General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: So Ocasio-Cortez has not even taken office, and she's already planning [View all]Gothmog
(145,176 posts)To me this is rather basic but let me explain. In the real world, a governmental entity must spend real money that comes from taxes or governmental borrowings. AOC is talking about hypothetical
or magical savings that will accrue to the society if the unrealistic assumptions on which these magical savings are based come true. These societal savings are so speculative that that they are amusing and are based on truly magical thinking.
State and local governments cannot spend hypothetical or magical societal savings but have to either borrow money or use tax revenues to pay for the doctors and health benefits needed to make these programs work in the real world. The government may be indirectly benefited by these hypothetical or magical savings, a government can not spend these magical savings. The doctors and other providers must be paid in cash which a governmental entity can only do by collecting tax revenues or borrowing.
If magical societal savings were real, then Vermont and other states would have adopted the magical sanders single payer plan. sanders has been unable to convince his home state of Vermont to adopt his magical plan because there is no way to pay for it in the real world.
It has been decades since my last accounting course but I was able to pass the CPA exam even though I waited until after law school to take this exam. Governments cannot spend more than what they collect in tax revenues or what they are able to borrow. Assuming that the magical thinking and magical assumptions underlying the supposed societal benefits are true (and this is very doubtful), these savings are not tax revenues and the governmental entities can not use these theoretical or hypothetical savings to pay for these programs. This is called "fund accounting" in the real world and in the real world debits have to equal the credits.
Tapper understands these simple concepts and was correct in his analysis. I like living in the real world even though magic does not work in the real world (in my world, debits have to equal credits and one cannot spend magical savings). I like math and I understand that a government cannot tax made up or magical societal savings that are based on very unrealistic assumptions. In the real world magic does not work and we are bound by something called math. Tapper used facts and these facts were accurate.