Newt's Trillion Dollar Answer: Sell Alaska?

Forget the Super Committee, just sell Alaska. That's GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich's tongue-in-check solution to America's debt dilemma.

Newt's already gone on record saying the Super Committee is a "tragically dumb idea." Now, the Former Majority Leader says we are trapped in ideas of the past - and need to think outside the box to find $1 trillion dollars in savings.

Gingrich's brainchild: a "Seward's Folly" in double reverse?

On "Power Play with Chris Stirewalt" Tuesday, Gingrich laid it out this way: America would sell Alaska to Brazil-let them develop the state's abundant oil and natural gas reserves -- and then buy it back.

"[The federal government] owns 69 percent of Alaska. That's one and a half Texases," Gingrich joked. "So, let's set half of Texas aside for national parks and wilderness areas. That leaves you an area the size of Texas that you can develop."

Gingrich was gigging President Obama who has taken heat from American energy companies for encouraging offshore oil production in Brazil and providing federal loans for drilling there while keeping much of Alaska off limits to exploration

There it is. The solution to our debt lies in the 10 years in royalties gained from mining minerals, coal, oil and gas in an area the size of Texas.

"These are the kind of new ideas we need for America to work."

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