Hooray for New Math!

 Stacy McCain, $3.5 Trillion = Zero-Point-Zero Dollars?

Look, I’m no expert in math, but you’re never going to convince me that the cost of a $3.5 trillion legislative package is zero:

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has been slammed for claiming the $3.5 budget reconciliation packages “costs zero dollars.”
On Monday, the president said once again that the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill as well as reconciliation are both somehow paid for.
Hours later, during her daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made a similar point when pressed on whether the president admitted the bill didn’t cost zero when he said it would be less than he initially proposed.
“What we’re talking about is how much the top line investments are — which are all paid for,” Psaki said, referencing the $3.5 price tag. “So therefore, it costs zero, no matter what the cost or size of the top line investments are, we have ways to pay for it.”
Psaki added that the plan will be paid for by asking corporations and people of the highest incomes to “cover the cost of these necessary investments” through higher tax rates.
When asked one more time if the reconciliation budget costs zero dollars, Psaki admitted “the plan costs nothing for the American people who make less than $400,000.”

“Necessary investments” = a flaming dumpster full of socialist crap.

The speech that Biden read from his TelePrompter today was a gigantic stack of lies, which could not deceive anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of congressional procedure and the federal budget. Biden (or rather, his speechwriters) insisted that Republicans are to blame for Congress failing to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, Democrats could do this without a single GOP vote, using the same “reconciliation process” they’re trying to use to ram their $3.5 trillion — excuse me, I actually meant to say, zero dollar — spending package through Congress.

It is a bit bizarre that the current standard by which to judge a budget is by whether or not taxes will be raised sufficiently that the nation will not go further into debt to do it, rather than whether the country as whole, rather than individual interest groups, will actually benefit from the spending. To some extent, I do blame Republican for this, having made a touchstone of the deficit and the resulting debt.

And, of course, it's lie to say that tax increased on the rich and corporations will cover the increased proposed spending. Businesses and the rich will adapt their plans accordingly, and the full projected revenues will be a mirage, always seen in the distance, and never reached. And what revenues are collected will be paid by the by the middle class through inflation.