–What is the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats, and what can be done about it?

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Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
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No one can be more stupid than a smart person.

When reputedly brilliant, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia decided money equals speech, he uttered one of the less intelligent defenses of the thoroughly unintelligent Citizens United decision, “the more speech, the better.”

(As an aside, he compounded his lack of wisdom by giving the example of not limiting newspaper editorials, an example that has nothing to do with political contributions.)

Our vote is the ultimate method by which we Americans speak to our political representatives, and their vote is the ultimate method by which politicians speak to us Americans. Giving the wealthiest Americans virtually unlimited political spending rights is tantamount to giving them virtually unlimited votes.

Admittedly, spending does not always buy enough votes to win an election. But even after elections, spending does buy the votes of politicians in office.

The upper .1% income group has bribed the President of the United States and the Congress (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment), to pass laws widening the gap between the rich and the rest. Citizens United greatly facilitates this bribery, this magnification of speech.

Political bribery is bolstered by “The Big Lie,” the statement that the federal debt and deficit are too large, unaffordable, unsustainable and somehow similar to personal debt and deficits.

The Big Lie provides an easy excuse for ongoing efforts to cut spending on virtually everything that benefits the poor and middle classes: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, poverty aid, federal employment and aid to the states.

But how are Republicans and Democrats different?

While nearly all politicians are bribed by the upper .1%, what is the difference between Republicans and Democrats (i.e. between the ultra right wing and the right wing, there being no left wing in today’s political climate, )?

Republicans not only claim no empathy for the less fortunate, they despise the less fortunate. Republicans believe the poor reap their well-deserved rewards for indolence, ignorance and immorality, and if only “those people” worked harder and were less evil, they would not need to rely on “handouts” from the government.

The ultra right wing remains intentionally blind to the fact that the entire U.S. tax code, with its generous provisions for capital gains, interest, tax shelters and overseas financing, represents a gigantic “handout” to the rich.

The right wing (aka the Democrates) claims empathy for the less fortunate. But those same Democrats also spread The Big Lie, and also vote to reduce Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, poverty aid, federal employment and aid to the states.

Democrats joined the ultra right wing in voting for the sequester, the primary difference in philosophy being: Which benefits for the poor and middle class are to be cut most.

Both parties supported the increase in FICA, the worst tax in American history, falling almost exclusively on the backs of the middle and lower classes.

So, in answer to the headline question: There is no fundamental difference between the ultra right wing and the right wing. The difference is only of degree.

The right has won; the left has died.

Citizens United was only the latest nail in the left-wing coffin. There will be more, as the bribery continues. The chorus grows for “tax simplification,” i.e. a flat tax that will increase the amount paid by the least wealthy among us, while reducing taxes on the rich.

(Prediction: “Tax simplification” will contain many exceptions for the kinds of income most associated with the wealthy.)

Because Social Security, which benefits the poor and middle classes, supposedly is “unsustainable” (part of The Big Lie), it repeatedly has been cut via taxation and delayed benefits, and eventually will be privatized to benefit Wall Street investment firms.

Medicare also falsely is called “unsustainable.” The expansion of Medicare known as “Obamacare” (Romneycare”?), which covers millions more people, was not granted sufficient federal funds for this expansion, so the middle class will pay for the lower class – a device to push the middle down to the lower – thus widening the gap between the rich and the rest.

Federally funded Medicare for Everyone, a solution that would benefit the middle and lower classes, is not even under consideration – by either party – though it easily could be implemented and supported by the federal government, with no FICA at all, and with great benefit to America.

The Big Lie has weighed upon us for many years. Though Reagan’s “Government is not a solution to our problem. Government is the problem” probably set the stage for today’s extreme situation, the Tea Party can take credit for the utter demise of the left wing.

Among their “15 Non-negotiable Core Beliefs” are these two:
“10. Reducing personal income taxes is a must.
11. Reducing business income taxes is mandatory.”

Actually, very they are very good beliefs, but not when combined with these three truly awful ideas:
“6. Government must be downsized.
7. The national budget must be balanced.
8. Deficit spending must end.”

They comprise the core of The Big Lie, and both the ultra right wing party and the right wing party subscribe to these beliefs.

Sadly, no political party in America speaks The Big Truth: Increased federal deficit spending not only is affordable and sustainable, but is necessary to grow the economy, reduce unemployment, solidify retirement benefits for our senior citizens, provide medical care for all Americans and narrow the too-wide gap between the rich and the rest.

I subscribe to the two-party, presidential system, as opposed to the multi-party, parliamentary system. But today, we have a one-party system. Though the Republican ultra right, fights fiercely with the Democrat right, it is more of a brother-on-brother battle. They fight over minutia. The fundamentals are the same.

The solution: America needs a truly left wing party, to balance the right wing, and to speak for the 99%. If it ever comes, it will begin with a charismatic liberal. Clinton could have been the one, but he caved.

Obama too, could have been the one, but he too yielded to the siren song of Scalia’s “free speech,”bribe money. Like Clinton, Obama will leave office to become very rich; his wife will become very rich; his children will become very rich and he will have a fine presidential library.

And the gap between the super rich and us will continue to grow.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

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:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY