An incompetent leader, whose time is devoted to golf, tweeting, self-aggrandizing, and enriching himself and his family, together with an administration that has been hollowed out of honest, experienced people, leaving mostly flunkees and bootlickers, has America woefully unprepared to deal with daily problems, let alone a crisis.
President Trump traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss a coronavirus economic stimulus package with Senate Republicans.
Any bill would have to be approved by the Democratic-led House, where Trump’s big idea, a payroll tax cut, is a nonstarter.
So why didn’t he also meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? “Trump and Nancy Pelosi aren’t exactly on speaking terms,” Politico reports, “so he’s deputized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to handle talks with the speaker.”
But here is something he is absolutely right about:
Senate Republicans are also leery of the payroll tax cut, especially as Trump gave the impression he wants the taxes used to fund Social Security and Medicare slashed to zero, permanently.
Is it possible, that the idiot of Pennsylvania Avenue has figured out what no one else in Washington understands: That in a Monetarily Sovereign government, FICA funds nothing?
OMG, will wonders never cease? Or is this the “stopped clock” syndrome?
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
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 Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asked President Donald J. Trump how he would protect people with pre-existing conditions, which are guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
Sure, I’ll protect you. Trust me. Would I lie to you?
Here is her question:
“Because the issue of pre-existing conditions, you say you’re going to protect them.
But your administration is also fighting Obamacare in the courts.
So how do you promise you’re going to protect them based on that?”
Here is Trump’s answer:
“That’s what I said. We want to terminate Obamacare because it’s bad. Look, we’re running it really well, but we know it’s defective. It’s very defective. We got rid of the worst part. And that was a very important thing. You know getting rid of the individual mandate was a very important thing.
“But we want to get something — if we can get the House, you’ll have the best healthcare and health insurance anywhere on the planet. But we have to get the House back.
“Now, that means we have to hold the Senate. We have to get the House. We have to, obviously, keep the White House. But, what we’re doing is managing it really well.
“Now, it’s a case; it’s called Texas vs. — you understand — it’s Texas who is suing. They want to terminate it. But everybody there is also saying, and everybody — we have our great senator from Pennsylvania.
“Thank you very much, Pat, for being here. And Pat Toomey.
“And — but, very important — and our — by the way, our great congressmen, I have to say, they were warriors. Right? Real warriors, in terms of the fake impeachment. I will tell you that.
“But, so Texas is trying — and it’s Texas and many states — they’re trying to terminate, but they want to put something that’s much better. They’re terminating it to put much better. And they’ve all pledged that preexisting conditions, 100 percent taken care of.”
In summary, Trump cares about one thing: Keeping himself in power.
As for health care and pre-existing conditions, he doesn’t have a clue. It’s all a con job to fool the suckers. He is such an obvious charlatan, his followers must be the most easily duped people in human history.
Meanwhile, Trump and the Republicans have devoted years — YEARS (!) — to trying to get rid of Obamacare, and in all those years, despite repeated Trump promises, they never have come up with a plan that covers people with pre-existing conditions.
Never.
So why would they be able to, or even want to, come up with a plan, now?
This is what Trump additionally has said:
“I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare, you have it now, while at the same time winning the fight to rid you of the expensive, unfair and very unpopular Individual Mandate…..
“and, if Republicans win in court and take back the House of Representatives, your healthcare, that I have now brought to the best place in many years, will become the best ever, by far. I will always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!”
And while all that double-talk was spewing from Trump’s mouth, his bootlickers were in full throat. Here is what they had to say about Chairman Kim’s . . . uh, President Trump’s . . . handling of another medical emergency, the VIRUS:
Mike Pence: “This team has been, at your direction, Mr. President, meeting every day since it was established.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar: “Thank you, Mr. President, for gathering your public health experts here today and for your strong leadership in keeping America safe. Because of this hard work and the president’s leadership, the immediate risk to the American public has been and continues to be low.
“The president’s early and decisive actions, including travel restrictions, have succeeded in buying us incredibly valuable time. … The president’s actions taken with the strong support of his scientific advisors have proven to be appropriate, wise, and well-calibrated to the situation.”
Pence: “You know, Mr. President, you said from early on that we were going to have a whole-of-government approach. But the truth is, as evidenced by all these great industry leaders, it’s really a whole-of-America approach.”
Trump: “Right.”
Pence: “And the American people deserve to know that, according to all of our experts, the risk to the average American of contracting the coronavirus remains low. And that’s largely owing to your decision, Mr. President, to suspend all travel from China into the United States and to quarantine all Americans that are returning. … We’re grateful for that, Mr. President.”
(Kiss) (Kiss) (Kiss)(Kiss) (Kiss) (Kiss)
Trump: “Be sure to kiss both cheeks, boys.”
OK, that last one isn’t true, so far as we know.
Here’s what Trump really said:
Trump:
(While at the Centers for Disease Control). “Every one of these doctors said, How do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
Also, the sun came up this morning. Trump took credit for that, while both Pence and Azar complimented him for the beauty of the sky.
And this is what is running your healthcare: An incompetent and his sycophants.
If you get sick, in this greatest nation on earth, good luck paying for your medical services.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
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 Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
We’re going to quote from an article that ran in The Hill, but first a few words about the author, Chris Talgo, he of the Heartland Institute:
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank founded in 1984.
Just to give you a hint of what combining conservatism and libertarianism can do, here is the Heartland Institutes stated position on global warming:
Global warming is not a crisis. The threat was exaggerated.
There is no need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and no point in attempting to do so.
It’s time to repeal unnecessary and expensive policies.
Future policies should aim at fostering economic growth to adapt to natural climate change.
Radical environmental groups, greedy investor-owned utilities, and liberal billionaires are working together to shut down perfectly good coal-powered electricity generation across America.
Got It? Hey, burn baby burn.
In short, conservatism combined with libertarianism yields a huge serving of anarchy plus a plump dollop of anti-science and a heaping bowl of enriching-the-rich business leaders.
For Heartland, it seems that any government is too much government and any spending is “socialism.”
Utter nonsense.
Anyway, keeping the above mind-bending example in mind, we give you excerpts from the Heartland Institution’s beliefs about health care.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “premiums have doubled for individual health insurance plans since 2013, the year before many of Obamacare’s regulations and mandates took effect.”
Second, the number of those without health insurance has increased in recent years. And this number is expected to rise even more.
Why is this happening? According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), “Simply put, there are too many people without subsidies who cannot afford coverage under Obamacare.”
Obamacare was a noble idea, but it was created under the false assumption that the U.S. federal government can’t afford to pay for America’s healthcare, while the American populace can.
Given that false assumption, we were given two false choices:
Make the people pay, via tax increases, various penalties and deductibles, and high insurance premiums, or
Cut benefits.
According to a report by The Heartland Foundation, “Obamacare has significantly disrupted the market for those who buy coverage on their own by imposing new coverage and benefit mandates, causing a reported 4.7 million health insurance cancelations of an existing policy in 32 states.”
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
It’s our little secret. Don’t tell the people we don’t use their tax dollars.
Alan Greenspan: “Central banks can issue currency, a non-interest-bearing claim on the government, effectively without limit. A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
St. Louis Federal Reserve: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e.,unable to pay its bills. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets (borrowing) to remain operational.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Obamacare failed when it required private insurance to provide better benefits. Because private insurance is profit-motivated instead of health-motivated, premiums had to go up. It was inevitable.
Had the insurance been paid for by the Monetarily Sovereign federal government, premiums could have been eliminated and benefits increased — and no tax increases needed.
Free health care for everyone may sound too good to be true, but could be the real result of Monetary Sovereignty.
(Funny how we accept free military protection for the United States, but are unable to accept free health care protection for the United States.)
In other words, ObamaCare’s mandates and regulations have upended the health insurance market, causing millions to lose their pre-ObamaCare plans.
No, it was the Heartland Institution’s beloved private insurance profit motive that raised premiums.
President Obama repeatedly guaranteed voters, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.” As it turns out, this promise also fell by the wayside.
But that is exactly what Medicare offers. That is why a federally funded Medicare for All plan should have been instituted. Of course, Heartland et al might falsely have claimed, “This is socialism”
Point of information: Medicare for All is not socialism. It simply is normal federal spending in a democracy.
For a true example of socialism look to the Veteran’s Administration.
(Socialism is government ownership, not just government funding. The VA Hospitals are owned by the government and the doctors are employees of the government. Those screaming “socialism” don’t want you to understand that.)
According to MarketWatch, “Various sources note that a common (and popular) way to reduce premium costs has been to reduce the number of doctors in the insurer’s network, which leads to a much greater likelihood of people losing their doctors than without the ACA.”
Translation: In a profit-motivated healthcare system, the way to increase profits and/or reduce premiums is to cut benefits.
This would not be necessary in a federally funded health-motivated program.
The federal government has no need for profits. It is Monetarily Sovereign.
Even worse, “15% of plans offered on the exchanges exclude doctors from at least one kind of specialty” notes the National Institute of Health. Put another way, after ObamaCare took effect, millions of Americans lost access to their doctors.
Again, the above would not have been necessary in a federally funded, Medicare for All plan.
ObamaCare has failed miserably because it lacks free-market principles and is a one-size-fits all, centrally planned boondoggle.
In the next decade, and for decades to come, the American health care system would function much more optimally if patients, not bureaucrats, were allowed to take control of their health care decisions.
Obamacare failed because of organizations like Heartland, that insist on the private sector paying for unaffordable healthcare benefits.
“One-size-fits-all” describes the Heartland Institution’s, conservative/libertarian solution to all problems, i.e. eliminate government funding and force the private sector to pay for everything.
Following the Heartland “solution,” America would have no military, no national road system, no Medicare, no Social Security, no FBI, no CIA, no poverty aids, no Congress, no Supreme Court, no President, no Census Bureau, no elections, no federal laws, and no federal agencies. (You can see a complete list, here.)
Heartland is a tax-exempt charity. It enjoys the protections of America’s federal tax laws and the benefits of federal spending.
Heartland conceals the names of its donors while claiming to be “non-partisan” and libertarian. (Is that like being a non-partisan Republican?)
Most importantly, Heartland does not disclose the advantages of Monetary Sovereignty.
The federal government cannot become insolvent. It can pay any creditor because it creates dollars, ad hoc, by paying bills.
Federal spending is not socialism. Socialism is government control andownership. Medicare is not socialism; the VA hospitals are socialism.
The primary advantage of a Monetarily Sovereign government is its endless ability to fund programs that are not profitable.
Bottom line: Heartland professes to want small government, while it enjoys the free advantages of big government. They just don’t want you to enjoy those free advantages.
They want you to pay for them out of your own pockets.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
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 Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point outside of a scheduled meeting — the first time it’s made such a move since the 2008 financial crisis — was aimed at easing financial conditions and restoring confidence as the coronavirus outbreak spreads globally. Investors weren’t impressed.
The S&P 500 closed down 2.8%, while the Dow shed 786 points, or 2.9%. The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes fell below 1% for the first time in history as investors rushed into safe haven assets. Those are big slides on a day that was meant to be about reassurance.
What happened: Traders saw the move and wondered if the Fed Reserve knew something that everyone else didn’t. Instead of assuaging fears about how the virus would hit economic growth, it amplified them.
“Confidence matters in volatile times. It would have been better for the Fed to cut by 25 [basis points] and let markets hope for more,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, told clients on Wednesday.
The Fed’s primary job is to run the banking system and to stabilize the value of the U.S. dollar via interest rate control.
The Fed’s primary job is not to stimulate economic growth, prevent and cure recessions, prevent or cure large inflationary moves, or to eliminate poverty. Those are the jobs of Congress and the President.
Remember that as you continue reading.
Some observers are also concerned that the Fed is prematurely running down its already depleted arsenal.
The central bank could still cut interest rates four times, assuming each cut is a more standard 25 basis points, before reaching zero.
But it has far less powder than investors would generally like to see in uncertain times.
Other central banks are in even worse positions.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, for example, have already pushed their benchmark interest rates into negative territory.
Central banks can still help: Satyam Panday, senior US economist at S&P Global Ratings, points out that while interest rate cuts don’t directly address some of the problems caused by the coronavirus, such as snarled supply chains, they could still prove useful.
The cuts could “offset some of the tightening that has occurred in financial markets” and keep credit flowing, while helping to speed up an economic recovery in the second half of the year, he said.
Cutting interest rates weakens the U.S. dollar, which is mildly inflationary. Inflation and economic growth are not the same thing. So trying to use one tool for two completely different effects will not work.
In short, don’t use a screwdriver to set nails.
What is the right tool to prevent and cure market slumps? What should Congress and the President do?
The Answer: Identify and cure the problems. Right now, many industries are suffering. Anything related to travel — and not just airlines and cruise ships, but anything related to traveling will be hurt — and that includes most businesses to some degree.
When businesses are hurt, what do they do? They lay off workers, and not the top-level executives, but the mid- and low-level workers, who cannot afford to take a hit to their incomes.
These are the great mass of American consumers who make the American economy run.
The fundamental problem is that American consumers will run short of money, so the fundamental solution is to provide them with money. It’s that simple.
Who should implement that solution, and how?
The Answer: Congress and the President should begin to pump dollars into the economyby instituting the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below). Put dollars into people’s pockets, so that the impoverishment caused by the loss of jobs will be softened.
Start with step 1: Eliminate FICA. That would put billions of dollars into the pockets of consumers.
That would help consumers, who don’t lose their jobs, to keep spending, which would help more businesses stay open and not need to lay off people.
Step 2. Free medical care, which would prevent economic disaster, especially for people who lose their jobs.
Step 3. A monthly bonus to everyone, really important for those who lose their jobs.
Go down through all the steps and you’ll see that the Ten Steps to Prosperity can help prevent a recession or a depression — something the Fed simply does not have the tools to address.
In the near term, investors aren’t satisfied, with markets now clamoring for the Fed to cut rates again at its scheduled meeting later this month.
“The Fed seems committed to frontloading cuts, acting aggressively and forcefully,”
“The market is also pressuring the Fed by pricing in over a 70% probability of a March cut; the Fed won’t fight it.”
The above follows the failed philosophy, “If it doesn’t work, do it again, and if that doesn’t work, keep doing it.”
Sorry “market,” but interest rate cuts, even (God forbid) negative interest rates, will not prevent a recession or a depression.
Only the kind of money supply increases offered by the Ten Steps to Prosperity can do that.
But for investors, the moderate Biden’s surge was a welcome event.
“Investors fear Bernie because he wants to cut off the head of capitalism by raising taxes significantly on the rich and using the funds to provide free everything to everybody else.
He also wants to regulate everyone,” Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, told clients on Wednesday.
Should Sanders secure the nomination, analysts have predicted that health care, energy and financial stocks would take a hit.
“The policy proposals outlined primarily by Senator Sanders could have negative implications for a significant section of the equity market,” Mislav Matejka, JPMorgan’s head of global and European equity strategy, told clients this week.
Investors understand that if it’s bad for business, it’s bad for the economy. The economy is business.
To grow the economy, we must help grow business, and to grow business we must help consumers consume.
Unfortunately, Ed Yardeni doesn’t understand federal financing. He believes that federal government spending relies on federal taxes. It doesn’t.
The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, could institute the Ten Steps to Prosperity without collecting a penny in taxes, and that is exactly what the government should do.
We must not rely on the Fed to prevent/cure a recession or depression. That job belongs to Congress and the President.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
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 Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 