How to turn Frank Underwood's America Works program into a killer real-world policy

So what’s this alternative that would get Frank all the cash he needs without ripping up the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society?

Two words: money printing. As former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted, “the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost.” In other words, the Federal Reserve could fully finance America Works without the government having to cut a cent.

The Fed’s charter allows it to print money and buy up financial instruments, and one of the most common financial instruments out there is U.S. government debt. Frank could borrow the $500 billion to pay for America Works, then have the Fed immediately print the money to buy up $500 billion in U.S. debt. Because the Fed would be creating new demand for U.S. debt, it would keep interest rates on it from going up, making it functionally equivalent to the Fed just giving Congress the money.