The money printer chugs along. Rampant Inflation devalues each dollar hard-working Americans earn every day. And the bill for this party will eventually come due, in the form of dramatic financial pain forced on children and grandchildren by current generations.
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin joined radio talk host Andrew Wilkow on Friday to discuss the consequences of the current administration’s money printing and the possible consequences of a bipartisan infrastructure spending deal. The host began the conversation by wondering out loud if the Democrat president and Congress’ goal is to give out enough goodies to cajole, coax and sweet-talk voting majorities in 2022.
“They will spend as much as they can get away with,” Johnson replied. “What I don’t want to see is Republicans complicit in it. First of all, everybody realizes we need to spend money on infrastructure. And in normal times I actually would support deficit spending on infrastructure, true infrastructure, things that last 20, 30, 40, 50 years. It would make sense to borrow money. But we just spent, basically, five, six trillion dollars of money we don’t have.”
Johnson proposed that the Republican position on infrastructure should be to take the $700 billion in Covid relief that isn’t spent fully until 2028 and repurpose it for infrastructure. Johnson believes any bi-partisan deal would simply lead to more Democrat-devised entitlement programs.
“Here’s the really nasty thing. What they’re going to do is put forth a new entitlement,” Johnson predicted. “They’ll say it will sunset in three or four years, to get a decent score. But we all know entitlements never end, so this will be way more expensive than what the bumper sticker amount that is going to be passed by the budget committee.”
Although it has ramped up considerably in the past six months, the printing didn’t begin when the tax-and-spend Democrats took over and began pushing high-spending, socialist policies. While he never took action on the matter, President Donald Trump talked often about a large infrastructure spending plan that, in the end, did not materialize during his first term. Spending has been ramping up to out-of-control levels for years, if not decades, through the actions of both parties.
Wilkow, as has been his philosophical bent, questioned the need for the Federal Government to tackle needs in individual states, such as high-speed broadband access in rural communities.
“This is what I don’t understand. When we talk about infrastructure, tell me if I’m crazy, we’re no longer separating federal infrastructure from state and local,” Wilkow said. “So if you’re talking the federal highway system, you’re talking about ports, or military bases or any of the things that fall under the guise of the Federal Government, that I get. But all of this other stuff is state-based stuff. Why should states have to wait for a bipartisan agreement to do state-based things? And this idea that if the states put all their money in a big pot somehow the sum is greater than the parts, that’s not true. The only reason we’re doing this, it sounds like, is because the states cannot run up debt like the Federal Government.”
Johnson continued, saying that our nation’s Founding Fathers would be apoplectic with the country’s ever-growing and powerful national government dwarfing states with irresponsible, massive money printing and control. Long gone is the country’s initial design for strong local and state governments, held closely accountable by the smaller communities they represent. Today, rather, the nation’s original intent and design has been turned on its head.
“Through the generosity – and I say that statement cynically – of the Federal Government, spending money that they don’t have and further mortgaging our kids’ future, we have pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into state and local governments and they don’t even know what to do with it,” Johnson said. “There are literally cities and municipalities that have gotten so much money that they’re dreaming up things to spend this money on. But everybody wants more. The Federal Government is the sugar daddy.”
Politicians have always offered “ice cream for votes,” as Wilkow puts it. And now Americans may be force-fed another heaping scoop or two if an infrastructure deal is ultimately finalized.
Rick Schultz is a former Sports Director for WFUV Radio at Fordham University. He has coached and mentored hundreds of Sports Broadcasting students at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, Marist College and privately. His media career experiences include working for the Hudson Valley Renegades, Army Sports at West Point, The Norwich Navigators, 1340/1390 ESPN Radio in Poughkeepsie, NY, Time Warner Cable TV, Scorephone NY, Metro Networks, NBC Sports, ABC Sports, Cumulus Media, Pamal Broadcasting and WATR. He has also authored a number of books including “A Renegade Championship Summer” and “Untold Tales From The Bush Leagues”. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @RickSchultzNY.
