Or alternatively, who will rescue us from the American Rescue Plan Act? We are ever so close to the Democrats completing their $1.9T blowout to reinvigorate the economy. Undoubtedly the House will pass it quickly (likely today) and Mr. Biden will sign it. Key features include extending the child tax credit, direct payments to citizens, and aid to states/local governments. What’s not to like?

First up is that this is on top of all the massive stimulus we have already done, and our national debt of $28T will go up to $30T. Think about that. With one bill, we are adding almost 7% to our total national debt. And not a single politician that is in the majority really cares about that. Regular Berean readers know that the world has gone insane in its full denial of God’s order in creation (i.e., the whole sexual revolution, LGBTQ issues), but the economists’ claim that there is no free lunch has been never so studiously ignored as now. Thomas Sowell’s quote, which I’ll paraphrase here, is “the first law of economics is scarcity, and the first law of politics is to ignore the first law of economics.” National debt? What debt?

The bill also continues to ensconce the decline in our collective morality as we now don’t simply do income redistribution, but we have income redistribution from the poorest of the poor (those unborn that will inherit our national debt) to those that make money, have a job, and are materially comfortable. All in the name of stimulating an economy. Depending on the final implementation~20% of the bill will fund these direct payments, which just feels like so much bread and circuses, a distraction from the broader reality of how this bill will fund other Democratic constituencies–notably blue states that have been more aggressive at shutting down their economies. It’s one thing to expand unemployment benefits in the downturn, and its quite another thing to send a check to someone who has not lost their job. Further, economists have long known that one-shot government benefits don’t really give much of the vaunted “multiplier” effect, as they go largely into savings. No, this is just bread and circuses.

Tons of money are going to public schools which have refused to open during the pandemic. This is despite the fact that “the” science is overwhelmingly supportive of kids going back to school, and the realization that poor and minority students are disproportionately harmed by not having school in person. Did this have anything to do with the fact that the teachers unions give millions to Democratic politicians? Perhaps.

But the obvious question is are we not already recovering? This economic destruction was wrought by the government shutdown of our economy, and we are now mostly open in most of the country, and that is accelerating with the vaccine. Many parts of the economy are having significant labor bottlenecks, e.g., construction, and it’s hard to see how giving people more unemployment aid is going to motivate them to go fill all the open and waiting jobs available. The Fed has directly monetized most of the borrowing this year, and inflation effects are increasing (check out Dr. Copper and lumber prices). The jobs report was off the charts last week, and unemployment is down to 6.2%. I wasn’t in favor of Mr. Obama’s stimulus a decade ago, but at least it was clear at that time the economy was in a really bad spot. But this stimulus is much larger, and by my estimation it is “solving” a problem that will be pretty much solved by the summer. And it is solving it with a very steep price tag that our children and grandchildren will pay.*

* Actually not them, but whoever else the government stiffs when we inflate this debt away. But in any case it will be the future generation (which may include some of us) that will pay, not the current generation.