Deficits Racket

I have a question that has never gotten answered to my satisfaction until now:  Why can't the US afford EVERYthing, since it prints its own money?

Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi talk to economist Stephanie Kelton about how money is made and spent and why the question of whether we can afford single payer health care in this country is a straw man.  Adam and Nima spend the first half of the podcast chattering in an uncharacteristically juvenile way, to my mind, but when they get to Ms. Kelton, the enlightenment begins.  She makes it all so clear.

Politics is bullshit.

I recommend skipping the first half (sorry, Adam and Nima) and jumping in at the 28.00 mark of The Deficits Racket Part 1: Single Payer Propaganda War.

The idea that we’re “running out of money” and have to “tighten our belts" is a common trope in US media; the premise that the US government is like a household that must balance its books, largely taken for granted by liberal and right-wing outlets alike.

But is this premise correct? Is it true that the United States is over-budget and ready to explode with insolvency? Where does this conventional wisdom come from and whom does it benefit?

On this and next week's show we seek to answer some of the questions. In Part I: Single Payer Propaganda War, we examine the primary talking points against Single Payer and other big government programs and how to combat them with guest Stephanie Kelton.

  Citations Needed

"Conventional wisdom holds that the government taxes individuals and companies in order to fund its own spending. But the government, which is ultimately the source of all dollars, taxed or untaxed, pays or spends first and taxes later. When it funds programs, it literally spends money into existence, injecting cash into the economy. Taxes exist in order to control inflation by reducing the money supply, and to insure that dollars, as the only currency accepted for tax payments, remain in demand."