The Obliviousness and Conniving of the Democratic Party

Election Day, November 3, 2020, is 20 months over the horizon. Already, there are currently eleven declared candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination with another eight or ten waiting in the wings. With this gaggle of dedicated and oblivious leftists jockeying for position, there is no end to the radical proposals and concepts being bandied about. However, all these policy propositions have three common goals: the rapid erosion of personal freedom, an equally rapid acceleration of the United States into another failed socialist experiment, and the permanent assumption of power by the self-anointed elites on the left and the Democratic Party. Nothing reflects this programmed allegiance to socialism and the collective ignorance of the leaders of the Democratic Party more than the economic and societal proposals that have emerged and been endorsed by its presidential candidates over the past two months. On the surface they no doubt sound great to those who pay little or no attention to facts and reality. A philosophical discourse on the attributes of capitalism versus socialism oftentimes causes the eyes of the true-believers on the left to glaze over and their minds to go blank, but perhaps a financial reality check would be more meaningful.

The following grab bag of serious proposals by the Democrats, and their cost over ten years (in 2019 dollars), reflect the lunacy that has seized so many on the left: The Green New Deal: Cost of: Guaranteed Green Housing…$4.2 Trillion Zero Emissions Transportation System…$2.7 Trillion Low-Carbon Electricity Grid…$5.4 Trillion High Speed Rail System…$2.5 Trillion Federal Income Guarantee for all Americans…$44.6 Trillion Total………………. $59.4 Trillion Medicare For All (universal health care)… $32.6 Trillion Cost of Reparations for African-Americans… $14.0 Trillion Free College Tuition and Forgiveness of Students Debt…$2.4 Trillion Interest Expense due to higher borrowing and interest rates…$6.6 Trillion All the above are new proposals and spending which total $116.0 Trillion. However, there is still the issue of current government spending at the federal, state and local level. The Federal Government currently spends (minus health care and interest) $2.9 Trillion per year. Ten years of this federal spending (assuming a 1.5% real annual increase) …$31.1 Trillion Current state and local spending (less: health care) $2.95 Trillion per year. Ten years of this state and local spending (assuming a 1.5% real annual increase… $31.6 Trillion The unleashed and unhinged Democratic Party and their mad dash to bankrupt the country in combination with what is currently being spent totals: $178.7 Trillion over ten years. The annual total economic output of the nation is currently $20.0 Trillion (assuming a highly unlikely 1.0% real annual growth) or the nation would have economic activity of $211.0 Trillion over ten years. Government spending at all levels would devour 85% of the economic output of the nation. This year it will be 37%. The above calculus assumes that the economy could possibly maintain this level of output with all the spending listed above. With so little capital available to the private sector, and taxes on all productive members of society, by necessity at confiscatory levels, there would be, at first, a stagnant and quickly thereafter a rapidly declining economy. The vast majority of citizens would no longer be productive, as they would have guaranteed income from the government as long as the government was able to pay -- which would not be for long. The mind-numbed robots on the left often revert to the evergreen solution of “we can borrow the money.” Currently, the total government debt at the federal, state and local levels is nearly $26.0 Trillion, or 130% of the nation’s total annual economic output (or Gross Domestc Product). When a nation finds itself in debt to the tune of 200% of its annual GDP, and spending is out of control, borrowing becomes extraordinarily expensive and lenders hard to find. Therefore, this nation might be able to borrow another $14 to $20 Trillion over ten years, but that would barely make a dent in the above government spending demands. Besides, the monies would eventually have to be repaid or the assets of the nation sold to the highest bidder. The other glib answer by the left to the spending demands is “the government can print more money.” Yes, it can. But the as the quantity of money available increases, the more rapidly it loses value and more will be required in exchange for tangible goods or services,, which begets additional printing of money in a never-ending downward spiral. If all this sounds vaguely familiar it was what happened in Venezuela (among more recent examples). The candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, the senior leadership of the party and its younger members, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are either mind numbingly ignorant, indoctrinated robots or they are so desperate for power that they will do or say anything they think will enable them to win elections. When their economic proposals are combined with their determination to transform the culture and legalize infanticide as well as eventually euthanasia, the Democratic Party is now a clear and present danger to all Americans.