In the unlikely event you don’t already know whether your U.S. Senators and Representative are ignorant about economics, or are liars, or in rare cases, honest and knowledgable, ask each of them this one question:
“Can the U.S. government run short of dollars?”
Their answers will tell you everything you need to know about their knowledge of federal economics and their honesty.
If they tell you that, “Yes, the government can run short of dollars,” that indicates they either are shockingly ignorant of federal finances, or they are shockingly dishonest.
If they tell you, “No, the government cannot run short of dollars,” then you can follow up with such questions as:
“Why does the government claim Social Security, a federal agency, is running short of dollars?”
“Why does the government collect FICA taxes?”
“Why does the government collect income taxes?”
“Why would Social Security for All be unaffordable?”
“Why would Medicare for All be unaffordable?”
“Why does Medicare have deductibles?”
“Why would free college, for all who want it, be unaffordable?”
“Why does the government lend, rather than give, to college students?”
“Why does America have so many impoverished men, women, and children — people who struggle to find enough to eat and a place to live?”
I recently sent “the one question” to my Senators and my House Representative. If they respond with anything coherent, I will publish their answers.
[Why would any sane person take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars?]
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:
Politics is a unique system by which pigeons and dupes demand to give their money and trust to crooks, liars, and hypocrites.
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In one sense, medical doctors should appreciate illness, for without illness the doctors would have no jobs.
Similarly, teachers should appreciate ignorance, police should appreciate crime, and firefighters should appreciate fire.
And, by the same logic, I appreciate the CRFB (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) for spreading disinformation. Without the economic ignorant, I would have no reason to write this blog.
Here is the latest example from my favorite doofi.
Though most COVID relief has already been spent, several policies continue to provide ongoing financial support and could be renewed again by Congress or the President. In particular, the federal government continues to offer increased payments to Medicare providers, forbearance for student loan borrowers, and an enhanced Medicaid matching rate(a form of aid to states).
Get it? The CRFB wants to cut federal support for Medicare, students, and Medicaid, all of which benefit those who are not rich.
Though some spending to specifically address the pandemic may still be warranted, policymakers should wind down these COVID relief policies rather than continuing to extend them.In this piece, we show that continuing these three policies would be:
Costly – the policies would cost a total of $160 billion in 2022 if continued and roughly $2 trillion over a decade if made permanent, based on our estimates.
Unjustified – the economy is saturated with demand, household incomes are well above pre-pandemic levels, the unemployment rate is near historic lows, hospital finances are strong, and state governments are flush with cash.
Inflationary – the policies would be responsible for adding 14 to 68 basis points (0.14 to 0.68 percentage points) to this year’s inflation rate if in effect for the full year, based on our estimates.
Let us analyze the three lies:
“COSTLY”:
The CRFB objects to the federal government pumping 160 billion growth dollars into the economy this year, and $2 trillion over 10 years. (Not sure how that math works.)
Those are dollars that could narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest, a Gap which the CRFB apparently is paid to widen.
REALITY: The Gap widens. The rich (blue) grow richer, while the middle (red) is poorer.
Because the federal government has the infinite ability to create dollars, the word “costly” does not apply. Nothing is “costly” for the federal government.
The federal government creates dollars by spending. That is the method by which the federal government creates its own sovereign currency, not with a printing press but with a computer key.
When the government pays a creditor, it sends instructions to the creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account. (“Pay to the order of”).
When the bank does as instructed, it the M1 money supply measure increases. In short, federal spending creates the dollars ad hoc, that pay for the spending.
Unlike you and me, and unlike state and local governments, the federal government cannot unintentionally outspend its supply of dollars.
Despite what you may have been told by devious politicians, the federal government even could eliminate all federal taxes and still have no difficulty spending that $160 billion or $2 trillion.
Taxes do not fund federal spending. Money creation funds federal spending.
Tax dollars are destroyed upon receipt by the government. Tax dollars move from the M1 money supply measure (i.e. your checking account) to no money supply measure at all. There is no measure of how many dollars the federal government has because it has infinite dollars.
There is no specific answer to the question, “How much money does the federal government have?” At any moment in time, it has as much or as little as it wishes to have. That is the meaning of “Monetary Sovereignty.” The government is sovereign over the U.S. dollar. It creates dollars at will.
“UNJUSTIFIED”:
The economy is not “saturated” with demand, nor has it ever been “saturated.”
The economy is experiencing shortages, and those shortages are claimed by the CRFB to result from too much demand.
But shortages of food do not imply “too much” demand for food. (Do we really demand too much food?)
Shortages of oil do not imply “too much” demand for oil. Shortages of labor do not imply “too much” demand for labor. (Does anyone believe we “demand” too much labor?)
Shortages of computer chips and lumber do not imply “too much” demand for chips and lumber. Shortages of shipping do not imply “too much” demand for shipping.
The whole foolish concept of “too much” demand, implies that the economy is too healthy and is growing too fast.
Where was this “too much” demand during the past decade, when the federal government spent massively and inflation was very low?
“Saturated with demand” is a ridiculous notion, especially when millions of Americans still live in poverty, and millions more are unable to afford good housing, good medical care, a good education, and good food.
Because the CRFB is funded by the rich and is in fact a mouthpiece of the rich, it closes its eyes to the needs of those who are not rich.
“INFLATIONARY”:
This old saw is widely believed but unsupported by data. There is no historical relationship between federal spending and inflation.
Inflation (blue line) bears no relationship to federal debt (red line). There is no cause/effect correlation between the two.All inflations are caused by shortages. The current inflation was not suddenly caused by the massive federal spending of the past decade.
The current inflation suddenly was caused by the sudden COVID-related shortages of oil, food, labor, shipping, lumber, etc.
The CRFB, supported by the conservative rich, promulgates the lie that to combat inflation we must cut spending to further impoverish the poor and the middle.
They tell you we must cut federal support for healthcare, education, food, housing, and retirement. These cuts would impact your life, but not the lives of the rich, who can afford the best of everything, even during recessions.
The conservatives prefer cuts that would widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest of us, effectively making the rich richer.
(It is the Gap that makes the rich rich, for without the Gap, no one would be rich. We all would be the same. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich.)
That, of course, is the CRFB conservative plan: To make the rich richer.
Gap Psychology dictates that people generally wish to widen the Gap below them and to narrow the Gap above them.
This includes the rich, who always wish to be richer by widening the Gap below them.
Notice that the rich do not want to cut the military or the police or border control, for those are protections for the rich that take their orders from the rich.
In short, while every spending cut demanded by conservatives is designed to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest, the few spending increases backed by conservatives are designed to reward and protect the rich.
The Biden administration lacks the funds to purchase a potential fourth coronavirus vaccine dose for everyone, even as other countries place their own orders and potentially move ahead of the United States in line, administration officials said Monday.
“Right now, we don’t have enough money for fourth doses, if they’re called for,” White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said. “We don’t have the funding if we were to need a variant-specific vaccine in the future.”
Administration officials said placing orders for additional doses ahead of time — rather than waiting for the United States to be swamped by another wave of the virus — was imperative and a key lesson from the pandemic’s past two years.
They also noted that the fast-moving omicron variant evaded some immune protection conferred by existing vaccines, demonstrating the need to invest in more targeted shots that could better fend off omicron and potential future variants.
“Vaccines don’t just appear when you snap your fingers and say, ‘Okay, I want the vaccine.’ We’ve got to make it,” a senior administration official said.
“And this year, it’s going to be more complicated because there’s a very significant chance — although we’re still waiting for data — that the vaccines are going to need to be tweaked to cover omicron.”
There is Congress, again playing political games with the lives of Americans. The government has plenty of money — infinite money — but the pretense of federal poverty continues.
And this:
Higher food prices around the country are pushing more Americans to food banksFood banks have more customers as safety net programs end and people struggle with inflationBy Laura ReileyEven as coronavirus rates continue to drop and the American labor market nears full recovery from the pandemic, food banks are seeing another surge in need. Most pandemic assistance programs have ended, inflation is rising and many Americans are once again having trouble making ends meet.Food bank officials are reporting growing lines at their distribution centers nationwide. Rates of reported hunger have been increasing since early August, when nearly 8 percent of respondents said they “sometimes” or “often” did not have enough to eat, according to data from the Census Household Pulse Survey.In late January and early February, after child tax credit payments ended, 35 percent (!) of adults living in households with children said they struggled to cover usual costs, according to census data.
The CRFB liars might tell you the demand for food is “saturated” — simply too much demand for food — and that too much federal spending is causing this “saturation.”
In Summary
There is no relationship between federal spending and inflation. All inflations are caused by shortages, most of which actually can be cured by federal spending.
Conservatives, who wish to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, use the nonexistent spending/inflation relationship and the false “government can’t afford it” meme as excuses to cut all spending that benefits the middle- and lower-income groups.
Similarly, the conservatives support increased taxes on the poor- and middle-income groups, supposedly to fund social programs. The rich avoid these taxes, and the ultimate irony is, the taxes don’t actually fund anything.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
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:
“Pay no attention to those many trillions behind me. I’m too broke to help you (unless you’re rich.)”
Begin with two central facts: The U.S. federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, and a Monetarily Sovereign entity cannot unintentionally run short of its own sovereign currency.
The federal government has infinite dollars.
Thus, your federal tax dollars do not fund federal spending.
Even if all federal tax collections totaled $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.
All federal taxes are destroyed upon receipt. Your M1 money-supply tax dollars cease to be part of any money-supply measure, once they reach the Treasury. They effectively are destroyed.
The government creates new dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a bill. That is how the federal government creates dollars. The more debts the government owes, the more money it creates.
Contrary to what you repeatedly are told, your grandchildren are not liable for the federal “debt.” Not now, not ever.
WASHINGTON — The bipartisan spending deal that Congress cleared last week provides billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it cuts other humanitarian programs meant to address mounting hunger crises elsewhere in the world, including Afghanistan and West Africa.
The initial House-passed bill and one offered in the Senate, written by majority Democrats, would have largely fulfilled the White House’s humanitarian funding request.
In interviews and statements, foreign aid advocates said they were “embarrassed” and “flabbergasted” that Congress reduced funds for dealing with the worst refugee displacements since World War II and other crises caused by mounting natural disasters and manmade conflicts.
The cuts to nonemergency humanitarian spending, as well as the lack of any international COVID-19 assistance in the omnibus, are a “self-inflicted wound” to America’s ability to recover from the pandemic and to pursue its long-term national security interests, said Liz Schrayer, president of the bipartisan U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
Independent budget analysts have pinned blame on Republicans’ insistence that any increases in nondefense spending be kept roughly equal to increases in defense spending.
“We have more people who are hungry and people who are hungrier getting hungrier and we have no grain. It is absolutely catastrophic,” Peña said. “SFOPs got the raw end of the stick.”
The Senate’s lead foreign aid appropriator issued a similar view in an uncharacteristically blunt statement for a congressional appropriations cardinal criticizing his own bill.
Everywhere you turn, the phony belief that the federal government must operate under restrictive budgets, like you and I must, is a self-inflicted wound on America.
The so-called “federal debt” is not a debt (It is deposits in T-security accounts), and it is not a burden on anyone. (The “debt” is paid off simply by returning those deposits.)
Our federal government, having unlimited resources, pretends it is limited, and the public believes the lie.
The sole purpose of the lie is to keep you from asking for the same federal benefits that the rich (who pay no taxes year after year) receive.
So long as you are kept ignorant, the rich will keep getting richer and you will keep paying.
WHAT ABOUT INFLATION?
In addition to the lie about the federal debt being a burden, there is the lie that federal deficit spending causes inflation. It is widely believed, but it is a flat-out lie backed by no facts.
There is no relationship between federal deficit spending (red line) and inflation (blue line).
Inflations are caused by shortages, most often shortages of oil.
Today’s inflation is caused not only by shortages of oil but also by scarcities of food, shipping, labor, computer chips, vital minerals, lumber, and many other COVID-induced problems.
For many, many years, the US had massive deficit spending with low inflation, but now, with the effects of COVID and the Putin war, we suddenly see inflation. Clearly, deficit spending was not the cause.
The Fed’s attempt to address inflation by raising interest rates will not succeed while the real causes, shortages of oil et al, persist. Congress can address these shortages by spending more to facilitate the supply of all scarcities.
One good step would be to eliminate the harmful FICA tax, which doesn’t fund Medicare or Social Security but does discourage hiring by increasing the cost of labor.
And this is what breaks my heart. A Congress that never has to worry about having enough to eat, or a place to sleep, or good schools for their children, has decided America “can’t afford” to provide these things to the “lazy” poor.
Of course, the “can’t afford” meme is a blatant lie. America can afford anything that costs dollars.
But the rich, who bribe and control our government, don’t want the Gap between them and the rest of us to narrow. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich, so widening the Gap is the way our spineless Congresspeople vote.
“Spineless” is the only way to describe the 100% refusal of one party to approve spending for the poor. These subservient sheep do exactly as they are told by the rich, then collect their excessive salaries and bribes, while the less fortunate among us pay the price.
So long as you believe that your federal taxes fund federal spending and that federal spending causes inflation — so long as you believe those two lies — then the rich will have won and you will have lost.
Ignorance has its costs.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
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:
Ignorance is not stupidity.
While stupidity can cause ignorance, ignorance cannot cause stupidity. We all are ignorant about many things. Each of us is ignorant about all but a minuscule fraction of what there is to know.
Sadly, most of us are ignorant about federal government financing.
Which do you believe:
The purpose of federal government taxes is to help pay the government’s bills.
The federal government borrows dollars to help pay its bills.
The federal government can unintentionally run short of dollars.
The federal debt should be reduced.
Our children and grandchildren will have to pay the federal debt.
Federal spending can cause inflation.
Federal deficits should be reduced.
The federal government should run a balanced budget.
Federal finances are similar to state/local government finances.
The federal debt ceiling is a fiscally prudent limit.
Even Bernie Madoff couldn’t imagine a con a large as the trillions-of-dollars “debt crisis” con.
As the smart and fiscally knowledgeable people know, all of the above statements are false. How many did you get right?
The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereignhas the infinite ability to create dollars.
It not only doesn’t use tax dollars; it destroys them upon receipt.
The primary purpose of federal taxes is to control the economy by taxing what the government wishes to discourage.
The federal “debt” isn’t a debt; it’s deposits, and neither the debt nor the deficit is an obligation of the government, of you, or of your grandchildren. No one ever will pay for the “debt.” The deposited money simply will be returned upon maturity.
In short, there is no federal “debt crisis.” It’s a con by the rich that is far bigger than anything Bernie Madoff could imagine. The purpose: To make you accept fewer benefits from the government.
Federal deficits are necessary for economic growth. Shortages, not federal spending, cause inflation. A federal balanced budget would cause a recession or a depression.
Federal finances are nothing like state/local government finances, nothing like business finances, and nothing like your or my finances. The federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. It never unintentionally can run short of dollars.
Keep these facts in mind as we go through the following article:
Americans owe at least $195 billion of medical debt, despite 90% of the population having some kind of health coverage, according to new research from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The fundamental purpose of government is to improve and protect the lives of the people being governed.
How does requiring payment to the federal government improve or protect the lives of the people?
Why it matters: People are spending down their savings and skimping on food, clothing and household items to pay their medical bills.
About 16 million people, or 6% of U.S. adults, owe more than $1,000 in medical bills, and 3 million people owe more than $10,000.
The financial burden falls disproportionately on people with disabilities, those in generally poor health, Black Americans and people living in the South or in non-Medicaid expansion states, per the research.
“People living in the South or in non-Medicaid expansion states” live where Republicans govern. This is not a coincidence. The right-wing philosophy is to benefit the rich by widening the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and he rest.
The rich wish to be richer, and widening the Gap makes them richer. The very definition of “rich” involves a wide income/wealth/power Gap.
Nor is it a coincidence that these are the same states enacting laws to make voting more difficult for the poor and for people of color. (See “Gap Psychology.”)
16% of privately-insured adults say they would need to take on credit card debt to meet an unexpected $400 medical expense, while 7% would borrow money from friends or family, per the research, which focused on adults who reported having more than $250 in unpaid bills as of December 2019.
It’s not yet clear how much the pandemic and the recession factor into the picture, in part because man people delayed or went without care. There also was a small shift from employer-based coverage to Medicaid, which has little or no cost-sharing.
While the new federal ban on surprise billing limits exposure to some unexpected expenses, it only covers a fraction of the large medical bills many Americans face, the researchers say.
The solution to the medical debt problem is federal support. The federal government should offer comprehensive, no-deductible, generous Medicare coverage to every man, woman, and child in America.
The plan should be optional. Those who wish to keep their private insurance should be allowed to do so, though one wonders why anyone would wish to.
(Presumably, there may be some anti-government types who would prefer to pay for what they could receive without cost.)
This plan should cover everything that could be considered “medical”: Dental, psychiatric, rehabilitation, home rehab for disability, pharmaceuticals, etc.
The payments to healthcare workers and hospitals should be generous, to attract people into the profession and to encourage the building of more and better hospitals.
There is nothing wrong with doctors, nurses and hospital personnel getting rich. Even if some might get rich for doing little, that is better than Americans being impoverished, through no fault of their own, by the cost of disease.
Federal support of medical research should be increased, and rather than trying to cut prescription costs, the government should encourage research by rewarding successful drugs.
Federal spending costs you nothing. It isthe ultimate free lunch. The reluctance to spend is an artificial limitation placed on the government by the very rich, who do not want the rest of us to receive the same benefits they receive.
The rich can afford the best doctor-care, the best nurse-care, the best hospital-care, the best pharmaceuticals, the best rehabilitation.
The rich can afford to travel for abortions, while the rest are required to have unwanted and unaffordable babies.
The rich also can afford the best schools for their kids. They receive tax breaks on their homes while you pay for your rental. They write off their meals and their transportation, even their clothing and their vacations, all as business expenses.
And while the rich go years without paying any taxes because they receive tax breaks of which you can’t even dream, they complain about your receipt of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and poverty benefits.
Why is this happening?
Because they have convinced you that federal deficit spending for your benefits somehow will be bad for you and for America. In short, this is happening because of your ignorance.
I’m sorry to put it so bluntly, but there is no other way to say it. You could have the same benefits the rich take for granted, but you have been sold the bill of goods that says, “They deserve the best and you don’t.”
Because of your ignorance of the facts, you meekly sit back and accept crumbs. You vote for the people who lie to you. You can’t even visualize having what the federal government easily can provide to you.
You are so ignorant you will become enraged at, and ridicule, anyone who tries to tell you the truth. You excuse your ignorance by claiming federal benefits are “socialism” or “communism,” though they are neither.
You demand to lead a lesser life, and when you receive that lesser life, you grumble about it.
You simply cannot bring yourself to believe that the federal government can afford to give you the same, beautiful life benefits it gives to the rich, without collecting a dime from you in taxes.
Because you think of yourself as “lesser,” you receive less and sadly, you deserve what you receive.
And to keep those below you on the income/wealth/scale from climbing up, you’ll vote against their benefits, too, because you don’t understand that a vote against the poor rebounds as a vote against you.
Ignorance does that.
You are the people who buy lottery tickets, hoping for a mathematical miracle, when the federal government has the power to give you the life you pray for, and it wouldn’t require a miracle.
All you need do is learn and demand, and if enough of you do that, you will win life’s lottery, courtesy of your government.
Or, stay ignorant.
Your choice.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
P.S. This doesn’t apply to citizens of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and the other euro nations. Your government gave away its Monetary Sovereignty many years ago.
You might do better buying lottery tickets.
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
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:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 