[Why would any sane person take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars?]
It breaks my heart to see the following headline. It should break your heart, too.Millions of vulnerable Americans likely to fall off Medicaid once the federal public health emergency ends By Amy Goldstein
Everywhere you turn, the phony belief that the federal government must operate under restrictive budgets, like you and I must, is a self-inflicted wound on America. The so-called “federal debt” is not a debt (It is deposits in T-security accounts), and it is not a burden on anyone. (The “debt” is paid off simply by returning those deposits.) Our federal government, having unlimited resources, pretends it is limited, and the public believes the lie. The sole purpose of the lie is to keep you from asking for the same federal benefits that the rich (who pay no taxes year after year) receive. So long as you are kept ignorant, the rich will keep getting richer and you will keep paying. WHAT ABOUT INFLATION? In addition to the lie about the federal debt being a burden, there is the lie that federal deficit spending causes inflation. It is widely believed, but it is a flat-out lie backed by no facts.WASHINGTON — The bipartisan spending deal that Congress cleared last week provides billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it cuts other humanitarian programs meant to address mounting hunger crises elsewhere in the world, including Afghanistan and West Africa.
The initial House-passed bill and one offered in the Senate, written by majority Democrats, would have largely fulfilled the White House’s humanitarian funding request.
In interviews and statements, foreign aid advocates said they were “embarrassed” and “flabbergasted” that Congress reduced funds for dealing with the worst refugee displacements since World War II and other crises caused by mounting natural disasters and manmade conflicts.
The cuts to nonemergency humanitarian spending, as well as the lack of any international COVID-19 assistance in the omnibus, are a “self-inflicted wound” to America’s ability to recover from the pandemic and to pursue its long-term national security interests, said Liz Schrayer, president of the bipartisan U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
Independent budget analysts have pinned blame on Republicans’ insistence that any increases in nondefense spending be kept roughly equal to increases in defense spending.
“We have more people who are hungry and people who are hungrier getting hungrier and we have no grain. It is absolutely catastrophic,” Peña said. “SFOPs got the raw end of the stick.”
The Senate’s lead foreign aid appropriator issued a similar view in an uncharacteristically blunt statement for a congressional appropriations cardinal criticizing his own bill.
There is no relationship between federal deficit spending (red line) and inflation (blue line).
Inflations are caused by shortages, most often shortages of oil.
Today’s inflation is caused not only by shortages of oil but also by scarcities of food, shipping, labor, computer chips, vital minerals, lumber, and many other COVID-induced problems.
For many, many years, the US had massive deficit spending with low inflation, but now, with the effects of COVID and the Putin war, we suddenly see inflation. Clearly, deficit spending was not the cause.
The Fed’s attempt to address inflation by raising interest rates will not succeed while the real causes, shortages of oil et al, persist. Congress can address these shortages by spending more to facilitate the supply of all scarcities.
One good step would be to eliminate the harmful FICA tax, which doesn’t fund Medicare or Social Security but does discourage hiring by increasing the cost of labor.
And this is what breaks my heart. A Congress that never has to worry about having enough to eat, or a place to sleep, or good schools for their children, has decided America “can’t afford” to provide these things to the “lazy” poor.
Of course, the “can’t afford” meme is a blatant lie. America can afford anything that costs dollars.
But the rich, who bribe and control our government, don’t want the Gap between them and the rest of us to narrow. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich, so widening the Gap is the way our spineless Congresspeople vote.
“Spineless” is the only way to describe the 100% refusal of one party to approve spending for the poor. These subservient sheep do exactly as they are told by the rich, then collect their excessive salaries and bribes, while the less fortunate among us pay the price.
So long as you believe that your federal taxes fund federal spending and that federal spending causes inflation — so long as you believe those two lies — then the rich will have won and you will have lost.
Ignorance has its costs.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereignty
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
The most important problems in economics involve:- Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
- Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
- Eliminate FICA
- Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
- Social Security for all
- Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
- Salary for attending school
- Eliminate federal taxes on business
- Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually.
- Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
- Federal ownership of all banks
- Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9%
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 