The Reaction to Paygo

A few comments on the incoming congress.  I  hate to totally give up all hope on them on the first day, but only 3 -Tulsi Gabbard, Ro Khanna, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez- voted against Paygo, Nancy Pelosi’s fucked up plan to hobble any plans which might improve the environment or advance health care.
Rashida Tlaib did make a very  impassioned speech about impeaching President Bush, in which she took the Beto O’Rourke thing  one  step further “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker,” which is exactly the kind of speech we need to hear and I love her for it, but she voted for Paygo.
It was AOC’s response to the passage of Paygo that gives me the most hope.  What Paygo says is if a program is going to cost money, they have to show how they’re going to pay for it.  It doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, except the government passes shit all the time they can’t pay  for, like wars.  And then  there are unexpected  things, like natural  disasters.  Sure, there’s  a  clause in there that there might be exceptions, but why pass something if youu’re going to have to make exceptions to it  all over the place.
It’s as if Nancy Pelosi has never even heard of MMT.  It is perfectly clear she’s trying to  stop progressive legislation.  But, back to AOC’s response.
She said, “Well, O.K. then, we need to raise taxes on the rich.”  It was a much more nuanced statement than that, she said 60 to 70% and didn’t say at what income exactly that would kick in, but she mentioned people ‘who have more than $10 million,’ which is pretty darned rich and a 70% tax rate won’t hurt them a bit, because they can easily invest enough money to keep below that level, even as they keep  getting richer.
It was over 90% during FDR’s presidency, and stayed that way up until the 60s, so this isn’t all that radical.
But, if you’re going to insist that everything gets paid for, by golly, that’s the way to do it.