Why the House budget committee voted to screw you

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

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Here are some quotes from the notorious Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the rich man’s group.  These are the people who tell you the federal deficit and debt are “unsustainable,” without ever explaining why.

Statement by Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on the budget plan released today by The House Budget Committee
March 15, 2016

Chairman Price should be commended for releasing a plan that calls for reversing the growth of our national debt, reforming entitlement programs, improving the budget process, and facilitating concrete action to begin reducing deficits.

In conservative speak, “reforming entitlement programs” means cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid and cutting Social Security benefits.

Does that sound like a good idea to you?

Since the richest 1% of Americans don’t care about those benefits, the CRFB deems them unimportant. Do you?

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) today released the FY 2017 House budget resolution to formally kick off the Congressional budget process.

The budget proposes about $6.5 trillion of spending reductions, which along with a war draw down, economic effects, and interest would lead to $7.9 trillion of total savings — enough to balance the budget by 2026.

While balancing budgets are good for states, counties, cities, businesses, you and me — all of which are monetarily non-sovereign — balanced budgets are an economic disaster when our Monetarily Sovereign federal government does it.

(Conservatives don’t want you to understand the vast differences between federal financing and your personal financing.)

Every depression in U.S. history, and nearly every recession, has been introduced with deficit reductions and cured with deficit increases. Here is why:

–Federal deficit reduction reduces the U.S. money supply, which starves a growing economy of money.
–Federal deficits put spending dollars into the pockets of consumers, who use those dollars to grow businesses and to increase wages and employment.

The budget would put debt on a clear downward path, falling from 76 percent of GDP in 2016 to 57 percent by 2026.

As you can see in the “Recession Clock” (chart below), reductions in spending as a % of GDP cause recessions. Then, growth in spending as a % of GDP cures recessions.

The budget generates the bulk of its savings from health care and other mandatory spending programs.

This includes $2 trillion of savings from repealing the coverage expansions in the Affordable Care Act (while leaving the spending cuts and essentially the tax increases in place), $1 trillion from block granting Medicaid and capping its growth, and $449 billion from Medicare savings policies, including reforming cost-sharing rules and switching to a premium support system in 2024.

There you see a litany of “screw the poor and middle classes” ideas, courtesy of the conservatives.

The Affordable Care Act protects those who least can afford health care coverage. That is the primary reason why the conservatives repeatedly vote to eliminate ACA.

Block granting Medicaid means that instead of the federal government paying for Medicaid, the government would give the states “block grants,” and the states would pay. Of course, the block grants would be insufficient — that is the whole purpose — so the states would have to cut coverages to the poor.

Capping the growth of Medicaid means that as prices rise, benefits would fall.

“Reforming” cost sharing rules is conservative speak for: “You pay more; the government pays less.”

The “premium support system” is a Rube Goldbergian process similar in nature to block grants, except it relates to premiums received by insurance companies. The private sector would support federal savings — similar to a tax.

The budget also calls for $1.5 trillion of savings from other mandatory programs, citing policies such as block granting food stamps and reforming housing, education, and job training programs as ways to get there.

In real language, the conservatives propose cutting food stamps, housing assistance, education assistance and job training programs. Who would you say that hurts, the 1% or the 99%?

Here is where the “savings” come from:

Policy Changes in the House FY 2017 Budget
Budget Category 2017-2026 Savings
Affordable Care Act        $2,013 billion
Medicaid and Other Health       $1,028 billion
Medicare (net)       $449 billion
Social Security       $14 billion
Other Mandatory       $1,471 billion
Discretionary and Highway       $690 billion
Revenue       $0 billion
Interest       $818 billion
Subtotal, Policy Savings        $6,482 billion
Economic Effect of Deficit Reduction       $241 billion
Economic Effect of ACA Repeal       $254 billion
Claimed Savings with Economic Effects
$6,977 billion

And there it is: No tax increases (The rich hate tax increases but love cuts to your social benefits), and billions deducted from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, highway repair, and “other” (those food stamps, housing, education, and job training programs we mentioned).

These people even have the gall to predict that the elimination of “Obamacare” benefits would grow the economy (“Economic Effect of ACA Repeal”).

If you are within the upper 1% income / wealth / power group, and you don’t give a fig about what happens to the rest of the people in America, you should vote conservative. This is the plan for you.

It widens the Gap between the rich and the rest, exactly what the rich want.

Otherwise, repeat after me:

“Deficit reduction is good when states, counties, cities, businesses and I do it.
Deficit reduction is bad when the federal government does it, because it reduces the nation’s money supply.”

Repeat it ten times, or as often as necessary, until you understand it. Click this link: Monetarily Sovereign for further infomation.

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

Trump’s appeal and when is a Jew not a Jew?

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

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What is the appeal of Donald Trump, and when is a Jew not a Jew?

Obviously, the answers are different for each individual, so to come to any conclusions, I’ve had to generalize.

Here are some generalizations:

I know Trump’s followers mostly are less educated, white and conversely, rich.

I can understand the less educated. They are the ones who have been hurt most by the recession and by foreign competition. The less educated have lost their jobs and have seen their employers move manufacturing overseas.

Trump promises them he will bring jobs back here by being tough on other nations and on domestic companies that buy foreign manufacturing.

Of course, foreign competition is what makes that car, that TV, those toys and baby clothes more affordable for the less educated. But the emotion of not having a job, or struggling with a low-pay job is greater than the concern about more expensive goods.

Trump tells them he will be a “jobs President,” and though he has no plan and is a compulsive liar, they believe him. They want to believe him. They need belief and scapegoats

And I understand the white. They have been programmed to be bigots. They believe that the brown and black-skinned are stealing jobs and creating street crime and are inferior.

Trump tells the whites he will kick all those brown-skinned rapists out of the country and will be tough on crime.

The fact that poverty, not skin color, creates most street crime is lost on the whites, as is the fact that immigrants create jobs by consuming goods and services. Trump’s bigoted proposals to build a wall and to deport 11 million would be laughable if it were not so outrageous.

But the whites want to believe him. They need scapegoats.

And I understand the rich. Trump is one of them. He says he is going to cut taxes, and that is what the rich care about.

He also says he will get rid of “tax loopholes,” the ones that allow him and other rich people to save millions. I’m not sure why anyone would believe him . . . or pretty much anything else he says.

I understand the less educated, the white and the rich. But there is another group I don’t understand, and I am part of it.

I am a Jew, and many of my friends are Jews. Mostly, they are in the upper 5% of the income / wealth / power class.

Historically, Jews have voted Democratic for one reason. The Democrats, through the years, have been the party of the underdog.

The Democrats were the party that created Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and most other social services of greater benefit to the less affluent and less powerful.

Jews understand being the victims of bigotry. For 2,000 years Jews have suffered through pogroms and the Inquisition and the Holocaust. Jews have been denied jobs, attacked, tortured for not converting, refused entry to universities and clubs, seen their houses and synagogues burned, accused of various plots to own the world, deported, and blamed for God’s death.

Compassion for the underdog is burned into Jewish genes.

So it has come as a shock to me, when of late, some of my friends told me they plan to vote for Trump.

Here is their reasoning:
1. They hate Hillary; they don’t trust her (though strangely, they do trust Trump).
2. They hate Bernie because he is a socialist who will raise taxes (though he isn’t a socialist and he won’t need to raise taxes).
3. Trump is strong and we need a strong leader (which is exactly how dictators come into power)
4. Trump will cut taxes and spending on social programs (punishing the poor).
5. Trump will be tough on criminals (like for instance, shooting unarmed blacks and deporting browns).

Trump cares nothing for the underdog. He never speaks of compassion, and his followers never do, either. That lack of compassion is the fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives despise the poor; liberals feel for them.

Trump’s daughter is Jewish by marriage. She should talk with her father about his bigotry and lack of compassion.

In my eyes, Trump’s followers, Jewish or otherwise, not only don’t care about the less fortunate, they actively dislike them. They buy into the bigotry that those below on the economic scale, are lazy takers, who need to be disciplined into submission.

Trumpists empathize with the rich. And, of course, they hate taxes on the rich.

Compassion is the one thing totally absent from Donald Trump’s appeal.

Now my friends are not selfish people and they are not mean people. Most of them give heavily to charities (though their charities tend to be religion- and health-oriented (Israel, cancer, etc.) rather than benevolents to the poor.

They no longer see themselves among the less fortunate. They are distanced from pogroms, the Holocaust, country club exclusion and deportations.

Today’s Jews experience less overt bigotry than in the past. Fewer people look at our heads to see if we have horns. And it has been many years since I’ve been accused of killing God, the all-powerful.

I truly believe Jews who have lost their compassion have lost their Jewishness. They are homeless people, estranged from their own history, but not really accepted by the non-Jewish world.

They are caught in the worst of both worlds.

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

 

Why I hope Trump wins the Republican nomination

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

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

Where did it begin? With Karl Rove? George W. Bush? Newt Gingrich? The Tea Party?

Somewhere along the line, the self-proclaimed patriotic, self-proclaimed religious Republican party lost its patriotism, lost its religion, and lost its morality.

The Republicans were not to cooperate to benefit America. For the right-wing, politics became a vicious war, and winning became the obsession.

The biggest story of the past fifty years in American politics has been the ascendancy of the right, and it’s a story of apostasy. George Packer, “Turned Around,” The New Yorker, February 22, 2016

Then came Barack Obama. In reality, he’s just another DINO (Democrat in name only). He’s more conservative than liberal, more Tea Party than Democrat, more pro-rich than pro-poor.

He espouses the Big Lie that federal financing is just like personal financing, that the federal government can run short of dollars to pay its bills, and that federal deficits are “unsustainable.”

Obama signed into law the infamous Budget Control Act of 2011 which led to the outrageous “sequester.” He sold the act to the public as a way to prevent a mythical sovereign default, because of the unnecessary 2011 debt-ceiling crisis.

Obama spoke of “hope,” then deported more hopeful immigrants than any President in American history.

And it was all for naught. Obama’s craven pandering to the Republicans and the rich failed like craven pandering always does — just as his craven pandering to Arab terrorism failed to bring peace.

The Republicans (and the terrorists) saw Obama’s weakness and smelled blood in the water.

The Republican goal became not one of building America, nor of helping Americans, but rather of tearing down everything Obama. The Republicans became the party of obstruction, and in doing so, the Republicans also became the party of hatred, a dark, brooding menace on the polical landscape.

They broadcast hatred for gays, for immigrants, for women seeking abortion, hatred for unions, for Muslims, the poor, Latinos, the aged, blacks, those who want any form of gun control, hatred for non-Christians, those who believe in evolution, those who believe in human-caused global warming, those wanting pollution controls, embryo research, peaceful negotiation rather than war, and of course, hatred for anything Obama.

And now we have that political party, so alienated from American morality, it refuses to participate in the American political system. Republicans will not even consider the credentials of any Supreme Court candidate, no matter how qualified, if submitted by Obama.

As the inevitable result of moral abandonment came Donald Trump, the ultimate caricature of Republican contempt for compassion.

If Republicans despised immigrants, Trump would detest them more. He will deport 11 million.

If Republicans despised foreigners, Trump would detest them more. He will build a colossal wall and create fortress America.

If Republicans were bigots, Trump would be the greater bigot. In Trump-world, Mexicans became “rapists and criminals,” and “Islam hated America.”

If Republicans admired guns, Trump would adore guns. He says, “The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.” (Everyone to have a machine gun?)

Trump claims global warming is a hoax. He claims deficit spending (which primarily helps the middle and lower incomes) must be cut. He wants to freeze green cards and to end constitutionally provided birthright citizenship. Trump University is only one of his many shameful business legacies. Trying to steal a widow’s home was business as usual.

Trump tells you the U.S. “should look and act tough.” But, he is a bully and bullies are cowards.

He wants to send our young people to fight and die for oil drilling areas, though he did everything possible to stay safely out of the military.

Now, he swaggers to his podium, affects a fierce face, and points at those who disagree with him, snarling “Get ’em outa here. Get ’em outa here.”

Mr. Tough Guy.

In short, he tells us to be bullies just like him. He wants us to be a xenophobic, cowardly, aggressive, hateful America. That is his slogan, his how he plans to “make America great, again.”

And that is why I hope he becomes the Republican candidate.

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The Republicans have sown the wind of hatred, and they have reaped Donald Trump. While the Republican party may have become stupid and mean-spirited enough to nominate him, I doubt very much that the American public is Trump-stupid and Trump-mean enough to elect him.

The world is filled with little, rotten, imperious governments, run by little, rotten, imperious martinets. This is not America.

With Trump as a candidate, Americans will have a wonderful opportunity this November to tell the world: “We are not a nation of haters and bigots. We are not a fearful, exclusionary, white-only, Christian-only, male-only nation groveling before the rich and powerful.

We are a giving, charitable, loving nation, comfortable enough in our great strength to welcome the tired, the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and the ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'”

Rather than following the false words, “Make America great, again” (We already are great), we can make America the ideal again, the country the rest of the world wishes to emulate, not just for our money and our military, but for our morals.

Millions of people, all colors and all beliefs, have poured across our borders for more than 200 years. The blending of genes strengthened America’s genes.

Those who already had arrived showed the courage to welcome the strange ideas and the unfamiliar customs of our new arrivals, not with a wall, but with open hearts. We were the golden land, embracing strangers and helping them achieve the American dream.

And that is how we created the greatest, most powerful nation the world ever has known.

But sometimes, even here in America, we need a reminder about who we are, and how being inclusive and welcoming and compassionate have made us admired.

So go ahead, Republicans. Bring it on. Nominate Trump and give us Americans the podium from which we will reject Trumpism and show the world why we still are America the beautiful.

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

Trump is right — for the wrong reason

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

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

Exchange between CNN host Erin Burnett and Donald Trump:

Trump: “Let me just explain something. Illegal immigration each year costs us between 200 and 300 billion dollars. I don’t know if anybody gives you those numbers — probably not. But, and when you include crime and other problems it’s more than that. So you are talking about 200 and 300 billion, the way it is now.”

Burnett: “But they pay in taxes, they pay 24 billion dollars in taxes,” she said.

Trump: “Who pays in taxes? You really believe they pay in taxes?”

Burnett: “They pay Social Security, state and local,” Burnett replied.

Trump: “What percentage of them? 10 percent?” Trump asked.

Burnett: “It’s 24 billion a year this economy wouldn’t have if they weren’t here,” Burnett pressed.

Trump: “Excuse me, excuse me. Do you know how few pay in taxes. Don’t be naive. Do you think an illegal immigrant getting money is going to be paying taxes? OK, sure. Some probably do. But only because the employers are insisting on it. But, percentage wise, there is very little. Probably five percent, 10 percent. It’s a very small amount that pay taxes. Look, they are here illegally. They are not paying taxes. I’ve heard this one before too. I hear them all.”

This is what bigots love to hear — undocumented immigrants should be deported, because they cost us money.

It provides a “reasonable” rationale for bigotry. (“See, I’m not a bigot. I just don’t like criminals stealing our precious dollars.”)

But, like virtually everything the Donald says, it’s a lie, designed to appeal to his “poorly educated” bigots among us.

New Study Shows Just How Much Undocumented Immigrants Actually Contribute

One of the main reasons that Donald Trump has been able to (become the) dominant Republican presidential frontrunner is his unrivaled ability to vilify undocumented immigrants.

One of the ways he does this is by referring to how much unauthorized immigrants cost, repeatedly charging that they don’t pay taxes and benefit from “free tax credits.”

Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $12 billion in taxes to the federal government annually. But that’s just for Uncle Sam. A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that undocumented immigrants also pay quite a lot in state and local taxes — $11.6 billion a year.

And that amount would increase significantly if the U.S. was to undertake serious immigration reform.

So Trump is right, for the wrong reason. He’s wrong about undocumented immigrants not paying taxes, but he’s right about them being a drag on the economy’s dollar supply.

Why? Because every dollar they pay in federal taxes reduces the federal deficit. Those dollars disappear from the economy. And as we repeatedly have shown, reducing the deficit, which reduces the money supply, is recessive. (See The Recession Clock, below.)

By paying federal taxes, immigrants (and you, too) reduce the money supply, and thus reduce economic growth.

There are a number of studies that estimate at least half of undocumented immigrants pay income taxes using false Social Security numbers or individual taxpayer identification numbers (a code for tracking tax payments for people ineligible for Social Security numbers, like foreign nationals).

Some of them file income tax returns, and some don’t — either way, both income tax and payroll tax are withheld from their paychecks, and become a source of government revenue.

But while undocumented immigrants who pay income tax pitch in for funds for government services, they’re not getting anything out of it.

“The main difference between undocumented workers and citizens is that both are paying in, but undocumented workers are likely not going to be able to get that back in the form of Social Security benefits when they retire,” Matt Gardner, executive director of ITEP (The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).

Trump opposes giving immigrants a pathway to citizenship. He does not want those brown-skinned “rapists and criminals” to come into our white nation and steal our money.

And he’s right . . . in a way:

Immigration reform would only improve the flow of money to the government.

With legal status, undocumented workers’ wages would increase, and all of them would begin to comply with income tax protocols.

Both of those would mean more money for the government, and exceed the increased spending on refundable tax credits and other federal benefits that would accompany legalization.

The more tax money that goes to the federal government, the less that remains in the economy. So from the standpoint of taxes, immigrants who pay more federal taxes than they receive in benefits, impoverish our economy.

Trump’s argument is that undocumented immigrants are bad for the economy because their federal tax payments don’t cover their federal benefits. But the opposite is true.

While state and local taxes merely recirculate dollars, federal taxes destroy dollars.

(Unlike you and me, the federal government does not maintain a supply of dollars to pay its bills. It creates new dollars, every time it pays a bill, and destroys dollars every time it receives them via taxes. At any given moment, the federal government has no dollars.)

This may seem counter-intuitive, but the most economically stimulative people are those who receive federal benefits and pay no federal taxes.

Yet, all of this is beside the point: Immigrants should have a reasonable path to citizenship, not because of money issues, but because it is the right thing to do. It is the American, compassionate thing to do.

This is America. We are the melting pot. That has been our strength and our pride for more than 200 years.

We look at ourselves as the world’s moral leaders. We criticize other nations for their crushing of human rights. We criticize Muslim nations when they oppress Christians, yet Trump wants America to oppress Muslims and immigrants.

It would be unAmerian, unpatriotic and irreligious, too, if we were to follow leaders who claim the title: “World’s mean-spirited bastards.”

If we lose our moral standing, what would it mean to be an American?

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