Now that you have voted, here is what you voted for

You may have thought you were voting for people — Trump, Clinton or someone else, but in fact you were voting for programs that will affect your life. So now that voting is over, you might as well learn what you voted for.

Those of you on the “ABC” (Anyone But Clinton) team must feel great to have dispatched the evil witch, and now you have a chance to “Make America Great Again.”

The following post tells you where your jump from the frying pan has taken you.

Here are some excerpts from an article in today’s Chicago Tribune,  a right-wing newspaper that opposed Trump (as did almost every newspaper in America):

President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning victory Tuesday has delivered to GOP congressional leaders the gift they dreamed of, even if they never quite believed it was within reach: a Republican president to sign Republican bills passed by a uniformly Republican Congress.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who rose to prominence based on his plans to dramatically scale back federal spending, said Wednesday that Trump “earned a mandate” in his victory to enact years of conservative promises and that Republican lawmakers stood ready to help.

These days, every political victory, no matter how narrow, is termed a “mandate” by the winning party.

Trump’s “mandate” is pretty much the same “mandate” Bush had over Al Gore, when Gore received more votes and Bush won the electoral college. Last I heard, Clinton actually received more votes than Trump.

“This is the kind of unified Republican government that we set out to deliver,” Ryan told reporters. “I think we are going to hit the ground running.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also called the election a rejection of Obama’s policies and said Republicans would work with Trump to overturn them — and to fill the Supreme Court vacancy they have kept open for eight months.

Once again we will have a conservative Supreme Court, which may please those who agree with the “Citizens United” (money is speech) decision that allows the rich to spend unlimited dollars to elect candidates favoring the rich, and with the “Hobby Lobby” (corporations are people) decision saying a corporation has religious rights that supersede the religious rights of its employees.

If you have noticed a certain bent in conservative Court rulings it’s this: The rich should have more rights than the not-rich.

Among the first priorities next year is likely to be an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. McConnell said that would be “pretty high on our agenda” and that he “would be shocked if we didn’t move forward and keep our commitment to the American people.”

Obamacare (originally Romneycare) was created as a result of the Big Lie, the lie that federal taxes fund federal spending. They don’t.

Unlike state and local taxes, which do fund state and local government spending, federal taxes are not in any way related to federal spending. That is the fundamental difference between a monetarily non-sovereign (state and local) government and a Monetarily Sovereign (federal) government.

The public’s ignorance of the Big Lie has done more damage to the American economy than all the wars in U.S. history.

Yes, Obamacare should be replaced, but not with another jury-rigged, anti-middle-class, Rube Goldbergian program based on the Big Lie.  It should be replaced with a federally funded, single-payer, comprehensive Medicare for every man, woman, and child in America.

The more money the federal government spends on Medicare, the more stimulus dollars will enter the economy and the faster the economy will grow.

(By the way, don’t let the oft-used “inflation” excuse confuse you. Being Monetarily Sovereign, the government has total control over both the supply and the demand for [i.e. the value of] the U.S. dollar.) The government can cause or stop inflation any time it wishes.

Ryan told reporters that he also expects to work with Trump to scale back regulations for coal mining, ranching and other industries.

If there is one thing conservatives hate it’s those pesky regulations that prevent the rich from polluting the air, exacerbating global warming, cheating food and drug buyers, and taking America’s land for themselves.

And puh-leeze let’s not regulate those downtrodden banksters, who created the Great Recession. Those poor $100 million a year folks would be able to make $200 million if only you and the government would let them do whatever they want.

Wicker predicted Republicans would get to work immediately on replacing the health-care law, swiftly confirm Trump’s first pick for the Supreme Court and work toward a bipartisan infrastructure package.

In reality, “bipartisan” means, “We have the votes, so shut up. (Does infastructure include a wall on the American/Mexican border? Just wondering.)

Conservatives are expected to push anew to slash domestic programs and to reduce the size of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Is that what you thought you were voting for? Read it again: The Trump Republicans want to reduce entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Fortunately, you and your children won’t need either Social Security or Medicare.  Right?

The problem is not that money is lacking. There is plenty of money — an infinite amount, really.  The problem is that your life is not harsh enough, and the ultra-rich are not happy about that. You, the servant class, don’t deserve all that “free stuff.” Only the rich deserve free stuff in the form of tax loopholes.

The overriding goal of the rich is not to make more money, but to widen the Gap between them and you. That is accomplished by giving the rich more and/or by giving you less.

The Gap is what 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 they are. A man making $100 is rich if everyone else makes $10.

That widening Gap is the single, most important problem facing the American Economy.

When you and your children receive less Social Security and a more restrictive Medicare (both programs having been invented by liberals) don’t be surprised. It’s what you voted for. Didn’t anyone tell you?

Last year, Trump said that he would eventually insist on a balanced budget but did not elaborate.

“Right now, we’re so under, we’re so far under that you can’t go too quickly,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “But I would absolutely insist on it relatively soon.”

If you believe that a balanced budget (i.e increased taxes and reduced spending) will grow the economy, then you also must believe that your anemia can be cured by applying leeches or by draining your blood into a pail.

While your personal lifestyle depends on many factors, money always is the lifeblood of an economy.  The federal government not only has the unlimited ability to create U.S. dollars, but also has the unlimited ability to control the value of the U.S. dollar (i.e. inflation).

There is absolutely no reason to run a balanced budget, and in fact, a balanced budget would lead to recession or depression.
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THE RECESSION CLOCK

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

Deficit reduction puts less money into the economy, thereby recessing the economy. Recessions begin an average of a year after the red line (Federal Debt Held By The Public) slides to its bottom. 

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, which have been cured only when the growth lines have risen.

Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

And if deficit reductions are bad, surpluses are even worse, because they actually remove dollars from the economy. U.S. depressions tend to come on the heels of federal surpluses.

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

Bill Clinton ran America’s last surplus, immediately after which we were fortunate to have “only” a recession — in 2001 — rather than a depression.

“On Tuesday, America demanded disruption,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a Trump critic who nonetheless said Wednesday he would “do everything in my power” to hold Trump to his pledges to overturn the Affordable Care Act, pursue congressional term limits and nominate conservative judges.

Congressional term limits are wise for the same reason Presidential term limits are wise. The longer Congresspersons hold their jobs, the less responsive they are to the public good. 

But, can you imagine Congress voting for term limits? Trump’s wisest proposal has the least chance of passing.

Another Trump critic, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (said) “We have wars to win, threats to be dealt with, and a stagnant economy which must be revived. I believe there is consensus to be had on keeping trade free but fairer, rebuilding our military, restoring our standing in the world, reforming our tax code, repealing and replacing Obamacare with an alternative that empowers patients while reining in costs, and confirming conservative justices to the Supreme Court.”

“Empowers patients,” is political doubletalk meaning reducing patients’ benefits and increasing their costs. Implied in all this are two fundamental, conservative beliefs:

1. More money must be spent on the military.
2. This money must come from the working class.

Tax “reform” always seems to mean increasing a regressive tax on the working class, like a sales tax, a flat tax or more FICA, while taking care of the very rich idle class.

The working class voted Republican, but the Republicans will disappoint the working class. Sadly, while the Democrats lean (ever so slightly) more to the left, they too have disappointed the working class, because they have become right-wing.

The Democrats too, espouse the Big Lie as a reason to limit social programs. For both parties, it has become a matter of faith that social programs promote laziness, and the only way to eliminate poverty is to punish the impoverished — i.e. to whip the slaves until they are willing to work.

The myth is that cutting social programs is the best way to prod the working class into greater effort.

Until at least one politician has the knowledge, the courage and the power to publicly demonstrate the fallacy of the Big Lie, America will forever be plagued with booms and busts, and after each cycle, the working class will be worse off than before.

Historically, the Republican’ bases are the rich and the Christian fundamentalists. Hillary Clinton lost because the Democrats forgot their own historical base, the working class.

All those thousands of people attending Trump speeches were actually Democrats. They just didn’t know it, because the Democratic party ignored them in its drive for dollars.

Clinton was not a Democrat. Obama was not a Democrat. The last real Democrat was Lyndon Johnson, who did many great things before enmeshing himself in the Vietnam war.

• Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968
• Appointed Thurgood Marshall (first black Supreme Court justice)
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• $11 billion tax cut
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act
• Public broadcasting
• Higher Education Act
• Established the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities
• Outlawing most racial segregation
• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Aid to education
• Head Start
• Food stamps
• Work study
• Environmental protection
• Reduced poverty from roughly 23 percent to 12 percent

Those were liberal initiatives.  If you feel they are worthwhile, don’t allow anyone to use the world “liberal” as a pejorative.

Bottom line: The election was based on ignorance.

The Democratic Party was, and has been, ignorant for using the Big Lie as an excuse to ignore their base: The working class.

The Democrats also have been ignorant in allowing the Republicans to characterize liberalism as socialism and communism.  Liberalism is what Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson did.  Socialism and communism are what Mao and Castro did.

If the working class understood the realities of  liberalism and of the Big Lie, they would vote liberal every time. The Democrats ignorantly allowed the Republicans to steal the Democrats’ “natural” base.

The working class voters were ignorant about what Trump and the right wing plans to do to them. They voted for change, without considering the fact that change can be bad.

And in fact, if the Republicans accomplish their goals, the change will be horrible for the working class and for the entire country, except for the rich, who will prosper.

To win back the Presidency and the Congress, Democrats must re-embrace Roosevelt/Kennedy/Johnson liberalism while teaching the public the facts about Monetary Sovereignty, the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below), and the Big Lie.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

P.S. Within a year, no one will remember voting for Trump — but we will remind you.

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the rich and the rest.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ANNUAL 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-transferring 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 a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

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