As of February 2019, the national debt is up to $22 Trillion dollars, up $2 Trillion under President Trump alone. To begin to pay down the national debt, first we need to stop adding to the amount we owe! We should have more exposure to the debt in public, such as listing an option on the 1040 tax return that if the tax payer wants to, they can donate an amount, such as $1, or a write-in amount, to pay down the national debt. Whether we pay down the national debt or not, this county will be handed down to the next generation, and we should strive to leave it better than the previous generation left to us. Patrick R. McElhiney believes that leaving this country to the next generation should take into consideration a plan to pay down the national debt, because we may not experience a problem in our generation, but in the next generation, there could be a major problem with the Federal Government being able to make the interest payments on the national debt, because the principal will be so high, and there are not likely to be as much of an increase in our nation's GDP.
Other measures that we can take include replacing our aging infrastructure with technology that has a greater return on investment, such as renewable energy producing infrastructure. We can also replace our government's employee base with Artificial Intelligence, freeing up more money for other things. We cannot continue to borrow money that we will not be able to afford to pay back!
