To Bust the Deficit Myth, Bust the Union

Keynes was right - Thatcher was wrong.

Published in the January 16th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News, the myth that taxes fund government spending is pervasive and pernicious. I try at every opportunity to correct this dangerous misconception, which the corporate media and political establishment repeat ad nauseam. If people believe English Labour will have a different approach to government spending, i.e., adequately fund our public services, think again. Sir Keir and his faithful lieutenants have repeatedly proclaimed they will adhere to their fictional ‘fiscal rules’ that are rooted in the deficit myth.

Keir Starmer recently said “If you don't know what I stand for, you haven't been paying attention.”

Oh, we’ve been paying attention. Sir Keir and his Labour in Name Only (LINO) party stand for doing whatever it takes to gain power in this failing union, which means pandering to the demands of the establishment oligarchs who fund his party and run the country. That’s why he ditched Labour’s social democratic principles for the amoral neoliberal ideology that’s wrecking the welfare state and people’s lives. 

At neoliberalism’s core is the deficit myth that says government spending is limited to tax revenues and additional money must be borrowed from financial markets. Thatcher claimed, “There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers’ money.”

When a lie’s repeated often enough by the corporate media and politicians, it becomes the truth. People think there’s no money when the government could easily generate more. When it was heavily indebted after WWII it managed to establish the modern welfare state and achieve full employment with no inflation. Keynes was right: “Anything we can actually do we can afford.”

The UK Treasury simply needs to instruct its wholly owned bank, the Bank of England, to create the money which it does with a computer keystroke. The government makes the money, issues it and makes more if needed. There’s no debt – just savings. A government can’t owe money to itself. 

When money is needed for wars, during pandemics, or to bail out banks, it’s readily available. Why not, then, for the benefit of the people the government supposedly serves? 

Like the Tories, English Labour will keep the deficit myth going because it’s in their interest to do so. To bust the myth, the Scottish People must bust the union.