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

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 ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

A Reuters article in today’s Florida Sun Sentinal, was headlined:

Arizona goverernor kills bill on service to gays.

I wish I could tell you Governor Jan Brewer had a moral epiphany, and realized the proposed law was rank bigotry, and not the phony “freedom of religion” BS the Republicans claimed.

But, morality had nothing to do with it:

Arizon Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a controversial bill Wednesday that critics see as a license to discriminate against gay in the name of religion, saying the measure could result in “unintended and negative consequences.”

Those “unintended and negative consequences” all were based on money.

A number of major business organizations and some Republicans had urged Brewer to veto the bill.

Question: Do you think even one of those major business organizations and Republicans mentioned anything about morality, bigotry or doing the right thing? Isn’t it more likely all the conversations began like this: “Governor, we’re going to lose a ton of money and you’re going to lose a ton of campaign bucks, if you sign this.”

Critics . . . threatened boycotts and other public-relations retaliation against Arizona unless Brewer vetoed the bill.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN, R-AZ (2/25/2014): This can affect tourism, it can affect our state’s economy and job creation.
JAN CRAWFORD, CBS (2/26/2014): The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee says it could jeopardize plans for the state to host next year’s game.

Yes, many organizations threatened not to do bu$ine$$ in Arizona. Do you think that may have been “morally” persuasive?

Of course, there is the usual professorial (bought-and-paid-for) defense we have seen so often:

In a four-page letter sent this week to Brewer, 11 constitutional scholars (who?) said the Arizona law had been “egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics.” (How?)

“Some of us are Republicans; some of us are Democrats. Some of us are religious; some of us are not. Some of us oppose same-sex marriage; some of us support it,” the letter said. (How many of each?)

Nine of the signers (which nine?) of the letter said they supported the legislation; two were not sure (“Not sure,” but they signed the letter??). “But all of us believe that many criticisms (Which criticisms?) of the Arizona law are deeply misleading,” (Misleading in what way?) the letter said.

The federal government and 18 states have Religious Freedom Restoration Acts on their books. More than 12 other states have interpreted their state constitutions to provide similar protections to religious individuals.

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government is barred from imposing a substantial burden on a person’s exercise of religion unless the government can offer a compelling justification for the burden and then minimize the burden as much as possible.

So you see, helping to put out the fire burning down a home owned by gays, would put a substantial “burden” on a firefighter’s exercise of religion, as would serving a gay person in a restaurant owned by a fundamentalist Christian. Oh, the burdens they are asked to endure.

It goes like this. “According to my interpretation of my religion, blacks marrying whites is a sin, as are the mixed race children of such a marriage. So President Obama, stay out of my restaurant, and if your house is on fire, I’m not going to help put it out, and if you’re being robbed, I won’t stop the robber. You, as a mixed race sinner, will not receive service from me.”

“And as for you women who don’t cover your heads or your faces — if you are being attacked or even raped, don’t expect any help from us Muslim police officers.

“Oh, and you pork eaters, sellers or cooks won’t get any service from us Jews and Muslims. And you Christians who pray to Mary, well we Jews consider that blasphemic idolitry, so don’t expect service from us.”

The Arizona-style bill, based on the kind of “freedom of religion,” which if carried to the fundamentalist logic it advocated, was sure to rip this nation apart.

We are a large nation — a “melting pot.” We all believe different things. We advocate different things; we object to different things. What is the “right” way? Is it the Catholic way? Is it the Protestant way? The Jewish way? (Reformed, conservative or orthodox?) The Muslim way? (Sunni or Shiite?)

If you are Catholic, and do not adhere to the strictures of Sunni Islam, does a Muslim have the legal right to discriminate against you?

Bottom line, we either can be accepting and tolerant of our neighbor’s views, or we can be cruel and divisive if our neighbor doesn’t do everything we believe is correct.

Arizona found the answer. When money talks, money always is correct. Money is the great uniter.

Bucks beat bigots.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine 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
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

—–

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

It begins with this sign:

Then it continues with this story:

Nine out of 10 ‘most miserable’ states are red, surprising no one

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which interviewed more than 176,000 people from all 50 states last year, measures the physical and emotional health of Americans across the country.
So take a gander at the states with the most miserable people:

10. Louisiana
9. Oklahoma
8. Missouri
7. Tennessee
6. Arkansas
5. Ohio
4. Alabama
3. Mississippi
2. Kentucky
1. West Virginia

O.K., in my opinion no survey could possibly measure the average (mean? median?) “well being” (whatever that is) of all the people in an entire state. Yet . . .

Yet . . . is it pure coincidence that nine of the ten “most miserable” states are right-wing?

I [the author] took the (50% of) states ranked (least miserable) and colored them green, while those (most miserable are) red. This is what it looks like:

You can see more details about each of these states, and why their residents supposedly are more “miserable,” here.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this, because I consider it a bullshit survey. That said, I would have been amazed if the results had been otherwise.

Part of the problem may be due to the right-wing penchant for sucking up to the upper .1% income/power group, while pushing down on the rest. So you get, for instance, 9% of Louisiana residents saying they don’t have easy access to clean water and 12% saying they don’t have easy access to medicine!

And relatively few Alabamans saying they had enough money to afford medicine, food and adequate shelter. And more than 1/4th of Mississippians saying that at times in the previous year, they didn’t have enough money for food and health care.

When you are ruled by a party whose goal is to cut food stamps and other poverty aids, cut Medicare, cut Social Security, cut unemployment compensation and cut Medicaid — a party that demeans the needy as worthless “takers” — is it any wonder the people feel miserable? Could it really be otherwise?

But its more than that. I believe Nixon’s, right-wing, “Southern Strategy,” a hugely successful voting strategy based entirely on hatred and bigotry, has come back to haunt the haters and the bigots. A hater cannot be happy. A bigot cannot be happy.

So these “red state” citizens, who for decades, have been fed by their leaders, a steady diet of spite, meanness, bitterness and bile, now are completely full.

You are what you eat.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine 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
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

—–

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

As we have said many times, the upper .1% power group has bribed virtually all politicians (with the connivance of the right-wing Supreme Court), via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later. The goal: To continue widening the gap between the rich/powerful and the rest.

Clearly, the extreme right-wingers (the Republicans) are more in the pockets of the rich than are the less-right-wingers (the Democrats). But don’t think Democrats are blameless.

Remember, they do control the Presidency and the Senate. So the widening of the gap couldn’t happen without their participation.

In that vein, I bring you the entire text of a letter I just today received from my Democrat Senator, Dick Durbin:

Dear Mr. Mitchell:

Thank you for contacting me about Congress raising the debt ceiling. I appreciate hearing from you.

Actually, I contacted him about eliminating the debt ceiling, but he changed it for his own convenience.

On October 16, 2013, the Senate passed a bill (H.R. 2775) to extend the debt limit through February 7, 2014.

I am not willing to gamble with the full faith and credit of the United States by not raising the debt ceiling. Forcing the federal government to default on the nation’s debt would be the single most irresponsible act we could do to our economy as it continues to rebound.

Refusing to raise the debt ceiling would force the government to limit or suspend payments to a whole host of federal beneficiaries, from Social Security and Medicare recipients, to military personnel, veterans, federal workers, defense contractors, student loan recipients, state governments, and our bondholders throughout the world.

He is correct, although why would he include student loans in his list. The government, cruelly and needlessly, makes money on those.

The worst economic recession since the Great Depression sent our national debt soaring. Although recent increases in spending were necessary as we worked to jumpstart our economy, we cannot sustain deficits of this magnitude over the long term. We must work toward real solutions that will reduce the deficit in a responsible and balanced way.

This is 100% bullcrap. The politicians have been saying exactly the same thing at least since 1940 (!) and surely well before that. In those days the deficit and debt were called “ticking time bombs,” so as to scare the public.

Those phony time bombs still are ticking, and the public still is scared.

Over the past several years, I have worked with my colleagues to reduce the national debt and to control our federal deficits.

In other words, this bribed Senator, who pretends to be a friend of the middle class, has be conspiring to reduce the amount of money in the economy — a situation that always affects the poor far more than the rich and powerful.

I was honored to have served on President Obama’s Bipartisan Fiscal Commission, spending much of that time learning from experts who explained the risk that our growing debt poses to our national well-being. I also have worked with a bipartisan group of my colleagues in the Senate to craft a balanced plan for controlling our federal deficits.

He wants me to believe that increasing the money supply poses a risk to our “national well-being.” He previously wanted me to believe that deficit spending (i.e. increasing the money supply) helped get us out of the Great Recession.

Hmmm . . . does anyone see anything wrong here?

And yes, “bipartisan” and “balanced.” What could possibly be wrong with something that is “bipartisan” and “balanced” — oh, except for a bipartisan and balanced scheme to widen the gap between the rich and powerful, and the rest of us.

There are only two honest ways to reduce our debt: cut spending and raise revenues. I am committed to pursuing proposals that do both. This is going to require sacrifice from both sides of the aisle.

If those are “honest,” we’d be better off with dishonest. Oops, we already have that. It’s called the Big Lie.

No, it won’t require sacrifice on either side of the aisle. You bribed politicians will not feel any sacrifice. None at all. It will be we citizens who do the sacrificing.

This is not a partisan problem, it is an American problem. 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.

What can one say about such Big Lies? Hes’ going to cut the deficit “without risking the economic recovery.” He’s going to cut the deficit without “breaking promises to senior citizens, working families, and future generations.”

Really? What is his next magic trick? Building highways, free? Repairing the infrastructure, free. Fund medical research, free. Inspect food and drugs, free?

And what about the billions spent secretly spying on Americans? Will that now be free, too?

Or will you cut spending on Social Security? On Medicare? On federal employment? On regulating Wall Street? On food stamps? Where exactly are you going to cut spending?

And as for increasing revenues (the euphemism for “taxes), will you “broaden the tax base? Increase FICA — again? What exactly will you do to screw the middle and lower income groups even more? Institute the Obama “grand bargain,” potentially the biggest screwing of all time?

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

Sincerely, Richard J. Durbin United States Senator
RJD/bc

That he should write me such a letter, and expect me to believe even one of his Big Lies, tells me he is confident I am stupid enough to believe them.

But then, most Americans do believe them, so what is my problem?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine 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
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

—–

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately leads to civil disorder.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

According to the right-wing, giving to the needy, turns them into “takers” and sloths. Thus, unemployment compensation encourages the unemployed not to work, food stamps encourage the poor to remain poor and Medicaid encourages excessive use of medical services.

Many religious organizations support charities for the indigent, which charities presumably encourage further indigence. And where did these religious organizations obtain their money? From your charitable contributions.

If fact, a case can be made for the negative effects of your giving to virtually all charities. Any assistance you give to “those” people has a negative, overall effect, so that is a good excuse not to help them.

I was reminded of this Orwellian “black is white, up is down, good is evil” right-wing belief, when I saw this article in the right-wing Washington Times:

Obama’s stimulus beginning to drag economy down
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times Friday, February 21, 2014

President Obama’s stimulus may have boosted the economy when it passed in 2009, but it’s now beginning to take a toll and will soon begin to leave the economy worse off than if it had never passed, according to a new report Friday by the Congressional Budget Office.

Mr. Obama signed the stimulus into law five years ago this week, vowing it would help rescue the economy from its post-Wall Street collapse tailspin, and saying it would save millions of jobs.

The CBO said it (helped) sustain between 700,000 and 3.6 million jobs at its peak in 2010. “In contrast to its positive near-term macroeconomic effects, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will reduce output slightly in the long run.”

They said the cause is all of the borrowing for the $830 billion program, which dramatically boosted the federal debt.

“To the extent that people hold their wealth in government securities rather than in a form that can be used to finance private investment, the increased debt tends to reduce the stock of productive private capital. Each dollar of additional debt crowds out about a third of a dollar’s worth of private domestic capital,” the CBO estimated.

Where does one begin with an article like this?

First, we have a right-wing newspaper admitting that deficit spending “boosted the economy.” Did you hear that, austerity lovers and deficit Henny Pennys. Deficit spending boosts the economy.

Although, (IMO) the deficit spending was insufficient, it did “sustain between 700,000 and 3.6 million jobs.” So, is that a bad thing, Messrs. Bowles and Simpson, leaders of the disgraceful National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (aka the National Commission for sucking the life-blood out of the economy)?

Then the article says, “the cause (of predicted slightly reduced output) is all of the borrowing for the $830 billion . . . “ So, it isn’t the deficit spending that’s the problem. No, it’s the totally unnecessary borrowing that is the problem.

The deficit spending did its job. If debt is the problem, why is a Monetarily Sovereign nation, with the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, borrowing that sovereign currency?

And then, “. . .the increased debt tends to reduce the stock of productive private capital.” Again, everyone agrees that deficit spending, by adding dollars to the economy, is stimulative. The question: Does the purchase of T-securities remove dollars from the economy and thereby “reduce the stock of productive capital.”

Apparently, savings (i.e dollars in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank) are not felt to be productive. But savings are dollars people hold in order to feel free to spend other dollars. If you had zero dollars in savings, would you feel as free to buy goods and services. It’s like saying insurance is not productive.

And finally, “Each dollar of additional debt crowds out about a third of a dollar’s worth of private domestic capital.” I don’t know where this phony statistic came from, or even what it really means, but if one dollar of debt “crowds out” 33 cents worth of capital, doesn’t it follow that one dollar of debt adds 67 cents of capital?

And if that is the case, why would anyone not favor deficit spending?

Anyway, the one, short, right-wing article contains so much illogic, there is no wondering why the public is confused.

Charity is good; charity is bad; spending is good; spending is bad. And the gap benefits us all.

Trust me.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine 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
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)

—–

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.
Two key equations in economics:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

THE RECESSION CLOCK

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY