Tlaib’s Trillion Dollar Coin Hoax

Source: AP Photo/Jim Mone

Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib has sponsored the "Automatic BOOST to Communities Act" because she thinks she has stumbled upon a novel idea to stimulate economic recovery from the effects of the Chinese virus. According to Dr. George Selgin,

The BOOST Act's goal is to "provide a U.S. Debit Card pre-loaded with $2000 to every person in America," where the cards could be "recharged with $1,000 monthly until one year after the end of the Coronavirus crisis."

To finance the debit cards, Rep. Tlaib wants the US Treasury to use its Constitutional powers to mint money to make a one-ounce platinum coin and stamp it with the value of $1 Trillion. The Treasury would deposit the coin with the Fed and draw on it to pay to the debit cards. The point of the scheme is to avoid having the federal government borrow more money and instigate another fight in Congress over debt limits. And she doesn’t want future generations to have to pay the debt with higher taxes. The author of a Barron’s article on the coin calls Rep. Tlaib’s plan “elegant” and “not a bad idea.”

What Should The Federal Government Do About The Virus?

Source: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Democrats have a motto: Never let a crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to expand the scope and power of the state. Wars, natural disasters, and epidemics always feed Leviathan. Is that what we want, considering that the state often makes things worse, such a causing the shortage of tests for the COVID-19 virus?

Everyone but a handful of libertarians want the state to provide relief in the healthcare crisis. Currently, the federal government is offering a smorgasbord of old, failed, programs in which most of the funds are wasted or stolen. The Adam Smith Institute has a better idea for the UK government: let insurance companies handle it.