Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Economic austerity causes civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Your Congress at work: Updated: October 14, 2011
(From the Wilmette Life)

2010 HEALTH LAW, ABORTION: The House on Oct. 13 voted, 251 for and 172 against, to give hospitals that oppose abortions on religious or moral grounds leeway to turn away a pregnant woman seeking emergency care even if an abortion were necessary to save her life. Additionally, the bill would make it more difficult or impossible for women to use their own money to buy policies covering reproductive services in the law’s state-run insurance exchanges. The bill awaits Senate action.

Gotcha, women. No insurance for you. And if you bleed to death on the doorstep of a hospital emergency room, it’s all perfectly legal. And it’s moral, too. Ask your (male) religious leader.

AIR POLLUTION RULES, JOBS: Voting 275 for and 142 against, the House on Oct. 13 passed a bill (HR 2250) to nullify new Environmental Protection Agency rules that would curb air pollution such as mercury discharges by industrial boilers, incinerators and process heaters. […]Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., said the rules nullified by this bill would impose costs on universities, hospitals, government buildings, large commercial properties and industrial facilities.

Forget our health and our children’s health. We don’t want industry to undergo “costs.”

MERCURY EMISSIONS: Voting 169 for and 249 against, the House on Oct. 11 refused to expand HR 2250 (above) to spotlight the health hazards of mercury emissions, whose regulation the bill would delay. The amendment sought to add a finding that “the American people are exposed to mercury from industrial sources addressed by (this bill) through the consumption of fish containing mercury, and every state … has issued at least one mercury advisory for fish consumption.” […] Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., said that . . . it’s important that the American people also know that there is a lot of mercury coming from natural sources . . . .”

Now if only we could get trees to stop emitting mercury. Someone should find out how much money Ed Whitfield is getting from industry PACs.

OBAMA JOBS BILL: Voting 50 for and 49 against, the Senate on Oct. 11 failed to reach 60 votes for ending GOP blockage of President Obama’s bill (S 1660) to spend $447 billion over ten years on creating jobs. The spending would be paid for by a new 5.6 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million. This vote sustained a Republican filibuster and effectively killed the bill. Three Democrats and all 46 Republicans who voted backed the filibuster.

The bill authorizes $50 billion for highway and transit construction, $44 billion in extended benefits for the long-term jobless, $30 billion to help states keep teachers and first responders on the job, $30 billion for school repairs and $10 billion for an infrastructure bank designed to leverage between $60 billion and $100 billion in public works construction. The bill provides $271 billion in tax relief, achieved by accelerating certain business write-offs and halving employees’ Social Security withholding next year — from 6.2 to 3.1 percent of gross income up to $106,800 in wages.

No need to spend money to create jobs for the #99% so long as the banks and banksters are O.K.

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. The key equation in economics: Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Economic austerity causes civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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In an earlier post, I asked: “Why doesn’t President Obama support #Occupy Wall Street?” The short answer was that he is part of the #1% and beholden to them.

But #Occupy Wall Street is the real deal. It is not a little protest movement by a small bunch of rag-tag, hippie teenagers. It’s America. With the Democrats and the Tea/Republicans under the thumb of the wealthy #1%, the #99% is angry and frustrated, and this anger and frustration will tear America apart, unless the politicians start to understand reality.

Tax increases and spending cuts will not reduce unemployment.
Tax increases and spending cuts will not grow the economy.
Austerity hurts everyone but the rich, and the #99% are justifiably restive.

Watch this video: People arrested for trying to close accounts at Citibank.

This is America?

Watch this video: People arrested for trying to close their accounts at Bank of America

Can you believe this is happening in America?

People see banks and wealthy banksters being bailed out, and ask, “Who will bail out the people?” They are told, “We can bail out the banks, and we can’t punish them, because they are too big to fail. But there isn’t enough money to help you little people, and if you protest, we’ll have the police arrest and beat you.”

This is the American dream?

Cutting Social Security hurts the #99%. Cutting Medicare hurts the #99%. Eliminating the long-term care provisions of “Obamacare” hurts the #99%. Cutting Medicaid hurts the #99%. The establishment’s lies about federal debt hurt the #99%. HAMP was a massive lie, designed to mollify the American poor, while doing nothing to help them.

As I’ve said in the prelude to this and other posts, “ Economic austerity causes civil disorder.” So far, we’ve had a meek form of civil disorder, but it’s growing. Riots in the streets are next. And why? Because the economists, the media and the politicians, in league with the wealthiest, have spread the myth that our Monetarily Sovereign nation doesn’t have sufficient money to bail out the nation.

The #99% knows something is wrong, but they don’t know how to argue the facts. They’ve been fed so many myths, they are confused. All they can do is vent their anger in the streets. The anger is growing, and the #1% had better wise up, or America will be torn to pieces.

Democrats and Tea/Republicans: Stop lying to the people and don’t ignore them. Don’t try to clamp a lid on this pressure cooker. Learn Monetary Sovereignty and spend what is necessary to lift the #99%, or you will lose everything. And you would have only yourselves to blame.

Revolution is in the air.

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. The key equation in economics: Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Economic austerity causes 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 is today’s single, most important economic question. Whoever answers it can save our economy. Send it to economists, newspaper and magazine editors, columnists, radio and TV personalities, politicians, bloggers and members of the public.

Please add the answers to the “Reply” section of this post.

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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. The key equation in economics: Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws: Reduced money growth never stimulates economic growth. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Economic austerity causes 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 is a perfect example of news trash: The media’s misleading use of data to sow fear and ignorance.

US gov’t runs $1.3 trillion budget deficit in 2011
Government deficit totals $1.3 trillion for 2011, third year of $1 trillion plus imbalances

Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer, On Friday October 14, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government ran a $1.3 trillion deficit for the budget year that ended last month, the third straight year it has operated more than $1 trillion in the red.

Obviously, no one wants to be “in the red.” Martin Crutsinger could have said the economy ran $1.3 trillion in the black, which would have been far more accurate.

The 2011 budget deficit was the second highest on record. It’s slightly ahead of the previous budget year’s $1.29 trillion deficit but below the $1.41 trillion imbalance record in 2009.

A decade ago, the government was running surpluses and trillion-dollar deficits seemed unimaginable. But those deficits now loom over tense negotiations in Washington.

Lawmakers are under pressure to agree by Thanksgiving on where they can cut $1.2 trillion over the next decade. If they cannot, automatic cuts to Medicare, defense spending and other critical areas of the budget would go into effect in Jan. 2013.

In other words, if our government won’t reduce the stimulus for this moribund economy, the law will “cut Medicare, defense spending and other critical areas.” That will hurt the economy, hurt older people, and hurt U.S. security, but the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government, which never can run short of its sovereign dollar, will not have to expend $0 and zero effort to create more dollars for our economy. And this is considered good news.

For 2011, the government had to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spent. The string of massive debts has made interest on that debt the fastest growing budget category. For 2011, net interest payments rose 15.7 percent to $227 billion.

The government didn’t “borrow” anything. It created T-securities from thin air, which meant so-called “lenders” saw their checking accounts debited and their T-security accounts credited. The government didn’t receive one penny. However, the good news is the additional $227 billion that entered the economy in the form of interest payments. Unfortunately, interest rates are so low, comparatively few dollars are reaching Americans.

And by the way, folks, so-called “borrowing” doesn’t reduce the so-called “deficit.” There is zero connection between T-securities and federal deficit spending other than rules requiring T-securities to be created (from thin air) in an amount equal to the deficit. We could have deficits without T-securities and T-securities without deficits.

The government also lost revenue because of the 2 percentage point cut in Social Security taxes, and also it had to pay for an extension of emergency unemployment benefits. Congress approved both in December to boost the sluggish economy.

More accurately: The economy gained dollars because of the 2 percentage point cut in Social Security taxes and the extension of emergency unemployment benefits. So employees and the unemployed had more money to spend.

The nation’s debt is now $14.8 trillion. The enormity of that figure has stoked intense partisan debate in Congress over spending and taxes. Polls show growing voter anger with the inability of both parties to reach solutions to the country’s budget problems.

“Enormity” doesn’t mean “enormousness.” It means something hugely bad. But that $14.8 trillion is the lifeblood of our economy. The voters are angry that the government has pumped $14.8 trillion into the economy. Had the government not added that money to the economy, the entire nation of the United States of America — you, your children and everyone you know — would have zero dollars. Visualize that enormity.

The August budget deal is projected to trim future deficits by $2.1 trillion. That includes the cuts made by the supercommittee and another $900 billion in savings from caps on discretionary spending.

America has 300 million people. So, each man, woman and child in America will sacrifice $3,000 to the debt-hawk gods. If you’re married, the cost to you will be $6,000. Have two children? The cost to the four of you will be $12,000.

And that’s not all. Because each of your friends and neighbors also will lose $3,000, your local economy will take a huge hit, which will propagate throughout the nation, causing further losses. And those losses will cause more losses, and on and on, until we are in another full-blown recession.

But if you are one of those angry voters, who wants the federal deficit to be reduced (so your standard of living can decline), enjoy the fact that your government, which has the unlimited ability to create dollars, will give you fewer of them.

I award Mr. Crutsinger three dunce caps. It would be more, but for the fact he is just a reporter, parroting the popular wisdom. Were he an economist, the award would be five.

I now am running a deficit of about 35 dunce caps (Mr. Crutsinger would call it “in the red.”) Though I am “dunce cap sovereign,” and in no danger of running short, shall I begin to institute a dunce cap tax among my readers? What do you think?)

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. The key equation in economics: Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY