What is one step beyond Rahm Emanuel’s “never let a crisis go to waste?”
It is using one crisis to spawn a new crisis that just might become the last one you ever need.
That is exactly what the Democrats are doing with their $1.9 trillion welfare state expansion bill and their $2.3 trillion “everything-is-infrastructure,” left-wing wishlist spending bill. While only one has passed (via budget reconciliation), both come with serious inflationary ramifications.
It is important to understand this is not about COVID-19 relief or “infrastructure.” Many have written eloquently about how little either bill has to do with its stated purpose, and the warnings about the dire fiscal consequences of these bills are trumpeted everywhere, and rightly so.
These bills represent a breathtaking increase in the nation’s money supply. None of the so-called COVID stimulus bill is covered by tax revenue. It will have to be funded through more government debt. Meanwhile, the “infrastructure” bill claims that an increase in corporate tax rates from 21 percent to 28 percent will pay for the spending over 15 years. I remember being shocked as a young high school conservative to learn that the national debt hovered around $11 trillion as Barack Obama took office. Today, that number is closer to $30 trillion, more than the annual GDP of our nation.
How is it that we got here and why did Republicans not do more—or even anything—to try to fight this spending bill more aggressively?
The answer is difficult for me to admit, and even harder for me to accept. The truth is we now live in a country where more Americans want to be taken care of than want to be free. “Give me liberty or give me death” has been replaced by, “Where’s my check?”
Riding the shock-and-awe of an unprecedented Chinese pandemic alongside a media-fueled race war, this neo-American ethos has all but invited Democrats to hatch this plan of theirs.
What exactly is their plan?
The Democrats are rushing us into what is likely to be a period of high inflation (too much money chasing too few goods) and declining living standards that inflicts real harm on ordinary Americans living on their wages and not capital gains. They are going to become even more fearful and tentative than they are already. If the Chinese coronavirus, the George Floyd riots, and January 6 didn’t scare them enough, once they truly begin to feel the erosion of their purchasing power (which they have already seen in healthcare, education, gasoline, and other key sectors) then the Democrats will be ready to present them with a “fix.”
Their solution is to keep prices artificially low by flooding the labor market with low-wage workers, both legal and illegal. If America simply permits another 5 million or so people from the Northern Triangle to enter the country, we can greatly reduce inflationary pressures.
First, they will tell us that they have become Monetarists (which none of them really are) and that MV=PY. In real language terms that means money supply multiplied by how fast the dollars are being turned over (velocity) is equal to the price level in the economy times our actual GDP. If GDP isn’t really growing, or isn’t growing as fast as the money supply (and it isn’t), and if velocity isn’t changing, then it is simple mathematics that the price level must have to increase.
Then someone—maybe Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) or Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen—will make something like the following speech:
My fellow citizens, a certain measure of inflation is understandable due to the necessary actions we took to combat the COVID-19 crisis. We took decisive measures that saved lives and saved the economy, and we will continue to do so now. America is a nation of immigrants, and by embracing even more immigrants in the short term, this will not only help safeguard our precious legacy of diversity, it will also ensure our economy is able to continue producing goods at prices the most marginalized among us can afford. These courageous people are fleeing oppression, and Americans owe it to them to open our doors to them on that basis alone. But these noble and humble people are also willing to work jobs American citizens simply won’t do. Not only is their bravery admirable, but their addition to the fabric of the American economy will help ensure all inhabitants of America can continue participating in the promise of our nation.
In this hypothetical speech, perhaps coming sooner rather than later, our 21st-century “Best and Brightest” will tacitly admit the first crisis they generated can only be “fixed” by way of permanent, one-party rule.
Many members of Congress and political insiders have shared with me that Democrats believe they are likely to lose the House in 2022, and probably the Senate too. That means the only way they can win is if they change the rules so much that they never lose again. This is why the surge of illegals entering the country is not a crisis to the Biden Administration. It’s also what H.R. 1 is all about. First, they will make it so that anyone can vote, then they will let a bunch of those “anyones” into the country to all but ensure electoral victory.
Do you think this all sounds a bit cynical? I used to doubt that the Left was actually engaged in such Machiavellian tactics. After all, as Hanlon’s Razor states, “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Just like Democrats knew Obamacare would cripple our private healthcare system and eventually lead to a nationalized single-payer system (still their goal), they have an endgame in mind with this colossal $1.9 trillion inflationary bill alongside their $2.3 trillion “infrastructure” bill. This is all part of a giant step toward wiping out the Republican Party once and for all.
Find that hard to believe? As the great Rush Limbaugh liked to say, don’t doubt me.