Let's not sugar-coated: state debts are out of control. We all know, but no one wants to budget on how to really solve it.

We are staring at nearly $37 trillion in debt, with an annual deficit projected to be north of $2 trillion a year. Interest payments alone are expected to exceed $1 trillion a year, more than we are spending on the defense budget now. This means one thing: American houses are on fire and we can't continue to pretend it's just a warm fireplace.

As a proud financial responsibility for the past three decades, I believe in free markets, personal responsibility and limited government. But I also believe in arithmetic - mathematics tells us something that must be given. If we want to uphold American capitalism, maintain social security and health insurance solvency, and avoid creating mature fiscal crises, then yes, we will need more income. The question is, where do we get it every year?

Republicans scramble to talk about Trump’s spending plans as fiscal 2026 looms: “Stay until we pass it”

Do I like to increase taxes? No, do we need one? perhaps.

Let's figure out something. I don't want to raise taxes. I'd rather see waste cuts, like we're starting with Doge, streamlined agents, and controlled spending. But after decades of hard work, we have run out of new sidewalks unless we add debt ceilings. This may be a bigger problem than we realize whether our debt is falling around the world.

If we cut all discretionary plans tomorrow, we are still in red even if we return them to the IRS, the Department of Education and the so-called "pork program." That's because the real cost drivers are rights and interests. These are not optional - they are locked.

So unless we are ready to tell our seniors, Social Security checks will be cut by 20% in a decade (if there is no change, we have to increase our income.

Since half of Americans don’t even pay federal taxes, it’s not all. Not in the middle class, because they are maximized. But at the top. It’s painful to say it out loud, but it has to happen.

That's a 37% tax rate? It needs to go back to 39.6%

For now, the highest individual tax rate is now 37%, with single filers earning more than $611,000 per year and married couples earning $767,000. If Congress fails to take action, that speed will return to what was before the highest applicants in the 2017 tax law (39.6%).

Under Clinton and Obama, that's 39.6% - to be honest, the economy didn't collapse at that time. In fact, our market is booming, with steady growth and budget surplus.

Increased this rate by 2.6% is not socialism, but reality. What would you rather have, the tax on average income or back tax is smaller, and the tax rate is back to 39.6%, which is devastating on many levels. The 39.6% return is a reward for something that works without destroying the dream of future entrepreneurs who want to build wealth by building their business. It's a way to ask those who benefit the most from the American system to do what you need to save. Tariffs will not resolve the annual deficit and certainly will not eliminate taxes.

Let me say this: If you are a conservative millionaire who believes in law, order, defense, capitalism and protect the dollar, what exactly will happen to you when the United States defaults on its obligations or interest rates soar?

It has nothing to do with punishment, it is about saving.

Social security tax should also be resolved

This is another person most people don't like to talk about: the cap on the Social Security Tax.

Currently, the income from Social Security Tax is $176,100. This means that a person who makes $60,000 pays full tax on every dime, while a family who makes $6 million pays less than 3% of their income.

That's not a free market. That's a broken system.

Medicare tax applies to all income - Increase the Social Security wage base from $176,000 to $1,000,000 in income? If we only apply Social Security Tax to higher levels of wages (rather than investment, just wages), it will help pay the plan to generations. This is good for the United States and is good for helping the people at the bottom and top do better.

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Conservatives solve problems - let's not ignore them

Republicans are the fiscal responsibility party, right? They are saying, “You can’t spend what you don’t have.” So how can we ignore the huge debt crisis staring at us?

If Republicans evade the truth of today, Democrats will eventually win control and work with all political ammunition to carry out more aggressive tax rate hikes. But if Republicans now engage in common-sense reforms (such as restoring 39.6% interest rates and raising Social Security wage caps), they will protect the middle class, stabilize our fiscal future, and keep the economy humming.

Final Thought: This is how you save capitalism

If you really like this country - and I know you will - then you have to ask: What is the plan? Because "tax cuts and increases our way out" has not had a job for 40 years. We've tried it.

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Maintaining the American Dream means making some wise goals now, so we won’t lose everything in the future. The super rich have slightly higher taxes and are fairer in their contribution to social security, which may be a drug we don't like (believe me, I'll pay instead of like it), but we have to take it before the patient dies.

This is not a liberal idea. That's common sense.