The real reason why the GOP rescue package is so skimpy.

The U.S. economy is in deep trouble. President Trump’s re-election chances would improve greatly if the economy were healthy. But the GOP(!) is reluctant to provide enough stimulus.

Why?

Let’s begin with the basics:

1. Millions of Americans suffer because they lack money. Many are jobless and many slave in low-paying jobs. Children go hungry. Families lose their homes. Millions more can’t afford adequate health care.
2. Millions of American businesses suffer because they lack customers, i.e. money. Many have closed, some permanently.
3. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has infinite money. It never can run short of dollars. Even if zero federal taxes were collected, the government could continue spending forever.
4. The federal deficit spending and “debt” are no burden on anyone — not on the government, not on taxpayers, not on future taxpayers’ grandchildren.

Given that background, why is it the GOP that doesn’t want to pump sufficient dollars into the economy to rescue us from recession or depression?

Coronavirus stimulus: What’s in Senate Republicans’ pared-down relief bill
Jessica Smith, Reporter, Yahoo FinanceSeptember 8, 2020

Senate Republicans unveiled a pared-down coronavirus relief on Tuesday. Negotiations over the next round of aid have been stalled for weeks on Capitol Hill and there is still little evidence of bipartisan progress.

Republicans aim to put pressure on Democrats with their so-called “skinny” relief bill.

The legislation is expected to cost roughly $500 billion, around half of what the GOP proposed in the HEALS Act earlier this summer. McConnell has struggled to unite his party and many of his own members rejected the first Republican proposal.

In an attempt to keep costs down and satisfy Republicans who don’t want to spend additional money, the slimmed-down bill would repurpose hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent CARES Act funding.

“Pared down coronavirus relief”? “Skinny relief” “Keep costs down” “Republicans don’t want to spend additional money”? “Repurpose hundreds of billions”? “Unspend CARES Act funding”? What the heck is going on with the GOP?

Here we have a government with infinite money, and there we have a populace in desperate need for money, and Congress doesn’t know what to do? I have a suggestion for them:

SPEND THE DAMN MONEY! Get money into the hands of the people. Do it now.

Why do they hesitate to do the obvious?

Then there’s this article:

Republicans Push Scaled-Back Stimulus Plan as Impasse on Virus Aid Persists
The economic recovery measure Republicans presented on Tuesday is a fraction of the size of their original offer and was immediately dismissed by Democrats as inadequate.
New York Times, By Emily Cochrane, Sept. 8, 2020

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday proposed a substantially scaled-back stimulus plan to provide federal aid to unemployed workers, schools, farmers, the Postal Service and small businesses, announcing a vote this week whose primary purpose was to try to foist blame on Democrats for a continuing stalemate.

The legislation — immediately rejected by Democrats as an inadequate response to the crisis — slashes by hundreds of billions of dollars the $1 trillion proposal Republicans had initially offered in negotiations, and is a fraction of the $2.2 trillion Democrats have said is necessary.

Not only is the Republican proposal too little, too late, but it is even less than they originally proposed. Seemingly, they are doing everything possible to avoid an agreement. This is a negotiation??

But Mr. McConnell, said he would force action on the doomed package, to accept a much smaller plan than they have been willing to agree to.

While Americans starve, the Republicans play political games. What exactly is the game? Keep reading.

Since lawmakers left Washington in early August, millions of Americans have filed new unemployment claims, wildfires and devastating storms have ravaged the country, schools have struggled to safely reopen and states have begun carrying out a series of budget cuts to remain solvent.

Moderate lawmakers in both chambers, particularly those facing difficult re-election challenges, are growing increasingly anxious over the gridlock and eager to persuade voters that Congress is addressing the toll of the pandemic, a dynamic that Republicans hope will help pressure Democrats to lower their spending demands.

Does America understand that the Democrats wish to give more money to those devastated economically, and the Republicans wish to give less — and this is supposed to pressure the Democrats??

While House Democrats approved a $3.4 trillion measure in May, Ms. Pelosi in recent days has told Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, that Democrats would be willing to accept a package of $2.2 trillion. (Mr. Mnuchin, for his part, has signaled that the administration may be willing to accept up to a $1.5 trillion package.)

The $3.4 trillion probably would not be enough to bring America out of the recession, but in the name of political cooperation, Pelosi reduced the Democrats’ proposal to $2.2 trillion.

Then Mnuchin cut that to $1.5 trillion, not for any financial reasons, not for any affordability reasons, but just to please the Republicans.

And even that cut wasn’t deep enough to satisfy the GOP, which clearly is more interested in tax cuts for the rich than helping the impoverished.

Fiscal hawks are deeply reluctant to embrace more spending after an infusion of nearly $3 trillion this spring, and the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday that government debt had ballooned in the 2020 fiscal year and nearly outpaced the size of the economy.

The measure presented on Tuesday, crafted after weeks of daily conference calls with senators and top administration officials, would provide up to $700 billion, Republican aides said, although about half of that money would come from repurposing funding already approved by Congress in the stimulus law enacted in March.

The “$700 billion” really was just “$350” billion to stimulate a $27 trillion economy from the depths of despair. Why so cheap?

The Republican-written legislation would provide a $300-per-week federal unemployment benefit, and provide that relief through Dec. 27. Democrats have pushed to revive the full $600-per-week payment established in the March stimulus law, at least through January.

The bill does not provide funds for another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for Americans, which both chambers had included in their opening offers, or offer any additional funding to state and local governments.

Democrats called the measure “emaciated” and doing little to address the long-term impact of the pandemic on the nation’s economy. “What they have is so meager that it insults the intelligence of the American people,” Ms. Pelosi . “We know we have to negotiate in order to reach an agreement. We all want an agreement, make no mistake about that. But get serious.”

If you didn’t understand the politics, you would think the Republicans not only would want a greater benefit than “$300-per-week” (How many families can live on that?) but would be the ones pushing for $600 or even $1,000 per week.

And why did the $1,200 stimulus checks, which the Republicans first included, suddenly disappear from the latest GOP proposal? Here is why:

Big business wants desperate workers.

The GOP, the party of the rich, does what the rich want it to do. Do you remember the tax cut that was supposed to save you money? The vast majority went to the rich.

Do you remember all the GOP efforts to eliminate Obamacare, the insurance that covered pre-existing conditions? Those efforts continue. The GOP hates that kind of insurance because it allows workers to be independent of company-provided insurance. Without Obamacare, leaving your employer or demanding a raise would be easier.

And now, when the U.S. government has the power to pull everyone out of this virus-induced poverty, big businesses are telling their GOP friends, “We need workers who will work long hours for short pay.”

And what about Trump’s re-election chances?

No one cares about Trump. Certainly not the Democrats, and not even the Republicans. He may be the most despised President in history, perhaps the most despised man in all of America, today.

The Republicans know he is a threat to American democracy and more importantly, he will do nothing for them. He is a “me-first, me-only” fool, who himself shows no loyalty to anyone.

By contrast, the rich provide the GOP Congresspeople with their election money. Long after Trump is gone, the rich will remain loyal, checkbooks in hand.

And the rich have good memories. They will remember who helped them and who didn’t.

If you helped them acquire cheap, hard-working labor for your business, you will be thanked. If you don’t help them, they will help your next opponent.

That is why the rich want to cut Medicare benefits, Social Security benefits, and indeed all benefits to the not-rich. They want a big supply of desperate people.

Pay no attention to the fake concerns about the federal debt being “unsustainable,” or the U.S. becoming “insolvent.” The rich know that cannot happen. They understand Monetary Sovereignty.

The purpose of those fraudulent rationales is to give a “logical” gloss to the illogical idea that the federal government could run short of its own sovereign currency.

After all, the politicians can’t admit they are doing it to keep you in slavery, can they?

The federal government has all the financial power it needs to pull America out of this recession and to help the states, counties, and cities return to solvency.

To do the bidding of the rich, the politicians rely on the ignorance of the public. That is why the GOP rescue package is so skimpy. Big business wants desperate workers.

Now, you know.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
2. 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:

1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Social Security for all or a reverse income tax

4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone

5. Salary for attending school

6. Eliminate federal taxes on business

7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 

8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.

9. Federal ownership of all banks

10.Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY