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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

The Tea/Republicans, who loved Obamacare when it was named “Romneycare,” now so object to the name change, they snarl, growl and gnash in crazed anticipation of that favorite Washington frolic: The Congressional Hearing.

As oft mentioned, the current economy-killing farce has nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act or with any other issue facing the nation. Real issues are handled by debate, votes and signing.

No, this is just the first act in a performance to entertain the ignorant masses, to distract from the true motives of the extreme right: Money and power, and widening the gaps, thereof.

The right-wingers are not concerned that ACA will fail. They are concerned it will succeed, and that people will like it. As Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said:

“On Jan 1 the exchanges kick in and the subsidies kick in. Once they kick in it’s going to prove almost impossible to undo Obamacare.

“The administration’s plan is very simple. Get everyone addicted to the sugar so that Obamacare remains a permanent feature of our society.”

(What an evil plan. The “sugar” is good healthcare, like Congress receives, and the fear is that this, ever so slightly, might narrow the gap between the rich and the rest.)

Having been bought and paid for by the Koch brothers, Pete Peterson and others of similar ilk, the GOP, being the party of patriotism and religion, feels obligated to destroy the American economy by stomping on our less empowered: The black, the brown, the gay, the non-Christian, the poor, the middle, the sick, the hungry, the homeless, the female, the uneducated, the child and the immigrant.

When the cracks appear in ACA, as they must in so monster a program, the lackeys for the rich will leap at each opportunity to enter dramatically from stage right, and impose Congressional Hearings, the favorite tool of the political flimflammer.

Oh, the outrage! The righteous indignation! The passion and rage. (Instruction to politician: Place back of hand against forehead in mock sorrow.)

Government geese will be dragged blinking into the TV lights, and demanded answers they do not have, while the inquisitors preen before the cameras and grin and wink at their voting base.

Random citizens with complaints about ACA, will be paraded forth as absolute proof of the program’s failure. (None of the newly insured millions, who previously could not afford health care insurance, will be mentioned.)

Nothing will be learned. Nothing will be accomplished. Nothing ever is. But nothing exceeds the vote-gathering, entertainment value, of a good old Congressional Hearing, especially if the witnesses stutter and sweat.

When the play ends, one will be left to wonder: With so many alienated by the extreme right, who remains as the voting base? The answer: Middle Aged, White Christian Men, Lacking Empathy for the Powerless – i.e. bullies.

Like all bullies, these bullies will get their comeuppance as they age. How will it happen? Will they lose Social Security to right-wing privatizing? Will they lose Medicare to right-wing austerity cuts? Will they lose wealth to right wing gap-widening? Or all of the above?

But no matter. All that concerns politicians is the here and the now, also known as the money and the votes. And while the nation’s voters may be outraged at what is being done to them, the politicians care only about their voters, especially in the House, where each member is elected by a tiny district.

You and the rest of the nation may recognize that, for instance, Michele Bachmann is a blooming idiot, but so long as the good people of Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District thinks she’s a genius, it’s all she needs. The middle finger to the rest of America.

So sit back and enjoy the show. The Congressional Hearings are coming, and you’re paying for them.

And paying. And paying. And paying.

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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

In the post, “Our ‘Godfather’ system of government in action,” we described how the Republicans have decided Congress and the President no longer should be necessary for creating America’s laws.

Instead, the Tea Party / Republican system now is:
1. Think of a new law or the elimination of an existing law
2. Threaten to shut down the government unless the new law is passed or the existing law is voided.

Period.

No need for Congressional debate. No need for a President. So long as a group, no matter how small or extreme, has the power to shut down the United States government, the nation will be held hostage to their extortion.

Here are just a few of the Tea Party / Republican demands:

1. End child tax credit for undocumented immigrants
2. Reduce funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
3. One year delay in the Affordable Care Act (obviously, to be followed by a series of one-year delays)
4. Broaden the tax base (i.e., make the poor pay more).
5. Keystone pipeline, more offshore oil drilling, energy production on federal lands
6. Eliminate the part of ACA that funds preventive care.
7. Limit malpractice lawsuits
8. Reduced coal ash regulations
9. Reduced Environmental Protection Agency carbon regulations
10. Repeal the Social Services Block Grant, which pays states for daycare and services for people with disabilities
11. Overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s regulations that prevent internet service providers from discriminating for big, wealthy websites and against average users.
12. Reduce payments to hospitals that treat a disproportionate number of indigent patients

And many, many more, nearly all of which benefit the rich vs. the rest.

In short, the Tea Party branch of the Republican Party, which is supported by the rich, has such political power (i .e. financial power), it can demand that Congress and the President do exactly what it wants.

Or else it will destroy the American economy.

None of this is about the issues. None of this is about “Obamacare.”

If it were about issues, each of these issues could be discussed in Congress, voted on and if passed, sent to the President for his signature.

No, this is about raw power – the power to widen the gap between the very rich and the rest of the nation.

The Tea Party, supported by such billionaires as the Koch brothers and Pete Peterson, and other right-wing extremists, is composed of mean-spirited people, who while doing the bidding of the ultra-rich, try to portray themselves as religious patriots.

As I have said previously, they are neither religious nor patriots. Not religious, because they have no regard for the powerless – the poor, the immigrants, the minorities — and in fact, are paid to stomp on these people who have few defenses.

Traitorous, because they are willing to destroy their own country, just to get their way.

If the President were to cave to the Republicans’ demands, America would be a nation without laws. Any group that could muster enough votes to prevent a government funding bill, would be able to change every law in America.

This, of course, is what the uber-rich want. Because our nation was founded on the principle of equality, most of our laws are designed to protect the middle-class and the poor from the rich.

It is the rich who benefit, and the poor who suffer, when lawlessness is fostered.

The Republicans have opened a Pandora’s box that transcends Obamacare. It is about ending all legal protections for any who are not part of the upper .1%.

Think about the Republican demands and you will see: This is about raw, unbridled, unregulated power for the rich.

The average American will suffer. I wonder how many will vote Republican.

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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

The federal government is supposed to work like this:

The two houses of Congress propose specific bills. By vote, the bills are accepted or rejected. Those accepted are sent to the President for his signature. If he signs, the bills become laws. The Supreme Court may consider the Constitutionality of the laws.

Lately, however, a new variable has been introduced. After a law is passed by Congress, signed into law by the President, and approved as Constitutional by the Supreme Court, it then becomes part of a larger negotiation.

Let’s say that a group, in one of the houses, is unhappy with a law. Knowing they cannot get the law itself overturned by both houses of Congress and by the President, they decide to do an end run, and threaten to shut down the government if the law isn’t overturned.

What a wonderful power play for any extreme group. Punish millions of Americans — punish the whole world — unless you get your way.

Consider the possibilities:

Prevent the teaching of evolution, or we’ll shut down the government.
Approve the Keystone XL pipeline, or we’ll shut down the government.
Eliminate the estate tax, or we’ll shut down the government.
Confiscate all guns, or we’ll shut down the government.
Defund Social Security, or we’ll shut down the government.
Make abortion illegal, or we’ll shut down the government.
Prevent gays from marrying, or we’ll shut down the government.
Return to the gold standard, or we’ll shut down the government.
Eliminate EPA carbon regulations, or we’ll shut down the government.
End food stamps, or we’ll shut down the government.
Increase FICA, or we’ll shut down the government.

Yes, the possibilities are endless.

No need to go through the Congressional/Presidential process. No need to pass any new laws at all. Forget about the President and at least one house in Congress. Merely demand that old laws be changed or cancelled . . . or else, as a patriot, you’ll destroy the country.

We could have national crises every year, based on dissatisfaction with any law, and the threat to shut down the government.

Call it the Godfather system of government:

“My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse… Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature would be on the contract”.
– Michael Corleone, “The Godfather”, 1972

Of course, none of this fiscal terrorism would be possible, if our government acknowledged that it is Monetary Sovereign, and cannot run short of dollars.

Meanwhile, we are the ones who put the guns in the terrorists’ hands, so we suffer from our own ignorance.

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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

You have too much money and the federal government is running short. So you must send more dollars to Washington, and expect to receive fewer dollars in return.

Your taxes must increase, while your social benefits must decrease.

That is the repeated message of the rich, as exemplified by articles in the Washington Times, that reliable mouthpiece for the moneyed class.

Here are just a few examples:

Orrin Hatch’s op-ed about fiscal responsibility gets real traction

Two days after the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee published a guest op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, his editorial remained the most popular story on the periodical’s website.

“The national debt, if left unchecked, will eclipse our entire economic output in a mere 25 years, outstripping private investment and threatening the nation’s economic health.”

Sounds awful, huh? Except for one tiny detail. The national (so-called) “debt” is the total of all outstanding T-security accounts ever sold, while the entire economic output (presumably Gross Domestic Product) is a one-year measure.

So Hatch’s “fiscal responsibility” compares a 30 year measure with a one-year measure, and even then, what does it mean for the total of outstanding T-securities to exceed GDP?

Absolutely nothing. GDP doesn’t pay for T-securities. It’s a fake comparison, designed to scare you into sending more of your money to Washington and receiving fewer benefits.

Social Security fix would require big tax increase

Preserving Social Security for the next 75 years without reducing any projected benefits would require an immediate and permanent 3.4 percent payroll tax increase, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a new report looking at long-term budget challenges that shows there are no easy options left.

“We as a society have a fundamental choice of whether to cut back on [entitlements] or to raise taxes to pay for them. And so far, we’ve chosen to do very little of either,” says Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf.

If there is one thing the upper .1% loves it’s the payroll tax, especially FICA. The rich pay comparatively little of each. The truly rich receive most their income from non-payroll sources, and FICA, the most regressive tax in U.S. history, is capped at a “pocket-change” level for the rich.

So, the barkers for the rich give you, the taxpayer, but two choices: Pay more taxes or receive fewer benefits. Do you want to pay more or receive less? Pick one. The notion that because the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, you could and should pay less and receive more — that truth never is told to you.

CBO says government finances will be in dire straits by 2038

Federal taxes will go up, but spending will rise even faster over the next 25 years, leaving the national government in dire fiscal straits, according to projections the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.

So there it is. The government is running out of money. It soon will be in “dire straits.” Even the CBO says so.

Never mind that it is 100% impossible for the government to run short of dollars — unless it wants to. Being Monetarily Sovereign, the government never has, and never will, run short of dollars (barring incredibly foolish debt ceilings.)

Even if federal taxes fell to $0, the federal government would not run short of dollars. Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf knows this. Both political parties know it. The President knows it.

They just hope you don’t know it. Why? To widen the gap between the rich and the rest.

The rich own the politicians. The rich own the Washington Times. The rich want the gap widened, because it is the gap that makes them rich. (Without the gap, no one would be rich.)

EDITORIAL: Budget blarney

President Obama is a master of fiscal discipline, or so he says. “Our deficits are falling at the fastest rate in 60 years,” he told an audience the other day at Knox College in Illinois. It is true that the federal deficit is on track to be the lowest since Mr. Obama took office, but there’s a catch.

Mr. Obama is history’s biggest spender. This year’s deficit is more than the $742 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars that Franklin D. Roosevelt borrowed in 1943 to fight World War II.

Credit for the deficit reduction, such as it is, goes to House Republicans, who have used continuing resolutions to keep government spending in a virtual freeze. That’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not good enough.

The vast majority of federal spending directly benefits the middle- and lower-income groups. So spending freezes widen the gap, exactly what the rich want. That is the “credit” the Republicans should receive.

Government red ink jumps 25% in August

The federal deficit surged nearly 25 percent in August to reach $753 billion through the first 11 months of the fiscal year, but the Congressional Budget Office said Monday it expects the final year-end total to be lower.

In August alone, the government ran a $146 billion deficit, pushing this year’s total up by nearly 25 percent in just one month. But CBO analysts said the picture will look somewhat better in September, the final month of the fiscal year, which will produce a surplus and drive the deficit lower.

Get it? “Red ink” in media-speak means you receive more, and pay less — in short, “black ink” for taxpayers.

“Better” in rich-folks jargon means you pay more taxes and receive less in benefits. “Better” means you have too many dollars, but the federal government is running short, so you will send them some of yours.

This is the BIG LIE in all its glory — the fiction that the federal government’s finances are like your finances. The disgraceful part is that the liars are well aware that their lies hurt America, but lie anyway.

What is the word that best describes someone who intentionally hurts his own country?

GOP-backed delay to Obamacare would save $35 billion, report says

Congressional auditors said Friday the House-passed bill to delay by one year the individual mandate at the heart of President Obama’s new health care law would reduce federal deficits by about $35 billion over the next decade.

The Congressional Budget Office said the government would spend $28 billion less on things like expanded Medicaid enrollment and premium tax credits and see $7.4 billion in revenues from greater taxable income if the mandate requiring most Americans to have health insurance does not start until 2015, instead of 2014 as planned.

“Save $35 billion” means taxpayers would send 7.4 billion more dollars to the government and receive 28 billion fewer dollars. Some “saving” that is.

It goes on and on, the incessant drumbeat of lies, all part of the BIG LIE. So brainwashed are the American people, by lies coming at them from all directions, that they ferociously fight against the truth.

Dare to tell an American the facts — that the federal government does not use his tax dollars, has no need for his tax dollars and in fact, destroys his tax dollars upon receipt, and you will receive in return, not just disbelief but invective.

You will be hated for accurately explaining how taxpayers could spend less and receive more benefits. You will be despised for revealing why it is the rich who want deficit reduction, so the income/wealth gaps can be increased.

You will receive only venom for detailing to an American how his life can be better, freer, healthier and longer at absolutely no cost to him.

As a former marketing/advertising professional, I stand in awe at the magnificent brainwashing job the rich have done, despite all the facts against them. They actually have convinced Americans the federal government needs their dollars more than they do.

It really is remarkable.

Bravo!

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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY