Armstrong hello, everyone, its today that we finally get down to the business to talk about the National Debt, americas money man, george goodman, joyce us, and devaye stephen l pruitt, managing partner. Lets first define. Lets go to our skype guest. Goodman, explain to our listeners what the National Debt is . Its the amount we have borrowed for many, many years and theres a debt ceiling which is currently about 20 trillion but has to be raids rayed by congress or we cant borrow hormoney to pay for the spending in the past basically. So back in 2015, there was a a deal between president obama and john boehner the head of the house, who said, we will raise 20 trillion, and put up with they have to raise it back in 2017 after the election we will deal with it then. Then has arrived. So march 15, we really hit the National Debt ceiling and we havent raised since then. We have to raise it sometime or the government wont be able to pay its bills. The only way the government can pay its bills is by borrowing more money, because we have a deficit, were spending more than were taking in. Armstrong stephen, where are we borrowing that money . Guest from all around the world. Russian banks, brazilian banks, all over the world. Armstrong at what cost to us . Guest well, it varies. The good news, i think at least during the Obama Administration was with Interest Rates relatively low worldwide, the cost of those dollars were cheap, but where were now starting to see even here in the u. S. Interest rates ar to tick up, and in numerical terms its going to have a greater impact on what were table to do longterm, in terms of spending for defense and other domestic programs. Armstrong obviously, this is a bipartisan issuement its not. Us its not one you can lay. The party has little or no interest about doing something about the National Debt. They keep going more and more in debt. The future generations are going to have to pay for it. Is there anyway that this conversation will change, someone has the brass knuckle to make the tough decisions where americans would have to make sacrifices to start reigning in our spending . Guest i think so. President trump may be this that guy, because he approaches things from a business perspective. If you look at the two types of spending that gives us a stat, theres mandatory, and Discretionary Spending, it seems like a lot of Times Congress and about mandatory spending cuts, and those are very difficult because they affect humans lives, if you look at Discretionary Spending, there are places where we can start cutting and get serious about, but they are sacred cows and by this i mean the military spending. 16 of the military budget is for salaries, 20, 30 some odd percent is for military defense contractors. If we can start by looking seriously at our military, because its the largest. Its 54, 55 of the Discretionary Spending in this country, in contrary to what everybody wants to alert you, and scare us about, any spending cuts would not affect the human capital. The humans that are involved in the military it would affect us buying new airplanes. We have an ability to kill everyone on the planet to two times already. Do we need the ability to kill them 2. 5 times already. Those are places where we can start to look seriously in returning ourselve dynamic that we have created which is the military drives the bus. All the best and brightest minds in our country are dedicating themselves to the military. Armstrong soboobruce, do you actually follow his logic that if we were to get military spending under control the national did he have at this time will drop . Well thats a big story fore spending. Look at what President Trump has proposed increasing the military budget by 64 billion, and decreasing the do esin tick budget by roughly 54 billion. So as far as deficit is concerned its about equal. And if President Trump proposal goes through, a lot of people will be hurt directly. He is talking about meals on wheels, national of the arts, Legal Services on and on it goes. These are things that will affect real people everyday and basically moving that money into hiring many more soldiers, and buying more planes, and navy ships and so on. Table right now. Armstrong steve, how do we justify the military spending when we spend billions and hundreds of millions of dollars on military equipment that never takes off, still has the dust, and yet we really have nothing to show for it . Guest well, i think there are those who would say, it comes down to one word. Individual lens, being ready for be vigilance and being ready for the worst case scenario. It doesnt work. They spend all of this money. Guest thats a certainly arguable point. I say theres people that could speak more detailed in that regard. I would say to you going back to the point that jordan just made, the deal that was made in 2012 and carries through even to this point today was probably about as good a governing template that were going to develop in the theres parody between defense, and domestic Discretionary Spending, and the leaders of our country, really have to come together, and have a serious discussion about not only maintaining that parody, but then, what goes under those seelings that gets ceilings that gets set, and i think what youre ultimately going to see this time around, even though President Trump has pointed out thrown out a different approach to try to start the discussion this time. I think were going to come back to that temp plate and that approach to getting things done. There will be an increase in defense spending. There will be a increase in domestic spending. The real issue is what is going to happen on the revenue side, in terms of what happens in terms of tax reform, whether or not it is, as they say neutral, nobody really wins or bo gains. Or whether were going to and up with some reallocation, if you will, within the scheme of things of where our revenues are coming from. I think theres challenges ahead. Its going to be interesting to watch, but at the end of the day, i agree with bruce. You know, were in a tra transactional environment. Armstrong we will be back with bruce, steve and jordan, im armstrong im Armstrong Williams, and this is the right side forum. Welcome back to the right side of ar Armstrong Williams ae continue a question of the bruce pruitt. Jordan, lets take about the actual impact, the reduction of the deficit if we pull from just not the discretionary funds, that bruce spoke about that it would have on the public, whether its dealing with mortgages, just explain to people in their everyday life guest well, Interest Rates is one example. Interest rates have been low for quite a while. If theres more pressures for deficit that could change Interest Rates, which means, the Interest Rates would be higher, they are being charged for credit cards, student loans, and car loans, and awfu all of that, already the reserve will probably raise rates two times in 2017. That is a direct impact on the people right away. Certainly the domestic programs that we have been talking about. People dont get the meals on wheels, and dont have Legal Services, and all kinds of Domestic Services that they are used to. They are talking about massive cuts as well as employees, theyre talking about a lot of layoffs, epa 30 layoffs, state department and all these different things, these are going to affect real people directly. Armstrong so steve. If the goal is to reduce the national deficit, youre going to do that it at the expense of better way of balancing this, where you dont have to if you laypeople off, people are no longer working, it affects their families and communities and their way of life. First that approach really runs counter to making America Great again, if you will in terms of creating the most jobs in the history of the country, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe what were unfortunately getting to see is the reality of the ability to do that, but with that said, i think, what we need here more than anything is leadership. This is a time when the president can really take the lead, grab the bull by the horn here, bring all the parties, the key parties to the white house, do what was done back in 1985, and do a budget summit, certainly essentiallessential sl folks on the hill, im going to sit in this room until we deal. Ronald reagan did it and we came out that and ultimately into an era in the 90s in which we did a second summit in which we saw a surflaw surplus in our bu. It can be done, but its going to be a real leadership. You cant be living in the gold tower and look down upon the situation and say i know how to fix it and not do anything to do it. Armstrong so bruce, how do you think in past the other administrations have been able to come close to reducing the National Debt without the burden falling on everyday people and their way of life . Is it realistic that we can ever get to the point where we can match thewi to bring the deficit down, because if you dont, it triggers something else, that is much worse than what were talking about the unemployment. Guest i think that is a great question, and stephen is correct. We do need leadership and jordan is correct. Historically, if you go back, im not sure we have the leadership and i i dont think we have the dynamic in Congress Like we had in the early 80s. What i was saying what tip oneill said, he was willing to work with the white house and we had lion in the senate and true servants in the house. We have no lions left in the senate and im not sure of the house anymore. Historically one of the way of driving down debt, if you look at the world war debts, and not big debt in world war i, but Interest Rates were raised and that permitted the government to retire the debt quickly in term so inflation is going to be the absolute mandate here. That is what were asking for. That is what were going to get. We are going to see inflation, because when you have inflation, you have the ability to retire debt quick leer. Quicker, its artificial, but dont its still the retirement. Youre making the dollars work less, you have a. You have a wheelbarrow full of money but the value of dollar goes down. Venezuela and zimbabwe. Their countries are worthless. They have a lot of debt. Because of direction of venezuela and si zimbabwe. Guest that is the way the world war debt was retired. That is historically the template of how debt. Historically great debt has come from great events, such as the great wars, saving the planet. We now have great debt based upon artificial constructs of who is more important, what is more important, so are these decadent inflations of the Industrial Complex for one, somebody makes a decision that is more important to spend money that than it is on education transportation and anything else. Two ways to cut the debt right now, the irs is being cut back. The collecting the money that was due. The estimates are between 3 and 400 billion will be collected. Its not going to be collected because people know that irs not on the beat. And we have taken entitlements off the table. Mandated spending. I dont think that is a smart thing to do. Relatively small tweaks in social security, increasing those kind of things will make a huge impact on the deficit. Collecting the economy taxes and the entitle would have a much bigger impact on the deficit than were talking about around the edges. We will come back to the third leg. We will take a break. Im Armstrong Williams, dont go away. Welcome back. Steve,. Guest 38 third way, i thina third way that i would add to this discussion. We got to face the reality that tax structure. Lowering rates, everybody says that is great. But before 86 when the rates were ch coming out of the wars, the rates even then were much higher than they are now. So i think weve got some latitude. We dont have to go back up for example in the corporate rate. Even if we get it to 33 or 34 , and leave it there for a set period of time, because certainty is the missing factor in most folks discussions about taxes. They dont know if this is going to be a one year tax cut or a one year tax increase, or if we can build some certainty into that, we can add that ingredient into this whole exercise of bringing down the debt, because at the end of the day, you really only have three choices, cut combination of the two. Armstrong then it begs the question, because and soon the white house is going to reduce tax rates from 35 to 15 . What kind of impact would that have, jordan . Guest if theres a lot of economic growth, taxes would be higher and hopefully they would reinvest those profits into facilities, dividends and get the money circulating in the u. S. Economy. Another big one is the repatriation of money overseas. Theres currently 2. 5 trillion sitting overseas, and charging a 10 one time rate to bring the money back here to do new plans, research development, marketing, stock buy backs, that could stimulate the economy a lot. Combine those two, and the economy is now expecting that. That is why the stock market has gone up to dramati the election, anticipation of those attacks cuts stimulating the economy. Armstrong bruce . Guest its intriguing to me, and i understand what youre saying, but not to keep beating the same drum, if we brought the great majority of our military men and women home, they would be spending their dollars locally rather than in foreign markets, and the hope of a tax cut is the money will be reinvested in the local community. If we bring our military men home for truly defense purposes and women, then we have that reinvestment on a much larger scale than any tax cut can give to the hole economy in real dollars. So the military complex is steel the key. We have to do something about that. That is what is bankrupting our nation. What is what is bankrupt my economy. That is what is putting my 9yearold daughter and son, where most of their money going to have to pay for this unless something changes or something happens. We cant look away prosecute frm something because it has always been there. We have to reevaluate. If we go back to the funding fathers, we did not create this country to go abroad in search of mon ters to destroy. We did not create this country to the be the military of the world. What would we do if china had a mill air base in the caribbean . We would lose our minds. We dont need those military bases. We need to reevaluate what history is going to say about us. We are on our way. Or we are an empire. We are hated because of that. We are suffering at home because of that empire, like britain did, they had to fund the wars, that is what made the colonists rebel. We are creating hardship policies. God asked him one question, where are you adam . I will tell you, if you going to build something, you better ask yourself that question. Because you dont Start Building from where you would like to be, you Start Building from where you are. You dont Start Building with what you dont have, you Start Building with what you have. So that question, where am i, as i prepare to build something new, as that goes through the design process and look for the right materials and consider the time involved, ive got to ask that question. Where am i . Armstrong i have 10 seconds. Guest the word hopefulness, shouldnt be in this discussion in my view. I think the world is looking for established and guidance and a Solid Foundation to build on. Armstrong steve pruitt. Bruce for joining us. News channel 8, www. Armstrongwilliams. Com at the right side. Good day from your show. See you next week. Good morning. Im diane macedo. Im kendis gibson. Here is a look at our top stories monday morning on world news now. Wild weather across a wide part of the u. S. Triggering massive floods and powerful tornados. At least 14 People Killed across four states. This morning, the storms are on the move taking aim on millions of americans. Police are questioning two people in connection with the deadly shooting spree in los angeles. One person was killed. Three others injured during what police call a random rampage. Police say the shootings do not appear to be gang related. On may 1st. May day protests planned across the country. Usually annual demonstrations focus on workers. Today the multiple topics include immigration, police misconduct, and lgbt rights. Space x is hoping for a second try