Money From Nothing
The federal government’s financial response to the coronavirus proves that “debt and deficit” was always an excuse.
For years politicians, pundits and the media told us America was broke. We can’t ensure healthcare to every American as a right, not a privilege. Too expensive! Who do you think we are—every other civilized nation on Earth?
Endless money for wars all over the planet? No problem. A trillion here, a trillion there to keep America safe. We gotcha covered, Raytheon! But a few billion to make sure kids don’t go to bed hungry? Sorry. Tell your mom and dad to get a third job. Raise the minimum wage? Increase Social Security stipends to keep up with inflation? Where do you think we live? Canada? We’ve got to cut Medicare and Medicaid just to make sure the programs survive. Don’t get sick!
“Fiscal conservatism,” we’ve been told, means the nation should run like a business or a household. We can’t spend more than we take in! Well, okay, a trillion and a half in tax cuts to the wealthy, who don’t need the money at all—but that’s it!
Funding for schools so teachers don’t have to use their own money to buy supplies for students? Forget it! To house the homeless? We’re not “socialists”! Money to repair crumbling roads, dangerous bridges and aging dams? (Sorry, Michigan. Y’all should have cut funding to firefighters or cops or nurses to fix those two dams before they collapsed in May 2020. That’ll teach you to elect fiscally irresponsible Democrats!)
