Tag: Ten Steps to Prosperity

The Committee for Screwing the Middle Classes and the Poor

We’ve written before about an organization that calls itself, “The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.” (CRFB)

We suggest they change the name to “The Committee for Screwing the Middle Classes and the Poor.” To say that what they publish is rank nonsense, would do a disservice to the words “rank” and “nonsense.”

CRFB is a prime promulgator of the Big Lie, the lie that the federal government somehow can run short of its own sovereign currency, the dollar, with which to pay its bills.

The Big Lie devolves to the Big Screwing, the never-ending effort by the rich, to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid and cut virtually every other program that benefits the middle classes and the poor.

Here are a couple of CRFB’s luminaries (quoting from their website), nearly all of whom are rich and all of whom are white:

Maya MacGuineas, the President of the CRFB as well as the head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. (She once was) dubbed “an anti-deficit warrior” by The Wall Street Journal.

Since deficit spending is the method by which the federal government grows the economy, MacGuineas should more properly be dubbed “an anti-economic growth warrior.”

Erskine Bowles was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with fellow CRFB board member Senator Alan Simpson.

Erskine and Bowles authored a report that recommended cuts in the federal spending that was pulling us out of the Great Recession. Remember “sequestration” and the “fiscal cliff”?

Peter Peterson is the founder and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation is the founding president of The Concord Coalition. Prior to this, he served as chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers.

Peterson is a very rich man who does everything possible to make sure your Social Security and Medicare are cut. The Concord Coalition is, like the CRFB, an organization devoted to widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

In true CRFB tradition, our intelligence and our pocketbooks once again are assaulted with an article like this:

Long-Term Budget Outlook Underlines Trouble Ahead for Social Security
JUL 29, 2016

The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook release came with updated projections of the 75-year solvency of Social Security.

CBO now projects that Social Security faces a 75-year shortfall of 4.7 percent of taxable payroll – 0.3 percentage points worse than its projections from December – but maintains an exhaustion date of 2029.

Social Security is an agency of the federal government. Neither the federal government nor any of its agencies can become insolvent unless Congress wants it.

Unlike state and local governments, which can be insolvent, the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, meaning it has unlimited control over both the supply and the value of the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. government invented the dollar, created it from thin air by the simple device of passing laws, which also were created from thin air. Because the government never can run short of laws, it also never can run short of dollars.

The U.S. government never, never, never can be unable to service any invoice denominated in dollars. Never has, never will.  All talk about federal agency insolvency is 100% BS.

The rest of CRFB’s article attempts to put a scientific spin on its woefully false claims by touting such measures as: “actuarial shortfall” and “projections involving life expectancy, fertility, and growth in the consumer price index.”

But all the phony math in the world will not cover up the Big Lie, the basic premise, that the federal government can run short of its own sovereign dollars.

And then comes the real pitch to the suckers:

Now is the time to start making reasonable changes to Social Security rather than waiting until the last minute when the necessary changes become much more drastic.

Instead of discussing ways to expand a program whose funds are already strained, policymakers should be considering both spending and revenue changes to ensure the long-term health of this important program for millions of beneficiaries across the country.

To hide the truth from you, these con artists use the innocent-sounding phrase, “reasonable changes,” when they really mean: Cut Social Security benefits and increase the FICA taken from your paycheck.

And then they have the chutzpah to end with, “ensure the long-term health of this important program for millions of beneficiaries across the country.”

Please gimme a break. If these characters cared one whit about the “millions of beneficiaries,” they would demand benefit increases and tax cuts.

The fact of Monetary Sovereignty is this: You, and the rest of salaried Americans, could pay $0 FICA, while Social Security benefits were doubled, and still the federal government would not run short of dollars.

Why do you pay FICA? Why have Social Security benefits begun later and later? Why do organizations like CRFB lie to you again and again about mythical insolvency threats? Why even, was a complex, convoluted program like “Obamacare” necessary?

Because our political leaders are paid to lie by the rich, whose primary objective is to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

The Gap is what makes the rich richer, and the wider that Gap, the richer they are.

So the rich bribe Congress (via campaign contributions); they bribe the media via ownership; they bribe the economists via contributions to universities and think tanks; and the rich pay the salaries of MacGuineas, Simpson, Bowles et al, and finally, the rich even bribe the Supreme Court justices with free vacations and other perks.

Bernie Sanders made a stab at narrowing the Gap, but he wasn’t believed by the very people who would have been helped most: The middle classes and the poor.

So now we are stuck with Hillary Clinton, who if she is like Barack Obama, will do very little to close the Gap, or worse yet, stuck with Donald Trump who with his ignorance and hubris, not only will do nothing to close the Gap, but who will destroy America’s economy.

It doesn’t need to be this way.  The federal government easily could provide Social Security and Medicare for every man, woman, and child in America.

The first step is for you and enough other people to understand and believe Monetary Sovereignty, and to demand the same of Congress. 

You need only to get up off your butt and make it happen.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================

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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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

More ignorance from Peter Suderman

If you’ve not already read it, or don’t remember it, I invite you to read the January 31, 2015 post: Mr. Suderman, what exactly is the “Welfare State”?.

The article discussed how Suderman, a film critic and Reason.com editor, claimed that benefits to the middle-classes and the poor constitutes a “welfare state.”

(All those tax breaks and other benefits to the rich are just fine, thank you.)

In Suderman’s latest demonstration of abject ignorance about economics, he wrote:

Neither Clinton Nor Trump Would Reduce the National Debt
Clinton’s policies would increase the debt less—but would still leave the budget on an unsustainable path.

Ah, the old “unsustainable” federal debt lie.

By way of reminder, we showed you the annual claims beginning in 1940 (Yes, 1940!) that the federal debt was a “ticking time bomb.”

Well, believe it or not, 76 years later, that ole’ bomb still’s a’tickin.’ It more recently morphed into a “looming collapse,” and now is “unsustainable.”

There is nothing wrong with being wrong. We all do it on occasion, though being wrong consistently for the past 76 years might give one pause, or at least a bit of humility.

No pause or humility for Suderman, however. He’s still shoveling the same old Tea Party bullsh*t.

When he, or others of his ilk, say the “debt” is “unsustainable, notice they never, ever say what “unsustainable” means.

Does it mean the government can run short of dollars, its own sovereign currency it originally created from thin air?

Or does it really mean, the very rich hate that dollars are being spent to narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest?

Well, anyway . . .

Here is a note to Peter: Please allow me to direct you once again to: Monetary Sovereignty, the key to understanding economics, and to: Lunch really can be free, so that at long last you may begin to understand Monetary Sovereignty and the reasons why the so-called federal “debt” is not, and never will be, “unsustainable.”

It’s not even a “debt.”

In the event Peter doesn’t see this post, will someone please contact him and relieve him of the misery of his misunderstandings.

And while you’re at it, please contact your political representatives and local media, so they too can stop disseminating the Big Lie.

You will do your nation and your family a real service, as we may stop talking about unnecessary and harmful reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits, and about a disastrous reduction in federal deficit spending.

No, the federal deficit and debt are not “unsustainable, ticking time bombs.” No, federal spending is “not funded by federal tax payers.” No, the government cannot “go broke,” and no, the government does not need to “live within its means.”

What you have been hearing from the Suderman’s of the world is a lie, designed to keep you in financial bondage.

The sooner you understand that, and encourage adoption of the Ten Steps to Prosperity, the sooner you can free yourself.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
===================================================================================
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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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 Republican Balanced Budget Amendment

If you enjoy economic fiction and a restatement of The Big Lie, there may be no better place to begin than the Republican 2016 platform.

On page 23, you will find the following:

Balancing the Budget

The federal fiscal burden threatens the security, liberty, and independence of our nation.

The current Administration’s refusal to work with Republicans took our national debt from $10 trillion to nearly $19 trillion today. Left unchecked, it will hit $30 trillion by 2026.

The term “fiscal burden” is a lie. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, can pay any bill of any size at any time. It never can run short of its sovereign dollars to pay its financial obligations. The notion of “burden” simply does not apply.

Even more, the so-called “national debt” is not really a debt as you may understand the term. The misnamed national “debt” is nothing more than the total of deposits in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank.

In short, the so-called “debt” is bank account deposits. It entirely could be paid off tomorrow, simply by transferring the dollars that exist in those accounts to the checking accounts of T-security holders. No new dollars and no taxes needed.

Thus, the “debt” poses no “burden” on the government and no “threat to security, liberty, and independence of our nation.”

At the same time, the Administration’s policies systematically crippled economic growth and job creation, driving up government costs and driving down revenues.

Oh, the irony. Deficit spending is what brought the nation out of the worst recession in our history. In fact, federal deficit spending is what has cured every recession.

monetary sovereignty

The blue line is the relative change in federal debt. The vertical bars are recessions.

Declines in the blue line have led to recessions, and increases have cured recessions. The reason: A growing economy, by definition, requires a growing supply of money, and federal deficit spending increases the money supply.

When Congressional Republicans tried to reverse course, the Administration manufactured fiscal crises — phony government shutdowns — to demand excessive spending.

The ironies simply don’t end. It was Republican Ted Cruz who threatened to shut down the government unless federal deficit spending (the one factor that grows the economy) was reduced.

The Administration’s demands have focused on significantly expanding government spending and benefits for its preferred groups, paid for through loans that our children and grandchildren will have to pay. This is the path to bankrupting the next generation.

“It’s preferred groups” are the poor, the middle-classes and the children. The “Administration’s demands” included money for health care, education, and retirement.

Our children and grandchildren do not pay for federal spending. As our readers know, The Big Lie in economics can be stated in just five words: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.”

While state and local taxes do fund state and local spending, the federal government, being uniquely Monetarily Sovereign, creates dollars ad hoc, by paying its bills.

That is the fundamental difference between federal financing and state/local government financing. Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the government could continue spending, forever.

The Republican path to fiscal sanity and economic expansion begins with a constitutional requirement for a federal balanced budget.

We will fight for Congress to adopt, and for the states to ratify, a Balanced Budget Amendment which imposes a cap limiting spending to the appropriate historical average percentage of our nation’s gross domestic product while requiring a super-majority for any tax increase, with exceptions only for war or legitimate emergencies.

Only a constitutional safeguard such as this can prevent deficits from mounting to government default.

Through wars, recessions, and depressions — through massive increases in federal deficits and federal “debt” — the U.S. government never has defaulted, and never will. It has the unlimited ability to create the dollars to pay its bills.

While the federal deficits and debt pose no threat whatsoever to the government, a reduction in federal deficit spending would destroy the American economy.

Taxes take dollars from your pocket and therefore, are recessive. Reduced federal spending also takes dollars from your pocket and also is recessive.

Money is the lifeblood of an economy. There is no way that reduced deficit spending, i.e. reducing the lifeblood, can grow the economy.

Cutting federal deficit spending to grow the economy would be like applying leeches to cure anemia.

Why then do the Republicans demand deficit reduction? Because most federal deficit spending benefits the lower income groups, and the Republicans are the party of the very rich.

Republicans hate such social benefits as Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and aids to education (unless they can privatize these programs for the benefit of Wall Street investors).

By contrast, they love war spending because it already benefits Wall Street — the military/industrial complex.

The Gap is what separates the rich from the rest of us.

Without the Gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the Gap, the richer they are. So the very rich do everything possible to widen the Gap, and that includes cutting social benefits.

A balanced budget amendment would put America into a permanent depression, in which the very rich would rule and the rest of us would have to beg them for sustenance.

A balanced budget amendment would be heaven for the very rich and hell for the rest of us. And the Republicans know it.

But amazingly, the Republican platform gets even worse:

Preserving Medicare and Medicaid

More than 100 million Americans depend on Medicare or Medicaid for their healthcare; with our population aging, that number will increase. To preserve Medicare and Medicaid, the financing of these important programs must be brought under control before they consume most of the federal budget, including national defense.

The above is a restatement of The Big Lie, that somehow the federal government can run short of its own sovereign currency and be unable to pay its bills. This is fear-mongering at its worst, an outright lie.

Medicare’s long-term debt is in the trillions, and it is funded by a workforce that is shrinking relative to the size of future beneficiaries.

Contrary to popular belief, your FICA payments do not fund Medicare. Taxes do not fund federal spending. Even if FICA were eliminated, the federal government could fund Medicare, not just for the elderly, but for every man, woman, and child in America.

FICA is a regressive tax, affecting the poor and middle classes far more than it affects the rich. It can and should be eliminated, while Social Security and Medicare are expanded.

We propose these reforms: Impose no changes for persons 55 or older.

If the proposal were good, why not give it to those 55 or older? The cynical reason: The proposal is terrible, so to get votes from the older people, they are exempted.

Give others the option of traditional Medicare or transition to a premium-support model designed to strengthen patient choice, promote cost-saving competition among providers, and better guard against the fraud and abuse that now diverts billions of dollars every year away from patient care.

You probably don’t know what this means. The confusion is intentional.

It means you will receive less money to pay for medical care than Medicare now spends. For the government to spend less, you will have to spend more.

The problem is that while the federal government has the unlimited ability to pay its bills, you don’t. So you will be impoverished, which will grow the Gap between the very rich and you.

Also note that the proposal has nothing to do with “patient choice,” “cost-saving competition among providers,” or a “guard against the fraud and abuse.” The proposal strictly is: You spend more so the government can spend less.

And finally, the following:

Set a more realistic age for eligibility in light of today’s longer life span.

Translation: Your Social Security and Medicare benefits will begin later. Who benefits from that?

In summary, the above sections of the Republican 2016 platform are a paeon to the very rich, designed at the behest of the rich to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

It is designed to fool you who rely on your leaders to aid and protect you. But these leaders have been bribed via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later.

They care nothing for you, and so they lie and hope you believe them.

Do you?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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

Time Magazine and the Big Lie in economics

The Big Lie in economics, very simply, is: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.”

Nearly all the popular misunderstandings in economics devolve from that five-word statement, or rather, misstatement.

While state taxes fund state spending, and city taxes fund city spending and euro-nation taxes fund euro-nation spending, U.S. federal taxes most assuredly do not fund federal spending.

In fact, even if all federal tax collections ceased, and not one tax dollar was sent by the private sector to the federal government, the government still could continue spending, forever.

The reason: The U.S. federal government, unlike the states, cities, and euro nations, uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign.

It has the unlimited ability to create any amount of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. It never can run short of dollars.

Faced with an invoice of a trillion dollars or even a trillion, trillion, trillion dollars, the U.S. government could pay it today, simply by creating dollars, ad hoc.

Because tax collections have zero effect on the federal government’s ability to pay, we taxpayers are not liable for federal debts.

Even if the government were faced with that above-mentioned, theoretical bill of a trillion, trillion, trillion dollars, we U.S. taxpayers would not owe one cent. Nor would our children and grandchildren have any liability whatsoever.

Yes, you and your kin, and all your neighbors and friends, and everyone in your state, and in the entire country could cease paying federal taxes today, and that would have no effect on the federal government’s ability to pay its bills. (You’d have to keep paying state, county and city taxes, however. They are monetarily non-sovereign.)

Those are the facts, the absolute facts of economics. How then can you explain the persistence of such misleading articles as this one by James Grant and Time Magazine:

The Big Lie Time Magazine

The United States of Insolvency
James Grant, the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
$13,903,107,629,266. Can the nation afford this much debt? James Grant offers his view

This much I have learned about debt after 40 years of writing and study: It is better not to incur it. Once it is incurred, it is better to pay it off. America, we have a problem.

We owe more than we can easily repay. We spend too much and borrow too much. Worse, we promise too much. We conjure dollar bills by the trillions–pull them right out of thin air. I won’t insist that this can’t go on, because it has. I only say that it will eventually stop.

I don’t know the date, but I believe that I know the reason. It will stop when the world loses confidence in the dollars we owe.

Come that moment of truth, the nation will resemble Chicago, a once prosperous polity now trying to persuade its once trusting creditors that it is actually solvent.

There, in a couple of short paragraphs, you see the commonly promulgated Big Lie about our economy — some half truths leavened with a giant dollop of lies.

Begin with the misleading title of the article: “The United States of Insolvency.” Grant and Time immediately tell you a lie.

The United States never can become insolvent — i.e. unable to pay its bills — unless Congress and the President want it (via the misleading “debt limit” game they play to confuse you).

Grant/Time said, “It is better to pay (the debt) off.” They lied to you.

The debt is nothing more than the total of T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. In short, bank deposits. There is no reason to pay off these bank deposits, though the federal government could do it tomorrow, if it wished.

The purpose of the so-called “debt,” i.e. T-securities, is to twofold: To help the Fed control interest rates and the money supply, and to provide a safe investment for the private sector.

Grant/Time said, “. . . more than we can easily repay.” They lied to you. We could repay those deposits today, simply by transferring them back to the owners’ checking accounts. No new dollars needed.

Grant/Time said, “We conjure dollar bills by the trillions–pull them right out of thin air,” which is absolutely true. It’s what we always have done, for the past 240 years of our existence. It is what all Monetarily Sovereign nations, like Canada, China, Australia, Japan, the UK, et al do. Creating money from thin air is what grows our economy.

In the past, whenever we stopped “conjuring” dollars, the economy stopped growing and we went into recessions and depressions.

Grant/Time said, “It (growing debt) will stop when the world loses confidence in the dollars we owe.”

This is a more subtle form of the Big Lie. The world simultaneously would have to lose confidence in China’s, Australia’s, Canada’s, the UK’s, and Japan’s money, as well as the euro and the money of all other governments for the U.S., the wealthiest nation on earth, to have difficulty issuing dollars.

Grant/Time said, “. . . the nation will resemble Chicago . . . ” They lied to you.

The U.S. government is Monetarily Sovereign. Chicago’s government is monetarily non-sovereign. The former has the unlimited ability to create dollars. The latter does not.

It’s as though Grant/Time don’t understand the difference between butter and a butterfly. The false comparison between federal financing and personal financing is an often-used lie.

Through wars, recessions, depressions, and inflations the U.S. government never has run short of dollars, and indeed, cannot run short of dollars.

You have been lied to for years and years. President Obama lied to you back in 2011, by making the same false comparison between federal financing and personal financing. He said:

“It comes down to this: We have to prioritize. Both parties agree that we need to reduce the deficit by the same amount — by $4 trillion.

“So what choices are we going to make to reach that goal? Either we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes, or we’re going to have to ask seniors to pay more for Medicare. We can’t afford to do both.

“Either we gut education and medical research, or we’ve got to reform the tax code so that the most profitable corporations have to give up tax loopholes that other companies don’t get. We can’t afford to do both.

“This is not class warfare. It’s math. The money is going to have to come from someplace.“

He lied to you then, and he continues to lie to you now, boldface, absolute lies.

Yes, the money has to come from someplace. The federal government creates dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a bill. Obama knows it. His advisors know it. Stephanie Kelton, the chief Democratic economist on the Senate Budget Committee knows it (though she is prevented from revealing it).

Why did Obama lie to you in 2011? Why did Grant and Time Magazine lie to you last April? Why have the media, the politicians and the university economists lied to you for decades?

Because they are paid by and controlled by the very rich, and the very rich want to control you by levying unnecessary taxes, and by restricting your benefits.

Obama is paid by rich contributors who will support him and his family after he leaves office. Grant was paid by Time which is owned and controlled by the very rich.

The rich control America. The Gap between the rich and the rest is what makes them rich (without the Gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the Gap, the richer they are.)

The rich widen the Gap by limiting the amount of healthcare you receive — refusing the free healthcare the government easily could provide.

They widen the Gap by limiting your Social Security — taxing it and by starting it later and later.

They widen the Gap by limiting your educational possibilities (via via the disgraceful student loan program).

They steal your money to impoverish you so you will need to beg them for help, and then you will send them contributions in hopes of getting that help.

You, the people of America are the victims of The Big Lie. You have been so brainwashed by our thought-leaders, that you angrily will defend The Big Lie. Consider the irony of the victims defending the victimizers.

WHAT ABOUT INFLATION?
If you understand Monetary Sovereignty, and try to explain it, eventually you will encounter this retort: “Yes the government always can print money, but that will cause inflation; look at Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic.”

The people, who tell you that, seldom understand they tacitly have admitted the federal government never can run short of money (“. . . always can print money. . . “), so they have dissolved their entire argument about taxes being necessary, and all they have left is their argument about hyperinflation.

They base their concern on the false belief that Dollar Value = 1/Supply, that is, the greater the Supply of dollars, the less their Value (i.e inflation). That is what the rich want you to believe

However, the real formula is Dollar Value = Demand/Supply. The greater the Demand for dollars, the greater the Value of dollars.

And Demand is based on Reward/Risk. And Reward is interest. That is why, for the past century, the Fed has controlled inflation at close to its target rate of 2%, by controlling interest rates.

And as for the bogeyman of Zimbabwe/Weimar hyperinflation:

  1. The U.S. never has had a hyperinflation, despite two centuries of “debt” growth — even today, while Time publishes scare articles, inflation is quite low, and
  2. Hyperinflations are not caused by money creation. They are caused by specific economic factors. Zimbabwe’s was caused by Robert Mugabe’s stealing of farm land from farmers and giving to people who didn’t know how to farm. The resultant food shortage caused hyperinflation. Weimar’s hyperinflation was caused by onerous repayment requirements put on Germany by the Allies.

Excessive money creation is a common response to hyperinflation. In short, hyperinflations cause excessive money creation and not the other way around.

The Big Lie — Federal taxes fund federal spending — has been used for centuries to control you.

So long as you continue to believe the Big Lie, the very rich and powerful will continue to control every aspect of your and your family’s lives, their health, their education, and their finances — from birth to death.

The rich want you to believe resistance is futile, but it’s not. You merely first must understand you are being lied to by The Big Lie.

Then demand the truth and close the Gap.

Begin with the Ten Steps to Prosperity.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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 afford better health care than 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 AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) 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 EVERYONEFive 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 benefiting 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 CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from 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 corporate taxes would be an 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