Why Republicans win

Logically, Republicans never should win an election:

Republicans still remain the party of plutocrats
By Paul Krugman, NY Times, 4/17/2022

I can’t tell you what the official Republican economic program is, because the party doesn’t have one — in fact, it has made a point of not saying what it will do if it regains power.

We do, however, know what the party did when it was last in power:

It gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy, while almost succeeding in repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would have caused tens of millions of Americans to lose health insurance.

There’s no reason to believe it won’t once again pursue anti-worker, pro-plutocrat policies if it regains control.

At the state level, the debacle in Kansas has apparently done nothing to shake Republicans’ faith in the magical power of tax cuts for the affluent.

Mississippi — America’s poorest state, with the lowest life expectancy — is slashing income taxes.

And recently Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who heads the Republican senatorial campaign, released a “Rescue America” plan that called for tax increases on the half of Americans whose incomes are low enough that they don’t pay income taxes (even though they pay payroll taxes, sales taxes and so on).

He also warned, falsely, that Social Security and Medicare are headed for bankruptcy, without offering any suggestions about how to preserve them.

Senior Republicans have said that they don’t support Scott’s agenda but haven’t explained what their actual agenda is — and have left Scott in his key campaign position, suggesting that his views have wide support within the party.

So everything suggests that the Republican Party is as pro-wealthy, anti-worker as ever. It hasn’t made any gestures toward actual populism. Why?

The answer, presumably, is that the GOP caters to plutocrats, even as it attacks “elites,” because it thinks it can.

After all, being nice to plutocrats and crony capitalists can yield tangible rewards, not just in the form of campaign contributions but also in the form of personal enrichment.

And the Republican Party doesn’t believe that it will pay any price for pursuing these rewards.

It believes that its supporters will focus on denunciations of critical race theory and buy into conspiracy theories while not even being aware of what the party is doing for the very rich.

After The New York Times revealed Jared Kushner’s highly questionable $2 billion deal with the Saudis, Fox News simply ignored the report, while harping endlessly on Hunter Biden.

I wish I could say with any confidence that this cynicism will backfire. But I can’t.

In particular, Democrats who want to campaign on bread-and-butter issues are assuming that voters will understand who’s actually buttering their bread. And that doesn’t look at all like a safe assumption.

You should wonder what the GOP has going for it. Surely it has no plans for anything. In fact, Mitch McConnell has made it a part of the GOP strategy to be for nothing, lest that plan be criticized.

The rest of their strategy consists of lobbing hand grenades at anything Democrats propose and magnifying any real or invented flaws in programs that benefit people. That, plus mongering hatred of immigrants, blacks, browns, yellows, reds, women, gays, Muslims, “libs,” “leftists,” and “woke,” –in short, hatred of everyone except rich, white, Christian men — is all the GOP offers.

They claim to want “law and order” while supporting the worst criminal in American politics. More than a criminal, he is a traitor who fomented an attempted overthrow of America’s elections, and he still does.

Why does “all-hatred, no-benefits” gather votes? No need to look for logic. There is none.

The vast majority of GOP voters repeatedly vote for their own slavery and impoverishment. The Plutocrat by Booth Tarkington - First Printing of the First Edition - 1927 - from Renaissance Books (SKU: 15520)

Instead, look at the voters themselves. They mistake lies and cynicism for truth and evidence.

In the previous post, we derided those people who refused the COVID vax.

The vax has proved to be a medical miracle.

Unlike Donald Trump’s delays and misstatements, which cost a million Americans their lives and millions more their health, the vax has saved many millions from hospital visits and the cemetery.

And the vax is free, courtesy of the government (which Republican voters are told to hate if it’s progressive) and unlike the previous administration, the vax is safe and effective. It actually works.

The vast majority of vax refusal is not for any real medical reasons, but for reasons beyond human comprehension.

Here is a real sampling of Republican responses I’ve received to that article:

Too stupid to even read it all. However, on the bright side. This “vaccine” is going to weed out the stupid and mentally weak….

Take your clot shot and stick it up your rectum. DRY. Those of us who KNOW what it is and what it’s TRUE purpose is will NEVER take it. So make your smart assed, Leftist virtue signaling comments all you want, asswipe. We’ll be the ones laughing when you get what you DESERVE.

Such a nice guy who wrote this…..I wonder if he is still alive. If he is it won’t be for long. The next WAX will get him.

It’s interesting to see how a communist actually thinks from time to time. Remind me of how government made anyone’s life better other than giving themselves raises. This rant appears to be more of a poll for personal approval of a thought which may or may not be true. Make a decision and go with it not seeking approval. Don’t tell anyone what you really believe unless you were paid big bucks to be a jerk like lame stream media. Bullies on the grade school playground call out by name people they “think” they can beat up with the whole school watching. Big man on campus thing. My money is on Tucker Carlson.

HAHAHAHAHA I HOPE YOU HAVE ALL THE BOOSTER SHOTS TO, YOU WILL BE ANOTHER VAXX PUSHING BIT OF LANDFILL IN A COUPLE MONTHS MAX.

Many periodicals worldwide report their hospital beds full of NOT unvaccinated people, but full of citizens who allegedly accepted Gates/Fauci inoculations as ‘COVID-19′ vaccines and further boosters. In that there has yet to be anything isolated and identified as a’COVID-19’ virus, it still takes a REAL WINNER of the ‘Darwin Award’ by accepting the king of all experimental failures but monetarily blessed Bill Gates and his cavalier attitude about shooting up innocent people with untested ‘Witch’s Brews’. Gates &Co. have disabled, sterilized and killed millions of people, and he is not to be trusted. His self-obsessed nature and his disdain for all other cultures makes his grandiose inoculation campaigns immoral and by their damaging nature, illegal.

This mofo is a nazi and a Satanist, my body my choice and the government is a corporation dummy all types of conflict interests. I would never trust a government that kills people

If there was a real vaccine I might be inclined to participate in the experiment. And as far as graphs go>>> propaganda is a fools comfort. Trust in a lying government bent on wars and depopulation for their own benefit is a mindless sheeple act of conformity for the so called greater good. Ignorance should be ignored. Lastly why would someone who is double.tripled and quadrupled vaxxed worry about someone who is not! That is unless they don’t work.

And the Easter bunny is real too you dumb fuck!!! Are people really that stupid???? Wow!!!!!

Guess you haven’t seen the thousands of videos showing vaxxed with uncontrollable tremors, nor the hundreds of athletes dropping dead from cardiac arrest, nor
the massive amounts of stillbirths, nor the children with myocarditis, nor the VAERS’ reports showing 26,000 US citizens dead (only 1% reported), nor the 9 ages of adverse effects in the Pfizer released documents. This makes me wonder: are you living under a rock or are you irrevocably buy brainwashed???????

I’m not vaxxed because of a blood clot risk medical condition. Why no medical exemptions? These jabs are great blood clot makers. massive clots found in the dead. like sixty-two percent clotting risk. I have elevated homocysteine risk. Had it checked in the emergency room again a few weeks ago and still elevated. found that I had after surviving a pulmonary embolism massive clot in my lung. on blood thinner 15 years and still out of normal range. has never been in the normal range on a blood thinner. why no exemptions, because it is a genocide weapon. I don’t want any of it in my body. Can anyone really be sure of what it would do when a person has chemo treatment for cancer? I have cancer remission and don’t want this if it interferes with treatment.

This woke tard forgot to say that if you are part of the 1/3rd that it is you who will bury the other 2/3rds. Anyone who doesn’t understand by this point that this is for a mass culling of the population simply hasn’t been paying attention. This is mass genocide on a global scale. Only a weak minded easily influenced person would be swayed by this type of rhetoric. As one poster has already said, you can have mine too. I have no need for it.

Extremely ignorant article! I don’t vax because I am NOT a CANNIBAL. I will not allow human fetus parts into my blood stream. Nor do I worship Satan or the serpent.
The creator gave us everything we need to be healthy. Injecting heavy metal poison into blood stream and calling it a vax is beyond ignorant.Also I am just not stupid enough, am not brain dead enough, will regard with the highest suspicion ANYTHING O-Biden & Obamanation says and if they say take the vax I will do everything in my power to avoid it. Much like I would avoid a criminal sales person selling junk. Also I don’t want to allow EXPERIMENTAL gene therapy that will allow a corporation to change my DNA and OWN me per US Supreme Court.
I do not want to Help the CABAL (Bill Gates, Soros, Krause, Rockefeller, Rothschild, federal not reserve owners, etc.)
can make more money…
Help the CABAL can rewrite my DNA…
Help the CABAL can rewrite my memories…
So the CABAL can kill off any “useless eaters” (those retired after a life of hard work)…
So the CABAL can enslave the entire Earth for profit…
So anyone refusing slavery can be terminated by satellite to their specific vax number
and I.D. from space and most importantly…
So you will own nothing and be happy! I will not forget about the millions who have died from the vax, don’t worry about the side effects because you’re doing your part to enable EVIL and enslave the planet since you refuse to think, refuse to.

Well this dumb fuck is dumb as a fucking stump, and if you’re reading this dumb fuck, with the 1/3 you say not taking the vaccine, which is a lot more. but let’s go with 1/3. That gives you more opportunity to get more vaxed! get your fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth booster motherfucker get 10 or 15 jabs you stupid Fuckery fucktard. do it! and fuck you and fuck your mommy fuck your daddy fuck your kids fuck your dog fuck you fuck your cat fuck your wife oh!!! I mean your transgender partner who has a bigger dick then you

Consider the evidence
— Its toxic and is killing and maiming people
— It alters DNA
— Its adds electronic/magnetic properties which utilize graphene in an attempt to blend man with machine (Transhumanism ) human 2.0.
— It generates a unique Bluetooth number for each recipient.
— It has the potential of being used to control how people transact in commerce.
— It has generated world wide acceptance and compliance
— If anyone takes the mark they lose favor with God for ever.
— This is cause for concern and the reason we can‘t trust the medical establishment to keep us safe. By altering DNA it changes what it means to be human. Not surprisingly these factors are showing up within the inoculations.

Probably the most important reason for not taking the Jab is because its Mark of the beast technology and it will send you to hell. You’ve chosen poorly…

Think of the mentality responsible for those comments. Think of the intelligence or lack thereof.

Ask any Republican voter to explain why he votes that way, and he will give you a diatribe of hatred for the abovementioned immigrants, gays, et al, but no real benefits to be received.

Combine those weird beliefs with the total absence of any aid to the public from the GOP, and you enter the byzantine mind of a GOP voter.

When you examine the GOP base, you can understand why, beyond all logic, the GOP is projected to win Congress in the fall, and possibly the Presidency in two years.

In any asylum, the inmates outnumber the keepers. America is no different.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
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: Ten Steps To Prosperity:

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

If you are part of the 1/3 “no vax” America. . .

If you are part of the 1/3 “no vax” America:

You don’t need me to call you “stupid.” You already may be starting to understand that.
I won’t call you “selfish” for helping to spread a fatal disease to others. You almost surely know that, and simply don’t give a rat’s behind.
You may claim your religion requires you to abstain from vaccination. It doesn’t. Your God doesn’t long for your death or for the deaths of your loved ones or of strangers you meet, unless your God’s name is Trump, in which case he doesn’t give a rat’s behind.
You may say you won’t vax because you don’t want the government telling you what to do, but that would be stubbornly stupid, in which case you are proud of it.
You may say you don’t trust that the vax is harmless, but hundreds of millions have been given out, and all reliable sources (“reliable” means not including QAnon, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump) say the possibility of fatal adverse effect is almost non-existent.
You may say you prefer to do your own research, in which case, let me know when you have set up your lab and/or your test subjects because that’s what research involves, unless your research is limited to listening to the aforementioned loonies.
You may say you can’t afford to take off work, but oh, c’mon, isn’t your life worth an hour?
Or finally, you may say it’s because you are a Republican, and you prefer to take ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, or Trump Water. If so:

TUCKER CARLSON WANTS TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE KNOW HE’S AN ANTI-SCIENCE IGNORAMUS

The Fox News host proudly announced at a church event this month that he’s unvaccinated against COVID-19. BY BESS LEVIN, APRIL 12, 2022

As one of Fox News’ most committed purveyors of bullshit, Tucker Carlson has been a reliable source of anti-vax misinformation since the COVID-19 vaccines became available.

He’s claimed they simply don’t work, used unverified data to suggest an inordinate number of people have been killed by them, likened mandates to Nazi experiments, and warned viewers the government is using the shots as a form a “social control.”

Yet for some reason, Carlson would steadfastly refuse to reveal whether he himself was vaccinated.

The Fox News host apparently had a change of heart this month, bragging about choosing not to get any of the jabs available to him. “I skipped the first three, I’m not getting that one either,” he told the crowd.

Last year, amidst Carlson’s tirades against vaccine requirements, MSNBC host Chris Hayes called out the ridiculous hypocrisy of Carlson dubbing Joe Biden’s mandates “irrational” and “a form of sadomasochism” while working for a company with stricter rules than the government.

“If you truly believe you are suffering under the sadomasochistic heel of a tyrannical employer,” Hayes said, “even if they are paying you lots and lots of money, even if you don’t want people to think you’re a total fraud, then you have got to have the guts to call out Fox News or resign in protest.”

Obviously, Tuck did neither of those things.

If, instead of believing a fool like Tuck, you prefer facts, and you are interested in knowing the odds you face against living without a shot, check out this graph.

If you are unvaccinated, you are 20 times more likely to win a *Darwin Award than is a fully vaccinated (with booster) person.

*A Darwin Award is given to someone who dies because he/she does something really stupid. His death improves the human gene pool by precluding him from fathering (or mothering) more stupid people.

Believing what you hear on Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson will move you into Award contention.

So a great big “Thank you” to all who trust Fox News and/or reject vaccination for the above-mentioned reasons, and in doing so, manage to win Darwin Awards. Alfred E Neuman Mad Magazine What Me Worry Black Text T Shirt

We, who care about the future intelligence of the human species, are grateful for your selfless contributions.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell

Search #monetarysovereignty

Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
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.”

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Inflation: The myth and the reality

Economics is a strange science. It is loaded with statistics, but for lazy reasons, too many economists tend not to believe their own statistics, and instead lean toward intuition and comfortable adages.

One such adage is: “Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods.”

Here are excerpts from an article embracing that myth:

COVID Stimulus Checks Worsened Inflation Four economists at the Federal Reserve say America’s high rate of inflation relative to the rest of the world is the result of surging disposable income during the pandemic. ERIC BOEHM | 4.8.2022

Inflation is running higher in the United States than just about anywhere else right now. Why’s that?

According to a new paper from four economists at the Federal Reserve of San Francisco, it’s because the American government was relatively more generous during the pandemic, borrowing and spending trillions of dollars to not only fund COVID-19 relief efforts but to line the pockets of Americans with direct payments that enlarged the money supply and overheated the economy.

Contrary to popular wisdom, the federal government does not borrow dollars. It creates new dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a creditor. That is the federal government’s method for creating dollars. The federal government has the infinite ability to create its own sovereign currency, so it never needs to borrow. (It also doesn’t need to acquire dollars by levying taxes, but that’s another issue.) That thing falsely labeled “borrowing,” actually should be termed “accepting deposits” into Treasury Security accounts — dollars the federal government never needs or touches — dollars that stay in those T-bill, T-note, and T-bond accounts until maturity, at which time they are returned to depositors. More to the point is the fact that there is no relationship between inflation and the nation’s money supply.

**There is no relationship between inflation (blue line) and the money supply (M2) (gold line)**

If an increased money supply caused inflation, one should expect the blue inflation line and the gold money supply line to be relatively parallel. We see nothing of the sort. Their relationship can better be described as random, not cause/effect..

“Since the first half of 2021, U.S. inflation has increasingly outpaced inflation in other developed countries.

Estimates suggest that fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic’s economic effect may have contributed to this divergence.”

Blaming “fiscal support measures” merely restates the data-discredited “Too much money” part of the adage. But, at least, we have an admission from a debt nag that federal deficit spending helps grow the economy, a fact that Mr. Boehm’s Libertarian Party is reluctant to mention.

Governments all over the world spent heavily to combat the pandemic, of course, but few handed out cash directly to citizens as the American government did.

Mr. Boehm implies that government spending is superior to federally-financed, private-sector spending with regard to inflation. This strange idea never is explained. In both cases, money is added to the economy and circulates through the economy.

The four Federal Reserve researchers track sharp increases in “inflation-adjusted disposable personal income”—in layman’s terms, excess spending cash—reported by American households over the past two years.

“Throughout 2020 and 2021, U.S. households experienced significantly higher increases in their disposable income relative to their OECD peers,” they write.

**Data shows that *“inflation-adjusted disposable personal income”* (aka “Real Disposable Personal Income) has no historical relationship to the rate of inflation.**

Looking at data, rather than intuition and adages, we find the Real Disposable Personal Income (red) line is nowhere near parallel to the Inflation (blue) line. Again, the differences between them seem generally random.

About $817 billion in direct payments to American households were delivered in three rounds during the pandemic, according to the COVID Money Tracker run by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonprofit that advocates for lower deficits.

The CRFB, which is funded by the rich, always advocates for lower deficits, or more specifically, advocates for less money going to the middle classes and the poor. The rich, in their ever-present desire to be richer, continually try to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest. (See Gap Psychology). Had we followed CRFB’s advice, we would be in the midst of a deep recession or a depression.

We’re now reaping what Congress sowed. All that excess cash is chasing the same number of goods.

Wrong. It’s not chasing the same number of goods. COVID dramatically has reduced our ability to manufacture and to ship. There are major shortages of goods, not because of increased demand but because of reduced creation:

All inflations are caused by shortages, most often, shortages of oil and food.

**The price of oil is closely related to the supply of oil, which in turn, has a primary influence on inflation. Note the parallel between oil prices and inflation**

And no, increased federal debt has not increased the price of oil:

**Oil prices are not historically related to the federal debt.**

Food shortages also contribute to inflation:

COVID affected food farming and imports, forcing the availability of food to fall to historic levels, before rebounding. As a result, the price of food rose massively in 2020, and remains high as reserves are rebuilt.

Weirdly, the author of the article seems to imply that giving rescue money to people caused them to eat more food. In truth, demand is not an issue. The problem is lack of production.

Larry Summers, one of the Obama administration’s top economic advisers, was warning about rising inflation more than a year ago.

Passing another stimulus bill in the spring of 2021, Summers warned in a Washington Post op-ed, “will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.”

Lord, please save us from the always wrong, Larry Summers. He rails against the stimulus bill which helped prevent a recession or a depression. Almost every recession has resulted from reduced federal deficit growth:

Reductions in federal debt growth lead to inflation — **Recessions (vertical gray bars) result from reduced federal deficit spending (blue line), and are cured by increased federal deficit spending.**

Other top economists, including a former chairman of the International Monetary Fund, offered similar warnings.

The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress did not listen, and now here we are.

Yes, “here” we are, without a depression, which we would have had were it not for the influx of cash from the federal government.

Putting more money directly in Americans’ pockets and bank accounts caused inflation to get worse than it otherwise would have been.

Wrong. There is no relationship between inflation and that old bugaboo, federal debt:

**No historical relationship between inflation and federal debt.**

Today’s inflation is the result of COVID-caused shortages of oil, food, computer chips, lumber, shipping, labor, and other commodities.

In fairness, the economists also point out that a less robust response to the pandemic may have caused a different kind of economic pain.

“Without these spending measures,” they write, “the economy might have tipped into outright deflation and slower economic growth, the consequences of which would have been harder to manage.”

Exactly right. We most likely would have slid right into a depression, had we followed the advice of Eric Boehm, the CRFB, Larry Summers, and other deficit nags.

1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807. 1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819. 1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837. 1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857. 1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873. 1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893. 1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929. 1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.

And finally, Mr. Boehm straddles the fence, which will allow him at some future time to claim credit for his correct prediction, while avoiding the embarrassment of his wrong prediction.

Putting more money directly in Americans’ pockets and bank accounts caused inflation to get worse than it otherwise would have been.

Wrong, again. Increased money supply does not cause inflation, as we have shown. Now comes the other side of the fence

Any serious attempt to grapple with America’s current bout of inflation must be aware of that possible alternate reality—the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.

And then back again to the first side of the fence.

But that doesn’t absolve the federal government—from the White House to Congress to the Federal Reserve—of its role in worsening this mess.

The whole world is suffering through a period of high inflation, but American policy makers added a uniquely high amount of fuel to the fire.

So, to summarize Mr. Boehm’s firm position: The federal government both should and should not have pumped money into the economy to fight off a possible COVID recession. And that’s definite. SUMMARY

Current increases in prices (aka “inflations”) are caused by shortages of key goods and services, most often energy and food.
The shortages all are COVID-related.
Today’s inflation involves many such shortages including oil, food, computer chips, lumber, shipping, labor, and other commodities.
Historically, there has been no relationship between federal deficit spending and inflation.
Deficit spending can cure inflation if it cures shortages by obtaining and distributing scarce commodities.
The lack of federal deficit spending results in recessions and depressions.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

……………………………………………………………………..

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
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.”

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

You think the minimum wage should be raised, but you oppose Social Security and Medicare for All. Hello sucker.

The poker bromide goes something like this: If you’re sitting in a poker game for a half-hour, and you still can’t tell who the sucker is, you’re the sucker. The economics bromide could be: If you think the minimum wage should be raised, but you oppose Social Security for All and Medicare for All, hello, sucker. You’re a sucker for wondering, “Who’s going to pay for it?” when considering federal spending. You’re a sucker for thinking the federal government can’t afford it. You’re a sucker for thinking spending will cause inflation. You’re a sucker who offers no alternative to the following:

The federal minimum wage hasn’t risen in almost 13 years and US workers are paying the price Opinion by Gina Cummings for CNN Business Perspectives Updated 11:10 AM ET, Tue March 22, 2022

With inflation hitting a 40-year high in the United States, working families are swimming ever faster in the effort to stay afloat. But the water keeps rising, as mostly stagnant wages are rapidly losing value.

The federal minimum wage has lost at least 21% of its value since Congress last raised it in 2009.

This has become an emergency for the millions of workers who earn less than $15 an hour and are finding it impossible to trim other costs enough to still be able to put food on the table and fill the tank.

According to new research released by Oxfam, roughly 32% of workers in the US earn less than $15 an hour. Nearly 52 million people are trying to make it on less than $31,200 a year, or $2,600 a month before taxes.

This is not right, nor is it viable — not for working families, the economy, or communities. We can’t keep an economy going if people can’t pay the rent and drive to work.

The federal minimum wage and federal poverty levels either are a disgrace or a joke, depending on your sense of humor. For one thing, they don’t take into consideration local differences in cost of living. Apparently, earning more than $13K while living in a Mississippi shack puts you above the poverty level. Imagine that while trying to survive in Manhattan. But perhaps the saddest statistics of all can be seen in the charts, below. Poverty is most often seen in Republican states. The people who live there vote for the political party more dedicated to keeping them in poverty. Guess who America’s suckers are.

It’s not true that we “can’t keep an economy going if millions of Americans live in poverty.” Yes, allowing millions of impoverished children means we forego so many of their educated talents. It means many industries will grow more slowly or not grow at all. It means that scientific advancement will be slower, and life-spans will be lower than they should be. It means that millions of our fellow Americans will live in misery. But the economy will keep going — for the upper-middle and the rich — just as the economy is going in impoverished Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, et al. Even in 3rd-world countries, the economy is “going.” But is that the America you want? Do you really want an America where the rich keep getting richer and the rest keep getting poorer? Do you really want an America where one of the major political parties wishes to deny Americans decent healthcare?

The fact is that many people in America are poor, not because they are lazy but because fate has dealt them bad hands. The most common reason for poverty is impoverished or missing parents — the unlucky gene problem. Another reason for poverty is a government bought and paid for by the rich — a government dedicated to widening the Gap between the rich and the rest. What should be done about those people? Here is a common suggestion:

That’s why Congress must pass the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which would gradually increase the wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 by 2025 and would tie increases to median wage growth over time.

The “Raise the Wage Act” tells businesses to pay to solve the problem. But is this a problem businesses should pay to solve? If businesses pay, business profits pay, no money is added to the economy, and the economy shrinks. If the government pays to solve the problem, business profits rise, new dollars come into the economy, and the economy grows.

In truth, this is a civil rights crisis, as the people most impacted by low wages are historically marginalized populations: women and people of color.

It’s a civil rights crisis, and businesses are expected to solve it???

Not only did these workers get hit harder, longer and deeper by the pandemic, they’ve been watching their wages buy less each day, as they account for a vastly disproportionate share of the low-wage workforce — 40% of women versus 25% of men.

Half of all women of color earn under $15 per hour versus a quarter of all men.

And while 26% of White workers earn less than $15 an hour, 46% of Hispanic/Latinx workers and 47% of Black workers earn less than $15 per hour. These are the people suffering the worst sticker shock at the grocery store and the gas pump, choosing between rent and utilities.

What’s more, federal law still allows US employers to pay subminimum wages to nearly a million workers. The Raise the Wage Act would fix that, prohibiting anyone from being paid less than the federal minimum wage.

It’s a money problem. Rather than relying on monetarily non-sovereign businesses (i.e. entities that do not have infinite money) or on state/local governments (also monetarily non-sovereign), the Monetarily Sovereign federal government, which has infinite money, should solve the problem. And what exactly is the problem? Lack of financial resources. The poor, very simply, don’t have enough money, not only to live decent lives, but to live productive lives that would benefit all America. Their poverty hurts all of America. Rather than forcing monetarily non-sovereign entities (businesses and local governments) to pay specified minimum salaries, the Monetarily Sovereign federal government should provide what is lacking: Medicare for All, Social Security for All, College for All, Food for All. Federal support for healthcare, college, food, and income, would be the “tide that raises all of America’s boats.” The federal government has infinite money. While some may complain about multi-billionaires not paying their fair share, our multi-trillionaire government pleads poverty, and unnecessarily takes FICA money from lower-end salaries. Sadly, the federal government rations aid to make sure that the poor stay poor.

A measure of income issued every year by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Federal poverty levels are used to determine your eligibility for certain programs and benefits, including savings on Marketplace health insurance, and Medicaid and CHIP coverage.

Why? Why must Americans jump through hoops to prove they can’t afford healthcare? Why doesn’t the federal government simply pay for everyone’s health care? Isn’t that why we have a government? Look at the convoluted, complex, and totally unnecessary formula: How federal poverty levels are used to determine eligibility for reduced-cost health coverage

Income above 400% FPL: If your income is above 400% FPL, you may now qualify for premium tax credits that lower your monthly premium for a 2022 Marketplace health insurance plan.
Income between 100% and 400% FPL: If your income is in this range, in all states you qualify for premium tax credits that lower your monthly premium for a Marketplace health insurance plan.
Income at or below 150% FPL: If your income falls at or below 150% FPL in your state and you’re not eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, you may qualify to enroll in or change Marketplace coverage through a Special Enrollment Period.
Income below 138% FPL: If your income is below 138% FPL and your state has expanded Medicaid coverage, you qualify for Medicaid based only on your income.
Income below 100% FPL: If your income falls below 100% FPL, you probably won’t qualify for savings on a Marketplace health insurance plan or for income-based Medicaid.

What is the purpose of this complexity? What is Congress’s concern that creates this difficult path to eligibility? Why doesn’t everyone simply receive free, comprehensive, no-deductible health insurance, paid for by the federal government? The answer: The Big Lie. The lie is that the federal government can run short of dollars, and taxes are necessary to fund federal spending.

Congress Found An Easy Way To Fix Child Poverty. Then It Walked Away.

By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux MAR. 30, 2022, AT 6:00 AM

Imagine the federal government could lift millions of American children out of poverty with a single program. That program would help parents put nutritious meals on the table, pay for school expenses and even save for kids’ college — all with no negative impact on the economy.

You don’t have to imagine. We had it just last year … and now we don’t.

By nearly every empirical measure, the expanded child tax credit (CTC) — the policy passed in 2021 that gave parents a few hundred dollars per month for each child in their family — was a wild success, dramatically reducing child poverty and making it easier for families to buy food and pay for housing and utilities.

In combination with other COVID-19 relief measures, particularly the stimulus payments that went out to Americans in April 2020, January 2021 and March 2021, the CTC helped buffer families against the economic upheaval of the pandemic.

It’s rare that researchers can say with certainty that a program like the CTC actually worked. Politicians usually consider policies in an abstract, hypothetical way, knowing that a piece of legislation might not accomplish their aims.

But by the time Congress was thinking about extending the CTC, there was a mountain of cold, hard data showing that this program did a lot to help children and families.

Yet that wasn’t enough to save it. The expanded tax credit ended in December 2021, and chances are low it will be renewed. That tells you all you need to know about which is more powerful in Washington — politicians’ biases or actual evidence.

By the time the pandemic hit, reformers had been pushing for years for the U.S. to establish a universal allowance for families with children.

In the spring of 2021, Democrats in Congress transformed the CTC, an anti-poverty measure that’s been part of the tax code since 1997, into a kind of emergency child allowance.

Government programs are often glitchy when they start, but the fact that most families were eligible for the payments meant that they were fairly easy to administer.

The IRS already had all the information it needed for anyone who had claimed children on their previous year’s taxes — no additional applications or forms to fill out. The payments went straight into recipients’ bank accounts or they got a check in the mail, with minimal fuss.

And the money helped — a lot. Beginning July 15, the vast majority (88 percent) of families with children received a payment of either $300 or $250 per child. Researchers at the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy found that the July payment kept around 3 million children out of poverty. At the end of 2021, the researchers estimated that the program was keeping 3.7 million children out of poverty.

“Families were living in very precarious economic circumstances,” said Megan Curran, one of the researchers on the Columbia team. “That $300 or $600 per month — it might not sound like much, but when you’re making very little, it can be enough to give you a financial cushion.”

So there it is. A program worked, but it didn’t help the very rich, so our bribed politicians, especially the GOP white men, weren’t interested in poor children of color, so the policy that worked was abandoned. The excuse: “Who will pay for it.” The lie: Taxpayers pay for it.” The fact: Not only don’t taxpayers pay for federal spending, but federal spending adds dollars to the economy, and those added dollars wind up in taxpayers’ pockets. And finally, lest you doubt that taxes don’t fund federal spending and the government has the infinite ability to spend, here are excerpts from an article in the 4/4/2022 Chicago Tribune:

Biden’s defense budget is big. Democrats might make it bigger Doyle McManus, LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON — Last week, President Joe Biden sent Congress his proposed defense budget for the next fiscal year: an $813 billion wish list, almost $60 billion more than he requested a year ago — more military spending than any president, including Donald Trump, has requested since World War II.

Once Congress approves the request — and, in all likelihood, makes it bigger — U.S. defense spending will be larger in inflation-adjusted dollars than it was at the height of the Vietnam War or President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War buildup.

Moderate Democrats, including House members from districts with defense industry jobs, say they’ll join with Republicans to support more military spending — just as they did last year, when a big bipartisan majority passed record-breaking defense bills.

Even with its big increase, the Biden budget won’t keep pace with inflation if prices keep rising at the current 7% or more. Republicans have seized on that as their most powerful argument; they’re demanding a real increase of 5% on top of inflation, and they’ll probably get part of it.

“Most Democrats have already given up on cuts,” noted Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They’ve adopted a strategy of parity instead: ‘OK, you get more for defense, but give us more for domestic spending in exchange.’”

Notice what’s missing from the article: There’s no mention of a “federal trust account,” similar to what we see for Medicare and Social Security. There’s no mention of affordability or “who’s going to pay for it,” or concerns about federal spending causing inflation or the need for tax increases. Why? Because the money is available. The federal government has an infinite supply. No tax increases are necessary. But helping poor and middle-income Americans is not what the rich want. Cutting FICA and saving Social Security is not what the rich want. Raising the minimum wage is not what the rich want. The rich want spending on defense. That’s where the business profits are. And the American public, being ignorant of federal finance facts, goes along with the Big Lie. SUMMARY

1. The Big Lie in economics is: “Federal spending is funded by federal tax collections.” (Federal spending actually is funded by ad hoc dollar creation.)
2. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, unintentionally cannot run short of dollars. Even if the government collected $0 taxes, it could continue spending forever.
3. No agency of the federal government can run short of dollars unless Congress wills it.
4. Inflations never are caused by the federal government’s “excessive spending.” All inflations are caused by scarcities. Federal spending can cure inflations by curing scarcities.
5. Federal taxes do not fund federal spending. All M1 tax dollars sent to the Treasury are destroyed upon receipt.
6. The government is run by the very rich, who want to be richer, which they accomplish by widening the Gap between the rich and the rich. This is known as “Gap Psychology.”
7. The Big Lie is disseminated via bribery of information sources: The media are bribed via advertising dollars and ownership of media Economists are bribed via university donations and promises of jobs in think tanks Politicians are bribed via political donations and promises of jobs
[No rational person would take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that destroys those dollars and has the infinite ability to create new dollars.] Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
The most important problems in economics involve:
1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
2. 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: Ten Steps To Prosperity:
The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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