My sincere thanks to the CRFB’s efforts to make the rich richer

Politics is a unique system by which pigeons and dupes demand to give their money and trust to crooks, liars, and hypocrites.

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In one sense, medical doctors should appreciate illness, for without illness the doctors would have no jobs. Similarly, teachers should appreciate ignorance, police should appreciate crime, and firefighters should appreciate fire. And, by the same logic, I appreciate the CRFB (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) for spreading disinformation. Without the economic ignorant, I would have no reason to write this blog. Here is the latest example from my favorite doofi.

Though most COVID relief has already been spent, several policies continue to provide ongoing financial support and could be renewed again by Congress or the President. In particular, the federal government continues to offer increased payments to Medicare providers, forbearance for student loan borrowers, and an enhanced Medicaid matching rate(a form of aid to states).

Get it? The CRFB wants to cut federal support for Medicare, students, and Medicaid, all of which benefit those who are not rich.

Though some spending to specifically address the pandemic may still be warranted, policymakers should wind down these COVID relief policies rather than continuing to extend them. In this piece, we show that continuing these three policies would be:
Costly – the policies would cost a total of $160 billion in 2022 if continued and roughly $2 trillion over a decade if made permanent, based on our estimates.

Unjustified – the economy is saturated with demand, household incomes are well above pre-pandemic levels, the unemployment rate is near historic lows, hospital finances are strong, and state governments are flush with cash.

Inflationary – the policies would be responsible for adding 14 to 68 basis points (0.14 to 0.68 percentage points) to this year’s inflation rate if in effect for the full year, based on our estimates.

Let us analyze the three lies: “COSTLY”: The CRFB objects to the federal government pumping 160 billion growth dollars into the economy this year, and $2 trillion over 10 years. (Not sure how that math works.) Those are dollars that could narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest, a Gap which the CRFB apparently is paid to widen.

**REALITY: The Gap widens. The rich (blue) grow richer, while the middle (red) is poorer.**

Because the federal government has the infinite ability to create dollars, the word “costly” does not apply. Nothing is “costly” for the federal government. The federal government creates dollars by spending. That is the method by which the federal government creates its own sovereign currency, not with a printing press but with a computer key.

When the government pays a creditor, it sends instructions to the creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account. (“Pay to the order of”).

When the bank does as instructed, it the M1 money supply measure increases. In short, federal spending creates the dollars ad hoc, that pay for the spending.

Unlike you and me, and unlike state and local governments, the federal government cannot unintentionally outspend its supply of dollars. Despite what you may have been told by devious politicians, the federal government even could eliminate all federal taxes and still have no difficulty spending that $160 billion or $2 trillion. Taxes do not fund federal spending. Money creation funds federal spending. Tax dollars are destroyed upon receipt by the government. Tax dollars move from the M1 money supply measure (i.e. your checking account) to no money supply measure at all. There is no measure of how many dollars the federal government has because it has infinite dollars. There is no specific answer to the question, “How much money does the federal government have?” At any moment in time, it has as much or as little as it wishes to have. That is the meaning of “Monetary Sovereignty.” The government is sovereign over the U.S. dollar. It creates dollars at will. “UNJUSTIFIED”: The economy is not “saturated” with demand, nor has it ever been “saturated.” The economy is experiencing shortages, and those shortages are claimed by the CRFB to result from too much demand. But shortages of food do not imply “too much” demand for food. (Do we really demand too much food?) Shortages of oil do not imply “too much” demand for oil. Shortages of labor do not imply “too much” demand for labor. (Does anyone believe we “demand” too much labor?) Shortages of computer chips and lumber do not imply “too much” demand for chips and lumber. Shortages of shipping do not imply “too much” demand for shipping. The whole foolish concept of “too much” demand, implies that the economy is too healthy and is growing too fast. Where was this “too much” demand during the past decade, when the federal government spent massively and inflation was very low? “Saturated with demand” is a ridiculous notion, especially when millions of Americans still live in poverty, and millions more are unable to afford good housing, good medical care, a good education, and good food. Because the CRFB is funded by the rich and is in fact a mouthpiece of the rich, it closes its eyes to the needs of those who are not rich. “INFLATIONARY”: This old saw is widely believed but unsupported by data. There is no historical relationship between federal spending and inflation.

**Inflation (blue line) bears no relationship to federal debt (red line). There is no cause/effect correlation between the two.**

All inflations are caused by shortages. The current inflation was not suddenly caused by the massive federal spending of the past decade. The current inflation suddenly was caused by the sudden COVID-related shortages of oil, food, labor, shipping, lumber, etc. The CRFB, supported by the conservative rich, promulgates the lie that to combat inflation we must cut spending to further impoverish the poor and the middle. They tell you we must cut federal support for healthcare, education, food, housing, and retirement. These cuts would impact your life, but not the lives of the rich, who can afford the best of everything, even during recessions. The conservatives prefer cuts that would widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest of us, effectively making the rich richer.

(It is the Gap that makes the rich rich, for without the Gap, no one would be rich. We all would be the same. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich.)

That, of course, is the CRFB conservative plan: To make the rich richer. Gap Psychology dictates that people generally wish to widen the Gap below them and to narrow the Gap above them. This includes the rich, who always wish to be richer by widening the Gap below them. Notice that the rich do not want to cut the military or the police or border control, for those are protections for the rich that take their orders from the rich. In short, while every spending cut demanded by conservatives is designed to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest, the few spending increases backed by conservatives are designed to reward and protect the rich.

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And then there’s this:

White House officials say U.S. has exhausted funds to buy potential fourth vaccine dose for all Americans As a congressional stalemate stretches into its third week, officials warn it will hurt pandemic readiness By Dan Diamond, Rachel Roubein and Yasmeen Abutaleb

The Biden administration lacks the funds to purchase a potential fourth coronavirus vaccine dose for everyone, even as other countries place their own orders and potentially move ahead of the United States in line, administration officials said Monday.

“Right now, we don’t have enough money for fourth doses, if they’re called for,” White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said. “We don’t have the funding if we were to need a variant-specific vaccine in the future.”

Administration officials said placing orders for additional doses ahead of time — rather than waiting for the United States to be swamped by another wave of the virus — was imperative and a key lesson from the pandemic’s past two years.

They also noted that the fast-moving omicron variant evaded some immune protection conferred by existing vaccines, demonstrating the need to invest in more targeted shots that could better fend off omicron and potential future variants.

“Vaccines don’t just appear when you snap your fingers and say, ‘Okay, I want the vaccine.’ We’ve got to make it,” a senior administration official said.

“And this year, it’s going to be more complicated because there’s a very significant chance — although we’re still waiting for data — that the vaccines are going to need to be tweaked to cover omicron.”

There is Congress, again playing political games with the lives of Americans. The government has plenty of money — infinite money — but the pretense of federal poverty continues.

And this:

Higher food prices around the country are pushing more Americans to food banks Food banks have more customers as safety net programs end and people struggle with inflation By Laura Reiley Even as coronavirus rates continue to drop and the American labor market nears full recovery from the pandemic, food banks are seeing another surge in need. Most pandemic assistance programs have ended, inflation is rising and many Americans are once again having trouble making ends meet. Food bank officials are reporting growing lines at their distribution centers nationwide. Rates of reported hunger have been increasing since early August, when nearly 8 percent of respondents said they “sometimes” or “often” did not have enough to eat, according to data from the Census Household Pulse Survey. In late January and early February, after child tax credit payments ended, 35 percent (!) of adults living in households with children said they struggled to cover usual costs, according to census data.

The CRFB liars might tell you the demand for food is “saturated” — simply too much demand for food — and that too much federal spending is causing this “saturation.” In Summary There is no relationship between federal spending and inflation. All inflations are caused by shortages, most of which actually can be cured by federal spending. Conservatives, who wish to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, use the nonexistent spending/inflation relationship and the false “government can’t afford it” meme as excuses to cut all spending that benefits the middle- and lower-income groups. Similarly, the conservatives support increased taxes on the poor- and middle-income groups, supposedly to fund social programs. The rich avoid these taxes, and the ultimate irony is, the taxes don’t actually fund anything. 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

It breaks my heart to see this headline. It should break your heart, too.

[Why would any sane person take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars?]

It breaks my heart to see the following headline. It should break your heart, too.

Millions of vulnerable Americans likely to fall off Medicaid once the federal public health emergency ends By Amy Goldstein

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-1.png — **“Pay no attention to those many trillions behind me. I’m too broke to help you (unless you’re rich.)”**

Begin with two central facts: The U.S. federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, and a Monetarily Sovereign entity cannot unintentionally run short of its own sovereign currency. The federal government has infinite dollars. Thus, your federal tax dollars do not fund federal spending. Even if all federal tax collections totaled $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever. All federal taxes are destroyed upon receipt. Your M1 money-supply tax dollars cease to be part of any money-supply measure, once they reach the Treasury. They effectively are destroyed. The government creates new dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a bill. That is how the federal government creates dollars. The more debts the government owes, the more money it creates. Contrary to what you repeatedly are told, your grandchildren are not liable for the federal “debt.” Not now, not ever.

WASHINGTON — The bipartisan spending deal that Congress cleared last week provides billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it cuts other humanitarian programs meant to address mounting hunger crises elsewhere in the world, including Afghanistan and West Africa.

The initial House-passed bill and one offered in the Senate, written by majority Democrats, would have largely fulfilled the White House’s humanitarian funding request.

In interviews and statements, foreign aid advocates said they were “embarrassed” and “flabbergasted” that Congress reduced funds for dealing with the worst refugee displacements since World War II and other crises caused by mounting natural disasters and manmade conflicts.

The cuts to nonemergency humanitarian spending, as well as the lack of any international COVID-19 assistance in the omnibus, are a “self-inflicted wound” to America’s ability to recover from the pandemic and to pursue its long-term national security interests, said Liz Schrayer, president of the bipartisan U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Independent budget analysts have pinned blame on Republicans’ insistence that any increases in nondefense spending be kept roughly equal to increases in defense spending.

“We have more people who are hungry and people who are hungrier getting hungrier and we have no grain. It is absolutely catastrophic,” Peña said. “SFOPs got the raw end of the stick.”

The Senate’s lead foreign aid appropriator issued a similar view in an uncharacteristically blunt statement for a congressional appropriations cardinal criticizing his own bill.

Everywhere you turn, the phony belief that the federal government must operate under restrictive budgets, like you and I must, is a self-inflicted wound on America. The so-called “federal debt” is not a debt (It is deposits in T-security accounts), and it is not a burden on anyone. (The “debt” is paid off simply by returning those deposits.) Our federal government, having unlimited resources, pretends it is limited, and the public believes the lie. The sole purpose of the lie is to keep you from asking for the same federal benefits that the rich (who pay no taxes year after year) receive. So long as you are kept ignorant, the rich will keep getting richer and you will keep paying. WHAT ABOUT INFLATION? In addition to the lie about the federal debt being a burden, there is the lie that federal deficit spending causes inflation. It is widely believed, but it is a flat-out lie backed by no facts.

There is no relationship between federal deficit spending (red line) and inflation (blue line). Inflations are caused by shortages, most often shortages of oil. Today’s inflation is caused not only by shortages of oil but also by scarcities of food, shipping, labor, computer chips, vital minerals, lumber, and many other COVID-induced problems. For many, many years, the US had massive deficit spending with low inflation, but now, with the effects of COVID and the Putin war, we suddenly see inflation. Clearly, deficit spending was not the cause. The Fed’s attempt to address inflation by raising interest rates will not succeed while the real causes, shortages of oil et al, persist. Congress can address these shortages by spending more to facilitate the supply of all scarcities. One good step would be to eliminate the harmful FICA tax, which doesn’t fund Medicare or Social Security but does discourage hiring by increasing the cost of labor. And this is what breaks my heart. A Congress that never has to worry about having enough to eat, or a place to sleep, or good schools for their children, has decided America “can’t afford” to provide these things to the “lazy” poor. Of course, the “can’t afford” meme is a blatant lie. America can afford anything that costs dollars. But the rich, who bribe and control our government, don’t want the Gap between them and the rest of us to narrow. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich, so widening the Gap is the way our spineless Congresspeople vote. “Spineless” is the only way to describe the 100% refusal of one party to approve spending for the poor. These subservient sheep do exactly as they are told by the rich, then collect their excessive salaries and bribes, while the less fortunate among us pay the price. So long as you believe that your federal taxes fund federal spending and that federal spending causes inflation — so long as you believe those two lies — then the rich will have won and you will have lost. Ignorance has its costs. 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

Ignorance is costing you. It’s what you want.

Ignorance is not stupidity. While stupidity can cause ignorance, ignorance cannot cause stupidity. We all are ignorant about many things. Each of us is ignorant about all but a minuscule fraction of what there is to know. Sadly, most of us are ignorant about federal government financing. Which do you believe:

The purpose of federal government taxes is to help pay the government’s bills.
The federal government borrows dollars to help pay its bills.
The federal government can unintentionally run short of dollars.
The federal debt should be reduced.
Our children and grandchildren will have to pay the federal debt.
Federal spending can cause inflation.
Federal deficits should be reduced.
The federal government should run a balanced budget.
Federal finances are similar to state/local government finances.
The federal debt ceiling is a fiscally prudent limit.

The 20 Most Notorious Con Artists of All-Time — **Even Bernie Madoff couldn’t imagine a con a large as the trillions-of-dollars “debt crisis” con.**

As the smart and fiscally knowledgeable people know, all of the above statements are false. How many did you get right? The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign has the infinite ability to create dollars. It not only doesn’t use tax dollars; it destroys them upon receipt. The primary purpose of federal taxes is to control the economy by taxing what the government wishes to discourage. The federal “debt” isn’t a debt; it’s deposits, and neither the debt nor the deficit is an obligation of the government, of you, or of your grandchildren. No one ever will pay for the “debt.” The deposited money simply will be returned upon maturity. In short, there is no federal “debt crisis.” It’s a con by the rich that is far bigger than anything Bernie Madoff could imagine. The purpose: To make you accept fewer benefits from the government. Federal deficits are necessary for economic growth. Shortages, not federal spending, cause inflation. A federal balanced budget would cause a recession or a depression. Federal finances are nothing like state/local government finances, nothing like business finances, and nothing like your or my finances. The federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. It never unintentionally can run short of dollars. Keep these facts in mind as we go through the following article:

America’s giant medical debt Adriel Bettelheim

Americans owe at least $195 billion of medical debt, despite 90% of the population having some kind of health coverage, according to new research from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The fundamental purpose of government is to improve and protect the lives of the people being governed. How does requiring payment to the federal government improve or protect the lives of the people?

Why it matters: People are spending down their savings and skimping on food, clothing and household items to pay their medical bills.

About 16 million people, or 6% of U.S. adults, owe more than $1,000 in medical bills, and 3 million people owe more than $10,000.

The financial burden falls disproportionately on people with disabilities, those in generally poor health, Black Americans and people living in the South or in non-Medicaid expansion states, per the research.

“People living in the South or in non-Medicaid expansion states” live where Republicans govern. This is not a coincidence. The right-wing philosophy is to benefit the rich by widening the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and he rest. The rich wish to be richer, and widening the Gap makes them richer. The very definition of “rich” involves a wide income/wealth/power Gap. Nor is it a coincidence that these are the same states enacting laws to make voting more difficult for the poor and for people of color. (See “Gap Psychology.”)

16% of privately-insured adults say they would need to take on credit card debt to meet an unexpected $400 medical expense, while 7% would borrow money from friends or family, per the research, which focused on adults who reported having more than $250 in unpaid bills as of December 2019.

It’s not yet clear how much the pandemic and the recession factor into the picture, in part because man people delayed or went without care. There also was a small shift from employer-based coverage to Medicaid, which has little or no cost-sharing.

While the new federal ban on surprise billing limits exposure to some unexpected expenses, it only covers a fraction of the large medical bills many Americans face, the researchers say.

The solution to the medical debt problem is federal support. The federal government should offer comprehensive, no-deductible, generous Medicare coverage to every man, woman, and child in America. The plan should be optional. Those who wish to keep their private insurance should be allowed to do so, though one wonders why anyone would wish to. (Presumably, there may be some anti-government types who would prefer to pay for what they could receive without cost.) This plan should cover everything that could be considered “medical”: Dental, psychiatric, rehabilitation, home rehab for disability, pharmaceuticals, etc. The payments to healthcare workers and hospitals should be generous, to attract people into the profession and to encourage the building of more and better hospitals. There is nothing wrong with doctors, nurses and hospital personnel getting rich. Even if some might get rich for doing little, that is better than Americans being impoverished, through no fault of their own, by the cost of disease. Federal support of medical research should be increased, and rather than trying to cut prescription costs, the government should encourage research by rewarding successful drugs. Federal spending costs you nothing. It is the ultimate free lunch. The reluctance to spend is an artificial limitation placed on the government by the very rich, who do not want the rest of us to receive the same benefits they receive. The rich can afford the best doctor-care, the best nurse-care, the best hospital-care, the best pharmaceuticals, the best rehabilitation. The rich can afford to travel for abortions, while the rest are required to have unwanted and unaffordable babies. The rich also can afford the best schools for their kids. They receive tax breaks on their homes while you pay for your rental. They write off their meals and their transportation, even their clothing and their vacations, all as business expenses. And while the rich go years without paying any taxes because they receive tax breaks of which you can’t even dream, they complain about your receipt of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and poverty benefits. Why is this happening? Because they have convinced you that federal deficit spending for your benefits somehow will be bad for you and for America. In short, this is happening because of your ignorance. I’m sorry to put it so bluntly, but there is no other way to say it. You could have the same benefits the rich take for granted, but you have been sold the bill of goods that says, “They deserve the best and you don’t.” Because of your ignorance of the facts, you meekly sit back and accept crumbs. You vote for the people who lie to you. You can’t even visualize having what the federal government easily can provide to you. You are so ignorant you will become enraged at, and ridicule, anyone who tries to tell you the truth. You excuse your ignorance by claiming federal benefits are “socialism” or “communism,” though they are neither. You demand to lead a lesser life, and when you receive that lesser life, you grumble about it. You simply cannot bring yourself to believe that the federal government can afford to give you the same, beautiful life benefits it gives to the rich, without collecting a dime from you in taxes. Because you think of yourself as “lesser,” you receive less and sadly, you deserve what you receive. And to keep those below you on the income/wealth/scale from climbing up, you’ll vote against their benefits, too, because you don’t understand that a vote against the poor rebounds as a vote against you. Ignorance does that. You are the people who buy lottery tickets, hoping for a mathematical miracle, when the federal government has the power to give you the life you pray for, and it wouldn’t require a miracle. All you need do is learn and demand, and if enough of you do that, you will win life’s lottery, courtesy of your government. Or, stay ignorant. Your choice. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell P.S. This doesn’t apply to citizens of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and the other euro nations. Your government gave away its Monetary Sovereignty many years ago. You might do better buying lottery tickets. 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

Cancel student loan debt?

Our federal government and the European Central Bank are Monetarily Sovereign. The implications are:

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”

Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”

Ben Bernanke when, as Fed chief, he was on 60 Minutes: Scott Pelley: Is that tax money that the Fed is spending? Ben Bernanke: It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.

Statement from the St. Louis Fed: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational.”

Press Conference: Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, 9 January 2014 Question: I am wondering: can the ECB ever run out of money? Mario Draghi: Technically, no. We cannot run out of money.

[Why would any sane person take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars?]

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Step #4 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below) is: Free education for everyone That post begins with the following facts:

Educating our young people is important to the future of America.
For that reason, free elementary education has been provided by every state and every town in America.
Since WWII, America’s need for college-educated young people has grown, in a more sophisticated, more competitive world. College-educated students no longer are a luxury for America; they are a necessity.
Many of America’s bright students are unable to afford a college education, especially not in better colleges.
The U.S. federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, meaning it creates dollars at will. It never can run short of dollars. The federal government has the unlimited ability to pay for anything priced in dollars.
The federal government’s responsibility is to advance the interests of the United States and its people.
Putting America’s young people into debt, a debt so suffocating it cannot even be discharged in bankruptcy, does not advance the interests of the United States and its people.

A literate nation is a better nation in every aspect of human life, emotionally, socially, and economically. Our founders knew it, which is why free education was offered to settler’s children, and today is offered everywhere in America. The famous “one-room schoolhouse” was ubiquous in the new America. It would be utter folly for our government, or any government, not to expend every effort to educate its young people, especially true in our more advanced world, where a high school education no longer is the gold standard. Yet, here we are:

Calls Mount to Cancel Student Debt as Biden Weighs Longer Payment Pause By Jessica Corbett. Originally published at Common Dreams

After a White House official confirmed this week that President Joe Biden is considering further extending a pandemic-related pause on student loan payments, lawmakers and activists renewed calls for debt cancellation.

“We have reached a student debt crisis of epic proportions.”

While payments are due to resume on May 1, White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain suggested on a popular podcast that the president may extend the pause and is still sorting out whether he will take further action on the student debt crisis.

“This is a GOOD idea!” the group Bold Progressives tweeted with a video of Klain on “Pod Save America.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a key advocate of student debt cancellation in Congress, agreed, also tweeting Klain’s comments.

In response to HuffPost‘s reporting on Klain’s remarks, Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-Ill.) said Saturday that “pausing student loan payments during Covid has allowed Americans to get by.”

“We need immediate student debt relief, and deferring payments again is a great step, but we need to do more,” she added.

Noting that “education is a pathway to greater opportunity and economic security, yet many Americans simply can’t afford it or become crushed by student loans,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told Biden on Saturday that “we must cancel student debt.”

Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) also pressured the president to take action on the issue Saturday:

Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who have been leading the fight in Congress with Schumer, participated in a Friday roundtable about how student loan debt impacts Black communities, particularly business owners, entrepreneurs, and other professionals.

Advocates of debt cancellation often argue that it is necessary to help address the racial wealth gap in the United States.

Eliminating student debt would help narrow every income/wealth/power Gap in America. There is not a single benefit to our nation that emanates from charging American students to attend college. Given all you know, you might think student debt cancellation is an obvious solution to many problems facing all of America, not just those students who already are in debt. But America has two parties. The more aggressive and united GOP party is “The Party of the Rich.” It wants to widen, not narrow, the Gaps between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” It believes in harsh punishments for misdeeds by those below, and rewards only for those above. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich, and that is what the GOP wants. The more timid and disunited Democratic party advocates narrowing the Gaps, with rewards for those below and punishments for those above, but it is riven with strife among partisans, whose blinders restrict each view to specific needs at the exclusion of all others. Not being able to present a united front, the Dems’ messages become muddled, so the general public rightfully views it and its programs as weak and ineffectual.

Also on Friday, the Debt Collective announced a nationally coordinated refusal to make payments if Biden refuses to step in before they resume in May.

“If President Biden resumes illegitimate student debt payments in May, we will facilitate as many student debtors as possible to safely pay $0 a month to the Department of Education,” declared Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor.

“Whether it’s filing a borrower defense or enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan, we are politicizing our refusal to pay as part of our escalation on President Biden,” Taylor said. “He has the authority to cancel all federal student debt with the flick of a pen. He can end this manufactured crisis today.”

Debt Collective spokesperson Braxton Brewington emphasized that “we want to be clear—a student debt strike is not intentionally defaulting on your loans but politicizing and collectivizing your refusal to pay by using the tools the Department of Education already provides to student borrowers.”

America does not need an “income-driven repayment plan.” America needs a no-repayment plan. More than that, America needs a no payment (i.e. no payment for college) plan. The U.S. government neither needs nor uses any dollars sent to it. In fact, every dollar sent to the U.S. federal government is destroyed upon receipt by the Treasury (When you pay taxes, for instance, those dollars in your checking account are part of the M1 money supply measure. When they hit the Treasury, they instantly disappear from any money supply measure. They effectively are destroyed. The federal government creates new dollars ad hoc each time it pays creditors.) And for those students who received dollars from private sources, the federal government has the unlimited ability to pay off those loans, and no cost to taxpayers.

“The federal government doesn’t need our student debt payments to function, and the last two years have proved that,” Brewington added, “but they do need our cooperation—and they certainly won’t have that.”

The federal government not only doesn’t need student debt payments, it doesn’t need any payments of any kind.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) expressed support for the planned strike, noting that “the road to student debt cancellation is long and hard, and a key aspect is building solidarity amongst students and graduates with debt.”

It’s only “long and hard,” because the “haves” don’t want it (Widening Gap makes the rich richer), and the “have-nots” don’t understand it (They erroneously believe, because they repeatedly have been told, federal deficits should be reduced.)

“The Debt Collective’s Student Debt Strike is an important campaign to help build the mass movement we need to resist and abolish student debt, and there are so many ways to support it without putting yourself in financial jeopardy,” she said. “I stand with Student Debt Strikers and encourage everyone—whether you have debt or not—to join us.”

As Common Dreams reported last month, polling shows student debt cancellation is popular with the American public, even among people who don’t have higher education loans to repay.

Student debt cancellation may be popular with the public as a whole, but there may be some who find it less appetizing. The rich, of course, want to keep the rest of us down, because that makes them richer. Those who already have paid for college by scrimping, saving, and borrowing, may feel it’s “unfair” for others to have the benefits without the suffering. Those who don’t want college educations may feel it’s unfair or even unnecessary, for others to receive free college. Even those who recognize the massive benefits to America of universal, free college may object to student debt reduction or elimination. And there is another problem: Let us say that the Dems suddenly and miraculously acquire courage and cohesion, and they manage to pass a bill eliminating all student debt, what happens tomorrow? Who pays for tomorrow’s college? Do we begin the same process anew, with future students building future debt, and future arguments about paying it? How will colleges and teachers be supported? We already have a model for that. It is called “Medicare” and it answers the question, “How can hospitals and doctors be supported?” Just as America needs a Medicare available to everyone, (aka “Medicare for All,”) not just for the elderly, America needs a “Collecare” plan that funds grades 13+, not just grades K-12. The first 13 years of education in America are funded by local, monetarily non-sovereign governments, using taxpayer dollars. Why, in heaven’s name, are college years not funded by our Monetarily Sovereign government, that does not use taxpayer dollars, but instead can create infinite dollars from thin air? Just as Medicare does not treat patients — it merely funds private sector treatment — Collecare would not educate students — it merely would fund private sector education. And just as Medicare doesn’t pay the “better” hospitals more, Collecare would not pay the “better” universities more. Harvard would receive no more than would Podunk U. Today, Virtually all colleges and universities provide scholarships to students based on wealth, income, athleticism, skin color, religion, country of origin, and a long, often secret list of student attributes. With Collecare, that expense no longer would be necessary for any college. Your tuition payments no longer would be used to pay for other students’ educations. And, there yet is another problem: Those whose income is so low that even free college is unaffordable: They need their young people to work full time just to support themselves and their families. (For this latter group, we recommend (Ten Steps to Prosperity: Step 5: Salary for attending school, and Salary for attending school, III and Salary for attending school: 2nd paper.) Just as healthcare insurance should cover rehab costs, Collecare would be incomplete without a supplement that pays students’ living expenses. And then, there is one final problem. In general, the education in America’s K-12 schools is not worthy of this wealthy nation. We have good teachers in bad schools; we have bad teachers in good schools; and commonly, we have bad teachers in bad schools. Much of what is “bad” can be attributed to income. Low income begets crime, illness, and hopelessness, which beget bad K-12 schools, which in turn beget more crime, illness, and hopelessness. We cannot solve America’s income, education, and health problems separately without solving them together. America needs Medicare for All. America needs College for All. America needs Social Security for All. The U.S. government should do everything it can to support America’s people. That is the fundamental purpose of government — not to run people’s lives but to support people’s lives. The sainted President John Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If by “your country” he had meant the federal government, it would have been among the most stupid, misleading statements of all time. I suspect however, that it was a general call to do right for everyone, not just yourself — a sort of golden rule appeal. It means, in part, when voting, vote for what is best for America, not just what is best for you. The rich hate federal funding for the have-nots. They will try to talk you out of it, with phony claims that inflation is caused by federal spending on your benefits. Quoting the voice of the rich, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Full debt cancellation would cost the federal government roughly $1.6 trillion, while improving household balance sheets by a similar amount.

Consistent with our prior analysis, we estimate this would translate to an $80 billion reduction in repayments in the first year, which would in turn increase household consumption by $70 to $95 billion once the effect of higher wealth is considered.

For the rich, “cost federal government” is bad only if the money goes to you, not to the rich. The rich hate “improving household balance sheets,” and “higher wealth” for you and me. Don’t listen to them. The government, being Monetarily Sovereign, can bring to bear unlimited funding, without taxpayer support. It should devote that funding to making our lives healthier, safer, and better. 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

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