Bernie is hamstrung by his self identifying as a Democratic Socialist, something only a few understand is fully in keeping with the intentions of our founders and our Constitution. Our nation has been under assault by capitalists attempting to nullify the New Deal since the Powell memo and the takeover of the Democrat party by neoliberals. That assault, mostly waged in the media, resulted in success in the Clinton administration that Trump has used to his extreme advantage in tearing down the long-accepted character of America.
While Bernie still relies on the left’s dislike for the wealthy and desire to tax them in public, behind the scenes where his policies are hammered out his economics are entirely different. His primary econ advisor, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, is far less enamored with taxation to pay for public spending. In fact, she posits that taxation doesn’t even actually pay for anything at the federal level and is mostly only useful as inflation control and a way to achieve social goals related to equality. She correctly recognizes the federal budget deficit as the only source of money in the economy that can retire private bank debt or serve as a store of value realized in commerce.
Dr. Kelton is a very personable educator at Stony Brook University and a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory. She is quite prolific in public appearances and has created many YouTube presentations advocating for the discipline. While Bernie is wisely avoiding deep dives into economics in the midst of his campaigning, he is obviously in the MMT camp if one considers how long Dr. Kelton has been a trusted member of his staff and the trust he has placed in her advice.
Modern Monetary Theory puts to rest the irrational fear of deficits and the debt that has largely contributed to our economic decline over recent decades. While Republicans pay lip service to the debt, their actions and policies would suggest that they also understand the nature and source of money and covertly accept the premise of MMT even while using fear of spending as ammunition to enable/manufacture acceptance for cuts to vital programs and benefits to the poor and middle class that would make even Reagan pause.
Bernie’s war with the neoliberal/centrist wing of the Democrat party is no secret. At the core of that war is the concept that government can be a positive force in shaping an economy that works for everyone without placing it in danger of inflation or default. This concept defies the worship of markets as the only force able to provide prosperity that has dominated Democrat’s econ policy since Clinton and greatly contributed to the ’08 crash by forcing the middle class to use their homes as ATM cards to compensate for the lack of public money below the bank accounts of the 1%.
It has been said that any policy decision that has harmed America and the middle class will have a video of Bernie opposing it and Biden supporting it.
