Maggie Grove

Bezos tweeted on May 15:

 

"The administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only Manchin saved them from themselves. Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn't help     the country."

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He’s referring to the Democrats' Build Back Better stimulus plan, which would send $2 trillion more in stimulus checks directly to working Americans. It was a big tweet, breathlessly picked up by conservative talking heads. It was also an artfully choreographed messaging missile, aimed to position helping working people as irresponsible.

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Jeff is saying this: Inflation is when prices get too high, making it so people have less purchasing power; their dollar doesn’t go as far. It can have several causes, but what Jeff is referring to is inflation caused by “government stimulus” (i.e., a big government spending bill that gives money to either people or businesses or both). Jeff is saying that pushing out the $2T Build Back Better stimulus would make prices inflate, because if people have more money in their pockets to spend, businesses must raise prices so their products don't become relatively devalued in our economy [relative to the amount of money floating around] (full explainer here).

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What he’s effectively saying is this: Don't give economic relief to everyday people – we can't afford it.

 

But Jeff is misdirecting from the real problem: that our government has spent too much on corporate tax cuts, military contractors, and favors for rich heirs. On policies that have sapped working Americans' economic power for 40 years now, which is what's actually making things less affordable to us than ever.

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Let's just establish before anything else: the experts don't agree with Jeff on the BBB. 17 Nobel Laureates in Economics signed a letter, declaring that the bill would be anti-inflationary over time. Research from the Federal Bank of San Francisco found that stimulus checks “are not causing ‘overheating’ as has been suggested.” A comprehensive study from the St. Louis Fed has debunked Jeff’s line of thinking, finding “ almost no effect of government spending on inflation.” The Congressional Budget Office found that "the legislation will be deficit-reducing on an annual basis, and thus cannot be expected to contribute to inflation." It’s shortsighted and misrepresentative to call this stimulus inflationary.

 

But here's where the real misdirection comes in. If Jeff Bezos was truly concerned about inflation, he wouldn't have kept silent as the last administration "raised spending by $320 billion over existing spending caps set in a 2011 law, with significant boosts in both military and domestic spending.” He wouldn't have stayed silent as Republicans spent…

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• ​$2.3 trillion on tax cuts the Congressional Budget Office wrote "primarily benefited the wealthy and corporations" and "harms our economy in the long-run."

• $1 trillion on nuclear programs “that reflect sheer excess, not to mention a huge source of unjustified profits for weapons contractors,” according to the Director of the Arms & Security Project at the Center for Int’l Policy.

• $269 billion to repeal the estate tax, ensuring rich heirs can continue to hoard more wealth

 

None of these things made any sense. Per the CBO, "research shows that stimulus deployed when the economy is already strong – as the Republican tax law was –  is a greater burden on the federal debt." America spends more on our military than the ten next biggest countries spend on theirs combined; we spend nearly as much on the military as all of our other government programs combined (health, transportation, education, training and employment, veterans’ services, community development, income security, justice, and international affairs). Nor does it make sense to further lower taxes on the wealthy when the upper class holds a greater share of US wealth than at any other point in our lifetime.

 

These things were infinitely worse for inflation than anything the Left could do now. Here's why:

 

Inflation is a problem because when prices get too high, everyday people can't afford things. Which is why spending $2T on favors for corporations and the wealthy is so much more damaging than spending $2T on everyday people. When we do the former, that $2T sits tucked away in the savings accounts and profit ledgers of our economic elites. That money is no longer circulating in the economy (but it's still out there, inflating the size of it). When we do the latter, that money flows through and stimulates society. Most working people don't have the luxury of savings; they have no choice but to spend their money on the essentials they need. The GOP's stimulus makes it so people don't have the money to afford and spend on things; the BBB makes it so they do.

 

Jeff’s stance on inflation boils down to: giving money to working people hikes up inflation, but giving the same amount to large corporations and the crazy-rich (like him) does not. I don't see how this is anything but "misdirection," as Jeff would say.

 

And when you take his motivations into context, there's just no question he's aiming to deceive. Jeff is a self-proclaimed Libertarian. In short: that means he supports pro-Business, anti-Labor policy. He has no interest in the government giving money to working people. He wants the government to spend that money on subsidies and tax cuts that benefit him. Because then he gets more money. His motivations are obvious. There is nothing of substance, no real truth, to his Tweet. ​​

 

People like Jeff are very dangerous. Because they're very (almost unimaginably) calculated. While his message is nonsense, it was painstakingly choreographed to play into very specific political narratives of today, and thus sound very true. Let's dissect all the bad-faith political narratives he preyed on:

 

First: the myth that the Left is economically irresponsible, and the Right is the opposite.

 

Republicans love to say that Democrats go on "reckless taxing and spending sprees" that "working American families will foot the bill for." This bad faith lie has been dispelled over and over. Towards Data Science found that Republicans add 1.2% more to our national deficit each year they're in office than Democrats do. Reagan's own Budget Director laments "Republicans used to believe [in] balancing the budget," and that their spending policies "have now crippled our economy." Look at the graph below; it's obvious which party raises our national deficit more when they're in office.

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