A solution to the climate change controversy.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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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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President Trump says climate change is a Chinese hoax. He doesn’t believe the massive release of CO2 by humans is warming the planet.

The United States military disagrees. Here are some excerpts from an interview aired on NPR:

National Public Radio: LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
Climate Change As An Issue Of National Security

ProPublica published excerpts of a testimony by Defense Secretary James Mattis calling climate change a national security threat. Mattis says climate change is, quote, “impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.”

Retired Brig. Gen. Gerald Galloway talks about how the Pentagon will manage challenges presented by climate change.

The Trump administration and the President himself have denied its impact.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What environmental challenges do you see the military facing today?

GENERAL GALLOWAY: The military has a battlefield on which they’re going to fight. That battlefield is in constant change. It is right now, but it will be under considerably more change under climate change.

We already know, for example, that we have more intense rainfall events. We expect to see – the rivers will flow with greater volume, and that will cause problems for river crossings.

We see there are problems in the seas. The storms are more intense. We’ll have more frequent storms – all of the sorts of things that make uncertainty reality on the battlefield.

If you can’t get your aircraft off an airfield because it’s under water, if you can’t land troops in a foreign country because the beach you thought was going to be something you could land on is no longer there, then it’s a national security issue.

If our allies are having problems in their own country as a result of such things as drought – where there’s instability in the country – instability breeds conflict. And conflict is what puts our forces at risk, and we don’t want that to happen.

So we’ve got to be prepared for this, and we’ve got to be prepared to assist at home and abroad.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So let’s talk about the measures released last week by the Trump administration in the budget – cuts to almost every single climate change initiative in multiple departments and agencies.

I’m going to list a few. The EPA‘s climate programs would be ended, possibly in their entirety. The Department of Energy’s (DoE) programs would be scaled back. NASA‘s Earth monitoring programs also potentially gone. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAH, would also be hit.

Are you concerned?

GALLOWAY: I certainly am concerned. You can’t have one part of the government operating one way and another part operating in a different manner. So in this particular case, we have to rely on many things that NASA provides, that NOAH provides, and it’s important that they be continued.

I think it’s urgent that we get a glide path to where we’re going. Certainly, when somebody says in 2080, this is going to be the sea level, or we’re going to have storms of this nature, we’re not going to go tomorrow to start building something for that.

But we know that in 2030, there’s going to be a problem. Or right now at Annapolis, just down the river from us, we have a problem with water rising into the city and into the Naval Academy. We have to deal with that now.

So we need to know what the risk is nationwide. We need to know the risk overseas, what it’s going to take to deal with that on a stage basis over time. We need to be doing the things now that’ll let it be operational for the next 10 years and put into the plan for the following 10 years. So it’s taken a lot of effort.

But I will tell you the Defense Department has been a leader since 2003 in dealing with these issues, identifying what they are, coming to the Congress and saying, we need to work in this direction.

And if we do this, we think we can be prepared for it. Now, if that’s pushed off the plate, that’s a different issue, but I don’t see someone who is told this is a national security issue saying, no, don’t do that.

Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans wish to cut federal spending and federal regulations regarding climate change.

But Trump et al do believe in spending for the military — and extra $50 billion, in fact.

So there, dear friends, is the solution staring us in the face. Have the military fund the climate change initiatives of the EPA, NASA, NOAH, DoE, and all other agencies concerned with climate change.

Yes, yes. It’s not a real solution.  We don’t want to turn over the whole nation to the military. That’s how military dictatorships are created.

But it demonstrates the priorities of the Trump/Republicans, who say we must cut any spending that would benefit poor and middle-income Americans, but we must increase spending on the military and anti-immigration walls.

Seemingly, our Monetarily Sovereign government can’t afford to help the poor, but we can afford to pay the rich armaments industry billions for more guns and even more billions to pay the rich construction companies for a wall. (Reward the Rich; Punish the Poor. RRPP)

Now, if only the military used their extra $50 billion to fund ACA, perhaps the Trump Republicans wouldn’t have an excuse to deny an additional 24 million Americans their health care.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

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 can afford better health care than can 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 A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Guaranteed Income)) 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 EVERYONE Five 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 benefitting 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business taxes would be a 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.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY