The Consequences of Not Belonging to any Political Tribe

What is it like to not feel part of any political tribe? Mostly, it is to be dismayed to hear lies from the right and then lies of the left. It is to have a seat near the net of the tennis court, looking to the left, then the right, over and over, as lies are zinged back and forth. The party in power now, the Democrats, are certainly doing their part, whether it be immigration, COVID, Russia-Trump, abolishing the police will keep cities safer. And now there is the Democrat claim about Biden’s economic package:

They are insisting that their plans, which are still in flux but amount to a call for some $4 trillion in spending over two bills, have no real costs at all—or that the costs should not be factored in, because they are “unfair and absurd.”

As if $4 trillion will not risk massive inflation. As if $4 trillion will be completely paid for.

I’m not taking a position on whether parts of these packages make sense for the U.S. My concern is that the risks of these packages are being actively suppressed. I have very little respect for Joe Manchin, but I think he’s correct when he claims that the current proposal amounts to “fiscal insanity.” We are not having any meaningful national conversation about what is really in these bills and the extent of economic risk of committing $3.5 trillion to those things.  This, from the remorseless political party that threw the working class overboard decades ago.

This is simply the most recent example of a system that is completely broken with no hope of repair. It’s a system where big corrupt campaign money and ideology drive the decisions, where inconvenient truths are ignored and suppressed and where most voters line up in ignorance to cheer their respective teams.

In four years, we might see the Republicans taken over, with their own brand of fiscal and ideological insanity. I truly see no end in sight.

This is the sort of thing that led George Carlin to indicate that he no longer had a “stake in the outcome.”  I wish I could claim that everything is going well for our country, but I can’t.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth September 30, 2021 Reply

    From the National Review:

    A spending bill that costs $3.5 trillion costs $3.5 trillion irrespective of how you pay for it. Unless the government elects to cut precisely the same amount of spending as the bill adds, there is no such thing as a “free” or “zero-dollar” outlay. One can pay for a $3.5 trillion bill with $3.5 trillion in tax increases, or by borrowing $3.5 trillion, or through a mixture of the two, but, whatever one chooses to do, the cost remains precisely the same: $3.5 trillion. If, as seems to be the case, the Democrats do not want to be seen spending $3.5 trillion, then they have just one option: to decline to spend $3.5 trillion. They cannot get around this with word games.

    But boy are they going to try. Asked in July whether spending $3.5 trillion might perhaps make inflation worse, Joe Biden submitted that, actually, it would somehow make inflation better. “That won’t increase inflation,” Biden said. “That will take the pressure off of inflation. If your primary concern right now is inflation, you should be even more enthusiastic about this plan.” This idea is evidently popular in the Biden White House, which seems to assume that government policy could not possibly have an ill effect on consumer prices. “There are some who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers,” Psaki explained yesterday during a meditation upon the prospect of tax increases. But “we feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that.”

    Got it? Sending people who don’t pay taxes refunds is “infrastructure.” Out-of-control spending reduces the risk of inflation. Companies subject to tax increases do not pass the costs on to consumers. And outlays are “cost-free,” providing that the government takes the money by force instead of borrowing it. Curiouser and curiouser, Alice.

  2. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth September 30, 2021 Reply

    From Reason, “Joe Manchin Is Forcing Congress To Think About the Deficit. Good. Among Americans who aren’t liberal pundits, the debt and deficit rank as major concerns. It’s about time Congress noticed.”

    “I can’t support $3.5 trillion more in spending when we have already spent $5.4 trillion since last March,” Manchin said. “I cannot—and will not—support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces.”

    While he did not specifically invoke the $28 trillion national debt or the federal government’s current budget deficit, Manchin obviously wants to draw Congress’ attention to the massive disconnect between how much the government spends and how much it collects in taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the national debt will exceed the size of the U.S. economy by the end of this year and will continue growing as annual budget deficits pile up over the next few decades. “A growing debt burden could increase the risk of a fiscal crisis and higher inflation as well as undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar, making it more costly to finance public and private activity in international markets,” the CBO has warned.

  3. Avatar of Bill Heath
    Bill Heath October 3, 2021 Reply

    President Biden has said that deficit spending will have no effect on the US because we are the world’s reserve currency. He has no idea how quickly a currency can implode. There are multiple other currencies that can serve as the world’s reserve currency, and some are actually maneuvering to do so.

    First up is Bitcoin or other Crypto Currency. Facebook has its own crypto currency and functions as a hostile foreign power within the US.

    Second is the Euro. It’s actually more stable than the dollar.

    Third is the Yuan. China has stated publicly that it will displace US as the world’s sole superpower, and the current administration is not listening. “Come on, man.China isn’t a threat.”

    Fourth is the world’s most stable currency, the Swiss Franc. Anyone who believes we could simply bomb Switzerland into submission has not been looking closely. I expect to be canceled for the following statement, perhaps even jailed. Switzerland is a nuclear power, and has had nuclear weapons for decades. The nuclear club is nowhere as exclusive as we believe.

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