A government’s sole purpose is to improve and protect people’s lives. No rational person would take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars.
Our Monetarily Sovereign government’s greatest asset is its infinite ability to create and spend its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. The federal government cannot unintentionally run short of dollars.
It can pay any bill and fund any enterprise based on dollars and do it without the need to collect a penny in taxes. In fact, federal taxes (unlike state/local taxes) are destroyed upon receipt.
Though the federal government may not always be good at running things, it is outstanding at paying for things.
Consider retirement. Social Security pays for retirement life by issuing money. Though the government collects the FICA tax, this tax doesn’t fund Social Security. Like all other federal taxes, FICA dollars are destroyed.
But Social Security, unlike private retirement plans, does not rely on stock market or bond market investments or any other form of income, and it does not need to make a profit or even to break even.
Pay no attention to the Henny Penny claims of the Social Security fund’s insolvency. Social Security can become insolvent only if the federal government wants it to. Benefits could double or triple or begin at age 0 rather than in the 60s, and SS always will be able to pay benefits.
Consider Medicare. This program, too, is funded by federal money creation. Despite what you have been told, Medicare is not financed by taxes but by federal money creation.
Medicare does not do medical treatments; Medicare pays for medical treatments.
Social Security and Medicare replace insurance companies as retirement and healthcare insurance providers. Having no need for income or profits and having the unlimited ability to pay for anything, the federal government is a much better source of insurance dollars than any private sector insurance company.
We previously have recommended instituting Medicare for All and Social Security for All. In that same vein, we recommend Life Insurance for all.
The federal government already provides life insurance for its civilian employees. Worldwide Assurance for Employees of Public Agencies (WAEPA) is one version:
As a non-profit formed For Feds, By Feds, we understand what it takes to help provide peace of mind. More than 46,000 Feds and their families choose WAEPA’s portable life insurance coverage to help protect the future of their families.
While we actively provide more than $10 billion in coverage to Feds, we’ve refunded over $100 million in premiums since 1996. That’s one way how WAEPA serves Feds who serve our country.
Short-Term Disability Insurance — WAEPA’s newest product provides paycheck protection for eligible illnesses or injuries.You can receive up to $6,500 in coverage a month for up to six months to replace lost income if you’re out of work due to recovery.Underwritten by New York Life Insurance Company, 51 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010
Another is Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI):
The Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program is a life insurance program for Federal and Postal employees and annuitants, authorized by law (Chapter 87 of Title 5, United States Code).
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers the Program and sets the premiums.
FEGLI does not build up cash value. You cannot take a loan out against your FEGLI insurance. OPM has a contract with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) to provide this life insurance.
MetLife has an administrative office called the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI). OFEGLI is the contractor that adjudicates claims under the FEGLI Program.
While Medicare and Social Security replace private insurance companies, WAEPA and FEGLI pay private insurance companies to administer their programs.
Either approach has advantages, but all have two glaring weaknesses.
- The federal government unnecessarily extracts premiums from the private sector.
- None of the programs offers comprehensive coverage, as though the government needed profits or even breakevens. It doesn’t.
The WAEPA website includes this chart:
It shows neither plan is comprehensive nor complete, which is not surprising. Two other federal programs, Medicare and Social Security, are not comprehensive or complete.
But why? Given that the federal government has infinite financial resources, why should any plan it supports offer less than the optimum?
Why does Medicare have a 20% deductible, along with limited coverages and not covering drugs or dental care, etc., without an extra cost? Why are Social Security benefits so meager? In WAEPA and FEGLI, why is one spouse’s life insurance death benefit less than the other’s?
The federal government repeatedly acts as though it can run short of dollars. It works like a monetarily non-sovereign entity. And why does the federal government extract a tax to fund something when it has the unlimited ability to support anything?
BOTTOM LINE
- The federal government has infinite dollars. It can pay any debt denominated in dollars. No such obligation is a burden on the government or on taxpayers.
- A healthy economy needs a continual input of dollars. Federal deficit spending prevents and cures recessions.
- A government’s sole purpose is to improve and protect people’s lives.
- No rational person would take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars.
Therefore, the federal government should fully fund the following comprehensive, no deductible, tax-free programs for every man, woman, and child who wants to participate:]
- Healthcare insurance (aka Medicare for all)
- Retirement insurance (Social Security for all)
- Life insurance
- College
- Salary for attending college
- Food support [aka Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)]
- Rental (living quarters) support
Objections:
- Federal spending causes inflation: In previous posts (here, here, here, and elsewhere, we have demonstrated that federal deficit spending does not cause inflation. Shortages cause inflation. Inflations are cured by curing the shortages, which can be accomplished with the aid of federal deficit spending.
- If given these benefits, people would refuse to work. We suggest this is not true, as demonstrated by the fact that people at all wealth strata continue to work.
The total of human wants never is satisfied.
If the government pays for an apartment’s rent, the family wants a bigger apartment, a car, a yacht, or a vacation home. People always want more for themselves, their children, and charity.
The single most valuable asset owned by the U.S. federal government is its Monetary Sovereignty — its unlimited ability to create and control the value of the U.S. dollar.
Unfortunately, the government and many information sources refuse to acknowledge this great asset, so we slog along with poverty, hunger, homelessness, illness, lack of education, recessions, and depressions.
The federal government has the power to mitigate or prevent them all with the application of its Monetary Sovereignty.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
……………………………………………………………………..
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
……. why does the federal government extract a tax to fund something when it has unlimited funds..?
Because the federal government won’t let the cat out of the bag. It’s in cahoots with the private sector to continue playing the age old game of scarcity limitation. Also the status-producing gap between rich and poor would shrink, allowing ordinary people into the ranks of the snooty well-to-do who abhor punching a clock, working for a living or joining the military. Monetary Soveriegnty would spoil their centuries old dominance game.
LikeLike
Indeed, the oligarchy luuurrrves artificial scarcity. Because (late) capitalism needs scarcity to function, it has to manufacture such scarcity to stay relevant. Without such Machiavellian machinations of the moneyed elites, we would already be in a post-capitalism age of abundance for all. Their utterly specious and obsolete system absolutely cannot survive abundance for long.
Another reason for taxation of course is a fear that without it, we would end up with hyperinflation like the Confederacy had during the Civil War. After all, they eschewed taxes and printed lots of money, right? But that was a different beast altogether, as people simply stopped trusting their new fledgling currency when it became clear they were losing the war despite gobbling up ludicrous amounts of non-monetary resources for that ill-fated war.
LikeLike
Excellent article, Rodger.
How would you respond to this Spectator article? https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-the-economy-can-t-get-rea
LikeLike