Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Here are excerpts from a 4/24/12, Chicago Tribune editorial titled, “Profiles in Failure.”

As Democrats and Republicans in Washington perpetually trade blame for our deteriorating federal finances, the Supreme Court has moved three years closer to emptying its trust fund. Mark that on your calendar for 2033, not the 2036 proclaimed only a year ago.

Congress also is on life support. The legislative branch is expected to spend its last dollar in 2024. That’s . . . five years sooner than . . . projected as recently as 2010.

A year ago, trustees warned that the White House and also the military would be out of money by 2018. As of Monday, that date is 2016.

Shocking, isn’t it. Four federal agencies — the Supreme Court, Congress, the White House and the Military, all doomed to run out of money within the near future. Doesn’t seem possible, especially considering that the U.S. government has the unlimited ability to create dollars, and never, ever, ever can be unable to pay any bills of any size.

So how can agencies of the federal government run out of money?

Well, they can’t. No agency of the federal government can run out of money unless the government wills it. Confession: I modified the Tribune’s editorial. It really reads:

As Democrats and Republicans in Washington perpetually trade blame for our deteriorating federal finances, Social Security has moved three years closer to emptying its trust fund. Mark that on your calendar for 2033, not the 2036 proclaimed only a year ago.

Medicare also is on life support. The hospital insurance program for seniors is expected to spend its last dollar in 2024. That’s . . . five years sooner than . . . projected as recently as 2010.

A year ago, trustees warned that Social Security’s disability insurance fund would be out of money by 2018. As of Monday, that date is 2016.

The point is: The Supreme Court, Congress, the White House, the Military, Social Security and Medicare all are agencies of the federal government. None can be unable to pay their bills, unless Congress willfully cuts payments. All federal agencies’s bills are paid by the Treasury.

The Supreme Court, Congress, the White House, the Military do not have a special FICA-like tax to support them. They have no special tax at all. Yet miraculously, they do not go bankrupt. How can this be? No income; lots of bills to pay; and still they survive, year after year. How do they do it?

Simple. Taxes do not pay for federal spending. Unlike you and me, unlike state and local governments, unlike businesses, our Monetarily Sovereign federal government does not need a source of dollars with which to pay its bills.

I receive Social Security benefits. On the 4th Wednesday of every month, the number in my checking account suddenly is a couple thousand higher than it was the day before. How? The U.S. Treasury sent instructions (not dollars) to my bank, to raise the number in my account. My bank did as instructed and voila, my checking account is higher.

That is exactly the same way the federal government pays all of the bills for the Supreme Court, Congress, the White House, the Military and Medicare. It just sends instructions to increase numbers in accounts — which it can do endlessly.

If I sent a legitimate invoice to the federal government for $100 trillion, the government would instruct my bank to raise the number in my checking account by 100 trillion, and my bank would obey. Literally speaking, the government would not have sent me a hundred trillion dollars. It would have instructed my bank to increase the numbers in my account by a hundred trillion.

Again, literally speaking, my checking account does not and would not “contain” any dollars at all. It merely would show an accounting balance that reads 100,000,000,000,000.

Even though my account at my bank supposedly contained $100 trillion, my bank could not show me those hundred trillion dollars. They could assure me the dollars are in my account, and they could show me statements to that effect, but they could not show me the dollars that supposedly are in my account. In fact, they couldn’t show me any dollars at all. Dollars are invisible, non-physical accounting notations.

The point is, my revised version of the Tribune editorial, and the Tribune editorial itself, both are total bullsh*t. The only way the federal government could run short of dollars is for mathematics to run short of numbers. That’s all dollars are: Numbers in accounts.

The Social Security and Medicare “crises” are monstrous lies. They are inventions that do nothing but increase the income gap between the 1% and the 99%, by cutting payments to the 99%.

If Congress wished it, tomorrow the Treasury could add several trillion to the numbers in the Social Security and Medicare “trust funds,” simply by instructing changes in accounting balances. Why does the Tribune, along with virtually all other media, not understand this basic truth?

I don’t know. Bruce Dold, the Editorial Page Editor, and I have corresponded many times. He keeps thanking me (politely) for my information, then publishes yet another, amazingly wrong-headed editorial.

One thing Bruce refuses to do is justify his position with facts. He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t tell me why I’m wrong. He just thanks me. Sometimes he tells me he’s looked into it, and hasn’t changed his opinion. But always, politely.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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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:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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A bunch of Secret Service agents had a wild time in Columbia, drinking and whoring. This has come as a great shock to many and has greatly embarrassed the President.

We like to think of the Secret Service as a group of ultra-efficient robots in dark sunglasses, who stand with their backs to the President and other officials, gazing tirelessly out into a crowd. They know everything; they see everything; they hear everything. And all are ready to flop onto the proverbial hand grenade to prevent injury to their charge.

Well, I have some news for you. Every military or pseudo military organization — every organization of any kind — is made up of (can you believe it?) PEOPLE! And people tend to act like people.

No matter how thorough the training and supervision, people are not machines. They have personal needs. They have emotions. Some have families and some don’t. Some are young, with hormones flowing through them. Some are older, and get sleepy early. Some of us are smarter than others, some braver, some stronger. Each day, we awaken as a slightly different person from the one who went to bed, the night before.

Yes, getting wild in a foreign country, when they’re part of a detail that is supposed to guard a President, is stupid. It could have made them subject to blackmail, which could have compromised the mission. It must be punished.

But this I guarantee: It’s not the first such incident and it won’t be the last. The FBI has had its embarrassments. So has the CIA. So has virtually every police department in America. And don’t get me started on political organizations.

Yes, punish the fools, and punish their supervisors, to set a deterrent, but don’t be shocked, shocked shocked. And Mr. President, forget the embarrassment. People are imperfect.

When you, Mr. President decide to visit a place — especially a dangerous place — you’re stretching the limits of what can be expected from people. I know you politicians love to “press the flesh,” and you feel that seeing your beautiful face can turn the international tide. But in fact, all the real work is done in advance of your visit, and have you never heard of a videophone?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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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:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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What is the disgrace of America?

Chicago Tribune
Deep cuts loom as state tries to save Medicaid
By Monique Garcia and Ray Long, Chicago Tribune reporters, April 17, 2012

The list of medicines Jason Carrington must take every day to treat his multiple sclerosis and related symptoms is long: Copaxone injections to prevent relapses, primidone to control tremors, Seroquel to stabilize his mood, lamotrigine and Cymbalta to treat depression and anxiety.

The drugs can cost thousands of dollars a day, an expense the state now picks up. But the 32-year-old Wicker Park resident soon could find himself forced to seek another way to pay for his prescriptions.

Scaling back such coverage is on the table as Illinois looks for ways to cut spending on its health care program for the poor. The state’s plan for drastically slashing Medicaid in order to save it is expected to come into sharper focus this week as a group of lawmakers and aides reports back to Gov. Pat Quinn.

The options could range from ending so-called extras such as dental and hospice care to raising cigarette taxes. Other possibilities: asking patients to pay more for services and narrowing eligibility requirements that could see thousands of children and adults lose health insurance.

This is the disgrace of America: Millions of our sick people unable to afford health care, while an economically ignorant federal government withholds the dollars that would pay for that care.

Chicago Tribune
Glimpses of Illinois Medicaid cuts emerge
By Monique Garcia, Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger
Clout Street, April 19, 2012

Glimpses of a plan to slash spending on the state’s health care program for the poor emerged Wednesday, with preliminary ideas ranging from eliminating a discount prescription program for seniors to stricter eligibility requirements that would leave thousands without health care coverage.

The menu of options was outlined in documents obtained by the Tribune that show potential cuts by Gov. Pat Quinn. While plans remain fluid, the draft provides a look at what’s on the table as the Democratic governor prepares to formally unveil his ideas Thursday.

Quinn has said the Medicaid system could collapse next year if spending isn’t slashed by at least $2.7 billion in the budget year that beings July 1. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has been examining ways to reach that figure, but has only been able to reach a consensus on how to cut about half of the governor’s requested amount.

This is the disgrace of America. A nation is measured by its treatment of its poorest. Our Monetarily Sovereign federal government has the unlimited ability to pay any bill of any size, and easily could eliminate FICA, while providing Medicare to every man, woman and child in America.

Instead, we let our fellow Americans sicken and die while the federal government fiddles. This is how a cold-hearted nation dies. We turn away from our sick and starving children in the streets. What was once America, no longer is.

The eulogy of America is being written in cruelty on pages of ignorance.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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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:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes inceased, the weaker an economy becomes. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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The following story has had major play, and will continue to have major play, for weeks. Both parties will attempt to spin it in their direction.

The Tea/Republicans will say it demonstrates all sorts of bad things about the Obama administration. The Democrats will say it shows we need more and better regulation. In short, the usual, political lip flap. But, how important is this story, that is, how much does it affect you?

Washington Post
GSA official’s wife accompanied him on trips at taxpayer expense
By Lisa Rein, Published: April 17

The senior government executive who organized the lavish Las Vegas conference at the center of a General Services Administration spending scandal took dozens of trips for the agency. The boss’s wife accompanied him on some of them — and taxpayers picked up the tab.

Deborah Neely wasn’t always just sharing husband Jeffrey E. Neely’s hotel rooms at resorts from Las Vegas to the Pacific islands. She handled party arrangements, directed event planners to spend government money and arranged lodging for relatives on the GSA trip to Las Vegas in 2010, an unusual role revealed in transcripts of interviews that the agency’s inspector general’s office conducted with Jeffrey Neely, as well as in congressional hearings.

Her role as the “first lady of Region 9” — as an investigator called her — shows a management culture in GSA’s Pacific Rim region that not only allowed the $823,000 Las Vegas gathering for 300 people and overspending on other conferences but also openly condoned perks for managers and their family members.

O.K., stealing is stealing. We can’t condone it. But here is a case where the stealing didn’t cost anyone anything. In fact, it was economically stimulative. Hotels and hotel workers received money. Restaurants and restaurant workers received money. Hookers (hey, they’re people too) received money (all but one, who pulled the plug on the entire operation).

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people received money, and it didn’t cost you or me one cent. When a Monetarily Sovereign government spends it creates the dollars for that spending. It doesn’t use tax dollars. It doesn’t use borrowed dollars. It simply creates dollars.

So if you’re outraged, your outrage must come from envy, not from any personal damage. If you enjoy being outraged, try this article from the Chicago Tribune:

Charges against Dixon comptroller has ‘awakened a sleepy little town’
By Melissa Jenco, Tribune reporter, April 18, 2012

The small northwest Illinois town of Dixon, stunned by charges against its chief financial officer of misappropriating about $30 million in city funds, has placed the employee on unpaid leave a day after her arrest in City Hall by FBI agents.

See the difference? No, I’m not talking about the amount of money stolen. I’m talking about the fact that the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, so doesn’t spend tax dollars, while state and local governments are monetarily non-sovereign, so do spend tax dollars. In the Dixon case, the taxpayers are stuck with a $30 million bill, and the stealing, most definitely, was not economically stimulative.

While federal stealing has several bad results, at least taxpayers aren’t financially hurt. But state and local stealing directly impacts taxpayers. Regardless of the amount of money involved, I am far more outraged by state and local stealing than by federal stealing. Deborah Neely didn’t cost me a penny. But the stealing where I live, in Illinois and Cook County, costs me plenty.

To find real outrage, look at your crooked town council or your criminal mayor. Look much harder at the guy who steals $10 from your village treasury, than at the guy who steals millions from the federal government. It’s the local guys who take money from your pocket.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

==========================================================================================================================================
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:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY