Are Leftists Total Moo-Ons on Money?

The chief problem with money, as Walter Russell Mead observes, is that the Blue Model is running out of it. Once upon a time the money was just out there. The dollars were mooing and lowing like the buffalo on the Great Plains. The only problem was divvying it up. But now that it’s getting harder to come by, a whole host of professions based on the dollar hunting and skinning business is becoming endangered. Mead describes the situation in his vivid prose:

The dream machines of the blue social engineers don’t sail serenely across the azure sky anymore. Think of the various carbon exchanges and environmental planetary schemes; think of high speed rail proposals like California’s $100 billion train to bankruptcy; think of Obamacare. These days the experts, “social entrepreneurs” and smart young blue twenty somethings fresh out of the Ivy League whomp up social programs with as much verve and dedication as their New Deal and Great Society predecessors, but the new Dreamliners don’t take off. At most they roll around the runway, emitting clouds of noxious smoke; wings fall off, windows pop out, turbines misfire and the tires go flat. (Source)

Al Sharpton, by contrast, was trying to climb out of a deep financial hole. “The left-wing National Action Network Inc., headquartered in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, owes at least $1,556,059 in federal taxes and $108,489 in New York taxes, according to the Nexis tax liens database. Tax agencies typically file tax liens only after taxes have become significantly overdue and other collection methods have failed.”

After Trayvon Martin was killed, the Chicago Tribune found the Reverend raising money for Trayvon’s cause. At a rally he shouted:

“I’m going to start off with $2,500,” Sharpton said, holding up a check. “Who’s next?”

Then Sharpton announced that television personality Judge Greg Mathis donated $10,000.

Several elected Florida officials were present, and each took a turn addressing the crowd before Sharpton was scheduled to speak. U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown was one of the first to address the crowd Thursday night. She rallied the crowd by yelling, “I want an arrest, I want a trial.”

The she asked the crowd: “What do you want?”

And the crowd responded, “We want an arrest!”

Doubtless Sharpton really wants an arrest. But given the parlous state of his finances, it would be understandable if he didn’t mind making a few bucks on the side as well. All across the board the Blue Model is experiencing what parliamentary systems call the loss of “supply.” Supply is a term used to describe money bills, either taxation and government spending, which is the lifeblood of politics. _BelmontClub

The article goes on about how leftists are having trouble raising money for political campaigns, for social activism, and so on.

But the place the money has really and truly run out -- where leftists badly wish to spend $trillions more which do not exist -- is in the US federal budget. Obama has had to borrow over $1 trillion every year in office -- an unprecedented and previously inconceivable breach of fiscal responsibility.

Contrary to leftist moo-ons, the largest portion of the US federal budget goes to entitlements, and the next largest is interest on the debt. Both segments of the debt are growing exponentially, as $trillion deficits are becoming commonplace under Obama.

So, will Americans drink the koolaid and re-elect Obama and his cronies? No one knows. But if so, the anchor of the global economy and global security will certainly begin to crumble. Slowly at first, then ever faster.

Leftists and money simply do not mix cleanly or sustainably. Leftists are moo-ons about money, particularly other people's money. And now, increasingly, the "other people's money" that they are spending will belong to generations that will not be born for several decades yet.