In 2020, I ran as an independent write-in candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, from Illinois's 10th congressional district. The first of my top three issues was to promote the proposal I called "P.O.U.N.D.", which stands for "Pay Off the U.S. National Debt."
P.O.U.N.D. is a plan to pay off the national debt, by one trillion dollars each year, until 2047, until it is fully paid-off. Such a $1 trillion annual surplus would be immediately paid back to the government's creditors.
On December 21st, 2019, in preparation for my 2020 run, I compiled past data on the national debt, and combined this information with my plan to achieve an annual $1 trillion surplus.
The data set and line chart below, show how the national debt could be paid off, provided that the budget is balanced as soon as possible in 2021 and 2022.
The data spreadsheet,
showing historical national debt from 2019 and earlier,
with proposed debt levels under the P.O.U.N.D. plan beginning in 2021.
Click to expand
The line chart,
showing historical national debt from 2019 and earlier,
with proposed debt levels under the P.O.U.N.D. plan beginning in 2021.
Click to expand
Note:
The national debt has increased to approximately $28 trillion as of April 2021. The data below show the debt topping-out at $25 trillion in 2021, because that was my December 2019 prediction as to what the national debt would be in early 2021.
The Covid-19 crisis has obviously accelerated both government spending and government debt. I was unable to predict this.
Owing to this extra $3 trillion in unanticipated debt, applying the "P.O.U.N.D." plan, and achieving its goals, would now take 28 years, instead of 25 years. For future applications of the "P.O.U.N.D." plan to the nation's finances, the data will have to be adjusted as the national debt grows or shrinks. Additionally, the debt levels in 2020 and 2021 will have to be edited.
Spreadsheet and line chart created on December 21st, 2019
This article written and published on April 8th, 2021
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