THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE “NATIONAL DEBT”

This past Tuesday, the Senate voted to approve the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on a bipartisan vote of 69-30 - Mitch McConnell voted yes! (To save the filibuster - never think he does anything out of the goodness of his heart, he’s not equipped with that organ). As we all know, that bill is the first part of a two-bill package strategy. The second - the Build Back Better and American Jobs Act, is a $3.5 trillion budget bill which will be passed by Democrats on a party-line vote, using “reconciliation,” a legislative process that allows them to neutralize the filibuster on select spending bills.

The first step toward passing that bill came on Wednesday, with a budget reconciliation bill that creates a ‘blueprint” for the spending bills that will be written by the relevant legislative committees. The vote was 50-49, all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed.

However, the road to passing the actual spending bills is long and winding, and the Vichy Democrats are already lining up - they all come equipped with five speeds: one forward and four in reverse, and they’re ready to reverse in high gear now. I wrote yesterday about the nine Surrender Monkeys in the House. There are two of them in the Senate, both compleat morons, and both dangerously ignorant, as demonstrated in their official statements following the vote on the process.

First is Still-a-“Green”-idiot Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who puts more effort into working “across the aisle” with Republicans than she does working with her fellow Democrats:

“I have also made clear that while I will support beginning this process, I do not support a bill that costs $3.5 trillion — and in the coming months, I will work in good faith to develop this legislation with my colleagues and the administration to strengthen Arizona’s economy and help Arizona’s everyday families get ahead.”

The second is Bipartisanship-uber-Alles West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin: "Adding trillions of dollars more to nearly $29 trillion of national debt, without any consideration of the negative effects on our children and grandchildren, is one of those decisions that has become far too easy in Washington. Given the current state of the economic recovery, it is simply irresponsible to continue spending at levels more suited to respond to a Great Depression or Great Recession – not an economy that is on the verge of overheating. I firmly believe that continuing to spend at irresponsible levels puts at risk our nation’s ability to respond to the unforeseen crises our country could face. I urge my colleagues to seriously consider this reality as this budget process unfolds in the coming weeks and months."

The truth is, neither of these Vichy Democrats have one fucking clue what they’re talking about, and neither has any other “deficit hawk” ever. You can tell the importance of “Duh Deficit” by the fact it is only ever an issue when the administration doing the deficit spending is run by Democrats.

Dick Cheney was right when he said “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”

Here’s some important points to understand about this bill.

First: a trillion dollars isn’t as much as these fools (and lots of other people) seem to think it is.

One thing that isn’t understood by nearly everyone as well as it should be is the sheer size of the U.S. economy:

In 2020, DURING A PANDEMIC AND THE DOWNTURN THAT CAME WITH IT, the U.S. economy clocked in at $20.93 TRILLION in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

IN ONE “BAD” YEAR.

Over the ten year time span for most of the spending that’s in the reconciliation bill, the U.S. economy will create between $250 TRILLION and $300 TRILLION in total GDP, assuming modest, year-over-year growth.

Since most people can’t comprehend figures like that, let me put it in terms we are all familiar with: This $3.5 trillion over ten years is equivalent to something less than the median cost of a month of rent in the United States as a percentage of median family income.

But there is a big difference about where that “rent money” goes. While the rent a family pays goes to the landlord to do with as they please, the $3.5 trillion in the “Build Back Better” bill will go toward:

1. A child allowance that will virtually end childhood poverty.

2. Pre-K education for all children, the one thing that is demonstrated crucial to later success in life.

3. Housing assistance.

4. The development of non-fossil fuel clean energy, virtually ending use of fossil fuels, as the UN report released this week so clearly states must be done by 2030 if we are to have any chance of maintaining life on a habitable planet.

5. Environmental conservation.

5. Health care for all, through expansion of federal financial assistance in obtaining health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing.

This isn’t “deficit spending” - it’s INVESTMENT. It’s investing in the nation’s future the same way any family invests in their future when they buy a home - they go into debt at the outset, but at the end of the mortgage the debt is retired and they OWN THE HOME.

Given the challenges that face the United States, coupled with the truly gargantuan size of our economy, the bill could probably be a little bit bigger without threatening any of the non-existent problems our Vichy Democrats have declared “crucially important.”

Vichy Democrats remind me of an aphorism from Mark Twain, circa 1873: “Consider a congressman, then consider an idiot. Ah, but I repeat myself.”

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