What To Do About Our Debt And Our Dictator March 2, 2025March 2, 2025 I’ll quickly get to that — what to do — but first a quote . . . “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” — Ronald Reagan . . . and a few headlines, because I just have to. I don’t expect you to click on them; you’ve doubtless seen so many already: ‘A spectacle to horrify the world’: what the papers say about Trump and Vance’s meeting with Zelenskyy S.E.C. halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions The Trump Administration Is Playing With Fire in Germany Trump’s AG Is Disbanding Anti-Corruption Teams created in 2022 to target Russian oligarchs Trump Welcomes Russian Oligarchs With $5 Million Golden Card Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats Maureen Dowd: Rootin’ for Putin Bernie Sanders — this capitalist Harvard Business School grad’s perhaps surprising choice to head our shadow Cabinet, as argued here — writes (even before Friday’s horrifying Oval Office event): America must not surrender its democratic values . . . Rather than side with our longstanding allies to preserve democracy and uphold international law, the president voted with authoritarian countries such as Russia, North Korea, Iran and Belarus to oppose the resolution. Many of the other opponents of that resolution are undemocratic nations propped up by Russian military aid. Let’s be clear: this was not just another UN vote. This was the president of the United States turning his back on 250 years of our history and openly aligning himself with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. This was the president of the United States undermining the independence of Ukraine. And let us not forget who Putin is. He is the man who crushed Russia’s movement towards democracy after the end of the cold war. He steals elections, murders political dissidents and crushes freedom of the press. He has maintained control in Russia by offering the oligarchs there a simple deal: if you give me absolute power, I will let you steal as much as you want from the Russian people. He sparked the bloodiest war in Europe since the second world war. . . . Alongside his fellow oligarchs in Russia, Saudi Arabia and around the globe, Trump wants a world ruled by authoritarians in which might makes right, and where democracy and moral values cease to exist. Just over a century ago, a handful of monarchs, emperors and tsars ruled most of the world. Sitting in extreme opulence, they claimed that absolute power was their “divine right”. But ordinary people disagreed. Slowly and painfully, in countries throughout the world, they clawed their way toward democracy and rejected colonialism. At our best, the US has played a key role in the movement toward freedom. From Gettysburg to Normandy, millions of Americans have fought – and many have died – to defend democracy, often alongside brave men and women from other nations. This is a turning point – a moment of enormous consequence in world history. Do we go forward toward a more democratic, just and humane world? Or do we retreat back into oligarchy, authoritarianism, colonialism and the rejection of international law? As Americans, we cannot stay quiet as Trump abandons centuries of our commitment to democracy. Together, we must fight for our long-held values and work with people around the world who share them. So, okay — how? HOW WE +SHOULD+ BE LOWERING THE DEFICIT I. RAISE MORE 1. Let the Trump tax cuts expire on schedule but only for income above $400,000 a year. Bang: that saves $4 trillion over 10 years. 2. Raise the personal rate a little, but on only that portion above $1 million (and a little more on that portion above $10 million and a little more still above $100 million). Send thank you notes to all who pay these higher rates: we celebrate their success and deeply appreciate their contribution to our society. 3. Raise the corporate rate a little, but on only that portion of income above $100 million (and a little more still above $1 billion). At the same time, to avoid driving companies to relocate, rejoin the 15% Global Minimum Corporate Tax Rate agreement that the U.S. persuaded 140 nations to signed on to in 2021 (set to take effect this year), and which Trump last month bailed on. Urge those 140 nations, in fact, to raise the minimum rate from 15% to 18% . . . which should give us room to go a little higher. (Is a company really going to leave the U.S. over a small difference in the tax rate?) 4. Close estate-tax loopholes and raise the rate on estates above $25 million and even more above $100 million and $1 billion. Surely, it’s least painful to pay taxes after you’re dead. No? This would still leave billionheirs plenty of money — just less. And it would increase charitable giving (because, after tax, it would be less expensive). 5. Fund the IRS adequately to audit complicated high-dollar personal and corporate tax returns. Not all of them every year; but enough of them to (a) raise lots of revenue; (b) inspire an even higher rate of voluntary compliance. These five measures would raise trillions in deficit-reducing revenue with ZERO pain on the part of 98% of us, and minimal pain on those fortunate enough even to notice. They would not have to reduce their standard of living in any way. II. SPEND LESS 1. Root out fraud, not least by rehiring the 18 experienced, effective inspectors general Trump immediately (and illegally) fired without cause . . . whose job it was to root out fraud. Many if not all of them had the experience and passion to do the job well. 2. Reform Social Security along the lines I’ve been suggesting for more than 20 years. E.g., here. No current recipients would lose a dime; future recipients would have a decade or more to prepare for the very modest changes; and by the time those changes were slated to kick in — if we get our house in order — economic growth and productivity gains might have been sufficient to allow Congress to responsibly cancel them even before they ever did kick in. But enacting these adjustments now would signal to the bond market that we’re getting our long-term finances in order, which would help to lower interest rates. Lower interest rates would have an enormous impact on the cost of servicing our $36 trillion National Debt, and thus our annual deficit. 3. Stem the growth in health care costs NOT by penalizing Medicare and Medicaid recipients or Veterans, but by negotiating drug prices (why does Uncle Sam have to pay drastically more for drugs than I do here?); and by finding efficiencies in our bloated insurance system (which I admit will be harder, because so many lobbyists are employed to resist reform). 4. REDUCE tariffs, which are simply a tax on American businesses and consumers that raises inflation . . . which in turn raises interest rates, including the rate we pay on our massive National Debt. 5. Stop indiscriminately firing experienced public servants . . . which only weakens our economy and our society. Instead, do a deliberate, thoughtful review to find places government can be reorganized to run more efficiently. It won’t make much of a dent in the deficit (the federal workforce is a small part of our annual budget); but efficiency is always worth striving for, and every little bit helps. And don’t cancel the infrastructure investments we’re finally embarking on (other than any “bridges to nowhere” you might find, though I don’t expect there are any or many). Putting people to work on infrastructure projects provides jobs, which provides tax revenues (and purpose in people’s lives and more social cohesion) . . . and builds a more competitive, successful economy that itself will produce more tax revenues over the long run. 6. Pass the hard-bargained bi-partisan Immigration Reform bill Trump killed last year to keep the border in crisis as an election issue. Deport violent criminals — of course! — but don’t drain the country of labor needed to produce the goods and services — and groceries — we consume. Spending a fortune to rid the country of these workers will (a) add to the deficit; and more importantly, (b) drive up inflation and the interest rate we have to pay on our massive National Debt. HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DICTATOR As posted here Wednesday, wannabe capo di tutti capi — godfather of all the kleptocrat autocrats may be more apt than “dictator” — but whatever we call him, he’s in bed with the journalist-and-opposition-leader-murdering leaders of Russia and North Korea. We’ve switched sides. If you can find just a few more minutes (don’t hate me!), watch our former Ambassador to Russia make the case: Trump doesn’t want to be leader of the free world, he wants to be buddies with Putin and the rest. But as heartbroken as he is, Ambassador McFaul offers hope. He says that it’s the people’s country, not Trump’s; that the people are overwhelmingly against switching sides; and that he believes we, the people, can prevail. Watch. Join your local Indivisible chapter. Inspire your kids and grandkids to join theirs. Plant seeds of DIS-disinformation. Boost everyone you know: tell them that being distraught is entirely warranted — but not helpful. Helpful is to take action; which we will increasingly be called upon to do. Save money in all the insanely frugal ways I suggest in my book — here’s an example, $850 on iced tea — because saving democracy will require each of us to contribute what we can. Obviously, we have to see to it that free and fair mid-term elections are held and that we win them. But even before that we may need to give Republicans in the House and Senate the spine to impeach Trump and Vance. I know it sounds impossible — and it may be impossible. But . . . third time’s a charm?