Darrell Castle talks about the 2,700 page new Bipartisan spending bill that is known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Transcription / Notes
INFRASTRUCTURE, BOONDOGGLES, AND GREASY PALMS
Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 6th day of August in this the year of our Lord 2021, and on this Report, I will be talking about the new Bipartisan spending bill that is to be finally voted on this week or next week. The 2700-page bill known as The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is not an investment and whether it creates any new jobs remains to be seen.
Fortunately for the Castle Family we do have jobs despite the federal government’s policies this week and it is indeed a beautiful summer week in Memphis. The July heat has moderated leaving mid 80’s temperatures. The family daughter remains safe in the glorious and golden state of California.
I am going to introduce this Report with a quote from Dr. Ron Paul which is a very good representation of my own views and the premise of this Report. “For Libertarians—and even many non-Libertarians—it’s not shocking to discover that a US Administration lies and deceives the electorate. For government on all levels, lying to the American people is as American as apple pie. Sometimes the liars are held to account for their deception, but most often they are not.”
I can’t personally think of many lies where the government liars have been held to account so let’s take our subject for today as an example. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a lie by its very name because the planned spending is not an investment and words can not change that. If we assume that the infrastructure of America, the roads, bridges, tunnels, waterways, water systems, airports, need emergency work then we should certainly make those repairs when the money is available. These expenditures, normally made in good economic times are expenses, perhaps necessary, but not investments.
No matter what slight of hand the government uses this 1.2 trillion is borrowed money. When you own a business, and you use credit there are two kinds, productive and non-productive. The business owner borrows 100k and buys a new Mercedes, that is nonproductive debt. The business owner borrows 100k and buys new equipment that will greatly expand and speed up his capacity that is productive or investment capital. Should he need to repair an existing machine so he can regain former capacity he has an expense.
The roads, railways water works and airports the federal government will borrow to repair are already there therefore the credit is for expenses. The argument may be simple semantics, but it illustrates the point Dr. Paul made earlier. The $1.2 trillion in this bill is an amount that senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to as a compromise measure. The Democrats in the house want $3.5 trillion to spend and they may still get it soon but for now it’s $1.2 trillion.
The $3.5 trillion house bill was to be for “human infrastructure” which of course is another government lie. The term just means that congress would not pass a bill with so much money if the real purpose were admitted. The real purpose was to fund every Democrat social program and Green New Deal program that the Democrat minds could dream up as well as rob the rest to reward their supporters. The bipartisan bill now scheduled for final vote in the senate was a compromise in which they agreed to at least call the spending infrastructure so people would not be so alarmed. Whether the bipartisan bill passes or not the human infrastructure bill is still on the table pending ultimate passage.
Some people have referred to this principle as turning water into wine. In other words, 1 dollar of expenditure is predicted to gain 2 dollars of revenue, but it just doesn’t turn out that way. In fact, the dollar of borrowed money must be paid back or at least the interest paid forever.