Recent line at Texas foodbank
Our Government’s Grand Betrayal of the People
Our national government has, by law, the ability to create an unlimited quantity of dollars for any purpose Congress deems fit. Creating new dollars is routinely the way it pays its bills. Tax receipts and borrowing are not involved in any way in federal spending.
Now, of course, that is NOT what the government tells us. It claims that federal spending is constrained by the amount of taxes it takes in, and that if it needs to "deficit spend" (spend in excess of tax receipts) it must resort to "borrowing". The fact that it regularly violates it own claims--e.g. huge "unpaid for" tax cuts, multiple large unpaid for covid relief bills, obscene unpaid for military budgets--curiously never seems to expose this big lie.
The government is greatly aided in this deception by the corporate media and numerous alleged citizen advocacy organizations who constantly and erroneously warn us about the debt, the deficit and the misuse of "taxpayer money".
In the 1930's and 40's the government's ability to create unlimited dollars was on full display as it spent freely to counter the Great Depression and pay for the enormous WWII effort. As a result, there was so much cash floating around the economy that the government had to substantially raise marginal tax rates and sell "war bonds" to siphon off that excess cash to prevent devaluation and inflation. Back then, there was no serious talk about deficits and debt.
During that period, the government pulled out all the stops to come to the aid of the people and nation. Millions were saved from poverty and starvation. People were put to work on valuable recreational, infrastructure and cultural projects that elevated the nation but were not profit-driven.
In today's covid crisis, which has forced millions out of work, permanently shuttered thousands upon thousands of small businesses and endangered millions who have no health coverage, the government, the government that holds the key to the survival of the people and the mainstreet economy has chosen, CHOSEN! not to act on our behalf. It REFUSES to bail out the states, that are all going broke. It REFUSES to support involuntarily unemployed workers and their families. It is obviously content to allow thousands of business to fail and send their families into ruin. It has made no provisions to support Americans without health coverage, consigning them to illness and death.
What kind of government refuses to come to the aid of its people? The same kind of neoliberal government that, for 45 years, has not just neglected the people but actively abused the people, and enabled corporate America to further abuse us, while stealing our wealth. It is a despicable, corrupt government committed to further enriching the already wealthy at OUR expense. Clearly, this is not a Trump thing. A Democratic Administration would have done a better job dealing with the covid epidemic, but its response to the economic fallout of the disease would not have been remarkably better. Even this crisis would not have caused the Dems to break from their committment to the oligarchs.
