The editorial appearing on February 16, 2013 in The New York Times states:
In less than two weeks, a cleaver known as the sequester will fall on some of the most important functions of the United States government. About $85 billion will be cut from discretionary spending over the next seven months, reducing defense programs by about 8 percent and domestic programs by about 5 percent. Only a few things will be spared, including some basic safety-net benefits like Social Security, as well as pay for enlisted military personnel.
The sequester will not stop to contemplate whether these are the right programs to cut; it is entirely indiscriminate, slashing programs whether they are bloated or essential. The military budget, for example, should be reduced substantially, but thoughtfully, considering the nation’s needs. Instead, every weapons system, good or bad, will be hurt, as will troop training and maintenance.
These cuts, which will cost the economy more than one million jobs over the next two years, are the direct result of the Republican demand in 2011 to shrink the government at any cost, under threat of a default on the nation’s debt. Many Republicans say they would still prefer the sequester to replacing half the cuts with tax revenue increases. But the government spending they disdain is not an abstract concept. In a few days, the cuts will begin affecting American life and security in significant ways.
Last week, Senate Democrats produced a much better planto replace these cuts with a mix of new tax revenues and targeted reductions. About $55 billion would be raised by imposing a minimum tax on incomes of $1 million or more and ending some business deductions, while an equal amount of spending would be reduced from targeted cuts to defense and farm subsidies.
Republicans immediately rejected the idea; the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, called it “a political stunt.” Their proposal is to eliminate the defense cuts and double the ones on the domestic side, heedless of the suffering that even the existing reductions will inflict. Their refusal to consider new revenues means that on March 1, Americans will begin learning how austerity really feels.
Progressive liberals who authored this editorial argue that the government isn’t spending enough money, and the lack of government spending is contributing to the weak economy and poor job growth. They argue for greater revenue to support the spending.
What is not addressed is that government spending is dependent upon tax extraction and debt. There is no question that government spending is necessary but as a stipulation to that spending must be the requirement that the private sector broaden private, individual ownership in the existing and future companies that will receive the taxpayer-supported monies and contracts. This is what has historically been absent from the conversation and instead welfare, both open and concealed, has benefited private sector companies in the name of JOB CREATION. But what is fundamentally needed is to build an OWNERSHIP CULTURE in which EVERY American has the opportunity to acquire on credit a viable income-producing capital estate and pay for their Super IRA account out of the earnings of the productive capital investments in the economy.
This is a simple concept. It is the fundamental principle of business logic that investments pay for themselves as their earnings are pledged first to pay off expansion loans and once paid for continue to generate earnings for their owners. Of course, there will be business failures and that is why it will be necessary to attach commercial capital credit insurance, backed by government re-insurance (if necessary), to the loan transactions facilitated by banks.
We should make every effort to ensure that the FUTURE economic growth of the American economy is financed such that we are constantly creating new owners and strengthening the capital estates of our non- and under-capatilized citizens. This is the solution to the onslaught of tectonic shifts in the technologies of production, which is destroying or devaluing jobs and free economic growth from the slavery of “past” savings.
A National Right To Capital Ownership Bill that restores the American dream should be advocated by the progressive movement, which addresses the reality of Americans facing job opportunity deterioration and devaluation due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production.
There is a solution, which will result in double-digit economic growth and simultaneously broaden private, individual ownership so that EVERY American’s income significantly grows, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle. The Just Third Way Master Plan for America’s future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.
Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
