–Why would Congress intentionally allow the economy to be injured?

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

US economy shifted into reverse in late 2012, partly because of sharp gov’t spending cuts
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 30

A plunge in defense spending helped push the economy into negative territory for the first time since mid-2009. The contraction in the October-December quarter came in at an annual rate of 0.1 percent, according to a government estimate released Wednesday.

What!! You mean federal spending cuts hurt the economy, especially hurting the lower 99% income groups and widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%??? Why didn’t the politicians and the media — all paid by the upper 1% income group — tell us that beforehand?
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Deep spending cuts are likely, lawmakers say, with no deal on sequester in sight
By Lori Montgomery, Published: January 29

Less than a month after averting one fiscal crisis, Washington began bracing Tuesday for another, as lawmakers in both parties predicted that deep, across-the-board spending cuts would probably hit the Pentagon and other federal agencies on March 1.

An array of proposals are in the works to delay or replace the cuts. But party leaders say they see no clear path to compromise, particularly given a growing sentiment among Republicans to pocket the cuts and move on to larger battles over health and retirement spending.

What!! You mean Congress, which is paid by the 1% to cut benefits to the 99%, and widen the gap between the 1% and the 99%, will not prevent the spending cuts that will hurt the economy???

Some things are hard to believe — unless you unless you understand the motive.

Well, now that Congress and the President see unquestionable proof that austerity hurts the economy, surely they won’t let those spending cuts happen. Right?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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 Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Is the “religious” right actually getting religion?

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

For many (most?) politicians, there is neither right nor wrong, neither moral nor immoral. There only is IN or OUT. For them, politics is not constituent interest; it is self interest.

When self interest meant collecting millions from the 1%’s Koch brothers, Pete Peterson et al, (courtesy of the right wing Supreme Court), conservative politicians suddenly became religiously right — so religious, they prayed every day . . . for money.

But when all those millions (together with conservatives’ cruel efforts to deny poor people access to the polls) failed to win elections, many conservatives had an epiphany:

“Maybe we should do what the voters want rather than what the 1% wants. Maybe we can get our dollars from people who are not right-wing crazies. After all, Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump, didn’t win for us.”

Given the sudden realization that adopting extreme, right-wing, pseudo-religious selfishness doesn’t have long-term, election benefits among thinking and moral Americans, let alone among the people conservatives intentionally try to hurt, politicians may be starting to take on a new religion – the religion of rationality and decency.

Here is one clue the times, may be a-changin’:

GOP’s Electoral Vote Scheme Already On Life Support
Talking Points Memo

Key Republican officials in Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan are coming out against a RNC-backed scheme to rig the electoral vote in Democratic-leaning states in order to boost Republican presidential candidates. That leaves just Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the remaining blue states with Republican statehouses actively considering the idea.

Funny how when you’re are caught with your hand in the cookie jar, suddenly you acquire a conscience, hoping to avoid punishment.

But more convincing is this:

The tea party is losing a few of its revelers
Washington Post article by Dana Milbank

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a possible presidential candidate in 2016, ridicules fellow Republicans as the “stupid party” and urges Washington Republicans to get over their obsession with cutting budgets.

The office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, another would-be Republican presidential candidate, declares that he will not go along with a plan, hatched by conservative legislators, to rewrite the state’s election laws in a way that would stack Virginia’s electoral votes against Democrats.

Fundamentally, Americans are decent people. We know the difference between right an wrong, fair and unfair. Meanwhile, politicians know the difference between being voted IN and voted out, and they all agree: IN is better. So if morality and decency are the path to IN, perhaps that’s the way to go.

Saturday: Reports emerge that House Speaker John Boehner had given a speech in which he referred to “hard heads” in his Republican caucus.

This is the same guy who famously lied, “America is broke.” Clearly we’re not “broke” as he and his fellow hard head claimed, and not being broke, or anywhere near broke, there is no reason to reduce spending.

Sen. John McCain, who during his 2008 presidential run backed an enforcement-only approach to immigration, declares his support for a plan for undocumented immigrants to become legal.

McCain, the slow learner who chose Sara Palin, and who must have taught flip-flop to Mitt Romney, is beginning to understand that Americans empathize with the less fortunate (all our families contain immigrants), and really don’t like the “mean bastard” school of law enforcement.

This last offense was too much for Rush Limbaugh, who denounced the “amnesty” plan.

If Limbaugh hates it, you know you’re doing something right. When Limbaugh’s audience ratings deservedly begin to drop, as more and more Americans become disgusted with his crazed bigotry, and he begins to worry he’ll meet the same fate as Sarah Palin (dropped by Fox “News”), he too will have an epiphany, and suddenly become “Mr. Compassionate.

Watch for it.

Demagoguery works well in bad times, but . . . if anything, (voter) anger has turned against tea-party lawmakers. Christie, one of the most popular Republicans in the land, decried GOP leaders’ “disgusting” behavior after they forced a delay in funds for Hurricane Sandy recovery. The leaders relented, allowing the spending bill to pass despite “no” votes from most House Republicans.

Deficit spending is O.K. if a conservative legislator needs it. Not O.K. if the poor or any other left-leaning voters need it.

On immigration, likewise, fear of the tea party’s demagoguery has subsided. McCain, for example, fought off a primary challenge in 2010 from an opponent who called him soft on illegal immigration. But on Monday, McCain stood up to those who would call his new plan amnesty. A “de facto amnesty” already exists, he said. “We have been too content for too long to allow individuals to mow our lawn, serve our food, clean our homes and even watch our children, while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great.”

The reality of lost elections can overcome the reality of the 1%’s bribery.

The return of the old McCain (in 2010, he endorsed Arizona’s harsh immigration law) is an encouraging sign. More good news comes from the House, where most declined to join Limbaugh in his “amnesty” rant.

Better late than never, reality has begun to dribble into the Congressional hard heads. Given time to think, the decent people of America do not like bigoted, mean-spirited legislators. Politicians, whose first goal is personal survival, have begun to listen.

Vote rigging is the first small test. Immigration may be the next. But the real test for both parties, will be austerity and federal spending, where almost all deficit reductions hurt the 99%, and widen the power gap between the 1% and the 99%.

If people realize that politicians have lied to them, and not acted on their behalf, but rather on behalf of the 1%, the notion that the federal government is running short of dollars and [insert Tea Party slogan here] will be exposed as myths.

We then can rid ourselves of disastrous austerity, close the gap between the rich and the rest, and be on our way to fairness and prosperity in America.

Is the Republican party ready for reform? Perhaps not yet, but one more sound trouncing at the polls might rid them of the Tea Party / “religious” right evil that engulfed them and much of America in 2010.

And without right wing pushing, will Democrats, too, abandon austerity, especially if they believe they will be blamed for the next recession, which absolutely will be caused by austerity? With austerity in place, a worsening recession is a certainty before the next election. Will Democrats risk that?

The day politicians and media writers of both parties turn away from their wealthy masters and admit that austerity always, always, always destroys an economy, and deficit cutting, now and in the future, is the worst thing America can do – on that day, I will believe we will be ready to grow America, again.

Of course, the 1% never stops trying to push down the 99% and widen the gap. So, ultimately the voters will have to realize the rich are at fault for our nation’s misery, then decide the future of America.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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 Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–An amazing article about the Spanish economy and what it means to America.

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

Here are a few excerpts from a truly amazing article, spotted by Dan Lynch:

Spanish retail sales slump 10.7% as austerity hurts consumers

Retail figures in Spain have fallen for 30 successive months, the decline accelerating since latest austerity measures applied

It was one of the most miserable Christmases on record for retailers in Spain as sales plunged last month in the midst of one of the worst consumer crises the recession-hit country has ever seen.

Retail sales in Spain have now fallen for 30 successive months, and the decline has quickened since the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, implemented further austerity measures to bring the budget into line.

Rajoy’s austerity-bound government increased VAT in September in an attempt to fill its coffers. The Christmas sales fall was a further sign that families have fewer euros to spend. Savings are also down, meaning the downturn is not just the result of frightened families trying to build up their savings.

Spain’s civil service union, CSI-F, claimed the Christmas sales slump could be blamed directly on decisions to suppress an extra monthly payment normally handed to public staff in December.

Is it true that if you increase taxes and cut spending, aka “austerity,” this will cause an economy to tank?? Hmmm . . . does that mean if we in America increase FICA taxes on the poor- and middle-income groups and increase income taxes on the rich, and simultaneously cut federal spending, we might have the same result? Has anyone told Congress and the President?

No need. They already know. It’s part of the widen-the-gap-between-the-rich-and-the-rest” plan, for which Obama and Congress have been paid by the upper 1% to implement. The EU, owned by the upper 1%, follows the same plan.

Car and house sales are falling, suggesting the recession that prompted the economy to shrink by 1.4% last year will continue. Most analysts predict the economy will contract by a similar rate this year as the government seeks to cut the budget deficit further just as borrowing costs shoot up. Unemployment rose above 26% last month and is predicted to climb higher but the government insists the recession will bottom out this year and growth will return by 2014.

Are we supposed to believe that if the government takes money out of the economy, the economy will contract, unemployment will increase and the population will suffer? Is this something new?

On Monday night, Olli Rehn, the EU’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner, hinted that the austerity programme may have to be relaxed: “If there has been a serious deterioration in the economy, we can propose an extension of a country’s adjustment path … That’s what we did last year in the case of Spain.”

An “extension of a country’s adjustment path” is just EU-speak for more loans to nations that cannot pay their current debts. (They are monetarily non-sovereign) But notice the phrase, “If there has been a serious deterioration in the economy . . . “ IF? IF? Unemployment rose above 26%, and he says, “IF”?. I wonder what he calls “serious.”

Spain is understood to have missed the target of cutting its deficit to 6.3% of GDP in 2012, making it much harder to hit the 2013 goal of 4.5%.

Translation: Spain was unable to rip 6.3% of GDP out of its economy, so it will have trouble ripping another 4.5% out of the economy next year. No matter. It doesn’t hurt the rich. They will do just fine.

One of my “laws,” which appears at the top of every post, is: To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.

Spain and the EU continue to indoctrinate European citizens with the delusion that EU nations can break this law. But that’s Spain.

What about the U.S., a Monetarily Sovereign nation, with the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, but instead which condemns itself to monetary non-sovereignty by passing silly austerity laws (the debt limit), and engaging in deficit reduction?

Again, no problem. No tag days needed for the upper 1%. No unemployment for them. The gap widens and they laugh at the peons, all the way to the bank.

What shall we the people learn from Spain?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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 Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The right wing, religious, compassionate, generous American patriots speak

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 leads to civil disorder.
●Cutting the deficit is the government’s method for taking dollars from the middle class and giving them to the rich.
●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.
==========================================================================================================================================

Recently, I saw an article in the Washington Post about President Obama’s attempt to make immigration somewhat fairer and less onerous. I’m posting here, not the article, but some of the comments that followed the article.

The purpose of posting these comments is to provide amusement for my sane readers and to provide talking points for those a bit addled.

I want to stress that these comments are by real right-wing, religious, compassionate, generous American patriots, who subscribe to: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Any misspellings are their own. I just cut and paste.

Enjoy!

We the people are tired of Obamas communist executive orders. It’s time for we the people to rise up against tyranny and indict, convict and execute Obamama as called for by law. This tyranny shall not stand..enough is enough..
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If you are from Latin America and you promise to vote for a Democrat you will be granted amnesty immediately; otherwise you will have to go through the legal process of becoming a US citizen.
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There is only one way to deal with the current US immigration problem with illegals-DEPORT THEM! They are ILLEGAL-what part of that is anyone missing??!! If they want to be in the US they should follow the rules-apply in Mexico City and pay all the fees associated with a legal visa. It’s outrageous that the President of the USA thinks he can just give them all a blanket ‘welcome to the US even though you’re here illegally’ when there are jobless Americans who are losing their homes and watching their children go to bed hungry every night. Outrageous.
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The American People, the same American People who are being demonized for legally owning firearms, will be expected to pay for their medical care and their medical bills. It seems that the worst thing one can be in the United States today is a citizen. The president obviously has a word that refers to us, and that word is ‘SUCKER’.
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Even if a successful bill is formed, Obama will torpedo it by insisting that border security enforcement provisions be pulled. If a bill passes with such provisions intact, Obama won’t enforce them. He is lawless and is not happy unless the country is in chaos.
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We already have laws defining illegal immigration. It is a crime and this crime has penalties! But I am not sure if politicians can read much less have the balls to enforce the law.
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How could over 11 million people who are violating our laws every single day (including forgery, perjury on i-9 forms, immigration fraud, working illegally and identity theft) possibly have any respect for our laws and our nation? They should be the last people considered for any sort of legal status, not the first. There are millions waiting patiently in their home countries because they respect our laws. Those of the ones we should take in, not the ones that are flouting our laws.
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11,000 more socialist, progressive, communist voters! Why is it that these Illegals deserve special treatment! Answer if they were here for opportunity vs a free ride this would not be a concern for this administration.
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This is all about adding new liberal voters. If it is NOTall about adding new liberal voters, then let’s say fine, these aliens, who came here illegally — and stayed around fraudulently under the radar — can apply to stay, but they will be banned from voting for twenty-five years. That will make it clear, very quickly, what this is all about.
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Declaring that America’s immigration system is broken, President Obama on Tuesday called for a process to allow the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country to apply for citizenship — and food stamps, and welfare, and voting (oh wait they already vote)
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Why is it that the U.S. is the only country in the world (as far as I know) that allows “undocumented” (illegal entrants) to dictate our policy? My bet is that if an American went to Mexico and demanded that he/she own property in Mexico without exception, he/she would be shown the border pronto.
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Sociopath-in-Chief has just put 12 million illegals in front of the highest unemployed black men in a generation.
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I have an immigration reform proposal:
1. Impeach Obama
2. Impeach Feinstein
3. E-Verify the nation
4. End chain migration
5. End all social services for illegal aliens
6. Deport all illegal aliens
7. Secure the borders
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“Once massive deportation starts and removal of all food stamps, social security, earned income credit, housing the ones not deported will either leave or wind up in jail. We have a thing called the Armed Services to protect out citizens from invasion and harm. It’s time we used it !”

These just may be many of the same people with whom you would like to have a rational discussion about the deficit, the debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment, guns, abortion, austerity and the gap between rich and poor.

Lots of luck.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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 Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY