Ask Americans what's fueling inflation and the answers are predictable. Gas prices. Food costs. Higher wages. Supply chain snarls. Even Putin. No one blames Washington's big spenders. They should. In a two year period, Congress shelled out a record $9.95 trillion dollars, contributing to inflation.
The classic definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods. Some modern economists prefer to define inflation as a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing value of money. That describes what transpired when the economy opened up in late 2020 after Covid lockdowns.
Once the shackles of pandemic restrictions were lifted, Congress pumped a record $3.13 trillion in economic relief in 2020. Then Washington's privileged class doubled spending to $6.82 trillion under Biden. The economy was flooded with money at a time when supplies of nearly everything was scarce.
Economic experts, including Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers, sounded the alarm in early 2021 about the spending gusher. No one listened. The priority of every Washington sewer dweller is to get re-elected by showering their district or state with pet projects or sending checks directly to voters.
Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021 triggered an avalanche of dollars cascading into the economy. Checks for $1,400 rolled out to Americans. Unemployment insurance increased. Child tax cash payments replaced credits. Cities and states were the beneficiaries of billions of dollars.
Both parties share the shame. That's why they are looking for scapegoats like Putin. Congress is responsible for approving the annual budget and directing spending. In recent years, Washington has employed budget smokescreens to hoodwink the public while it continues the spending rampage.
Congress last passed an annual appropriations budget bill in 1996. Since then, Congress has junked the time-honored appropriation process and resorted to a series of massive appropriation bills. In addition, Washington's aristocracy uses so-called continuing resolutions to fund the government.
This budget chicanery is a deliberate charade to hide the gargantuan amount of taxpayer dollars spent in a single year. This process led to a $2.2 trillion Cares Act in March 2020. It provided cover for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. And the the mother of all spending, a $2.3 trillion appropriations bill in 2021.
Granted COVID lockdowns created a unique economy quandary: How to jumpstart the feeble economy? A Tsunami of billions of dollars were dispatched to airlines, small businesses and stimulus payments to Americans. All that spending, however, led to a bloated supply of dollars in the economy.
But Washington's nobility just kept doubling down on spending. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that more than "$1 trillion in pandemic relief and aid approved over the last year remains unspent." Washington's bureaucracy cannot spend as fast as Congress appropriates money.
While your tax dollars are idling, they get wasted by your federal government. The GAO, a government watchdog agency, presented its annual report in May identifying $552 billion in government waste and redundancy. Those dollars will never be refunded to the taxpayers who forked over the money.
That is just the tip of a Titanic iceberg. Non-partisan groups estimate that overall fraud in the COVID Paycheck Protection Act (PPA) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program reached $84 billion. The money was stolen by criminals. It was inevitable given lax reporting requirements.
Congress did that. In its rush to prime the pump, it sent billions to the Small Business Administration which spent it as if money was candy at Halloween. The Department of Justice has promised to find and prosecute criminals. But taxpayers get nothing. Now the administration stumps for higher taxes.
Oh, and at a time when the White House was requesting more COVID relief funds this January, an enterprising report by a budget think-tank uncovered that the $1.9 trillion relief package had $800 billion remaining in unspent funds. The appropriation had been approved in 2021.
As your blood pressure spikes, the latest Federal Fumbles compiled by Oklahoma Senator James Lankford contains some doozies. Two billion dollars were frittered away by not finishing the border wall. Contractors were paid the money by the government not to build the wall. Say what?
The U.S. Grant Presidential library in New Jersey received $500,000 for an art wall. This is the penultimate of pet project payoffs to New Jersey's senators and Congressional representatives. Another $500,000 was dished out to the Nansen Ski Club in New Hampshire. Nice, huh?
But there's more. A total of $2.65 million was conveyed to China for their health programs. The fisherman's co-op in Guam snagged a nifty $3 million. The government handed out safe smoking kits at the cost of $30 million. And, golly, $569,000 was doled out for lobster pot removal.
The gigantic levels of government spending over nearly three years injected trillions into the economy. Direct payments to Americans left them with money to spend after they returned to their jobs. To the untrained eye, it appeared to be just the tonic to boost the economy.
However, the mammoth government spending of your tax dollars created the perfect economic storm. Supplies of goods were tight. Service firms were just getting back on their feet. Trillions of dollars were sloshing around the economy. Too many dollars were chasing too few goods.
The Federal Reserve made matters worse by artificially holding down the funds rate to near or just above zero. That encouraged more borrowing, more stock market speculation, more consumer debt. The Fed dawdled too long, before finally inching up interest rates in the midst of record inflation.
The Fed's so-called accommodation recklessly added to the nation's supply of money at a time when Congress was on a spending frolic. It was a double-whammy that poured gasoline on the fires of inflation. Yet the "smart" Washington noblesse told us inflation was only "temporary."
Congress and the Fed agreed the engorged spending would help the people who needed it most. But the people suffering the most today are those at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. They are making gut wrenching decisions about putting food on their tables and gas in their cars.
That's why it is so disingenuous to hear Mr. Biden haranguing oil companies about inflationary prices. Biden, the Fed and Congress need to look in the mirror. Start pointing the finger where the blame belongs. Washington did this. They own this crisis. Don't let them dodge accountability.
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