Dear Representative McGovern,

My name is xxxx xxxx. I am writing to ask you to take a leadership role in resolving the unnecessary federal budget debt limit crisis.

Thank you for your statement, “any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be taken off the table” and also for recognizing the grave risk an unnecessary default poses for our Country.(1)

However, it is past time for you to do more. An unnecessary crisis has been allowed to develop that threatens not only Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but also the economic well being of our entire Nation.

The current debt limit crisis is unnecessary because the Administration has the power to prevent a default. There are at least two mechanisms by which the debt limit deadline can be circumvented: President Obama can invoke the 14th Amendment, a method former President Bill Clinton has endorsed(2), or President Obama can instruct the Treasury to mint a $1 Trillion dollar platinum coin to be deposited at the Federal Reserve.(3)

The current debt limit crisis is based upon false premises about the nature of Federal Government deficits. Many innocently false statements have been made and these statements must immediately be corrected in order to properly and accurately inform both your Colleagues in Congress and the American People of the basic economic facts.

For example, “a responsible deficit reduction plan is vital to our nation’s sustainability,”(4) is a false statement when applied to the Federal Budget. The Federal Government’s deficits are not something bad — they are savings for the rest of us. We don’t need increased tax revenue or less Federal Government spending; on the contrary, we need tax cuts and/or increased spending.(5)

For more information on these issues, please see the enclosed:

1. Online references notes.
2. A copy of Warren Mosler’s book, The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy (forward by James K. Galbraith)

I urge you to contact James K. Galbraith, Warren Mosler and L. Randall Wray for expert advice. Conventional wisdom is profoundly and dangerously wrong.

Please use all possible means at your disposal to educate yourself and your staff and then to communicate to your Colleagues and to the American People how unnecessary the debt limit crisis is and what must be done to end it.

Representative McGovern, this may very well be a once in a lifetime, “whose side are you on” moment. Don’t let your Country down.

Sincerely,

xxxx xxxx

************      ************      ************

1. U.S. Rep. McGovern, Progress Caucus members issue letter to President Obama demanding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to be off the table in debt ceiling talks.
   http://mcgovern.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=15&parentid=168&sectiontree=168,15&itemid=529
2. Exclusive Bill Clinton Interview: I Would Use Constitutional Option To Raise Debt Ceiling And “Force The Courts To Stop Me”
   http://www.nationalmemo.com/article/exclusive-former-president-bill-clinton-says-he-would-use-constitutional-option-raise-debt
3. Why Matt Yglesias and Felix Salmon are Wrong About A Legal Way to Circumvent the Debt Ceiling Impasse
   http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/why-matt-yglesias-and-felix-salmon-are-wrong-about-a-legal-way-to-circumvent-the-debt-ceiling-impasse.html

   QE3, Treasury Style—Go Around, Not Over the Debt Ceiling Limit
   http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/07/qe3-treasury-stylego-around-not-over.html

   Obama’s Top Secret Plan to Solve the Debt Crisis
   http://balkin.blogspot.com/2011/07/obamas-top-secret-plan-to-solve-debt.html

4. U.S. Rep. McGovern, 69 other House Democrats send letter to President Obama urging no cuts to social safety net
   http://mcgovern.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=15&parentid=168&sectiontree=168,15&itemid=530
5. Hawk Nation: A Guide to the Catastrophic Debt Ceiling Debate
   http://www.newdeal20.org/2011/07/11/hawk-nation-a-guide-to-the-catastrophic-debt-ceiling-debate-51211/

   A Progressive Approach To Federal Budgeting
   http://my.firedoglake.com/lrwray/2011/07/06/a-progressive-approach-to-federal-budgeting-or-can-one-take-billionaire-pete-peterson’s-money-and-remain-progressive/

   The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy
   http://moslereconomics.com/2009/12/10/7-deadly-innocent-frauds/

************      ************      ************

NOTE: x-posted at fdl and dailykos — selise

________________

I remember the fall of 2008 not as the time of an historic election but as a time of astonishment at the massive amounts of money our government, a Republican administration and a Democratic Congress, was willing to throw at the financial elites while demonstrating, for the most part, their utter cluelessness about why the money was needed or what would be done with it. At first is was $700 billion, then $850 billion and then trillions. All within the space of a few weeks.

Chris Floyd captured the moment perfectly (from Oct, 13, 2008 via x-post):

Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global financial crash — or rather, by the reaction to it — is the staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the governments of the world have at their command. In just a matter of days, we have seen literally trillions of dollars offered to the financial services sector by national treasuries and central banks across the globe.

The effectiveness of this unprecedented transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens to the top tiers of the business world remains to be seen. It will certainly insulate the very rich from the consequences of their own greed and folly and fraud; but it is not at all clear how much these measures will shield the vast majority of people from the catastrophe that has been visited upon them by the elite.

But putting aside for a moment the actual intent, details and results of the global bailout offers, it is their very extent that shocks, and shows — in a stark, harsh, all-revealing light — the brutal disdain with which the national governments of the world’s “leading democracies” have treated their own citizens for decades.

Year after year, the ordinary citizens were told by their governments: we have no money to spend on your needs, on your communities, on your infrastructure, on your health, on your children, on your environment, on your quality of life. We can’t do those kinds of things any more.

Of course, when talking amongst themselves, or with the believers in the think tanks, boardrooms — and editorial offices — the cultists would speak more plainly: we don’t do those things anymore because we shouldn’t do them, we don’t want to do them, they are wrong, they are evil, they are outside the faith. But for the hoi polloi, the line was usually something like this: Budgets are tight, we must balance them (for a “balanced budget” is a core doctrine of the cult), we just can’t afford all these luxuries.

But now, as the emptiness and falsity of the Chicago cargo cult stands nakedly revealed, even to some of its most faithful and fanatical adherents, we can see that this 30-year mantra by our governments has been a deliberate and outright lie. The money was there — billions and billions and billions of dollars of it, trillions of dollars of it. We can see it before our very eyes today — being whisked away from our public treasuries and showered upon the banks and the brokerages.

Let’s say it again: The money was there all along.

A deliberate and outright lie. The money was there all along.

And now, just a year and a half later, the deficit hawks at the Peterson Foundation are at it again: attacking Social Security and Medicare, this time with a “National Fiscal Summit” including such notable “experts” as Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan, among others “to Discuss Nation’s Rising Deficits and Debt.”

We have a massive need for a counter-narrative to their lies: that Federal deficit spending is bad, that it is a burden to the next generation, that deficit spending risks insolvency — basically that the Federal Government Budget is some how analogous to a household budget when, in fact, it is no such thing.

The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-Conference on April 28th, 2010 in Washington, DC (At the George Washington University’s Marvin Center, Room 310, The Elliot Room, venue info here.) — the same day as the Peterson Foundation’s “Fiscal Summit” — aims to do just that. Here’s what Jamie Galbraith said about the Teach-In:

________________

“The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter Conference will be the important event in Washington on April 28. Unlike the other meeting, this one will feature important work by honest scholars. It deserves at least equal attention, and very much more respect.”

— James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin. [April 19, 2010 via email with permission]

________________

We can move beyond the false economic orthodoxy that got us into the current economic mess and that now is being promoted to attack Social Security and Medicare — and harming our Nation and its People in so many ways. But our help is needed (I warned you this was coming) to raise the money needed for speaker travel, venue, and other related expenses. No money is going to the organizers or to anything other than the conference. The Teach-In is being organized, at the last minute, with no charge for attendance and on a shoe-string budget, because the people involved believe in what they are doing.

Here is the program (see here and here in case of updates):

Please help by contributing to the cost of the Teach-In today. Donate Here. Every little bit helps.

Some other things you can do:

1. Ask your friends to donate too
2. Attend the Teach-In
3. Spread the word — write a blog post, tell your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers
4. Educate yourself — some great introductory resources are:
   • Teaching the Fallacy of Composition: The Federal Budget Deficit, by L. Randall Wray
   • Fiscal sustainability 101: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, by William Mitchell
   • The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In and Counter-Conference, by William Mitchell
   • 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds, by Warren Mosler
   • In Defense of Deficits, by James K. Galbraith

Finally, here is a bit of inspiration from Rob Parenteau, who also gave me the title of this post (both via email and used with permission):

Of course, there is a need to reconstruct the way economics is taught in academia. But this is not the highest priority at the moment. We have many average people and citizens walking around looking for answers. We need to learn to speak to them and persuade the entrepreneurs, the unionists, the teachers, the housewives, the priests, the cab drivers, etc. They are hungry for answers and vulnerable to demagogues.

We have demonstrated some capacity to finally forge our way through the last mile problem on MMT, functional finance, and the financial balance approach in the blog world and elsewhere. Some like Marshall, Bill Black, and Jamie are even able to get the message across through more mainstream media channels. The tenured academics will surely be the last to follow, and of course, that is their perogative. We should let Rob Johnson and INET continue to work on that contigent while we take our case to the misinformed and extremely frustrated public. They are desperate to make sense of what has happened and to figure out how to find a plausible way forward to a more sensible and satisfying world. We can do that. We can completely engage them, and get the ball rolling.

Marshall and I have dialogued with pure blooded Austrian Schoolers on blog sites and actually gotten some traction with them. It is possible to help people find new perspectives or at least question and possibly move beyond limited old ones. I unfortunately cannot attend this one because I have other commitments I cannot break that day, but I have a funny feeling it will not be the last one either and I wish you all the greatest success and effectiveness with this inaugural teach-in. I am certain you will be making history. Feel the power of this moment and wield it wisely.

________________

x-posted at FDL
x-posted at moslereconomics.com (thanks Warren!)
x-posted at dailykos
x-posted at Corrente

“The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter Conference will be the important event in Washington on April 28. Unlike the other meeting, this one will feature important work by honest scholars. It deserves at least equal attention, and very much more respect.”

— James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin. [April 19, 2010 via email with permission]

________________

The deficit hawks at the Peterson Foundation are at it again: attacking Social Security and Medicare with their false economic notions, this time with a “Fiscal Summit” to “Discuss Nation’s Rising Deficits and Debt.”

We have a massive need for a counter-narrative to the false but conventional notion that Federal deficit spending is bad, that it is a burden to the next generation, that deficit spending risks insolvency — basically that the Federal Government Budget is some how analogous to a household budget when, in fact, it is no such thing.

The Teach-In Counter-Conference on Fiscal Sustainability on April 28th, 2010 in Washington, DC aims to do just that with some real world, honest economics. The date was chosen as an alternative and counter to the deficit hawks at Peterson Foundation’s “Fiscal Summit.”

We can move beyond the false economic orthodoxy that got us into the current economic mess and that is now being promoted to attack Social Security and Medicare — and harming our Nation and its People in so many ways. You can help.

The tentative program schedule, topics and presenters as of 04/16/10:

Time Period	Topic	Team Leaders
8:30–8:45 AM	Welcoming Remarks
8:45–10:15 AM	What Is Fiscal Sustainability?	Bill Mitchell, Research Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at the University of Newcastle, NSW Australia, and blogger at billy blog
10:15–10:30 AM	BREAK
10:30 AM–12:00 PM	Are There Spending Constraints on Governments Sovereign in their Currency?	Stephanie Kelton, Associate Professor of Macroeconomics, Finance, and Money and Banking, Research Scholar at The Center for Full Employment and Price Stability (CFEPS), University of Missouri – Kansas City, Research Associate at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and blogger at New Economics Perspectives
12:00–12:15 PM	BREAK
12:15–1:45 PM	The Deficit, the Debt, the Debt-To-GDP ratio, the Grandchildren and Government Economic Policy	Warren Mosler, International Consulting Economist, Independent Candidate for the US Senate in Connecticut, and blogger at moslereconomics.com
1:45–2:00 PM	BREAK
2:00–3:15 PM	Inflation and Hyper-inflation	Marshall Auerback, International Consulting Economist, blogger at New Deal 2.0 and New Economic Perspectives; Mat Forstater, Professor of Economics, Director of CFEPS, Department of Economics, University of Missouri — Kansas City, Research Associate at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and blogger at New Economic Perspectives
3:15–3:30 PM	BREAK
3:30–5:00 PM	Policy Proposals for Fiscal Sustainability	L. Randall Wray, Professor of Economics, Director of CFEPS at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, and Senior Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College; Pavlina Tcherneva, Assistant Professor of Economics at Franklin and Marshall College, Senior Research Associate at CFEPS and Research Associate at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and bloggers at New Economic Perspectives

What you can do to help:

1. Contribute to the cost of the Conference at the sidebar (or Here).
2. Attend the Teach-In — watch these pages for location and other logistical information
3. Spread the word — write a blog post, talk with your friends
4. Educate yourself — some great introductory resources are:
   • Teaching the Fallacy of Composition: The Federal Budget Deficit, by L. Randall Wray
   • Fiscal sustainability 101: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, by William Mitchell
   • 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds, by Warren Mosler
   • In Defense of Deficits, by James K. Galbraith

Please do what you can to help bring the fight to the deficit hawks at the Peterson Foundation. Every little bit helps. Thank you.

________________

x-posted at Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In
x-posted at DownWithTyranny! (Thankyou Howie!)
x-posted at Hullabaloo (Thankyou Digby!)
x-posted at MIKE THE MAD BIOLOGIST (Thanks Mike!)

________________

Updates:

4/19/10: The Teach-in will be held at the George Washington University Marvin Center, room 310 (the Elliott Room). Schedule: 8:00AM – 4:00PM, April 28, 2010. (Map and logistical information here.)
4/20/10: Slight change to program schedule above. (See most current program here.)

________________

From January – February 2010, more than 2,500 ideas were submitted and voted on by 100,000 people across the country. The top three rated ideas from each issue category, listed below, qualified for the final round.

Final round voting begins on March 1 and ends on March 12. The 10 most popular ideas will be presented to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will subsequently mobilize its full community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to help turn each idea into reality.

It’s time to put Single Payer on the table with Improved Medicare for All:

A single payer, Medicare for All national health insurance program could save over $400 billion annually now wasted on overhead and bureaucracy, enough to cover all 47 million uninsured Americans. It would allow patients to go to the private doctor or hospital of their choice with no more HMO restrictions. Private insurance is a defective product that costs too much and covers too little – three-fourths of all bankruptcies for medical bills are among people who have insurance. We have 44 years of positive experience with Medicare taking care of our nation’s most vulnerable patients – seniors, the disabled, and people with kidney failure. Medicare for All would also allow the nation to reduce costs by buying medications in bulk, negotiating fees with doctors, and budgeting hospitals and other facilities. It would also allow Medicare benefits to be improved (to eliminate co-pays and deductibles, to add a comprehensive, permanent drug benefit, etc).

- Physicians for a National Health Program

Learn more:

Single-Payer National Health Insurance
What Citizen Activists Can Do

Action and News:

• PNHP Blog (Physicians for a National Health Program)
• CNA/NNOC (California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee)
• Guaranteed Healthcare Blog Working for Guaranteed Healthcare on the Single-payer model
• Healthcare-NOW! Organizing for a National Single-Payer Healthcare System. HR 676: One Plan, One Nation
• Single Payer Action everybody in, nobody out
• Mobilization for Health Care for All Patients not profit!
• Mad as Hell Doctors
• PDA Healthcare for All (Progressive Democrats of America)
• Unions for Single Payer Health Care

________________

As a Massachusetts voter, I can say that my lack of enthusiasm for yesterday’s election was certainly due to the behind the scenes corporate deal making and bailouts for the banking and insurance industries as well as big pharma and others at the expense of real reform for ordinary Americans.

The Obama administration, with help from Congress, has made the biggest transfer of wealth up from ordinary people to the wealthy and powerful in the history of the planet. This is not the change we hoped for.

What happened to the fierce urgency of now? Or is that only for banksters and insurance executives?

What the country needs now are real solutions to our very real problems. It is beyond frustrating that there are obvious solutions to benefit the vast majority of Americans and my own party refuses to even consider them — apparently because they might anger some corporate donors.

Healthcare reform is a perfect example of this.

For years we, as a country, have been paying for comprehensive universal healthcare and not getting it. A single payer system, such as in H.R. 676 or S.703, is the obvious solution and it should be a no brainer to everyone not intent on protecting the insurance industry over the well being and security of Americans.

x-posted at FDL