America’s national debt now exceeds $37 trillion, and at current spending levels, it’s projected to reach $54 trillion within ten years. The real threat isn’t just the number—it’s the interest on that debt.

Interest payments already total over $1.1 trillion a year, second only to Social Security at $1.45 trillion. On our current path, interest will soon become the single largest item in the federal budget.

Imagine your own household finances—if most of your income went toward interest, there’d be little left for essentials like defense, infrastructure, or healthcare. Worse, it would leave our nation with no flexibility to respond to the next crisis, whether it’s a pandemic, natural disaster, or financial shock. Printing more money would only fuel runaway inflation.

Solution: Fiscal Responsibility and Smart Investment

With nearly 25 years of experience in the bond market, I understand how debt markets work and how other nations have successfully turned things around.

First, we must balance the budget—that’s the foundation. The deficit began trending down under President Trump, but we must continue cutting wasteful spending, reforming programs like Medicaid, and using AI and technology to increase government efficiency.

However, balancing the budget isn’t enough. We must also leverage America’s assets to generate real income and begin paying down the principal.

The U.S. government owns trillions of dollars’ worth of assets, including 628 million acres of land and the resources beneath. It’s time to strategically lease portions of that land for oil, gas, and rare earth mineral projects—industries vital to both our economy and national security. Instead of simply offering below-market loans, we should take equity stakes in these ventures so that the American people share in the profits. After all, it is our land not the federal governments.

Finally, I propose the creation of an American Sovereign Wealth Fund, inspired by successful models like Norway’s. During my time at the SBA, I learned that the U.S. currently provides below-market loans to private equity firms, which then invest in critical technologies around the world. We should share in those profits as well. By channeling revenue from strategic energy and resource projects into this fund, we can build long-term national wealth, reduce our debt burden, and secure a stronger financial future for our children and grandchildren.

China holds too much leverage over America. When I was a boy, my father lost his job to China. It decimated my family, as it did millions of others. Not only did these jobs go to China, so did the technology. They supply 80% of the rare earths essential for our technology. Rare earths go into magnets, hard drives, missiles, fighter jets, cancer-fighting drugs, etc. China supplies 80 to 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients for antibiotics. They produce 80% of the machinery used to manufacture chips. They are also large holders of our national debt, and the list goes on. This dependency jeopardizes our national security and economic independence. China is not our friend and is constantly using this leverage against our country.

Solution:

We must decouple from China by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States. This effort revitalizes our middle class and restores America's economic sovereignty. At the SBA, I learned that tariffs are only one step in the process. We also need to help American companies secure capital through private markets and expand housing so these industries can find a supply of labor. We have plenty of rare earths in the United States. We need to cut red tape and lease out our lands to miners who can mine and process those minerals. We also need to streamline procurement processes to prioritize buying American-made goods whenever possible. Additionally, we must end the practice of allowing Chinese entities to purchase American land and reevaluate the flow of Chinese students studying here, many of whom transfer critical technology back to China. These measures will strengthen our economy, rebuild our middle class, and ensure America is self-reliant and secure.

When it comes to immigration, it’s clear that President Trump has done an amazing job securing the border through executive action. Even though the flow of illegal immigrants has slowed to a trickle, if not codified into law by Congress, these actions will surely be reversed by the next Democratic administration. Our streets remain filled with violent criminals, and we are struggling to deport all those illegals let in by the Biden administration. We are also still seeing a surge of drugs like cocaine entering the country at levels not seen since the 1980s, largely due to the proliferation of drone activity.

Solution:

In my view, Congress needs to step up and codify these executive actions into law, including permanently designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The Department of Defense needs to take a more active role in defending our border itself, allowing Homeland Security to focus on the interior of the country—deporting those here illegally and ridding our streets of crime.

We’ve had over 100,000 drone incursions helping cartels find smuggling routes. We need the technology to identify and neutralize these drones, and we must change the laws so they aren’t protected as aircraft. They need to be brought down to keep our communities safe.

We must address the challenges facing our youth. I believe it is the main reason we are seeing so many turn to socialism.  Right now, it’s increasingly difficult for young people to afford a home, and that directly impacts their ability to start families. Our birth rate is down to roughly one child per family, and within a decade or so, we could see our death rate outpacing our birth rate. That weakens us as a nation in the long run. 

Solution:

We need to celebrate vocational education and other career paths that don’t saddle them with heavy college debt. This is also a matter of national security. We’re currently short about 500,000 electricians, with similar shortages of welders and plumbers. We must develop these professions here at home.

I also propose that we set up a program for a recent high school graduate, college graduate, military veteran or first responder to work tax-free for 2–3 years. Those tax savings are to be put in a fund that grows tax-free and can only be used for a down payment on a house. This will allow them to get on the ladder of economic prosperity and start having children.

We are dumping four and a half trillion dollars a year into healthcare—more than any nation—yet we’re the sickest industrialized country in the world. Obamacare has had the effect of skyrocketing premiums; subsidies have resulted in insurance companies' equity prices rising by 1000%, locked us into poor plans with insane deductibles, and ignored junk food, turning us all into walking disasters.

Solution:

We need to expand Health Savings Accounts—save pre-tax for everything from gym fees to OTC pills, putting power back in your hands for cheap, everyday care. RFK Jr.’s MAHA movement is a game-changer: Make America Healthy Again by slashing chronic disease through cleaner food, incentives for fit living, and a new commission redirecting money from treating sickness to preventing it, like tighter regulations on processed junk. We need to crack down hard on the pharma lobby, banning kickbacks and forcing price transparency to gut those bloated drug costs.

Next, insurance companies inflate everything with secret deals, charging four times more if you’re insured than out-of-pocket, while your premiums soar. Fix it with full transparency: post all rates online, break up their monopolies state-by-state, cap those admin fees, tie payouts to real results, not endless tests. We’ll cut the waste, get healthier—America deserves nothing less.

We’re seeing hundreds of thousands of solar panels and thousands of wind turbines sprout up across the Texas Hill Country—it’s slashing property values and wrecking our beautiful vistas. Worse, since wind and solar are unreliable, we’re stuck building thousands of battery storage sites that are incredibly dangerous, loaded with Chinese-made parts that could get hacked, overheat, and explode. These fires are toxic and impossible for our rural fire departments to handle, spewing poisons everywhere. The federal government meddled in the free market with subsidies, tanking wholesale electricity prices so only wind and solar make economic sense; natural gas and nuclear can’t compete with build costs. As a result, we just get more wind and solar.

Solution:

Subsidies have to stop now—they’re phasing out, but that process needs to be expedited. The battery storage subsidies must be phased out immediately, as there are currently no laws on the books for them. Level the playing field: tax incentives for gas and nuclear, streamline approvals to slash those insane costs—just facts to get reliable power back without the hazards.

Social Security is broken, but it’s fixable—if we dare to discuss it. In eight years, the fund runs out, and either seniors get cut 25% overnight and poverty doubles, or we borrow $660 billion a year to plug it, straight into the red.

Solution:

We need courage in Washington: let workers carve off, say, 5% of their FICA and park it in a safe index fund, just matching the market’s average 8% gain. Then a patriotic twist: folks who don’t need the check, like me, opt out, hand the cash back to the fund for those who do, and receive a tax deduction for loving our country. Voluntary, no force. This alone could save billions and preserve Social Security for future generations.