Prior to Inauguration, Joe Biden announced plans to “immediately” put forth an immigration bill and executive orders to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally, stunning even immigration advocacy groups. The prospect of U.S. Government handouts triggered a border surge that became an out-of-control crisis.
Trump border policies and international agreements were revoked and wall construction halted. Weakening of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidelines has effectively turned the entire country into a sanctuary jurisdiction. Considering at that time job loss for U.S. citizens due to COVID-19, the threat of pandemic spread from asylum seekers, and the costs of feeding, housing, healthcare and education for migrant children the policies made no sense to the average citizen.
In 1966, Columbia University sociology professors and activists Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven wrote an article titled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty” that introduced what became know as the “Cloward-Piven Strategy.” The goal is to overload the socioeconomic system to the point of collapse, triggering a financial crisis at the state and local level resulting in a socialistic system to include redistributed guaranteed income. The intent is to provide a viable means for changing American culture incrementally from within, as in the boiled frog metaphor.
What the Biden administration did on the southern border just after assuming power is effectively an implementation of the Cloward-Piven Strategy related to immigration whose origin dates back to the 1960’s, the original intent being to secure more voters for the Democrat party. Illegal immigrants are flooding across the southern border, the incidence and impact of which is covered up by the propaganda media as was done with the Hunter Biden laptop story and others that counteract the Biden agenda. This will put tremendous financial and social pressure on state and local governments, increase crime, and undercut wages that businesses pay to legal workers in many industries. Coupled with “defund the police” efforts and failure to enforce laws and punish criminals will cause turmoil, especially in cities.
If Democrats are successful in creating a pathway to citizenship for enough immigrants in the country illegally – those already here plus new arrivals and via chain migration – they will enjoy one-party rule as they have in California and enact desired change legislatively. This was the goal of Nancy Pelosi’s For the People Act (H.R.1), to create an unbeatable Democrat majority. This failed bill, unconstitutional in many respects, would have not only made permanent many of the 2020 election changes but increased them exponentially.
The National Debt
One issue that Generations X/Y/Z will be particularly impacted by is the national debt. On July 3, 2008 candidate Obama said the following: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
By the time President Obama took office, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. When he left office, it had risen to $19.9 trillion. During the Trump administration it increased to $27.8 trillion, and between President Biden’s inauguration and January 2023 the debt increased to $31.4 trillion. So the question for younger generations is – what will happen as a result of this “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” spending?
Economists have said that once total debt exceeds that of a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), as it did for the U.S. in 2021, a crisis can ensue. As of January 2023 the debt is approximately 124% of GDP. The risks are that if interest rates were to rise, the cost to service the debt would take a larger portion of the annual budget, squeezing out other spending priorities including defense. Debt holders could demand higher rates due to increased risk of default. Lower demand for U.S. Treasury notes would put upward pressure on rates and downward pressure on the dollar. A lower dollar means lenders get paid back in currency that is worth less, making it likely they will seek alternative investments, putting further upward pressure on rates. The combination of all these things is like a snowball rolling downhill, picking up speed and growing in size until it ultimately crashes with disastrous results.
Back in 1992, the last period of time anyone took the issue seriously, Presidential candidate Ross Perot said the following: “The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement, all the neighbors know she’s there, but nobody wants to talk about her.” In that decade we saw divided government work – in 1994 Republicans took control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years, and in conjunction with Democrat President Bill Clinton produced budget surpluses for all four years of his second term. There have been deficits ever since, with the debt now larger than the entire U.S. Economy. To think that this dam of debt won’t at some time burst is naïve and foolish – the consequences could be catastrophic.
Does Inflation Reduce Debt?
The out-of-control spending of the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress coupled with the fulfillment of Biden’s campaign promise to wage war on American energy, has raised inflation to levels not seen in over forty years. Debasing the currency through inflation is one of four tools used to retire debt, but only if it rises gradually so it isn’t as noticeable to the electorate. If inflation slows significantly from the 40-year high 8.5% peak in March 2022, this strategy may be successful.
The losers in this strategy are those who own the debt. If someone were to buy a $1000 10-year Treasury note instead of spending the money on goods or services, they are paid interest and when the bond matures get their $1000 back. What you can buy with that $1000 depends on the rate of inflation over that ten year period. Use of an inflation calculator (available online) shows that a 7% annual rate over ten years nearly halves the purchasing power, so the goods and services that cost $1000 will cost nearly $2000 when that bond matures (slightly mitigated by having earned interest). Meanwhile the government benefits because their multi-trillion dollar debt has been chopped nearly in half (in real dollar terms and not including debt added during the period) without having to raise taxes or cut spending with the bond holder playing the metaphorical frog.
Last edited: February 7, 2023