WASHINGTON — Indiana Senator Mike Braun is warning you and his colleagues of what he believes the dangers are of a new economic theory making the rounds.
It’s called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Put simply, MMT propagates the idea that nations the government controls the currency and prints its own money can never “run out of money,” because it controls that money. Thus it can then print more money in order to meet its spending wishes as long as it doesn’t raise inflation.
Many economists argue that this economic system would balloon the national debt, and with it, hyperinflation.
“Joel Griffith, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, summed it up well when he wrote ‘there is no free lunch’,” Braun said on the Senate floor. “There is a lot of danger of living in the moment because you don’t feel any of the pain in the future and it’s not far out.”
Braun said adopting an economic system based on Modern Monetary Theory would raise the debt to crippling levels which future generations would have to deal with.
“This is kind of like a kid coming up with the ‘Modern Dietary Theory’ that says it’s okay to eat cookies for every meal, it wouldn’t work,” He added. “The Senate must abandon this fundamentally flawed, irresponsible economic model in favor of mainstream fiscal and monetary frameworks that work everywhere else.”
Support for MMT is more fervent among progressive Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Supporters argue that the inflation problem that naysayers say could happen under MMT “can be addressed by the government cutting back on deficit spending by raising taxes”, according to the non-partisan research group Fraser Institute.
