America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
DID JOE MANCHIN SAVE AMERICA FROM JOE BIDEN'S KLEPTOCRACY?
Senator Manchin obviously knows West Virginians far better than Biden or Bernie Sanders. Indeed, Biden is still disliked by many West Virginians. In a November 2021 MBE Research survey, 65% of West Virginia voters disapproved of the job Biden has been doing as President of the United States while only 32% approved. Manchin had an overall job approval rating of 60% in the survey compared to 37% disapproval.
Joe Manchin is a hero for holding the line and killing Build Back Better. He cited two reasons—debt and inflation—to which all of us replied: well, duh. But in today’s Democrat party, fiscal responsibility is rare and fleeting. So, we should take a moment and sing the praises of this extraordinary accomplishment in the hopes we can inspire more.
Let’s start with the cost. It is often said that nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. We’ve all been around the block; we know the game: give the public a taste of the government’s bountiful benefits and then vote later—from terra firma—on a bill to maintain the status quo. This is why it is far more reasonable to assume the permanence of the benefits and to estimate the cost of the bill at $4.73 trillion rather than the $1.7 trillion figure so casually thrown around in the media. The Congressional Budget Office concluded the added costs of making the temporary policies permanent “would increase the deficit by $3.0 trillion over the 2022-2031 period” above the temporary costs.
While Joe Biden shamelessly tried to convince his base that these new entitlements would actually help inflation, the rational Democrat senators prayed behind the scenes that Manchin would stay strong so they could remain silent and not have to acknowledge publicly that the emperor has no clothes. We now see how the President and other progressive Democrats have their daggers out for Manchin, which likely only confirms for any opposing Democrats that they were right to keep their mouths shut. And that is why Joe Manchin is a hero. He knew the daggers were coming and he did it anyway. And to better understand exactly how heroic this was, let’s break it down:
For the first time in our lives (unless you’re over 70), debts matter. In Q3 2021, for the first time in our nation’s entire history, tax receipts didn’t even cover the interest on debt and entitlement expenses. In Q3 2021, these expenses were 110% of tax receipts. Imagine if you couldn’t even pay the interest on your mortgage. That’s where we are as a country.
Here are the basic numbers for fiscal year 2021 (which ended September 30):
Tax receipts were $3.863 trillion.
Entitlements (including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) were $2.966 trillion. Baby Boomers continue to drive this cost higher as they retire at an astonishing rate.
Interest on the debt was $378 billion. Now imagine this number tripling in the future as bond rates revert to the mean.
Discretionary spending (predominantly military) was $1.485 trillion.
Tax receipts are at an all-time high and the Treasury still had to sell an additional $1 trillion in bonds to cover the deficit. These deficits are dangerously inflationary; the Federal Reserve monetizes the debt by effectively “printing” currency out of thin air and expanding the money supply. In fact, the Fed is now the biggest buyer of U.S. debt as traditional buyers (Japan, China, United Kingdom, etc.) understandably question the wisdom of buying bonds yielding near 1.5% while the rate of inflation is consistently well above 1.5% (it’s like flushing money down the toilet).
Trillion-dollar deficits tell the world that we are being irresponsible with the currency. The U.S. Dollar is the world reserve currency and approximately 80% of those dollars are held outside of the country. The central banks of other nations hold gold and U.S. Dollars in reserve to stabilize their wealth, but those nations will sell those dollars if they believe other currencies will prove more stable. If (when) this happens, those dollars will flood back into the United States, and that’s when inflation hits like a tsunami.
To date, we have not experienced true inflation. Rising interest rates in the bond market serve as the best signal for true inflation. Present Consumer Price Index increases are predominantly caused by prolonged supply shocks.
Inflation, on the one hand, results from an expansion in the money supply, which generally drives all prices higher uniformly. As Milton Friedman observed, “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”
Supply shocks, on the other hand, drive prices higher unevenly (which is what we have seen lately). For example, in the 1940s, the supply shocks caused sporadic annual CPI increases of over 10%. By contrast, the late 1970s and early 1980s was a true monetary inflation resulting in consistent annual CPI increases over 10%.
No matter the cause (money expansion or supply shock), the resulting price increases are equally painful. The point is this: we haven’t seen anything yet. If we cannot get entitlements and trillion-dollar deficits under control, then we probably will see brutal inflation such as this country has not seen since after the Civil War.
As of Q3 2021, we officially crossed the Rubicon. We are finally at the point where we can no longer pay our bills and that fact is now painfully obvious to the rest of the world. The demographics are only exacerbating the problem.
But instead of addressing the economic realities, we bury our heads in the sands of Modern Monetary Theory. Build Back Better was like telling the world that we stopped even pretending to care. If that bill had passed, the U.S. Dollar (along with our dominant standing in the world) would have begun unraveling.
The bill was so patently ruinous to anyone objectively looking at the numbers, that it almost seemed an intentional act of sabotage. But giving progressives the benefit of the doubt, we likely would have chalked up the resulting disaster to “more unintended consequences from well-meaning progressive policies.”
Build Back Better was a test. The bill dared us to stand up to MMT. This was not a difficult test for any Republican because Republican voters overwhelmingly reject the theory. But Democrat voters do not. And this is what made Manchin’s opposition so courageous. He took great personal and political risks. The man is a hero. The least we can do is take this moment to thank him and recognize his achievement.
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Manchin Saves Country From Nightmare 'Build Back Better' Act
Petulant White House and progressives in Congress lash out in rage.
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia declared emphatically that he cannot back President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better legislation in its present form. The White House and progressive Democrats are fuming. Instead, they should take Senator Manchin’s words to heart and rethink their priorities in this age of inflation, soaring national debt, an unrelenting pandemic, and grave national security threats.
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” said Manchin in an interview during the "Fox News Sunday” December 19th broadcast. “I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.” When Manchin was asked directly by the show’s anchor Bret Baier whether that meant the moderate Democrat would vote “no” if the legislation were brought to a Senate vote, Manchin replied, “This is a no.”
Manchin cited several reasons for his opposition to the $2.2 trillion social welfare and green climate bill. He said that he is concerned about rising inflation that shows no sign of letting up soon, the exploding national debt, and the continuing problems caused by the spread of the coronavirus.
Manchin sharply criticized the budget gimmicks using so-called "sunset" clauses for certain programs that make the price tag appear much smaller than it will actually be.
“The thing that never changed, Bret,"Manchin said, "was basically the same amount of things that they're trying to accomplish by just changing, if you will, the amount of time that we can depend on it. So if you're going to do something and do it, pick what are prized priorities are like most people do and their families other businesses, and you fund them for ten years and you make sure they deliver the services for ten years.”
Shortly after his interview, Manchin warned that “my Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face. I cannot take that risk with a staggering debt of more than $29 trillion” and inflation that is harming many Americans “with no end in sight.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not waste any time in lashing out at Senator Manchin for supposedly going back on his word. Psaki characterized Manchin’s announcement of his decision to oppose the Build Back Better bill in its present form as “a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.”
Evidently, Biden, his press secretary, and Manchin’s Democrat colleagues in Congress have not been listening hard enough to Manchin’s objections to their radical spendthrift bill. Manchin has raised red flags for weeks.
In early November, for example, Manchin criticized his Democrat colleagues for using "gimmicks" to obfuscate the true cost of the Build Back Better plan. Without the artificial “sunset” gimmicks, the real cost over a ten-year period would be close to $5 trillion, not the $1.75 trillion that the bill’s supporters claim it would cost. "I'm open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward, but I am equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country," he said back then. "I for one won't support a multi-trillion dollar bill without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects of inflation and debt that have on our economy and existing government programs.”
Manchin could not be any clearer about his major concerns. Since November 1st, when Manchin issued this warning, nothing has been done to materially trim down the number and scope of the many bloated social welfare and green climate initiatives in the bill. Meanwhile, the inflation numbers are getting progressively worse. The Federal Reserve no longer calls the inflation problem “transitory” and has decided to prioritize tightening of the money supply to fight it. Reckless fiscal spending works at cross purposes with what the Federal Reserve is now belatedly trying to do to tame the inflation beast.
Nearly two months later, Manchin decided that he had waited long enough without any constructive results and finally pulled the plug on the Build Back Better monstrosity.
In Psaki’s December 10th statement falsely accusing Senator Manchin of “a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position,” Psaki repeated the White House lie that “the plan is fully paid for.” In fact, Psaki took her fabrications to a new level when she claimed that the Build Back Better plan “is the most fiscally responsible major bill that Congress has considered in years, and reduces the deficit in the long run.”
Not so. At minimum, the Congressional Budget Office found that the Build Back Better plan as it currently stands, with its “sunset” clauses, would add $367 billion in unfunded spending. If the programs were to be extended for a full ten years, a much more likely scenario if the Democrats maintain power and have their way, more than $3 trillion would be added to the deficit.
Psaki also claimed that the Build Back Better plan would have virtually no impact on inflation in the short run and would help ease inflationary pressures in the long run. She mentioned a report from the Penn Wharton Budget Institute supposedly supporting this claim, taking a jab at Manchin who has relied on the Penn Wharton Budget Institute in analyzing the Build Back Better plan.
Psaki provided no quotes from the Penn Wharton Budget Institute report she alluded to, nor did she provide any citation to the report itself. What Psaki left out of her statement is a December 14thtweet from Penn Wharton Budget Model concluding that the Build Back Better Act would have negative effects on both the GDP and government debt.
Progressive Democrats went after Senator Manchin with a vengeance. A leading progressive in the House of Representatives, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, said that “Senator Manchin has betrayed his commitment not only to the President and Democrats in Congress but most importantly, to the American people. He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that. West Virginians, and the country, see clearly who he is.”
To the contrary, West Virginians and people across the country have seen a rarity in Washington D.C. – a senator with common sense who says what he means and means what he says.
Rep. Ilhan Omar complained that “[W]e all knew that Senator Manchin couldn’t be trusted.” She added crudely, “[T]he excuses that he just made, I think, are complete bulls–t.”
The radical Squad member even had the nerve to pretend to speak for the people of West Virginia. “It is really disheartening to hear him say that he has been trying to get there for the people of West Virginia because that’s a complete lie,” Omar said. “There are just so many things that the people of West Virginia desperately need. And we know that he is not working on behalf of their interests.”
Democrat-Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders from ultraliberal Vermont also presumed to speak for the people of West Virginia. Sanders listed all kinds of enticing government handouts included in the Build Back Better bill that he said the people of West Virginia would want and suggested a statewide poll. "I told Manchin, by the way, I'll pay for the damn poll in West Virginia on those issues, see how the people of West Virginia feel," Sanders said.
If you ask someone whether he or she supports getting something for free or at a reduced subsidized price from the government, of course most people will say yes. However, when people realize all the true costs entailed with these giveaways that they will have to bear, including higher taxes and runaway inflation, many of these same people will have very serious second thoughts. Besides, the most important poll of West Virginian voters on whether they support the Biden agenda occurred during the last presidential election. Donald Trump beat Joe Biden 68.6% to 29.7%.
Senator Manchin obviously knows West Virginians far better than Biden or Bernie Sanders. Indeed, Biden is still disliked by many West Virginians. In a November 2021 MBE Research survey, 65% of West Virginia voters disapproved of the job Biden has been doing as President of the United States while only 32% approved. Manchin had an overall job approval rating of 60% in the survey compared to 37% disapproval.
As to the opinions of West Virginian voters regarding the Build Back Better plan, the MBE Research survey found that 74% of them agreed that “Senator Joe Manchin should oppose President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation spending bill in favor of legislation that would control spending more while 24% disagree with Senator Manchin’s opposition.”
Senator Manchin need not worry about a progressive-sponsored poll in his state. Manchin has his finger on the pulse of the people of West Virginia and, for that matter, the pulse of many Americans across the country.
In an interview with a local West Virginia radio station on Monday, Manchin hit back at White House staff, some of whom he blamed for the breakdown in his negotiations with the Biden administration.
"They figured surely to God we can move one person,” Manchin said. “We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that they'll just say, 'OK I'll vote for anything.' Well, guess what? I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they'll be submissive, period."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is still not listening to Manchin. Instead, he is following the lead of Sanders and other progressives demanding a Senate vote on the Build Back Better bill early next year.
“Senators should be aware that the Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better Act, very early in the new year so that every Member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television,” Schumer wrote to Democrats on December 20th. “We are going to vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act – and we will keep voting on it until we get something done,” Schumer added.
Instead of trying to work constructively to reach a consensus on a select few high priority items to include in a fiscally responsible bill without threatening to fuel inflation or bust the budget, Schumer appears to be heading down a dead end. It is long past time to bury this horrible piece of legislation for good.
Report: Joe Manchin May Become an Independent After White House Accuses Him of Disloyalty
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) may reportedly become an independent after the Biden administration on Sunday accused the senator of disloyalty.
Following Manchin’s vocal opposition to Biden’s $1.9 trillion Build Back Better bill, the White House accused Manchin of breaching “his commitments to the President.”
The accusation may result in Manchin becoming an independent, though he would still caucus with Democrats, Axios reported.
Manchin is from West Virginia, a red state that Biden lost in 2020 by nearly 40 points.
“I’m from West Virginia,” he said Monday. “I’m not from where they’re [Democrats] from, and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive, period.”
For months Joe Biden tried to work out a deal with Manchin to enact the spending package in the 50/50 split Senate. Manchin maintained throughout the negotiations he opposed major provisions in the package.
In October, leaks indicated Manchin wanted to leave the Democrat party over fears his opposition to provisions in the radical package would embarrass the party.
But Manchin, who some say planted the leaks, immediately condemned the rumor. “I can’t control rumors, and it’s bullshit,” Manchin told reporters.
Over the weekend, Manchin announced on Fox News Sunday he would oppose the reconciliation package.
“This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do. And the president has worked diligently,” Manchin said. “He’s been wonderful to work with.”
Manchin’s announcement drew immediate backlash from the White House, which accused the senator of disloyalty.
“If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate,” the White House said.
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