President Joe Biden correctly noted that new unemployment claims fell last month to the lowest level since the pandemic began. Yet, for some reason, Biden and the Squad are still using the pandemic as a pretext to propose huge spending bills after putting $1.9 trillion through with a simple majority in the Senate via reconciliation.
Biden is proposing a $3-4 trillion monstrosity for “infrastructure.” According to Brian Riedl, an economic policy expert at the Manhattan Institute, the current understanding is that about half of that amount will go to physical infrastructure, including elements of the Green New Deal. The other half will go to “human capital” such as free community college, pre-K, and Obamacare subsidies. That comes with a price tag of $25,000 per household. If Biden gets his additional spending plans through, the total will be $11 trillion—or $85,000 per household.
Add that to the $15,000 per household that the $1,400 checks will cost American families, and the total bill for reckless Biden-led Democrat spending is around $100,000 per family. There is no universe where a tax on corporations and people making over $400,000 per year is going to cover that no matter what Biden’s saying today. Even Senator Bernie Sanders was honest enough to say his programs would require raising taxes on the middle class.
Understanding the per-household bill that is already set to come due, the proposal from Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is even more insane. Called the Automatic BOOST to Communities Act (ABC), it suggests funding $2,000 automatic payments to every American immediately and $1,000 on a recurring basis for the remainder of the pandemic. However, that is not even the best part. They suggest paying for it with commemorative coins:
The ABC Act would be funded directly from the Treasury with no additional debt issued by minting two $1 trillion coins, and additional coins as necessary.
Our intrepid congresswomen know people would take the checks and deposit them as actual dollars or maybe even cash them directly, right? The Treasury can say a coin is worth a trillion dollars, I guess. That doesn’t mean it is or that it magically equates to money with any value.
Making these payments would require the Treasury to take on debt and print more actual money than they have. The country is already at risk for having too many dollars chasing limited goods since it printed gobs of money last year. While there is debate about what this means for inflation going forward, it is not clear that increasing the supply more is a great idea. However, the minimum $2 trillion in spending would require at least another $15,000 bill for households and likely much more. There is no telling when President Biden will end the federal emergency since it gives broad latitude in spending.
For those who have forgotten, the economy was on fire pre-pandemic, and many talking heads predicted it would carry President Trump to re-election in November. Some believe this fear drove extended lockdowns and media coverage meant to instill fear and panic—especially after many lockdown leaders announced they would begin opening up once Joe Biden was declared the winner and the COVID-19 death count disappeared from CNN’s persistent chyron at about the same time.
Because of that strong foundation and additional states reopening, jobless claims are falling, and the unemployment rate last month was 6.2% nationwide. To compare, in November of 2012, when America re-elected President Barack Obama, the unemployment rate was 7.7%. There are only seven states where unemployment is higher than that benchmark as of the end of February, primarily due to draconian lockdowns. Every one of those states is getting an enhanced payment from the recent stimulus because of their high unemployment. Included in the stimulus were enhanced unemployment and per-child payments with no work requirement. Enough already.
America is on its way to full recovery. The pretext of pandemic spending needs to stop, and states have the resources to deal with the problems their policies caused locally. Why is Biden talking about massive government-funded jobs programs while the Squad is proposing recurring money for nothing? As Margaret Thatcher said in 1976 before she became Prime Minister of the U.K.:
Wherever I go I hear enormous resentment about the amount which people are paying out of their own pay packet in tax. And, this goes right across the income ranges. Socialism started by saying it was going to tax the rich, very rapidly it was taxing the middle income groups. Now, it’s taxing people quite highly with incomes way below average and pensioners with incomes way below average.
It would be great if we could learn from history and not repeat it. Unless, of course, it is the part where a great conservative is in power three years after making this observation.
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