[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?]
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a fountain of misinformation, or should we say, “disinformation”?
Clearly, they are providing misinformation, i.e. wrong information, but the real question is, do they know it’s wrong, i.e disinformation?
Because they do extensive data analysis, I believe they simply must know their information is wrong. So why do they promulgate so much nonsense?
Before we answer that question, let’s see what they get wrong. Here are some excerpts from their website.
Gas Tax Holiday Would Take A Wrong TurnFEB 15, 2022 | TAXESThe White House and some in Congress are reportedly considering suspending the 18.3 cent federal gas tax for the remainder of 2022. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently estimated that such a proposal would reduce gas tax revenues by $20 billion and, without the general revenue transfer proposed in recent legislation, would advance the Highway Trust Fund insolvency date from 2027 to 2026.
Assuming their numbers are correct, what they really are saying is: “The proposal would reduce the amount of money taken out of the private sector (also known as ‘the economy’) by $20 billion.”
Adding dollars to the private sector is stimulative: taking dollars out of the private sector is recessive. In short, the reduced gas tax revenues would be a $20 Billion economic stimulus.
The CRFB seems to hate anything that stimulates the economy, especially if it directly benefits the middle- and lower-income groups as a reduced gas tax would do.
Further, the so-called Highway Trust Fund is not a real trust fund (see “The Phony Trust Fund Controversy”) and it cannot become insolvent unless Congress and the President want it to become insolvent.
The U.S. government, the creator of the U.S. dollar, cannot run short of dollars. Thus, no agency of the U.S. governmentcan become insolvent, unless that is what Congress wants.
(Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan:“A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”)
To prevent the insolvency of any agency, Congress merely passes a law that provides the agency with more dollars. Congress has the infinite ability to pass such laws.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:With inflation at a 40-year high, policymakers are appropriately focused on how to bring prices under control. But new tax cuts aren’t going to stop this inflation; after all, excessive tax cuts and spending are part of what caused high inflation.
Contrary to popular wisdom, no inflation in history ever has been caused by excessive tax cuts or spending. All inflations are caused by shortages of key goods and/or services.
Interest rates (blue) and inflation (green) have trended down, while federal debt (red) has increased.
For the past 10 years, federal deficit spending has increased massively, with minimal inflation. Now, suddenly, inflation has increased. Why?
Clearly, the cause is not deficit spending, otherwise it would have happened sooner.
Inflations are caused by shortages of key goods and services..
Today’s inflation is caused by the sudden confluence of several factors, all shortages: Labor, food, gasoline, computer chips, transportation, sand, among others.
(Yes, I said “sand.” U.S. Shale Production Hindered By Sand Supply Crunch.)
While massive federal spending has been with us for at least a decade, what has changed recently to cause the sudden change in inflation from low to high?
The answer: COVID.
The worldwide impact of the disease has caused the shortages that lead to inflation.
The only thing that will cure the inflation is to cure the shortages. And that can be accomplished by more federal spending to obtain the needed goods and services:
More federal spending to encourage oil drilling and/or renewable energy.
More federal spending to support farming
More federal spending to support chip manufacture
More federal spending to support transportation
More federal spending to support hiring (i.e. the elimination of FICA taxes and the reduction of income taxes at the lower end)
Reduced federal deficit spending will lead only to recessions, as it always has.
When federal deficit spending (blue) is reduced, we have recessions (vertical gray bars), which are cured by increases in federal deficit spending.
While a gas tax holiday might provide some temporary relief, much of the benefit may flow through to oil producers or lead to higher prices in other sectors of the economy.
It makes no sense for low gas prices to cause price increases elsewhere. While low gas prices may cause an increase in demand for cars, every industry would see lower production costs, which will ease inflation.
Benefitting oil producers is not something to be avoided. Financially encouraging them to pump more oil will ease the scarcity of oil.
By boosting demand in an already over-stimulated economy, the holiday would likely boost inflation in 2023 once it ends. The holiday will also undercut the Administration’s efforts to address climate change.
The CFRB would like you to believe the economy is “overstimulated.” No one knows what an “overstimulated” economy means, but it sure sounds terrible, doesn’t it?
Presumably, it means companies are making more profits so that they will hire more people and pay more salaries to the lower- and middle income people, thereby narrowing the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
Presumably, it means unemployment is low, so there are fewer impoverished children and their parents, again narrowing the Gap between the rich and the rest.
“Gap Psychology” is the desire to widen the Gap below and to narrow the Gap above. All groups are subject to Gap Psychology, but the very rich are the most expert at effecting it.
As for climate change, yes, encouraging more oil production will increase climate change, in the short term. But financially encouraging more use of renewables will have long-term climate benefits.
Meanwhile, the federal government would be out $20 billion this year alone – and much more if the holiday were extended.
The federal government has infinite money. Infinite minus $20 billion, still is infinite. The federal government always will have the infinite ability to write laws, and those laws have the unlimited ability to create dollars.
The CRFB cries crocodile tears for the infinitely rich U.S. government, but no tears for you. They want you to pay the infinitely rich government more of your scarce dollars.
The Highway Trust Fund is just five years from insolvency, and the last thing we need is to cut its primary revenue source or paper over shortfalls with yet another general revenue transfer.
No, the last thing we need is liars telling us that the federal government is running short of its own sovereign currency, so you poor folks need to pony up more dollars, or receive fewer, benefits.
“Insolvency” is the big, fake bogeyman with which the rich try to scare you.
The Big Lie in economics is: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.” While state and local taxes do fund state and local spending, the federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, does not rely on, or even use, tax dollars.
In fact, the U.S. Treasury destroys all tax dollars upon receipt. It creates new dollars, ad hoc, every time it pays a creditor.
(How does the Treasuy destroy tax dollars? The dollars in your checking account are part of the M1 money supply. When the Treasury receives those dollars, they disappear. They no longer are part of any money supply measure.They effectively are destroyed.)
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.”
Thus, the federal government has infinite dollars; it can’t run short; and telling people to give the government more and to accept less is just an example of how the Big Lie works.
As it stands, the gas tax will only cover half of highway and transit spending by the time the trust fund runs out.
In fact, the gas tax covers none of transit spending. Those tax dollars are destroyed. All federal spending, including federal transit spending, is funded by ad hoc, federal money creation.
As inflation subsides, we should either raise that tax or find a new funding source to supplement or replace it.
We don’t need to find a new funding source. And we certainly don’t need to raise taxes. The federal government is the best funding source:
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.”
As we’ve stated, the CRFB, acts repelled by the fact that federal spending helps narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
A well-designed carbon tax could generate ample tax revenue while substantially reducing carbon emissions and tempering excessive demand.
A well designed carbon tax might be a good idea from an ecological standpoint. But it’s a silly idea if the purpose is to give private sector dollars to a government that has the infinite ability to create dollars.
The pain Americans are feeling at the gas pump – and with rising costs throughout the economy – should be taken seriously and addressed thoughtfully.
The gas price pain will be eased by raising gas taxes??? That’s the utter nonsense the CRFB wants you to believe.
While cutting the gas tax may have political appeal, it would move in exactly the wrong direction, worsening rather than improving our nation’s economic challenges.
The rising costs should be taken seriously, which is why the cost of gasoline should be reduced — by cutting the gas tax.
Inflation takes dollars out of your pocket. The CRFB’s method of taking inflation seriously” is by taking even more dollars out of your pockets via tax increases.
Why does the CRFB act this way?
Because the rich, who run America, also run the CRFB, and support it with donations. The rich and the CRFB want to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
The rich always wish to be richer. The only way to be richer is to widen the Gap. There are two ways the rich can widen the Gap: Obtain more money for themselves and/or make sure you have less money by paying more taxes.
Either one will make the rich richer, and the CRFB seems to be doing everything it can to reach that goal.
In that vein, I just received this Email from CRFB:
Trust Fund SolutionsFeaturing Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Mitt Romney (R-UT)
Maya MacGuineas:Paid by the rich to tell you that the federal government’s trust funds soon will be insolvent.The major government trust funds for Social Security, Medicare, and Highway spending face insolvency in the next decade-and-a-half.Policymakers need to act sooner rather than later to prevent abrupt across-the-board benefit cuts, assure a more sustainable debt path, promote faster economic growth, and achieve a number of important policy goals.
How raising taxes will help “promote faster economic growth” is a mystery the CRFB never really explains.
Trust Fund Solutions will feature opening remarks from Senator Angus King (I-ME) and a discussion between Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas.The event will also feature a panel of experts, one focused on each trust fund. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget will also debut its new Trust Fund Solutions website and educational tools.
You can bet that the “solutions” for the mythical “Trust Funds” will involve tax increases (for which the rich will given loopholes) plus benefit decreases, both of which will widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.
Widening the Gap is what the rich pay the CRFB to do.SUMMARY
1. The Big Lie in economics is that the U.S. federal government can run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. Not only does the govarnment itself have access to infinite dollars, but no agency of the government can run short of dollars unless Congress and the President want that.
2. The government neither needs nor uses tax dollars, which are destroyed by the Treasury upon receipt.
3. Federal deficit spending never causes inflations (scarcities are what cause inflations). Federal deficit spending can cure inflations by curing scarcities. Reductions in federal deficit spending lead to recessions or depressions.
4. The rich grow richer by widening the Gap between the rich and the rest. Gap widening has two paths: Gaining more for the rich and/or forcing the rest to accept less.
5. The CRFB is paid to aid the rich by convincing the populace to accept Gap widening.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
……………………………………………………………………..
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
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 big argument of the day has to do with federal deficit spending. The Republicans say they don’t like it because increasing the federal “debt” causes inflation.
The Democrats agree that increased federal “debt” is inflationary, but that their proposals are “paid for” by increased taxes. So, according to the Dems. the federal debt wouldn’t increase enough to cause inflation.
In total, both parties and all their hired economists wrongly agree that federal deficit spending leads to inflation, a false belief demonstrated in the following article:
House passes Build Back Better bill after overnight delayIt’s unclear whether moderate Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will agree to some of the provisions included by the House.“The Build Back Better Act is fiscally responsible,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “It reduces the deficit over the long-term. It’s fully paid for by making sure that the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share in federal taxes. “Leading economists and independent experts on Wall Street have confirmed that it will not add to inflationary pressures. Instead, it will boost the capacity of our economy and reduce costs for millions of families.”Yellen spreading the Big Lie that federal taxes fund federal spending and that the federal debt is too large.The CBO said it would increase the deficit by more than $367 billion over 10 years. But the estimate did not include the revenue that could be generated from increasing IRS enforcement, which the CBO suggested would be $207 billion.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen noted that the Treasury Department estimates that the crackdown on tax evaders would raise $400 billion, and her own department’s analysis “make it clear that Build Back Better is fully paid for, and in fact will reduce our nation’s debt over time by generating more than $2 trillion through reforms that ask the wealthiest Americans and large corporations to pay their fair share.”The White House, which estimated its framework would cost $1.75 trillion, claims it would reduce the deficit over time, generating more than $2.1 trillion over 10 years.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? The spending is “fully paid for,” and increased tax collections would “reduce our nation’s debt” and “reduce the deficit.”
Thank heavens it’s all a lie, a Big Lie.
Despite all the chest-thumping by Biden and friends, the bill will be “fully paid for” simply because allfederal spending is fully paid for by federal money creation, never by taxes.
The federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. Unlike state and local taxes, which do pay for state and local government spending, federal taxes pay for nothing.
That is a fundamental difference between monetarily non-sovereign state and local governments vs. the Monetarily Sovereign federal government.
State and local taxes are M1 (money supply) dollars that remain in the private sector, even after they are received by state and local governments. (The state/local governments deposit their tax dollars into private sector banks.)
By contrast, Federal taxes are M1 dollars that are removed from the economy and destroyed when they hit the Treasury, where they no longer appear in any money measure.
Anyone not understanding that fundamental truth simply doesn’t understand economics, and has no business voting on or commenting about federal spending.
(In all probability, most of the federal politicians do understand, but don’t want you to understand, lest you ask for more benefits. Rich political benefactors want the Gapbetween the rich and the rest to widen, an event which makes the rich richer.)
Worse yet, if in fact, the increased federal taxes equal or exceed spending (which is what the Dems claim will happen) then the removal of money from the private sector (aka “the economy”) will lead to a depression, as has happened so often n the past.i
We only can pray the Dems are lying about reducing the debt and deficit.
The other issue, perhaps the biggest issue currently, is whether increased deficits and debt will cause inflation.
This is the one the GOP harps on, because they can’t complain about deficits, as they recently gifted the rich with major deficit-causing tax decreases (which by the way, increased the deficit and debt, but didn’t cause inflation).
So what causes inflation? Is it the money supply, as so many economists claim?
Do you see any relationship between the M2 money supply and inflation?
Inflation (blue) vs. The M2 Money Supply (red)
No, there doesn’t seem to be any relationship between the M2 money supply and inflation.
But wait. Some economists claim it isn’t just the increased money supply that causes inflation, but rather increases in the velocity of money that causes inflation.
The velocity of money is the frequency at which one unit of currency is used to purchase domestically- produced goods and services within a given time period. In other words, it is the number of times one dollar is spent to buy goods and services per unit of time. (per the Federal Reserve of St. Louis)
Inflation (bright blue) vs. the velocity of M2 (pale blue).
No, there is a massive difference between the two lines. The velocity of money doesn’t seem to be a cause of inflation.
So what about federal debt? That’s one that many economists claim causes inflation.
Inflation (blue) vs. Federal Debt Held By The Public (purple)
No, the peaks and valleys are completely different. Despite the bleating by Republicans and Libertarians, there doesn’t seem to be any relationship between federal debt and inflation.
Here’s another thought. Some folks worry that the world (China especially) won’t “lend” us enough dollars. It’s a ridiculous concern, because the federal government does not borrow dollars from anyone, and further, it never can run short of dollars.
But ridiculous concerns are part of what constitutes today’s economics. So, when the federal government doesn’t sell enough “debt” (Treasury Securities) to meet legal (though not financial) requirements, the Federal Reserve jumps in with its infinite supply of dollars.
So, is there a relationship between inflation and the Federal Debt held by Federal Reserve Banks?
Inflation vs. Federal Debt held by Federal Reserve Banks
Nope. No relationship there, either.
So, what does cause inflation?
Here’s one hint:
Inflation (blue) vs. Spot Crude Oil Price (orange).
That’s more like it. Notice how the peaks and valleys of inflation generally match up with the peaks and valleys of oil prices.
Of course, the match is not perfect because oil prices, which closely are related to oil shortages, are not the sole cause of inflation.
Today’s inflation is related to the shortages not only of oil, but also of food, labor, shipping, computer chips, and other vital resources. And that gives you the answer to the question, “What causes inflation?”
Inflation always is caused by shortages of key commodities, most often food and energy, along with other supplies. Inflation never is caused by “too much money,” never by federal spending, and never by federal deficits and debt.
Not only do shortages, not money supply, always cause inflation, but inflation can be cured by federal deficit spending to cure shortages and to distribute the scarce items.
Currently, the federal government is trying to ease inflation by distributing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is an example of government spending, because the government previously had deficit-spent to acquire that oil.
The government can reduce the shortages of food and shippingby strategic spending to aid growers and shippers. The government can spend to bring more computer chip manufacturing to our shores.
If the government would eliminate the nonsensical, useless FICA tax, (and act that would increase the federal deficit and debt) that would effectively raise salaries and encourage more people to come to work, thus easing the labor shortage.
In summary, all the worries about federal deficit spending causing inflation are completely misplaced and in most cases, dishonest. They are nothing more than an attempt to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.
Finally, if federal deficit spending does not cause inflation, what does federal deficit spending do?
Federal deficit spending helps prevent and cure recessions:
Gold line shows increases and decreases in federal deficit spending. Vertical gray bars indicate recessions.When federal deficit growth declines we have a recession, which is cured by a deficit growth increase.SUMMARY
The federal government, unlike state/local governments, cannot run short of U.S. dollars. It can pay any debt denominated in dollars, simply by creating dollars.
Though state/local government taxes fund state/local government spendinng, federal taxes do not fund federal spending. Unlike state/local tax dollars, federal tax dollars are destroyed upon receipt by the Treasury.
No evidence supports the belief that “too much” federal deficit spending causes inflation. On the contrary, federal deficit spending can prevent and cure inflations.
Additionally, federal deficit spending can prevent and cure recessions and depressions.
There is no financial reason ever to restrict federal spending. The false belief that federal finances are similar to state/local government finances and personal finances is fostered by the very rich, who strongly influence the government via bribery.
The rich wish to widen the Gap between them and the rest of the citizenry. The wider the Gap, the richer are the rich. It is the fundamental reason why the rich bribe the politicians, the media, and the economists.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
……………………………………………………………………..
THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.
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 purpose of government is to improve and protect the lives of the governed.
Is the Medicare Advantage plan an admission that Medicare itself is unnecessarily incomplete?
Free, but with strings.
A story: You receive a call from the wealthiest man on earth. He owns an infinite amount of money.
He tells you he’s in the mood to do a good deed.
He has picked your name randomly, not based on anything but the luck of the draw, and he is giving you a free, no-strings-attached, Rolls Royce automobile.
Well, actually, there are two small strings. You must choose between two Rolls.
One has no heater. The other has no air conditioning.
And you must wait until you are 65 years old before you pick your car.
This puzzles you, so you ask him, “Why would someone having infinite money decide that when does his good deed, he gifts you a car that is missing either a heater or air conditioner?”
And why must you wait until you’re 65?
What’s his purpose?
While you ponder that question, consider this: The federal government, being uniquely Monetarily Sovereign, has infinite dollars. It never can run short of its own sovereign currency.
The government provides you with Medicare, which comes in two basic “models,” Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
And you typically must wait until you are 65 to join (with certain exceptions).
But Medicare and Medicare Advantage have different options depending on many of your personal factors.
WHY? Why doesn’t Original Medicare simply cover all medical conditions for everyone?
The American Association of Retired People (AARP) published “8 Reasons to Change Medicare:
1. My prescription costs have jumped. That happens usually due to one of two scenarios: You’ve been prescribed a new drug your Plan D policy doesn’t cover, or your current medicines have fallen off your Plan D’s formulary (list of covered medicines), Neuman says.
Each September, Part D prescription plans will send out a list of changes to drug coverage, giving you time to make sure your medicines are still covered.
If not, you can shop around for another plan or ask your doctor to apply for an exception in covering your favored medicine.
WHY? Why must a person pay extra for Part D, and why must that person shop around for a plan that covers all his medicines?
2. I’ve decided to spend my winters (or summers) in a different state. Advantage plans typically charge more to go to doctors outside of their networks; in some cases they won’t cover any charges if it’s not an emergency.
So a Midwesterner might have to pay more to see out-of-network doctors while in Florida.
You need to read the details of your plan, or talk with a representative, to know where you stand. If you’ll be living a dual-residence existence for years to come, you might consider a switch to original Medicare, with the usual caveats.
WHY? Why the “in-network, out-of-network” rigamarole?
3. I need surgery and prefer a specific doctor. Original Medicare allows patients to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare.
But if you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan and its surgeons don’t meet your needs, you may need a different MA planor to switch to OM.
The people who really need to focus on whether doctors are in network are those who’ve suffered major problems like cancer and heart attack, says Joseph Antos, health care expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
“A specialist may be key to their treatment,” he says.
WHY? Why does one Medicare plan cover any doctors or hospitals that accept Medicare and the other plan doesn’t?
4. I’m super healthy and rarely need a doctor. If you’re in original Medicare, all should be well: As a “pay-for-service” arrangement, not seeing the doctor isn’t costing you anything extra beyond your mandatory parts B and D monthly insurance premiums.
If you’re in an MA plan in which you’re paying a monthly premium on top of your standard Part B premium, that may be for a plan that offers lots of extras , such as gym memberships.
Consider switching to a lower-cost MA plan that doesn’t offer services you don’t plan to use in the coming year.
WHY? Why are there any premiums, and why does one plan not cover the “extras?
5. I’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition. A serious medical change should trigger a full review of your Medicare coverage. Make sure your Plan D policy pays for new prescriptions.
Consider the care you’ll need . If you want disease-specific programs, find an MA plan that offers them.
But if you will need lots of specialists, there’s an argument for OM. Making critical changes early can “really affect your pocketbook and save you money,” says Gretchen Jacobson, a vice president with the Commonwealth Fund.
WHY? Why the difference in plans? Why doesn’t one plan cover everything?
6. My income has dropped sharply. If you are in original Medicare, your Part B monthly premium is locked in, but your Part D drug plan isn’t.
And there’s a chance you can find a lower-cost policy that covers the medicines you are on.
If you’re in an Advantage plan, consider a switch to a plan in which there is no extra paymenton top of the mandatory Part B premium.
And you might qualify for help. Ask your state Medicaid office about Medicare Savings Programs. Find the state offices here or call 800-MEDICARE (800-633-4227).
WHY? Why is there a monthly premium? Why does one plan not even lock in premiums? Why the difference in costs?
7. My former employer is changing its retiree health benefits. Some companies provide retirees with Medigap supplemental insurance, which covers many health costs not covered by OM.
If you have changes to your retiree benefit coverage, or for some reason that coverage no longer is offered, contact Medicare’s Benefits Coordination & Recovery Center (855-798-2627).
Someone can tell you whether you fall in the window in which Medigap insurers cannot deny you coverage based on preexisting conditions.
WHY? Why are some retirees not covered by Medigap supplemental? Why is there even a need for supplemental?
8. My regular doctor is no longer in network for my plan. If you deeply want to stay with a doctor, ask directly whether he or she is moving to a different MA plan, accepting OM patients or dropping out of Medicare completely.
If you decide to make a change, make sure a short-term decision won’t affect your long-term coverage (for example, switching to original Medicare to temporarily stay with one doctor but sacrificing Medigap coveragefor the long term).
It might be safer to ask your doctor to recommend a colleague in your current plan.
I’m in need of serious dental care. Original Medicare doesn’t cover routine dental care costs, but many Medicare Advantage plans do.
If you don’t have your own dental insurance and can’t afford dentistry costs out of pocket, consider finding an MA plan that will cover a portion of the costs of your needed work.
Antos warns that figuring out what portion of your dental bills an MA plan will cover is complicated, so it helps to know what services you will use in the coming year.
WHY? Why does a person need to consult a crystal ball to guess what medical coverage will be needed at some unknown time in the future?
Thus, the federal government has the unlimited ability to fund comprehensive, no-deductible Medicarefor every man, woman, and child in America. There is no financial reason why you, your family and everyone you know does not have free, total healthcare protection.
But . . .
At the behest of the very rich, who run America, our information leaders promulgate the Big Lie that taxpayers fund federal spending, and that the federal government is in danger of running short of dollars if spending increases without tax increases.
You have been sold the bill of goods that “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” and that federal spending causes inflation, and that the phony Medicare “trust fund” is running short of money.
The rich do this to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, for it is the Gap that makes them rich. The wider the Gap, the richer they are.
Better “Medicare for All” plans have been proposed, but they have been rejected supposedly because tax dollars are needed to pay for it.
They aren’t. It’s the Big Lie, the sole purpose of which is to make the rich richer.
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:
Was that headline too subtle? Was I able to conceal my true feelings?
Let’s be clear: The people who claim that the federal government is running short of dollars fall into just two categories:
Those who are ignorant about federal finances, or
The abovementioned dirty, rotten, stinking liars, who are trying to steal your money.
For instance, take my favorite nomination for the title, “dirty rotten, stinking liars,” whom I simply cannot believe are ignorant about federal finances, so it must be deliberate, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB):
Today, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the state of the trust funds.
The Trustees find that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance trust fund will be insolventby 2026, Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund will run out of reserves by 2033, Social Security’s Disability Insurance trust fund will be depleted by 2057, and the theoretically combined Social Security trust funds will be insolvent by 2034.
Upon insolvency, Social Security will be reduced across-the-board by 22 percent under current law.
There, you just have read the Big Lie, that dirty, rotten, stinking Big Lie. If you remember just one thing from this post, or indeed, from this entire blog, remember this:
It is impossible for the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government unintentionally to run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar.
It’s not just difficult, or rare, or unusual, or doubtful. We’re talking about 100%, absolutely impossible.
Why? Because the federal government has the infinite ability to create its own sovereign currency, at will. No limits.
What if the federal government stopped collecting taxes? It still would be impossible for the government unintentionally to run short of dollars.
What if China cashed in all its T-bills, T-bonds, and T-notes? Still impossible.
What if no one on earth wanted to buy T-securities? Still impossible.
What if the federal deficit increased 500% in one month? Still impossible.
What if the cost of Social Security payments tripled next year? Still impossible.
What if the cost of Medicare quintupled next year? Still impossible.
Get it? There is no possible scenario by which the U.S. government unintentionally can run short of dollars or become insolvent. None. Zip. Zilch. Period.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
13 years – that’s how long seniors have before Social Security and Medicare run out of reserves. We can’t promise full benefits to today’s retirees, let alone our kids and grandkids.
Not only is this year’s outlook than in last year’s report, but we’ve lost yet another year from inaction. As the Trustees explain, we should act sooner rather than later to restore solvency to these vital programs.
Acting today, we could fix Social Security with a 27 percent tax increase or 21 percent benefit reduction. If we wait until 2034, those adjustments will have to be about a quarter larger.
And there would be little opportunity to phase in changes or give workers the warning they deserve.
Either Maya is ignorant about federal financing or she is lying, and by now, I suspect it is the latter. I suspect that she is one of the many dirty, rotten, stinking liars promulgating the Big Lie.
Maya, plus the so-called “trustees” of the non-existent, phony “trust funds,”are ignorant or lying through their teeth.
Because the U.S. federal government cannot run short of dollars and become insolvent, it is 100% impossible for any agency of the federal governmentto run short of dollars unless that is what Congress and the President intend.
That’s right folks. No matter what the dirty, rotten, stinking liars may tell you, Social Security and Medicare, being agencies of the federal government, cannot run short of dollars unless that is what Congress and the President want.
Even if the FICA, which counter to common belief, does not fund Social Security or Medicare — even if the FICA tax were completely eliminated (which it should be), Social Security and Medicare could continue paying benefits — even double or triple benefits — forever.
And, that blanket truth includes not only Social Security and Medicare. We’re talking about every federal agency, from the (alphabetically) AbilityOne Commission to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Not one of them can run short of dollars unless that becomes the intent of Congress and the President.
I cannot believe that after all these years, the CRFB and the “trustees” of the non-existent “trust funds” aren’t aware of this. So, they all must be dirty, rotten, stinking liars. I can’t think of any, other alternatives. Can you?
Why would they lie? Because the very rich, who run America, bribe the information sources to lie. They bribe the media via ownership and advertising dollars. They bribe the university economists via contributions to universities and promises of lucrative “think tank” employment. And they bribe the politiciansvia political contributions and promises of “no-work” but lucrative lobbying employment.
Why do the rich-who-run-America want to promulgate the Big Lie and federal agencies can become insolvent? Because they want to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, and the agencies the rich talk about are the very ones that most help us non-rich folks.
It is the Gap that makes the rich rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich; we all would be the same. And the wider the Gap, the richer are the rich.
It’s not just the CRFB and the “trustees” of the non-existent “trusts” that promulgate the “Big Lie.”
From AxiosDebates over tax increases, which lurked behind the scenes for most of the year, will burst into public this fall as President Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan moves toward final passage.
Why it matters: Biden promised new revenue to pay for historic spending increases in his second, “soft” infrastructure package. He needs tax increases to pick up votes from Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in the Senate and a handful of House centrists, who are concerned about adding even more to the national debt.
One solution currently under discussion would be to raise the capital gains rate from 20% to 28% for high-income earners. A 3.8% Medicare surtax applies to both figures, raising the effective tax rate from 23.8% to 31.8%.
But wait. Clearly, if the federal government can create dollars at will, then federal taxes don’t “pay for” federal spending. The federal government creates dollars to pay for spending.
Evidence that the so-called “debt” ismeaningless is provided by the fact, that the federal government destroys all your tax dollars, the instant they are received by the Treasury. It creates brand new dollars, at will, to pay for spending.
Your dollars start out in your checking account as part of the M1 money measure and end up as part of no money measure. They simply disappear.
Why? Because there is no way to measure the amount of money the federal government has, when it has the infinite ability to create money at the touch of a computer key.
The purpose of all those professed concerns about federal “debt” is just to fool the voting rubes. Neither you, nor your grandchildren, ever will pay for the federal debt, partly because it isn’t federal “debt” and partly because your taxes don’t fund federal government spending.
The “debt” is just the total of deposits into T-security accounts, which are paid off, upon maturity, simply by returning the dollars already deposited into those accounts. The whole process is nothing like would you probably think of when you think of debt. It is more like a bank returning the dollars that are stashed in a safe deposit box.
But wait, again. Biden is talking about raising tax rates on the rich. How does that fit with the idea that the rich pay bribes to promulgate the Big Lie.?
Answer: It’s all fake. It’s political theater. The government can raise all the ratesit wants, but rates are not dollars. The rich pay politicians to insert key loopholes into the law — loopholes that allow the rich to pay minimal or zero taxes, no matter what the rates are.
And then there is this dirty, rotten, stinking lie from the Chicago Tribune:
9/1/21 Chicago Tribune Virus adds to Social Security, Medicare woes The financial impact of the pandemic is straining Social Security and Medicare. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Martin Crutsinger Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two biggest benefit programs, remain under intense financial pressure with the retirement of millions of baby boomers and a devastating pandemic putting increased pressures on the two programs’ finances.
A report from the programs’ trustees released Tuesday moved up by one year the date for the depletion of Social Security’s reserves, now projecting that Social Security will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2034 instead of 2035.
Total BS. Being federal agencies, Social Security and Medicare have as much in “reserve” as Congress and the President want them to have. There is no financial “pressure,” simply because the federal government has infinite ability to create dollars.
Similarly, they have the infinite ability to pay full benefits, if that is what Congress and the President want.
This is just a ploy to squeeze the not-rich and to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.
Medicare is expected to exhaust its reserves in 2026, the same date as estimated last year. The report noted that employment, earnings, interest rates and economic growth plummeted in the second quarter of 2020 after the pandemic hit the country.
Ah, the cruelty of the rich. At the very time when the common people are losing their income (and the rich are making fortunes in the rising stock market), the rich are trying to cut the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. Does it get any more disgusting than that?
When the Social Security trust fund is depleted the government will be able to pay 78% of scheduled benefits, the report said.
Because a reduction in benefits of that magnitude would cause a political uproar, it is likely that Congress would find ways to recover the lost benefits, either by hiking the payroll taxes paid by current workers or by increasing government borrowing to cover the shortfall.
More dirty, rotten, stinking lies. The non-existent “trust fund” cannot be depleted. But Congress’s solution to the non-problem is to raise taxes on the people who least can afford it.
The government simply can create more dollars and misleadingly call it “borrowing” though the issuance of T-securities is nothing at all like borrowing.
T-security accounts merely provide safe depositories for unused dollars, the sole purposes of which are to stabilize the dollar and to control interest rates, not to provide spending dollars for the federal government.
Bottom Line You have been fed a continual stream of dirty rotten, stinking lies, all at the behest of the very rich.
The truth is: The U.S. federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the infinite ability to create its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. The government never, unintentionally, can run short of dollars.
And no, this does not cause inflation, which never is caused by federal deficit spending. All inflations and hyperinflations are caused by the scarcity of one or more key products, most often food and energy. Today’s inflation is caused by a scarcity of oil, computer chips, food, and labor.
Inflation can be cured by additional federal spending to obtain and distribute the scarce items.
No agency of the federal government can run short of dollars, unless that is what Congress and the President want.
The rich, bribe all your sources of information to promulgate the Big Lie, so that federal agencies can tax you more and pay you less, while the politicians wring their hands in fake concern, and pretend they are helpless to prevent it.
They all are a bunch of dirty, rotten, stinking liars, who are conning you out of your money, to benefit the very rich.
If that doesn’t get you angry enough to contact your federal Senators and Representative, nothing will.
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:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 