“Debt And Inflation Threaten U.S. Security” – Wall Street Journal Feb 22, 2022.
The U.S. national debt is plowing higher and the interest expense on that debt is mushrooming.. Our elected leaders in Washington have absolutely no politically feasible plan on the table to set America back on course.
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Annual Interest Rate Payment on Government Debt: $850 Billion and Rising Fast
At the current pace, interest on US government debt will soon hit one trillion dollars.
Here is a follow-up on last week’s chart with some excellent granular detail.
Interest payments on the national debt during the current fiscal year (October to February) are up 29 percent y/y, one of the fastest-growing expenditure components of the Federal budget (see table below).
Revenues are down, especially individual income taxes, which may reflect the slowing economy.
Theory dictates (ceteris paribus) that government tax revenues should be rising with inflation, however. Hmmm.
The overall deficit is exploding, btw, up 50 percent.
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America’s national security is on the line. And our Republican and Democrat representatives in Washington, D.C. have no politically-feasible, economically responsible plan to get America’s massive debt back under control.
America’s Main Street Republicans do have a plan:
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America 2024
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
The U.S. contributes 17.46% of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota. The recently agreed to Sri Lanka bailout agreement means, in effect, that U.S. taxpayers will contribute $52.38 billion of the $3 billion package – which will go, in large part, to help Sri Lanka pay off debts to its largest single creditor, China.
Our Washington-based Republicans and Democrats apparently to not have a problem with this….
The International Monetary Fund approved a $3 billion financial bailout for Sri Lanka, a key milestone in the cash-strapped country’s efforts to recover from its worst economic crisis in decades.
Sri Lanka will receive approximately $333 million in a first disbursement from the fund following the signoff on Monday from its executive board of directors, the IMF said. The country will receive the remainder of its bailout package over the next four years as it makes progress on fiscal policy reforms and debt-restructuring talks with its sovereign and commercial creditors.
The $3 billion financial package, the IMF said, aims to restore Sri Lanka’s debt sustainability and mitigate the economic impact of a continuing recession on the poor and vulnerable.
Sri Lanka has been racked by turmoil after its foreign reserves dwindled last year to the point that it could no longer pay for imports such as fuel, cooking gas and medicines. It approached the IMF for a financial bailout after suspending repayments on its external debt in April….
…To receive final approval, Sri Lanka needed to show it had made enough progress on negotiations for debt relief with its creditors, including with bilateral creditors like China, Japan and India. China is Sri Lanka’s single largest creditor, having lent billions to the country through a number of its state-owned policy banks.
In January, the state-controlled Export-Import Bank of China provided a letter offering a two-year moratorium on debt repayments for some $3.8 billion in outstanding loans that Sri Lanka owes. The letter didn’t meet IMF requirements and the approval process didn’t move forward, Sri Lankan officials said.
The Chinese lender this month provided a second letter promising to restructure its debt in line with the IMF’s framework for public debt sustainability in Sri Lanka. India and Japan, as well as commercial bondholders, have also said earlier they will help Sri Lanka ease its debt burden, paving the way for the IMF to green-light a first disbursement under the bailout.
Economists said the IMF’s approval represents a crucial but early step toward Sri Lanka restoring its economic credibility and regaining access to international capital markets. The country needs to complete debt-restructuring negotiations with lenders, which could take months.
“Until that happens, Sri Lanka remains in a state of stress,” said Nishan de Mel, executive director of Verité Research, a Colombo-based think tank.
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Sri Lanka is in a “state of stress” …(?)
U.S. taxpayers are also in a ‘state of stress’… And it is high time to stop transferring U.S citizens’ hard-earned tax dollars, through proxies, to our arch enemies.
These insane policies perpetuate misguided foreign policy initiatives, provide aid and comfort to our enemies, and add to our already massive debt loada, and make our country weaker.
It is time to end transfer payments to America’s enemies. Period.
It is also time to ‘de-stress’ America with a bold new economic acceleration plan – to rebuild our economic power base, eliminate debt, generate massive budget surpluses, and restore economic liberty for all U.S. citizens.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
The Fed is off to a flying start – ‘pumping’ liquidity (newly created ‘electronic money’ to fund BTFP and Discount Window borrowing) into a currently wobbly banking system, in part to save wealthy principles (SVB) not covered for the large sums of money they were on tap to lose (above and beyond the paltry $250,000 FDIC deposit insurance).
U.S. citizens, meanwhile, remain mired in debt to the very financial infrastructure which the Fed is once again ‘bailing out.’
The U.S. government remains ‘buried’ in debt – with no plan whatsoever to get the country back on track for long-term solvency; the banking system remains ‘fragile’; the U.S. Dollar is in ‘erosion mode’; and economic liberties in America are in decline.
Solution: A powerful economic acceleration plan that will ‘reroute’ Fed liquidity transfusions first through a Citizens’ Credit Facility and then on to the financial institutions that need to clean up their balance sheets.
In this manner, Fed liquidity will first pass through the hands of U.S. citizens – who will use these funds to pay off, or substantially pay down, their indebtedness *mortgages, student loans, consumer loans, credit card debt) to various financial institutions in both the private and public sectors.
The banks will get the funds they need – after those newly-created ‘electronic dollars’ pass first through the hands of U.S. citizens.
End result: Banks will get their money; millions of ‘distressed’ loans will become ‘current’ of get paid in full; millions of U.S. citizen credit scores will, over time, regain respectability.
Millions of American families will not live in fear of losing their homes through foreclosure proceedings (banks foreclosed on 8.4 million homes during the 2008-2010 financial crisis), losing vehicles (auto delinquencies and repossessions are currently trending higher), and/or struggling to pay monthly rent bills and student loan pay-downs.
The Leviticus 25 Plan will restore financial health for millions of American families, generate massive federal budget surpluses, stabilize the banking system, strengthen the U.S. Dollar, and rejuvenate economic growth, and restore economic liberty in America.
Earlier today we said that with Wall Street freaking out over the latest bank crisis, everyone’s attention would be focused on today’s weekly H.4.1 update from the Fed. And they weren’t disappointed because what we found was striking.
In the week ended March 15, borrowings under the Fed’s deeply stigmatizing last-ditch liquidity facility, the Discount Window, exploded to $152.85BN, a record $148BN weekly jump to an all-time high which surpassed even the borrowings during the financial crisis!
Just as importantly, those curious what the usage of the Fed’s new BTFP facility would be, got their answer – and the Fed won’t like it: at just $11.943BN, this was a very small amount as banks clearly fear the stigma associated with the BTFP program even more than they loathe the Discount Window. This is in line with what Goldman suggested: “While use of the BTFP is the most straightforward measure of the extent to which deposit outflows are putting banks under pressure, many banks say they will only use the BTFP once they have exhausted other funding sources such as FHLB advances, certificate of deposit issuance, and the wholesale debt market.”…..
Taken together, the credit extended through the two backstops showed a banking system that remains broken and is dealing with over $100BN in deposit migration in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York last week.
And then the Fed also revealed that $142.8 billion in reserves were released by “Other Credit Extensions” (this line item was $0 last week), and “includes loans that were extended to depository institutions established by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Federal Reserve Banks’ loans to these depository institutions are secured by collateral and the FDIC provides repayment guarantees.”
Including loans that were extended to depository institutions established by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The Federal Reserve Banks’ loans to these depository institutions are secured by collateral and the FDIC provides repayment guarantees.
At the consolidated level, the surge in new liquidity created by the Fed meant that the Fed’s balance sheet rise by $297bn – its biggest jump since April 2020 and erasing 4 months of QT, or half of the entire program!
Separately, earlier today, we reported that JPMorgan’s Nick Panigirtzoglou estimated that the Fed’s new BTFP facility could rise as much as $2 trillion, and suggested that as a result of the massive reserves created by this facility it could serve as a Stealth QE. However, at $11BN per week, we will have to wait quite some time to get to JPM’s target.
Putting it together we said that we live in an interesting time: one when the Fed is hiking, the Fed is shrinking its balance sheet, and the Fed is also engaging in Stealth QE in hopes of injecting trillions in reserves in small banks….
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The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
Democrats and their progressive allies are vastly expanding their unprecedented efforts, begun in 2020, to use private money to influence and run public elections.
Supported by groups with more than $1 billion at their disposal, according to public records, these partisan groups are working with state and local boards to influence functions that have long been the domain of government or political parties.
Registering and turning out voters – once handled primarily by political parties – and design of election office websites and mail-in ballots are being handed over to those same nonprofits, which are staffed by progressive activists that include former Democratic Party advocates, organized labor adherents and community organizers.
Republicans have opposed such efforts, passing legislation in 24 states since 2020 curbing the private financing of elections. But the GOP does not have a comparable, boots-on-the-ground effort to influence election boards and workers, and the private-funding bans haven’t proved absolute in some states.
“There is a cottage industry of 501c3s in public policy and in the political arena, trying to shape the future of immigration or education or any other topic,” said Kimberly Fiorello, a former Republican state representative in Connecticut. “Increasingly they are about elections, election administration, election technology, ballot design, and all with big funding. These groups seem innocuous, but they aren’t innocuous because they are funded by one political side.” \
Many of the progressive groups seeking to influence elections are connected to Arabella Advisors, a Washington-based, for-profit consulting company founded and led by Eric Kessler, a White House appointee during the Clinton administration.
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Note again: “…the GOP does not have a comparable, boots-on-the-ground effort to influence election boards and workers, and the private-funding bans haven’t proved absolute in some states.”
If the GOP and Washington Republicans had any type of a populist economic plan with the power to restore financial security for American families, and get the United States of America back on track for long-term economic growth and U.S. Dollar stability….
They would have millions of these voters getting registered by leftists ‘beating the doors down’ to vote for them.
The GOP and Washington Republicans have the opportunity of a lifetime to present a dynamic new ‘roadmap to prosperity’ for America.
They so far, however, have nothing to offer.
America’s Main Street Republicans do have a powerhouse economic plan for America.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
Without question, one of the principal ulterior motives involved in the Fed’s gang-buster rate hike campaign has been cranking rates up to high enough, attractive enough, levels to create strong demand for government debt at Treasury’s monthly auctions.
The Fed has stopped buying Treasuries (through back door Primary Dealer channels) and is now actually selling Treasuries from their portfolio – to begin shrinking its balance sheet (announced months ago with their QT initiative).
The Fed was well aware that ‘bidders’ would be needing sufficient ‘yield-based enticement,’ and that robust private sector demand would therein be critical for orderly Treasury auction events – perpetuating big government, specifically the Executive branch and its various agencies, and the U.S. Congress, to continue happily digging America ever deeper into debt.
Without adequate demand at the auctions, credit markets will deteriorate quickly.
The looming problem: higher net interest costs are now getting ‘baked in’ to our ever-ballooning federal budget deficits, which will inevitably lead into U.S. Dollar instability, chaos in the foreign exchange markets and complete disorder in the credit markets. And America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens will pay dearly when this pandemonium hits our shores.
WSJ report:National Debt, as of Jan 19, 2023 – $31.38 trillion. In the first quarter of this 2023 fiscal year, “gross interest on the national debt hit $210 billion—or $144 billion in net interest, excluding interest on Treasury securities held in government trust accounts. That’s $840 billion gross and $576 billion net on an annualized basis, up dramatically from $580 billion gross and $383 billion net in the 12 months before the economic shutdown in March 2020. This escalation doesn’t even reflect the full-year impact of the Fed’s 2022 interest-rate increases. Effective interest rate: 1.836% net; 2.677% gross
There is a true powerhouse economic solution to America’s debt crisis, one that will keep America’s financial affairs in good order. Re-targeting liquidity flows key to a dynamic resolution of this crisis:
Grant U.S. citizens with the same direct access to liquidity extensions that was so generously extended, through various credit facilities, to scores of ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions during the great financial crisis of 2007-2010, including the likes of: Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, State Street, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Barclays, UBS AG, BNP Paribas,and multiple others…
The key dynamic: When U.S. citizens pay down, or eliminate massive amounts of debt, the financial sector will have trillions of dollars on hand – to engage in competitive bidding at Treasury auctions, lowering interest rates, and dramatically lowering net interest projections.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America will generate in excess of $619 billion in annual budget surpluses in each of its first five years of activation.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
The world’s largest developed economies are trudging along, barely above stall speed. This, following years of intense coordination and massive financial system liquidity infusions by Central Banks.
G-7 nations continue to experience anemic economic growth, on-going massive debt loads, and now… inflation.”
It is time for a new solution, that re-targets liquidity flows. And it all starts at ‘ground level.’
Michael Solon / Wall Street Journal – December 12, 2016
Excerpts:
Since 2008, the largest developed economies, in an effort to build financial stability and economic prosperity, have engaged in unprecedented coordination of financial regulation, monetary policy and business taxation. What the G-7 nations got instead was the weakest economic growth, the largest surge in government debt, the riskiest monetary expansion and the gravest deflationary pressures of the postwar era.
Massive debt and monetary excess have delivered stagnation and deflation. The G-7 guardians have failed by their own metrics of safety and soundness and their stated goals of prosperity and fiscal responsibility. Despite unsuccessful rescue plans and drained emergency measures, they never asked what went wrong.
Meanwhile, America’s punitive 35% corporate tax rate—the highest in the developed world—has discouraged U.S. firms from investing at home and sets a global tax floor to stabilize government revenues and foster government growth. The result is average U.S. GDP growth of only 2.1% since 2010—40% less than the administration’s projected 3.6%. …. that dismal growth rate has taken a $9.5 trillion bite out of U.S. GDP since 2010—$29,400 on average for every American.
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America needs an all-powerful economic strategy that will pay-off massive amounts of public and private debt, recharge the U.S. economy with free market growth dynamics, provide long-term stability for the U.S. Dollar, and restore economic liberty for our citizens.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
The U.S. Congress’ long-running social welfare policies have created a snow-balling dependency on government hand-outs…
America needs a new plan.
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“Low-Income Americans Fume In Mile-Long Food Lines After Pandemic Benefits End” ZeroHedge, Mar 7, 2023 – Excerpts:
Over the past year, 18 US states have officially ended pandemic-era states of emergency – including the covid food benefit, while a December mandate from Congress will end aid in March for the other 32 states, along with the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and Guam.
The collective return to pre-pandemic policies includes [curtailing] enhanced unemployment benefits and child tax credits, as well as a rollback adjustment to Medicaid that boosted enrollment.
Now, people are waiting up to nine hours in mile-long lines for free food – some of whom say they can only afford to eat once per day, while others say they limit expensive food items such as meat for specific family members, such as growing teenage boys.
From the front to the back of the line, the sea of despair and hardship along this desolate Kentucky highway foreshadowed what may be in store for millions of Americans as the federal government ended the remaining pandemic increase in monthly food stamp benefits this week. -WaPo
Following the reduction in benefits, the average SNAP recipient’s benefits are expected to drop by around $90 per month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That said, an even greater reduction is in store for seniors and the working poor who receive assistance from other government programs, and will likely qualify for less.
Other states are preparing for the same – “We are bracing, and our agencies, member food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens are not prepared for what is about to hit them,” Said Ohio Association of Foodbanks executive director, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt. “This reduction, and end of the public health emergency, could not be coming at a worse time.”
Even before the benefits retired this month in Ohio, Hamler-Fugitt said demand at food banks soared last year as retail food prices rose by 11.4 percent nationwide, more than five times the historical annual average. She said Ohio charities and foodbanks served 3.1 million people in the last quarter of 2022, which she called a record and about 600,000 more than were served during the same period in 2021.
Now, Hamler-Fugitt expects many of the state’s 1.5 million recipients will also be scrambling to find food assistance, adding she projects the benefit reductions will remove $120 million from Ohio’s retail economy each month. -WaPo
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Washington Democrats work continuously to expand the administrative state – disincentivizing work and productivity, driving up annual budget deficits, hampering economic growth, and curtailing economic liberty.
Washington Republicans do not have a formalized, politically-feasible economic plan to counter Democrat free-giveaway programs – and get America back on for national prosperity and long-term financial security for American families..
Main Street America Republicans do have a plan.
The Leviticus 25 Plan will lift millions of Americans up out of poverty by 1) Eliminating massive amounts of household and mortgage debt; 2) Re-incentivizing work; 3) Countering inflation pressures; 4) And creating dynamic new efficiencies in commerce and health care.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
In 24 states, unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies for a family of four with no one working ar the annualized equivalent of at least the national median household.
A family making almost a quarter of a million dollars annually still qualifies for ObamaCare subsides in every state.
In a dozen states, the value of unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies exceeds the salary and benefits of the average teacher, construction worker, electrician, firefighter, truck driver, machinist or retail associate.
In New Jersey, a family of four can receive benefits equal to an annualized earned income of $108,000 with no one working.
In Connecticut and New Jersey, a family earning $300,000 per year can receive ObamaCare subsidies.
The Biden Administration is using the pandemic to expand the class of Americans who are permanent government dependents. Some GOP-led states are trying to exit this road to serfdom, and Georgia recently won its lawsuit against the Administration to impose Medicaid work requirements for low-income, able-bodied adults. This is a major fault line between the parties and deserves more attention.
….Progressives are now trying to deter GOP states from imposing work requirements by flogging the compliance costs. “The systems being set up for work requirements are very costly to implement for states,” a left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyst told MedPage Today. Suddenly progressives care about costs to taxpayers?
For the past two years, the Administration has repeatedly extended the national public-health emergency for no ostensible purpose other than to expand the welfare rolls. President Biden in September declared the pandemic over, but the Health and Human Services Department says it plans to extend the emergency until at least mid-April.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 increased federal Medicaid funding to states on the condition that they don’t kick ineligible beneficiaries off their rolls as long as a public-health emergency is in effect. The law also increased food-stamp benefits and waived work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults during the emergency.
Since February 2020, Medicaid enrollment has ballooned by 23 million to an all-time high of 97 million. By comparison, Medicaid grew by 14 million between 2013, just before the ObamaCare expansion took effect, and the start of the pandemic. About 21 million Medicaid recipients don’t currently meet eligibility requirements, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.
As long as the emergency is in effect, Georgia can’t remove able-bodied adults on Medicaid who don’t comply with its work requirements—or if it does, it may have to give up hundreds of millions in federal funds. The emergency is a Faustian bargain for states, delivering some $130 billion in additional Medicaid funds to date while restricting their ability to manage their programs.
The same is true for food stamps whose rolls have swelled by nearly five million nationwide, or about 13%, during the pandemic owing chiefly to the emergency suspension of work requirements, even as unemployment has reached pre-pandemic levels. Anyone who wants a job can get one, but expanded transfer payments have reduced the incentive to look.
Monthly federal food-stamp spending has more than doubled during the emergency to $9.3 billion owing to the sweetened pandemic benefits and a Department of Agriculture regulatory change last year. Benefits are set to increase another 12.5% this fall with an inflation adjustment. Transfer payments fueled inflation, and now the reverse is happening.
States may forgo the enhanced food stamps by ending their own Covid emergencies or disaster declarations. About 20 mostly Republican-led states have done so, including Florida, Tennessee, Iowa and South Dakota. But the lure of “free” federal money has discouraged most, including Texas and Utah.
… Too many politicians of both parties today want to expand government dependency. A top priority for House Republicans in the next Congress should be to reverse the pandemic inflation of the welfare rolls.
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America does not need narrowly-targeted, incremental change within its its current social welfare bureaucracy – which rewards and promotes dependency on government.
America needs powerful, comprehensive change – of the type which will ‘lift’ people up out of poverty, and cease incentivizing ‘non-work, and provide a dynamic recharge to the economy, eliminate massive amounts of public and private debt, and generate major federal budget surpluses.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
The Biden administration’s lip service about new IRS enforcement only being targeted toward the country’s wealthiest appears to be just that: lip service.
Instead, while we have been distracted with rhetoric about billionaires paying their fair share, the Biden Administration’s IRS is actually looking to stock its coffers with the tips of waiters and waitresses across the country. This newly planned targeting of middle-class Americans was proposed this week.
Earlier this week the IRS proposed a new procedure to “improve tip reporting compliance”, as they so brilliantly put it. Fox News reported:
As part of the program, which wouldn’t go into effect until after a multi-month public comment period, the IRS could withdraw liability protection related to “rules that define tips as part of an employee’s pay” from employers that don’t cooperate.
The program can’t go into effect until it makes it through a multi-month comment period, Fox News reported.
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax, told Fox this week: “Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Now, the IRS is going after middle-income families and working moms and dads who are just trying to make ends meet and put food on the table.”
“My colleagues and I have warned for months that the IRS would start targeting hardworking Americans in the Biden administration’s quest for more taxpayer dollars. Now, we’re starting to see some of these concerns come to fruition,” he continued….
[Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb]: “Bank surveillance efforts, 1099-Ks, 87,000 new IRS agents to target taxpayers, and now a new program to go after service industry workers’ tips are all a direct result of the Biden administration’s desire to tax working families and small businesses as much as possible.”
Smith continued: “Make no mistake: the administration’s many attempts at raising revenue are because they are unwilling to come to the table to address the debt crisis, which would require curbing their spending addiction.”
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While is is admirable that House Republicans have pledged to resist the Biden IRS crusade to tighten the noose on service workers’ tips, Washington Republicans do not have a politically feasible plan to curb Washington’s “spending addiction.”
Washington Republicans, in fact, are fully complicit in our federal government’s ‘spending addiction” – as the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently:
The Back End of an Omnibus – WSJ – Dec 22, 2022 — “Republicans… haven’t shown a whiff of interest in fiscal restraint since the early days of Paul Ryan’s tenure as House speaker. Their majorities broke the bank during the Trump administration, enabling Democrats to point to deficits as reason to resist further tax reform. They held hands with the left to partake in five Covid bailouts in 2020 alone. They joined again to pass Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill and the semiconductor slush fund. Members of the new, supposedly responsible Republican House majority weeks ago voted to keep the earmark gravy flowing.”
Washington Republicans have a golden opportunity to get on board and support the most powerful economic acceleration plan on the face of the earth – a plan that will obliterate our big government “spending addiction,” generate massive, ongoing budget surpluses, and help lift millions of Americans up out of poverty.
And, I might add, winning over millions of new working class voters.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
WASHINGTON—The ending of the Covid-19 public-health emergency means a reset for the country’s food stamps program, which aids more than 41 million Americans, as lawmakers weigh whether to make more far-reaching changes as part of the next farm bill.
An extra boost in the food assistance for low-income households that Congress authorized at the start of the pandemic will wind down this month, and additional leeway afforded to states around some of the program’s rules will end in May.
“As that temporary help and flexibility now ends, we will return to a new normal,” Stacy Dean, deputy undersecretary for food and nutrition at the Agriculture Department, told lawmakers last week.
But even as the program returns to its prepandemic operations in some ways, Republicans are sounding alarms over its eligibility guidelines and price tag.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that the program will cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food stamps are funded through the farm bill, typically a five-year bill that yokes together support for farmers with the food stamp program. The current farm bill expires in October….
Democrats generally support the existing work requirements, but said they would resist efforts to further restrict access to food stamps.
Passing a new farm bill will require bipartisan support, since Republicans control the House and Democrats hold the Senate and White House. And with a razor-thin majority in the House, Republicans are unlikely to be successful if they attempt to pass a GOP-crafted farm bill just relying on their own votes. Republicans have splintered over the farm bill in the past, stymieing their efforts to demand more stringent work requirements.
Earlier this month, five House Republicans sent a letter to Mr. Biden pushing for an overhaul to the food stamp program as part of negotiations over raising the federal debt limit.
“All we’re asking is to put SNAP on the table,” and in particular its work requirements, as part of the discussions, Rep. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.), one of the five lawmakers to sign the letter, said in an interview.
Improper payments are not the only problem in SNAP — some retailers and recipients “traffic” their benefits as well. According to the GAO, trafficking is “a practice in which retailers exchange recipients’ benefits for cash instead of food, often taking a fraudulent profit.” A report from September 2021 found that trafficking of SNAP benefits has also increased in recent years. Using a consistent definition of trafficking, the average annual amount trafficked has increased from $241 million in 2002–2005 to $1.2 billion by 2015–2017.
In practice, trafficking happens when a retailer charges an EBT card (a restricted-use debit card carrying SNAP benefits) an amount such as $100, but gives the individual a lesser amount of cash (say, $50) instead. The individual gets unrestricted cash and the retailer charges the federal government for the full $100, making a profit. Sometimes, retailers will also purchase an EBT card from an individual, use it to purchase items from a bulk store, and sell the items in their store for a profit.
Federal law requires the USDA to investigate retailers for trafficking and researchers extrapolate the extent of the problem from their analysis of EBT data. According to the most recent report and using a consistent definition, in 2015–2017, “$1.271 billion in SNAP benefits annually were trafficked and thereby diverted from their intended purpose.” This accounted for between 1.6 and 2 percent of total SNAP benefits in 2015–2017.
Dramatic SNAP expansions throughout the pandemic have prompted an equally significant increase in SNAP purchases at retailers — which jumped by more than $20 billion in FY 2020, according to the USDA. More benefits flowing through retailers will mean more SNAP benefits trafficked.
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Once again, the political ‘cards’ are stacked against them, and Washington Republicans are simply playing out a ‘losing hand.’
Washington Republicans will get ‘tarred and feathered’ on this issue. And rightfully so, since: 1) Not one Washington Republican will lose any meals when their food stamp belt gets tightened; 2) The economy is so royally ‘screwed’ that even members of the U.S. military rely on SNAP benefits to help make ends meet; 3) In the big picture, chiseling away at the Food Stamp program will do nothing meaningful to help bring the massive budget deficits back under control, nor will it do anything to reign in Food Stamp fraud and abuse; and, most importantly, 4) Washington Republicans should have a politically feasible ‘big picture’ plan to help lift Americans up out of poverty and privation, so they won’t need to rely upon government handouts – and they have nothing whatsoever to offer.
It is thoroughly bewildering to watch.
Main Street Republicans do have a dynamic plan, one that will: 1) Raise all boats and lift millions of Americans up out of poverty; 2) Substantially reduce overall dependence on government; 3) Eliminate the need for military personnel to on Food Stamps; 4) Restore citizen-centered health care in America; 5) Generate massive, $619.5 billion. budget surpluses (2024-2028); and 6) Pay for itself entirely over a 10-15 year period.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens. It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.
The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.
The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America
