by Guy Page

For more than a year, the US Congress has been spending money at an unprecedented rate. The federal debt is now $28 trillion – $84,000 for every man, woman and child in America. It was “only” $18 trillion a year ago, according to the Arthur Peterson Foundation.

Yet no-one in power in Congress is talking about repayment. Like credit card companies at Christmastime, Congress has pressed us to spend now and worry about payments letter. This morning, the first notice of Payment Due came in the mail, hidden in a predictably worded press release from Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders:

“Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today announced that on Thursday, March 25 at 11 a.m., the Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing on ending our rigged tax code and ensuring the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share. The United States today has more income and wealth inequality than almost any major country on Earth, and it is worse now than at any time since the 1920s. Over the past forty years, there has been an enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest people in America.”

Actually, we only hope Sen. Robin Hood tickets some of that money to deficit reduction. Sen. Sanders himself makes no such promise. He does swear, however, that only the unjustly wealthy will suffer – not you and me. Of course not! Sen. Sanders is on Our Side.

“From a moral, economic, and political perspective, our nation will not thrive when so few have so much and so many have so little. We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene level of wealth inequality in America.”

What’s missing is a serious plan to really help Sen. Sanders victims of inequality create their own wealth. Private or charter schools in poor neighborhoods? Anathema to public school teachers, Sanders most fervent supporters. Won’t happen. Law and order, the essential nutrient for growing the entrepreneurial spirit in the soil of downtrodden neighborhoods? Not if only social workers are answering 911. Promoting intact families led by two parents empowered to raise independent, productive children? Patriarchal nonsense. Real border security to reduce flow of cheap, illegal labor? Racist.

What’s especially missing of course is any incentive for Americans of any economic group to create debt-reducing wealth. As he has been promising since the 1970’s, Sen. Sanders will take from the rich. No doubt some of the money will trickle down to the needy after being strained through the stingy cheesecloth of government programs. But there’s no mention, at all, of spending receipts from punitive taxation on aggressive debt reduction or wealth creation.

What the poor of America really need, Sen. Sanders and his crowd oppose. I doubt he has ever heard of debt killer Dave Ramsey. Too bad. If there was ever a time for America to cut $2 of spending for every $1 it raises, it’s now.