How are we going to pay for all this shit?

I agree with your solution, except the part about "a rise of a few percent in the tax rate." It's not that simple, if you want to improve the system. Yeah, the tax rate should go up on, say, carried interest. Should you jack it up on the self employed California businessman who's already paying 54%? I don't think so. IMO loopholes should be removed, the tax system should be simplified, and tax rates flattened from their current steeply progressive levels. Also, growth would help, obviously. If we kept the deficit at $1.9 trillion a year and doubled GDP things don't look so bad. But fat chance the politicians will make that happen. Based on historical GDP growth and inflation, nominal GDP may double in 10 to 15 years, which would cut the deficit as a % of GDP from 6.5% to 3.3% if the deficit remained constant.

The numbers are

USA -27.6 trillion (about 87% of GDP)
Singapore +900 billion
Switzerland +$1.3 trillion
Ireland -$387 billion (67% of GDP)
Hong Kong +$2.3 trillion

Gemini says about 50% of assets and liabilities used to calculate NIIP is accounted for by borrowings/debt.

If you look strictly at net government debt held by the public, the figure for the USA is over 100%, while for the other countries it's under 35%. Originally Posted by Tiny

NIIP numbers can be found here as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_in...tment_position

Information that was previously unknown to me. But I think it just provides more context to support my opinion that we need to raise revenues to get out from under our deficit problems.

A 3% income tax increase across the board without other changes would only raise about 186 billion in revenue. With a deficit of 1.8 trillion we’ll have to raise revenues elsewhere including increasing the capital gains rate as well as significantly cutting spending.

In 2025 we raised $264 billion in tariff revenue which is highly regressive. As someone who is squarely in the middle class I would much prefer to see a rise in income tax revenues and capital gains than tariff revenues.

NIIP numbers can be found here as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_in...tment_position

Information that was previously unknown to me. But I think it just provides more context to support my opinion that we need to raise revenues to get out from under our deficit problems.

A 3% income tax increase across the board without other changes would only raise about 186 billion in revenue. With a deficit of 1.8 trillion we’ll have to raise revenues elsewhere including increasing the capital gains rate as well as significantly cutting spending.

In 2025 we raised $264 billion in tariff revenue which is highly regressive. As someone who is squarely in the middle class I would much prefer to see a rise in income tax revenues and capital gains than tariff revenues. Originally Posted by txdot-guy

I don't think most people realize the enormity of the problem.

As you noted, raising all the income tax brackets relatively modestly wouldn't make much of a dent in the deficit.

But raising the capital gains tax rate would make even less of a dent in the deficit. The rate now is 23.8%; increasing it to 28% (which is about what most knowledgeable students believe is the revenue-maximizing rate) wouldn't be likely to raise more than about a penny of every deficit dollar. And raising it to levels much higher than that would actually lower revenue. (See: Policy discussions leading up the the capital gains tax cut of 1978.)

And let's get real here. No one is going to cut spending to any appreciable extent.

Anyone remember all the caterwauling in 2011 when the new Republican House majority wanted to cut domestic discretionary spending by a couple of percentage points? Exploding media heads convinced much of the nation that stuff would start collapsing all across the land if any spending was reduced.

And do you remember what happened in 1989, when Rostenkowski got attacked by a bunch of old people at a town hall-style event when he proposed some very small adjustments to Medicare? They literally chased him into his car!

So, I'm pretty sure we're just going to run humongous deficits until some crisis forces a course correction, which it eventually will.

Unfortunately, we're a nation that's adrift with no serious leadership; acting like an alcoholic who has to "hit bottom," as they say, before seeking treatment.

^^TC, if you were the deficit/debt all-powerful tsar, how would you close the deficit gap-that's a pre-requisite-and then go on to pay off the debt?

it bears mentioning that what we cannot fix, the markets will fix for us, starting with the 10 year treasuries yield going through the roof. and whose fantasy is it that the fed will never default? why is that bedtime story somehow etched in indelible granite? i don't buy it for a second. all you need is a couple of Trumpkins at the controls, and that's that..