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ProfessorPlum

ProfessorPlum's Journal
ProfessorPlum's Journal
January 17, 2019

The Green New Deal: How We Will Pay for It Isn't 'a Thing' - Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhockett/2019/01/16/the-green-new-deal-how-we-will-pay-for-it-isnt-a-thing-and-inflation-isnt-either/#400969704d7f

Great article on inflation, paying for things, employment, the fed, credit-money, and "how will we pay for" things we actually need.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s announcement of an ambitious new Green New Deal Initiative in Congress has brought predictable – and predictably silly – callouts from conservative pundits and scared politicians. ‘How will we pay for it?,’ they ask with pretend-incredulity, and ‘what about debt?’ ‘Won’t we have to raise taxes, and will that not crowd-out the job creators?’

Representative Ocasio-Cortez already has given the best answer possible to such queries, most of which seem to be raised in bad faith. Why is it, she retorts, that these questions arise only in connection with useful ideas, not wasteful ideas? Where were the ‘pay-fors’ for Bush’s $5 trillion wars and tax cuts, or for last year’s $2 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires? Why wasn’t financing those massive throwaways as scary as financing the rescue of our planet and middle class now seems to be to these naysayers?

The short answer to ‘how we will pay for’ the Green New Deal is easy. We’ll pay for it just as we pay for all else: Congress will authorize necessary spending, and Treasury will spend. This is how we do it – always has been, always will be.

The money that’s spent, for its part, is never ‘raised’ first. To the contrary, federal spending is what brings that money into existence.
January 11, 2019

Thanks, Trump voters. What a delicious mess you have put us in

Now the Democrats have a choice: Stand firm and let Trump and McConnell destroy the government and our country

OR

Give him money for his mirage, and lose the ability to ever stop him again, destroying democracy and our country

If he finds he can get anything he wants by shutting down the government, expect him to do that early and often.

January 8, 2019

Taxes on income dollars should roughly reflect the likelihood that they will sit in an account

and not be re-circulated in the economy.

poor/working people can't afford to save, and are living paycheck to paycheck. There is 0% chance that their income won't be spent. Therefore, taxes on low income earners should be next to nothing.

middle class workers earn that initial amount that is likely to be spent on surviving, but then earn additional income. They are likely to spend that additional income, but they may already have some savings socked away and may save some. A 20-30% tax might be about right for that income.

Affluent people who already have a great deal of wealth are unlikely to spend that high income money. After all, if there was something that they wanted, they would have already spent some of their wealth on it. No need to wait. Multimillion dollar earnings are likely to be banked, shipped out of the country, etc. and never re-emerge to help move the economy. Never flow. And for those kinds of dollars, a 70-80% tax makes perfect sense.


If it is part of tax policy to keep money moving, to keep it flowing, to get it out of the rich's hands and back into the lower economic levels so that it can be SPENT and re-circulated, then progressive tax brackets like these make perfect sense. Give poor people money (through minimum wage, welfare, food stamps, organized labor, progressive taxes), and the economy roars.

January 8, 2019

It could have been ANYTHING: Trump's shut down has nothing to do with "wall"

Think about this:

Trump runs completely fucking amok for two full years, as the GOP congress plays with itself and watches.

At the end of two years, the electorate rouses itself to put a serious check on this madman. Regains one house of Congress.

the GOP congress decides to fund the government with some kick-the-can-down-the-road legislation and go home for the holidays.

Trump, at the behest of Putin and the all-powerful Rush Coulter, as well as his Faux Friends, cuts the government's Achilles tendons.

He threatens to declare himself supreme dictator and refuses to bow to any checks on his power.


Everyone knows that the "wall" is a fiction, a dream, a hallucination. It's a mental bookmark for this imbecile. $5B is a drop in the federal bucket. What this really is is him refusing to bow to any oversight, any check, any pushback from reality. The wall is just his convenient excuse to create this showdown and try to set up the conditions for him never to be checked by anything. The Democrats want something? well, he'll just shutdown the government over it and the Dems will cave, just like last time.

We _can't_ give in to this. Even though it is so hurtful to so many people. My heart goes out to all of the federal workers and beneficiaries of government programs. But Trump has drawn the line in the sand. One side reads "dictator". We have to keep him on the other side.

January 4, 2019

What leverage do we really have if both Trump and McConnell

decide they don't care how long the shut down lasts? They both work for Putin, who would love to see our government crumble.

It seems like the Democrats will have to cave, yet again, to save the worst from happening. In this game of chicken, the other side doesn't care about crashing.

What consequence would Trump and McConnell fear? That they'll be hated? Ha ha

January 2, 2019

Would love to see an American deal with racism & idiocy like James O'Brien

I firmly believe that Brexit is like Trump - a Putin-funded information attack on western democracy, using racism as the wedge to damage our country.

I recently stumbled on this radio host from Britain who takes calls from moron Brexiters, and asks them to back up their claims. They completely fall apart.

It would be so great to see someone take apart MAGAts in a similar way. (first call is about Trump)

















November 30, 2018

I know the "Arrested Development" Bluths were modeled after the Bushes, but the Trumps are

a much better fit.

Don is even tweeting about "light treason" this morning.

Plus Ivanka = Lindsey
Jared = Tobias
Don Jr = GOB
Eric = Michael
Baron = Buster

which makes Melania Lucille. Hmmm.

Plus, they get busted for international treason, money laundering, building things in enemy countries, etc. and all of them are useless. And Ivanka is daddy's girl. and Jared blue himself.

November 16, 2018

The American Tragicomedy of Racism and Submissive Gullibility: A Play in One Act

Scene 1

Somebody: Hey, let's do this thing that would make everyone's lives better.

Rich Person: Oh, but that would also make [minority group]'s lives better.

American Assholes: What? F**k those [minority group]! And fuck that thing that would make everyone's lives better!

Rich Person: Ha ha ha hee hee oh ho, oh my aching sides, they fell for it again! Ha ha, oh my fat wallet!

Scene 2

Rich Person: Give _me_ all of the money, and it will make everyone's lives better.

American Assholes: Sounds like a great plan!

Rich Person: Ha ha ha hee hee oh ho, oh my aching sides, they fell for it again! Ha ha, oh my fat wallet!


Curtain

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