiny, one-sided solutions. The current Democratic platform would raise taxes on corporations and the highest earners, even though the top 10% already pay more than 75% of all income taxes. Rich people are also mobile and can change citizenship, as many states quickly learned when they imposed millionaire taxes.
Republicans suggest cutting some discretionary spending and social programs, but not Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, the biggest contributors to our debt. They also push for lower taxes and stricter immigration policies, which don’t help the economy or the debt.
These “solutions” won’t cut it.
It is human nature to assume the status quo can be kept indefinitely, as I explain in my upcoming book, Pivot or Die. To thrive, whether it’s in everyday life, business, or government, you must see what is coming and be willing to change direction.
Policymakers and voters, take note. The best hope for the economic survival of the U.S. is:
Defining the problem
The two major political parties do not offer concrete solutions to the national debt in their platforms. For cold, hard numbers see what the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says or read the Reason August/September cover story, The Debt Lies We Tell Ourselves.
Proposing real solutions
Decreasing spending and increasing taxes will reduce the debt, as will strong economic growth. Cutting the debt means sacrifice. While our military risks life and limb, we can and should give something to keep our democracy alive and save our kids from inheriting a declining country. Our debt reduction actions must be wrapped around economic growth.
i. The FTC needs to stop denying companies big and small the right to either grow or be acquired, preventing entrepreneurs from being able to pivot to their next venture. Choking them with new antitrust theories hinders growth and discourages investment in startups and small companies. FTC Chair Lina Khan’s hostility to big business hurts economic growth and investment and it hurts our economy when foreign governments join in her expansive antitrust campaign, with the stated intent to discourage big firms from buying small ones.
ii. We must reform Social Security. Rich people don’t need Social Security, and our lifespan today is years longer than when the full retirement age for Social Security benefits was set in the 1930s. Since a 1983 law modestly increased the retirement age, it hasn’t changed. This places a burden on all retirement systems, not just Social Security. Means-tested cost-of-living adjustments would help maintain long-term sustainability.
iii. We must reform healthcare. When the Food and Drug Administration and Medicare ignore treatment frequency and drug costs despite limited benefits, doctors are rewarded for over-testing and using expensive drugs, and Americans pay the highest prices for nearly every medication globally, it means our system is broken. Value-based care that puts patients first will reduce costs. More, our health care professional shortage can be addressed in part as we move toward self-driving vehicles and eliminate the human error of the nearly 6 million police-reported vehicle crashes that kill some 40,000 Americans each year. We must ignore the lobbying by those trial lawyers perversely incentivized to fight the change that would prevent them from profiting off this avoidable death and injury.
iv. We must consider a value-added tax. Most people would be willing to pay more taxes if they saw rationality in government spending and saw those who hardly pay taxes or avoid them pony up. A value-added tax could ensure everyone contributes fairly.
v. We must free the companies that drive economic growth. New technologies like generative AI, quantum, robotics, and self-driving cars can drive huge growth, create new industries, and make us safer and more productive. A national plan with a light policy touch will empower their growth, increase productivity, and generate the revenue needed to address our national debt without stifling innovation or raising taxes.
vi. We must stop asking the government for money. For some 20 years, the Consumer Technology Association, concerned about the existential threat of fast-growing debt to our future, has taken a hard position that we will not ask the government for money for our industry. We say this despite representing over 1,300 technology companies, 80% of which are small and medium-sized. It’s a lonely, but principled position. We hope others will follow.
Forming a bipartisan commission
We need a new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to encourage fiscal sustainability. Each of its recommendations should be subject to an up-or-down congressional vote. The majority decision must be respected. And commission deliberations should not be used as electoral fodder.
If either presidential candidate wants my vote, they’ll discuss the debt and promise to head toward a balanced budget or a similar approach.
Life is not a still photo, but rather a video that we must either direct or passively suffer. We can only survive if we plan and, when necessary, pivot.
You can help. Discuss this non-partisan issue with your families. Post about it on social media. Write letters to editors. Contact your legislators. Ask debate moderators to raise it. We must own our national debt—and encourage a solution for a sustainable future.
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