The monster conspiracy of deceit in Washinton. What you can do.

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains:
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The ignorance of the oppressed
and the treachery of their leaders.

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There is a monster fraud, a conspiracy of deceit, being perpetrated in Washington. It is a conspiracy among the politicians, the university economists, and the media.

The conspiracy is known as the “shutdown,” and you are the target and the victim. Like all conspiracies, the “shutdown” is based on a lie. In this case, the Big Lie. It has been pumped into your head for decades.

The Big Lie is: “Your federal taxes pay for federal spending.”

That is 100% false. The politicians know it is false. The media know it is false. The economists know it is false.

The facts are:

1. The federal government, unlike state & local governments, and unlike you and me, is Monetarily Sovereign. It is sovereign over its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar.
2. Being Monetarily Sovereign, the U.S. government created from thin air, all the laws concerning the creation, the destruction, and the value of the dollar. It can modify and enforce those laws in any way it wishes. The dollar is 100% a product of laws controlled 100% by the federal government.
3. The federal government has the unlimited ability to create laws from thin air, and even these current laws give the government the unlimited ability to create unlimited dollars from thin air. Thus, our Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government never unintentionally can run short of dollars. 
4. Having the unlimited ability to create dollars, the federal government has no need for taxes, and indeed, the government does not use tax dollars for anything. Once received, tax dollars cease to be part of any money-supply measure — not M1, not M2, not M3, not L. In short,  federal tax dollars are destroyed upon receipt. (State and local governments, not being Monetarily Sovereign, do not destroy their tax dollars.)
5. The federal “debt” is unlike all other forms of debt. The federal debt is the total of deposits into Treasury security accounts, which are similar to bank savings accounts. These deposits are paid off upon maturity by transferring the dollars that exist in those accounts back to the checking accounts of the account holders. The (misnamed) federal “debt” will not be paid off by your taxes. It will not be paid off by your grandchildren. Even if all federal tax collections were $0, the federal government could continue to spend and pay all its debt, forever.
6. Finally, being absolutely sovereign over the U.S. dollar, the federal government has the unlimited ability to set the value of the dollar at any level it wishes. This means it has the unlimited ability to set inflation at any value it wishes.

The public has been told none of these facts. Instead, we are given a steady diet of lies, as in the following article:

Shutdown? Terrible, say GOP, Dems. But both threatened it
Associated Press, Laurie Kellman, January 19, 2018

Threatening to shutter the federal government unless demands are met — who would do that?
canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm” data-reactid=”16″>Members of both parties, it turns out. And both sides have complained loudly when the other resorted to a shutdown threat:

1. President Donald Trump in May griped via Twitter that Congress’ negotiating process was frustrating his drive to enact his agenda. Looming ahead was the budget fight.

Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” he tweeted.

On Thursday, Trump appeared to feel differently about the impact of a government shutdown.

“A government shutdown will be devastating to our military … something the Dems care very little about!” he tweeted.

2. As an Indiana congressman, Mike Pence, now Trump’s vice president, said he would be willing to shut the government down over reducing government spending and over his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. In either case, he said, a government shutdown would be the Democrats’ fault.

“If liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and shut down the government instead of making a small down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say: Shut it down,” he said at a March 31, 2011, rally as Tea Partyers around him shouted, “Cut it or shut it!”

Asked a few days later whether he’d be willing to close the government if he didn’t get his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, Pence replied, “Of course I would.”

3. In 2013, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, contemplating a run for president, vowed to speak on the Senate floor against President Barack Obama’s health care law until he was “no longer able to stand.” Cruz’s move forced a 16-day government shutdown. Democratic leaders criticized his strategy.

4. Earlier that same year, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D- N.Y., called Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and other House conservatives “fanatics.”

“No matter how strongly one feels about an issue, you shouldn’t hold millions of people hostage. That’s what the other side is doing. That’s wrong and we can’t give in to that,” he said in The New York Observer.

A few days later, on ABC’s “This Week,” Schumer said the technique produces negotiations held “with a gun held to your head. And you just can’t do it.”

5. Ahead of a 2013 shutdown, Meadows argued that the founding fathers intended for government funding to be leverage in policy debate. Meadows urged Republicans to use the budget to try to repeal the Obama-era health care law.

All of this is a lie. Trump knows it’s a lie. Pence knows it’s a lie. Cruz knows it’s a lie. Schumer knows it’s a lie. Meadows knows it’s a lie.  And Laurie Kellman and the Associated Press know it’s a lie.

They all know the federal government can pay any bill of any size at any time, and do it without collecting a dime in taxes.

FICA doesn’t pay for Social Security, Medicare, or Obamacare. Federal income taxes don’t pay for the military or for Planned Parenthood or for any federal agency or initiative. The federal government creates dollars, ad hoc, by paying bills. That is the federal government’s method for creating dollars.

Why the politicians, the media, and the economists lie: 

They lie because they are bribed by the richest among us to lie.

–The politicians are bribed by campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment when they leave office.

–The media are bribed by advertising dollars and by wealthy media ownership.

–The university economists are bribed by contributions to their universities and by lucrative jobs at “think tanks.”

Why the rich pay the politicians, the media, and the economists to lie:

“Rich” is a comparative word.  If you have $1,000 and everyone else has $10, you are rich. But if you have $1000 and everyone else has $10,000 you are poor.

The Gap between you and others determines whether you are rich and by how much.  The rich want the Gap below them to be wide, for the wider the Gap, the richer they are.

But the rich believe you, the American public, are stupid. The rich fear that if you “stupid” people knew the federal government cannot run short of dollars, and has no need for your tax dollars, you would demand things.

You would demand the best health care, top education, good food, and decent lodging — all of which the rich have and the federal government could afford to give you.

But if the government gave you things, not only would the Gap narrow, making the rich less rich, but you wouldn’t be under their thumbs.  You wouldn’t struggle in a bad job for bad wages and accept bad conditions. In short, you wouldn’t be a slave to the rich.

I do not believe Americans are stupid; I believe you have misinformed (i.e. lied to) by the rich. I believe that, given the honest facts, the American public would understand what the government can and cannot do, and what the government should and should not do.

The politicians are not smarter than you. They just don’t want to give up the power and the money given to them by the rich. So they do as they are told, and we see the current spectacle in Washington.

What is the cure?

You hold the cure in your hands. First, you must understand and accept the truth. This can be difficult. Because you have been brainwashed with the Big Lie, by so many people for so many years, you have acquired an intuition against the real facts of our economy.

Then, contact your politicians. Tell them you know they are lying, and you will give your vote to the politician who tells them the truth.

Additionally, you should make specific demands. My suggestion is to demand the sequential implementation of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below).

Enough is enough. You are being enslaved by lies, but as the maxim goes, “The truth will set you free.”

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

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The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

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 A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Economic Bonus)) 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 EVERYONE Five 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 benefitting 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business 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.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY