Stephen Moore calls Modern Monetary Theory a dangerous left-wing doctrine that claims the U.S. can borrow endlessly because the dollar is the world's reserve currency. He points to Venezuela, Argentina, and Mexico as proof it fails, and warns the national debt now approaches half the economy. Moore also attacks the infrastructure bill's $40 billion for 70,000 new IRS auditors.
With Stephen Moore, who is terrific, edits the wonderful Unleash Prosperity newsletter. Just go to DennisPrager.com, you can click onto there if you want to go directly. It'll take you about a week to type in the name, CommitteeToUnleashProsperity.com. Could you have thought of something longer?
You know, we actually— funny, we think— I think we're going to change the name, just Unleash Prosperity.
I think, I think that would be a good idea.
Just between us. I'm going to tell my board that Dennis Prager agrees with my recommendation. And by the way, it is free. And just go to— just, just Google Committee on Unleashed Prosperity. Just click a button. We will send it to you for free. And thank you for bringing that up. By the way, Dennis, you know, I think we have an agreement with your team there at PragerU that we're going to do a new video called The Bankrupting of America. And we're gonna start, I think, filming that sometime later this summer. And it is really an important one because this debt and the massive increase in government is now approaching half of our entire economy.
[Speaker:DENNIS PRAGER] It's so important that even before this, I would often, when going to college campuses, obviously prior to the lockdowns, I would actually open up many of my talks at colleges saying, I just wanna thank you on behalf of my generation for taking on our debt. This has never occurred before in American history. You are truly the most generous generation to have ever been raised in American history. They don't know. They don't— they vote for the people who are ruining their future.
I agree entirely with that, and it is true. I mean, When Biden talks about, oh, $6 trillion of debt, but Dennis, you and I aren't gonna pay for that, right? We're gonna be long dead in our graves by the time those bills come due. But it is all these young millennials who think it's just so wonderful to run up the national debt in a way that I think is ruinous. And by the way, Dennis, have you ever heard of this new dingbat left-wing theory? Because you're very good at exposing dingbat left-wing theories every day on your show. Have you heard of modern monetary theory?
No.
Oh, this is an amazing one. It is growing in influence on college campuses all over the country and within the Biden administration and the progressive movement. And modern monetary theory— I am not making this up, it is becoming a real popular, trendy economic theory around the country— is that we can just— because we have the global economic currency in the dollar, we can continue to borrow and borrow and borrow trillions trillions and trillions of dollars, and essentially they say there is no cost to America to do that because we have low interest rates. And I'm like, that's like saying if you jump out of a window from the 96th floor, you know, for the first 90 floors you're flying high and you're having a great time until you crash. And this is what is guiding our economic policy people in Washington, folks. I'm not making this up.
Well, that's the New York Times?
There's no limits to how much we can owe.
That is what the New York Times— that's Paul Krugman's belief. Man won a Nobel Prize in economics.
And show me— somebody show me— when I do debates against some of these progressives, I say, show me anywhere in the history of the world where that's ever worked out. It didn't work out for Venezuela. It didn't work for Argentina. It didn't work for Mexico. I mean, we are on a path that— look, I believe in America. I think we will turn around the Titanic before we hit that iceberg, but we better start, start turning it away.
You believe, you believe that because, well, I'll let you fill in. You believe that because why?
Because I think Americans will come to our— we are not genetically progressive socialists. We have freedom and free markets in our DNA. I really believe that. And I think Americans will awaken. I won't use the word woke. I think we will awaken to the tragedy that is going on in this country. This is it. Look, you know this, Dennis. This country is a center-right country. We're not a center-left country. Biden got in because a lot of people just didn't like Trump's behavior, although they liked his economic policies. I mean, and I think they have so outstretched and outreached their mandate. I think there's going to be a huge snapback revolt against this. I really do. And by the way, can I bring up one quick thing before— because I know we're running out of time. The most outrageous thing in that infrastructure bill, Dennis, to me, is $40 billion. $40 billion, not million, billion, for expansion of the Internal Revenue Service to hire 70,000 5,000 new IRS tax nukes.
And, and that's passed, obviously.
Well, it's in the bill. It's not passed, but I mean, my God.
Well, talking about passing it, so you note 3 Republicans, Collins and, uh, and Romney and, and Cassidy.
Yes.
So I don't understand Cassidy.
I can't explain it. I can't explain it. You also have Bob Portman, who's a good man. I've always liked Rob Portman. Uh, you know, he's signed off on this bill. I, I think though, when people really look and see, uh, how this money is being spent, only, only about $200 of the $100— $1.2 trillion has anything to do with roads and highways.
That's right. So why did they sign off on it?
I don't know. I mean, I, I just think this bill has to be killed. Biden is dancing a little jig. He— the agreement was that if we passed this bill, he wouldn't— we wouldn't have to have a massive tax increase. But now he's run— he sprinted as soon as they had the handshake deal, uh, with, uh, with the Republicans. He sprinted over to his good friend, uh, you know, Bernie Sanders and said, oh, by the way, we're going to sign this bill and then I'll sign the $3 trillion tax increase. There's nothing in this for conservatives and it has to be stopped. We should be cutting spending by a trillion. Not increasing spending by a trillion.
How can we stop it if they have 50-plus vice presidents?
Well, that— we're in a bit of a pickle, aren't we? You know, we have to hope that there's at least one sane Democrat, at least one fiscally sane Democrat who cares more about his country than he believes in the progressive movement to stop this from happening. Because the fact is, they do have those 50 votes. And hopefully a Senator Manchin or Senator Sinema or at least one Democrat in this Congress will vote against this. It's reason we got to have Americans really contact people. I mean, we got to get angry here because this is a—
all right, everybody, subscribe to his newsletter. It's free. It's up at DennisPrager.com or simply Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Stephen Moore, you're a gem.
Life, Legacy, and a Dangerous Mission in the Soviet Union | Sunday Fireside Chat
