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Well, now that we get nothing back from the poor judgment of trying to wring revenue out of tariffs, tax cuts and cuts to the social safety net, I can happily report that I won’t be talking about the knucklehead in the White House.

Instead, I will refer readers to a column in the Sunday, July 20 Minnesota Star Tribune titled The national debt: You can stop worrying now, written by financial advisor Dennis Fazio.

Fazio clearly describes the facade and politicization of the issue, a time-worn tool meant to stir anger toward federal spending and government itself. It’s exhausting to hear the lackeys decry the burden of debt and then add to it with an ill-advised blob of tax and spending cuts. 

The hypocrites are many and they have big mouths.

He explains that a large number of economists know the national debt crisis is bogus and that many in Congress do also. He further states that those many in Congress are either incompetently ignorant or deliberately deceptive. 

“The constant whine at public benefit spending is, ‘How are you going to pay for it?’ That’s the wrong question,” Fazio says. “Likewise with the recently passed tax cuts, the need to pull money from critical health care assistance is superfluous. It’s strictly for political and personal worldview purposes and to present a charade of fiscal responsibility.”

Fazio clarifies that currency is created by the U.S. Treasury through the Federal Reserve Bank. The Treasury has for many years issued what is called fiat currency, a currency that has no intrinsic value or backing like gold or silver and depends on the trust and confidence of the public. 

Fazio notes that its value can float versus other currencies which keeps the dollar the most stable currency in the loop.

“The concept of spending ‘taxpayer dollars’ is specious,” he writes. “In spite of misleading analogies to our household budgets or ignorant claims by Elon Musk, the federal government cannot go bankrupt; it issues the currency. Nobody else can do that. Comparing federal finances to a household budget does not compute.

“So let us redefine the national debt as the sum total of all funding the U.S. government has invested into the U.S. economy. When government spends, somebody in the private sector gets the money. A government deficit becomes a private-sector surplus. Everyone is focused on only one side of the ledger.”

In turn, Fazio notes, budget surpluses are “undesirable” because they pull money out of the private sector. 

“The balance of money flowing between the Treasury and aggregate private holdings is a closed loop. Federal surpluses (which result in corresponding private-sector deficits) have been a precursor to many financial crises since the founding of the republic.”

He points out that we spend so much time “fretting” about the national debt we completely ignore the effect of bank-created private credit. He again reminds readers that it was excess private debt (margin borrowing and bad mortgages) that triggered financial meltdowns like the Great Depression and the 2008 Great Recession.

“So in addition to skipping debt-panic stories,” Fazio said, “the next time you hear anyone in Congress say ‘We can’t afford it’ to any proposed public benefit investment, tell them, ‘Yes we can, and you should know that.’”

All I can say is that it was a very informative read. In the newspaper. Ohe of the last bastions of informed thought. Long live “the enemy of the people.” A free press lives on.

Also instead, I will try to wring some sense out of masked men marching around our country arresting and detaining people who might fit the profile of illegal immigrant when simple solutions are at hand. Instead of spending billions building walls and a police state bent on “hitting the numbers” to appease the gullible half that wants to cleanse the country of the undocumented, why don’t we simply document the undocumented and ask a couple of questions without the threat of arrest and deportation.

Would you want to become an American citizen?

Would you rather simply be a worker in the American economy?

You decide and we’ll figure out the details of how to accomplish those tasks in a republic free of the knucklehead who lives in the White House.

This message has been approved by the National Union of Friendly Americans.

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