This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
With what author and activist Naomi Klein calls “galloping momentum,” the “Green New Deal” promoted by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appears to be forging a political pathway for solving all of the ills of society and the planet in one fell swoop. Her plan would give a House select committee “a mandate that connects the dots” between energy, transportation, housing, health care, living wages, a jobs guarantee and more. But even to critics on the left, it is merely political theater, because “everyone knows” a program of that scope cannot be funded without a massive redistribution of wealth and slashing of other programs (notably the military), which is not politically feasible.
That may be the case, but Ocasio-Cortez and the 22 representatives joining her in calling for a select committee also are proposing a novel way to fund the program, one that could actually work. The resolution says funding will come primarily from the federal government, “using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”
A network of public banks could fund the Green New Deal in the same way President Franklin Roosevelt funded the original New Deal. At a time when the banks were bankrupt, he used the publicly owned Reconstruction Finance Corp. as a public infrastructure bank. The Federal Reserve could also fund any program Congress wanted, if mandated to do so. Congress wrote the Federal Reserve Act and can amend it. Or the Treasury itself could do it, without the need to even change any laws. The Constitution authorizes Congress to “coin money” and “regulate the value thereof,” and that power has been delegated to the Treasury. It could mint a few trillion-dollar platinum coins, put them in its bank account and start writing checks against them. What stops legislators from exercising those constitutional powers is simply that “everyone knows” Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation will result. But will it? Compelling historical precedent shows that this need not be the case.
ROBERT STEELE: The group is naive at multiple levels, to include concerns about global warming matched with obliviousness to geogengineering, HAARP, and directed energy weapons used by the Deep State via the US Air Force. Our in-house economist, Wayne Jett, has grave doubts about the proposals that create paper currency and finds the Roosevelt era example unconvincing. For myself, I believe there is a lot of good in what Ocasio-Cortez is trying to do; that she will fail; and that President Donald Trump is on a better path that includes a gold-backed dollar, nationalization of the Federal Reserve, and the recovery of at least $15 trillion and perhaps as much as $30 trillion over time in value from the banks that have looted public treasuries world-wide. The bottom line for me is that Xi, Putin, and Trump must agree that all Central Banks, without exception, must be nationalized; most if not all land should be expropriated away from foreigners and corporations and placed back under the control of local communities (not the states) that can lease it under a “do no harm” clause; and true cost economics must become the law of the land. This includes the federal government giving up control of most land taken from the states west of the Mississippi. President Trump is surrounded by people, many of his own choosing, who are lying to him and betraying the public trust every day. The big question for 2019 is whether our President will clean his own house and in so doing, go to the next level. We do not lack for wealth — we lack for integrity sufficient to recover and redirect that wealth.
See Especially:
Catherine Austin Fitts with Dark Journalist: Constitutional Dangers, $21 Trillion in Missing Money
Wayne Jett: Project Insignia Reveals Deep State Trillions
Robert Steele: Meet Judy Shelton, Trump Advisor on Gold-Backed Dollar
See Also:
Federal Reserve @ Phi Beta Iota