–Time to do a little war-war.

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.
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As everyone knows, Saddam Hussein was in league with al qaeda, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction — atomic bombs, poison gas, smallpox bombs — that kind of bad stuff — all of which threatened the security of the United States.

And, as everyone knows, Iraq (population 30 million) was preparing to unleash its mighty army on the United States (population 300 million, and 1/2 way across the world).

Except, of course, he wasn’t and it wasn’t. It all turned out to be a lie, which allowed President Bush Jr. to do his very own conflict, and show his daddy, Bush Sr., how things really should be done, by a rough, tough Yale/Harvard Texan, who was brave enough to sneak out of military duty.

So, to demonstrate his personal courage, President Bush Jr. managed to get 4000+ young Americans killed, not to mention many more Iraqis killed, and today, life in Iraq is much worse than it was when we liberated it, particularly when the wind blows west and you can smell the corpses.

Yet, doesn’t it make for nice funeral services in America, where politician can give stirring, patriotic speeches amid flags unfurled in the breeze, and families can shed tears for their lost children, and reporters can feign sympathy?

Today, we have moved on, and all is forgotten and forgiven. Bush Jr. has remained mercifully quiet, except for passing on the phony legacy of rough, tough, gun-toting Texans. When your only tool is a gun, every problem requires killing someone.

Mission Accomplished.

Now, little Obama is our new President, and what a wus he is. The guy hasn’t begun any new wars, and even has wound down some wars he inherited. Concerned about his legacy as a bank crime aider and abetter, he needs a bloody fight of his very own, to demonstrate his Chicago morality.

It’s time, my friends, to do a little war-war.

Today, Syria is ruled by a tyrant — as is every Arab, every Muslim, and virtually every African nation. And this tyrant is killing his own people, which is what tyrants do.

Perfect.

The excuse about Syria being a threat to U.S. security won’t work. We used that one up with Iraq. But how about humanitarianism?

That Bashar Hafez al-Assad (His name sounds sort of like al qaeda, doesn’t it?), not only is murdering his own people, but he is murdering them with poison gas (which makes those innocent people much deader than if they had been murdered with bullets, bombs, knives, nooses or reading the comments of Antonin Gregory Scalia).

So to prevent the wrong kind of murder, we good Americans (everyone knows Americans have a monopoly on good) must commit the right kind of murder, which requires killing lots of young Syrians without killing too many young Americans.

Our President, who never does anything without a great deal of agonizing thought, after which he compromises on a Grand Bargain, now agonizes about the best way to kill lots of Syrians without killing too may Americans (a couple hundred might be the acceptable max.)

But Obama has a problem. No one wants to play with him. Oh, except for the French — you remember, the brave guys who surrendered to Hitler before he even asked.

Obama called his other playmates and said, “Hey, want to come out and do a little war-war?” And they all said, “Why?” And Obama said, “Syria broke the law by using poison gas to kill a thousand — or was it two thousand — people.”

And they said, “Your banks broke the law and killed a hundred million people, and not one banker has gone to jail.”

And he said, “There’s a big difference. A huge difference. My rich donors don’t want me to do anything about the banks, but they do want me to do a little war-war, because that is good for business.”

And they said, “Won’t the same thing happens that always happens? We remove one blood-thirsty regime that hates us, and replace it with another blood-thirsty regime that hates us even more?”

And Obama said, “Yes, that always happens, but it’s a good thing. The more they hate us, the more excuses we have to increase NSA, CIA, FBI spying on innocent American citizens.

First we do war-war to create the danger. Then we spend billions to prevent the danger by taking away more and more liberties and giving these liberties to the rich, who will pay us. And because we spend more to prevent danger, we must spend less on social programs, so we widen the gap between the rich and the rest. Then we do more war-war to create even more danger. We never stop doing war-war. It’s a perfect, endless circle.”

And they said, “Barack, you are nobody’s fool. That’s damn clever. Maybe we will go along with you after all, drop a few bombs, kill and maim a few foreigners, look tough, merciful and cruel, all at the same time.”

And Obama said, “And there’s one more thing. Can you name a single American President who was considered great, and did not do his very own war-war?“

And a-bombing we shall go.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
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 lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

if it’s easy, make it difficult. If it’s difficult, make it Obamacare.

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

For those over 65, health care coverage is relatively easy. Basic Medicare contains Parts A and B. In general, Part A covers hospital care and Part B covers doctor care. The government provides a good information site at Medicare

Most doctors and hospitals accept Medicare (though lately, some doctors have opted out.) It covers most medical problems and is effortless. The doctor and the hospital submit all the bills. The bills are paid, and you pay what Medicare doesn’t pay — often about 20%.

If you want more complete coverage, the government makes things more difficult. You must select and buy a Medicare supplement (“Medigap”) policy, of which there are many choices.

To help you select the best Medigap policy, the government operates an excellent site at Medigap. Go there and experiment with it.

I have a Medicap policy. I seldom receive a payable bill (just confirmations of payments made). In our family, we have had several operations costing many, many thousands of dollars. Medicare + Medigap has covered almost everything.

If additionally, you want drug cost coverage (Medicare, Part D), the government makes things even more difficult, though still intelligible. You must find and buy yet another policy. Again, you must spend extra, and the coverage has gaps, but in the past two years, my Walgreens’ prescription bills have been $0.

If you’re not eligible for Medicare, and you don’t have coverage through your employer, things get dicey. The government’s official site is at “How does the healthcare law protect me?” Check it out.

Although this site is a serious attempt to take you step-by-step through the Affordable Care Act, there are so many “if — thens,” the total of variables is exceeded in complexity only by quantum chromodynamics.

And it still could cost you a bundle (depending on where you live, what illnesses you have, how many children you support, whether or not you’re married, how much you earn, and the number of grains of sand on your local beach). The easy is made difficult; the difficult is made impossible; and coverage still isn’t complete or affordable for everyone.

Back in 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked the United States health care system 37th out of 191 nations. Things have changed since then, and one can argue forever about the criteria for the “best” and “worst” systems, but clearly, the United States has not had the world’s best health care, as so many of us wrongly believe. Not even close. And it’s our own fault.

The government could make U.S. health care easy, complete and superior. Simply combine Parts A, B and D into one policy, include long term care, cover every man, woman and child in America and call it “Medicare for All.”

Additionally, the government could provide us with the best doctors by paying for college educations. This would help assure that personal finances do not prevent potentially talented doctors from entering the medical profession.

Why doesn’t the government simply pay for health care and give us the greatest possible system? After all, what is the purpose of government if not to provide for the well-being of its citizens? And what is the reality of being the greatest nation on earth, if we have a substandard health system?

The reason for our health care failures is “The BIG LIE” — the false claim that the government is deeply in debt and cannot afford to pay for our health care. It is a lie, because the government, being Monetarily Sovereign, can afford to pay for anything. And no, this would not cause inflation.

So why doesn’t the government provide health care insurance for every man, woman and child in America? Because the government is bribed to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.

The rich already have superior health care. But what makes them rich is the ability to buy what others cannot have. If everyone could afford the same house, the same car, the same services, the same education and the same health care, no one would be rich.

To the rich, the single most important goal is to widen the gap. Part of widening the gap involves buying the health care the rest of us cannot afford, while forcing the rest of us into poverty trying to buy health care.

Everything in economics devolves to motive. And the single, most powerful motive is the gap.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Ted Cruz’s alternative to Obamacare

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

At last, a right-wing alternative to Obamacare.

Let’s begin with fundamentals: Why is the federal government involved in health care insurance? Why do we have Medicare? Why do we have Medicaid? Why do we have Obamacare?

Answers:

1. Health care is vital to America’s survival and growth as a leader in the 21st century.
2. The costs of even ordinary health care are beyond affordability for most Americans.
3. The costs of extreme sicknesses would bankrupt most Americans.

Only because Obamacare is a product of Democrats, Republicans have gone all in to eliminate Romneycare — (oops!) — I mean eliminate Obamacare.

So angry are they at Romneycare, i.e. Obamacare, that they want to shut down the entire U.S. government if they don’t get their way. In short, to protect Americans, Republicans threaten to destroy America.

The costs of health care insurance are unaffordable for the vast majority of families. So, what is Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s solution? Make people pay for their own health care insurance. Understand?

Washington Times
Ted Cruz doubles down on threat to defund Obamacare, proposes alternatives
By Tom Howell, Jr., Sunday, August 25, 2013

He said that Americans should be allowed to build up health savings accounts in a tax-advantaged way, that health coverage should be “personal and portable” and divorced from employment and that consumers should be allowed to purchase health insurance across state lines instead of isolating policy options within individual states.

Let’s examine the genius of these suggestions:

1. Build up health savings accounts in a tax-advantaged way: The poorest among us, i.e. those in most need of government funded health care insurance, don’t pay much or anything in federal taxes.

And even a “tax-advantaged” plan would be unaffordable to those just scraping by, financially, although the rich would love such a program.

Finally, because the Republicans are dead set against any increases in federal deficit spending, whom do they suggest should pay for the “tax advantaged” plan? Certainly not the rich.

2. “Health coverage should be ‘personal and portable’ and divorced from employment:“ Divorcing health insurance coverage from employment is a good idea except, how does that solve the unaffordability problem for the middle- and lower-income groups?

All it means it that businesses no long would have to pay for health care insurance.

3. “Consumers should be allowed to purchase health insurance across state lines:“ In Sen. Cruz’s imagination, this would increase competition, and thus, reduce insurance premiums.

Essentially, it also would eliminate effective regulation of the insurance industry, since it would be physically impossible for any state regulator to examine every policy from every state.

It also would be impossible for any consumer to evaluate thousands of insurance companies. Because the right-wingers oppose regulation, this would be a boon to every crooked insurance seller, and so be a boon to rich crooks. And that is the point, isn’t it?

And, I dare you to try making a claim for damages or benefits from an Alaskan company, when you live in Florida. But of course, that also is the point. Rich insurance executives don’t like claims.

Bottom line: The right-wing “solutions” benefit the rich, screw the middle and widen the wealth gap.

Did you think it could be any other way?

Not that Obamacare (Romneycare) is so wonderful. It isn’t. In fact it’s terrible. It’s a complex, convoluted mess, that will make lawyers rich and sick people confused.

But on balance, it is a tiny step forward for America, as it provides more coverage to many people who now don’t have coverage.

What would be a big step forward? Medicare for every man, woman and child in America.

Medicare works. Americans on Medicare like it. It’s simple enough to understand and it’s a Godsend for the middle- and lower-income groups

We know how to do it. We have almost 50 years experience implementing the program.

And the federal government can afford it.

Yes, Obamacare (Romneycare) is a lousy plan. Way too complex, and filled with exceptions, making it universally unfair. But it’s far, far superior to the right-wing’s “reward-the-rich, screw-everyone-else” proposals.

In a sense Obamacare reflects our democratic from of government — really bad, but still better than other forms of government.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–What of the children? The death of a nation.

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

In the previous post, Fairness, competition and why we despise the poor, we described how and why, “The rich have bribed the politicians and the media, to dehumanize, and to make us despise, the poor.”

(The motive has been to widen the gap between the rich and the rest. If there were no gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the gap, the richer they are. The gap is what makes them rich.)

The post rejected the right-wing’s gospel that the poor, being lazy, prefer to receive federal benefits than to work, and that the providing of federal benefits encourages sloth.

By brainwashing us to despise the poor, the rich make us do their dirty work in widening the gap.

The post didn’t discuss the children. Can any reasonable person say that children born into poverty are born lazy? Can any reasonable person say they genetically are destined to prefer handouts to labor?

Surely not. So what of the poor children?

The Guardian
Child poverty in Britain is causing ‘social apartheid’
Report from leading British charity blames ‘failure of political will’ as it finds poor children have fewer life chances
Jamie Doward and Taytula Burke, The Observer, Saturday 24 August 2013

In a damning report, the National Children’s Bureau finds that in Britain:

■ A child from a disadvantaged background is far less likely to achieve a good level of development at four than a child from a more privileged home.

■ Children living in deprived areas are much more likely to be the victim of an unintentional injury or accident in the home.

■ Children from the poorest areas are nine times less likely than those living in affluent areas to have access to green space, places to play and to live in environments with better air quality.

■ Boys living in deprived areas are three times more likely to be obese than boys growing up in affluent areas, and girls are twice as likely.

Certainly, the situation is no different in America. Lower development, more injury, poorer environment, poorer health — that is what widening the gap causes. That is the legacy the rich bequeath to children of the poor.

The future of America is our children. When we depress a large number of our children, we depress America’s future.

“There is a real risk that our society is sleepwalking into a world where children grow up in a state of social apartheid, with poor children destined to experience hardship and disadvantage just by accident of birth, and their more affluent peers unaware of their existence.”

Apartheid hurt South Africa. The caste system kept India poor. The nations allowing the worst cruelty to women or to minorities, have the lowest standards of living.

Historically, those nations in which a larger segment of the population is mistreated, provide meaner lives to their citizens.

As in Britain, many of America’s poor children suffer, not because they are lazy or prefer to live on the dole. They suffer because we have been brainwashed to despise them.

These poor children will not fulfill their potential. They will not use their brains to help America grow. We, as a nation, will lose what they could have given us — and we never will know what we have lost.

No one knows how great India might have become, had millions of inherently brilliant children not been relegated by the caste system to uselessness. No one knows how great Muslim nations could have become, had they allowed brilliant women to contribute.

Today, in America, we prevent millions of our bright children from contributing to our success as a nation. Why? To widen the gap and to do the dirty work of the rich.

Toward the bottom of this post, and all recent posts, you’ll see the “Nine Steps to Prosperity.” Each step not only would benefit the middle- and lower-income groups, but more importantly, would benefit our children and the future of America.

As inequality grows, America is diminished.

We Americans all ride in the same boat. The more who row, the better off we all will be. Yet we take the oars from willing and able hands, then criticize them for riding free.

To save America — to give our own children better futures — we must help our poor children.

America cannot grow without them.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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