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?
