Tag: cut medicare

–Who is afraid of Greece leaving the euro — and why?

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●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 poor.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================

By the time you read this, Greece may already have decided to quit the euro, or the euro may have decided to quit Greece.

Or Greece may have found a way to extend its slavery to the Troika, and further decimate its citizens, for another few years.

Not all EU nations use the euro. In fact some rather happy and successful nations have been clever enough to avoid the euro’s tentacles: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

If so many EU nations already do not use the euro, why all the terror about Greece leaving the euro?

Why These European Countries Don’t Use The Euro
By Shobhit Seth | May 05, 2015

EU nations are diverse in culture, climate, population, and economy. Nations have different financial needs and challenges to address.

The common currency imposes a system of central monetary policy applied uniformly. What’s good for the economy of one eurozone nation may be terrible for another.

Most EU nations that have avoided the eurozone do so to maintain economic independence.

Here are a few reasons why many EU nations don’t use the euro:

Independence in Drafting Monetary Policies: The UK, a non-euro county, may have recovered from the 2007-2008 financial crisis by quickly cutting domestic interest rates in October of 2008. In contrast, the European Central Bank waited until 2015 to start its quantitative easing program.

Independence in Handling Country-Specific Challenges: Greece, for example, has high sensitivity to interest rate changes, as most of its mortgages are on variable interest rate rather than fixed. However, being bound by European Central Bank regulations, Greece does not have independence to manage interest rates.

Independent Lender of Last Resort: A country’s economy is highly sensitive to the Treasury bond yields. Non-euro countries have the advantage here. They have their own independent central banks which are able to act as the lender of last resort for the country’s debt.

Independence in Inflation-Controlling Measures: When inflation rises in an economy, an effective response is to increase interest rates. Non-euro countries can do this.

Independence for Currency Devaluation: Devaluing the nation’s currency makes exports cheaper and more competitive and encourages foreign investments. Non-euro countries can devalue their respective currencies as needed.

Exactly. The euro concept is wonderful, so long as there are no problems.

Eurozone nations first thrived under the euro.

The common currency brought with it the elimination of exchange rate volatility (and associated costs), easy access to a large and monetarily unified European market, and price transparency.

But as soon as each nation began to experience individual problems, different from its neighbors’ problems, the euro concept fell apart.

Why were the great economists of Europe unable to see that? Why did they not understand that Germany is different from France, which is different from Greece . . . etc?

Why did they not foresee that the solutions to one nation’s problems might be inappropriate to the problems of another nation? Surely, this was obvious, from the start.

Why did I, from far across the ocean, see the problems way back in 2005, when in a speech, I said, “Because of the Euro, no euro nation can control its own money supply. The Euro is the worst economic idea since the recession-era, Smoot-Hawley Tariff. The economies of European nations are doomed by the euro.”

This did not require any great insight on my part. It should have been clear even to the most casual observer. In adopting the euro, a nation surrenders the single, most valuable asset it has: It’s Monetary Sovereignty.

Nothing — not its natural resources, not its military, not its science and education, not even its population — is as valuable to a nation as its Monetary Sovereignty.

Given Monetary Sovereignty, a nation has the power to buy anything, sell anything, control inflations, prevent recessions, reduce poverty and make its citizenry wealthy.

Yet, the euro nations voluntarily surrendered their Monetary Sovereignty in exchange for easy trade. And now the euro, with its “easy trade,” predictably has turned into a mouthful of ashes

Was it stupidity, or was it something else?

As Sherlock Holmes said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

I submit that it is impossible for so many economists to have been so stupid as not to see the obvious shortcomings of the monetary non-sovereignty the euro requires.

And I submit further that it remains impossible for so many economists to remain stupid, despite those shortcomings being played out, right in front of their eyes.

So if it is not stupidity, what remains is intent.

The leaders of the Troika, together with the leaders of the euro nations, actively want the citizens of Europe brought to their knees.

Who are the leaders? They are the same in every nation. They even are the same here in America.

The leaders are the very rich (the .1%), who want the Gap between the rich and the rest widened.

The Gap is what makes the rich rich, and the wider the Gap, the richer they are.

The rich are the ones who prevent America from using its own Monetary Sovereignty to grow the economy and to benefit the populace.

The rich bribe the politicians, the media and the economists to spread the Big Lie that the U.S. government is too big, can run short of dollars, and should cut its deficits.

By pretending that the finances of our Monetarily Sovereign government are the same as the finances of us monetarily non-sovereign folk, the rich brainwash the populace into accepting the bitter “medicine” of austerity.

To cure an anemic economy, the rich always prescribe economic leeches — reduced deficit spending, reduced Social Security, reduced Medicare, reduced aid to the poor, etc. — to drain us of our financial blood.

Making slaves of the monetarily non-sovereign Greeks, the French, the Spanish — even the Monetarily Sovereign British and Americans — et al is good for the rich. The more slaves the better, and their poverty makes the very rich even richer.

The greatest fear of the rich is that Greece will leave the euro, become prosperous, and demonstrate the utter bankruptcy of the euro. Then other nations will be tempted to follow, and the gravy train ride will end for the very rich.

Whenever you see something economically bad happening, always ask yourself, “Who benefits?” The answer inevitably will be: “The very rich.”

And who is hurt? The answer will be, “The rest of us.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

==========================================================================================================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their 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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.-

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

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Crime rewarded is crime unlimited. The banks and bankers in America.

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●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 poor.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

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

As you must know by now, the major banks are the biggest criminals in America. Given the unlimited, unpunished, infinite opportunity to plunder, they have plundered — and continue to plunder — billions from the American public.

The major banks caused the Great Recession. They bought and sold worthless mortgages to the suckers who actually believed the banks were reputable and wouldn’t lie.

The suckers lost billions and the banksters made billions. All is well in Greedland.

Later, told to help struggling, underwater mortgagees via the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the banks stalled and stalled and forced people to jump through hoops, until the people couldn’t hold out any longer, and lost their homes to the rich manipulators.

For committing forgery, for lying to Congress, for stealing and for numerous other frauds, the banks paid “slap-on-the-wrist” fines totaling mere millions out of their billions in ill-gotten gains (aka “the cost of doing business”).

Steal a dollar; pay a penny; then complain about it.

Further, the banks were excused from criminal prosecution, while their executives were not personally liable at all. No fines or jail time for them.

In fact, they used the Federal dollars generously bestowed upon them, by the Obama/Paulson/Geithner sycophants-to-the rich, to grant themselves obscene paychecks and bonuses.

(Few Americans seemed to mind this charity for wealthy criminals. Rather, their desire has been to prevent unemployment benefits and food stamps from going to the poor souls desperate to support their families.)

If you are given a parking ticket, you will pay more than Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan paid for grabbing hundreds of millions.

You might feel the heat and go to jail. The only heat Dimon feels is in a plush Caribbean resort, after a quick jaunt in his private plane. .

So runs rich-man’s justice in America, courtesy of Mr. “Everyman,” who has been brainwashed into believing the rich deserve their wealth, power, privilege and legal immunities, while the poor deserve their poverty.

At this point of the story, you reasonably might believe President Obama was the primary suck-up to the wealthy. After all, Obama is the fake “liberal” who pushed for his “Grand Bargain,” to cut deficits by reducing corporate taxes while increasing taxes on the 99% and cutting Social Security benefits.

And this pretend liberal, in cahoots with the Republican Party, desperately tried to rush through his Trans-Pacific Partnership without Congressional review. “Damn the details; full speed ahead.”

But all that is mere diversion. The truly rich are well aware of which side their gluttony is buttered on.

March 27, 2015, 10:09 am
Wall Street banks mull freezing Dem donations over Warren

Four major banks are threatening to withhold campaign donations to Senate Democrats in anger over Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) attacks on Wall Street.

Representatives from financial powerhouses Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America recently met in Washington and discussed the growing hostility towards big business within the Democratic ranks, according to a Reuters report Friday.

Bank officials cited Warren and Senate Banking Committee ranking member Sherrod Brown (Ohio) as the two main lawmakers leading the charge against them. But the banks have not agreed on how to respond together, with each firm making its own decision on donations, Reuters reported.

The so called “attack” is Warren’s demand that the banks operate in a safe and honest way. To the banks, this is heresy.

“Safe and honest? How do you expect us to receive our $100 million bonuses if we act safely and honestly?”

Citigroup representatives said their firm is already withholding donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to avoid boosting Warren and other progressives critical of Wall Street.

JPMorgan, meanwhile, has so far given Democrats only a third of its annual contribution. Sources there said company representatives have urged Democrats to soften their attacks on the financial sector.

Here are a few details of Senator Warren’s awful “attacks” that have the banksters running scared:

Elizabeth Warren Calls for Breaking Up the Banks

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called Wednesday for breaking up big banks through structural reforms that would bring a decisive end to “too big to fail.”

Warren told a Levy Economics Institute conference she has worked with other lawmakers to advance a bill that would build a wall between commercial banking and investment banking.

Right. The Great Recession was caused by greedy banksters using their vast monetary resources to gamble in the markets and to sell worthless securities. Had they merely functioned as banks, the Recession would not have happened.

“If banks want to access government-provided deposit insurance, they should be limited to boring banking,” she said. “If banks want to engage in high-risk trading, they can go for it, but they don’t get access to insured deposits.”

Warren is one of those “libs” who (shame on her) actually cares about the 99%, and is willing to stick her thumbs in the eyes of the rich and powerful Jamie Dimons of the world.

She is unlike the self-proclaimed “family values,” self-proclaimed “religious,” self-proclaimed “patriotic,” but actually anti-poor, anti-middle, anti-black and brown, anti-gay, Tea/Libertarian/Republicans, who do the bidding of the rich like starving dogs on short leashes.

“Sit. Stay. Do as you’re told boy, and you get fed,” the rich tell these corrupted politicians. And they obey, voting as a group to help the banksters get richer and richer, at your expense.

Sadly, Warren doesn’t go far enough. There is not a single public purpose served by banks being privately owned, greed machines.

Private ownership of banks, and the resultant profit motive, with no possibility of punishment, is an open invitation to all the liars, crooks and swindlers in America to come together and feast on our money.

Crime rewarded is crime unlimited.

Step #9 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity calls for “Federal ownership of all banks.” It is discussed at
The end of private banking: Why the federal government should own all banks. and at The end of private banking. Part II

I truly am sorry Elizabeth Warren won’t run against those abysmal, lap-dog-to-the-rich candidates the Republicans have put forth.

But, what what about Bernie Sanders?

Not perfect, by any means, but surely better for the American middle class and poor, than yet another “Vote Bush For The 1%”.

We’ve been Bushed way too much, already. Crime rewarded is crime unlimited.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

==========================================================================================================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their 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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.-

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

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Men: Can’t pee? A simple solution your doctor doesn’t know about.

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●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 poor.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

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

If you’re like me, age 50 and older, you sometimes may have trouble urinating. The problem probably is with your enlarged prostate, which is squeezing your urethra.

Sorry to tell you guys, it will get worse as you grow older.

You go to your doctor, who performs a variety of tests, including Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test for cancer and the dreaded digital test. (For the later, be sure to find a thin doctor with thin fingers.)

Here is a list of some of the tests your doctor might conduct:

List of prostate tests

Your doctor is looking for prostate cancer:

Prostate Cancer in Elderly Men

50% of men between 70 and 80 years of age show histological (microscopic) evidence of malignancy.

A lifetime risk of 42% for developing histological evidence of prostate cancer in 50-year-old men has been calculated. In men at this age, however, the risk of developing clinically significant disease is only 9.5%, and the risk of dying from prostate cancer is only 2.9%.

So, if you reach 80, there is a very high probability you have some cancer cells in your prostate, but there also is a high probability you will die of something else.

Now let’s get to the real purpose of this post: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), in short, enlarged prostate. You wake up at night and you need to pee, but only a little comes out. After a bit of a struggle, and a bit of success, you go back to bed, but you still need to pee.

This is bad, because leaving urine in your bladder, or backing up into your kidneys, can lead to infection.

Your doctor may prescribe a drug to alleviate the symptoms. But even with the drug, you still might struggle.

So here is your solution: Mild exercise.

Do something that will get your heart rate up a little. For instance, do you live in a 2-story house? Go downstairs and upstairs once. About 5-10 seconds later, when you feel your heart rate rise, you’ll be able to pee.

The 5-10 second delay is the amount of time needed for the chemicals caused by that bit of exercise to signal your heart and brain that additional oxygen is needed.

If you don’t have any stairs to walk, try doing just three or four pushups (from the ground or even a few against the wall), or three or four squats (holding on to something for balance). Or do some situps — anything that will get your heart rate up a little.

And I’m not talking about heavy exercise. No need to puff and pant. Just one flight of stairs, or a few pushups or squats should do it.

Chances are, your doctor doesn’t know about this. At least, that’s been my experience.

The doctors I’ve told seemed puzzled. When I’ve asked them why it happens, they’ve guessed that it’s some mechanical effect as in, “The exercise must loosen up the prostate.” (Heaven forbid that a doctor should say, “I have no idea, but I’ll find out.”)

I’m positive it’s not a mechanical effect. There’s that delay. Nothing happens before that 5-10 second delay, until your heart rate goes up. If it were mechanical, the effect would be immediate.

My personal theory, based on no information: The exercise signals blood to go to your muscles, which reduces the blood supply in your prostate, which temporarily shrinks your prostate enough to let the urine flow through.

Anyway, for whatever reason, it works. So, all you older gents, who have to wake up multiple times because you can’t empty your bladder, try the exercise solution.

And when it works for you, pass the info on to your cronies.

When they are grateful for the information, perhaps they also will listen to your revelations about Monetary Sovereignty and the Ten Steps to Prosperity.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

==========================================================================================================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their 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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.-

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

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–The two most misused, misleading, mistaken words in all of economics: “Taxpayer dollars”

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●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 poor.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

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

Regular readers of this blog have seen these two words — “taxpayer dollars” — discussed often, but in today’s blog, we would like to give you three specific examples of how the words are misused, misleading and mistaken.

Example I:

CNS News
Top 20 Worst Ways the Government Wasted Your Tax Dollars
By Curtis Kalin

Every year, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and his staff compile an exhaustive volume of wasteful government spending from that year. The 2014 tome is chock full of government waste ranging from the redundant to the downright absurd.

Oh, and by the way, the U.S. national debt is approaching $18 trillion.

Here is a list of my personal worst of the worst in federal waste:

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000
Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000
Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000
Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000
Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000
Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000
Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524
Produce a “Hallucinatory” Roosevelt/Elvis show: $10,000
Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
Teaching Kids to Laugh: $47,000
Developing a real-life Iron Man Suit: $80 million
Tweeting at Terrorists: $3 million
Predicting the End of Humanity: $30,000
Lost electronic devices from NASA: $1.1 million
Studying if Wikipedia is Sexist: $202,000
Asking heavy drinkers not to drink through text message: $194,090
Government Funded Ice Cream: $1.2 million
Funding Kids Dressing Like Fruits and Vegetables: $5 million
Help Parents Counter Kids’ Refusals to Eat Fruits and Veggies: $804,254

Here, Mr. Kalin demonstrates his abysmal ignorance of the military, economics, sociology, climatology and all science.

He has no understanding of the fact that pure research invariably sounds useless at first. That is what makes it “pure research” rather than “development.” If you go to the above link, you may see small hints about why each of those studies was done.

(If you don’t, ask me and I’ll explain it.)

Kalin has no understanding of the fact that federal deficit spending adds dollars to the economy. The approximately $100 million of federal deficit spending he lists and mocks, added $100 million to the economy. Those dollars are peanuts in the world of federal financing, but they did, to that tiny degree, stimulate the economy.

Most importantly, he has no understanding that the federal government does not spend tax dollars. Being Monetarily Sovereign, the federal government creates dollars ad hoc, simply by paying bills.

Federal spending creates dollars and federal taxing destroys dollars, and that is a primary way the federal government manages the dollar supply.

Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.

The author is correct, when he says that his examples are the “worst of the worst.” They represent the worst of the worst — in economics reporting.

Example II:

drugpolicy.org
Wasted Tax Dollars

Over the past four decades, federal and state governments have poured over $1 trillion into drug war spending and relied on taxpayers to foot the bill. Unfortunately, these tax dollars have gone to waste.

While the author is correct that the so called “war on drugs” is a waste, from the federal standpoint, it is a waste of time, effort and lives, but not a waste of federal taxpayer dollars (for the reasons explained in example I, above).

Here, the authors display an abysmal ignorance of the differences between Monetary Sovereignty (federal government) and monetary non-sovereignty (state and local governments), for indeed, the drug war is a waste of state and local taxpayer dollars.

State and local governments, being monetarily non-sovereign, do not have the unlimited ability to create dollars. You and I and businesses and state and local governments, — we all are monetarily non-sovereign entities. We must have income, in order to pay our bills.

For state and local governments, that income is taxes, without which they would be broke.

So yes, the drug war is a waste of state and local taxpayers’ dollars, but not a waste of federal taxpayers’ dollars.

Example III:

ILLINOIS STATE GOVERNMENT WASTES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS
Benjamin VanMetre

Nearly 200 examples of wasteful government spending in Illinois, totaling more than $354 million, is detailed in the “The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book,” a report compiled by the Illinois Policy Institute in a partnership with Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste.

Each item highlights the decisions of politicians who have lost sight of the core services they were put in place to provide.

Piglet 2012 reveals that state and local governments paid for everything from $9,941 for “Speedy-the-Turtle” bobbleheads to $200,000 customized eco-friendly zip lines to a $2,261,009 cable TV bill for prison inmates to get their weekly fill of Seacrest and Snooki.

Here, the author is correct. Illinois’ wasteful spending does indeed waste taxpayer dollars.

The sole problem is that he quotes from a compilation done in partnership with Citizens Against Government Waste, which focuses on federal spending. And from the standpoint of the economy, no federal spending is waste.

Yes, some federal spending is more economically valuable than other federal spending, but it all grows the economy, and no taxpayer dollars are used.

The Treasurer of the United States could go up in the proverbial helicopter and drop billions of dollar bills on the populace, and that would not be waste and it would not be taxpayer dollars.

It would stimulate the economy by putting dollars for spending into the pockets of Americans, and wouldn’t cost taxpayers one cent.

So the next time you see or hear the words “taxpayer dollars,” ask yourself, “Does this article refer to federal spending, in which case it’s not taxpayer dollars, or does it refer to state and local government spending, in which case it is taxpayer dollars.

Simple, isn’t it?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their 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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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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

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY