Tag: monetary sovereignty

The season of Schadenfreude approaches. Trump version

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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There is a German word that has no synonym in the English language.

You know that good feeling when a guy speeds past you and gives you the finger as he drives by, and later, up the road, you see that same guy stopped by a cop?  That feeling is called “Schadenfreude.”

Or it’s when you learn that the former football hero in your high school, who kicked your butt, and had all the adulation from the girls, now years later, comes begging you for a menial job in your company. That’s “Schadenfreude.”

Or when you’ve told people, over and over and over again, that the guy they planned to vote for was lying, bigoted sack of sh*t, who would hurt them if he ever is elected — but they vote for him anyway, and he gets elected, and he hurts them just as you said he would — you know that feeling? That’s “Schadenfreude.”

It’s something like that lovely “Nah, nah, I told you so” feeling.

I thought about Schadenfreude when I read about President Trump’s Environmental Protection head, Scott Pruitt, who has absolutely no intention of protecting the environment, thus damaging the future world of all those children and grandchildren of Trump voters  (though my Schadenfreude is completely ruined by the knowledge my own children’s world will be damaged, too. Darn!)

Then there are the black voters and brown voters and gay voters and elderly voters and female voters, who voted for Trump or didn’t even bother to vote at all, and now their worlds will be ruined by Trump’s bigotry against them. Plenty of good Schadenfreude for me there.

Schadenfreude is one of those feelings we all deny having but secretly find absolutely delicious. So I deny having had any wonderful, marvelous feelings of Schadenfreude when I read the following excerpts from an article in the 3/12/17 Chicago Tribune:

Health bill may hurt Trump’s supporters
Analysis finds older, rural, poorer votersat risk of losing out
By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Americans who swept President Donald Trump to victory — lower-income, older voters in conservative, rural parts of the country — stand to lose the most in federal health care aid under a Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to a Washington Bureau analysis of county voting and tax credit data.

Among the hardest hit under the House bill are 60-year-olds with annual incomes of $30,000. In nearly 1,500 counties nationwide, such a person stands to lose more than $6,000 a year in federal insurance subsidies. Ninety percent of those counties backed Trump, the analysis shows.

And 68 of the 70 counties where these consumers would suffer the largest losses supported Trump in November.

Oh, this is just too great!

Er, ah, what I really mean to say is I truly am sorry (snicker) for those folks who were taken in by those right-wing charlatans.  How could these poor people (giggle) have known Trump would hurt them?

Most affected by the GOP plan would be parts of Alaska, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee, where Obamacare subsidies have been critical to making insurance affordable. All five states went for Trump.

Also hit hard would be parts of key swing states that backed Trump, including Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, higher-income, younger Americans — many of whom live in urban areas won by Democrat Hillary Clinton — stand to get more assistance in the GOP bill.

Faring best would be the nation’s wealthiest residents, who would see a substantial tax cut with the elimination under the House GOP bill of two levies on high-income taxpayers. These taxes — on individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000 — were included in Obamacare to help offset the cost of assisting lower-income Americans.

What? The Trump-led Republicans, aka the “party of the rich,” plan to hurt the poor and help the (titter) wealthy? Who could (guffaw) have predicted it?

Excuse me. I don’t mean to laugh at your pain. (Chuckle) Not at all.

The disproportionate impact of the GOP plan threatens to undercut one of Trump’s core promises that he would take care of all Americans even if the health care law is repealed.

Only a small share of the electorate receives Obamacare subsidies, but the loss of aid could deprive tens of millions of a lifeline.

“People don’t realize that all it takes is one lost job and your goose is cooked,” said John Thompson, 59, of North Carolina.

Thompson said he voted Republican for three decades. He was let go from his work in 2013, however, and he found the only way to get health coverage was through Obamacare, whose insurance marketplaces opened in 2014.

“It literally saved my life,” said Thompson, who was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterward. Thompson is now back at work. But the Obamacare aid made him re-think his support for the Republican Party.

“People like me are going to get screwed,” he said of the GOP health care plan. “That’s just the reality.”

Yes, John, that is the reality. And I don’t mean to be cruel, but it’s not as though you weren’t warned. I mean, Trump practically begged you not to vote for him.

But you ignored his incessant lying about nearly everything, the grabbing women by the crotch, the bigotry against people of color, against immigrants, against Muslims. You ignored Trump University, his phony “birther” scandal, his cheating of his employees, the repeated warnings by every newspaper editor in America.

You ignored the pain Trump threatened to inflict on helpless minorities and on children. The list goes on and on — you ignored all that so long as you were taken care of.

And surely you remember how you stubbornly refused to listen to the people you demeaned as “libtards”? Remember them, the people who tried to help you with your health insurance coverage?

Instead, as you think about your hatred for Obama and for “Crooked Hillary,” does the phrase “from the frying pan into the fire” come to mind? Welcome to the fire, John.

And now John, as you are “rethinking” your support for the Republican party, and all your eggs are starting to hatch, I will do my best not to revel (snigger) in your pain.

I will be an adult and offer you my sincerest sympathy — more than sympathy — empathy, because your troubles only are beginning. Your world is about to come crashing down.

And it’s  your own damn fault.

But, I don’t have Schadenfreude, because you have learned something. You have learned not to be a stooge for a con artist, and you have learned not to join in the mob bigotry. And you have learned to use your brain rather than letting someone else use your brain.

And you have learned that if you lie down with swine, you will be treated like swine and be like swine.

You have learned these things, haven’t you, John?

John, haven’t you?

Ah, ’tis the season of Schadenfreude — but of course, not for me.

(Smirk)

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

Healthcare plans: Ignorance and treachery

The lead to our recent posts never has been more appropriate than with regard to the current discussion of health care:

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

Wisconsin Representative, Paul Ryan, the GOP’s version of an insurance genius, the man who came up with the latest “repeal and replace” plan, described his “Patients’ Choice Act” this way:

My plan, The Patients’ Choice Act, ensures universal, affordable health care for all Americans. Under The Patients’ Choice Act, patients and doctors would control their health care decisions – not insurance companies and federal government bureaucrats.

Of course, it does no such thing, because if you go to the “Short Summary” you will read the following:

“(My plan) creates State Health Insurance Exchanges to give Americans a one‐stop marketplace to compare different health insurance policies and select the one that meets their unique needs.”

According to the genius, insurance companies no longer will control health care decisions because you will be able to compare insurance policies. HUH??

(And by the way, why would you have to compare policies unless you will have to pay for less-than-complete coverage?)

And:

“(My plan) gives Americans the same standard health benefits as Members of Congress, so all Americans have a wide range of choices”

See, it’s like this: Federal government bureaucrats will not control your health care decisions, because you will receive the same standard health benefits that federal government bureaucrats created and control for Congress. Huh??

And:

Creates a non‐profit, independent board to risk adjust among participating insurance companies to penalize companies that “cherry pick” health patients and reward insurers that encourage prevention/wellness and cover patients with pre‐existing conditions.

In other words, Federal bureaucrats will tell insurance companies whom they must cover, what coverages to offer, and what to charge.  Huh??

But it gets worse, much worse. The GOP insurance genius even is clueless about how insurance actually works:

Insurance 101 For Paul Ryan: The Healthy Are Supposed To Help Pay For The Sick
Obamacare is in a “death spiral” because the insured are sharing the risk, explains congressman.
By Mary Papenfuss

Paul Ryan is aghast that healthy individuals are paying into an insurance pot that’s used when people are sick. But … that’s exactly the way insurance works.

Twitter positively erupted Thursday to school Mr. Health Insurance on the concept.

Everyone pays into the pot and draws on it when they’re sick. Younger people, who tend to be healthier than older people, pay for health insurance like everyone else.

They’ll rely on it when they need it, probably more when they’re older and there are younger, healthier people filing in behind them.

It’s the same with car insurance. Some people pay for decades and never get into an accident and never collect on their coverage.

Yes, Mr. Ryan, that’s how insurance works — fire insurance, liability insurance, all kinds of insurance. Each year, we pay into it hoping we won’t use it this year.

O.K., so the Republican insurance genius says he wants to replace Obamacare with a plan that doesn’t allow insurance companies and federal government bureaucrats to control health care decisions — except that is exactly what his plan does.

And the insurance genius objects to young people paying for insurance they may not need, except that is how insurance works.

But it continues to get worse:

“Economic analysts across the political divide agree that the tax code is stacked in favor of the wealthy . . . (My plan) provides an advanceable and refundable tax credit of $2,300 per individual or $5,700 per family. “

Sounds swell, except the GOP insurance genius didn’t know about two problems:

  1. That $2,300 per person and $5,700 per family isn’t enough to cover even current, let alone future health care insurance of the quality Members of Congress receive, and
  2. It’s not even money; it’s a tax credit, and the poorest among us don’t benefit from a a tax credit. They need actual money. The whole point of Obamacare was to cover those who can’t afford health care.

And, it continues to get worse and worse, because the entire Ryan plan is based on reducing costs for the federal government (which being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to pay) and instead piling costs onto doctors, insurance companies, and the public.

“The Patients’ Choice Act would give every American the opportunity to choose the health care plan that best meets their individual needs.”

Except, few of us know in advance, what our individual needs will be. Accidents and sickness come unexpectedly. Do you know whether you will have a heart attack this year? A stroke? Cancer? A serious car accident? A rare illness you never heard of?

The whole concept of “individual needs,” when applied to health care insurance, is ridiculous and misleading.

“It will utilize state‐driven exchanges to facilitate real competition between private plans and give Americans—for the first time—a choice of health care plans.  This solution will actually fix the incentives in the health care system so that health providers and insurers provide higher quality plans at lower cost.”

Said another way, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies will have to cut costs while providing better service.

What does that tell you about the future availability of doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies?

Right. There will be fewer. So, services will be scarcer.  And what happens when services are scarcer? Right. Quality decreases and prices increase — exactly the opposite of what the GOP insurance genius expects.

Obamacare, with all its warts (and it has many), was an attempt to provide health care to the millions of us who cannot afford to pay for health care. The Republicans — the party of the rich — hate it, not only because it is “Obama,” but because it narrows the Gap between the rich and the rest.

The rich don’t want that.

So the party of the rich proposes a plan that:

  1. Saves money for the only entity in America that has no need to save money — our Monetarily Sovereign federal government
  2. Burdens financially the private sector, i.e. the burdens economy
  3. Eliminates coverage for the millions of our poorest.
  4. Widens the Gap between the rich and the rest

The GOP plan truly is based on “the ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of our leaders.”

What should the plan be? See Steps #1 and  #2 of the Ten Steps to Prospertity (below): ELIMINATE FICA, and FEDERALLY FUND MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE

The federal government can afford, and should pay for, what you and our fellow citizens cannot. That is the purpose of a Monetarily Sovereign government.

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.

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

The healthcare screwing: You voted for it; you have it

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Primum non nocere

It means, “First, do no harm,” and it is the primary principle of bioethics. It means, “Given any medical situation, it is better to do nothing than to do something that causes more harm than good.”Image result for first do no harm

That concept is the key element of the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath. It is the fundamental of medicine.

And it is what the Republicans have ignored in their efforts to erase everything “Obama.”

For the Republicans, the motto seems to have been, “Pass anything that eliminates ‘Obama,’ anything the rich like, and anything that won’t get the voters too angry — and to hell with the lower income people the program was designed to help.”

‘What other explanation can you offer for the 7-years-in-the-making plan the Republicans have put forward?

Here are some excerpts:

“What’s in the House Republicans’ replacement plan?” 3/8/17, Chicago Tribune, By Noam N. Levey

Washington Bureau, WASHINGTON — House Republicans have finally unveiled legislation to repeal and — just as important — replace the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s a short guide to what’s in the Republican plan and what it could mean for Americans’ health coverage:

Obamacare required Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The penalty is assessed annually when people file their taxes.

How it would change: The tax penalty is eliminated. But the Republican bill still penalizes people who don’t get insurance. If consumers allow coverage to lapse for as long as two months, insurers would be required to charge them a 30 percent penalty when they buy a health plan.

That penalty could discourage many people from getting new coverage if they lose their plan.

As you regular readers know, the Obamacare penalty and the “Trumpcare” penalty, both are based on the “Big Lie” — the lie that our Monetarily Sovereign federal government cannot afford to pay for healthcare, so the people must pay.

(The federal government never can run short of dollars.  Can you?)

Image result for eliminate medical careThe Republican plan is more onerous for the poorest among us; it will prevent them from receiving any insurance, and thus, from receiving healthcare. The Republican plan will make America sicker.

 

 

Poor adults without children were barred from Medicaid coverage in most states. Obamacare tried to change that by offering states billions of dollars to expand Medicaid to childless adults. Thirty-one states have done so.

That has helped millions of low-income Americans get health coverage over the last several years.

The House GOP plan would phase out the additional federal money that has helped states expand their Medicaid programs.

The GOP plan would give each state a fixed amount of money every year for every person who qualifies for Medicaid. Many advocates and medical groups fear that change would force states to scale back coverage.

The sole purpose of the Republican change is to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, by helping the Monetarily Sovereign federal government save money (which doesn’t need saving), and by charging poorer people more money.

(In the Republican plan), insurers would now be able to charge older consumers five times more than younger consumers.

If you are poor and old — the very people who most need healthcare support — what are you supposed to do about unaffordable insurance and unaffordable healthcare charges? This is yet another Gap-widening effort by the “party of the rich.”

One of the most important features of the current law are insurance subsidies that are available to low- and moderate-income people who use the marketplaces to get coverage.

Subsidies are linked to consumers’ incomes, so people who earn less get bigger subsidies.

Subsidies also are pegged to how much insurance plans cost. That means that if health plans are very expensive in one market, the subsidies in that market are larger. There are huge variations in how much health care costs around the country. So people who live in higher-cost areas are protected.

Subsidies are automatically applied to consumers’ monthly insurance bills, so low-income people don’t have to pay a large premium every month and then wait for a rebate, something that can be difficult for consumers.

The House plan completely scraps Obamacare’s subsidy system. Instead, Americans who don’t get coverage through an employer would qualify for a tax credit based on how old they are.

Older consumers would get larger credit, as much as $4,000 annually for people over 60. And younger consumers would get a smaller credit, as little as $2,000 for people younger than 30.

Linking the credit to consumers’ age risks leaving lower-income consumers without enough financial aid to buy a health plan.

And because the subsidies would increase annually at a rate slightly above inflation, they risk not keeping up with rising health insurance premiums.

In total, the above subsidy cuts reduce federal government payments by reducing support for the lower-income consumers.

Ultimately, all consumers would pay more for medical insurance than they now pay, but the poor are punished most.

Obamacare’s architects cobbled together a mix of taxes to offset the cost of subsidizing insurance for tens of millions of low- and moderate-income Americans. –

The House Republican plan scraps all Obamacare taxes. That’s a big tax cut for the medical device and insurance industry.

It’s also a large tax cut for the wealthiest taxpayers, who would no longer be subject to the Medicare payroll surtax.

Obamacare was based on the fiction (“The Big Lie”) that our Monetarily Sovereign federal government cannot afford to pay for healthcare. (Fact: Even if all federal taxes were $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.)

As with virtually all facets of the Republican plan, the purpose is threefold:

  1. To save money, unnecessarily, for the Monetarily Sovereign federal government.
  2. To save money for the insurance and medical device industries.
  3. To widen the Gap between the rich and the rest by costing the lower income groups more and/or by eliminating healthcare coverage for these groups.

Other than the above, the plan is “change-for-the-sake-of-change,” to eliminate anything related to Obama, despite the damage caused to America.

Obamacare is not a good plan. It is based on “The Big Lie” of federal unaffordability. But the Republican plan is horrible. Ironically, it will hurt most those lower income people who formed the basis for Trump’s following.

But perhaps the ultimate irony is that the party-of-the-rich tries to reduce federal spending, not seeming to get the fact that federal spending is economically stimulative, thus helping business.

See Step 2 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below):

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.

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

Why you believe the Big Lie: The Gap Psychology con job

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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As we have repeated through the years, ad nauseam, the single biggest economic problem facing America and the world is the wide (and widening) Gaps between the richer and the poorer.

Gini ratio. Higher line = greater disparity between richer and poorer

The Gaps are what makes people richer. Without the Gaps, no one would be richer, and the wider the Gaps, the richer they are.

It is a rule of human psychology that we want the Gap below us to widen and the Gap above us to narrow.

Said another way, we wish to distance ourselves from lower income/wealth/power people, while coming closer to the higher income/wealth/power people.

We see this Gap Psychology everywhere; it is responsible for much of what happens in our economy.

Gap Psychology makes us receptive to the Big Lie, that social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and aids to poverty are “unsustainable,” unaffordable” and must be cut.

The following is Gap Psychology at work:

The Confederacy Was A Con Job On Whites. And Still Is.
BY FRANK HYMAN

The Confederacy – and the slavery that spawned it – was one big con job on the Southern, white, working class. A con job funded by some of the ante-bellum one-per-centers, that continues today in a similar form.

You don’t have to be an economist to see that forcing blacks – a third of the South’s laborers – to work without pay drove down wages for everyone else. And not just in agriculture. A quarter of enslaved blacks worked in the construction, manufacturing and lumbering trades; cutting wages even for skilled white workers.

Thanks to the profitability of this no-wage/low-wage combination, a majority of American one-per-centers were southerners. Slavery made southern states the richest in the country.

The South was richer than any other country except England. But that vast wealth was invisible outside the plantation ballrooms.

With low wages and few schools, southern whites suffered a much lower land ownership rate and a far lower literacy rate than northern whites.

Most Southerners didn’t own slaves. But they were persuaded to risk their lives and limbs for the right of a few to get rich from slavery.

For their sacrifices and their votes, they earned two things before and after the Civil War. First, a very skinny slice of the immense Southern pie.

And second, the thing that made those slim rations palatable then and now: the shallow satisfaction of knowing that blacks had no slice at all.

That “shallow satisfaction” is Gap Psychology. The Southerners who were made poor by slavery and bigotry still supported it because it widened the Gap below them.  Though it made them poor, it made the blacks poorer, yet.

Today, when middle- and lower-income people vote for politicians who promise to cut benefits to the poor, we see the same Gap Psychology — our willingness to sacrifice so long as those below us on the totem pole of life, sacrifice even more.

Thus, because of Gap Psychology, we blithely believe the obvious lie that the U.S. government is running short of dollars to support social programs. Why do we believe the lie that social programs are unaffordable? Because those programs narrow the Gap by benefitting people poorer than us.

The rich teach us to sneer at the poor, and we don’t seem to understand that the rich sneer at us in the same way.  To the rich, we are the “takers,” and they are the “makers.”

How did the plantation owners mislead so many Southern whites? They managed this con job partly with a propaganda technique that will be familiar to modern Americans.

Wealthy Southerners supported more than 30 regional pro-slavery magazines, many pamphlets, newspapers and novels that falsely touted slave ownership as having benefits that would – in today’s lingo – trickle down to benefit non-slave owning whites and even blacks.

The flip side of the coin of this old-is-new trickle-down propaganda is the mistaken notion that any gain by blacks in wages, schools or health care comes at the expense of the white working class.

Today’s version of this con job no longer supports slavery, but still works in the South and thrives in pro trickle-down think tanks, magazines, newspapers, talk radio and TV news shows such as the Cato Foundation, Reason magazine, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

These sources are underwritten by pro trickle-down one-per-centers like the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch.

In case it isn’t obvious, the above are Republican, right-wing “news” sources, promoting Gap Psychology every day.

We could add to the above list the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) and the Concord Coalition, which spread the ridiculous propaganda that our Monetarily Sovereign federal government somehow can run short of its own sovereign currency — the currency it creates simply by pressing computer keys.

Our Monetarily Sovereign government neither needs nor uses tax dollars to pay its bills. Even if federal taxes were $0, the federal government could continue spending forever — and without borrowing.

This fact means that ACA itself, and the Republican “repeal and replace” ACA campaign,  both are based on the false notion of federal dollar scarcity.

Yes, ACA should be repealed and replaced — but replaced with federally funded Medicare for every man, woman, and child in America. (Step #2 of the Ten Steps to Properity)

A map of states that didn’t expand Medicaid – which would actually be a boon mostly to poor whites – resembles a map of the old Confederacy with a few other poor, rural states thrown in.

Another indication that this divisive propaganda works on Southern whites came in 2012. Romney and Obama evenly split the white working class in the West, Midwest and Northeast. But in the South we went 2-1 for Romney.

Only by shedding (self-destructive beliefs) will Southern whites finally catch up to the rest of the country in wages, health and education.

The “self-destructive beliefs” are a foundation of current political propaganda. They have led to the urgent push to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which provides healthcare insurance to millions of people who otherwise could not afford it.

(We further discuss the power of Gap Psychology at: “What is the real reason the Republicans hate Obamacare?” Monday, Mar 6 2017.)

Just as with the Confederacy slavery con job, the anti-Obamacare con job is promulgated by the rich to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

While no one yet knows the details of the Republican plan, what we do know for sure is this: Millions of poor people will lose their healthcare coverage. And this will be just fine for large swaths of the populace.

It will appeal, not just to the rich, but to all those whose Gap Psychology makes them happy to sacrifice a bit, so long as the poor sacrifice more.

The rich have been successful with Gap Psychology since slavery days. And we suckers still buy into it.

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.

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