We need to have a Plan to Balance the Budget and Reduce our National Debt

This country has a revenue problem.

This country has a spending problem.

This is all good news for the people and countries that hold our 21 trillion dollars in debt.

When President Reagan was sworn in in 1981, the Nation's Debt was approximately one trillion dollars. What took 200 years of American Governments to accumulate, the next 37 years of our nation's leaders duplicated 20 times over like college students getting their first credit cards and not knowing how to control their spending urges.

We need to adopt a Progressive Plan to reduce our debt and balance our budget. It will be gradual and it will take time and there will be some pain but it could still be accomplished along with prudent investments in education, technology (green preferably), infrastructure, our safety net, safe communities, and healthcare/retirement security. This would include:

1) Higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses
2) Increasing the payroll income limits on Social Security and Medicare.
3) Increasing the retirement age gradually to 70 for able-bodied individuals.
4) A national sales and gas tax that kicks in after a certain purchase threshold.
5) Cutting our national defense budget while still modernizing our military.
6) Cutting corporate welfare.
7) A National Lottery

These steps would help bring our nation's finances to balance. Our country can not have a sustained long-term financial future if we do not address this issue. Eventually, interest rates will start to go up if we continue on this debt path. Democrats and Progressives need to include this with their other plans to move our country forward.