The real purpose of the debt ceiling. Again.

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
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That time of the year has come again.  You very soon will begin to read more articles about the U.S. “debt ceiling.”

In October 2015, we published, “The real reason we have a debt ceiling.” The article reminded us of a few facts:

• The debt ceiling had been raised 74 times since March 1962
• Congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times from 2001-2013
• Every single time we have bumped up against the debt ceiling, it has been raised.

If you asked the mythical “man-in-the-street” why we have a “debt ceiling,” he would tell you something like this: “To control Congress’s deficit spending.”

I hope that is not what you would say, because the answer is ridiculous. The so-called “debt ceiling” controls nothing. Think about it:

Congress controls deficit spending, and Congress controls the debt ceiling. So how could the debt ceiling, which is under the total control of Congress, control what Congress does? It makes no sense.

Further, and more important, the “debt ceiling” is a limit on payment for spending already done. The federal government already owes the money at the time the federal debt approaches the ceiling. The only thing a debt ceiling can accomplish is to cheat America’s creditors, the people who sold goods and services to the federal government.

You might ask your Congressperson how cheating creditors benefits America.

Why then do we have a debt ceiling? The abovementioned article concluded:

The debt ceiling has nothing to do with financial prudence or with spending or with taxes or abortion or immigration or Medicare or gay rights or with our military power or whether the Cubs ever will win a World Series.

The debt ceiling exists only because of a bunch of ruthless, vindictive people, whose pay will continue even during a depression — people who could not care less about you, me or anyone else on earth — people who demand, “Give me what I want or I’ll destroy your life and the lives of your friends and loved ones and of the whole world.”

So that is the real reason we have a the debt ceiling: Bastard power.

But the article was wrong. The real reason is even more insidious than that.

The real reason why we have a phony debt ceiling is to help promulgate the Big Lie, the lie that includes such “sub-lies” as:

1. Federal taxes and borrowing are necessary to pay for federal spending.
2. The federal deficit (wrongly termed “printing money”) will cause a Zimbabwe style hyperinflation
3. The federal “debt” is an unsustainable financial burden on the government and a danger should nations not want to lend to us anymore.
4. Once the GDP/Debt ratio reaches 100% (or 150% or any other number then in vogue) something terrible will happen.

The “Big Truth” is:

1. Neither taxes nor borrowing have anything to do with federal spending. Even if all taxes and all borrowing fell to $0, our Monetarily Sovereign government could continue spending forever. (Sorry to be the bearer of “bad” news, but those tax dollars you send to the federal government cease to be part of the money supply. They are destroyed. Used for nothing.)
2. Not only has the U.S. never had a hyperinflation, not even during wars, recessions, depressions and a Cub World Series victory, but even Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation was not caused by excessive deficit spending. All hyperinflations have been caused by shortages of products.
3. The federal “debt” being nothing more than the total of dollars deposited in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank, is not a burden on anyone. The federal government easily could pay off the entire “debt” (i.e. deposits) tomorrow, simply by transferring existing dollars from those T-security accounts back to the holders’ checking accounts.
4. The federal “debt” (total of deposits) is not related to GDP. Japan’s Debt/GDP ratio is about 230%.  The U.S.’s is about 105%. Russia’s is about 18%.  What does that tell you about the significance of the ratio?

O.K., if the real reason why we have a phony debt ceiling is to promulgate the Big Lie, what is the motive for the Big Lie?

The answer brings us to the Gap between the rich (the .1%)and the rest (the 99.9%).

The Gap is what makes them rich. Without the Gap, we all would be the same.  The wider the Gap, the richer they are.

If you had a million dollars, and everyone else had two million, you would be poor. But if you had only a hundred dollars, and everyone else had one dollar, you would be rich.

“Rich” is a comparative, not an absolute.

Thus, the prime financial motivation of the rich is not to make more money but to widen the Gap.

One way to widen the Gap is to deprive the 99.9% of federal benefits, that is to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut ACA, cut aids to education, cut all poverty assistance.

Social benefits comprise a huge proportion of federal spending, so when politicians talk about reducing the deficit and reducing the “debt,” they really are talking about widening the Gap between the rich and the rest — i.e. making the rich richer.

And that, dear friends, is the purpose of the debt ceiling: To make the rich richer and you poorer.

The rich bribe Congress and the President via campaign “contributions” (Don’t you love that word, “contributions”?), as well as with promises of lucrative employment, later.

Though the debt ceiling itself is meaningless, it reinforces the false narrative that federal spending must be cut, because it represents a fiscal danger to America.

The public is led to believe that the federal government “must live within its means” (Unlike you and me, a Monetarily Sovereign government has no “means” to live within).

You are told falsely that deficits and debts are “unsustainable” (though we have sustained them quite nicely for more than 240 years).

And you are told that future generations of taxpayers will have to pay for today’s deficits and debt (though taxpayers do not fund federal deficits or the federal “debt.” Dollars are created ad hoc, every time the federal government pays a bill. No taxes involved.)

The next time you hear a politician pontificating about the need to deal with the federal debt ceiling, know it is all a charade funded by the rich.

It’s a gigantic con job, paid for by the rich to reduce your government benefits and to widen the Gap. And you are the victim. 

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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THE RULES

•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.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives 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 the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•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