Posted on 12/01/2021 3:46:51 AM PST by Kaslin
The 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign was essentially a bidding war in which each candidate pledged to spend trillions of dollars beyond what is needed to run the country, ostensibly to rebuild the nation after the coronavirus pandemic. Candidate Joe Biden won the contest and has so far signed a $1.9 trillion "COVID relief" bill (that had little to do with COVID relief) and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that goes beyond the traditional definition of "infrastructure."
Now, resident Biden and his team are desperately trying to convince the American people that they must approve yet another massive spending bill -- anywhere from $1.2 trillion to $2 trillion -- that will somehow "build back better" after the pandemic, even though the pandemic is most certainly not over. Many Americans are concerned about the Democrats' orgy of spending, fearing particularly that pumping so much extra money into the economy will feed the inflation that has become the public's greatest economic concern of the moment.
So Biden came up with an argument that essentially said no one should worry because it will all be free. "My Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars," the president tweeted on Sept. 25. White House chief of staff Ron Klain said, "The net cost of Build Back Better is zero." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added, "The dollar amount, as the president said, is zero."
It was all preposterous, of course. Two trillion dollars does not just appear out of nowhere. When questioned, the Biden team explained that they meant the bill is "fully paid for" by higher taxes on some Americans. That is the opposite of the cost being "zero dollars." And even that argument was proven untrue when the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Build Back Better bill is not, in fact, fully paid for, but instead would add $367 billion to the national debt.
Now, another member of the Biden team, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is suggesting the bill could eliminate the cost of driving for Americans who buy government-subsidized electric cars.
For weeks now, Buttigieg has been touting the bill's huge subsidies for electric car purchasers. "The Build Back Better package includes tax incentives to help purchase an EV," Buttigieg tweeted on Nov. 1. "How would you use a discount of up to $12,500 toward an electric vehicle?" It's not a discount, of course, but a government subsidy -- the government giving consumers money with which to buy the car. But here's the big pitch: Those who take advantage of the government's big handout, Buttigieg said recently, would "never have to worry about gas prices again." Buttigieg said the subsidized electric cars would bestow the greatest benefits on rural Americans who drive long distances and urban residents who pay the highest gas prices. No more worries!
The problem, of course, is that cars have to run on something. Electric vehicles run on electricity, which is not free. And -- this was not part of Buttigieg's pitch -- the Biden administration is seeking to make electricity more expensive. "The administration's plans for a 'clean' electricity sector (by 2035) are really pricey," notes former Congressional Budget Office head Douglas Holtz-Eakin. "Two trillion dollars for generation, another $2 trillion for transmission and an unknown price tag for distribution, but $1 trillion for 'the cost imposed on the distribution system by electric vehicle and photovoltaic solar panel adoption alone.' That bill is roughly $50 a week for consumers, which is in the same neighborhood as the gas costs that started this political firestorm. It's the energy costs, Pete, not just gasoline."
So just like the cost of the Build Back Better agenda is not "zero dollars," the cost of operating an electric car is far more than never having "to worry about gas prices again." The administration's free-stuff pitch is fundamentally deceptive.
Americans are not stupid. They know there is a cost to everything. They add up the cost of living and make economic decisions every day. They don't need to be insulted by government officials telling them that multi-trillion-dollar wealth redistribution plans come without a cost. They know better, no matter what the president or his team say.
“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” - H. L. Mencken
1967 Q4 (15 years)
The horse of inflation is out of the barn. Fed chairman Martin
4 years later Price controls (1971)
Jim Grant “the fed that is doubling its balance sheet in 18 months , the treasury that is issuing trillions of dollars in debt the proceeds of which are paying people not to work, the breakdown in supply chains, the constellation of these episodes in phenomenon… what did you expect? “
Inflation is a moral problem is something for nothing. A form of theft. A form of unlegislated tax.
“Americans are not stupid. They know there is a cost to everything.”
I am not so sure the author is quite accurate here. The USA has a critical mass of stupid people.
The inflation (tax) is really helping the givernment devalue its trillions in debt... thereby pushing off the day of reckoning a little further.
Typical inflation does do that. But hyperinflation that started in the 60s is more painful to the citizens. To flatten the curve, you can raise interest rates ( not making Wall Street happy) or crush demand ( voila! A new Covid strain).
Powell et al CANNOT raise rates much. Look at this link.
I would post the chart, but don’t know how to.
Typical inflation does that ... but it has been anything but typical givernment spending and borrowing for the past 20 years.
Interest on the national debt today is reported at $300 billion, or 9% of all revenue. And it is only going to get worse. The total debt in 1963 was $306 billion (non-inflation adjusted). Let those numbers sink in a little. In 2000 debt was $5.6 trillion and today it is $28 trillion. The low interest rates have allowed massive borrowing. The last time there was normal chatter about raising interest rates was when Trump was POTUS. No way the fed reserve is going to raise interest rates today ... it will have huge negative effects on givernment’s obligations and spending programs. The fed is going to try to get the demonkkkraps (Xiden) through the 2022 election in tact, or minimize any losses.
In the meantime, Buttplug is out there saying the fed givernment will give $12500 to buy electric vehicles (”EV”). Of course this is a payment to the leftists who otherwise might not buy unless subsidized EV, currently noncompetitive market transportation. But EV drivers pay no fuel taxes ... so voila ... everyone will pay a per mile tax in the future because it’s “only fair”, with no removal of gas tax at pump. And on and on it evolves until we get to driver-less EV cars (bye-bye internal combustion engine) that no one can own, and electricity will be rationed.
None of this is sustainable ... and the high inflation is being used combined with keeping very low interest rates frozen in place to allow the feral givernment to demonetize its debt. Be prepared for an eventual sovereign jubilee.
No way the fed is going to raise the interest rates before the 2022 election. If the GOP “conservatives” are (s)elected and control Congress, then the fed will raise rates before the 2024 (s)election. Right now, the high inflation and low interest rates are allowing the feral givernment to continue to spend and increase its debt, but at same time make the debt worth less in real dollars.
I could get behind a Harris-Buttijudge ticket . . . Straight to prison and joining Dementia Joe and his crime family.
The $12,500 tax credit ONLY applies to UNION made vehicles....NOT to Tesla.
Scary!!
US Treasury Interest on Debt paid annually
2021 $562,388,232,682.17
2020 $522,767,299,265.34
2019 $574,587,783,463.63
2018 $523,017,301,446.12
2017 $458,542,287,311.80
2016 $432,649,652,901.12
2015 $402,435,356,075.49
2014 $430,812,121,372.05
2013 $415,688,781,248.40
2012 $359,796,008,919.49
See post 13
$562B for 2021 in Debt Interest alone
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