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Dear Editor,
Thank you to Fred Swift for a well-reasoned column, Is the money truly needed everywhere?, published March 21. I’m sure he’s correct, his column won’t be popular with everyone. But, it should be if all Indiana residents understood that very little of the nearly $2 trillion – that’s 12 zeros – COVID relief bill actually went to COVID relief.
Not one dollar is paid for; it’s all added to the debt tab of future generations.
It would have obviously been better to target those citizens and small businesses that really needed help, which clearly could have been done for a fraction of the cost because all they got was a fraction of this bill. Plus, there is additionally $200 billion from 2020 that is contentiously unspent. Congress should have allocated these funds from the previous COVID relief spending action. Instead, now hundreds of billions are planned for other pork spending, like blue states and cities where spending and public debt has been out of control for decades.
As Mr. Swift points out, even Hamilton County will get some of the largesse because, well, why not?! It’s hard work spending $2 trillion dollars of other people’s money. So, even a token amount will go to those with legislators financially responsible enough to vote against this obscenity.
As it appears the Democrats plan to unilaterally repeal the laws of economics and spend their way to prosperity, it’s time for us to put on our seat belts, Mr. Swift. With their new control of the Senate, it’s reported the next huge unilaterally-planned spending bill is $3 trillion dollars – 12 zeros.
Up until recently, even liberal central planners’ economic thinking was you didn’t want government spending and debt to exceed 100 percent of GDP in peacetime. We are now at about 130 percent of GDP.
Adding the infrastructure bill, the federal government will blow past $30 trillion in debt. To put this into perspective, global GDP is about $80 trillion. So this level of U.S. government spending is unprecedented, especially in peacetime.
We are told don’t worry about inflation. But, most people realize that essentials – rent, fresh food, education, and health care costs are all up significantly. If the Democrats get all their promised tax increases through Congress, the added value estimate for federal tax revenues is $2 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. Given the drag on economic growth caused by government spending, taxes, and regulations, that number is likely very optimistic, and at best only puts a dent into future deficits and spending.
To sell this planned level of deficit spending and higher taxes to the public, we will likely hear a lot more about Modern Monetary Theory, which I contend isn’t modern and isn’t even a theory. It’s been implemented numerous times in history with endless money printing to finance government spending.
These politicians can’t responsibly deny there is high risk for hyper-inflation. Republican politicians should remind people that a profit-based economy is not something against the people. Otherwise, with an inflation-debased currency, what is the first thing you learn to do when you get paid? Exchange it for gold or cryptocurrency, something that will hold value. We are beginning to see this happen around the U.S. with the acceptance and success of cryptocurrency.
Just ask people in the community who remember the inflation, stagflation, and gas lines of the 1970s.
George Hodgson
Noblesville