Who wins the stupidity wars?
We’ve grown accustomed to Trump’s idiocies — his claim that he will replace Obamacare with “something great” (though he had no plan and still doesn’t), and that he “saved pre-Existing conditions in your healthcare” (while he goes to court to destroy the very program that offers coverage for pre-existing conditions).
OK, so that’s the Trump/FoxNews/BreitbartNews “Say stupid” system for eliminating any credibility the conservative movement once had.
Lately, amidst all the daily lies coming from the right, we had Georgia Governor Brian Kemp claiming on April 1, “. . . we didn’t know until the last 24 hours” that people can be asymptomatic throughout the (COVID-19) disease and still spread it.”
(Fortunately, stupidity itself can be spread only when people are symptomatic.)
And now, we have Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), whose latest contribution to right-wing stupidity is this:
Blackburn: China ‘Should Waive Some of Our Debt’ — ‘They Have Made a Global Pandemic Worse’
The United States owes nearly $1.08 trillion to Mainland China. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) argues China should consider waiving some of that debt given the communist nation’s role in the spread of the COVID-19/coronavirus.
The so-called federal “debt” is the total of deposits into Treasury Security Accounts held at the Federal Reserve Banks. This is China’s money, held by the U.S. government for safekeeping, at the direction of China.
Is Sen. Blackburn really suggesting that China give the U.S. government a few billion dollars? Does she not know that the U.S. government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to create dollars.
Does she not realize that China. like the U.S., is Monetarily Sovereign, so it too has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency, which it can exchange for all the dollars it needs.
For China to give U.S. dollars to the U.S. federal government would be like you pouring a 1/100th thimbleful of water into the Pacific Ocean. It wouldn’t punish you and it wouldn’t reward the Pacific Ocean.
“One of the things is my Senate Resolution 553, which it expresses the sense of the Senate — that we know this came from Wuhan, China, and that they hid the information and were not transparent, that they blocked the World Health Organization and the CDC from coming into help.
“They tried to blame it on the U.S. military. And we hold them accountable.”
Clearly, Sen. Blackburn does not understand the irony of her statement.
It was her peerless leader, Donald J. Trump, who “hid the information and was not transparent,” and it is was Donald J. Trump who fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018.
And after first denying that there has been a slow response to the virus, Trump now blames impeachment for the slow response to coronavirus.
Perfect . . . as perfect as Trump’s famous phone call.
“I will tell you I think we need to look at the fact that China owns over a trillion dollars of our debt,” she said. “They like investing in us. Why do they like that? Because we are a safe debt for them — a safe place for them to put their money.
And knowing that they have made a global pandemic worse than it ever would have been because of their action — they should waive some of our debt.
They have caused us a tremendous amount of loss of life, loss of businesses, suffering, inconvenience, shutting down our economy.”
Yes, T-deposits are a safe place to put their U.S. money; safety is one reason why the U.S. provides for the deposits. That safety helps stabilize the dollar, which benefits us.
But, if Sen. Blackburn wants China (unnecessarily) to give the U.S. government some U.S. dollars, what does that have to do with the deposits?
China could (unnecessarily) send a billion, or even a trillion U.S. dollars to the U.S. government, just by pressing a computer key. This has zero relevance for the so-called “debt.”
Another component the Tennessee Republican argued for on the accountability front was to bring elements of manufacturing back from China to the United States.
“These are all things that we should take into consideration — bringing our manufacturing back, not only our pharmaceutical manufacturing — I was working with one of my colleagues today,” Blackburn explained. “There are other things we can bring back and put America back in the manufacturing business.”
“I told the Vice President the other night — I said, ‘Look, we should take my bill and some others that are focused on manufacturing and call it the MAMA Act — Make America Manufacture Again,’” she said. “And bring these jobs back to U.S. shores.”
And the purpose of “putting America back in the manufacturing business” is to what?
To increase our consumer prices, by forcing Americans to pay more for goods?
Or, to send U.S. dollars to a U.S. government that doesn’t need dollars?
Or, switch America to more manufacturing employment, which is far more vulnerable to pandemics than, for instance, online businesses?
We have borrowed $2 trillion to stabilize our economy.
China will turn around and buy that debt. They’ll buy that. That’s where they’ll park their money. They’ll buy those bonds. They’re going to end up enriching themselves through a problem that they caused.”
First, “we” (the federal government) didn’t borrow anything. We accepted deposits. We don’t need the dollars. We create all we need at the touch of a computer key.
Second, China parks their dollars there, as a safe, trading convenience. It’s good for us and it’s good for them. It helps stabilize the U.S. dollar.
Third, those deposits do not “enrich” China.
So Sen. Blackburn’s entire argument is a ballad to ignorance. She has absolutely no idea about how federal finances work, apparently believing they are like personal finances.
About the only thing I can say in defense of yet another bit of conservative obtuseness is that the liberals can be, and often are, stupid, too.
It’s just that beginning with “Dubya” Bush, and now Trump leading the conservative team, they have a huge, unfair advantage in the stupidity wars.
Because Trump says something stupid almost every day, we need to refresh our memories, with this, this, this, this, and this. In the stupidity wars, Trump is the big gorilla — the dumb one.
And then, if you add the conservatives’ dumb bigotry against everyone who is not a native-born, American, white, Christian, old male, having native-born, American, white, Christian parents, there really is no contest.
Conservatives win by a parsec.
And hey, who needs Medicare for All, anyway?
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
The most important problems in economics involve:
- Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
- Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
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 Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity:
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to social security for all)
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
5. Salary for attending school
6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
9. Federal ownership of all banks
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%
The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Coronavirus job losses likely cost 3.5 million people their health insurance too
Step #2 might be nice right about now. Ah, but that’s “socialism,” right? Ask any Trumpie.
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The federal government only coughs up $255 for funeral expenses that run around $8000. This goes under step #10 as one of the myriad initiatives that benefit the 99%…. Whoop De Do!!
Where did that figure ( $255 ) come from anyway?? Was that the cost of a funeral during the Depression that never kept up with inflation?
The only true liberal is one that is convinced MS and MMT are the salvation of modern economics. All the others think it means More Spending or Much-More-Taxes to be paid back later by our kids.
The payback is ….there is no payback. But try to convince them of something that’s too good to be true, sort of like the Universe and a new born baby.
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“Too good to be true” is for the people who are completely ignorant of economics. But, for those who understand economics, there also is resistance, and some of them have an emotional antagonism toward giving money to those who don’t work. The belief is that the poor are congenitally lazy, so any aid will prevent them from working. (The rich, by contrast, are not lazy. They are “deserving.”)
Some of it is Gap Psychology. And some of it is quasi-religious, as though there is something morally wrong with people getting free stuff – especially poor people.
The old trope about “food-stamp mama” combines bigotry with hatred for those poorer.
Rich people, on average, labor much less, and in much worse environments, than do poor people, but you seldom hear objections to the rich getting to the head of the line. Let a poor person try it and there is hell to pay.
The conservatives, especially, want to “conserve” the old slave/master relationships, and are the first to object to social benefits.
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All true of course! I just wonder how much an effect this pandemic will have on traditional economic thinking/behavior. Will it be back to normal after a cure is found; or will monetary sovereignty start to make more sense if we find ourselves in an untenable financial situation?
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