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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Means-testing

lundi 25 octobre 2021 à 02:00

*House Progressives to Pelosi: Reject Divisive Means-Testing in Favor of Universal Benefits.*

I sympathize completely with those who say that wealthy people should be paying more, not receiving more. But the amount we would get from rich people by denying them these benefits would be minuscule, not enough to justify the future weakness that would result from limiting these benefits to poor people.

Instead, we should make the rich pay taxes on all their income and property. That would bring in far more funds. However, Manchin specifically opposes that too.

Why does the spending in the Build Back Better bill have to be specifically "paid for"? It's not something the US needs to do for economic reasons. Deficit spending is entirely possible, and economically desirable now. Congress doesn't trouble to make sure increases in military spending are "paid for" by savings or taxes.

The reason is that plutocratists adopted an arbitrary "pay as you go" rule for spending on things that will help Americans, and that applies to the Build Back Better bill.