The steel fist or the helping hand?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

A fundamental difference between the right-wing and the left-wing is their reflexive approach to problem solving.

The right gravitates toward the steel fist. The left prefers the helping hand.

Consider the problem of poverty. The conservative right usually opts for punishment. Take away food stamps and other welfare payments to “prod” the poor into getting jobs. (See:
More on Kasich, the Republican “moderate”)

The liberal left opts for financial support to help the poor survive so they can lift themselves out of poverty.

It’s more an emotional than an intellectual response, in which the right feels poverty is a personal failing for which people should not be rewarded. The left feels poverty is society’s failing, for which society should provide positive solutions.

In this vein, consider the problem of youth violence:

To Reduce Gun Violence, Potential Offenders Offered Support And Cash
March 28, 20164:00 PM ET

Not long ago, the city of Richmond, Calif., was considered one of the most dangerous cities in America. There was a skyrocketing homicide rate fueled by gangs of young men settling personal or territorial disputes.

The conservative right approach would be stricter enforcement and harsher penalties, more police, more “stop-and-frisk,” more people in jail.

Today, the city of about 100,000 residents is called a national model for reducing gun violence. Many cities around the country are adopting their unconventional strategy to prevent violence —– which includes paying potential criminals to stay out of trouble.

Joseph McCoy is one of about a half dozen “Neighborhood Change Agents” who keep track, sometimes a couple times a day, of scores of known gun offenders or youths at risk of being shot.

“If it is a shooting, we definitely go to check out see what’s going on, because we try to create a pause on the next shooting,” he says. “We’re trying to figure out how to keep the next shooting from happening.”

The agents are city employees and all ex-cons with serious street cred.

“We do something real simple that folks just don’t realize how, how powerful it is. We love on our youngsters! We come from a sincere place that we love each and every last one of the people we touch and we try to touch as many people as possible,” he says.

This street outreach is just one part of a broader program designed by DeVone Boggan, the former director of a city department called the Office of Neighborhood Safety. Bogan made a startling discovery in meetings with local law enforcement.

“What I continued to hear was folks believed that there were 17 people responsible for 70 percent of the firearm activity in our city. Seventeen people! We can do something about that,” Boggan says.

Boggan and his team identified those 17 people and several more and made them an offer. The fellowship will give them counseling, social services, a job and a chance to travel if they develop a “life map,” agree to stay in contact every day and stay out of trouble.

Then the fellowship will pay them up to a $1,000 a month for nine months.

The result: Richmond has seen its murder rate cut in half since the fellowship began.

Just ask 18-year-old Joel Contreras. He was involved with guns, robberies and trouble. Contreras says when he was first offered a chance to change his life he turned it down.

The conservative approach would have been to arrest him and throw away the key, thereby throwing away a valuable human life, while endlessly paying for his incarceration.

“I walked away from him. Ten minutes later, I hit the corner. I get shot. The car got shot a couple times, me and my friend were both injured,” Contreras says.

When the outreach workers came back to see him, Contreras says he was ready to listen.

“They helped me get a job. They helped me get my driver’s license. They was pushing me, pushing me, helping me out. They helped me get back in school, which I wouldn’t be able to do without them. I graduated high school thanks to them,” he says.

Notice the repeated emphasis on “helped me,” rather than “punished me.”

The approach is attracting interest from across the country.

“They always ask me is it going to work and how much is it going to cost?” says Angela Wolf, a researcher for the Oakland-based National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

The traditional focus is, “How much will the cure cost,” rather than “How much does the problem cost.”

“If you have city leaders that aren’t willing to think outside the box and try something different, this is going to be a harder program to get off the ground,” Wolf says.

That’s especially true if a city doesn’t see immediate results.

Allwyn Brown, the acting police chief in Richmond, says he knows that “neighborhood change agents” don’t cooperate or share information with his officers. But he says that while ONS’ approach is different, they share a common goal.

“Here’s the thing: We recognize that the problem is bigger that what we can deal with and you know, arresting and incarcerating people isn’t going to solve the problem. I mean, it just isn’t,” Brown says.

To many of us, and especially to conservatives, paying criminals to be good goes against the moral grain. “Why should we reward them for doing what the rest of us do automatically, without rewards? We should be tough on crime.”

Being “tough on crime” fails to reduce crime in a free nation. (It can work in a harsh dictatorship, where penalties are grossly outsized compared with the offenses.)

Paying people to be good may cause revulsion among conservatives.  But under the theory that “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” we should seek solutions that work rather than approaches that merely satisfy a deep-seated lust to hurt “bad guys.”.

In guiding young people, love and the helping hand usually usually have better, longer-lasting effects than spankings and the steel fist.

The helping hand is what the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below) is designed to accomplish.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

More on Kasich, the Republican “moderate”

 

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

To Republicans, a “moderate” is anyone who is less mean-spirited, less deceptive, and importantly, less unelectable than Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Apparently, John Kasich is the right wing’s best alternative to those two luminaries.

In a recent post, “Do you really know John Kasich, the moderate republican?”, we showed you what Kasich really stands for.

Here’s a bit more on Kasich:

The controversial reason tens of thousands of people just lost their food stamps
By Max Ehrenfreund and Roberto A. Ferdman

As many as 1 million Americans will stop receiving food stamps over the course of this year beginning on Friday, the consequence of a controversial work mandate that has been reinstated in 22 states as the economy improves.

The 20-year-old rule — which was suspended in many states during the economic recession — requires that adults without children or disabilities must have a job in order to receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for more than three months, with some exceptions.

Many states have begun to reimpose the federal rule as the economy recovers, with the largest group reviving it at the beginning of this year. As a result, many recipients’ three-month limit expires today, April 1.

Not just the rich, but many (most?) of those above the poverty line subscribe to the myth that the poor are lazy, good-for-nothings, who would rather receive a tiny stipend from the government and live in poverty and misery, than work.

The false stereotype is of “welfare mamas,” black women, with no husbands, who sell food stamps for drugs and who have no desire to lift themselves out of their miserable existence.

Apparently, Kasich subscribes to this false stereotype, or if he doesn’t personally, he believes the Republican voters do.

So he cynically punishes the poor and helpless to demonstrate how strict he is with the “useless” dregs of our society — and to gain votes from the misery of the powerless.

The change has reignited a fierce debate between conservative leaders, who say waiving the mandate discourages people from working, and their liberal counterparts, who say the three-month time limit ignores the reality that jobs are still hard to come by for low-skilled workers.

Kasich’s wants you to believe the cure for unemployment is to punish the unemployed. Blaming the victim is a favorite tactic of the persecutor.

Kasich, who helped author the work requirement as a U.S. congressman in 1996, is among the conservative politicians arguing that able-bodied adults should not receive SNAP benefits if they are not working.

A spokesman for Kasich, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said reinstating the requirement would prod people to seek work in the improving economy.

You see, people, like cattle need to be prodded to better themselves. Not all people — not people like “us.” Just people like “them,” who prefer the hardscrabble life of joyless poverty than actually working.

“These are, again, adults — no dependents, physically and mentally capable of working,” said Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich’s presidential campaign, in a recent interview. “Just as much as we believe in the social safety net, we also believe it’s a sin not to help oneself.”

To Kasich, not being able to find a job is a “sin.” (Why are Republicans so frantic about “sin”? The unemployed are “sinners.” Abortion is a “sin.” Undocumented immigrants are “sinners.” Gays are “sinners.” Medical marijuana is a “sin.” Teaching evolution is a sin. Flag burning is a “sin.” Research on embryos is a “sin.” Could it be they doth protest too much?)

Punishing the poor and helpless is the real sin.

The single biggest problem in America is the widening Gap between the rich and the rest. There are two ways to address problems: With a closed fist or a helping hand.

Kasich has chosen the closed fist, which history demonstrates, seldom works, (as witness the failed “War on Drugs.”)

Punishing the poor will not reduce the number of poor, nor will it close the Gap between the rich and the rest. With the initiation of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below), the poor will demonstrate they are real people, just like us — people who have hopes and ambitions and just need a helping hand.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Is a neutral Supreme Court possible?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Sorry, but this article will be a bit of”ring-round the rosie,” because it asks a complicated question with many answers .

Some arguments never will end, simply because we can find no conclusive right or wrong. At best (or worst), some arguments devolve into a social consensus, where they linger a while, after which they rises anew.

Consider abortion. On one side are those whose focus is on the fetus’s rights, it’s life, and its happiness. On the other side are those whose focus is on the mother’s rights, her life, and her happiness.

Some consider abortion to be fetus murder, and they have some logic on their side. Others consider forcibly preventing abortion to be a form of emotional, financial and even physical murder of the mother.  They have a certain logic on their side.

For the past few years, we’ve seen news about the largest beleaguered “minority” in America: Evangelical Christians (reportedly about 25% of the adult U.S. population).

To Evangelicals, Veto a Raw Deal.
Florida Sun Sentinel, 4/1/16; by Jenny Jarvie
Ga. religious conservatives see governor’s axing of “religious liberty” bill as betrayal.

To much of corporate America, the bill amounted to legalized discrimination against gay people, by allowing them to be denied certain services and protections.

Bank of America, AT&T and hundreds of other companies had taken out full page ads to protest the bill.

The governor said he could see no compelling reason for the bill. It would have assured that a pastor could not be forced to perform a same-sex wedding and that non-profit, faith-based organizations could legally refuse to rent property for events they found objectionable.

It also would have given such groups the right to fire or not hire people whose practices they opposed on religious grounds.

There’s growing sense that we’re a majority whose rights and freedoms are being trampled upon,” said Mike Stone, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, GA.

I empathize with the evangelicals.  I do see the logic on their side. I am Jewish, and if someone wanted me to rent an auditorium to Nazis, I’d object. Strenuously.

Because I tend to be pro-choice, I also would object to renting that auditorium to Donald Trump.

In  Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the Supreme Court extended the protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to Hobby Lobby, Mardel, and Conestoga Wood Specialties, three closely held corporations, and held that the contraception mandate of the Affordable Care Act substantially burdened their religious exercise.

The sincerity of their religious beliefs was never disputed. As such, they had no difficulty meeting RFRA’s requirement that their asserted beliefs be both sincere and religious in nature. 

In the wake of the decision, however, critics have expressed concern that future courts will be powerless to block insincere RFRA claims brought by wholly secular corporations seeking to evade generally applicable laws.

In her powerful dissent, Justice Ginsburg proclaimed an “overriding interest” in “keeping the courts ‘out of the business of evaluating’ . . . the sincerity with which an asserted religious belief is held.”

Fortunately, courts historically have demonstrated that they are able to ferret out insincere religious claims. There is a long tradition of courts competently scrutinizing asserted religious beliefs for sincerity without delving into their validity or verity.

And I suggest this is all beside the point.

It’s all about two kinds of beliefs: Sincerely held beliefs and religious beliefs. To conform to the Supreme Court’s ruling, a belief must be both sincerely held and religious.

And the Court ruled that it magically is competent to distinguish both sincerity and religiosity. (Mind reading?)

Let’s say I see you sneaking out of my neighbor’s house, and because of your manner (stealthy, bent and furtive), and your clothing (you’re wearing a face-hiding hood in summer) or other factors (you’re carrying a big, dripping knife and a large bag), I sincerely believe you have murdered my neighbor and stolen his valuables.

So I shoot you.

It turns out you were enlisted by my neighbor to cut down a bee hive from a tree. But, since I sincerely believed you were a murderer, was I legally entitled to shoot you?

No? Why not?

Well, let’s assume the Court, using its crystal ball or ouija board, somehow can determine that my belief was sincere, and I wasn’t just engaging in a bit of live target practice, still it wasn’t a religious belief.

Let’s try another example. You are a taxpayer, and the local school lunch program, for which you pay in taxes, includes, but is not limited to, pork, shrimp and rabbit, all of which are forbidden in Leviticus. Should you be able to force the school to serve only Kosher meals?

Or, let’s get closer to the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. case.

You are a Jehovah’s Witness. You feel blood transfusions are a sin, so your closely held company refuses to fund insurance that covers your 22 thousand employees for transfusions. Have you converted your employees into defacto Jehovah’s Witnesses?

In truth there are all sorts of caveats in the Burwell decision, including the definition of “closely held,” and whether there are other less-restrictive ways to accomplish the government’s aims.

Virtually all bad legal decisions devolve into a morass of Rube Goldbergian rules, exceptions, qualifications and interpretations. “Burwell” is no exception.

Example: The decision requires that closely held corporations be considered “persons” who have religious rights (though presumably not voting rights).

Again, I suggest this is beside the point.

The United States is not a theocracy. It intentionally was created to be a secular nation, because theocracies invariably become dictatorships. The leader speaks for God, and no one may disagree with God. That is one of the great differences between the U.S. and, for instance, Saudi Arabia.

And while American law makes some accommodation for each individual’s religious practices, secular law trumps religious law.

Supposedly.

So, supposedly, the Supreme Court focuses on secular law, and avoids if at all possible, delving into religious law.

In the Burwell case, the Court’s right-wing made a religious decision, and then desperately searched for rationales to justify its decision.

The idea that, as Ruth Bader Ginsberg dissented: “commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs” — this idea is so preposterous, it would be humorous but for the real-life implications.

Even now, the Burwell decision has limited the secular rights of more than 22 thousand people, and we are at only the beginning.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Employment Division v. Smith that a person may not defy neutral laws of general applicability even as an expression of religious belief.

“To permit this,” wrote Justice Scalia, “would make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.”

He wrote that generally applicable laws do not have to meet the standard of strict scrutiny, because such a requirement would create “a private right to ignore generally applicable laws.”

Yet, Scalia was one of the most energetic supporters of Burwell. Such is the incongruity caused by faulty decisions based on personal ideology rather than on law.

(One can only wonder what the decision of this Court, which is composed solely of Catholics and Jews, would have been had the plaintiffs been Muslim or Buddhist.)

In every similar case, the Court now must determine individual definitions of what constitutes a “religion,” what constitutes “sincerity,” what constitutes “undue burden,” and whether an individual’s personal interpretation of his religious doctrine, supercedes secular law (except in tax cases).

Many thought Roe v. Wade decided abortion rights. Many now think Burwell decided contraceptive rights for “closely held corporations. Thomas Jefferson may have believed the 1st Amendment clarified the position of religion in American law.

All were wrong. The battle between religious and secular rights never ends.

This particularly will be true with a Supreme Court that ignores its mission of legal independence and neutrality, and relies instead on personal ideology. These arguments never end because the Court’s decisions are based on the volatility of Supreme Court membership.

That the Court infamously has a solid right-wing and a solid left-wing is a disgrace. Such a division is understandable for Congress, but for the court to be so political leads to the question: Of what value is the Supreme Court, if it is no different from a Congressional, politically-driven, ideology-driven committee?

If this Court is so weak-minded it cannot even maintain a secular legal balance, but repeatedly drifts into religious interpretations, it is nothing more than a term-for-life carbuncle on citizens’ necks.

The question then becomes, is there a way to find and appoint and guide Justice who will be more neutral arbitrators of secular law, or will we forever fight the democracy vs theocracy battle between immobile sides?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

 

Do you really know John Kasich, the “moderate” Republican?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Many Republicans, desperate to find any — ANY — Republican, but Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, have begun to settle on John Kasich, because he supposedly is a “moderate.”

Compared with the bigotry, lying and sheer craziness of Trump, perhaps Kasich might be considered “moderate.”  So can virtually every politician in the world.

And compared with the doomsday rigidity of “shut-down-the-government” Cruz, Kasich again might be considered moderate. So can Justices Alito and Thomas, as well as Cliven Bundy, the NRA and Genghis Khan.

But if Kasich is the desperation fall-back candidate, it’s important to know exactly what he stands for, and I doubt his new (“anybody but Trump or Cruz) fans do.

We went to his web site and in an effort to give you a picture of this “moderate,” we provide you with these tidbits:

BALANCE THE BUDGET AND KEEP IT BALANCED
John Kasich will work with Congress to balance the budget in eight years.

By reining-in spending, reforming our broken entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, sending federal programs back to our states and communities where they belong, and spurring economic growth, it can be done.

It is a big job, but John Kasich did it in Ohio and he can provide the leadership to do it again for our nation.

To Kasich “reforming entitlement” means cutting your Social Security benefits, cutting your Medicare benefits and cutting your Medicaid benefits.

In fact, Kasich would like to cut every benefit for the middle-class and the poor, while of course, maintaining tax benefits for the rich.

No Republicans will talk straight about that, so they all use the mealy-mouth word, “reform.”

KEEP THE BUDGET BALANCED:
John Kasich will work with Congress to pass a resolution amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget and submit it to the states for ratification.

Kasich either pretends ignorance or really is ignorant about the fact that balanced budgets lead to recessions and depressions, and deficit spending cures recessions and depressions.

If he understands this, why does he advocate balanced budgets? Because balancing the budget inevitably leads to cuts to spending on social programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc., which widens the Gap.

Widening the Gap is the primary goal of the right-wing.

REDUCE AND CONTROL SPENDING:
John Kasich will set priorities to get spending under control. National security is a priority, however, and he will increase defense spending to restore our military and help keep Americans safe.

Spending cuts invariably cut benefits to the poor and middle classes, not to the rich.

Kasich will — after cutting all spending that puts dollars in your pocket — increase military spending, perhaps so he can invade Iraq, again and enrich the military/industrial complex.

Xenophobic fear-mongering worked so well for Bush II and for the American rich, Kasich sees no reason not to keep doing it.

REFORM ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS:
The cost of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare are growing uncontrollably and must be fundamentally reformed to reduce their growth rates and become more efficient while still providing the services that Americans want and need.

There’s that word “reform,” again. Hang on to your wallet.

How will cutting Medicaid and Medicare “make them more efficient while still providing the services”? Kasich has no idea, and he really doesn’t care.

Every time a politician tells you that cuts to your benefits actually will help you, he is lying, plain and simple.

REVENUE GROWTH:
Reducing personal and corporate income taxes, cutting federal red tape, providing access to affordable, reliable energy and getting government out of the way will all help contribute to America’s economic revival.

Any tax cuts will benefit the rich far more than you, and any benefit to you will be overwhelmed by cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social spending.

This is a reverse Robin Hood plan, to take from the poor and give to the rich and widen the Gap between the two.

CUTTING TAXES & MAKING THE TAX CODE SIMPLER & FAIRER

Lowering income tax rates, reducing the number of brackets, and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit will allow all taxpayers, especially low and middle income earners, to keep more of their own money and be better able to save and invest for the future.

Note the word “FAIRER” in the title. To Kasich, it’s unfair that the rich sometimes pay at a higher rate than the poor. Right wingers love regressive taxes like flat taxes, FICA, and sales taxes. They all punish the middle more than the rich.

His line about “keep more of their own money,” is like saying that deporting immigrants gives them the “freedom” to return to their native land. It’s all sweet-talk, that is supposed to lull the peasants.

TAX CUTS FOR JOB CREATORS:

Lower taxes and incentives to invest will restore global competitiveness to America’s business tax system to help create new jobs.

In Republican-speak, “job creators” are rich corporate executives. These people never created a job in their lives.

Corporations create the jobs and overpay their super-rich executives, who simply go along for the ride. The real fact is, the corporate CEOs do everything possible to cut the number of employees.

These guys get bonuses for cutting payroll costs, and Kasich wants to pay them for job creation.

It’s madness.

REGULATORY REFORM: USING COMMON SENSE TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO JOB CREATION

Getting federal regulations under control is essential to making sure Americans have the health and safety protections they need without unnecessary burdens.

In other words, any regulation that prevents businesses from screwing the public, is an “unnecessary burden.” That is why the major banks still are as unregulated as ever, though their stealing caused the Great Recession.

Remember this: The Great Recession was not caused by too many regulations. It was exacerbated by too few regulations and by non-enforcement of existing regulations

A ONE-YEAR MORATORIUM:

A one-year moratorium on all major, new regulations will give businesses a respite from the costs of Obama Administration regulations and allow time to overhaul the regulatory process.

This is childish on its face. A one-year moratorium allows criminals to have an additional year of stealing.

And as for “overhaul of the regulatory process, specifically what overhaul (other than removing all regulations) would satisfy him?

MANDATORY COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:
John Kasich will call on Congress to make cost-benefit analyses mandatory for all new regulations to make sure their benefit outweighs their costs.

A true cost-benefit analysis is one of the most time-consuming, unproductive activities imaginable.

First, there is the question, “What is the value of any specific benefit.” Then there is the question, “What is the cost?”

For instance, assume Congress passes a law saying that any bank CEO whose bank has been shown to have cheated 100 mortgage holders, must be sentenced to 1 year in jail.

What exactly is the dollar value of the benefit to the public? What is the cost, exactly? What about 50 mortgage holders? 10? 1?

His call for cost-benefit analyses on every new regulation is just a method for stopping Congress altogether and allowing the criminals to roam free.

How about this: Run a cost-benefit analysis of Kasich’s proposal. Come back in 20 years, when it has finished.

INDEPENDENT, COMMON SENSE APPEALS

Today a small business that wants to fight an agency decision can sue in federal court and go bankrupt hiring lawyers, or use an agency’s own appeals process staffed by its own bureaucrats.

Only an independent administrative review can ensure businesses get fair, reasonable treatment and John Kasich will create new appointed common sense review panels comprised of real Americans.”

When a politician stuffs his proposal with words like “independent,” “fair,” “reasonable,” “common sense” and “real Americans,” you know it’s bull poop.

He’s going to find and pay thousands of “real Americans” (not fake Americans), who are “independent, fair, and reasonable,” having “common sense and technical knowledge for every single agency in the government.

What could possible go wrong with that?

DISMANTLING WASHINGTON AND TAKING BACK OUR POWER, MONEY AND INFLUENCE

For decades Washington has steadily expanded its role, size and cost, adding to the debt that crowds out private investment and chokes our economic growth, all while creating tentacles of bureaucracy that increasingly seek to weave into our lives, communities and businesses.

To fix these problems—and keep them fixed—John Kasich will begin dismantling Washington and taking our power, money and influence back to our states and communities.

Not only do states have the ability to execute faster and more efficiently, but because they are on the frontlines they better understand Americans’ needs and can be more responsive to them.

Yes, the old “big government” and “crowds out” arguments. Take the cost of regulation from the federal government, which can afford to regulate, and force it on the states, many of which are going broke.

This is every right-wingers dream: Cut regulation so the rich can steal more.

There is zero evidence that states are more honest, more capable and more willing to stop crime than is the federal government. In fact, the contrary is true.

And consider the effect of every state having different regulations on everything. Things are bad enough, with differing laws on marriage, aiding the poor, voting and on and on and on.

Kasich wants to turn the United States into the Separate States of little fiefdoms.

Further, federal deficit spending does not “crowd out” private investment or “choke economic growth.” On the contrary, deficit spending adds dollars to the economy which facilitates private investment and provides economic growth.

Kasich has his economics backwards.

And by the way, this money-saving man is the same guy who wants to “create hundreds of new appointed common sense review panels comprised of real Americans.”

TRANSPORTATION:

Not since the completion of the interstate highway system over two decades ago has there been a clear vision for the federal government’s role in surface transportation.

John Kasich will direct policy authority, funding and responsibilities to the states, which are in the best position to assess infrastructure needs and develop strategies to manage them.

This is crazy, even for Kasich. Think of it: An interstate highway system directed by the individual states.

Imagine a highway stopping at the state border, because the neighboring state doesn’t want to spend money on an extension or on repairs.

EDUCATION:

John Kasich will reduce the power of the U.S. Department of Education and end Washington’s education micromanagement.

He will reaffirm the fundamental principle of local control and will give local school districts and states more flexibility to use federal resources to meet the educational needs of their students.

“Use federal resources”?? Has Kasich forgotten all those “tentacles of (federal) bureaucracy” he complained about?

WORKFORCE:
Washington should provide more flexibility from rigid guidelines so states can align programs to the skills and positions for which local job creators are hiring.

“Flexibility from rigid guidelines” is exactly what the rich criminals always want, so they can pay less and provide worse working conditions, especially for minorities.

MEDICAID:

Getting Medicaid’s unsustainable growth rates under control requires giving states more freedom to innovate, improve quality and increase efficiency.

How noble. It also would give states more freedom to cut medical coverage for the poor and least powerful. His use of the words,“unsustainable growth rates” is the tipoff to what the Kasich really wants.

LOW-INCOME PUBLIC ASSISTANCE:

Block granting welfare in the 1990s was a start, but excessive constraints by the federal government have limited its overall success.

As president John Kasich will make sure welfare programs actually help Americans move up and out of poverty and give taxpayers the value they deserve.

Translation: “We’ll cut aid to the poor, because public assistance just makes these lazy people lazier.”

AFFORDABLE, RELIABLE ENERGY FOR GROWTH: INDEPENDENCE AND LOW COSTS THROUGH ABUNDANCE

An exclusive focus on unnecessary environmental regulation drives up energy costs and keeps energy independence out of reach. America needs balance.

John Kasich believes that Americans need an energy policy that encourages more energy production from a broad base of sources.

Translation: Drill baby, drill.

Kasich won’t admit it, but the United States already is energy independent. “Broad base of resources” is right-wing speak for coal and tar-sands oil — the two most polluting sources of energy.

ACHIEVE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE:
Sourcing all our energy from North America and eliminating our reliance on overseas energy makes America safer and stronger. John Kasich will approve the Keystone XL pipeline to help make this happen.

As I said, “Drill baby, drill” and allow the the Koch brothers’ Keystone XL pipeline spill tar-sands oil all over the country. After all, the Kochs have paid the politicians for this service.

ENCOURAGE RESEARCH IN NEW TECHNOLOGIES:

Both the economy and environment benefit from technological breakthroughs. High-capacity, long-life batteries; fuel cells; the high-efficiency “smart” electricity grid; clean coal and other technologies can help improve the environment, increase efficiency and conserve energy.

Unreasonable barriers to their development should be identified and removed to help make them a reality.

Good idea. It would require federal spending which Kasich hates.

DISMANTLING WASHINGTON: THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT IS A TEXT BOOK EXAMPLE OF WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

For at least 30 years people have talked about dismantling the 40,000+ employee, $12 billion U.S. Department of Commerce to help shrink the Washington bureaucracy.

The reason is simple: the Department has become a cluttered “attic” for the federal government, hiding political pet projects, outdated programs, and agencies without a logical home.

John Kasich will eliminate it, as part of an overall freeze and reduction of the federal workforce.

Essential work of Commerce would be transferred to other agencies. Highlights include:

Almost half of the Commerce Department’s budget goes to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and its satellites, and the National Hurricane Center.

These and other efforts align closely with the work of the Department of Interior to preserve and safeguard America’s natural resources and, after a review to eliminate duplication, would be moved there.

Merging two agencies does not in itself create efficiencies. They still need to accomplish the assignments. Rather than talking about eliminating an agency, Kasich should point out duplications.

RETURN ECONOMIC POWER TO STATES AND COMMUNITIES:

The Economic Development Administration’s grant programs for local communities would be carefully analyzed for duplication and those not eliminated would be transferred to HUD where they would be returned to states and communities in large flexible block grants.

If Kasich had been around in 1776, there would be no United States of America. We still would be individual colonies.

The myth that states, counties and cities, working independently, are more honest and efficient than the federal government is just that: A myth.

BETTER SUPPORT MINORITY BUSINESS:

Shutting the Department of Minority Business Development Agency to eliminate functions and consolidate overhead costs in others would produce significant savings.

While closing and moving offices could bring initial cost increases, they would be more than recouped over time.

The resulting improved services, better management and heightened teamwork will begin the long-overdue rebuilding of American’s confidence that the federal government actually works for them.

It’s fascinating that consolidating small agencies into larger agencies appeals to the same guy who decries “big government” as being inefficient. So “big government” is bad, but “big agencies” are good??

He has, by the way, no plan for “improves services.” He just thinks merger will do it — somehow.

Now you know about Kasich.

In summary, he is the typical pro-rich, anti-middle and anti-poor, right-winger.

He hates regulations because only with regulations can the endless stealing by the rich be slowed.

He hates “big government” (but ironically advocates merging small agencies into big agencies), because local governments alway have been more vulnerable to control by the local, rich “strongman.”

For Kasich, rich is good, poor is bad and ne-er the twain shall meet.

None of his ideas are new or “moderate.” They all come right out of the extreme right-wing playbook.

Kasich may appear moderate only by comparison with Trump and Cruz, two of the looniest candidates the Republicans ever have put before the American people.

In America today, Kasich is what passes for Republican “moderate.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

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Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.
•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
•Deficit spending grows the supply of money
•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
•The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY