National Debt

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The world debt broke 300 trillion, and is expected to be over 400 trillion by the end of 2026. America's national debt is at 36 trillion, and will likely break past 40 trillion by the time the next President reaches office. America alone makes up more than 10% of the world's debt. America currently pays 1 trillion a year just on interest. This is unsustainable. This fact alone will limit the next President's ability to implement solutions to the nation's issues without planning on how to solve this first. America can't afford to vote for another President that will not force this issue.

The Federal Reserve is currently losing assets (down 1 trillion at time of this post, and is burning through 500 billion every year).

Gold is being bought by twice as much as the worst point in history, which indicates potential failure of the treasury.

Currently the FCC and Bank regulators are ignoring 649 U.S. Banks (at the time of posting this) that failed stress tests and did not make their deposit requirement percentages. These are failed American banks, right now. The largest bank collapse before now was 39 banks. Today, there are 649 that are failing, in default, and are being ignored. If the national debt is not solved, the nation will have its hands tied and limited as to how this problem can be solved.

America's credit rating has been downgraded. The effects that trickle down from this are disastrous over time.

Speaking of trickle-down, the top 1% has now had 40 years to gather their resources and strip-mine the 99%. Now the largest National Debt hike comes from socialistic tax cuts on their behalf. If America wants to turn their debt around, the quickest way is to require the top earners to pay their fair share rather than the lowest earners.

Tax changes

- when a company pays an employee, however they pay the employee will have a current income value that should be taxed. Specifically, if they are given stocks, or stock options as a form of payment, those assets have a value when given, and that amount should be taxable as their income.

- Tax Loopholes: The IRS should be on the hunt for loopholes that can be pruned. For example, the Carried Interest Loophole is an indirect form of compensation for managers of certain investment types to receive payment under-the-table when their investments profit. This is clearly a bonus or form of compensation, but it is treated differently because of who uses it. Other examples for discussion include the "step-up basis" within Estate taxes (used to inherit assets at full value by disregarding appreciation during the previous owner's lifetime), tax-loss harvesting (sell assets at a loss on purpose to reduce taxable income), Offshoring Profits (shift profits to subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions to minimize tax liability), or Pass-through business deduction, hiring children for tax advantages (hiring their own children and deducting their wages)

- Setting a minimum federal tax for individuals equal to two brackets below the tax bracket the individual is earning. Or, along the same lines, setting a max cap on all combined tax deductions at a specific dollar limit or a specific percentage of income. The goal of this solution is to stop the top 1% abusing tax loopholes to pay less than the bottom 1%

- Create a tax for high pay gaps within companies: In 1965, the wage gap from worker to CEO within the average company was only 20 times (meaning the CEO made about 20 times more than the average worker). Today, the wage gap is nearly 400 times (The top of a company makes about 400 times more than the workers of the company). This means that the top of the company has increased their pay while maintaining low wages among the bottom of the company. To correct this unfair wage gap, a minimum tax increase on companies and the top 10% of the individuals working at a company should bring in additional revenue to fix the national debt as well as assist in closing this wage gap. If the tax is only applied to the company, the tax hurts the worker from cutting the potential company growth and the top management doesn't feel the cost which means they don't have a personal investment in fixing this wage gap. But if the highest paid individual in a company is greater than a specific wage gap (number is flexible but 100 times may be an easy introductory number) than the company and the highest 10% of individuals at the company pay will have a higher minimum tax to help pay the difference. The percentage of the additional minimum tax can increase over time if the wage gap is not corrected.

- Create a new tax bracket or increase the top tax bracket based on current first-world countries. Currently, this is between 45-60%.

- Individuals being paid by a church should pay taxes on their income, and if the leader of a church fails to maintain this tax, or fraud is found, the church will lose its tax-exempt status.

Other Solutions

- Currently, Social Security contributions are capped at $176,100. Removing this cap will greatly assist in solving part of the intergovernmental debt being created every year.

- In 2024, the SEC announced a record-setting $8.2 billion in financial remedies. But they only collected 23% of what they were owed. In 2023, they only successfully collected $3 billion of the $4.9 billion they were owed. In both instances, they simply wrote off the rest, and they usually do so if the penalty is not paid within two years. In the last decade, they have written off $10 billion in uncollected penalties. Nowhere else does the government write off fines for the American people. But when a financial organization fails to pay, the government body in charge of enforcing the rules chooses to just write it off? This is unacceptable for a government unable to balance it's own checkbook.

- Acceptance, Waiver, and consent (AWC): FINRA and similar regulatory bodies allow financial institutions to pay a fine without admitting or denying fault to illegal activities or violations. The group paying the imposed sanction closes any investigation FINRA, etc were involved in, and allows the group to treat the fine as a tax write-off. This means their fines essentially, at best, cost them nothing, and at worst, are paid for by actual tax payers (namely the American people). While this allows the recovery of some money from institutions, this money is not a restitution for their actions, and costs the government and the American people in the end. First steps should be to end Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent's as a tax write-off, and eventually this should be closed entirely since it is now just a cost of doing business.

- America spends three times more on defense spending than the next nation. We spend Billions more than the next 9 countries combined. Plus, they are failing their audits year after year. While having a large stick is important in encouraging the enforcement of morals, this is unsustainable, and is the most likely place to find funds that can be applied to solving the national debt.