It is bad enough that government spending is way out of control.
As Veronique de Rugy puts it:
I appreciate that people are becoming numb to the numbers, but we’re talking $1.9 trillion of debt-financed federal spending on top of four previous ostensibly Covid-related bailouts: $192 billion from the Families First Act; $2.2 trillion from the CARES Act; $733 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program Enhancement; and then $915 billion for the Response and Relief Act. That’s almost $6 trillion in “emergency” federal spending over the course of a calendar year.
But it is worse than this. de Rugy again:
-RWThe latest $1.9 trillion addition to the federal debt is best described as a left-wing slush fund: extra generous UBI-like child allowances and child-care subsidies, four-figure checks sent to people financially unaffected by the pandemic, more Obamacare subsidies, bailouts for union pensions and airlines, and even more largesse for state and local governments that either don’t need it or don’t deserve it...
People should care about what this historical fiscal profligacy could mean for the country going forward. And it’s not just size – it’s scope. The left has made no secret of the fact that they’re using the pandemic as a means to a progressive end. In their America, all but a few would receive routine cash handouts from the U.S. Treasury while those few remaining aspects of our lives untouched by Washington’s tentacles would feel its grip. Leftist stalwart Bernie Sanders has proclaimed that Mr. Biden could be “the most progressive president” since Franklin Roosevelt.
People should care because the expansion or creation of programs under the guise of pandemic relief will likely become permanent. As Scott Lincicome notes, “[ARP] sets the stage for more and bigger changes—basic income, universal childcare, Medicare for All, etc.—in the future”. It certainly doesn’t help that Republicans have no credibility when it comes to fiscal response.
Cassandra, ever ignored.
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