Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
==========================================================================================================================================

The Florida SunSentinel published an article by Fox News commentator, Noelle Nikpour titled, Noelle Nikpour: Numbers show GOP must change.

Knowing Fox News, I was startled by this seeming admission that the Republicans may be on the wrong track, and was anxious to read what a right wing mirror might say. Could this be the beginning of a long-overdue breakthrough for my once-beloved Republican party?

Here are a few excerpts for you to judge:

Of all the results from this past November’s elections, two numbers stand out: three, and 71. Three is the number of counties nationwide where, according to Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report, if President Obama had won a smaller percentage of the youth and minority vote, he would have lost the entire election.

One of those was Broward County, where he trounced Mitt Romney by 264,000 votes. He won the state by only 74,000 votes. The other two were Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home of Cleveland, and Philadelphia County, Penn.

What about 71? That’s the percentage of the Hispanic vote Obama won nationwide. He won 60 percent of the Hispanic vote in Florida, where Broward’s County’s Latino population is the fastest-growing in the state. Hispanics, of course, were not the only deciding factor in the previous election, but Obama’s dominance of that group has Republicans talking – those who want to win future elections, anyway.

In every game of any kind – political, athletic, romantic – the winner’s victory and the loser’s loss can be narrowed down to a few narrow statements of “If only.”

“If only he hadn’t made that error, they wouldn’t have scored ten runs.” “If only he hadn’t gone on vacation before the wedding, she wouldn’t have met and married that other man.” “If only he hadn’t said that one stupid thing, he wouldn’t have lost the last debate and the election.”

To search out, then focus on a few narrow incidents, misses the big picture. A baseball team doesn’t lose because of one error. It loses because for the sum of all nine innings, it didn’t play as well as the other team. She married the other man because overall she loved him more. And he lost the election because overall, the electorate liked him less.

A sum is the total of all its parts, and to blame a loss on one part is to misunderstand mathematical reality.

Hispanics are growing so quickly in number that Dr. James Johnson, a North Carolina demographer, refers to the phenomenon as “the browning of America.” . . . The last two years saw Republicans vote against the DREAM Act offering Hispanics a path to citizenship, at the same time some in the party were adopting harsh, anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric. Meanwhile, Obama announced he would not use federal enforcement agencies to deport younger undocumented aliens. It was a blatant violation of the law and the Constitution, but it was fantastic politics.

Again, the big picture is missed. The Republicans didn’t lose because Obama had better “politics.” They lost because of something far deeper.

Meanwhile, young people ages 18 to 29 supported Obama in November, 60-36. That chasm is a little smaller than in Obama’s win over John McCain, but the young electorate is bigger than it was in 2008.

So Republicans are falling behind among groups that are increasing in number and maturing into leadership. Clearly, the party has a branding problem it must start addressing.

Why do young people favor Obama? The question neither is asked, nor answered. Nikpour assumes there is a branding problem, as though the product is fine, it’s just the brand image that needs changing.

That attitude is what continues to bury the Republicans, for you see, Ms. Nikpour, it is not a brand problem. It is a product problem.

Republicans need to return to their roots as the party of aspiration in both their policies and rhetoric. Too many Republicans take an almost unpatriotic pleasure in complaining about the country’s problems, and that’s a turnoff to young people and to rising immigrants who came here to build a better life for their families.

Meanwhile, the party’s us-versus-them rhetoric doesn’t win friends among socially accepting young people or among ethnic groups that are trying to assimilate into American society. That rhetoric has to go.

Again, the problem and its solution wrongly are felt to be superficial – just a matter of adjusting rhetoric. It’s as though what you mean and do doesn’t matter; all that matters is how you say it.

The GOP can start this process by elevating rising stars like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and, especially, any of a number of mostly young conservative women who have been elected to Congress and to statehouses across the country.

And it can follow the example of Ronald Reagan, who . . . managed to communicate his beliefs while rarely saying a mean thing about anyone. His face wore a smile, never a smirk or a sneer. Not surprisingly, he won the youth vote in 1984.

This past November was just one bad election decided by three counties, but the trends are not good for the GOP. The party has lost the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections, and it just got beat by one of the worst presidents of the past 100 years. It’s no time to panic, but it is time to change.

Elevating “rising stars” is not the solution, if in order to be allowed to rise, the stars must toe the religious right, Tea Party and austerity line. It’s not just the appearances that need adjusting; it’s the Republican substance that is an anathema to decent Americans.

We are a nation of underdogs and we favor the underdogs. As a nation, we choose the small over the big, the poor over the rich, the needy over the haves. America doesn’t like the meanspirited who beat down on such minorities as blacks, browns, gays and non-Christians.

America doesn’t like the meanspirited who beat down on the less advantaged by promoting “small government” – code words for austerity, which in itself is a code word for cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, cutting food stamps, cutting aids to education and other aids to the poor, firing federal workers, providing inadequate care for wounded veterans, busting unions and only grudgingly providing aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Americans don’t like those who choose money and law over people.

The Republicans of Abraham Lincoln, were a party of compassion for the unfortunate. But Republicanism has changed. Perhaps, it changed with the cruelty of Senator Joe McCarthy, perhaps even earlier. But of late is has become so bad the term “compassionate conservatism” needed to be invented and popularized among Republicans.

Why was this phrase necessary? Because, Republicans have lost their Lincolnesque compassion. Choosing a microscopic, fertilized egg over a poor, frightened, pregnant mother is not compassion.

Using any legal and quasi-legal means to extradite immigrants, rather than finding legal and quasi-legal means to give them sanctuary, is not compassion.

Denying the joy of marriage to gay couples is not compassion.

Repeatedly trying to force your religion on those who do not share your religion – that is not compassion.

So, lacking real compassion, Republicans instead feel politically compelled to claim compassion.

But, Ms. Nikpour, it’s not the brand. It’s not the politics. It’s not just three counties. It’s the overall reality. America does not like mean bullies.

At our core, we empathize with “Mother of Exiles,” the Statue of Liberty lady, who says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

That is the America who votes against Republicans. To paraphrase counsel Joseph Welsh during the Army-McCarthy hearings: Have you no sense of decency, Republicans? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

You claim to be patriots. You claim to love America. But, to love America, you must love the people who live in America, especially those who need your love most.

Change is needed, Republicans, and not just for political advantage.

The change is needed in your hearts.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
==========================================================================================================================================

The debt-nuts get crazier and crazier. They must believe that acting crazy is the way to get attention. They probably are right — except it may not be an act.

Anyway, here is yet another warning about the phony “federal debt.”

America Should Declare Bankruptcy: Doug Casey
By Lauren Lyster | Daily Ticker 1/18/13

This week started with President Obama Monday demanding lawmakers raise the U.S.’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling, warning Republicans not to insist on spending cuts in return. The same day, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke advocated getting rid of the debt limit altogether.

There are two parts to the debt limit that are ridiculous: The debt and the limit.

The so-called “debt” is ridiculous, because it is not what you think of as debt. It actually is the total of deposits in T-securities accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. A T-security account is very much like your savings account at your local bank.

To “lend” to the government, you instruct your bank to transfer dollars from your checking account to your T-security account.

To “pay off” your T-security account (i.e. federal “debt”), the government does exactly what your bank does, when it “pays off” your savings account. The government transfers dollars from your T-security account to your checking account.

This is no burden on the government. The entire federal debt could be paid off tomorrow, simply by transferring dollars from one account to another. No new dollars would need to be created. Someone simply would type $16.4 trillion into a computer, and the transfers would be made. Done.

The debt limit is ridiculous, because it doesn’t limit federal spending. It limits federal paying of bills to which it already has committed. Visualize spending $100 on your credit card, then refusing to pay the credit card bill, because you have exceeded your debt limit.

Congress already has spent the money, and now the debt-nuts in Congress claim they are being fiscally prudent by refusing to pay their bills. This is classic Orwellian language, in which words mean the opposite of their true meaning. To Congress, being a deadbeat is prudent.

And the week ends with lawmakers still careening towards a deadline somewhere between mid-February and late March, when the U.S. will run out of funding for most government programs and risk default. They have no plan to raise the ceiling or abolish it.

Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research, professional investor, and author of Totally Incorrect: Conversations with Doug Casey tells The Daily Ticker. “The problem is the amount of debt itself. The problem is so big at this point, I think it’s very questionable whether this can be solved at all.”

He is saying there is so much money in T-security accounts, the government will be unable to transfer it to checking accounts. Why? Are all those dollars too bulky to move? Is it too hard to type $16.4 trillion into a computer?

This is what passes for wisdom in today’s debt-nut world.

Casey points to the money America owes above and beyond the official $16 trillion in national debt, as the real issue. This includes the so-called unfunded liabilities from entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

Two former U.S. government officials put the federal government’s actual liabilities in excess of $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP, in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. Casey argues we’re talking of upwards of $100 trillion when you also factor in the liability of promises such as FDIC deposit insurance.

“This is far more than can conceivably be repaid, so the debt is going to be defaulted on, it’s simply a question of how,” he says.

To quote Casey, “Totally Incorrect”:

Consider Social Security. For you to receive a benefit, the federal government sends instructions to your bank, to increase the number in your checking account. The instructions can be in the form of a check or a wire.

Either way, the government can send instructions endlessly. It could, if it wished, instruct your bank to increase the number in your checking account by 100 trillion. Instantly, you would be $100 trillion richer.

A Monetarily Sovereign government does not need a source of income to do this. Even if federal taxes were zero, the government could continue sending those instructions. That is what Monetarily Sovereign means.

So when Casey says $100 trillion is “far more than can conceivably be repaid,” he is demonstrating incredible ignorance of federal financing and Monetary Sovereignty. There simply is no limit to what the government can pay, especially when the so-called “debt” can be repaid by transferring existing dollars from one account to another.

For new spending, new dollars would be needed, and here the only — ONLY — limit is inflation. The government can, and should, keep creating money up to the point of inflation. Though inflation is unlikely (for reasons described at Federal deficit spending doesn’t cause inflation; oil does), it always is on the minds of debt-nuts, which is why the next paragraph either is humorous, sad or frightening, depending on your mood:

Casey takes it one step further. “I think the U.S. government should default on the national debt,” he says, pre-empting his statement with the admission that it may sound outrageous and too radical. “I say that for several reasons. The most important of them is if they don’t default on it, it’s going to make the next several generations of Americans into effect indentured servants, serfs, to pay off the debt that their parents and grandparents have incurred.”

If anything is guaranteed to cause inflation (i.e. the loss in value of the American dollar) it’s default on our debts. Would you accept dollars if you thought the government would default on its own currency? It’s madness to the extreme.

Also, as we have seen, the next several generations of Americans will not pay even one dollar of the federal debt. Nobody does.

If you wonder how someone like Doug Casey gets media space, understand that the media are owned by the rich, and debt cutting benefits the rich by widening the gap between the rich and the rest.

Nearly all the “fiscally prudent” suggestions – the FICA increase, the cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and the cuts to myriad other federal initiatives – take money from the lower 99% income group, which widens the gap.

The gap is the main concern of the rich, for without the gap, there would be no rich.

Defaulting on American debt is crazy and reckless, but perhaps no crazier nor more reckless than the many other austerity ideas being promulgated by the stooges for the upper 1%.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
==========================================================================================================================================

Huff Post

Sandy Relief Passes House Despite Conservative Opposition
Posted: Updated: 01/16/2013

A measure providing $51 billion for relief and recovery from Hurricane Sandy was approved by a bipartisan majority in the House on Tuesday evening, three weeks after Northeast Republicans excoriated the chamber’s GOP leaders for failing to vote on storm aid before the end of the last Congress.

Translation: “‘Big Government’ and federal spending should be cut . . . er, ah . . . except when I need Big Government, and the spending benefits me.

An amendment to the relief package introduced by Tea Party-allied conservatives requiring across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic programs to pay for $17 billion of storm aid was supported by a majority of Republicans, but was defeated 258-162 with a combination of GOP and Democratic votes. The full $51 billion relief bill passed the House 241-180, with 179 Republicans opposed.

Translation: The majority of us Republicans live outside the area devastated by the hurricane, so why should we care about those people? Let them solve their own problems.

“There’s clearly a federal responsibility to act,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). “We have a national interest in getting this region on its feet as quickly as possible.”

Translation: “I am one of the few Republicans who recognizes “there is a national interest” in helping the northeast. However, as a Republican, I know there is not a national interest in helping poor people, retired people, old people, sick people, homeless people, unemployed people and people needing roads, bridges, dams, and an education. We should cut all their benefits. They’re all sloths.

“We don’t have enough money to take care of our own people. That’s wrong,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), a member of the House Tea Party Caucus said. “Our government is facing a fiscal crisis.”

Translation: “Our Monetarily Sovereign government, which has the infinite ability to create money, is running out of the money it has the infinite ability to create. Just trust me on this. I learned it from George Orwell.

I receive small (i.e. big) campaign contributions (i.e. bribes) to vote for more and deeper austerity (i.e. recessions.) I am loyal to (i.e. bought and paid for by) the upper 1% income group to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.

“Please don’t ask me who ‘our own people’ refers to. It’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a Tea Party.

No previous disaster relief bill has required offsetting spending cuts, and Cole called it “hypocritical” for lawmakers whose districts have benefitted from federal aid after previous disasters to require sweeping spending cuts in order to authorize the storm aid. “We have never done that in the past in a disaster, and we certainly shouldn’t do so now,” Cole said.

More than two-thirds of Republicans backed the amendment, but it was defeated with a combination of GOP and Democratic votes.

Translation: “A third of us care about (i.e. scarcely tolerate) you middle- and lower-income-class people (i.e. sloths) – if you live in our districts and can vote for us and give us money. Let’s face it; why else would we need you?”
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I’m not sure the Republican party can become any crazier or more mean-spirited. Founded in 1854 by moral people who hated slavery, it now is dominated by: people hating former slaves, hating immigrants and hating the poor- and middle-income classes And lest you believe there is no love in their stone hearts, they love guns, love Michele Bachmann and love Fox News.

Lincoln, the first Republican President, would be shocked and dismayed at what has become of his party.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
==========================================================================================================================================

My Senator, Dick Durbin, continues to cement his legacy

January 16, 2013
Dear Mr. Mitchell:

Thank you for contacting me about tax and spending changes scheduled to take effect in January. I appreciate hearing from you.

Concerns have been raised about the effects that impending changes to our tax code and the automatic spending reduction, also known as sequestration, could have on our economy. Congress must take steps to alleviate economic concerns while ensuring that our nation is on a sustainable fiscal path.

Sequestration was created in the Budget Control Act, enacted on August 2, 2011, to prevent a default on our nation’s debt and to give our economy the certainty it needs as we recover from a historic recession. The Budget Control Act also established the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, which was assigned the task of issuing a formal recommendation to reduce the nation’s deficit in November 2011. I was disappointed that the Committee failed to reach a compromise for such a recommendation. Since an agreement was not reached, a $1.2 trillion automatic spending reduction was triggered and will be phased in over nine years beginning in January unless alternative legislation is enacted to prevent it.

During the remainder of the year, I hope that Congress can reach a bipartisan agreement to deal with the deficit prior to the round of deep spending cuts scheduled to take place. I have consistently worked with a bipartisan group of my colleagues to craft a balanced plan for controlling our federal deficits, and I am optimistic that we can come up with a proposal to which members on both sides of the aisle can agree. I will continue to work to find commonsense solutions to rein in our ballooning debt without risking the economic recovery or breaking promises to senior citizens, working families, and future generations.

Your voice is a valuable part of this discussion. I will keep your concerns in mind as the Senate considers the future of expiring tax provisions and next year’s spending changes in upcoming months.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY