TSA and the great privatization scam: Part II

It has been a long-held belief among the right-wing populace that the federal government is “too large,” that government workers are inferior to private workers, and that private industry always does things better than the government.

So there has been a continuing effort to move responsibility from the federal government to the states, and from there to the private sector.

States Rights
Any time a difficult social problem is discussed, the right wing inevitably suggests/demands, that the solution be left to the states: Abortion, gun control, immigration, gay marriage, drug control, flag burning, segregation . . . ah, the list goes on and on.

The fundamental reason is that the state and local governments are infinitely more dishonest and controllable (by wealthy crooks) than is the federal government.

Yes, there are plenty of dishonest people in the federal government, especially in Congress, but their actions tend to be more closely watched by the media, and thus more exposed.

I doubt any federal government in history has been as outright dishonest as the government of my state (Illinois), or of my county (Cook), or of my city (Chicago).  If you’re not familiar with the term “Chicago politics,” you haven’t been paying attention.

And talk about bigotry, the states and cities always have been leaders.

It simply is much easier for a bigoted crook to control a state, county or city, than to control the whole country, and the bribe money is just as good. Political “bosses” thrive in smaller governments.

Any time, and I mean ANY time, you hear a politician opt for “states rights,” or “privatization,” know that he or she is a criminal, a bigot or both.  No exceptions.

Which brings us to the title of this post . . .

Privatization

Privatization is the great honeypot of politics. Crooked politicians love privatization because private industry (those folks who are “better” at everything than government workers) pay politicians big dollars to get their greedy hands on public works.

Two years ago, we published, “Presenting!! The Great Privatization Scam!” Please read it.

Any time the states (and counties and cities) engage a problem, the conversation seems to turn to privatization.

Chicago’s notorious Mayor Daley and his cronies stole so much, the city fell billions of dollars into debt. So the good mayor began selling parts of Chicago to private industry. He sold an expressway (Chicago Skyway) to private hands, and the tolls promptly doubled.

He sold Chicago’s parking meters and rates tripled, or more. He was planning to sell Chicago’s Midway Airport, but thankfully he retired (to a highly paid, non-job, at a connected law firm) just ahead of the Feds, looking into his finances.

So while the citizens pay more for services, and the same citizens will pay more taxes in the future (because no parking or toll money will come in) the private investors will laugh and pat each other on the back for the great deals they have made.

No suddenly, for “no apparent reason,” the TSA is unable to handle crowds at airports.

Sure, there often have been lines at security, but nothing like this. Two-hour waits have become common and even some three-hour waits. How could this happen?

Well, it didn’t just happen. It was caused. And the clue is in the sudden demand for privatization of airport security.

The formula is this: Cause a crisis. Declare the solution is to get rid of those lazy, stupid unmotivated government workers, and bring in those energetic, bright, private workers.

Never mind that they are the same workers.

Never mind that there is zero evidence that replacing federal workers with private workers will solve the problem (i.e. too few workers).

The goal is to get those delicious security dollars into private, greedy hands — hands that will shovel some of those dollars back into greedy politicians hands.

Saggeringly long lines at the nation’s airports this spring have led officials in Chicago, New York City, Atlanta and Seattle to discuss turning security over to private contractors, instead of employees of the Transportation Security Administration.

“It seems to me that it’s broken now and it can’t get much worse,” Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, one of a group of aldermen urging the city to give TSA officers the boot, said in an interview. “Why not give private security a chance?”

Alderman Burke is a long-time Chicago alderman, and therefore, a crook. As infamous Illinois politician, Paul Powell said, “I can smell the meat a’cookin'”.

Alderman Burke can smell the meat a’cookin.’

So sure, give private industry “a chance.” Which company? No one knows, but you can bet it will be a politically connected, generous-to-politicians company.

And a few years after this company is found to be worse than what we have now, the federal government will be forced to take over, again. (Think of the disaster that came from privatizing jails.)

So the real question is: “How did TSA get so much more awful this year?”

No mystery: NOT ENOUGH SCREENERS.

Remember the formula? Cause a crisis. Declare the solution is privatization.

Well, the best way to cause a crisis is to cut budgets, because the federal government “can’t afford” . . . [You name it: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, good roads, safe bridges, food inspection, drug inspection and on, and on and on]

President Bush II wanted to privatize Social Security — put into the hands of Wall Street. Can you guess why? Can you guess why the right wing, the handmaidens of the rich, always wants to cut federal budgets?

The answer: Privatization. Giving more money to the rich.

Reality: The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, can afford anything, and no, that won’t cause inflation.

Keep in mind the Big Lie: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.” It hasn’t been true since August 15, 1971, and it isn’t true today.

Travel group protests TSA staff cuts

The U.S. Travel Association is protesting staff cuts that are being planned by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The appropriations bill that is being considered by lawmakers for the Homeland Security Administration, which oversees the TSA, would cap the agency’s employment at 45,000, which the Travel Association said Friday would result in a cut of about 600 workers.

Critics have often complained about the size of TSA’s workforce, but Dow said Friday that it is vital to the travel industry to have effective airport security.

You know those guys in Washington who tell you the federal deficit is “unsustainable” and who want a “balanced budget”? Think about them the next time you’re standing in a two-hour line at the airport.

And no, privatization won’t help. Not one bit. In fact, it will hurt, because private companies are even more devoted to cost-cutting than is the federal government.

Alderman Burke, and politicians all over the country, can smell the meat a’cookin’.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich afford better health care than the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefiting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.)
Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be an good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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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

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

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Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY