OPINION:
The U.S. is acting as if money grows on trees. As if money is some sort of construct, not real, and infinite.
What else can explain the public’s acceptance of our recent spending binge? The Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, combined with the coronavirus relief passed in the Trump administration, saddled the U.S. with the highest level of debt relative to gross domestic product, in the nation’s history.
The $1.9 trillion price tag of the American Rescue Plan could ultimately be twice as high — $4 trillion — if some of its policies are extended beyond their current expiration dates, which of course they will be with Democrats in control.
What goes unspoken is it’s actually hard for the federal government to spend massive amounts of money quickly. When President Biden’s American Rescue Plan was passed, about $1 trillion remained unspent from the previous relief packages.
But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from wanting more, now. The Biden administration is proposing as much as $4 trillion more in federal investments for green energy, human infrastructure and industrial planning.
This is all on top of Mr. Biden’s $1.5 trillion budget proposal, which includes a 16% increase in domestic spending on things such as enhancing civil rights, stemming the southern border crisis and combatting climate change. His budget doesn’t even include the obligatory spending on engrained entitlements like Social Security or interest on the national debt.
Speaking of which — does anyone even care about the national debt anymore? Previous administration’s all ran up deficits, but at least they acknowledged the money spent was borrowed, tangible and had to be paid back.
That doesn’t seem to be the case now, as we near $30 trillion in national debt and 110% of annual GDP. Democratic lawmakers seem to believe zero interest rates are here to stay, and the Federal Reserve can print unlimited amounts of money without any consequences.
Yet, reasonable minds know increased money supply, in time, will equate to inflation. If you print money like it’s a construct, eventually the value of that money will decline. Interest rates will rise, and all of the government’s borrowing could return the nation to the same stagnation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which prompted backlash against expansive federal government spending in the first place.
Yet, perhaps stagnation is the goal. A great recession would justify further government intervention focused on income redistribution to confront what will inevitably be a growing income and inequality gap.
Welcome to the beginning of federal centralized planning and the destruction of our private, individual economy. Big businesses will certainly benefit from large federal contracts, while family businesses will be forced to close. Blue-collar jobs in the fossil fuel industry will be crushed, and millions will be forced into unemployment and federal welfare programs, while they wait for magical green jobs to appear.
Mr. Biden ran for president as a moderate, but he’s championing transformative policies that are pushing America into a socialist nation. Our spending spree must stop. Money does not grow on trees.
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