–Here we go again — another benefit program for the 99% under siege by the 1%

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Here we go again — another benefit program for the lower 99% income group, under siege by the upper 1%.

The excellent blog, Global Economic Intersection, published an article titled “CBO Infographic: Bringing Social Security Disability Insurance Under Control.”

The words “Under Control” provide the first clue, because whenever the old-line economists, in cahoots with the upper 1% income group, worry about “control,” they really mean controlling the lower 99% income group.

Here are the lead paragraphs of the article:

Econintersect: The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program is one of the entitlement programs for which costs are spiraling out of control. This program “pays cash benefits to nonelderly adults (those younger than age 66) who are judged to be unable to perform “substantial” work because of a disability but who have worked in the past.”

The Congressional Budget office (CBO) has prepared a study on potential solutions which center on the following options:

increase program revenue
change the disability insurance benefit formula
change how the disability insurance benefits grow over time
change the eligibility rules
change the waiting period for benefits

Translation: “The only solutions to the ‘control’ problem are to cut benefits to the 99% and/or to increase taxes on the 99% — presumably those FICA taxes that mostly punish lower-salaried people.”

You should read the entire article, because it contains several interesting, little-known facts about the DI program. The key issue is simple: Taxes are less than benefits. Where have we heard that oh-so-shocking news, before?

The article includes this bit of information:

The DI program provided $119 billion in benefits to 8.3 million disabled workers in fiscal year 2011, accounting for nearly 18 percent of total Social Security spending. The Congressional Budget Office projects that in 2022, the DI program will provide benefits totally $204 billion to over 12.3 million disabled workers and their dependents.

Translation: “The program is ‘out of control’ because it will do exactly what it was designed to do, i.e. give aid to disabled people and their families, virtually all of whom are in the lower 99% income.”

The article also includes this list:

An entitlement program is one which guarantees access to benefits based on established rights or by legislation. A list of other entitlement programs:

529 or Coverdell
Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
Hope or Lifetime Learning Tax Credit
Student Loans
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
Earned Income Tax Credit
Social Security–Retirement & Survivors
Pell Grants
Unemployment Insurance
Veterans Benefits
G.I. Bill
Medicare
Head Start
Social Security Disability
SSI–Supplemental Security Income
Medicaid
Welfare/Public Assistance
Government Subsidized Housing
Food Stamps

Translation: “We’re coming to get you, you of the 99% who receive benefits from the government. Although your federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, and therefore can afford any benefits of any size, we have you brainwashed into believing your Monetarily Sovereign government actually is monetarily non-sovereign, and is in danger of going broke.

“So all you people who receive benefits from any of the above programs, get ready. One by one, we’ll chip away at your benefits, until we have brought you to your knees, and will do what we tell you to do.”

Because the public does not realize that a Monetarily Sovereign nation can and should pay increasing benefits for the welfare of the public, the 1% is given free rein to cut those benefits.

This is what ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty has accomplished. Like cattle being led into the slaughterhouse, the 99% docilely acquiesces, with hardly a “moo.”

In fact, they resist anyone who warns them not to step into that chute.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY