The True Addiction

You can't sleep, you can't eat
There's no doubt, you're in deep
--Robert Palmer

The addiction analogy used by the judge as it relates to the US debt problem is wholly appropriate. We have used a similar analogy many times in these pages (e.g., here, here).

The judge focuses on prohibiting the debt ceiling from increasing as a means for us to kick the habit. But the true addiction is not borrowing, it is spending. Theoretically, we could restrain Washington from borrowing more, but they could still spend more via taxation and money printing.

Truly combating our addiction would mean cutting off the federal government's direct access to economic resources.

Government access to economic resources was greatly expanded by two policies initiated during the Progressive Era. The Federal Reserve Act established a central bank in this country with authority to create money and credit out of thin air. The Sixteenth Amendment gave the government authority to confiscate economic resources from individuals created through productive work.

Our true addiction is spending. Treating the addiction requires reversing the two policies that give government the resources to spend.