Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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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Here is what immigration will look like if the right wing has control.
House GOP wants legal status but no citizenship for illegal immigrants
Calls granting them full citizenship unfair and contrary to the rule of law
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington TimesHouse Republican leaders have ruled out a special pathway to citizenship but do support granting some form of legal status and work permits to most illegal immigrants, according to the broad set of principles GOP leaders released Thursday.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, told reporters that his party’s leaders thought they had to make a good-faith offer.
Here are some of the details of Boehner’s “good faith” offer:
Secure the borders and verify that they are secure, including zero tolerance for those crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas.
First, let’s not mealy-mouth. It’s not “borders,” it’s border, i.e. the Mexican border. You can imagine why.
Second, no one knows how to judge when borders are “secure.” Does that mean zero undocumented immigrants for the next 50 years? If not, what exactly does “secure border” mean?
And what form does “zero tolerance” take? Deportation of all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Or hang or shoot them? And what of their children?
Fully implement an entry-exist tracking system using biometric identification technology
Exactly what “biometric” technology are they talking about. Fingerprints? Iris recognition? Face recognition? Or how about that good, old standby: “Looking Mexican.” That seems to work pretty well in Arizona.
And what is meant by “tracking.” Will the police follow people around? Stop people in the street? Set up road blocks on highways?
Fully implement a “workable electronic employment-verification system.”
What’s the purpose? Will immigrants be deported if they lose their jobs? If so, might unscrupulous employers use that as leverage to force slave-labor conditions on helpless workers? But of course, that’s the point, isn’t it?
Institute an “employment-based immigration” system, with visa and green card allocations that “reflect the needs of employers and the desire for . . . exceptional individuals to help grow the economy.
How will politicians know the “needs of employers”? Will there be a central clearing house to which all employers will submit all their employment needs before hiring anyone? Who are “exceptional individuals”? What qualifies as exceptional?
Develop a temporary worker program that addresses the country’s economic needs and strengthens the nations security with particular concern for the needs of the agricultural industry.
What does “addresses the country’s economic needs” mean? If people work and are productive, doesn’t that address economic needs?
And how does it strengthen our security? Have there been many Mexican terrorists running around? Indeed, in a nation this size, have there been many foreign terrorists of any nationality?
But as for the agricultural industry, by all means let in all those “exceptional individuals” to do stoop labor picking crops in the field. Hey, farmers vote and contribute, don’t they?
Provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children through no fault of their own, rewarding those who serve in the military or obtain college degrees.
They’ve made it very difficult for immigrants to get jobs and to earn enough money to send their kids to college, but that’s the plan. Right wingers tell poor people to do the impossible, then toss them out before they can do it. It’s genius.
No special path to citizenship, but adult illegal immigrants can live legally and without fear in the United States if they admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and support themselves and their families without access to public benefits.
God forbid these Mexicans are allowed to be citizens. First, they have to admit their culpability (why, we don’t know, but it makes right wingers feel strong to bully helpless people.).
Then they have to pass tests very few politicians could pass. And of course, pay unaffordable fines and taxes, all while becoming proficient in English, learning American civics and supporting themselves. And do not, I repeat DO NOT, ask for any benefits.
Of course, the minute you “admit your culpability, the police will toss you out of the country.
Who says Republicans are a bunch of mean, cowardly bullies, so unsure of our own abilities, they fear those inferior Mexicans will overthrow our government? Who says?
No legalization program will be implemented before there are specific enforcement triggers to ensure that our immigration laws will indeed be enforced.
We’re not sure what “triggers” we mean, but anything to make life difficult for poor, hard-working people trying to make a better life for themselves, is good for Republicans.
Maybe, they’re talking about the triggers on AK-47s that they love so much.
Bottom line question: Are there any people meaner, more cowardly and Un-American than “religious” conservatives?
They are so afraid of Mexicans, they do everything possible to make life miserable for good people who risk their lives to come here, even people who have lived here many years — even babies, for heaven’s sake.
They are so afraid of “terrorists” and criminals (especially black or brown criminals), they never can have enough guns, the more powerful the better.
They are so afraid of competition from the poor, they want to reduce any spending that benefits the poor — things like federally supported housing, food, retirement, unemployment compensation.
Yes, the conservatives are mean, as all cowards are, but what are they really afraid of?
An analysis from the Eagle Forum, a group run by conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, argues that adding immigrants will doom the Republican Party.
The analysis looked at immigrants’ ideologies and found that they were likely to be liberal on social issues.
“The key conclusion of the report is this: For conservatives, there is no issue more important than reducing the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year,” the analysis says.
And there it is. The conservatives don’t car about “security,” “the rule of law,” “fairness,” “employment,” “college degrees,” “the military,” “farmers,” “citizenship,” “learning English,” “learning civics,” admissions of culpability,” “college degrees” or any of the other hoops the conservatives demand immigrants jump through.
No, they’re just frightened — frightened to death — frightened that immigrants will vote for Democrats. Period.
But here’s a thought. How about letting those oh, so religious, right wingers pass the same tests they put forth for immigrants — you know the English, civics, college or army, background check, support your family and above all, no federal benefits requirement.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide and Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
—–
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
THE RECESSION CLOCK
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
WHY IMMGRATION?
Since Wednesday, House Republicans have been holding their annual three-day “policy retreat” at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay golf resort and marina. This is in Cambridge Maryland, about 60 miles SE of Washington DC. The town is not much to look at, but the resort is swank and expensive, although the rooms in winter can drop to about $250 a night.
Some 190 Republicans have been attending this toady-fest, along with right-wing media hacks and talk show hosts. Each year at this time they get together for three days to discuss how they will continue distracting the masses from ever-worsening inequality.
At the moment, the “deficit crisis” and “national debt crisis” seem to have fallen temporarily out of fashion. Instead, Republicans are hammering on immigrants (see Rodger’s post above) and pushing for more educational “reform” (i.e. more privatization).
I say this because right-wing propaganda mills are whining that no one right now is paying them to write “scholarly papers” that justify more austerity. Maya MacGuineas, for example, is tearing her clothes and covering herself with ashes. She is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, one of the many Pete Peterson-funded propaganda mills dedicated to widening the wealth gap. Regarding the need for more austerity (always more), Ms. MacGuineas laments that, “Neither party wants to talk about it. This is the first time we have been staring into the political horizon and there is no action-forcing moment.”
Oh the humanity!
Bob Bixby agrees. “It’s played out,” he moans. “People are tired of it and want to move on.” Bixby is executive director of the Concord Coalition, yet another propaganda mill that pushes for more austerity (always more). “There is a broad bipartisan consensus to leave it alone for a couple of years.”
The right-wing “Politico” blog is complaining that the federal deficit has been cut in half. “Without budget crises, deficit reduction isn’t a top issue,” it says. The “Politico” blog whines that there is a “temporary cease-fire in the budget wars” that has “diminished any lingering sense of urgency” for Washington to impose more austerity.
Oh no!
Right-wing clowns like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are complaining that Republicans have shown little enthusiasm for opposing an increase in the “debt limit” on February 7.
Therefore we must continue living with the Big Lie, but it looks like we won’t have to listen to it for a couple of months. (Of course, Food Stamps will continue to be cut. And cut. And cut.)
Instead, we’re in for renewed immigrant-bashing. Republicans want immigrants to pay taxes and work for low wages, but not to collect any benefits like Social Security.
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— Off topic –
— Random observations —
[1] LIBERAL AUSTERIANS
Liberals defend austerity more than conservatives do.
Here’s why…
Both liberals and conservatives defend the Big Lie that the US government is “broke” and “in debt,” and runs on loans and tax revenue. Thus, both liberals and conservatives say we must have more austerity.
Conservatives want more austerity in the form of spending cuts for social programs.
Liberals want more austerity in the form of higher federal taxes, especially on the rich. Liberals also want a financial transactions tax (a Tobin tax).
When spending cuts kill an economy, conservatives falsely claim that the economy is doing quite well, and is in “recovery.” If this lie doesn’t convince the public, then conservatives claim that the economy is doing poorly because there has not been enough austerity.
(If the application of leeches causes anemia, the solution is to apply more leeches.)
When high taxes kill an economy, liberals falsely claim that the economy is doing quite well, and is in “recovery.” If this lie doesn’t convince the public, then liberals claim that the economy is doing poorly because there has not been enough taxation.
(If the application of leeches causes anemia, the solution is to apply more leeches.)
Thus, liberals want tax-increase-leeches. Conservatives want spending-cuts-leeches.
Of the two, liberals are more rigid.
Conservatives will retreat, adjust, and make any concession, so long as the Big Lie remains intact. They call for spending cuts, but turn right around and pass out billions to their cronies.
Liberals, however, represent “justice” and “compassion.” Hence they are “right” no matter what. Their solution is to increase taxes! End of discussion!
Thus, liberals defend austerity and the Big Lie even more than conservatives do.
Below is an article by one Tim Koechlin, who has a Ph. D. in economics, and is a professor of economics at Vassar College.
His solution to inequality? Taxes, taxes, and more taxes.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/01/28-0
[2] GOD LOVES AUSTERITY
The web site of the American Bible Society (headquartered in Manhattan NY) has a list of the most and least “bible-minded” cities in the USA.
It says that the most “bible-minded” state is Tennessee, with Chattanooga TN as the most “bible-minded” city in America.
The least “bible-minded” place is Providence RI.
Some people say there is less violent crime in “bible-minded” places. Others say there is more violent crime. Some people resent being called Godless if they are not sufficiently “bible-minded”
Whatever. Opinions vary, and the American Bible Society’s methodology is itself debatable.
The point…
The Society has a US map (info-graphic) which shows that “bible-minded” cities tend to be in the American South. These are also the places that tend to have the most poverty and illiteracy, and tend to be most infested with Tea Party morons who worship inequality (as long as it doesn’t harm them personally).
Conclusion: God loves austerity and inequality, as do all “real Americans.”
http://www.americanbible.org/features/americas-most-bible-minded-cities
[3] SCHADENFREUDE
October 29 Oct 2013, US Rep Trey Radel (Republican, Florida) was arrested in the District of Columbia for buying cocaine. Congressman Radel tied to keep it a secret, but he was exposed when he appeared in D.C. court to plead guilty. He was sentenced to a year of supervised probation.
(Radel was merely charged with a misdemeanor. His Florida district is solidly Republican, and if Radel had been caught in his own district, then he would have faced a felony charge.)
Radel then went on a self-imposed leave of absence.
In early January 2014 Radel said in a statement, “I look forward to getting back to work next week, representing my neighbors in Southwest Florida as they face the burdens of a federal government that continues to spend more than it takes in.”
However the cocaine scandal continued to haunt him.
On 27 Jan 2014 Radel announced that he would resign from the US House, effective 3 Feb 2014. He said he had been looking forward to demanding concessions (i.e. more austerity) in exchange for voting to raise the US government’s “debt ceiling” when it is reached on 7 Feb 2014.
Good riddance to another toady for the rich.
[4] ON DEFICIT DOVES
One way that austerity widens the gap between the rich and the rest is to make workers so desperate that they submit to anything. Workers even rationalize their suffering as “right and just,” and “better than any alternative.” They call their misery “patriotic.” They defend the Big Lie as “common sense.”
Along these lines, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, (1993-1997) says workers are too powerless to revolt.
“Why we don’t have a revolution in America, or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive Era or the New Deal or the Great Society?
Reich says that three reasons stand out…
“First, the working class is paralyzed with fear it will lose what few jobs and wages it still has. In earlier decades, the working class fomented reform. The labor movement led the charge for a minimum wage, 40-hour workweek, unemployment insurance, and Social Security.
“Today, no one has any job security, so no one dares make a fuss. Three quarters of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Plus, labor unions are all but extinct.
“Second, students don’t dare rock the boat. In past times, students were a major force for social change. They played an active role in the Civil Rights movement, the Free Speech movement, and against the Vietnam War. Today students are crushed by debt and the lack of jobs. Student debts can’t be cancelled in bankruptcy. A default brings penalties and ruins a credit rating. Reformers and revolutionaries don’t live with their parents, nor do they worry about credit ratings and job recommendations.
“Third, the American public has become so cynical that many no longer think reform is possible. They don’t believe that government can possibly work.”
http://robertreich.org/post/74519195381
Okay Mr. Reich, I agree with you. I say the USA is becoming like Mexico, where business owners contribute to a shared database. If a Mexican worker complains about abuse, he is not only fired; he is blacklisted across the entire city; sometimes across the entire state.
But why, Mr. Reich, do you remain a deficit dove? You say we should focus on boosting the economy, rather than on reducing the deficit. That’s good, but it leaves the Big Lie intact. No matter how much the workers suffer, they can be silenced with the magic phrase, “Sorry, but the US government is broke.”
You yourself say that the federal deficit is not an IMMEDIATE problem (your word). You claim that, “Rising healthcare costs, combined with 76 million decaying boomers will cost us all a fortune.”
Mr. Reich, it will only cost us because people like you defend the Big Lie.
Is that how you got into Dartmouth, Oxford and Yale?
In your writings, you sometimes note (correctly) that the federal budget deficit has no economic relationship to the “debt limit,” and that Republicans have falsely linked the two. Why then do you refuse to take that last step into the truth?
I know. You fear you will be destroyed, since the American hive-mind is thoroughly locked into the Big Lie.
However you have published 14 books. Couldn’t you publish one more book in which you finally come clean?
Remember: it is worse to be falsely “pro-worker” than it is to be openly anti-worker.
P.S. You say the US government cannot run out of money, since “Federal Reserve has unlimited capacity to print money.” That’s the Treasury you’re thinking of, not the Fed. Also, Mr. Reich, you are in error when you say the debt-to-GDP ratio actually means something for the USA. Further, you speak of our “global creditors.” Again, you defend the Big Lie. You’ve shot yourself in the foot so many times it’s a wonder you can walk at all.
[5] LIFE AMONG THE PEASANTS
On 1 Nov 2013, Food Stamp benefits were cut by $5 billion.
A week later I was in a car with a 27-year-old single mother of six kids who is unemployed, and relies on Food Stamps. We were going to a store.
While we waited at an intersection for the signal light to change, I said, “Food stamp benefits were cut last week.”
“I know,” she said. “It’s going to make things harder for me.”
I pointed at the cars. “See all these people? Every seventh car that passes uses food stamps. All these people have had their benefits cut because of politics. Food Stamps benefits are created out of thin air. They don’t cost the government anything. In fact – “
“I don’t know anything about government or politics,” she interrupted, cutting me off.
Clearly she did not want to discuss the matter.
And that was that.
On 27 Jan 2013 the US House passed a farm bill that will cut Food Stamp benefits by another $8 billion.
The bill will increase cash payments (subsidies) to rich farmers, but the loot will not be disbursed via the direct payments program. Instead, the increased subsidies will be paid via the “the crop insurance program,” in which the federal government covers losses from poor yields or declines in revenue. In this way, rich landowners will continue to be paid to not grow anything, since not growing causes a “decline in revenue.”
And the beat goes on.
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One would think that people wanting to come to your country would be one of those “good problems” to have. Most first world countries have aging and decreasing populations which is a big problem. America is the only country as far as I know where people are willing to risk their lives to get to. If the migrants are uneducated, then they can always get educated. Most normal people want to come here to work and be productive, raise a family and have a good life – they are willing to work for it, and not just live on any kind of welfare or government assistance. Our immigration policy should be directed to assisting these people, not hindering them.
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BJS writes, “Most normal people want to come here to work and be productive, raise a family and have a good life – they are willing to work for it, and not just live on any kind of welfare or government assistance. Our immigration policy should be directed to assisting these people, not hindering them.”
I agree 1,000%. I have lived in Mexico, and I can tell you that people who migrate north from Mexico, or from farther south, have absolutely no expectation of welfare or assistance in any form. Not food, not money, not medical, not nuthin’. They have no ambition, and no plans for the future. They simply hope to find some kind of work that will let have enough money to buy food, and maybe a place to sleep.
Life is not possible where they come from, no matter how hard they work (unless they want to join a drug gang and be dead within a month or two). I know. I was there. I traveled. I investigated. I observed closely.
It wasn’t always this way. The real nightmare started in 1995 with NAFTA.
We humans are like seeds scattered on the wind. Some seeds land in good soil near a river, with plenty of water and nutrients. Other seeds land in poor soil with little or no water. Still others land among rocks where it is almost impossible to survive.
I myself landed in the USA where I was born. That’s where the wind of chance blew me. I was lucky. Does that make me somehow “better” that those who were less fortunate, and who landed in a bad place? NO!
The sick irony is that people who tend to bash immigrants are people who force immigrants to come here. Show me someone who bashes immigrants, and I’ll show you someone who champions war, racism, “free trade” agreements, inequality, the Big Lie, and so on.
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“Indeed, in a nation this size, have there been many foreign terrorists of any nationality?”
Of course not, but who needs foreign terrorists when you have militarized police forces who shoot and kill far more or our citizens each year than any so-called foreign terrorists have since the implementation of the moronic “war on terror”?
Also, Rodger, I would not limit those who are the target of your scorn to just “religious conservatives”. I would tend to place scorn upon a much larger group, which is White People! Yes, white Americans who reside in the land of the debt slave and the home of the timid.
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@quatloosx: I really like this analogy: “We humans are like seeds scattered on the wind. Some seeds land in good soil near a river, with plenty of water and nutrients. Other seeds land in poor soil with little or no water. Still others land among rocks where it is almost impossible to survive.”
I believe it takes BOTH the public (government) and private sectors for society to flourish and succeed. Deliberate hard work as well as someones’ life circumstances that are beyond their control affect their lives. People Immensely underestimate how much luck and randomness can affect their lives. Read the book: “The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives.” by Leonard Mlodinow – this book is really eye-opening and intriguing. Good luck can be defined as “preparation meeting opportunity”. Entrepreneurs and businesses need public infrastructure (transportation, security, legal systems, banking, basic education, etc.) to succeed. Those people that think otherwise (“privatize everything!” or “Cut government spending!” (like many Republicans, Libertarians, the Rightwing, etc.) are not thinking clearly and are delusional.
I really think that understanding MMT and MS is revolutionary, even though our economic system has been operating under this paradigm for decades now apparently.
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