One sign that would convince me that Trump is actually serious about draining the Swamp if he gets back on the Presidential Porcelain Throne? If he appoints Ron Paul as Treasury Secretary with full authorization to End The Federal Reserve.
Defanging the Fed would force the Congress to actually do their damn jobs and make an actual budget. No more going to the Fed for more magical fiat Ponzi loans.
And you would instantly cause Mega Ultra Depression (because Great Depression 2.0 just isn't enough to properly express the scale of the problem).
The underlying problem isn't with the Federal Reserve, it is with the Treasury/Congress being utterly unwilling to constrain spending to tax returns.
Personally, if I could rewrite the Constitution I would include a clause forbidding Congress from assuming any liabilities more than 24 months before the due date of the liability unless they provide the entire amount needed to cover the liability at the time of its assumption. No Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Pensions, etc.
But solving the underlying issues has three possibilities.
1) Kick the can down the road until after the Boomers die and allow a more normalized and consistent demographic situation to keep the problem from occurring. This results in some substantial level of pain for the next few decades.
2) Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by about 50% across the board without also cutting the tax burden for them and using the excess money to pay down the debt. This would rapidly resolve the problem but would involve national pain and is politically impossible as you are never going to get the Boomers or Millennials to vote for cutting the Boomer's benefits and thus the costs of their retirement falling on their kids (the Millennials).
3) Increase government revenue and use alternative means to reduce the liabilities. For example, if China attacks Taiwan then the US takes the opportunity to repudiate all US government debts owned by PRC citizens & entities and seizes all assets in the US owned by PRC citizens & entities. Or creating a new kind of Green Card for professionals that lets them emigrate and work in the US permanently in exchange for a substantial upfront payment and for facing the full tax burden of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without gaining any of the benefits; in effect wealth drain the rest of the world to make up for the shortfall in the US.
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We really should be doing 3. Like just hold a global auction for two hundred and fifty thousand Green Cards per year with a non-refundable buy-in of say 25,000 USD to be able to participate in the auction and the slots go to whomever bids the most with bids having to be blind. At a million per green card you would raise 250 billion USD, plus would gain the economic benefits of wealthy, already educated, immigrants.
