Bush to privatize national debt

1 April 2004

WASHINGTON, April 1 (AFP)—President Bush unveiled a plan today to eliminate the entire national debt by distributing it to the American public.

In a Rose Garden speech this afternoon, he explained: “When I ran for President four years ago, I told the American people, you deserve a tax cut, because it’s your money, not the government’s money. Well, the same thing is true for the national debt. The debt belongs to you, not some bureaucrat in Washington, and you deserve control over how it gets paid back.”

Under the plan, everyone who loaned money to the United States would have their debt transferred from the government to a randomly chosen private citizen. Since the current national debt is slightly over four trillion dollars, and the US population is about 300 million, every American will be responsible for paying back about $14,000, and the federal government itself will be debt-free.

When asked about people who can’t afford to make payments on a $14,000 debt, the President said, “That’s why it’s so important for Congress to authorize another round of tax cuts.”

see also Bush’s earlier plan to outsource the debt

• Later: Shorter Thomas Friedman II
• Earlier: Legal notice