Tag: monetary non-sovereignty

–Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

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

“Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes on economics, business and public policy.”

This says very little about Megan McArdle and even less about Bloomberg.

It’s sad, frustrating and angering that an organization like Bloomberg can have Megan McArdle as their economics writer. Here is her latest Bloomberg exercise in ignorance.

RETIREMENT
The Left Gets It Wrong About Social Security
APR 7, 2015, By Megan McArdle

Americans are underprepared for retirement. And given this sad fact, there’s a growing movement on the left saying we need a government solution, stat: specifically, an expansion of Social Security benefits.

Instead of reluctantly agreeing to a compromise where Republicans let some taxes rise and Democrats agree to entitlement cuts, (progressives are) demanding bigger tax hikes to fund bigger entitlements.

Get it? Americans don’t have enough money to retire in dignity, so Megan’s compromise “solution” is to increase FICA and reduce Social Security benefits. Huh?

Does it get any sillier than that? How in the name of common sense, will a FICA increase and a Social Security benefit decrease help Americans save more and have more for retirement?

(I should mention that since FICA does not fund Social Security benefits, the Democrats “solution” would be silly too, but at least it involves raising benefits.)

At the core of their argument is a good point: Americans really do need more money for retirement. Missing, however, is a realistic discussion of where that money might come from.

The (Social Security trust fund) trustees’ report predicts that by 2023, the gap between taxes collected and benefits paid will be almost $170 billion. The only reason that the system isn’t in the red already is the net interest the government is paying itself on the bonds in the trust fund.

Now, this should make any rational person stop and think: “Hmmm . . The government pays itself interest, and that interest has kept Social Security out of the red.

“Hmmm . . . again. If the government can do that, why can’t the government simply pay for Social Security and keep the whole program solvent?”

But, of course, that requires a rational person’s thinking.

If we want to pay Social Security beneficiaries more money than we are collecting in payroll taxes, the money has to come from somewhere, and ultimately, that “somewhere” is the United States taxpayer.

And there is where Megan McArdle, demonstrates her abject ignorance about federal financing. She simply refuses to understand or admit the fundamental differences between a Monetarily Sovereign government and a monetarily non-sovereign entity.

The former creates its sovereign currency, in this case dollars, ad hoc, simply by the very act of paying bills. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither uses nor needs FICA. It does not need income because it creates dollars.

The latter is like you and me (and the states, counties and cities), which have no sovereign currency and do indeed rely on income or tax dollars to pay their bills.

State and local taxpayers do pay for state and local spending. Federal taxpayers do not pay for federal spending. It’s that simple.

How can an economics writer for a significant publication not understand the difference? How can the publishers of that significant publication not know the difference?

Beyond belief. And in fact, I don’t believe it. I do believe they know exactly what they are doing: Widening the Gap between the rich and the rest..

Then Megan goes on and on about where to get the tax dollars to pay increased Social Security benefits, and that it certainly should not come from rich people (like her employers)

She continually and conveniently ignores the fact that TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR FEDERAL SPENDING. TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.

Period.

And just when you thought Bloomberg couldn’t be more misleading, we come to the the following article:

SOCIAL SECURITY
Elizabeth Warren Is Delusional About Social Security
11 APR 8, 2015 By Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, (and) a senior editor for National Review, where he covers national politics.

Social Security has a long-term funding gap that just keeps growing. Neither political party has a plan to pay for the promises we’ve already made to people contributing to the system. But Democrats are bringing a new idea to the table: make even more promises.

Liberals are exulting that (Massachusetts’s Elizabeth) Warren has shifted the politics of Social Security to the left: Where once we were debating cutbacks to the program, now we’re debating benefit increases.

Too bad that also means the debate is shifting further away from fiscal reality.

Yes, too bad indeed, for the fiscal reality is that the U.S. federal government has the unlimited ability to pay any debt denominated in its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

Sadly, Ponnuru either is intentionally or unintentionally ignorant about that basic fact in economics.

To them it is horrible that we’re not talking about cutting Social Security benefits, but rather we’re talking about (gasp) increasing benefits to our elderly. How awful!

Social Security is becoming a worse deal for each generation. Those now joining the workforce are expected to pay more into the system than they get out of it.

Of course, the U.S. federal government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency, so those above-mentioned expectations are on the part of those who don’t understand federal financing.

Warren’s plan is to shower more money on the current generation of retirees, but without increasing the deficit over the next 10 years.

If her real plan is not to increase the deficit, one must ask, “Why?” The midleadingly termed deficit” is, in actuality, a surplus to the economy. Because the economy, as a whole, is monetarily non-sovereign, and the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, the economy needs continual inputs of money (aka “deficit spending”) from the federal government.

It may be that Sen. Warren, realizing that the public neither understands, nor would believe, the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, has decided not to tilt windmills, but just go along with popular myth — so long as she can accomplish the Social Security benefits.

Sad, but possibly true.

Social Security has always been a combination of forced savings and redistribution.

Wrong. FICA is not savings, and Social Security benefits are not redistribution. FICA is taking and SS benefits are giving. There is no connection between the two.

FICA could be collected without providing benefits (as with a person who dies too young), and benefits could be paid without FICA.

And now comes the pitch for the rich:

People joining the workforce now should be promised a flat universal retirement benefit set at a level that keeps all seniors out of poverty.

At the same time, they should be auto-enrolled in retirement savings accounts that would include an option to invest in index funds, with the mix of investments shifting from stocks to bonds as workers approached retirement.

And there you have it: The stock and commodity brokers’ and bankers’ college tuition and retirement fund.

All those delicious dollars just waiting to be handed over to your greedy banker or broker, so he can invest for you (with commissions, of course).

This has been the mantra of the rich for years, now. Bush II tried it, but things got a bit dicey when the stock market went south. And now, here we are again, with the same old story:

Just give us rich your retirement money, and after we deduct our fees and commissions, we’ll give some of your money back to you. Maybe.

(My relative of mine tried that with the Illinois college savings plan. When the recession came, she lost half her money.)

Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

By the way, if you sense that all this makes me angry, you’re right. I’m angry that the multi-billionaire owner of Bloomberg hires sycophants like McArdle, Ponnuru et al to brainwash the populace into supporting programs that will do nothing but widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

My god, man, don’t you have enough money? Can’t you, at long last, help narrow that Gap?

Is greed all you have?

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

–Immigration scare tactics revealed

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

Yesterday, a reader, golfer1john, expressed concern about the amount of immigration to America. You can read my response in the comment section of the previous post.

To put today’s post into context, on average, about 884,000 foreigners have migrated to the U.S. per year, since 2001.

America has 320 million people. So each year, less than 3 tenths of 1% of our population came here as immigrants.

Here’s an example of scare tactics for xenophobes, from the right-wing Washington Times:

Illegal immigrant children surge across border at highest rate since last summer’s peak
By Stephen Dinan

The second wave of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children has begun, with more than 3,000 of them surging across the Mexican border into the U.S. last month — the highest rate since the peak of last summer’s crisis and a warning that another rough season could be ahead.

Immigration officials warned that they expected another surge as the weather improved. Although the numbers are down some 40 percent compared with last year’s frenetic pace that sparked a political crisis for the Obama administration, fiscal year 2015 is shaping up to mark the second-biggest surge on record.

Let’s parse these two short paragraphs. Including the title, the word “surge” repeatedly was used. (Three thousand, down from 5,000 is a “surge”?)

Three thousand a month comes to 36,000 a year, which is just 4% of the average immigration rate. Wow, a 4% “surge”!

Further, the paragraphs manage to include such words as “frenetic pace,” “wave,” “crisis,” “rough season,” “warning,” and of course, the inevitable, “illegal,” all designed to scare you.

And all this scary rhetoric for just 3,000 children, down from 5,000.

In reading those two paragraphs, one might think (as you are supposed to think), that we are being swarmed with brown-skinned children, smothering us like locusts.

In reality, a relative handful (compared with the size of America) of frightened children are begging for sanctuary here, to avoid being enslaved or raped or killed, or simply to find a decent life.

And the right-wing Washington Times wants us to send them back to misery because . . . because what?

Will these children take our jobs? Obviously not. They are children.

Will they take our tax money? No, not in a Monetarily Sovereign country, where federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

Are we so crowded that we don’t have room for the children? No, America still is mostly empty land.

So what is the reason?

Bigotry and xenophobia. The children have brown skins. There is no outrage about Canadian or European immigration.

Authorities report having captured 15,647 children traveling without parents who tried to jump the border in the first six months of the fiscal year. Through this point in 2014, they had apprehended 28,579.

Oh, thank goodness we compassionate Americans were able to capture these vile children and send them back to the horrors they bravely tried to escape, because they represent such a danger to us and to our pure American way of life.

Yes, they are illegal, and why are they illegal? Because we created their illegality.

We created an unnecessarily harsh system whereby children must wait many years to achieve legality.

We created the classic “gotcha” system, a kind of “speed-trap,” in which a hick town sets up a 25MPH speed limit on a 70MPH highway, and arrests anyone who “breaks the law” by going too fast.

The U.S. has created an immigration speed trap and now we are horrified that anyone should break our terrible law.

Just as worrisome is the rate of whole families — usually mothers with young children — who are crossing. So far this fiscal year, authorities have captured 13,911 “family units,” down 30 percent from last year.

Isn’t that wonderful? Doesn’t that make you proud? Our authorities have arrested 13,911 family units — you know, those 13,911 evil mothers and children who are overwhelming America.

Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies said the Obama administration and Congress have not taken steps to end the “pull factors.”

Who? The Center for Immigration Studies? Who are they?

Here’s how they describe themselves:

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.

The data collected by the Center during the past quarter-century has led many of our researchers to conclude that current, high levels of immigration are making it harder to achieve such important national objectives as better public schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security, and a living wage for every native-born and immigrant worker.

Many of us at the Center are animated by a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” vision of an America that admits fewer immigrants but affords a warmer welcome for those who are admitted.

Isn’t that sweet? “Independent, non-partisan,” but also “low-immigration,” while being “pro-immigration.” (Huh?)

And of course, they want to give immigrants a “warmer welcome.” (By sending them back south to a warmer climate.)

And are we really to believe that supposedly “high” levels of immigration make it hard for us to have better schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security and a living wage?

I’ll tell you what makes these things hard, and it’s not immigration.

It’s the cut-federal-spending, austerity policy of the Tea Republicans that have destroyed our schools.

It’s the anti-environment policies of the Tea Republicans that have created the pollution that dirties our environment.

It’s the anti-worker, pro-corporation policies of the Tea Republicans that have prevented a living wage.

And as for homeland security, do you really believe that these 3,000 children a month represent a threat to America’s security?

In short, this self-proclaimed “independent, non-partisan, research organization” has an agenda. It is nothing but a mouthpiece for the austerity-inducing, Tea Republican, anti-brown-skin xenophobes.

Legitimate, unbiased research indicates that immigrants, on balance, benefit America.

Further, the whole notion of sending innocent children back to the horrors they bravely try to escape, is repugnant to me as an American and as a human being. It should be repugnant to you, too.

But that is what the xenophobes do to us. They destroy our moral code. They blind us with scare tactics. They make us cruel to innocent children and innocent mothers.

It’s simply disgusting. Especially for Americans.

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

–The Neville Chamberlain lesson, not learned

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

Sometimes no comments are needed.

Consider this:

“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.”

—Neville Chamberlain, 27 September 1938, 8 p.m. radio broadcast, on Czechoslovak refusal to accept Nazi demands to cede border areas to Germany.

And this:

The Obama Watch, Obama’s Strange Iran Negotiations
He turns down a bargaining chip from Congress.
By Scott McKay –

Two senators, Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Bob Menendez, have authored a bill to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran if it ultimately refuses to honor the demands of the international community as regards its nuclear weapons program.

President Barack Obama has now pledged to veto that bill.

Obama said in a written statement last week that threatened a veto of the bill. “Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully.”

Not only has Obama rejected the bill, he touched off an intraparty squabble with Menendez and other Democrats by attacking it as the product of influence by “donors and others” — which many have interpreted as code for influential Jews protecting Israeli interests.

PowerLine’s Paul Mirengoff suggests (Obama’s) willing to give away the store to Iran in order to set the stage for a grand bargain with the mullahs that will magically solve the problems in the Middle East.

And this:

Iranian General: ‘Erasing Israel Off the Map’ Is ‘Nonnegotiable’

The commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in an interview that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable.”

“The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back,” he added.

Fars News also quoted Naqdi threatening both Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Any questions, college students?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

monetary sovereignty
THE OBAMA NEGOTIATIONS

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

–What could be worse than this Congressional bitter disagreement ?

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

Answer: This Congressional joyful, bipartisan smooching.

When the crocodiles smile, you, the public, are being eaten.

House Expected To Pass Major Boehner-Pelosi Deal To Reshape Medicare

An ambitious agreement by Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to fix a major funding gap in Medicare and make some separate long-term cuts appears in good shape to pass the House.

monetary sovereignty

REDUCING COVERAGE FOR NO REASON. SEE HOW HAPPY THEY ARE.

“It is all shaping up very well on both sides,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner.

At a cost of roughly $210 billion, the bill replaces the “sustainable growth rate” formula to instead give doctors gradual raises while extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program for two years starting in October.

It includes $70 billion in offsets by making two structural changes to cut Medicare spending: force high-income seniors to kick in more for their care and reduce spending on supplemental Medigap plans, specifically “first dollar” coverage.

These “offsets” are based on three lies:

1. FICA funds Medicare benefits (It doesn’t.)
2. The federal government is too broke to pay for Medicare. (It isn’t.)
3. By contrast, you have too much money so you can afford to pay more. (You don’t.)

Our readers, who understand Monetary Sovereignty, know that FICA does not fund Medicare.

Just to be clear: FEDERAL TAXES DO NOT FUND FEDERAL SPENDING. Period.

Even if all federal taxes fell to $0, the government could continue to pay all its bills — including Medicare for every man, woman and child in America — forever.

So why does the government charge you FICA, and why will the government cut Medicare benefits further? Because FICA is the most regressive tax in America, punishing the middle- and lower-income groups far more than the rich. This helps widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, the single most important goal of the rich.

Why do both parties wish to help the rich increase the Gap? Because both parties are bribed via campaign contributions, plus promises of lucrative employment, later. (Thank you, right-wing Supreme Court.)

The rest of the legislation is not paid for, which could be a deal-breaker for hardline conservatives in the House and Senate.

Translation: Hard line conservatives are not satisfied with just draining your blood. They want to cut out your flesh and bones, too.

Progressives don’t love the Medicare cuts but many Democrats are willing to accept them because they don’t touch core benefits for middle-class Americans.

Translation: We Democrats pretend to be your friends, but all we want is your vote. We plan to go along with the Republicans every year, to slice bits off Medicare, because as they told you, “Medicare is broke.” The Republicans give us cover. Aren’t we clever?

So long as you’re stupid enough to vote for us, we’ll just keep slicing those benefits — increase the age, reduce the payments — soon we’ll tax benefits, like we do with Social Security.

The rich won’t care. Medical costs are a minuscule part of their income, but a big part of yours.

Senate Republicans are eager to get rid of the “doc fix” problem, and the long-term Medicare cuts in the House package are an enticement for them.

Translation: The doctors have a powerful lobby, and they contribute lots of money to us. What’s your lobby? How much do you contribute?

Republicans have been aching to cut your Medicare benefits, so this gives us Democrats an excuse to give them what the rich want.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said, “I’ve been working on entitlement reform since I got here 21 years ago. This is the first real hope at getting entitlement reform and in the process taking care of the SGR which we’ve always known was a mythical cut.”

Translation: In conservative-speak, the word “reform” always means: “Screw the poor and the middle class.”

Thus entitlement “reform” means cut Social Security benefits, cut Medicare benefits, cut Medicaid benefits, cut unemployment compensation, cut food stamps, and cut all other poverty aids.

Similarly, tax “reform” means charging the poor and the middle more, via regressive programs like a flat tax, increases in FICA and sales taxes, and the sneakiest one of all: Making the monetarily non-sovereign states and cities pay for things the federal government should fund (Example: Education.)

Any time you hear a politician use the word “reform,” grab your wallet and scream, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Predition: Shortly after (like, the next day after) 2016 elections, the politicians will, at the urging of their rich benefactors, “discover” that once again, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, all poverty aids and taxes need to be “reformed.”

Once again you will be treated to the Big Lie that the federal government is “broke,” while you are rich, and that federal spending is limited by federal tax collections.

And because you will believe it (and probably become angry at anyone who disagrees), your taxes will rise, your benefits will fall, and the income/wealth/power Gap between you and the rich will grow.

You’re being raped. I hope you enjoy it.

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.
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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