About ARP
Dear Editor: The first thing that comes to mind about President-Elect Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” or “ARP,” is how close it sounds to – and in not a few ways looks and smells like – “TARP,” the “Troubled Asset Relief Program,” the rescue of the principal perpetrators and ultimate beneficiaries of the 2008 financial crisis.
The second thing that comes to mind is as follows.
Given the already existing $27.9 trillion federal debt (which does not include the $3.2 trillion debt at the state and local levels, or the $158.7 trillion in unfunded “entitlement” liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, etc); and,
Given that the intent to pay for Mr Biden’s ARP (and then his rumored plans for America’s economy and infrastructure) is by borrowing, as opposed to increasing taxes and/or cutting federal spending elsewhere, then here are two questions about ARP:
When America’s national, sovereign debt can no longer be ignored, and America can no longer borrow to keep its government in operation, and the bills start coming due (particularly in increased interest costs on all that and past and projected future borrowing):
1. Who is going to pay for all this and how?
2. How do they plan to make all that happen without unleashing runaway if not hyperinflation ala Weimar Germany after World War I and before Hitler?
These are, I believe, the two most important questions about ARP that all Americans need to be asking themselves, their families, friends, neighbors, cohorts, colleagues, compeers, employers and employees, vendors and customers, and, above all, the politicians in both parties in D.C. and the people at Treasury and The Fed who will be responsible for putting all this together and pulling it off.
And thus, one of the very most important questions Americans can ask about the very future of this country.
Jeffrey G. Moebus, Sitka
Election Truth
Dear Editor: First, let me apologize for what may come across as anger and sarcasm but this is exactly how I feel. I also hold deep fear for our country and for the lives of many elected people at all levels of government. Trump, his administration and members of congress who remained silent during the past four years of this nightmare all share a significant role in leading our country to where we are today, to perhaps an irreparable chasm among so many and to the end of the republic as we know it.
Republican Party leadership and the 139 Republican representatives and eight Republican senators voting to overturn the electoral college AFTER an attempted insurrection that killed a police officer, injured dozens, and put congressional lives in the crosshairs are now calling us all to come together, turn the page, move forward and heal so that the crevasses between us can close.
Sure...that’s it!? “You betcha!” No problem. Easy peasy.
My request to all of you is to make a short public statement (no five-paragraph essay needed, Sen. Sullivan) that tells your constituents and the citizens of this country that Joe Biden won the election fair and square. There was no fraud and the election was not stolen. You and your Republican colleagues will only further the divide in our nation by not doing this. Speak and write from your heart using crystal clear words. If not, I hold great fear that we cannot bridge the divide among us.
Krisanne Rice, Sitka
