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.
●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.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Readers of this blog know:

1. A Monetarily Sovereign government (U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, et al) has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency. The U.S., for instance, never can run short of dollars, and can pay any debt denominated in dollars.

2. A Monetarily Sovereign government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency — not foreign nations, not its own citizens. Thus, neither taxing nor borrowing funds national spending.

3. For a Monetarily Sovereign government, deficit and debt reduction not only are financially unnecessary, but are harmful, especially to the lower income/wealth/power groups. Austerity widens the Gap between the rich 1% and the 99%, by relatively impoverishing the 99%.

4. It is the Gap that makes the rich rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the Gap the richer they are. So the rich pay the politicians, the media and the economists to promote Gap-widening activities, the primary of which is austerity.

The monetary effects of Gap-widening are just part of the problem, as explained in this NewScientist Magazine article.

Social failure, not lifestyle, has made Scots sick
26 January 2015 by Harry Burns

Last year, just before the Commonwealth Games, figures came out showing that the host city, Glasgow, has the lowest average life expectancy of any UK city. A boy born there between 2010 and 2012 can expect to live just 72.6 years, against a national average of nearly 79.

The popular belief is that this is because of diet, smoking and drinking.

In fact, most preconceived notions about the bad health of Scots are wrong. Research into its real causes has implications for health policy internationally.

The slowing of the rise in Scotland’s life expectancy has been most marked in the poorest 20 per cent of the population, mainly because of increases in deaths due to drugs, violence, alcohol and suicide.

From 1950 to 1970, Scotland had one of the lowest rates of death from alcoholic liver disease, for example. By 2005, it had the highest.

Put simply, widening health inequality in Glasgow is due to the recent emergence of socially determined causes of early death.

Many studies have shown that the lower down a social hierarchy an individual is, the higher the levels of stress hormones in their blood.

Early childhood experiences can produce lifelong abnormalities in the stress response. Stress is associated with abnormal patterns of brain development in key areas, including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. These are important for learning, decision-making, memory, stress regulation and emotional arousal.

So young humans, who grow up in dangerous, chaotic environments are likely to be less able to suppress inappropriate behaviour, less able to learn and more likely to be anxious and aggressive.

It may be that what we are seeing in Scotland is the consequence of austerity in the 1970s and 80s, when social change and joblessness led to a breakdown in family life and a cycle of alienation.

Young people with no meaning and purpose tend to sit at home, watch TV, drink and have a couple of kids – and the cycle continues.

Thus, by encouraging austerity, and brainwashing the populace into believing austerity is necessary, the 1% actively promote the very attributes they despise most: Lawlessness, immorality and low intelligence.

The 1%, wishing to distance themselves from the 99%, create conditions that justify widening the gap.

And part of this justification process is the teaching of the 99% that federal financing is like personal financing, and austerity is necessary and good.

The education has worked well, for in the 99%, very few understand what is being done to them. They, in fact, will fight angrily and insultingly to defend the myth that federal taxes fund federal spending — the very myth that dooms them to shorter, less fulfilling lives.

If you are among the 99%, your life will, on average be shorter, less enjoyable and less productive than it could be, were the Gap narrower.

Not only are your income, wealth and social power diminished, but your very brain is adversely affected.

Sadly, this is the relatively short, relatively brutish life the 99% have demanded to give to their children.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten 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. 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 (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all 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

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

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.
●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.
==================================================================================================================================================================

We just read this article:

European Ministers Go to the Brink to Avoid Greek Bankruptcy and Euro Exit
Geoffrey Smith/Fortune Feb. 16, 2015

Finance ministers from around the Eurozone are meeting in Brussels Monday for what will be the third session of fraught talks in less than a week on how to talk Greece’s new government off the window ledge and persuade it to carry on servicing its crushing debt burden with a deal that would keep it from defaulting and leaving the currency union.

Let’s parse this overly long sentence:

” . . . talk Greece’s new government off the window ledge . . . “

That sounds like Greece is about to commit suicide. But is it?

The so-called window ledge is: Leave the euro and re-adopt your own sovereign currency, the drachma. That would make Greece Monetarily Sovereign — able to pay any debt denominated in drachmas.

No more would Greece need to impose destructive austerity on its helpless citizens. Greece would have the unlimited power to control its money supply, and spend to grow its economy.

Does that sound like Greece is standing on a “window ledge”?

” . . . carry on servicing its crushing debt burden . . . “

Yes, Greece, they want you to carry on servicing the debt that is crushing your citizens, so you can preserve the euro. Why? Because the German bankers don’t want to lose money. To hell with Greece’s citizens.

” . . . keep it from defaulting and leaving the currency union.”

Keep Greece from defaulting, because if a sovereign nation defaults and re-adopts its own currency, no one will sell them goods and services. NOT!

The exact opposite is true. Once Greece defaults, and begins to use its own sovereign currency, suppliers will flock to it. Why? Because they know Greece will have no problem paying its bills in the future.

The article continues:

Negotiators have been at work over the weekend trying to find some kind of face-saving formula that will allow all sides to claim a victory.

That’s what’s important? A face saving formula? Does that exceed in importance the lives of the Greek citizens? To the EU, apparently so.

Greece’s bailout program is due to expire at the end of the month. From that moment, it will lose access to the final €7.2 billion earmarked for it that haven’t been paid out yet because the previous government failed to meet all of the conditions for disbursement.

It goes like this: “We will lend you the final €7.2 billion so long as you use all of it to repay us what you already owe us. Don’t you dare give any money to the Greek people. In fact, you’ll have to take more from them.

“And after all is said and done, you still will owe us big money. See it never will end. It never is supposed to end. That’s how we keep you on a permanent leash.“

Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis repeated Monday, that Greece is essentially bankrupt and that there is no point in asking for more loans to cover that up.

“The ‘extend and pretend’ game . . . will end,” he wrote. “No more loans — not until we have a credible plan for growing the economy in order to repay those loans, help the middle class get back on its feet and address the hideous humanitarian crisis.”

Varoufakis uses the sole voice of common sense in the entire EU, with one exception: When he says, ” . . . in order to repay those loans . . . “ he still assumes Greece needs the euro.

But, Greece does not need the euro. Never did.

If anything, the euro needs Greece, because once other euro nations see how well Greece does when it is freed from the heavy yoke of the Troika, there will be a mad dash for the door.

And that is what frightens the EU.

The weakness of Greece’s negotiating position is becoming increasingly clear.

That is what the EU wants Greece to think. A number of articles have run with this headline:

The ball is in Greece’s court
GREG MCKENNA

That is the clear message after talks broke up overnight earlier than expected and with no agreement.

Jereon Dijsselboem, chair of the Eurozone Finance Ministers Committee, told a news conference after the meeting: “There was a very strong opinion across the eurogroup that the next step has to come from the Greek authorities.”

That is true. The ball is in Greece’s court. In fact, Greece owns the ball, and if Greece is smart, it will take its ball and go home.

GAME OVER!

And that is what scares the hell out of the useless European bankers, who have been living on the backs of the impoverished populace.

Go Greece. Take your ball and go home to the drachma. And Godspeed.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten 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. 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 (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all 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

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

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.
●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.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Do you believe:
1. Global warming would have an adverse effect on human and non-human life?
2. The world’s climate is warming?
3. Humans are partly responsible?

Here is what the right-wing Washington Post says:

Over the past four years, the Republican Party has undergone a fairly dramatic shift in its approach to energy and environmental issues. Global warming has disappeared entirely from the party’s list of concerns.

Clean energy has become an afterthought. Fossil fuels loom larger than ever.

Back in 2008, the Republican Party’s platform had a long and detailed section on “Addressing Climate Change Responsibly.”

“The same human economic activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Common sense dictates that the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today to reduce any impact on the environment.

“Those steps, if consistent with our global competitiveness will also be good for our national security, our energy independence, and our economy.”

Skip ahead to 2012, and the GOP platform takes a markedly different tone. That section devoted to climate change? Gone.

Instead, the platform flatly opposes “any and all cap and trade legislation” to curtail greenhouse gases. It demands that Congress “take quick action to prohibit the EPA from moving forward with new greenhouse gas regulations.”

It criticizes the Obama administration’s National Security Strategy for “elevating ‘climate change’ to the level of a ‘severe threat’ equivalent to foreign aggression.”

Science allows us to weigh the costs and benefits of a policy so that we can prudently deal with our resources. This is especially important when the causes and long-range effects of a phenomenon are uncertain.

Remember, this came from a right wing paper.

Today, four years from the time when the Republicans were sure that “human activity increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere,” the same people now feel the costs of climate protection have become too high and the benefits “uncertain.”

Of course, four years ago, the billionaire Koch brothers, and other massive environment destroyers, were prohibited by law, from bribing the politicians as much as the Supreme Court now allows.

The language echoes an op-ed written by Paul Ryan in December of 2009, which accused climatologists of using “statistical tricks to distort their findings and intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change.”

Ryan’s charges were untrue; a number of subsequent investigations into the leaked Climate Research Unit e-mails found no evidence of wrongdoing by the scientists involved.

This is the same Paul Ryan, the Republican budget guru and Presidential aspirant, who not only wishes to sell his soul to the highest bidder, but ironically claims the climatologists used “statistical tricks.”

That, in itself, is an old trick. Accuse the other guy of your guilt. When you lie about the climate, accuse the scientists of lying.

I’m sorry about the repeated condemnation of Republicans, but this is not my Republican Party — the party I favored from Eisenhower through Reagan.

No, beginning with Newt Gingrich, this Republican party has been dominated by mean-spirited, lying illegitimates, who care for one thing, and one thing only: Money.

This is the party of the haters. This is the “religious” party of Christie, Carson, Paul, Palin, Huckabee, Santorum, Cruz, Romney, Bachmann, Jindal, Ryan, Perry and Walker. Put them all in one room, and you’ll not find one ounce of warmth or compassion.

This is the party of the rich, by the rich and for the rich — and frankly, if you are not in the upper 1% income/power/wealth group, I cannot understand why you would give them your vote.

They will not give you anything.

Of course, the Republican chameleons will change again. Within the next couple of years, when enough of the public finally realizes climate change is real and killing us, and is the result of human fossil burning, every Republican will tell you, “I knew it all the time, and I said so . . . (many years ago.”)

By then, we will have wandered farther down the path of no return, and our planet will have been permanently mutilated.

That scarred, twisted and poisonous environment will be our legacy to our sick children and grandchildren.

And more than any group on earth, the U.S. Republican party and its followers deserve the credit.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten 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. 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 (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all 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

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

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.
●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.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Only the psychologists might explain fully why middle- and lower-income people (the 99%) vote for the party that consistently tosses them to the rich wolves (the 1%).

Not being a psychologist, I can only speculate that it’s a combination of hatred (for blacks, browns, reds, yellows, gays, foreigners and non-Christians) along with awe and reverence for the rich and powerful.

Anyway, here are just a few of the “50 Shades of Republican,” how the right wing tortures and screws the 99% on behalf of the 1%.

Alabama GOP Head: America to incur the wrath of God for allowing Gay Marriage.

On Wednesday, Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead claimed that America risks ‘incurring God’s wrath’ if it allows for gay marriage. Armistead loudly proclaims: “God is not one to be mocked, and I fear for our state and our country when we go against God’s word.”

He then goes on to quote Genesis: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

The only question remaining is perhaps why social conservatives seem to consistently rinse and repeat the same philosophies decade after decade without many mainstream media outlets or non-partisan sources of information taking note of it and calling it for what it truly is — An endorsement of Theocracy in the United States.

Let us join the religious right in ignoring the fact that our original settlers came to America to free themselves from religious persecution.

The rich and powerful love theocracies, because the rich bribe the priests. Seldom was a wealthy, powerful woman dunked for being a witch.

Remember, so long as Bill Armistead speaks for God, he never can be wrong. Convenient, isn’t it?

DHS creates path to citizenship for DREAMERS

Virginia Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (Associated Press).

In a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Mr. Goodlatte demanded he put an end to the new program, which could open an avenue for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to bypass the regular rules and gain citizenship, which carries voting rights and eligibility for taxpayer-funded benefits.

“Under the expanded program, DACA requestors will now be able to file applications for advance parole at the same time they file their DACA application,” Mr. Goodlatte wrote. “Such a process encourages advance parole applications and thus encourages DACA to be used as a path to U.S. citizenship.”

“Dreamers” are unauthorized immigrants who are under the age of 31; entered the United States before age 16; have lived continuously in the country for at least five years; have not been convicted of a felony, a “significant” misdemeanor, or three other misdemeanors; and are currently in school, graduated from high school, earned a GED, or served in the military.

Oh woe! All those outstanding young people, coming to this nation and, after arriving here, legally becoming citizens. Who wants such youngsters in our midst?

Thank goodness we and all our ancestors were born here, so none of us have immigrant backgrounds.

Rather than more good, young people to build our nation, we need more mean-spirited, crotchety, old, white males like Rep. Goodlatte.

Republicans have made the individual mandate the element most likely to undo the President’s health-care law. The irony is that the Democrats adopted it in the first place because they thought that it would help them secure conservative support. It had, after all, been at the heart of Republican health-care reforms for two decades.

The (ACA) mandate made its political début in a 1989 [right wing] Heritage Foundation brief titled “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” as a counterpoint to the single-payer system and the employer mandate, which were favored in Democratic circles.

In the brief, Stuart Butler, the foundation’s health-care expert, argued, “Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seat-belts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.”

The mandate made its first legislative appearance in 1993, in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act—the Republicans’ alternative to President Clinton’s health-reform bill—which was sponsored by John Chafee, of Rhode Island, and co-sponsored by eighteen Republicans, including Bob Dole, who was then the Senate Minority Leader.

Let’s face it, the Republicans don’t care a fig about ACA (aka Romneycare). In fact, despite 57 votes against it, the Republicans have offered no alternatives. Hey, it’s their program.

And the Republicans don’t care about the massive hardships ending ACA would cause — hardships that would impact the 99% and leave the 1% unscathed.

The Republican party doesn’t really have any goals, but two: Widening the Gap between the rich and the rest, and fighting anything Obama.

As for the welfare of the populace, the Republicans seem immune to compassion.

An Ambitious Plan for a GOP Congress
Speaker Boehner released a five point plan that sets a real legislative agenda.

Point One: Fixing Our Tax Code: . . . By lowering rates for all Americans, simplifying the maze of loopholes and deductions, and making it possible for families to do their taxes on two sheets of paper . . .

You know where this “paper saver” is headed. The 99% lose their medical, mortgage interest and local tax deductions on their “two sheets of paper.”

The 1% continue to have their accountants use 100 sheets of paper and get exemptions and deductions you never ever heard of. Complex tax shelters require lots of paper.

Point Two: Solving Our Spending Problem: For 53 of the last 60 years, the federal government has spent more than it’s taken in – you wouldn’t do this in your home or business and we can’t do it as a country.

By addressing the drivers of our debt and putting our entitlement programs on a more sustainable path, we can secure our children’s ability to invest in their future . . .

Start with the Big Lie that federal finances are like personal finances, and that somehow the federal government can run short of dollars.

Then segue into reducing Social Security, Medicare, and all aids to the middle and lower income groups — while, of course, increasing FICA.

What could possibly help our children more?

Point Three: Reforming Our Legal System: Excessive litigation amounts to a stealth tax driving up the cost of all of our goods and services. By enacting real medical malpractice reform, and combating abusive patent litigation, we can better protect victims and consumers while giving confidence to manufacturers and small business owners that they can keep jobs and ideas here.

By all means, reduce the amount that injured people receive from big business. After all, if your auto air bag explodes, and sends shrapnel into your eyes, $50 ought to “better protect victims while giving confidence to” General Motors.

Note the implied BS threat that if you don’t agree, the jobs will go overseas.

Point Four: Reforming Our Regulatory System: The way the federal government hands down regulations is coercive, combative, and expensive.

By making major rules contingent on congressional approval, streamlining the permitting process, and making agencies focus on lower costs, we can reshape federal regulatory policy so that it’s more practical and productive for workers and small business owners.

Yes, there is way too much regulation of our food quality, our drug quality, auto safety standards and pollution. We should trust big business to take care of those things.

And yes, we want the FDIC to focus on cost cutting — perhaps by firing half their staff — rather than on regulating the banksters who caused the Great Recession.

Let the Republican-dominated Congress approve all regulations. That surely will help consumers and “small business owners” like those honest folks at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup.

Point Five: Improving Our Education System: America’s ability to compete is tied to our ability to educate our young people. By reforming the K-12 system, making college more affordable, and expanding charter school programs, we can eliminate the barriers that keep students from getting the best possible education and becoming the best-prepared workers.

Replace the current national accountability scheme with state-led accountability systems, returning responsibility for measuring student performance to states and school districts.

Strengthen existing efforts to improve student performance among targeted student populations, including English learners and homeless children.

Expand quality charter schools and allowing federal funds to follow low-income children to the public school of the parent’s choice.

Protects state and local autonomy over decisions in the classroom by preventing the secretary of education from coercing states into adopting Common Core or any other common standards or assessments

This is a hodgepodge of ideas, some of which already exist or were proposed by Democrats. But of most interest is the notion of state-led accountability systems, returning responsibility for measuring student performance to states and school districts — pretty much what failed over the past century.

Not sure why anyone thinks state governments are more honest or competent than the federal government. We, here in Illinois, have a tradition of governors and other politicians going to jail, most often for stealing.

Barack Obama was a produced by the Chicago machine, and how many people think he’s competent?

The problem isn’t in the measurement of the education, the problem is in the education itself. Consider, there are those enlightened, right-wing states that, for instance, would teach religion in place of evolution, and that global warming doesn’t exist.

But the best of all is the current Republican resistance to “Common Core,” which was supported by Republicans:

Republicans who designed Common Core say public has been misled

Five Republican former governors who supported the Common Core from its creation during the Bush administration said Wednesday that disinformation from conservatives threatened to highjack the higher standards for what students should be able to accomplish in each grade.

The (Common Core) standards spell out what students should learn year by year, but leave decisions about books and lesson plans up to the states and local districts.

“If we fail to implement the Common Core and go back to the drawing board again, there’s going to be another generation that falls further behind internationally,” said former Hawaii Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.

Well, it’s getting late, and I’ve grown weary, and we are only at the beginning of the 50 Shades. So I’ll give you a map to ten more Shades of Republican you might find instructive, amusing or disgusting, depending on how you feel about political Sadism and Masochism:

10 ideas Republicans loved until Barack Obama became President

And remember, when you vote for the religious right, be sure to shout: “Beat me! Beat me!”

They love it.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The Ten 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. 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 (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all 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

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