Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and President Joe Biden's belief that spending billions of dollars on a war in Ukraine helps the United States' economy rests on what is known as the "broken window" fallacy, which was originally espoused by 19th French economist Frédéric Bastiat, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Responding to a clip on "Eric Bolling The Balance" of McConnell speaking with "Face the Nation" over the weekend, Paul says that funding the Ukraine war "is an agreement between President Biden and Sen. McConnell. They're on the same side."
During the interview, Paul explains that such a "theory" should in reality, be treated for what it is — an absurd fallacy.
"It's an old Democrat theory," Paul adds. "It's called the broken window theory: So you go and break a window and say, 'Oh, we're going to help our country because our country is going to fix the broken window.'
"But if that's true, instead of giving Ukraine $60 billion, why don't we give them $300 billion? Why don't we give them a trillion [dollars] if all the money is coming back to us? It's sort of like the idea of a perpetual motion machine; it doesn't really work because that money has to come from somewhere. And right now, it actually comes from borrowing," Paul continues.
"So, what it will do is add to inflationary pressures. Your prices will go up at the grocery store, and it will also ... affect our interest payments. Our interest payment now is almost as big as our military budget in its entirety."
The senator rested his point on the notion going to war makes America "weaker as we go further into debt."
According to Investopedia, "The broken window fallacy is often used to discredit the idea that going to war stimulates a country's economy. As with the broken window, war causes resources and capital to be redirected from producing consumer goods and services to building weapons of war."
When asked about the U.S. entering into a World War III conflict, with calls of forming fronts on Russia, Iran, and China via Taiwan, Paul stated that his "primary" concern was that "we don't have any money" before conceding the point that some of his colleagues on the Hill are taking up fights around the world "willy-nilly."
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