 Look, I'll be honest. Some of the things that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said and done lightly It's it's kind of disappointing. It's left me scratching my head I don't like that she gave money from her courage to change back to corporate Democrats who will in turn Fight against the agenda that the left is pushing for in Congress Having said that though she recently said something that may signify the start of a new trend and trajectory And if this is the case just being a lone wolf in Congress Subscribing to this new economic theory that's starting to gain some momentum. This honestly could be a paradigm shift Now we'll watch and then when we come back I'll explain why what she's saying here is so important. I don't think that the deficit is the most important thing upon which we should be Engaging the our infrastructure and jobs plan on I think It's not the deficit. It's things like employment. It's things like our poverty rate in the United States or rather unemployment as well It's we should be pegging this to the actual material circumstances That we want to measure ourselves against in improving people's lot in this country You know when we talk about the deficit and Republicans are playing hardball here You know, I didn't see them being this concerned when they passed the 2017 tax scam that not only Added trillions of dollars to our deficit, but also was in complete contrary to any sort of economic wisdom, which is that you actually Deficits spend when times are tough so that we make the important investments necessary like an infrastructure Where for every, you know Some assessments have put every $1 put in infrastructure creates $6 in economic activity You actually want to make those those investments in in times that are difficult to create economic opportunity in this country Republicans did the opposite they added to the deficit by By creating tax cuts for the wealthy when times were good for the stock market now If you just watched my interview with real progressive co-founder Steve Grumbine you'll notice that she said a lot of Really interesting things some cues that lead me to believe That she's picking up on modern monetary theory. Perhaps she's a newcomer as I am But if you read this book if you read the deficit myth by Stephanie Kelton Everything that she just said there about deficit spending to improve the material conditions in the country that is straight out of the deficit myth and If it's true that she's now subscribing to this economic theory This is a paradigm shift. This is huge Even if she's just the only member of Congress who supports this and if you don't know why this is huge Let me just read to you this 2019 article from Vox where they explain the implications of Democrats adopting modern monetary theory Dylan Matthews writes the rise of MMT could allow Democrats to embrace the de facto fiscal policy of Republican presidents who tend to explode the deficit to finance pet initiatives Like tax cuts and defense spending leaving Democrats to clean up afterward MMT could be Democrats way of saying we don't want to be suckers anymore That would be a big deal getting comfortable with new deficit financed programs would help Democrats overcome The single biggest impediment to their agenda raising taxes to fund their programs MMT could offer a way to justify passing big priorities like single-payer health care or free college without resorting to major middle-class tax hikes so this matters because There's no more excuses if we move away from the economic Philosophy peddled by Republicans and neoliberal Democrats. I mean all Republicans are neoliberals, but Democrats shouldn't be neoliberal. They shouldn't be trying to find market-based solutions to public problems We shouldn't privatize Things that should be for the public good but if we move away from that mindset and we adopt modern monetary theory and at least a number of Democrats adopted then all of these Folks who refuse to support Medicare for all because they don't know how to pay for it They no longer have an excuse so the implications of this are absolutely monumental Now the problem is that most politicians the overwhelming majority of even Democrats If they even know what modern monetary theory is They don't support it Even Nancy Pelosi who is often Hailed as this like liberal Radical according to Fox News which is delusional because those of us who are actually Socialists don't like Nancy Pelosi. I despise her quite quite frankly But you know even she she passes these policies like Pago Which is basically self-imposed austerity which cripples the Democratic Party's agenda and it's just it's it's ridiculous The de facto economic theory that Republicans have used to govern it has been modern monetary theory Think about this Was there ever any discussion any serious discussion about how Trump would pay for his tax cuts for the rich back in 2017? I mean you had a couple of libertarians speak a little bit about it But overall they didn't care they passed tax cuts for the rich put it on the credit card didn't even care that it raised the deficit and this happens all the time with the Pentagon budget, so the question is if we continuously do this and We you know blow up the deficit To give tax cuts to oligarchs blow up the desk deficit at the behest of the military industrial complex Why aren't we doing this to improve the material conditions? For working Americans. I mean AOC She had a great point about their hypocrisy of the Republican Party They always get an office and then they blow up the deficit. This was true with George W. Bush This was true with Donald Trump and then when Democrats are in power Bill Clinton Obama. They always impose austerity They try to be you know deficit hawks and then as they actually are deficit hawks you have Republicans Screaming about whatever dollar they try to spend I mean we see it happening with Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden's infrastructure bill So if we finally once and for all adopt the economic theory that Republicans use when they govern and Deficits ban, but actually do it to help the American people. Can you imagine what we'd be able to accomplish? There'd be no more excuses Medicare for all single-payer It's really really important. So if AOC were to become the face of MMT and Actually sold it to other people that would be a game changer and Bernie Sanders, he did have Stephanie Kelton as an advisor In fact, she talks about being a Bernie advisor in this book and how when she brought up modern monetary theory members of Congress kind of looked at her And they were amused and perplexed because it's such a foreign concept even though it's something that's being done when Republicans are in power and I I'm led to believe That Bernie Sanders would have actually governed with the principles of modern monetary theory and what's interesting to me is that The article that we read from Vox that was in 2019 So there was already speculation about if Bernie Sanders would win. What would happen? How would he respond to the pay-for question? And I think that Bernie Sanders most likely would have been a catalyst for this paradigm shift You know, he would shift to modern monetary theory or at least try to get the ball rolling there and even if he in a perfect world became president and wasn't able to accomplish his agenda because we're in a similar predicament with Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema who are We're blocking everything that he wants still just to have this change this change in mindset change in Governance as it relates to the Democratic Party when they're in power. It would be huge. So the fact that AOC is Talking about this. It's really really encouraging to see really really encouraging to see She says it's not the deficit that we should be concerned with it's things like employment It's things like our poverty rate in the United States or rather unemployment We should be paging this to the actual material circumstances that we want to measure ourselves against in Improving people's lives in this country. So that's exactly right. She's exactly correct here We shouldn't be worried about the deficit when there are people sleeping on the streets in America and people going hungry that just shouldn't happen until We no longer have people dying Because they can't afford health care and not access to health care, but health care period We shouldn't be talking about the deficit We need to spend spend spend and improve people's lives Because when you have a government that is the sole issuer of its own sovereign currency Skies the limits and there are limitations. I don't want to misrepresent modern monetary theory. There are limitations, right? Really inflation is the one limitation that MMT theorists talk about but look overall. I love this I really want to hear more from AOC about this and this is really it's genuinely a great thing to see