Tag: monetary non-sovereignty

The middle class “self-squeeze”

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.
•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..

•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.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•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.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Do you consider yourself a member of the “middle class”?
Do you feel the survival and prosperity of the middle class are in your own best interests?
Is that the way you vote?

Middle-class families, pillar of American Dream, are no longer in majority: study
By: Don Lee, Contact Reporter, Los Angeles Times

The nation’s middle class, long a pillar of the American economy, has shrunk to the point where it no longer constitutes the majority of the adult population, according to a new major study.

Rapid growth of upper-income households, coupled with an increase in less-educated, low earners, has driven the decline of the middle-income population to a hair below 50% of the total this year, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.

In 1971, the middle class accounted for 61% of the population, and it has been declining steadily since.

In short, the Gap between the rich and the rest has been growing. The middle and the poor have become realively poorer.

Which group benefits? In which group are you?

The tipping point appears to have occurred in the past couple of years of the recovery from the Great Recession as the economy has continued to reward the highly educated, well-to-do investors and those with technical skills.

Middle-income households have been the bedrock of consumer spending, and many liberals, in particular, view the declining middle as part of a troubling trend of skewed income gains among the nation’s richest families.

It is the liberals who are concerned about this phenomenon. The conservatives are delighted, as reflected in their initiatives to cut social spending, while offering regressive tax “reforms” (“flat tax,” “sales tax,” etc.) which would tax the middle and poor more.

Pew defined middle class as households earning between two-thirds and twice the overall median income, after adjusting for household size. A family of three, for example, would be considered middle income if its total annual income ranged from about $42,000 to $126,000.

It’s questionable whether a family of three earning $42,000 per year should be considered “middle class,” the same as a family earning $126,000.

Most Americans have traditionally identified themselves as middle class, even those at the top and bottom, reflecting a kind of cultural heritage tied to the American dream of self-reliance.

A Gallup survey this spring showed that just 51% of U.S. adults considered themselves middle or upper middle class, with 48% saying they are part of the lower or working class.

That leaves 1% to identify as upper class.

At the same time, many median-income voters, particularly non-college-educated men, are at the core of billionaire Donald Trump’s support in the Republican campaign, and the sense that their once-secure middle-class standing is in danger appears to be fueling their anger at the government and at immigrant groups.

Even being middle class, they support Trump’s anti-middle class bent. The reason: They care more to increase the Gap between themselves and the poor, than to close the Gap between themselves and the rich.

In short, they are willing to hurt themselves, if they can hurt those below them.

From 1971 to 2014, the median income of all <b?upper-income households increased 47% to $174,625. The edian income for the middle tier rose 34%</b. to $73,392, and for the lower income group, it was up 28% to $24,074.

Pew’s findings add to strong evidence that the middle class has been thinned partly by a decline in manufacturing due to competition from imports as well as a broader polarization of jobs that has favored the most educated and technically skilled workers.

Elizbeth Espinoza and her husband, Carlos Arceo, both 38, fall squarely in the middle class. Espinoza said that she and her husband were hopeful about their future incomes rising, but she doubts that they can move up to the upper-income tier. “I feel like upward mobility keeps getting harder and harder,” she said.

Research on income mobility across generations has found the U.S. as a whole lags other Western countries.

The government uses the false excuse about federal debt being “unsustainable,” or that social benefits discourage the middle and lower income groups from working. Both narratives have no basis in fact.

The media, the politicians and the economists, being bribed by the rich, like to characterize the lower income groups as lazy indolents, who would rather receive free “goodies” from the government, than work. <b<Factually, it isn't true, but the myth satisfies the higher groups' need to feel superior.

This site has published examples of politicians referring to the federal debt as a “ticking time bomb” as early as 1940 (Sept 26, 1940, New York Times).

In 1940, Gross Federal Debt was $50 billion. By 2014, it had risen to $18 trillion.

Despite this gargantuan increase, the “time bomb” still is ticking.

If you were a member of a sect, whose leader repeatedly took you to a mountain to await the end of the world, and the world never ended, at what point would you decide the leader either was lying or ignorant of reality. After the first time? After the tenth time? Twentieth?

The statement that the federal debt is “unsustainable” or will cause hyper-inflation, has been made every year for the past 75 years! At long last, are you ready to disbelieve the lie?

Or will you continue to vote Republican (they are the main authors of bills to reduce social spending and increase lower-income taxes — at the detriment to you)?

I’ve received many angry notes from conservatives, but you folks shouldn’t be angry at me. Blame the people who destroy your life-style and your childrens’ futures.

If you are in the middle-or-lower income group, and you suffer because you pay too much FICA, and don’t receive enough unemployment compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, funding for college, Social Security, food stamps and other social benefits, the fault is yours if you voted conservative.

The right wing has set you against your own best interests. You voted for your tormentors, just to torment those below you.

Interestingly, much of the lower income group has it figured out. As soon as the middle smartens up, conservatism will lose its appeal.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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. 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 Click here
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)

The Ten Steps 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

Recessions come only after the blue line drops below zero.

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 “inversion” and the absence of logic

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.
•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..

•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.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•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.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Let’s begin with a few facts upon which most people agree:

1. Being Monetarily Sovereign (sovereign over its own currency), the federal government can “print” unlimited dollars.
(It doesn’t really “print” the dollars, but the important point is the U.S. government cannot run short of its own sovereign currency — the currency it originally created from thin air 200+ years ago.)

2. It benefits the nation for American business to be strong.
(Strong business hire more people, pay more salaries and provide more goods and services than does weak business.)

3. Reducing cost is a good way to improve profits and to strengthen a business.
(Profits are the difference between sales and costs.)

4. Federal taxes represent a large cost to most businesses.

5. To reduce this cost, a few companies have instituted an “inversion.”

Clinton’s Plan to Complicate Corporate Taxes
BloombergView, December 10, 2015, By Paula Dwyer

To Hillary Clinton, corporations are being unpatriotic when they combine with a smaller foreign company and then move their legal addresses overseas, where taxes are lower. (Known as an “inversion.”

This week she released a plan to stop such tax-avoidance trickery, which has been on the rise in recent years.

(Inversion) isn’t good for America.

As Clinton says, mergers should be carried out for business reasons, not to take advantage of tax loopholes.

Inversions also erode the tax base needed to maintain roads, rails and ports, support basic research, enforce trade treaties and perform the million other tasks that allow U.S. companies to conduct business across 50 states with little friction.

See anything wrong with this?

Since the federal government has the unlimited ability to create its own dollars, why does it need to take dollars from business? And why is taking dollars from business, which weakens American business, considered “patriotic”?

And why does the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. need to get dollars from business in order to “maintain roads, rails and ports, support basic research, enforce trade treaties and perform the million other tasks . . . “?

Clinton, though, has a propensity to address problems with complicated five-point plans involving a mix of legislative and executive actions, when a simple solution — lowering U.S. corporate taxes to match what the rest of the developed world charges — would suffice.

And if lowering taxes to match what the rest of the developed world charges is a good idea, wouldn’t lowering taxes below what the rest of the world charges be an even better idea?

Think of the competitive​ advantage it would give American business. Think of the additional jobs, the additional salaries.

She would require U.S. shareholders to own half or less of the combined company as a condition for avoiding corporate taxes.

(She) would even try to undo numerous completed inversions by making the 50 percent hurdle retroactive to May 2014.

She would also require companies to pay an “exit tax” before inverting.

She would also ask Congress — or the U.S. Treasury Department if Congress fails to act — to crack down on the practice of “earnings stripping.” This happens post-inversion, when a U.S. unit borrows heavily from its new foreign parent. The loan is then repaid from operations in the U.S., where interest on debt is tax deductible.

All this is a complicated, convoluted effort that will cut corporate profits by making business pay more taxes. So what are we talking about, here?

Deferral from taxation of overseas earnings is the very feature of U.S. tax law that’s driving inversions in the first place.

Multinational companies refuse to repatriate more than b><$1 trillion in earnings unless Congress lets them bring the money home at a much lower rate than the existing 35 percent levy. As a result, companies are inverting to get their hands on that cash.

Few corporations actually pay 35%, but shouldn’t business planning rather than tax maneuvering be the prime concern of corporations?

When American companies spend time, effort and money to buy small overseas companies, for the sole purpose of cutting taxes, that is not the best business use of their time, effort an money.

It’s downright inefficient​.

Finally, Clinton would apply the $80 billion or so in new revenue over 10 years, which she claims she’d raise by closing inversion loopholes, to provide tax relief for research, community development and manufacturing.

Hmmm . . . “Tax relief for research and manufacturing.” She would tax business more so she could tax business less. Soundsl like a perfect political plan.

Clinton is acting because Donald Trump has politicized corporate inversions, or any attempt by a U.S. company to close plants and send jobs overseas.

Companies “send jobs overseas” to cut costs. One cost is taxes. So cutting taxes would help discourage companies from “sending jobs overseas.”

Clinton’s proposal wouldn’t fix the biggest underlying defect: The U.S.’s corporate tax is higher than what the 34 advanced countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development charge.

The OECD average is 24 percent. What’s more, the U.S. taxes companies on their global income, unlike most other countries, which tax only profits earned within their borders.

Get it? U.S. companies send jobs overseas to cut costs. Taxes are a cost. U.S. companies pay higher taxes than do foreign companies.

So the Clinton solution? Increase taxes on U.S. companies by eliminating inversions.

It makes no sense, and Clinton knows it. But . . .

As a Democrat fighting for primary votes against the more-liberal Sanders, Clinton can’t afford to favor corporate tax cuts.

You see, the politicians, media and economists have been so effective in convincing voters that federal financing is like state and local government financing (otherwise known as “the Big Lie”), and so federal taxes “must” be necessary, that now Clinton doesn’t dare reveal the truth: Federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

Yes, those tax dollars that businesses send to the U.S. Treasury are unnecessary.

If all business taxes were reduced to $0, the federal government be unaffected (It could continue spending as always), U.S. businesses would prosper, the American public would prosper, and the economy would grow massively.

But liars become enmeshed in their own lies. (“Oh, what a tangled web we weave . . .”) Trapped by “the Big Lie”, the politicans don’t dare do the right things, even if they wanted to.

So they come up with nonsense solutions (raise U.S. business taxes to encourage U.S. business to stay home), in the hope the public will not notice the illogic.

In short, they are betting on the public’s ignorance.

A pretty good bet.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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. 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 Click here
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)

The Ten Steps 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

Recessions come only after the blue line drops below zero.

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

We shall see. The shames of America

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.
•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..

•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.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•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.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

The people who most aggressively claim to be “patriots,” continue to be the least patriotic people America must suffer.

These are the phony “patriots” who wish to deport 11 million men, women and children, many of whom have been good, law-abiding Americans for decades, just because an unnecessarily slow, complex, Byzantine system has not provided documentation.

These are the lying “patriots” who classify most Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.

These are the venal “patriots” who classify most black college students as too stupid to attend good schools. (Justice Scalia Suggests Blacks Belong at “Slower” Colleges

These are the amoral “patriots” who vote to reduce unemployment compensation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits for the middle classes and the poor, because they claim the poorer classes are so lazy they won’t work if given money (but, of course, the rich will work if given money.)

These are the moronic “patriots” who repeatedly vote against their own best interests, only because they believe those poorer will be hurt more.

And, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Here they go, again.”

Bloomberg Politics Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds of Likely GOP Primary Voters Back Trump’s Muslim Ban

Almost two-thirds of likely 2016 Republican primary voters favor Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., while more than a third say it makes them more likely to vote for him.

“We believe these numbers are made up of some people who are truly expressing religious bigotry and others who are fearful about terrorism and are willing to do anything they think might make us safer,” Doug Usher, who runs polling for Washington-based Purple Strategies, said in his analysis of the findings.

“This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign.”

The title of this post is “We shall see. The Shames of America.” It refers to at least two shames:.

Shame 1. There are so many bigots in America, who would ban individuals, not because they ever have done anything wrong, but rather because of the way they worship or the color of their skin.

This is ironic, because freedom of religion is one reason the original settlers fled to America, and also is one of the Constitutional rights the conservates repeatedly claim for themselves.

It also is ironic because more than 600,000 real patriots died, and hundreds of thousands more were wounded in the American battle to eliminate racial bigotry

And it is ironic, because one-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American.

Shame 2. There are so many stupid people in America, who repeatedly vote to cut benefits for themselves, because they believe the lies the rich tell them about the middle classes and the poor.

Today’s Republican party, formerly the party of Abraham Lincoln, directs its appeals to the lowest common denominator of American morals and intelligence.

So, in a year we shall see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will be filled with Scalias, Thomases and Alitos, who will claim money is speech and who will vote for more laws allowing unlimited spending to buy elections and greater restrictions on minority voting.

We shall see whether taxes on the 1% are cut while taxes on the 99% are increased via “flat” taxes, sales taxes and FICA increases.

We shall see whether Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, Medicaid benefits, food stamps and other poverty aids are cut.

We shall see whether every angry, bigoted incompetent is allowed to carry fully automatic guns, with huge magazines, everywhere.

We shall see whether there is an increase in the number of mosques, synagogues, temples and churches burned, shot up, trashed or otherwise violated by mental bantams who were agitated by despicable politicians.

We shall see whether a raped young girl is raped again by cruel, self-appointed judges who deny her an abortion to save her life.

We shall see whether America contains more stupid, immoral, self-destructive voters than those who are intelligent and compassionate.

We shall see if the America is the moral leader of the world, or just another shameful, selfish, uncaring nation that began with good intentions, but fell into disrepute and historical infamy.

Yes, we shall see.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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. 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 Click here
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)

The Ten Steps 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

Recessions come only after the blue line drops below zero.

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

Pandering to the ignorant

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.
•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..

•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.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•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.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Pandering to the ignorant — all the politicians do it, mainly because we all are ignorant about most issues.

We learn about issues from our leaders, from the media and from our equally ignorant friends.

So, when our leaders and the media wish to mislead us, and our friends don’t know any more than we do, where does that leave us?

Ignorant.

But ignorance does not prevent us from forming opinions, and it is a sad truth of human nature, that the opinions of the ignorant often are firmly held.

Religion and politics are examples. No one really knows anything about God — not what He wants, not how much control over our lives He has, and not whether He is a He or a She or an It, nor whether He/She/It really exists.

But, lacking solid information, most of us have very strong beliefs about the answers to these questions.

Politicians take advantage of that strange relationship between ignorance and strong belief, by making ridiculous claims.

When Republican politicians repeatedly vote to defund ACA, there is an implied claim that those votes are meaningful. But they have as much meaning as voting to make the sun stop rising in the east.

Apparently some voters enjoy seeing their politicians engaged in such futility, apparently hoping that somehow, despite all logic, the vote will make the sun rise in the west.

Donald Trump’s claim that he will deport 11 million people and bring back “the good ones” falls into the same category:  “Stupid things we do and say to make a point.”

One might think it would be better to say intelligent or factual things to make the same point, but politicians have learned facts are not necessary, and actually may be an impediment to belief.

We are more ready to believe something outrageously wrong than something subtly correct.

Which brings us to the following article:


Senator Cruz Introduces Bill To Let States Reject Refugees

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Ted Cruz, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016, said on Tuesday that he introduced legislation to give governors the ability to opt out of refugee resettlement programs.

Cruz said that if President Barack Obama wanted to send refugees to any state, his legislation would let its governor refuse to participate, “to conclude that the federal government has not done a sufficient job ensuring that the safety and security of the citizens of the state will be protected.”

I’m certain that Senator Cruz’s followers believe this is a wonderful idea, and I’m equally certain that at least a majority of his base knows it’s impossible.

The Constitution of the United States requires that anyone in America can travel to any state in America. So governors can “opt out” all they want, and it means absolutely nothing.

Your governor may hate blacks, browns, gays, Muslims or short people, but once they are anywhere in America, he can’t prevent them from entering your state.

And Cruz knows this.

So why does he waste not only his own time and effort, but the time and effort of the entire Senate?

Why does he wish to demonstrate stupidity, especially when he is running for President?

Because he wishes to show he is “tough on immigration.”

By the strange phenomenon of human nature, his outrageously stupid act provides better proof to his followers that he is brilliant and tough, than had he set out his calm, logical reasons for not allowing refugees to come into America.

His followers don’t want a calm and logical leader. To them, calm and logical is weakness.  They want a “hair-on-fire,” screaming, bigoted, “mad-man-with-a-chainsaw” leader.  To them, ignorance + cruelty = strength.

It never occurs to them that while such qualities may play well in an auditorium, they are not appropriate for the President of the United States. We may find the wild, crazy rebel romantically attractive, but when we wish to settle down, it’s with someone who is kind, thoughtful and logical.

Those who vote for mean-spirited bigots of outrageous action rather than leaders of intelligence and compassion, get exactly what they asked for.

They get the Joe McCarthys and the George Wallaces, the Hitlers and the Stalins, the Trumps and the Cruzes.

And then they suffer and wonder why.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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. 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 Click here
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)

The Ten Steps 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

Recessions come only after the blue line drops below zero.

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