Time for a U.S. national garage sale?

Most of us think of a couple of options when the family budget gets tight -- begin spending less, finding higher-paying employment, taking on another part-time job or a combination of the three.

After that, we'll think about selling off assets -- holding a garage sale, putting a spare car on the market -- even listing our home with the idea of downsizing to a smaller house or apartment.

It's surprising, then, that it's taken until now for the idea of selling off assets to be thrown into the mix of possible solutions to the national deficit.

Niall Ferguson raised that idea in the most recent issue of Newsweek Magazine, with his column "Sale of the Century." In it, he noted that, while the idea of "privatization" is an anathema to most U.S. policians across the political spectrum, it has found widespread popularity elsewhere around the world.

Since the 1990s, about 75,000 medium to large firms from Argentina to Zambia have been sold off around the world, to the tune of $735 billion -- Ferguson even claimed to have heard talk of selling off the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

He doesn't propose selling Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, but he does mention the Southeastern Power Administration as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority.

That rumbling you just heard was Sen. George Norris turning over in his grave. As a daily newspaper in Nebraska, we'd have to disagree with the notion that private industry with a profit motive could serve the state better than the public bodies now in control of electricity.

But it is true that many services could be operated, at a profit, more efficiently in private hands. Funds for the massive infrastructure upgrades needed over the coming years are more likely to be provided by private investors in search of returns than from overburdened taxpayers.

Congress balked at allowing U.S. ports to be purchased by foreign investors, but Indiana recently leased the operation of a main highway to a Spanish company and Australian investment bank, which will collect tolls from motorists for the next 75 years. In exchange, the state got $3.85 billion upfront.

Make Interstate 80 a private toll road? With diminishing federal funding and proceeds from fuel tax, don't be surprised if the idea comes up. Few businesses on secondary roads would object to increased traffic.

It will take a while for the idea privatization to gain traction, but the White House is already thinking along the lines of a national garage sale.

The Office of Management and Budget announced an initiative Wednesday to "cut through red tape and politics and rid the Federal Government of excess real estate," an effort it claims will save taxpayers $15 billion.

Saying about 14,000 buildings and structures out of 1.2 million properties the government owns are not needed, the OMB announced a legislative proposal to establish an independent board of experts to find ways to get rid of them and consolidate offices across and within agencies.

It's likely to run into opposition, of course, being modeled after the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure Commission. But recommendations will go to Congress for a straight up-or-down vote, making it apparent just which senators and congressmen are truly interested in a fiscally responsible government.

We certainly need to have a seriously national debate about allowing important publicly-owned assets to come under foreign control.

But the OMB's initiative certainly seems to be a good first step.