Donald Trump complains about being witch-hunted, but not many people really understand that a witch-hunt is not just something Trump doesn’t like being done to him (he claims).
Ron DeSantis has instituted his own version of witch-hunting with his battle against “grooming,” the hair-brained, fact-devoid belief that gay people try to influence otherwise straight children to become gay.
The similarities between 14th through 20th-century actual witch-hunting and today’s GOP “woke-hunting” are frightening.
Edet Eyo, a 69-year-old woman from Cross River State in Nigeria, and four others were murdered in October 2022, allegedly by a group of young men who charged that her witchcraft had caused a recent motorcycle crash.
Her family says that suspicions had been dogging her for years, arising from jealousy of her prosperity. It is also the tale of Martha Carrier, who was hanged in Salem, Mass., in 1692.
Punishment for witches
Of the accusations against her, one of the most salient was by a neighbor with whom her family had a property dispute.
Carrier became one of 35 people executed for witchcraft in the British colonies of New England—“crimes” of which some of them still have not been exonerated.
Every year more than 1,000 people around the world, including men and children, are tortured, expelled from their homes or killed after being charged with witchcraft—using magic, usually to cause harm.
Far from declining with modernization, as some 20th-century scholars predicted, witch hunts are holding steady in some places and may be happening more often in others.
Multiple roots entwine to produce a witch hunt. A belief in sorcery, a patriarchal society, sudden and a paucity of health care, inaccessible justice systems that give impunity to attackers, a triggering disaster—all of these contribute.
But as Silvia Federici has argued in her 2004 book Caliban and the Witch and subsequent publications, what sustained periods of witch-hunting have in common, across time, space and culture, is a backdrop of social and economic dislocation.
Today’s triggering disaster was the COVID pandemic exacerbated by the Trump (“It will just go away) adminstration’s incompetence and lying, leading to more than a million American deaths.
Although popular imagination regards the trials as outbreaks of mass delusion or superstition, the fact that they peaked between the 1580s and the 1630s, a time of massive upheaval as a capitalist economy emerged, suggests a different story.
Church leaders had initiated witch huntsin the late 15th century, in part as a way of policing social mores.
Now the state, which was closely allied with religious, political and economic elites, took the lead.
In the 16th century rulers across Europe introduced new laws to make sorcery punishable by death—and the trials moved from ecclesiastical to secular courts, such as in duchies and towns.
Historian Christina Larner writes that in Scotland, authorities systematically incited panic against witches, traveling from village to village to instruct people on how to recognize them and sometimes even bringing along lists of women to denounce.
In sum, witch-hunting was a systematic campaign of terror that eliminated the resistance to dispossession that had simmered for decades after the peasant protests were crushed.
The accusations and persecution died down only in the latter half of the 18th century. Historical records indicate that by that time, roughly 50,000 people had been executed for sorcery.
That was then. Now, review what a modern witch-hunt looks like. Here are excerpts from a July 1, 2022 article in Vanity Fair Magazine:
Ron DeSantis has a not-insignificant chance of becoming president in 2024.
Like Trump, the Florida governor takes immense pride in being a bully; he bullied the Special Olympics, he bullied Disney, he bullies anyone who disagrees with him.
What might the country look like should DeSantis ascend to the White House? It’ll be the kind of place where teachers are warned not to display rainbow flags for fear of being prosecuted.
On Friday, Desantis’s Parental Rights in Education Act, a.k.a. the “Don’t Say Gay” law, went into effect in Florida, and it’s hard to overstate how terrifying this whole thing is.
In addition to banning any talk of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade, it also prohibits such discussions all the way through high school, saying that such topics cannot be discussed in any grade in a manner that is not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”
(Naturally, the law does not specify what is considered “appropriate”; that definition may not come from the state’s Department of Education until next summer.)
Critics believe the law was written in an intentionally broad manner to scare school districts, which parents can sue if they believe the measure has been violated.
“When we talk about the culture of fear that this bill has created and the chilling effect, we’re talking about the fact that educators and school districts are scared to approach anything related to LGBTQ people or issues out of fear of lawsuits and professional ruin,” said Florida representative Carlos Guillermo Smith.
Ironically, the law is based on not wanting students to “feel uncomfortable.” Instead, it makes teachers and gay students terrified, and the rest of the students, vigilantes.
The common elements between the earlier witch-hunts and today’s GOP witch hunts are:
Politically powerful bigots who amass power by appealing to the ignorance, hatred and fears of the common populace.
The article continues:
For instance, the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association accused school officials this week of telling teachers not to wear clothing with rainbows on them and to get rid of “safe space” stickers and photos of their same-sex spouses.
Last month, according to Palm Beach County high school special education teacher Michael Woods, the Palm Beach County School District “sent out a questionnaire asking its teachers to review all course material and flag any books with references to sexual orientation, gender identity or race.”
Hitler would be proud.
The district removed the books I Am Jazz and Call Me Max, for seemingly referencing gender identity.
Medieval mask of shame
And, the Leon County School Board approved a “LGBTQ Inclusive Guide,” which includes a clause that says parents must be informed if a student who is “open about their gender identity” is in their child’s gym class or with them on an overnight school trip.
Apparently, that gay child represents some sort of threat to other children. (In reality, the other children represent a threat to a gay child.)
“Upon notification or determination of a student who is open about their gender identity, parents of the affected students will be notified of reasonable accommodation options available,” the guidelines state.
“Reasonable accommodations” for the gay child? For the straight children? What does that mean”
“Parents or students who have concerns about rooming assignments for their student’s upcoming overnight event based on religious or privacy concerns may request an accommodation.”
Because, as “everyone” knows, gay children have a reputation for attacking straight children. I never heard of that happening — the straights usually attack the gays — but one can’t be too careful because rooming with a gay child might turn a straight child gay. Right?
The “badge of shame” during the Holocaust
At any rate, we have done our job by stigmatizing the gay children, thus assuring they will be bullied in school, which is exactly what any God-fearing parent should want. Right?
What next? Brand gay students with a “G” on their foreheads? Make them wear yellow armbands as the Jews had to, during the German Nazi period? Make them play in a separate schoolyard, so they don’t contaminate the “normal” kids?
From Wikipedia: In England, under the Poor Act 1697, paupers in receipt of parish relief were required to wear a badge of blue or red clothon the shoulder of the right sleeve in an open and visible manner, in order to discourage people from collecting relief unless they were desperate, as while many would be willing to collect relief, few would be willing to do so if required to wear the “shameful” mark of the poor in public
Brandon Wolf,press secretary for Equality Florida, said, “We’ve always understood what we’re up against in the state of Florida. We know these lawmakers, we know the rightward shift that has happened under Governor Ron DeSantis.”
He fears the measure will only increase anti-LGBTQ+ violence, which increased from 2020 to 2021 and is on track to be worse in 2022, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
But we DeSantis supporters don’t care about anti-LGBTQ+ violence, do we. Those gay kids have it coming for violating my religious beliefs. Right?
The scarlet letter
“It feels very ominous that in a state that saw the deadliest attack on LGBTQ people in this nation’s history…that we would be having conversations about erasing our history, our lives, our lived experiences from classrooms,” Wolf said.
Meanwhile, in Texas… A group of “educators” proposed that slavery should be called “involuntary relocation.”
Yes, really!
Opposition to the suggested change, which would sort of be like calling Hitler’s systemic murder of 6 million Jews “population downsizing,”apparently came up during a June 15 meeting, at which a Democrat who represents Dallas and Fort Worth noted that the new wording would not be a “fair representation” of the slave trade.
How about calling the Romans’ feeding of Christians to lions, “animal welfare nourishment”?
And then there was this bit of witch-hunt bigotry, courtesy of religion (Why isbigotry so often based on supposed religious belief?)
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule earlier this week expanding health care workers’ ability to refuse services on religious grounds.
How about, “My religion doesn’t recognize Jews, so no service for you.”
Or, “My religion tells me that blacks are evil, so you can’t rent in my building”?
Or, “My religion says gay people are breaking God’s laws, so off to jail with you?”
Or, “My religion says abortion is murder, so despite what your religion says, all abortions will be prosecuted as capital crimes, and everyone involved — doctors, lawyers, those facilitating travel for abortions, everyone — will be punished by death?”
That ought to do it.
A number of LGBTQ advocates and health care experts have warned the measure could have a negative impact on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
That’s the whole point. Why do you think we made you queers scapegoats? We’re trying to get the bigot vote in America.
The rule, Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care, revises existing HHS regulations to ensure “vigorous enforcement of Federal conscience and anti-discrimination laws” and strengthens health care workers rights so they are “free from coercion or discrimination” on account of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
The measure, first proposed over a year ago, “fulfills President Trump’s promise to promote and protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious liberty,” according to a statement issued by the HHS.
What we mean is the “fundamental and unalianable rights of me,” not the rights of anyone who thinks differently, looks different or acts differently from me.
See it’s like this: Any person’s claimed religious beliefs are more important than the actual health and lives of gay people.
Yes, in the latest round of the Florida governor versus the state’s largest employer, DeSantis threatenedon Monday to punish the company through any array of absurd measures, including building a prison complex next to the theme park.
(DeSantis’s threats were obvious retribution for the way Disney outmaneuvered him by passing covenants that rendered his handpicked governing board basically powerless.)
At a press conference held near Disney World, DeSantis sneered and spoke of the company: “They are not superior to the laws that are enacted by the people of the state of Florida. That’s not going to work, that’s not going to fly.”
Actually, the laws were not enacted by the people. They were enacted by DeSantis and his flunkees, who care only about their power, and nothing about innocent gay people.
Then, after announcing that the Republican-controlled legislature would try to change state law in order to subject the theme park to new inspections, he suggested that the land next to Disney World might be turned into a rival park or perhaps a state prison.
Oh, and the board he personally installed may look into raising Disney’s taxes too.
But that’s not the “weaponizing of the government against political opponents” that the GOP loves to whine about.
As a reminder, all of this is happening because Disney dared to criticizethe wildly bigoted, DeSantis-backed “Don’t Say Gay”legislation last year in Florida, where you’re apparently not allowed to disagree with the authoritarian governor.
Even former New Jersey governor and potential 2024 Republican candidate for president Chris Christie recognized the lunacy of DeSantis’s antics, asking, “Where are we headed here now, that if you express disagreement in this country, the government is allowed to punish you?”
On Monday, Disney seemingly responded to DeSantis’s threats by publicizing “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite,” a two-night event that will be held in June to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
Oh, that does it. No doubt the “Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite” will “groom” dozens if not thousands of straight kids to convert to a lifestyle that guarantees they forever will be scapegoat for the religious. Who could resist such an option?
We’re assuming that didn’t go over so great in the governor’s mansion, and that DeSantis is currently asking his lawyers to look into whether he can have Mickey executed.
DeSantis probably doesn’t harbor a true hatred of gays, blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, Muslims et al. He is just trying to live off the precudices of Florida voters.
Presumably, his massive victory in the most recent elections indicated he judged his constituency correctly.
Fortunately, the rest of America is not Florida, and DeSantis’s national polling number are dropping.
But unfortuately, that leaves the bigoted GOP with Donald Trump, the guy who whines about witch-hunting while endorsing it.
Get the ducking stools and yellow arm bands, ready.
The U.S. federal government is not like state/local governments, not like euro governments, not like businesses, and not like you and me. It uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign.
It cannot, unwillingly, run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. /
Periodically, we publish yet another shrieking claim that the U.S. federal debt is “unsustainable” and a “ticking time bomb.”
This lie has been told to you every year (really, almost every day) since 1940, and needless to say, that bomb never has exploded.
Rather than repeat the entire litany of lies to which you have been subject, I will list them here as a reference, and add, at the end, new “federal debt is a ticking time bomb” lies as I encounter them:
By 1960: the debt was “threatening the country’s fiscal future,”said Secretary of Commerce, Frederick H. Mueller. (“The enormous cost of various Federal programs is a time-bomb threatening the country’s fiscal future, Secretary of Commerce Frederick H. Mueller warned here yesterday.”)
In 1984: AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said. “It’s a time bomb ticking away.”
In 1985: “The federal deficit is ‘a ticking time bomb, and it’s about to blow up,” U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. (Remember him?)
Later in 1985: Los Angeles Times: “We labeled the deficit a ‘ticking time bomb’ that threatens to permanently undermine the strength and vitality of the American economy.”
In 1987: Richmond Times-Dispatch – Richmond, VA: “100TH CONGRESS FACING U.S. DEFICIT’ TIME BOMB'”
Later in 1987: The Dallas Morning News: “A fiscal time bomb is slowly ticking that, if not defused, could explode into a financial crisis within the next few years for the federal government.”
In 1989: FORTUNE Magazine: “A TIME BOMB FOR U.S. TAXPAYERS“
In 1992: The Pantagraph – Bloomington, Illinois: “I have seen where politicians in Washington have expressed little or no concern about this ticking time bomb they have helped to create, that being the enormous federal budget deficit, approaching $4 trillion.“
Later in 1992: Ross Perot: “Our great nation is sitting right on top of a ticking time bomb. We have a national debt of $4 trillion.”
In 1995: Kansas City Star: “Concerned citizens. . . regard the national debt as a ticking time bomb poised to explode with devastating consequences at some future date.”
In 2004: Bradenton Herald: “A NATION AT RISK: TWIN DEFICIT A TICKING TIME BOMB“
In 2005: Providence Journal: “Some lawmakers see the Medicare drug benefit for what it is: a ticking time bomb.”
In 2006: NewsMax.com, “We have to worry about the deficit . . . when we combine it with the trade deficit we have a real ticking time bomb in our economy,” said Mrs. Clinton.
In 2007: USA Today: “Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen.“
In 2010: Heritage Foundation: “Why the National Debt is a Ticking Time Bomb. Interest rates on government bonds are virtually guaranteed to jump over the next few years.
In 2010: Reason Alert: “. . . the time bomb that’s ticking under the federal budget like a Guy Fawkes’ powder keg.”
In 2011: Washington Post, Lori Montgomery:”. . . defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode.”
June 19, 2013: Chamber of Commerce: Safety net spending is a ‘time bomb’, By Jim Tankersley: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is worried that not enough Americans are worried about social safety net spending. The nation’s largest business lobbying group launched a renewed effort Wednesday to reduce projected federal spending on safety-net programs, labeling them a “ticking time bomb” that, left unchanged, “will bankrupt this nation.”
On June 15, 2014: CBN News: “The United States of Debt: A Ticking Time Bomb“
On January 27, 2017: America’s “debt bomb is going to explode.” That’s according to financial strategist Peter Schiff. Schiff said that while low interest rates had helped keep a lid on U.S. debt, it couldn’t be contained for much longer. Interest rates and inflation are rising, creditors will demand higher premiums, and the country is headed “off the edge of a cliff.”
February 16, 2018 America’s Debt Bomb By Andrew Soergel, Senior Reporter: Conservatives and deficit hawks are hurling criticism at Washington for deepening America’s debt hole.
April 10, 2019,The National Debt: America’s Ticking Time Bomb. TIL Journal. Entire nations can go bankrupt. One prominent example was the *nation of Greece which was threatened with insolvency, a decade ago. Greece survived the economic crisis because the European Union and the IMF bailed the nation out.
SEP 12, 2019, Our national ticking time bomb, By BILL YEARGIN SPECIAL TO THE SUN SENTINEL | At some point, investors will become concerned about lending to a debt-riddled U.S., which will result in having to offer higher interest rates to attract the money. Even with rates low today, interest expense is the federal government’s third-highest expenditure following the elderly and military. The U.S. already borrows all the money it uses to pay its interest expense, sort of like a Ponzi scheme. Lack of investor confidence will only make this problem worse.
JANUARY 06, 2020, National debt is a time bomb, BY MARK MANSPERGER, Tri City Herald | The increase in the U.S. deficit last year was about $1.1 trillion, bringing our total national debt to more than $23 trillion! This fiscal year, the deficit is forecasted to be even higher, and when the economy eventually slows down, our annual deficits could be pushing $2 trillion a year! This is financial madness. there’s not going to be a drastic cut in federal expenditures — that is, until we go broke — nor are we going to “grow our way” out of this predicament. Therefore, to gain control of this looming debt, we’re going to have to raise taxes.
February 14, 2020, OMG! It’s February 14, 2020, and the national debt is still a ticking time bomb! The national debt: A ticking time bomb?America is “headed toward a crisis,” said Tiana Lowe in WashingonExaminer.com. The Treasury Department reported last week that the federal deficit swelled to more than $1 trillion in 2019 for the first time since 2012. Even more alarming was the report from the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicting that $1 trillion deficits will continue for the next 10 years, eventually reaching $1.7 trillion in 2030
August 29, 2020, LOS ANGELES, California: America’s mountain of debt is a ticking time bomb The United States not only looks ill, but also dead broke. To offset the pandemic-induced “Great Cessation,” the U.S. Federal Reserve and Congress have marshalled staggering sums of stimulus spending out of fear that the economy would otherwise plunge to 1930s soup kitchen levels. Assuming that America eventually defeats COVID-19 and does not devolve into a Terminator-like dystopia, how will it avoid the approaching fiscal cliff and national bankruptcy?
April 16, 2021, NATIONAL POLICY: ECONOMY AND TAXES / MARK ALEXANDER / The National Debt Clock: A Ticking Time Bomb: At the moment, our national debt exceeds $28 TRILLION — about 80% held as public debt and the rest as intragovernmental debt. That is $225,000 per taxpayer. Federal annual spending this year is almost $8 trillion, and more than half of that is deficit spending — piling on the national debt.
June 17, 2022Time Bomb On National Debt Is Counting Down Faster Thanks To Fed’s Rate Hike, Tim Brown /We are now staring down the barrel of the end of the U.S. economy based on fiat money, printed out of thin air but charged back to the people at ridiculous interest rates. Now, the national debt is approaching $31 trillion,which is $12 trillion more than when Donald Trump took office in 2017 and more than half of that debt was tacked on in his final year. Then we’ve had the disastrous year and a half of Joe Biden. Now, the Fed is now hiking its rates and that spells even more trouble for the national debt and the economy at large.
December 4, 2022 America’s ticking time bomb: $66 trillion in debt that could crash the economy By Stephen Moore, The national debt is $31 trillion when including Social Security’s and Medicare’s unfunded liabilities. Wake up, America.That ticking sound you’re hearing is the American debt time bomb that with each passing day is getting precariously close to detonatingand crashing the US economy.
January 13, 2023.A ticking time bomb in the U.S. economy is running perilously close to detonation. Long considered a harbinger of bad luck, Friday, Jan. 13 came with a warning for Congress that the country could default on its debt as soon as June. With the U.S. reaching its debt limit of $31.4 trillion on Jan. 19, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged lawmakers to increase or suspend the debt ceiling.
April 22, 2023The Debt Ceiling Debate Is About More Than Debt, Jim Tankersley, WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California has repeatedly said that he and his fellow House Republicans are refusing to raise the nation’s borrowing limit,and risking economic catastrophe, to force a reckoning on America’s $31 trillion national debt. “Without exaggeration, America’s debt is a ticking time bomb that will detonate unless we take serious, responsible action,” he said this week.
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If, year after year , you keep predicting something is imminent, yet it never happens, at what point do you reexamine your beliefs? Apparently never, for the debt heads. Truly pitiful. 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
Imagine witnessing an argument between two people. Person #1 says, “A stork delivers babies.” Person #2 says, “FedEx delivers babies.”
What would you say about that argument? That it’s so ignorant as to be beyond words?
It’s pretty much what I say about arguments concerning the U.S. federal “debt.”
Dems, Republicans Far Apart On Soaring U.S. Debt: I&I/TIPP Poll, Terry Jones,April 17, 2023
The perennial dance between the president and Congress over the budget and raising America’s debt ceiling is a widely reported but much-ignored, event. This time around, it shouldn’t be.
Even as our national debt soars, Americans are split over how serious the problem is, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. Meanwhile, a government shutdown, or even possibly default, looms.
At the last official count, federal debt totaled about $31.5 trillion. Looked at from a different perspective, $31.5 trillion means each American household is now responsible for roughly $237,500 in U.S. debt.
There is the Big Lie in all its glory. As an American, you are responsible for exactly $0 of the so-called “debt” (that isn’t even a real debt).
And it’s getting bigger fast, posing a threat to both the economy and the financial system. If Congress and President Joe Biden can’t make a deal soon, a government shutdown, or worse, possible default, loom.
What exactly is the “threat”? Is it that our Monetarily Sovereign government, which has the infinite ability to create its sovereign currency, the dollar, will be unable to service the “debt”?
No, as previous Federal Reserve Chairs have said:
Alan Greenspan:“A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Ben Bernanke:“The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
Will the interest on the “debt” bankrupt the government?
No:
Alan Greenspan:“There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.”
The federal “debt” isn’t even federal debt. It is the net total of deposits into T-security accounts held at the Federal Reserve. Each account resembles a safe deposit box.
The depositor owns the contents. When each account matures, the contents are returned to the owner by transference to the owner’s checking account. It’s a simple asset transfer that does not involve you — not as a debtor, taxpayer, or American citizen — not in any way.
So you can forget about the $237,500 Terry Jones, the author, claims you owe. You don’t.
How does the public feel about this? The online I&I/TIPP Poll for April, taken from March 29-31 from 1,365 Americans across the country, asked the following question: “Some say that the debt is not sustainable.
Others say that the debt is manageable relative to the size of the American economy. Which is closer to your viewpoint?”
The respondents were given the false choice of two wrong answers. The “debt” is neither sustainable nor “manageable.” It is meaningless.
The size of the economy is not the point. So long as America’s obligation to creditors is in U.S. dollars, it is totally under the control of the U.S. government.
Governments get into financial trouble when:
They are monetarily non-sovereign, so they cannot create whatever currency they use (Examples are cities, counties, states, and euro nations) or
They are Monetarily Sovereign but still trade and borrow in U.S. dollars or some other currency, not their own (Examples are Argentina, Russia, Venezuela).
Overall, voters saying the debt is “not sustainable” totaled 48%, a plurality, compared to those who called the debt “manageable relative to the size of the economy” at 35%. (The poll’s margin of error is +/-2.8 percentage points.)
It was a meaningless poll. The public believes what they are told, and they are wrongly told that federal (Monetarily Sovereign) financing is like personal (monetarily non-sovereign) financing.
The political breakdown, however, is telling and perhaps explains why the debt debate each year gets increasingly divisive and angry: Republicans (74%) and independents (50%) overwhelmingly call the debt unsustainable, compared to Democrats at just 32%.
Only 14% of Republicans and 28% of independents call the debt “manageable,” versus 51% of Democrats who do.
This huge split between Democrats on one side, and Republicans and independents on the other, will make it hard to forge a deal satisfactory to both sides. Failure to do so risks a financial cataclysm.
It isn’t the split that makes it hard to forge a satisfactory deal. It’s just that the two alternatives are of the “stork vs. angel” variety. The third alternative — that the so-called “debt” (i.e., deposits) is meaningless — was not offered.
What can be done? On Jan. 19, the debt ceiling was hit, meaning the government has had to play a kind of fiscal shell gameto pay its bills.
As though the use of the term “debt” to mean “deposits” and the wrongheaded worries about “sustainability” (whatever that means) weren’t enough, the not-a-debt also repeatedly has been called a “ticking time bomb” every year since 1940.
In 1940 the Gross Federal Debt was $51 Billion. By 2022, it was $31 Trillion, an astounding 60,000% increase. Annual predictions have been made that the “debt” is not sustainable, and every year America sustains it.
Although it is the slowest time bomb in history, you can rely on this year’s repeat of the annual predictions that the “debt” is “unsustainable.”
And as for that “shell game,” it’s the result of a strange law that essentially says, “We will punish our creditors unless they immediately return the dollars that T-security account owners have deposited.”
House Republicans, negotiating with the Biden administration, have put forward a plan to temporarily raise the debt ceiling until May of next year. In exchange for avoiding a possible federal default, they seek caps on federal spending,
The argument is this. The debt is unsustainable, but we’ll raise this unsustainable ceiling if you take dollars from the middle classes and the poor. Yes, really.
“The GOP proposal would call for a cap on either non-defense discretionary spending or overall discretionary spending after paring the federal budget back to 2022 levels,” the Washington Times reported last week.
What exactly is “non-defense discretionary spending“?
In 2019, non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending totaled $661 billion, or 14 percent of federal spending. That same year, the federal “debt” was $23 Trillion. The entire NND was less than 3% of the so-called “debt.”
Would you be willing to see every dollar cut from health care and health research, diplomacy, science, environment, energy, transportation, economic development, law enforcement and governance, education and training, and economic security?
Oh, but that’s not all.
“The proposal would also claw back unspent COVID-19 funds, block President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that is currently tied up in a Supreme Court battle, institute work requirements for social welfare programs and implement the Republican plan to lower energy costs, which passed the House but is expected to languish in the Senate,” the report said.
Essentially, the GOP’s idea is to punish the poor and middle classes and reward the military-industrial complex, all for the dubious accomplishment of immediately returning the deposits in T-security accounts.
Of course, the GOP doesn’t have a real plan. Those were some general suggestions. They have refused to devise an actual plan because their only thought is to negate anything Biden suggests and exact Trumpian revenge by investigating Democrats.
It’s the failed Benghazi investigation all over again.
And the White House’s position has always been: No preconditions. Just raise the debt ceiling.
The real position should be “No preconditions. Just eliminate the debt ceiling. But, the public has been imbued with the notion that having a debt ceiling makes for prudent finance.
So flat-out elimination only can be accomplished when the public is educated that the “debt” is meaningless for a Monetarily Sovereign government.
Strangely, the public doesn’t complain when the ceiling arbitrarily is raised — 90 times — but probably would object to it being eliminated. That’s human thought.
Fresh from his April 11-14 trip to Ireland, Biden had this to say when asked if he would talk to McCarthy:
“Of course, I’ll speak to him. Show me his budget,” Biden told reporters. “That old expression — ‘show me your budget.’ You know, he — we agreed early on, I’d lay down a budget, which I did on March 9th, and he’d lay down a budget.”
“I don’t know what we’re negotiating if I don’t know what they want,” Biden added.
Sunday was the deadline for Congress to agree on a new budget. For the 20th year in a row, it failed in that responsibility. No surprise there since the Senate is controlled by the Democrats and the House by Republicans, who remain far apart in their priorities.
What should be done?
It’s not a difficult question. The debt ceiling should be eliminated. Period.
The Biden Administration believes the solution to America’s economic woes is more federal spending and higher taxes.
Having increased federal spending by nearly $5 trillion in its first two years, the Biden administration now proposes additional tax and spending increases totaling $4.7 trillion and $1.9 trillion, respectively.
Those who understand Monetary Sovereignty know that our Monetarily Sovereign government has no need or use for taxes. It has the infinite ability to create dollars at the touch of a computer key.
Monetary Sovereignty became a reality in 1971 — the “Nixon Shock” — when President Nixon made the most significant move of his administration: He divorced the U.S. dollar from gold.
We no longer needed to match the value of gold (which changed daily) to any fixed number of dollars. We could create dollars at will as we needed them.
The debt ceiling was created in 1917 to allay fears about dollar acceptance. It tried to make lenders and users confident that the dollar would not suddenly lose value.
Today, the debt ceiling is laughably useless.
Depending on who is doing the research, it is said that the US raised its debt ceiling (in some form or other) at least 90 times in the 20th century.
Anyone with at least half a brain would understand that if any limit is increased 90 times, it has served no useful purpose. The sole purpose is to give the party that is not in power some leverage over the party in power. It’s a foolish idea, which is why Congress loves it.
The debt ceiling was raised 74 times from March 1962 to May 2011,[14] including 18 times under Ronald Reagan, eight times under Bill Clinton, seven times under George W. Bush, and five times under Barack Obama. The debt ceiling has never been reduced, even though the public debt itself may have been reduced.
Congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times from 2001 to 2016. The debt ceiling was raised a total of 7 times during Pres. Bush’s eight-year term, and it was raised 11 times during Pres. Obama’s eight years in office.
Meanwhile, White House assertions that it will actually cut deficits over the next decade by $3 trillion have been roundly criticized by budget hawks. In fact, projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office show annual deficits growing from $1.4 trillion this year to $2.7 trillion in 2033, while as a result total federal debt will soar from $32.4 trillion at the end of this year to $52 trillion in 2033.
The White House, the entire Democratic Party, and the entire Republican Party (with the possible exception of Marjorie Taylor Greene) understands the debt ceiling is a fraud. But the public doesn’t understand it, so all politicians suck up the “fiscal responsibility” of the debt ceiling.
In a way, it’s something like the GOP denying that Donald Trump is a criminal or the Democrats saying that a tax increase on the rich would “pay for” something.
The IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Director Vitor Gaspar recently told Yahoo Finance that it is clear “that from the viewpoint of medium- and long-term prospects, there is a very strong case for fiscal adjustment in the U.S.”
Actually, “there is a very strong case for” Gaspar lying or ignorant of Monetary Sovereignty.
Of greater concern is what would happen if foreign holders of U.S. government debt suddenly get spooked and start to sell their holdings of U.S. securities.
Officially, foreign treasuries and investors own about $7.6 trillion of U.S. government debt. Bad news here, such as a default on U.S. debt this summer, could spark a run on the dollar and cause interest rates to surge, sending a recessionary shock wave through the U.S. and global economies.bad news
If Congress would forget about the phony debt ceiling, it could, if it wished, pay off the federal “debt” tomorrow simply by returning the dollars sitting in T-security accounts.
The purpose of those accounts is not to provide the U.S. government with spending dollars. It has infinite amounts of those. T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds, the purpose of which is to provide a safe, interest-paying place to store unused dollars. This stabilizes the dollar.
All this nonsense about debt ceilings is about to do exactly what the debt Henny Pennys fear: Cause a run on the dollar.
Recent deals among the Russians, Chinese, and Saudis to create alternatives to the world’s dollar-based trade are already threatening the dollar’s preeminent position as the No. 1 global currency.
A debt panic might push the dollar to the brink, bringing inflation and perhaps eventually forcing the U.S. to do something it hasn’t had to since before World War II — pay some, if not most, of its bills in someone else’s currency, a huge disadvantage.
No, the Russians, Chinese, and Saudis won’t cause a run on the dollar, but this year the Republican Party might do just that.
Americans’ complacency about our growing fiscal problems has so far not hurt us too badly. That might not always be the case, however.
Complacency won’t hurt us. The nutty debt ceiling eventually might, however. We should get rid of the damn thing before it causes real damage.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
And by the way, when the federal debt doesn’t rise enough, we have recessions.
When federal debt growth falls, we have recessions (vertical gray bars.) Recessions are cured by increased federal debt growth.
It’s pretty simple. A growing economy requires a growing supply of money. Federal deficit spending adds money to the economy. Not enough federal money = recessions. Add federal money = recessions cured.
Does it get simpler than that?
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.
An oil tanker can measure up to 1300 feet (400 meters) in length and carry 550000 DWT (dead weight tonnage), making them the behemoths of the seas. Because of their mass, tankers have large inertia.
A loaded supertanker could take as much as 4 to 8 kilometers and 15 minutes to come to a complete stop and has a turning diameter of about 2 kilometers.
The U.S. economy is the ULT (ultra-large tanker) of the world’s economies. It takes time to get up to speed and time to slow down.
Keep that in mind as you read excerpts from the following article:
The Biden Economy and How It Could Be Fixed, By Andrew F. Puzder Businessman and Author, The Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left’s Plot to Stop It
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on February 22, 2023, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Indian Wells, California.
Just about everybody on Wall Street knows, despite what you read in the financial press, that the Biden administration’s economic policies are driving our economy into a recessionary ditch.
This is the mark of the conspiracy theorist. He claims “just about everybody on Wall Street knows this,” but the “financial press” doesn’t.
One wonders who constitutes the “everybody” and where “everybody on Wall Street” gets its information if not from the financial press. Fox News, perhaps?
In a recent Wall Street Journal survey of 23 large financial institutions that do business directly with the Federal Reserve, 16 predicted a recession in 2023 and two predicted a recession in 2024, while only five predicted that we would avoid a recession.
A recession is predictable because the Fed wrongly follows a recessionary policy to reduce inflation.
Unfortunately, a recession is not the opposite of inflation, as the term “stagflation” indicates. Curing inflation should not require causing a recession.
A recession is defined, traditionally, as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. At least it was defined that way before the financial press redefined it prior to the 2022 midterms, ensuring that despite two consecutive quarters of negative growth, President Biden’s policies couldn’t be labeled recessionary.
But regardless of the definition, this negative growth meant declining standards of living, fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and increased poverty for the American people.
“Fewer job opportunities”? Unemployment is near historic lows.
Puzder complains about “fewer job opportunities” under Biden when the unemployment rate is near a low not seen since the 1950s — and lower than during the Trump administration.
The hard economic times we are experiencingare especially striking as they come on the heels of the Trump boom, which opened our eyes again to American economic potential when we have low taxes, reduced regulation, and a bountiful supply of domestic energy.
Low taxes (but only for the rich), reduced regulation (of the rich and of the banks that caused the last recession and went bust this year), and a bountiful supply of energy (thanks to alternative energy, which Trump hates, along with a compliant OPEC and no Russia/Ukraine war).
“Hard times”? Annual change in Gross Domestic Product (red) and real (allowing for inflation) GDB (blue). Trump was President during the years 2017 through 2020. Biden became President in 2021.
Everybody, particularly minority and low-wage earners, reaped the benefits in the Trump years of abundant job opportunities, increasing wages, historic highs in family income, and historic lows in rates of poverty and unemployment.
It’s difficult to say that low-wage earners benefited from Trump’s tax cut for the rich. Comparing the economic times under Biden vs. Trump, one sees that Biden’s time was better regarding lower unemployment and greater real GDP growth.
Turning the clock ahead, since March 2021, two months after Biden took office and began reversing Trump’s economic policies, the Consumer Price Index—the average in prices paid by consumers for goods and services, by which inflation is commonly measured—has surged. And it continues to surge.
Granted, the Federal Reserve has to take someof the blame. It failed to react in a timely manner when inflation started to set in.
(Similar to the way Trump failed to react timely to COVID).
Coming out of the pandemic, we knew two things. First, we knew the federal government handed out $5 trillion during the pandemic, and people had minimal opportunity to spend it since they weren’t traveling, eating out, going shopping, etc. So in 2021, Americans had a lot of cash.
The second thing we knew coming out of the pandemic was that fewer people were working.
The result was a low supply of goods.
“Fewer people working”? Yes, during Trump’s COVID recession. The number of workers is now greater than ever and is rapidly increasing.
Excess demand and low supply: this was the situation when Biden took office in 2021. And as any student of elementary economics knows, when demand exceeds supply, you get inflation.
The emphasis had been on low supply when Trump left office, partly due to Trump’s denial of COVID and the resulting millions of workers hospitalized and dying.
Had he encouraged masking and vaxxing, the supply situation would have been less difficult.
Isn’t it pretty obvious what should be done in that situation? You should adopt policies that juice supply and avoidadopting policies that juice demand.
Partly right. All inflations are caused by shortages of critical goods and services, most often oil and food.
To cure inflations without causing a recession, the federal government must use its infinite financial power to increase the availability, i.e., the supply, of those goods and services.
Raising interest rates, which the Fed has done and still is doing, indicates an attempt to use a recession to cure inflation.
Puzder, like all right-wingers, hates to help the middle classes and the poor financially. Helping the rich with tax cuts seems to be fine.
Were we not to have “policies that juice demand” (i.e., not give people spending money), we would make the same mistake the Fed is making: Attempting to use a recession as a cure for inflation.
Instead, the Biden administration proceeded to do the exact opposite.
Despite the solid-block refusal by the GOP to cooperate in anything that could help Democrats and the economy and the recalcitrance of Democrat Senators Sinema and Manchi, the Biden administrate managed to accomplish a surprising amount.
1) $1.2 trillion infrastructure package
2) $1.9 trillion COVID relief deal
3) Highest appointment of federal judges since Reagan
4) Halt on federal executions
5) Rejoined the international Paris Climate Accord
6) Mandated converting the federal fleet to zero-emission vehicles.
7) Support for transgender service members.
8) Reduced unemployment.
9) Strengthened QUAD, alliance U.S., India, Australia, and Japan.
10) Student loan debt relief
11) Used the Russia/Ukraine war to strengthen NATO, which Trump tried to weaken.
12) Imposed crippling sanctions on Russia
13) Fought Saudi’s oil price increases by releasing 180 million barrels of oil from the country’s Strategic Oil Reserves.
14) Pardoned people convicted of a federal marijuana charge
15) Respect for Marriage Act
16) Prevented the rail strike and gave workers a significant raise.
17) Passed Government Funding Bill
18) Got us out of Afghanistan, ending years of American deaths.
19) Expanded healthcare.
20))Defended Obamacare
Although the pandemic recession was the shortest recession on record, the economic chaos it created was incredible. And as Milton Friedman said in 1964, the deeper the recession, the greater the recovery.
A little more than a month into the Biden presidency, on a totally partisan basis, the Democrats in Congress passed and Biden signed a $1.9 trillion spending bill they called “The American Rescue Plan.”
Yes, it was “totally partisan” because the Republicans refused to aid financially-challenged Americans.
This so-called rescue plan handed out more cash to American consumers, further increasing demand, and discouraging work, further decreasing supply. That this economic suicide.
The so-called “economic suicide” helped prevent a recession or a depression.
As far as “discouraging work,” the number of workers today is greater than ever in our history and is rapidly increasing, as the above graph shows.
It is vogue in right-wing circles to claim that the middle classes and the poor have no aspirations, so if you give them money, they won’t work.
Perhaps, the right-wingers have no desire to make an effort, so they believe sloth is universal. Still, most people prefer to work for more income than unemployment compensation provides.
Today’s shortages, and the resultant inflation, are not due to a lack of workers. Today’s inflation is due to oil shortages, which impact every industry. OPEC and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are primarily responsible.
Biden ordered the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on November 30, 2022, 60 million barrels on March 1, and 180 million on March 31.
Larry Summers, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and as head of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama—a former president of Harvard and a well-respected liberal economist—called this the least responsible economic policy in 40 years.
Quoting Larry Summers on economic policy is like quoting Donald Trump on marriage fidelity. If you would like to learn more about Summers, who is the classic example of the Peter Principle, see here.
With wage growth unable to keep up with inflation, savings melting like an ice cube in the summer sun, and credit card debt rising to historic highs, we’re facing higher interest rates, declining job opportunities, and increasing economic pain for American families.
The above is false. Real (inflation-adjusted) wages went down after the recession (in the two years between the 2nd quarter of 2020 and the 2nd quarter of 2022).
Before and after that, real wages have risen, and are rising again at the latest report, and are well higher than in pre-COVID years.
Since the year 2000, real wages have exceeded inflation.Real (inflation-adjusted) wages are higher than they were before COVID. They fell because of COVID and have begun to rise again.
Higher interest rates are due to the Fed’s mistaken belief that the current inflation was caused by low interest rates and will be cured by high interest rates. All inflations are caused by shortages (most often shortages of oil or food), and all are cured by eliminating the shortages.
Oil shortages (reflected in oil prices) parallel inflation. Today’s inflation is due to COVID shortages of many goods and services, primarily oil. Job opportunities are not declining; they are high and rising.
Savings are “melting” because, as Puzder himself said, the government had pumped dollars into people’s pockets, and they could not spend them. Now they are spending them.
So is there anything the Biden administration could do?
To repeat, inflation is the result of demand exceeding supply. The Federal Reserve, with its hikes in interest rates, is trying to drive down demand. But if it has to drive demand all the way down to where supply is right now, it’s going to cause incredible misery for the American people.
This is precisely what the Fed is doing: Trying to use a recession as a cure for inflation.
So from an economic standpoint, if the Biden administration wanted to lessen the misery and hasten recovery, it would do whatever it could to increase supply. And there are two areas where it could have a significant positive impact on the supply side: the cost of energy and the cost of labor.
Energy and labor impact virtually everything in our economy. Thousands of products have a petroleum component, and even those that don’t have to be delivered, which requires oil and gas. And you can’t build, manufacture, deliver, or install anything without labor—labor affects the price of everything.
So if your goal were to fight inflation, you would implement policies to drive down energy and labor costs.
True. Raising interest rates does not drive down energy and labor costs. Sadly, the Fed, Congress, and the President don’t understand that.
Biden has advanced this goal as president by, among other things, killing oil pipeline projects, failing to grant oil leases, failing to approve drilling permits, and limiting the ability of energy companies to obtain financing.
He has done everything in his power to reduce America’s domestic energy production, cripple our energy sector, and increase our dependence on expensive foreign oil.
Except none of those things has affected today’s supply of oil. The effect may be felt several years later, but today’s inflation has nothing to do with oil pipeline projects, leases, drilling permits, or financing.
Releasing those millions of barrels from storage helped. Still, OPEC and Russia have cut way back on supplies, and there is nothing that Biden can do about that — other than to encourage other alternatives.
Against the usual pushback by the GOP, the Dems have encouraged, with direct financial support and tax breaks, alternative energy sources — wind, solar, moving water, geothermal, and nuclear. Ultimately, this will do more than oil pipelines to alleviate oil energy shortages while saving us from global warming.
The cost of labor has also continued to surge. The increase in wages that Biden crows about is normally a good thing. But it makes no economic sense to ignore the impact of inflation on the value of wages.
It is simply a fact that workers are better off if inflation is up two percent and their wages are up three percent than if inflation is up six percent and their wages are up five percent. They are making more money in the second case, but the money is worth less.
All true, except for one small fact. Not only are wages up, but real wages are up.
Why are labor costs surging? Very simply—we have all seen the “help wanted” signs outside businesses all over America—it’s because employers can’t find workers.
Two years after the pandemic ended, there are still 2.8 million workers missing from the labor force. Why? A recent study headed by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, “Paying Americans Not to Work,” found that in 24 states, unemployment benefits and Obamacare subsidies for a family of four with no one working are equal to or above national median household income.
Cute. He compares national medium income vs. totalunemployment benefits and Obamacare,and with a family of four, and with no one working in 24 states.
It takes real mathematical twisting to make such a meaningless comparison.
FICA is a millstone around the neck of the American economy.
In other words, two years after the pandemic, we’re still paying people not to work at a time when businesses and our economy desperately need workers.
To the right-wing mind, helping people who don’t have jobs is “paying Americans not to work,” as though people are satisfied with the starvation wage of unemployment compensation.
In any event, the notion that people are not working is outdated. As the above graph shows, more people are working, and unemployment is lower than in several decades.
The right-wing cure for inflation is to give tax breaks to the rich while cutting back on benefits to the middle and the poor.
An immediate way to encourage higher net salaries without punishing employers or the so-called “paying American’s not to work” is to eliminate the FICA tax.
Contrary to popular belief, FICA does not fund Medicare or Social Security.
It doesn’t fund anything.
Those FICA dollars from your paycheck (your employer figures his cost of FICA when deciding what to pay you) are paid from checking accounts.
The dollars in checking accounts are part of the M2 money supply measure.
When your dollars reach the U.S. Treasury, they suddenly no longer exist in any money supply measure. They effectively are destroyed.
The federal government creates new dollars to pay for Medicare and Social Security.
Eliminating FICA would provide higher net salaries to all salaried workers, making jobs more remunerative, especially for lower-salaried workers.
The bottom line is this: to address inflation and avoid a deep recession, Biden should, first, tell American bankers, asset managers, bureaucrats, and environmentalists to get out of the way of the energy industry because America needs oil now.
Translation: “Don’t worry about global warming. We’ll leave that problem to our children and grandchildren.”
Second, he should work with Congress to reduce or eliminate the work-discouraging programs that are keeping able-bodied Americans out of the workforce.
We should not cut programs for those who need assistance, but we should reduce benefits for those who are able to work but are choosing not to work. With abundant energy and a vibrant workforce, we could make significant headway against inflation and quickly improve the lives of the American people.
Translation: “Cut unemployment compensation. Make families so desperate they will accept any crap job offered. But by all means, don’t cut the tax dodges available to the rich.”
This isn’t rocket science. But let’s be realistic. The problem isn’t that the policymakers in the Biden administration don’t understand the basic principles of economics.
The goal animating current policy is the transformation of America’s economy and our way of life in accordance with a Leftist political agenda, using so-called emergencies like climate change as a rationale.
Translation: “So-called climate change isn’t real. It’s a Chinese hoax, as Donald Trump says. Pay no attention to the scientists who tell you climate change will destroy life as we know it. Listen to experts like Trump and Puzder.”
Americans need to open their eyes to the fact that our elected leaders across the political spectrum understand clearly what policies will lead to prosperity and freedom for the American people but that only some of those leaders consider prosperity and freedom the goal. We need more of them.
Agreed. Sadly, none of those leaders seem to be Republicans.
While the Republicans have focused on defending Trump and his false claims of a stolen election, the Dems have tried to overcome GOP objections to any economy-building program. The GOP feeling is that the worse they can make the economy, the easier it is to blame it on Biden and the Dems.
Despite headwinds from the GOP and even a couple of Dems, the party has managed to accelerate the oil tanker that is the American economy.
Now, if only they could get rid of that useless, cursed FICA and educate themselves about the realities of Monetarily Sovereign finance, what a wonderful world this could be.
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.
In 2019, non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending totaled $661 billion, or 14 percent of federal spending. That same year, the federal “debt” was $23 Trillion. The entire NND was less than 3% of the so-called “debt.”
Would you be willing to see every dollar cut from health care and health research, diplomacy, science, environment, energy, transportation, economic development, law enforcement and governance, education and training, and economic security?
Oh, but that’s not all.
A loaded supertanker could take as much as 4 to 8 kilometers and 15 minutes to come to a complete stop and has a turning diameter of about 2 kilometers.
The U.S. economy is the ULT (ultra-large tanker) of the world’s economies. It takes time to get up to speed and time to slow down.
Keep that in mind as you read excerpts from the following article:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 