Tag: monetarily sovereign

–How stupid do they think we are? Your children’s future with Social Security and Medicare

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

How stupid do they think we are? For those of us who are not super-rich, the (the politicians) must think we are very stupid, because they keep telling us the same Big Lie, and we keep falling for it.

Even if you learn nothing more about economics for the rest of your life, learn this seven word secret, and you will know more than 99% of Americans:

Federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

That’s right. Your city taxes fund your city’s spending. Your county taxes fund your county’s spending. Your state taxes fund your state’s spending, but:

Federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

Even were all federal tax collections to drop to $0, the federal government could continue paying all its bills, forever.

The federal government is unique in that it alone is Monetarily Sovereign. It is sovereign over the dollar. It originally created the dollar from thin air, and continues to create dollars from thin air.

Cities, counties, states, businesses, you and I all can run short of dollars. We are monetarily non-sovereign. The federal government never can run short of dollars, if it doesn’t want to.

In fact, it creates dollars, ad hoc, simply by paying its bills.

You now know more than 99% of Americans, and much more than the politicians want you to know.

Why do politicians want to keep this secret? They are bribed by the super-rich, via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later.

And why don’t the super-rich want you to know this secret? Because so long as you believe federal taxes pay for federal spending, the rich can convince you there isn’t enough money to pay for your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other benefits the middle- and lower income groups receive.

The super-rich want to widen the Gap between them and you, so they can retain and increase their power over you.

Here is an example of the Big Lie by the bought-and-paid-for politicians.

Christie calls for raising ages for Social Security, Medicare

In major policy speech, Christie calls for ‘honest conversation’ on entitlements
Apr 14, 2015

The New Jersey governor, in a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, called for means testing Social Security, raising the retirement age for Social Security to 69 and gradually raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 by the year 2040.

Means testing and raising the retirement and eligibility ages reduce benefits to upper middle, middle and lower-income people, all of whom rely on these benefits.

As for the rich: They don’t care. These benefits mean nothing to them. While, for instance, Social Security benefits might account for 25% of a middle-income person’s livelihood, such benefits may not even account for 1% of a super rich person’s income.

Thus, every single one of Chris Christie’s proposals widens the Gap between the rich and the rest. But, he believes we’re not smart enough to understand this. He expects us to think federal financing is like personal financing, which is what makes us believe the Big Lie.

The Republican likely future presidential candidate said another key part of the sweeping proposal would change the Medicaid system to “per capita” allotments to each state.

Overall, he said, the plan would save the federal government $1 trillion over 10 years.

Christie doesn’t explain two things:

1. The federal government neither needs nor uses “savings.” Being Monetarily Sovereign, it creates all the dollars it needs.

2. Federal deficit spending adds dollars to the economy, and federal surpluses subtract dollars from the economy. When the federal government spends less (i.e. “saves”), the economy receives less — and that leads to recessions. (See “The Recession Clock at the bottom of this page).

Christie said, “Our leaders in Washington are not telling people the truth,” he said. “Washington is still not dealing with the problem. Washington is afraid to have an honest conversation about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with the people of our country. I am not.”

Tom Rath, a veteran Concord Republican strategist who is uncommitted in the GOP primary, said that while other candidates have been making political announcements in recent days and weeks, Christie’s focus on a specific issue with a specific plan “stands out.”

The Concord Coalition is one of the many mouthpieces for the rich. They are paid by the rich to make the false claim that in some unknown way, the federal government can run short of the dollars it creates as needed. The purpose: To cut your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits.

“When it’s 71 percent of the federal budget, you’d better have some ideas and some answers about it and you can’t be timid about it,” he said. “If this stuff wasn’t true, why would I say it?”

Well, for one thing, you’ve been bribed to say it, Governor Christie, and it’s not like you don’t have a record of lying to the public.

“There’s no political upside to wading into Social Security and Medicare. But you have to do it because if you don’t you’re not going to have the money to spend on national defense. You’re not going to have the money to invest in research and development and you’re not going to have the money to bring tax relief to the American people.

The upside is, the more you lie, the more the rich will pay you. And note the bold-faced lie that the federal government can run short of dollars if it pays Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Christie, who is in a legal battle in his home state over his attempts to cut state funding to public worker pension and health benefits to help balance his state’s budget, touched on that controversy, too. He said his reforms in his home state will “reduce the burden on taxpayers by over $120 billion over 30 years.”

Right. His state, New Jersey, is monetarily non-sovereign. Like all states, it can and has, run short of dollars. Christie wants you to believe the Big Lie that state finances are like federal finances.

The speech on entitlement reform, however, was billed as the centerpiece of his visit.

“In the short term,” he said, the massive cost of entitlements “is growing the deficit and slowly but surely taking over all of government. In the long term, it will steal our children’s future and bankrupt our nation. “

No, what will steal our children’s future is the loss of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits from the federal government. Christie doesn’t want your children and grandchildren collecting benefits.

Christie proposed a “modest means test that only affects those with non-Social Security income of over $80,000 per year, and phases out Social Security payments entirely for those that have $200,000-a-year of other income.”

Translation: He wants to cut Social Security benefits to the people who will need it. The super-rich don’t care. They don’t need Social Security.

In addition to raising the retirement age to 69, he would raise eligibility for early retirement benefits to 64.

It’s bad enough that, uniquely among insurance policies, Social Security benefits are taxed. Now, he wants to raise the retirement age so as to punish even the lowest income groups.

Christie also proposed expanding existing premium means testing for Medicare to ensure, he said, that only those who cannot afford to pay for their own health benefits will receive it.

Christie noted that under current Medicare means testing, there is a sliding scale of costs paid by seniors for part B and part D, from 25 percent for those with incomes above $85,000 to 80 percent for those with incomes of more than $214,000.

He would change the scale to have seniors at the $85,000 level pay 40 percent of premium costs and those with incomes of at least $196,000 pay 90 percent.

Cut, cut, cut. Make life harder for the middle and the aged, so the Gap can be widened.

He also called for raising the eligibility age for Medicare “at a manageable pace” of one month per year, so that by 2040, it would be 67 years old, and by 2064, it would be 69 years old.

This is the “make the middle-class work until they drop” philosophy of the super-rich. Make people poorer and so desperate they will beg the rich for any low-paying job. This is the way the rich re-install slavery in America.

But he would also eliminate the payroll tax for seniors who stay in the workforce over the age of 62.

Each state would receive a “set amount of funds per individual enrollee.”

Translation: He would like to transfer some of the Social Security costs from the federal government — which being Monetarily Sovereign, can afford anything — to the states which are broke.

Christie also addressed the Social Security disability trust fund, which, he said, will run out of money next year without action by congress.

Since the “trust fund” is an accounting fiction, all Congress needs to do is vote to support Social Security disability in perpetuity.

“I believe we should use this moment to reform the system and incentivize getting back to work,” he said.

Ah, there is the cruel myth,“The poor don’t like to work. They are lazy. We need to punish them if they don’t work into old age.”

He said the reforms will allow the federal government to invest in other areas, including defense.

Again, the Big Lie that the federal government is like you and me, and can run short of dollars. It can’t.

Christie’s plan was sharply criticized by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a leading advocacy group for the programs, as another in a “long line of conservative politicians” who want to dismantle the programs.

“The Governor’s plan to means-test Social Security, cutting off some Americans and transitioning the program from an earned benefit to welfare has long been the goal of those who oppose social insurance programs,” the group said in a statement. “It seems the governor acknowledges that his flagging presidential campaign needed a jolt because today’s speech was far more about burnishing Governor Christie’s conservative credentials than offering new proposals that could help America’s workers and retirees.”

Conservatives despise the poor and middle-income groups as being lazy “takers.” What conservatives seldom realize: By punishing the poor and middle, eventually their own children and grandchildren and the nation as a whole, will be punished.

Christie said he will soon unveil a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, which, he said, “does not and cannot work for America.”

“Does not work and cannot work,” except for the additional millions who now have medical insurance.

The right wing has established its lower- and middle-hating credentials. (Remember Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security?) But lest you believe the right-wing is alone in telling the Big Lie, here is a note recently received from Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin.

The Social Security system is currently generating a surplus in tax revenues and interest income, and is expected to maintain this surplus through 2020.

However, Social Security’s costs will continue to grow in the coming years as millions of baby boomers enter retirement. Expenditures eventually will exceed revenues and interest income.

The long-term funding shortfall is attributed primarily to demographic factors, such as increasing life expectancy, as well as program design features, like annual COLAs and a wage-indexed benefit formula.

While reforms are necessary to ensure the survivial of Social Security, we must pursue sensible changes instead of a risky overhaul of the program.

There is no “long-term funding shortfall.” The federal government cannot have a “shortfall” of dollars.

In summary:
1. The federal government does not use tax dollars to pay for its spending. Even if federal taxes were $0, the government could continue spending, forever. (Tax collections are a relic of gold-standard days, when the government’s dollar-creation was limited.)
2. The super-rich pay the politicians to lie about the need to cut benefits. The purpose is to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

Now that you know then facts, contact your Senator and Representative and ask him/her, “How stupid do you think I am?”

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
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

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

–Beating on the poor and weak, a favorite, right-wing amusement

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

If you are poor, or really, even middle-income, do not expect help or sympathy from the right-wing. Your lack of money, wealth and power is all your fault for being a lazy cheater.

So goes the right-wing mantra.

We’re All Welfare Queens Now

A Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is pushing for legislation that would severely limit what food stamp recipients can buy.

The bill being proposed would ban the purchase with food stamps of “cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood or steak.

“The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original intent, which is nutrition assistance,” said Rick Brattin, the representative who is sponsoring the proposed legislation. – Washington Post, April 3, 2015

Never mind the fundamental idiocy of a Congressman who believes one can determine what is bought with food stamps vs. what is bought with dollars — in the same store.

(“Here is a $10 bill plus $10 worth of food stamps. Now be sure to charge the steak to the dollars and charge the vegetables to the food stamps, and not the other way around.”)

Instead, let’s move on past idiocy to identifying these “Welfare Queens,” who, unlike us good honest folk, buy (gasp!) cookies, chips, soft drinks, seafood and steak.

As everyone knows, these foods are only for . . . well, just about everybody in America.

SNAP: Frequently Asked Questions

SNAP eligibility rules require that participants be at or below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level. Recent studies show that 49% of all SNAP participants are children (age 18 or younger), with almost two-thirds of SNAP children living in single-parent households.

In total, 76% of SNAP benefits go towards households with children, 16% go to households with disabled persons, and 9% go to households with senior citizens.

Yes, we must protect ourselves against those low income children, disabled persons and senior citizens, so they don’t sit back in the lap of luxury, eating cookies and steak.

In 2013, the average SNAP client received a monthly benefit of $133.07, and the average household received $274.98 monthly.

Wow, a whole $274.98 a month for a household? With those kind of big bucks coming in, no wonder these Welfare Queens are able to gorge themselves on seafood.

All SNAP retailers must sell at least seven varieties of food in each of four basic categories (meat, poultry, or fish; bread or cereal; vegetables or fruits; and dairy products) on a continuous basis.

Obviously, the meat, poultry or fish, etc., are not considered “nutrition assistance” by Rep. Brattin.

There are 15 Thrifty Food Plan market baskets, each formulated to fit the nutritional requirements of specific gender or age groups in the United States.

TFP market baskets include ratios of grains (including whole grains), vegetables, fruits, milk products, meat and beans, and other foods as determined by the Recommended Dietary Allowances and Dietary Guidelines for Americans issued by the USDA.

The baskets are arranged with the goal of obtaining minimal cost for sufficient nutrition.

Being poor, lazy cheaters, they must be told exactly what they are allowed to eat.

But sometimes the poor are not obedient. This disobedience is especially galling to us right-wingers who don’t like the federal government telling us what to do. Uh, wait . . . uh . . . oops.

SNAP has frequently been a target for accusations of fraud and abuse of the system. SNAP beneficiaries are accused of cheating the system by receiving greater benefits than would befit their income status or exchanging SNAP benefits for cash.

In reality, fraud within the SNAP system is extremely low. With the introduction of the EBT cards, most opportunities for fraud have been removed, and an electronic trail now exists to facilitate the tracing of abuses in the system.

According to a recent USDA analysis, SNAP reached a payment accuracy of 96.19% in 2012 (the highest that the program has ever seen). Trafficking rates—the number of benefits exchanged for cash—are at 1%.

Well, we don’t care about facts. We once heard of somebody who bought a steak with food stamps. So there!

Many Americans believe that the majority of SNAP benefits go towards people who could be working. In fact, more than half of SNAP recipients are children or the elderly.

At least forty percent of all SNAP beneficiaries live in a household with earnings. In fact, the majority of SNAP households do not receive cash welfare benefits (around 10% receive cash welfare), with increasing numbers of SNAP beneficiaries obtaining their primary source of income from employment.

AKA known as the “working poor,” people often are stuck with the most difficult, backbreaking, disgusting jobs our society has to offer.

Undocumented immigrants are not (and never have been) eligible for SNAP benefits.

Documented immigrants can only receive SNAP benefits if they have resided within the United States for at least five years (with some exceptions for refugees, children, and individuals receiving asylum).

So, in America, even if you are here legally, you won’t get nutritional help from our government for at least five years.

Right-wingers like Rick Brattin use class-warfare brainwashing to convince you that you are paying for a luxurious lifestyle, by ne’er-do-well, lazy cheaters, who use your money to live like kings.

So, of course you should learn to hate these people, which will justify denying them even the relative pittance they now receive.

Never mind that you and I do not pay for SNAP or any other federal benefit. Federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

And never mind that but for the grace of God, we could find ourselves impoverished and starving, however much we may want to deny it.

Beating on the poor is amusing to the Rick Brattins of the world. He can laugh as he watches the poor jump through hoops, and no matter what they do, it will not be enough to please him.

It’s especially entertaining that we can watch them suffer, and they can’t fight back.

Beating on the poor is exactly like that other, popular pastime we teach our children to enjoy: Hunting.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

===================================================================================
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
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

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

–Rand Paul: Constitutional scholar, morality judge and linguist

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

The right-wing is very much in favor of applying Constitutional law, specifically when it happens to punish the weak and powerless, reward the rich or when it favors guns.

The right-wing also is very much in favor of “getting government off people’s backs.”

Consider, for instance, current right wing darling, Rand Paul, and his opinions about marriage:

Rand Paul: ‘…If You Want to Marry Another Woman That You Can Do That and Have a Contract’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he believes “what you do in your home is your own business” when asked about his views on gay marriage.

“I do believe people ought to be left alone. I don’t care who you are, what you do at home, or who your friends are, where you hang out, what kind of music you listen to. What you do in your home is your own business.

That’s always been who I am. I am a leave-me-alone kind of guy,” Paul said.

“But not when it comes to marriage?” CNN host Dana Bash asked.

“Well, no, states will end up making the decisions on these things. I think that there’s a religious connotation to marriage. I believe in the “traditional” religious connotation to this.”

You could have both traditional marriage, which I believe in, and you could also have the neutrality of the law that allows people to have contracts with another.”

So let’s get this straight. Sen. Paul does not object to gay people getting married, so long as they don’t dare call it “marriage.”

It should be the identical contract as “traditional” marriage, just don’t use the word “marry.” Use some other words (How about “get hitched” or “plight one’s troth”?)

And the nonsense continues: Rand Paul believes people ought to be left alone — but state governments should make the marriage decision.

You see, to the silly right, the federal government is the evil, dishonest, tyrannical “leviathan,” while state governments are angelic, virtuous, sympathetic cherubs.

For example, in my home state of Illinois, half our governors and many other local politicians are so honest, they are allowed to live free in government residences called “prisons.”

And finally, Sen. Paul thinks marriage laws should be based on religion, though the very first words in the very first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States are: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . “

But Senator Paul believes the religious connotation should be obeyed, and I suppose, if the religious connotation is Senator Paul’s belief, then the religious connotation should be the nation’s belief, Constitution or not.

But it will get screwier. Wait until you examine the Constitutional scholar’s budget proposals.

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
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

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

Oh, no! ICE has not destroyed enough families. Send in the “leviathan.”

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

The Washington Times, that ever-reliable mouthpiece for the rich, the radical, the ruthless and the right, laments:

Deportations of illegal immigrants plummet on Obama’s watch
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Monday, April 13, 2015

The federal government’s chief deportation agency has seen its success plummet under President Obama, and its chief, Sarah R. Saldana, will tell Congress on Tuesday that they’ve had trouble adapting to the changing face of illegal immigration and a lack of cooperation from both American cities and from foreign countries.

To the Washington Times, “Obama” is a curse word, that must be included in every politically negative headline. And to right-wing minds, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a “deportation” agency.

Not exactly, but it says much about right-wing minds. Here’s what ICE says its mission is:

Immigration Enforcement: . . . priorities to find and remove illegal aliens who are criminals, fugitives or recent arrivals . . . cracking down on those who produce fraudulent documents to enable unlawful activity.

Investigating Illegal Movement of People and Goods: Illegal trade predominately involve guns, money and drugs, but ICE’s responsibilities extend much further into all kinds of illegal and counterfeit merchandise . . .include the repatriation of cultural treasures out of the country to original owners abroad, and combating the trade of child pornography.

Preventing Terrorism: . . . identifying dangerous persons before they enter the U.S. or finding them as they violate immigration or customs laws. ICE also works to prevent the illegal export of U.S. technology.

Rating ICE by the number of people it deports would be like rating a police department by the number of parking tickets it writes. ICE’s purpose is to help prevent criminality, not cruelly to destroy families by deporting otherwise innocent men, women and children.

Back to the Washington Times article:

Ms. Saldana, said she had to pull agents off their regular duties during last summer’s illegal immigrant surge at the border, which meant fewer people focusing on deporting the longtime illegal immigrants living in the interior of the U.S..

The Washington Times never refers to “undocumented” immigrants; it prefers the harsher term “illegal” immigrants, so to create in your mind, an equation with murderers and terrorists — the usual brainwashing stunt.

If they are longtime residents, these are exactly the people we want here. Odds are, they, their children and their grandchildren are law-abiding, productive residents of America, as important to America’s growth as you and me.

Why would we want to rip these people out of the lives they have built here, just to satisfy right-wing meanness?

And she said the lack of cooperation from states, counties and cities when agents ask them to hold an illegal immigrant for pickup has also hindered efforts.

Here an irony for you. The Tea/Republicans always talk about states rights, and reducing that bad old, big old federal government “leviathan.” But now, when the states, counties and cities decide not to throw people out of the country, the right wing wants the “leviathan” to take over.

As long as it’s mean spirited and anti-poor, the right wing favors it, even when the “leviathan” does it.

“Over the past six years, President Obama has steadily dismantled the interior enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte.

“Under the Obama administration’s watch, the apprehension, detention, and removal of unlawful and criminal aliens has dramatically declined. Altogether, the actions taken by this administration undermine the rule of law, make our communities less safe, and place ICE officers in harm’s way.”

Ah, yet another irony. The Tea/Republicans have been the “cut-federal-spending party,” but now they complain when there aren’t enough agents to do the dirty work of deporting human beings.

And note how they combine “unlawful” (meaning “undocumented”) with “criminal,” and somehow this all makes our communities “less safe.”

How are our communities “less safe”? No one knows. The Tea/Republicans want you to visualize crazed Mexicans rampaging through your neighborhood, pillaging and raping.

Actually, undocumented immigrants are the least likely to be criminals, simply because they are hyper-sensitive about being caught. (The sad comment in our neighborhood is that no landscaper’s truck ever exceeds the speed limit.)

Some localities say that holding illegal immigrants for pickup by federal authorities after they’ve completed their sentences or processing for their local crimes is unconstitutional.

Though the Constitution was written to protect the weak from the strong, the Tea/Republicans use it to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and weak — and to legalize guns, which are much more dangerous, and make our communities much less safe, than do immigrants.

Away from immigration, ICE did notch successes in customs investigations, going after several cartels involved in black market peso exchanges and targeting human smuggling operations.

Operation Coyote, designed to combat the smugglers who helped spark last summer’s immigration surge, has resulted in nearly 1,300 criminal arrests.

Now that’s what this agency should be doing, not running after longtime, innocent residents, people with children and grandchildren — the very foundation of America.

Do we really want the “leviathan” to stomp on these people?

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
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

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