Trump says he could eliminate $19 trillion debt in 8 years by selling national assets

Of all the risible boasts he's made, this one maybe tops them all. Good grief.
(If he actually tried to make good on this promise he would destroy the economy in the process.) Remember he is also promising huge tax cuts at the same time.

Trump’s nonsensical claim he can eliminate $19 trillion in debt in eight years

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Of all the wildly impossible assertions made by Donald Trump, the notion that he could eliminate the nation’s $19 trillion in debt in just eight years ranks near the top. Trump suggests he can manage this feat simply by cutting better trade deals.

OK, first of all, the trade deficit and the government's budget deficit are two different things. I'd like to point that out for starters.

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If only it were that easy. As we have noted repeatedly, eliminating a trade deficit does not mean the money ends up in government coffers.

They go through the numbers, I'll spare you the details, but they are there if you want to check; it's frankly impossible, and in fact all of the other policies he's promised, which they didn't even consider, like his enormous tax cuts, increasing military spending, and he says he won't touch Social Security or Medicare, would make the debt grow even faster.

Then there's this idea that we could pay it off by selling "national assets":

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(Update: After this fact check appeared, an advisor to Trump claimed that the candidate could easily meet his pledge by selling “$16 trillion” of national assets. The assets of the United States are valued at about $3.2 trillion, not counting heritage assets such as national parks, forests, museums, monuments and land used by the military. Those assets are not valued, the Government Accountability Office says: “Like stewardship land, the government does not expect to use these assets to meet its obligations.” Moreover, the laws governing their use and management would need to be changed before anyone could contemplate selling off Yosemite National Park and other landmarks to the highest bidder.)

I would like to know more about which "national assets" Trump plans to sell off. The Statue of Liberty maybe? Mt. Rushmore? Hell, maybe we could sell Alaska back to the Russians? Or if they aren't interested, the Chinese? Maybe the Japanese would like to buy Hawaii or Guam? All in favor raise your hands?

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1Sa4Ylp