Because of the hatred the establishment corporate Democrats have for Bernie, Warren might actually get a more progressive agenda passed in Congress than he can, “IF” she tries. There is little to no indication that a President Bernie would be given any more slack by the national media than he is now, so the bully pulpit many talk about his using to rally the people for popular issues may not even be available to him. It’s hardly news that the powerful corporations Bernie wants to take on are also major advertisers and the lifeblood of the media.
The concern the DNC has for Bernie upsetting their gravy train goes considerably deeper than just Bernie’s socialistic leaning ideology. He has cultivated a long-lasting relationship with his economic advisor, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, even making her a board member of his foundation. Dr. Kelton is a leading proponent of a relatively new approach to economics that begins with the actual functions of our monetary system and their purpose, often mired in antiquated gold standard logic and of little use today.
The economic theory Dr. Kelton subscribes to is known as Modern Money, or Modern Monetary Theory. She became an advocate when she, at the time a Keynesian economist, attempted to debunk the claim made by its founder, Warren Mosler, that taxes and borrowing are not funding operations for federal spending. After a year-long deep dive into Treasury and Federal Reserve reports she not only failed to debunk the theory but also became convinced that it holds considerable promise for America.
That promise is contingent on if it can be shaken out of its fear of deficit spending and the debt, which are both top order propaganda fodder for both political parties to keep the unwashed masses from clamoring for nice things like other countries have (GOP) and maintain a general dislike for rich people (DNC).
While the GOP makes no secret of its preference for austerity fiscal policy, even when it loses elections for them from its sheer cruelty in poor business cycles, the DNC has been less overt in its support that greatly favors its corporate donors, especially in the financial sector. This is an uneasy alliance however, as the DNC merely has to threaten to live up to its reputation as “the people’s party” to elicit donations that assure that it won’t. Even criminals don’t blackmail each other as their primary business model.
MMT says that there is never justification for cruel and inhumane government policies as long as there are sufficient resources and labor available to utilize any money deployed to allay those conditions. As long as we have food we can always “afford” food stamps and school lunch programs, and as long as we have idle resources available in concrete, steel, labor, etc to build hiways we can always “afford” infrastructure. We actually could give every American household a pony as long as we can breed enough ponies and grow enough to feed them.
As much as the typical politician loves to use “affordability” to justify denying the voters what they were promised “for the general welfare” in our Constitution (Article 1: Section 8)taking affordability off the table lets the voters know that “ANY” misery in this economy that can be mitigated with federal spending is purely a “political decision”, not economics. It is always about maintaining the pecking order, never about the money.
Also, given that taxes drive unemployment (no non-taxing entity has unemployment because they don’t have money) the case can be made that the government “owes” the people a means of securing employment sufficient to meet basic needs, even if the government must become the employer of last resort. This hardly fits the model of small gubmint capitalism both parties now claim to favor. The monopoly issuer of the currency spending/creating that currency for the public purpose is not “socialism”. It is the beginning point of capitalism. The government’s red ink is the only net source of black ink the economy has.
Bernie, of course, isn’t going to attempt to teach economics to voters while running for President, but you can be assured that it is exactly the combination of his socialistic leaning and his choice of economists (also favored by AOC who is an economist herself) that has them all crapping in their undies. The days of Milton Friedman style market capitalism economics could be cut off with a successful President Bernie.
