Taxes are the best way to lower the national debt

First, I would like to rebut my opponents case in more detail. Contention 1- the national debt has no impact a) Economic interdependence There are 2 big flaws in this argument First, although economic interdependence is a real thing, it exists in waves. For example, If I owe 9 dollars to china and 300 billion dollars to Russia, although I am economically dependent on both, I am more dependent on Russia. Therefore, Russia has more control over my economic actions. What this means is that the less economically dependent the US is on other countries, the more economic freedom it has. Second, if the US gets out of it's debt, it is one of the only countries that isn't economically dependent on other countries, turning it into an economic superpower. b) Debt doesn't affect the economy I refuted this evidence earlier. My opponent is right in stating this is a small example, but notice he couldn't come up with an other example of a country in debt that has a thriving economy. c) No country owns enough to make an impact If china owns 900 billion of 17 trillion, china owns 5% of the national debt, which is a very big influence on the US, and the US doesn't want to 1/20 of their national debt to arguably their biggest rival. Contention 2- Their are other ways to stop the debt a) cut government spending This will help a lot, but spending less money only gets us into more debt slower. b) Sell land with oil reserves and gold mines This is a good way to make money, but it isn't practical for the government for a few reasons. To begin with, the government doesn't even have the right to sell most of that land because it is owned by private investors. Second, the government is not a real estate agency! According to Bureau of Land Management, "The law states that the BLM can select lands for sale if, through land use planning, they are found to meet one of three criteria: 1) they are scattered, isolated tracts, difficult or uneconomic to manage; 2) they were acquired for a specific purpose and are no longer needed for that purpose; or 3) disposal of the land will serve important public objectives, such as community expansion and economic development." http://www.blm.gov... Land with oil and gold will almost never meet these criteria, if ever. Simply stopping the national debt doesn't qualify, or that land would've been sold long ago. Contention 3- Taxes harm the individual Then why do we still have them? Because the government can use them to fund programs and erase debt. Contention 4- Increase spending does not decrease debt If I spend more, I go into deeper debt. This seems pretty self explanatory, but I don't think it is a contention as much a fact. Now I will respond to my opponents rebuttals. The US currently has a perfect credit rating on most of the credit rating agencies. The best is AAA, and two of the big three give the US AAA. The third gives an AA , which is the second best rating. http://www.reuters.com... One of the main agencies also has the US on downgrade watch, showing that the US's credit rating could decline if they continue to head into debt. This shows how if the debt is stable (doesn't get bigger) the US should be fine. If the debt gets bigger, then credit rating's could fall. My opponent never addressed why this argument is important. It matters because the lower the credit rating, the more interest investors can demand from the US from loans and bonds, making it more expensive to take out loans and bonds. The government is not a gold digger or an oil miner. They cannot dig for oil, or gold on property the do not own. My second contention still holds true. Bottom Line- The bottom line for this debate is whether taxes or oil and gold mining are better solution to the national debt. The debt has been proved as relevant, and even if it wasn't, the resolution assumes that it is, and asks not whether it is important, but how to stop it. As oil and gold mining or selling fields are impractical as proved previously, if taxes do can lower the national debt by one dollar, and I guarantee they do, voting for me is the only choice in this debate