Want To Help Pay Down the National Debt? You can do it!

Did you know that there is a fund to which anyone can contribute that will help pay off the national debt—now estimated to be about $14.7 trillion? The fund is established by the Treasury Department and can be accessed at 202-622-2000. Or, you can ask your tax advisor about it. Some states also have similar funds, i.e., Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

It is interesting that those who would have the United States Government raise taxes very seldom contribute to this fund. Last year a grand total of excess money contributed to lower state and federal debt totaled only $300 million, just a pittance compared to the amount of money in the pockets of the very rich—many of whom are spending millions of dollars lobbying for higher taxes. (I’m not kidding! There is a group called Responsible Wealth that spends millions of dollars yearly trying to get legislators to raise taxes! It seems to me that if they really meant it, they would give that money to the debt-reducing project.)

America has a rich heritage of voluntarism; and volunteering to reduce the national debt would be an appropriate place for volunteer contributions, it seems to me. During the Revolutionary War, many Americans gave their fortunes to help finance the cause of Independence. Today, thousands of volunteer soldiers are risking their lives to defend American values on the battlefield.

I am afraid that raising taxes will not do America any good. I am afraid that raising taxes will only finance government expansion and take the pressure off Congress to make the deep spending cuts that are so urgently necessary. I am afraid that higher taxes will decrease private investment in infrastructure and increase unemployment.

This blog post was largely excerpted from the Wall Street Journal 6 May 2011 page A15.