Stop giving the military industrial complex so much 'welfare'.

Return to taxing those who can afford to pay.

Impose tariffs on goods made in slave states like China, Mexico, etc. and put Americans back to work so they can pay taxes.

Make sure all corporations - American, foreign and multinational - who do business in the USA pay their fair share.

Of course, none of the above will be accomplished as long as either rightist party is in control.

Why... spend more.

I don't know how old this list is, but our debt is a lot more than 6 trillion- a lot more.
The only answer to this, assuming it is not already too late, is to rein in spending at the federal level. Doing away with spending that is unconstitutional anyway would be a huge step in the right direction. Foreign aid should follow.

Spend less? I know, it sounds absolutely nuts, but that's what I do when money is tight.

Ummm....I don't think the answer is passing stupid stimulus bill w/home weatherization.

Buy Canadian Lottery tickets.

1.- return the well paid, productive jobs which were exported to other countries; 2.- stop becoming the marketplace of the world and stop importing countless products that are good for nothing; 3.- encouraging and if necessary, subsidize productive activities and businesses and become less dependent on imported goods that we are perfectly capable of producing and manufacturing here; But most of all, return the pride of America to Americans.

Here are a few suggestions;

I won't say it will stop fraud but it will definitely help in putting money back in the hands of the people. Invest in Governing the Benefits of this country (Grantee if you stopped half of the fraud you would find Millions!!!) Reduce the size of the forces, not by allot but enough to reduce the running costs! Stop all these stupid debates in congress about giving aid!!! Stop the Rich from evading Taxes, so the poor can live a little!! (Thus less crime!) BRING back Prison Workshops that reduce the cost of normal government aid I.E. Prisoners making equipment to help Disaster incidents, making clothes and preparing food for aid to other countries! General Government labor for less risked criminals ETC. Give Americans the Jobs that go overseas! Instead of giving unemployment do state work that never gets done like the roads, snow clearing, trash clearing etc. In exchange of their unemployment check! (Can assure you it won't take long for people to get their own work.) I could go on but I think that if the Government or any government changes from within, then money can be saved and thus reduce costs!!! (Things added 03/27/2008 3:05pm)

We all know that allot of the ones I have suggested will never happen because politicians benifit from work going overseas and Rich people evading taxes etc!!! I'm sure that if the American Goverment were to really think about THEIR country, they could reduce all THEIR debt in 5-10 years !!!  LOL :) 

Declare bankruptcy.

Balanced budget legislation would be a good start.

Legalize pot.  I dunno if it would help...I just want them to legalize it.

This country needs a lot of internal work. The primary objective is for the government to create jobs. That is where my tax dollars will have the greatest impact. One such agency could allow for the adoption of children. Another could take care of the elderly, widows, orphans and homeless. Battered women need aid. This country is going to have a problem with supporting an older retired generation. It better start considering those options soon. Stop subsidizing farmers to export or destroy crops to control prices. Feed our country first, and export the excess. Use natural fertilizers for better health conciensness. And I am sick and tired of listening to the consumer being blamed for polution. Everyone knows the oil companies control the technology that is being placed on the roads so that we have no options as to what we can purchase. Even that hybrid bull still uses gas and oil. Government should enact laws that encourage radical changes in transportation and the purchase options that we as the consumer have in environmental transportation and remove ourselves from 1930's technology. Every president, before they are elected are rich, and so many gain their elective office by making promises to big business and the wealthy, with little concern for the middle or lower classes in this country. It is their actions that demonstrate different. Futhermore, congress is divided in half, and the last few presidents have had to battle a dissident political faction. I am tired of piggy back reforendoms riding the back of bills at voters expense. This abuse of power should be met with serious consequences. When they speak "we the people" they are discussing themselves only. It is the misuse of our tax dollars that have the general public upset. We cannot live by downsizing our worth to that of third world countries. World economics has weakened this country. When will we get back to the economic fundalmentals that made us the world power we are today. Export to ourselves first, to the world second.

Impeach the moron, elect somebody from either party that can run the country, i don't care what side of the political spectrum they are from as long as they can fix Bush's idiotic mistakes......... that sounds ideal, but on a more realistic note. Get us out of the war that is impossible to win and a GIANT waste of money. Not because the other side will beat us, but because there are no sides and even though it would be great, you simply can't destroy terrorism. There will always be terrorists and those who support them, we have to deal with them in a non-retarded and realistic way. We aren't going to kill every terrorist and we haven't in reality even put a dent in the number of insurgents (they tell you the number we have killed, they don't tell you the higher number that get recruted every day). We can and absolutetly should fight terrorism, but not by invading countries. I'm sure a lot of people will respond what do you propose we should do then I have a question for you; How do you fathom invading a country as the tactical and practical thing to do? Oh that's right. Bush said so.

First things first: scrap the current income tax (worked O.K. at the outset, but times and situations change) and replace it with a variable-rate consumption tax (no higher than 21% when times are good, no lower than 15% when things are bad). This will put the government on something it's DESPERATELY needed for close to 40 years (a budget). Next, raise the minimum wage to $10.00 an hour (this'll bring the working poor up to speed). Next, legalize prostitution (7 bil in tax revenue) and all drugs (3 bil in tax revenue) and dump that money into a national healthcare system (with people in better health, they'll live and WORK longer, earn more, buy more, and thus contribute more towards everything). Finally, wipe out all debt on BOTH sides (neither camp can afford to pay it off, and neither has any serious intention of following through); whatever it's been spent on is still in use, so write it off as a push and adapt stricter credit policies for the future. Is this a flawed plan? Sure, but nothing's written in stone; you can always tweak it to shake out the bugs. We can't keep going this way for more than another 20 years.

How about impeaching the President that started an expensive war under false pretenses and has never said no to spending increases? Some conservative. . .

Cut military spending, increase taxes on the wealthiest 1%, and increase the capital gains taxes on those big fat cat corporate kings.

Cut the fat,not the muscle.Stop giving big tax breaks to the wealthiest minority and paying corporate welfare.Stop allowing companies like Halliburton to overcharge us for shoddy services.Put corporate criminals like Ken Lay in jail and seize their assets.Stop rewarding companies that outsource jobs both exploiting the poor in other countries and creating more unemployment here.Stop letting Bush spend our money like a drunken sailor.

it was get rid of Bush....but no one wanted to do that. i guess the answer is for us to go to all middle eastern nations and liberate them----sort of like the Soviet Union did w/Cuba and Vietnam. wow what a great country we are.

4 ways:get rid of bush before it doubles in the next 4 years,have everyone pay back all the money we've LOANED them,and make Halliburton pay back the money they've stolen from us,make the government employees take pay cuts,not earning more than 50,000 a year,they get no freebies,special interests,get the same social security as the avg guy.

Privatizing social security would easily be my first task if I had my druthers. This would reduce the burden paid the tax payer in this pyramid scheme and allow them to reap the increased benefit through private investment while simultaneously lowering the payouts by the government; then give greater tax incentives for private investment in other retirement vehicles as well. All of this will widen the tax base and actually increase tax revenue to the treasury. We would need to cap discretionary spending and pass a line item veto amendment. I would abolish the education department and give block grants to the states. I would also repeal the 16th amendment and pass a national sales tax.

The answer to reducing the long-term debt is to assign less responsibility to the federal government for functions it was not designed to manage, and to identify those things that the federal government does well. Maintaining the money supply, common to all 50 states, is one function we can all agree, should be under the authority of the federal government. Maintaining an armed force (all-inclusive) is probably unarguable to most, because we know that there are those who would attack us and steal all our stuff, if we didn't have one. Maintaining a national transportation infrastructure (interstate highway system), border security, commercial air traffic and safety and security at our ports probably makes sense, too. You'd need some reasonable facsimile of what the State Department does today, in order to negotiate treaties and set tarrifs. And something like the IRS has to exist because we need to collect the money that's owed us. If we limited the scope to those functions, our government would function much more efficiently as oversight wouldn't be quite so mind-boggling as it is today. All other functions would be the responsibility of the state, county and local government. Is that a start?

invade the middle east, secure the oil and there you go, Americas debt free and you don't need to worry about rising oil prices

About 10 years ago, Congress tried to pass a bill that made balanced federal budgets a requirement. The democrats defeated it by a few votes. Because even fewer members in Congress are concerned with fiscal responsibility, it would be even more difficult to pass that same bill today. There has got to be a way to punish politicians who continue to rack up debt and award those who don't. Because it's not their money they are wasting, congress has no incentive to reduce wasteful spending. Wasteful spending is what gets them elected.

Cut up Bush's credit cards and send him home without supper.

First: Evict the greedy gang who are responsible for shooting it back up through the ceiling after Clintons good work of turning it into a surplus. Then take away some of the incredible excess spent on the military and put it into Real job creation.

Stop government waste and government spending.

you can raise taxes, reduce spending, or find another source of income. i don't mind paying more taxes if the government can verify that my money is not being wasted. reducing spending is difficult because everyone believes that cuts can be made, but nobody agrees about where the cuts should be made. additional revenue could be made by legalizing prostitution, drugs, and/or gambling and applying a national tax. this is not to say that i condone these actions, but some would consider them viable options.

Oh man, where do I start... Ok first you can't just make drastic cuts to the military because there are so many people that would lose their jobs or take a big pay cut, which would put more stress on the wellfare system. And as fun as it sounds auctioning off all of the excess in nuclear weapons on ebay is not a good idea. The only places to really make military cuts are actually stop buying so many freakin' weapons and cut down on the number of people who do the military service thing for like two weeks a year so they can get free post secondary, (then they won't have to spend money on all of those commecials, yeah you all know the ones I'm talkin' about). Next stop is taxes, not higher taxes for everyone, but things like extending sin taxes to include foods that are excessively unhealthy and on guns and bullets. If there was a sin tax on Big Macs, Whoppers and Doughnuts, then there would be alot more people thinking twice about what they eat and healthier people mean that there is less stress on all systems. Then there's the mega business sector, they should have sin taxes as well. All bussinesses that cause significant pollution should have to pay high taxes in respect to the danger in the pollution that they emmit. And then there are just the mega businesses in general that make way too much money. Why not raise their taxes? Next attack, fuel. North America spends way too much on fuel when there are so many free and/or better energy resorces. Can you believe that in the 21st century there are still power plants using coal, hello hydro is so much cheaper and cleaner, same goes for wind. What about not giving money to oil companies at all and put a fraction of that into alternative energy resourses. Chances are that alternative energy would pay for itself soon enough. But this is just what I think... I'm not an elected official or a law school graduate, hell I haven't even gotten my grade twelve yet, what do I know.

I think it is irresponsible to spend more money than one has, be it an individual, a group, or a nation. I pay off my credit cards every month and I'd like to think others are equally responsible, yet I see those running the government behaving like teenagers on a buying binge. Even more interesting, and stinking of highest hypocrisy, is that those that run up the deficits the most are those that bombast the loudest about fiscal responsibility (Republicans) while those that balance the budgets have been Democrats like Clinton. (Updated because the question was reworded.)

Start a flat tax everybody pay 10% of their taxable income. Also stimulate business to lower inflation is a great idea. More exports, the list goes on.

Elect someone sensible for president (i. e. John Kerry) who knows we can't have a $6 trillion deficit.

How about drastic cuts in UN fund contributions? We provide them with more funds than any other source yet we still get harassed by their candy-ass complaints.

We all know governments will run up debts which will create problems in the long term because they know they'll have positive effects and gain votes in the short term, perhaps this is the issue that needs to be addressed.

It isn't at the moment because we're distracted by other issues. But wait a few years....