A solution to the climate change controversy.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
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President Trump says climate change is a Chinese hoax. He doesn’t believe the massive release of CO2 by humans is warming the planet.

The United States military disagrees. Here are some excerpts from an interview aired on NPR:

National Public Radio: LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
Climate Change As An Issue Of National Security

ProPublica published excerpts of a testimony by Defense Secretary James Mattis calling climate change a national security threat. Mattis says climate change is, quote, “impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.”

Retired Brig. Gen. Gerald Galloway talks about how the Pentagon will manage challenges presented by climate change.

The Trump administration and the President himself have denied its impact.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What environmental challenges do you see the military facing today?

GENERAL GALLOWAY: The military has a battlefield on which they’re going to fight. That battlefield is in constant change. It is right now, but it will be under considerably more change under climate change.

We already know, for example, that we have more intense rainfall events. We expect to see – the rivers will flow with greater volume, and that will cause problems for river crossings.

We see there are problems in the seas. The storms are more intense. We’ll have more frequent storms – all of the sorts of things that make uncertainty reality on the battlefield.

If you can’t get your aircraft off an airfield because it’s under water, if you can’t land troops in a foreign country because the beach you thought was going to be something you could land on is no longer there, then it’s a national security issue.

If our allies are having problems in their own country as a result of such things as drought – where there’s instability in the country – instability breeds conflict. And conflict is what puts our forces at risk, and we don’t want that to happen.

So we’ve got to be prepared for this, and we’ve got to be prepared to assist at home and abroad.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So let’s talk about the measures released last week by the Trump administration in the budget – cuts to almost every single climate change initiative in multiple departments and agencies.

I’m going to list a few. The EPA‘s climate programs would be ended, possibly in their entirety. The Department of Energy’s (DoE) programs would be scaled back. NASA‘s Earth monitoring programs also potentially gone. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAH, would also be hit.

Are you concerned?

GALLOWAY: I certainly am concerned. You can’t have one part of the government operating one way and another part operating in a different manner. So in this particular case, we have to rely on many things that NASA provides, that NOAH provides, and it’s important that they be continued.

I think it’s urgent that we get a glide path to where we’re going. Certainly, when somebody says in 2080, this is going to be the sea level, or we’re going to have storms of this nature, we’re not going to go tomorrow to start building something for that.

But we know that in 2030, there’s going to be a problem. Or right now at Annapolis, just down the river from us, we have a problem with water rising into the city and into the Naval Academy. We have to deal with that now.

So we need to know what the risk is nationwide. We need to know the risk overseas, what it’s going to take to deal with that on a stage basis over time. We need to be doing the things now that’ll let it be operational for the next 10 years and put into the plan for the following 10 years. So it’s taken a lot of effort.

But I will tell you the Defense Department has been a leader since 2003 in dealing with these issues, identifying what they are, coming to the Congress and saying, we need to work in this direction.

And if we do this, we think we can be prepared for it. Now, if that’s pushed off the plate, that’s a different issue, but I don’t see someone who is told this is a national security issue saying, no, don’t do that.

Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans wish to cut federal spending and federal regulations regarding climate change.

But Trump et al do believe in spending for the military — and extra $50 billion, in fact.

So there, dear friends, is the solution staring us in the face. Have the military fund the climate change initiatives of the EPA, NASA, NOAH, DoE, and all other agencies concerned with climate change.

Yes, yes. It’s not a real solution. We don’t want to turn over the whole nation to the military. That’s how military dictatorships are created.

But it demonstrates the priorities of the Trump/Republicans, who say we must cut any spending that would benefit poor and middle-income Americans, but we must increase spending on the military and anti-immigration walls.

Seemingly, our Monetarily Sovereign government can’t afford to help the poor, but we can afford to pay the rich armaments industry billions for more guns and even more billions to pay the rich construction companies for a wall. (Reward the Rich; Punish the Poor. RRPP)

Now, if only the military used their extra $50 billion to fund ACA, perhaps the Trump Republicans wouldn’t have an excuse to deny an additional 24 million Americans their health care.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Guaranteed Income)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Gap Psychology and The Big Lie: You are low class, and should be treated badly

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty

Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Because you are a blue collar worker toiling in a hard job — you have no class. You have no appreciation for the finer things in life.

You don’t care about the arts. You have no feeling for paintings, music, poetry, or fiction. You were born low class; you live a low-class life; and you will die low class.

That’s just the way you are. Here’s who says so:

Trump administration justifies cuts to arts programs by arguing they ‘sound great’ but aren’t actually ‘helping anybody’

The Trump administration’s budget proposes the elimination of all funding to programs including the National Endowment of the Arts, Meals on Wheels, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a decision Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended Thursday by citing coal miners and single moms, Politico reports

“When you start looking at places that we reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?

The answer was no,” Mulvaney told the hosts of Morning Joe on Thursday. “We can ask them to pay for defense, and we will, but we can’t ask them to continue to pay for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

You may have voted for Trump, but this is what he thinks of you: If you are a coal miner from West Virginia, he thinks you are a dirty, swearing, beer-swizzling clod — an oaf who has no appreciation for opera, symphony, painting, sculpture or any other of the finer things. They don’t “help” the likes of you.

If you are a single mom in Detroit, he thinks you are a drugged, food-stamp mama, who also cares nothing for the arts or for public radio.

All you listen to is rap music to the beat of gunfire.You care about the military, because in your rough, course life, shooting and killing are necessities.

At least, that is the picture Trump’s Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, tries to paint. It is his way to dehumanize you, so that any benefits you receive from the government can be taken from you without widespread protest.

You neither want nor deserve government support for the arts, for education, for health care, for good housing, for good food or for the safety of your children.

The government can cut those benefits from its budget, without fear of offending you or those above you on the totem pole. You have no worth or self-worth to be offended.

We have discussed “Gap Psychology” previously. It is the popular belief that people below us on the income/wealth/power scale are inferior and to be disrespected, while people above us are superior and to be admired.

“But,” you may ask, “why would the government even want to take benefits away from me?” That is where The Big Lie raises its ugly head.

In asking one simple question, Rick Mulvaney promulgates both sides of the Big Lie. Remember his question was:

“When you start looking at places that we reduce spending, one of the questions we asked was can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?

In the first part of his question, “When you start looking at places that we reduce spending . . . “ he promulgates this part of The Big Lie: “The federal government can’t afford [unwanted program].

He implies the federal government can’t afford to support the arts, education, health care, etc. and at the same time support the military. He tells you the government needs to reduce spending, when in fact, the government needs to increase spending, especially on the social programs that will benefit you.

He wants you to believe it’s “either – or,” either the arts or the military. It’s a lie. The Big Lie.

The U.S. federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, never can run short of its own sovereign currency, dollars. The federal government’s method for creating new dollars to grow the economy is to deficit spend. That is demonstrated by the formula for the prime measure of economic growth, Gross Domestic Product:

GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports

By formula, federal spending grows the U.S. economy.When Mulvaney says, ” . . . can we really continue to ask

When Mulvaney says, ” . . . can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?” he promulgates this part of The Big Lie: Federal taxes pay for federal spending.

Unlike state and local taxes, which do pay for state and local government spending, federal taxes do not fund federal spending. Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.

The government creates dollars by spending and destroys dollars by taxing. Federal spending itself creates new dollars, ad hoc. No need for taxes.

So here is Mulvaney’s Big Lie in its entirety:

“The federal government can’t afford [unwanted program], and Federal taxes pay for federal spending.

The Big Lie is supported by Gap Psychology, which is funded by the rich.

It is the rich who want everyone to believe the Gap between the rich and the rest should be widened, the rich are superior, the poorer are inferior, and the government cannot afford to help the inferior poor.

Donald Trump is a rich man. He has stocked his cabinet with millionaires and billionaires. He doesn’t associate with those you are poorer. He doesn’t know or respect you. But he loves the military, because it gives him a sense of power.

He can strut belligerently on the world stage, because he controls the biggest weapons and the most soldiers. As a bully, he relishes power, and excuses it as “defense,” as though any nation would dare attack us and survive.

If you read his proposed budget, you will see that throughout it Rewards his Rich pals, and it Punishes you Poorer people. RRPP

(It is) “an agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of Wall Street, and gutting families’ health security . . . “

Trump’s method is The Big Lie and Gap Psychology working in unison to convince you that you want less and you deserve less, while he and his family and cronies deserve more.

It is his attempt to brainwash you and an entire nation.

So far he has succeeded.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )

Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:

*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and

*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.

2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )

This article addresses the questions:

*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?

*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”

*How much would it cost taxpayers?

*Who opposes it?”

3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Guaranteed Income)) Or institute a reverse income tax.

This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012

MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012

“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans

Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.

Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.

An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.

5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL

Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.

If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.

6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS

Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.

7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.

Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.

8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)

There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.

But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.

9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)

Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.

Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.

10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.

Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

RRPP: Reward the Rich; Punish the Poor. The GOP doctrine

BACKGROUND:

As readers of this site know, the primary financial goal of the rich is to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

It is the Gap that makes them rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich — we all would be the same — and the wider the Gap, the richer they are.

For the rich, depriving you of money is just as important as taking more money for themselves. The result is the same. The Gap widens. The rich grow richer.

When you see arguments against federal support for the poor and middle-income groups, understand that these are mere disguises for making the rich richer. That is what widening the Gap does.

The Big Lie (that our Monetarily Sovereign government’s deficits and debt are “unsustainable”) is based on the desire by the rich to widen the Gap.

The truth: The U.S. federal government never can run short of dollars, never can find any spending “unsustainable,” and has total control over inflation. The rich do not want you to understand what Monetary Sovereignty means.

The rich want you to become part of a large supply of desperate people, willing to work hard jobs for starvation wages.

THE TRUMP BUDGET:

A website called “News.Mic” published their estimates of what the latest Trump/Republican budget would do to widen the Gap. As you read this summary, visualize who voted for Trump and how his budget would affect them:

Increase military spending $54 billion.
Spend an extra $4.1 Billion for his border wall
Cut $9.2 billion — or 13.5 percent — from the Education Department’s budget, to reduce or eliminate grants for teacher training, after-school programs and aid to low-income and first-generation college students.
Shift $1.4 billion to charter schools and private school vouchers.
Cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31%, costing 2,300 employees their jobs, while opening the door for increased global warming.
Cut $100 million in spending on research and international programs on combating climate change.
The Washington Post provides the following list of agencies that would disappear. You may recognize some of them:
Cut the State Department 28.5%. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “the level of spending that the State Department has been undertaking … is simply not sustainable.”
Cut $6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, which could cripple important scientific research that requires NIH funding, which could decimate biomedical research in a number of areas and stagger academic institutions around the country that depend on NIH grant money to keep their scientific research programs afloat.
Overall, cut $15.1 billion cut from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Medicare and Medicaid.
Cut 13.2% from the Housing and Urban Development department, and eliminate the Community Development Block Grant Program, which helps fund Meals on Wheels (the service for people age 60+that are homebound and unable to cook or shop for themselves).
Cut 21% from the Department of Agriculture, which would hurt farmers and rural communities.
Cut $2.5 billion from the Labor department. Job training programs — including those aimed at helping seniors, disadvantaged young people and unemployed Americans.

In all, budgets for 14 agencies (including NASA, Transportation, Education, Justice, and Labor) would be cut.

Only three agencies would receive more: Veterans Affairs ($1.4 billion), Homeland Security ($0.8 billion), and Defense ($52.3 billion).

If you were to summarize the thrust of Trump’s budget, it would be: Reward the Rich (especially defense contractors) and Punish the Poor.

RRPP.

As you know, the excuse for this Gap-widening exercise always is the typical line: “The federal government’s deficit spending is ‘unsustainable.'” The federal government, which creates U.S. dollars ad hoc, by spending, supposedly will run short of its own sovereign currency (aka The Big Lie).

You who voted for Trump, but now see him for the fraud he is, and who now regret your vote — you are to be congratulated for recognizing fact. It takes courage and character to admit one’s mistakes.

You who voted for Trump, but refuse to admit your mistake, and still support Trump — well I predict you folks will get something you didn’t bargain for — and it will hurt.

To use Trump’s favorite Twitter word: Sad.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The real purpose of the debt ceiling. Again.

That time of the year has come again. You very soon will begin to read more articles about the U.S. “debt ceiling.”

In October 2015, we published, “The real reason we have a debt ceiling.” The article reminded us of a few facts:

The debt ceiling had been raised 74 times since March 1962
Congress has raised the debt ceiling 14 times from 2001-2013
Every single time we have bumped up against the debt ceiling, it has been raised.

If you asked the mythical “man-in-the-street” why we have a “debt ceiling,” he would tell you something like this: “To control Congress’s deficit spending.”

I hope that is not what you would say, because the answer is ridiculous. The so-called “debt ceiling” controls nothing. Think about it:

Congress controls deficit spending, and Congress controls the debt ceiling. So how could the debt ceiling, which is under the total control of Congress, control what Congress does? It makes no sense.

Further, and more important, the “debt ceiling” is a limit on payment for spending already done. The federal government already owes the money at the time the federal debt approaches the ceiling. The only thing a debt ceiling can accomplish is to cheat America’s creditors, the people who sold goods and services to the federal government.

You might ask your Congressperson how cheating creditors benefits America.

Why then do we have a debt ceiling? The abovementioned article concluded:

The debt ceiling has nothing to do with financial prudence or with spending or with taxes or abortion or immigration or Medicare or gay rights or with our military power or whether the Cubs ever will win a World Series.

The debt ceiling exists only because of a bunch of ruthless, vindictive people, whose pay will continue even during a depression — people who could not care less about you, me or anyone else on earth — people who demand, “Give me what I want or I’ll destroy your life and the lives of your friends and loved ones and of the whole world.”

So that is the real reason we have a the debt ceiling: Bastard power.

But the article was wrong. The real reason is even more insidious than that.

The real reason why we have a phony debt ceiling is to help promulgate the Big Lie, the lie that includes such “sub-lies” as:

Federal taxes and borrowing are necessary to pay for federal spending.
The federal deficit (wrongly termed “printing money”) will cause a Zimbabwe style hyperinflation
The federal “debt” is an unsustainable financial burden on the government and a danger should nations not want to lend to us anymore.
Once the GDP/Debt ratio reaches 100% (or 150% or any other number then in vogue) something terrible will happen.

The “Big Truth” is:

Neither taxes nor borrowing have anything to do with federal spending. Even if all taxes and all borrowing fell to $0, our Monetarily Sovereign government could continue spending forever. (Sorry to be the bearer of “bad” news, but those tax dollars you send to the federal government cease to be part of the money supply. They are destroyed. Used for nothing.)
Not only has the U.S. never had a hyperinflation, not even during wars, recessions, depressions and a Cub World Series victory, but even Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation was not caused by excessive deficit spending. All hyperinflations have been caused by shortages of products.
The federal “debt” being nothing more than the total of dollars deposited in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank, is not a burden on anyone. The federal government easily could pay off the entire “debt” (i.e. deposits) tomorrow, simply by transferring existing dollars from those T-security accounts back to the holders’ checking accounts.
The federal “debt” (total of deposits) is not related to GDP. Japan’s Debt/GDP ratio is about 230%. The U.S.’s is about 105%. Russia’s is about 18%. What does that tell you about the significance of the ratio?

O.K., if the real reason why we have a phony debt ceiling is to promulgate the Big Lie, what is the motive for the Big Lie?

The answer brings us to the Gap between the rich (the .1%)and the rest (the 99.9%).

The Gap is what makes them rich. Without the Gap, we all would be the same. The wider the Gap, the richer they are.

If you had a million dollars, and everyone else had two million, you would be poor. But if you had only a hundred dollars, and everyone else had one dollar, you would be rich.

“Rich” is a comparative, not an absolute.

Thus, the prime financial motivation of the rich is not to make more money but to widen the Gap.

One way to widen the Gap is to deprive the 99.9% of federal benefits, that is to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut ACA, cut aids to education, cut all poverty assistance.

Social benefits comprise a huge proportion of federal spending, so when politicians talk about reducing the deficit and reducing the “debt,” they really are talking about widening the Gap between the rich and the rest — i.e. making the rich richer.

And that, dear friends, is the purpose of the debt ceiling: To make the rich richer and you poorer.

The rich bribe Congress and the President via campaign “contributions” (Don’t you love that word, “contributions”?), as well as with promises of lucrative employment, later.

Though the debt ceiling itself is meaningless, it reinforces the false narrative that federal spending must be cut, because it represents a fiscal danger to America.

The public is led to believe that the federal government “must live within its means” (Unlike you and me, a Monetarily Sovereign government has no “means” to live within).

You are told falsely that deficits and debts are “unsustainable” (though we have sustained them quite nicely for more than 240 years).

And you are told that future generations of taxpayers will have to pay for today’s deficits and debt (though taxpayers do not fund federal deficits or the federal “debt.” Dollars are created ad hoc, every time the federal government pays a bill. No taxes involved.)

The next time you hear a politician pontificating about the need to deal with the federal debt ceiling, know it is all a charade funded by the rich.

It’s a gigantic con job, paid for by the rich to reduce your government benefits and to widen the Gap. And you are the victim.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

THE RULES

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives 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.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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