MarvinSussman wrote:
"The government takes money from us....." Wrong!
DO FEDERAL TAXPAYERS PROVIDE MONEY FOR CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING?
No, only the contrary is true. It is Congressional spending that provides money for taxpayers to pay their federal taxes. And, no! Congress does not borrow money. While banks can create loans, only Congress, by spending, can create debt-free money. Money spent by Congress enters circulation and never stops circulating until received by the IRS or deposited into private bank accounts, either foreign or domestic. The money in bank accounts may eventually go back into circulation but what does the IRS do with its tax receipts? Thereby hangs a tale.
When banks close their doors for the day, the bank’s loan officer compares the bank’s outstanding loans with its reserve requirements. If reserves need to be increased or decreased, they can be borrowed or loaned during the night on the federal funds market at an interest rate close to the Fed’s federal fund rate. This is the most important interest rate on earth because it anchors all other rates.
To keep the federal fund rate on target, the quantity of money in the nation’s bank reserves must be kept fairly constant. With few exceptions, this is not a problem when private checks are deposited because the typical check causes equal debits and credits to the bank reserve balance. One exception is a Treasury check, which credits accounts without a corresponding debit. The two other exceptions are: Treasury bond sales, which debit the buyers’ accounts and the tax payments to the IRS, which debit the taxpayers’ accounts. Both debits have no corresponding credits. No, Congress does not receive funds from bond sales or tax payments!
Treasury checks arrive at banks at an average rate of about $20 million per hour: a high rate of debits which, to maintain a reserve balance, must be matched with equivalent credits. The following procedure was used before the age of computers and is still a good explanation.
Tax payments and funds received from the sale of treasuries were, after debiting the check writer’s account, kept in a “Tax and Loan” account arranged in debit bundles valued at $10 million, $20 million, $40 million, etc. Then, as the Treasury checks arrived and the resulting credits exceeded the desired balance by the value of one of the debit bundles, that bundle was used to debit accounts and restore the balance. This procedure became hectic toward bank closing time.
Effectively, tax payments and bond sale receipts are shredded by the Treasury. In fact, cash received by the IRS generates a check which is treated as the other checks while bills are shredded and coins are melted for scrap. To spend, Congress uses only its “…power to…coin money…” (Article I, Section 8, US Constitution).
© 2017 Marvin Sussman, All rights reserved.
"The government takes money from us....."... (
show quote)
Please reserve all your rights, preferably by not publishing any of it. Congress, which has no money provides money to the taxpayer. That sounds about right.
A scenario: A rancher in Texas raises cattle and drives them to a rail head where they are sold to a private company. The cattle are shipped to a slaughterhouse built by an entrepreneur and the meat and hides are processed. The meats are sold to butchers across the nation, traveling on rail systems across bridges and through tunnels built by other entrepreneurs and the hides go to a tanner. The tanner sell the cured leather from the hides to shoe making companies, luggage companies and garment companies, all built by entrepreneurs. Shoes, bags and coats are manufactured in factories built by entrepreneurs. These products are distributed all over the country and the world, on transport built and owned by the usual people, entrepreneurs. The buyers of these leather products have stores of varying sizes, mom & pop, chain super department stores and mega shoe marts. These in turn sell them to the public. The public is employed by the rancher, the railroads, the slaughterhouses, the tanner, the shoe stores and they are payed money for what they do. At each turn people are employed earning money for their service, owners derive profits from their enterprise and this is only one truncated chain of many such scenarios.
Where was the Congress in providing any of this largess? Oh yes, they provided onerous regulation vastly increasing costs and they gave us an IRS (the Infernal Revenue Stickup). The Congress likes to spend money; some of it is to satisfy the demands of those who are unwilling to work for a living and other parts are used to facilitate commerce via superhighways, dams, and bridge construction. But mostly the Congressman and the President and the Judiciary like to play at war.
War is a great game, they and theirs don't fight these wars so it isn't their blood being spilled. Why do it? Think of the money they make, manufacturers of tanks, guns, planes, missiles, drones, bombs and all the other war paraphernalia are busily engaged in creating products which have no use whatever. They do not provide a plow to till a field, there is no repurposing other than scrap for brass shell casings. It is a zero return and there is always a need for more.
Sounds stupid, why do it? The manufacturers of death devices overcharge the government and return a portion of the overcharge as bribes disguised as campaign contributions. Congress gets rich, the manufacturers get rich and the bankers who finance the death industry get rich.
Of course, such largesse can't be sustained by taxing the populace directly, the pesky critters demand food daily. Politicians lie and say we can afford guns and butter but behind the scenes they unhinge the value of our money from gold and make it worth -- whatever. Our friends the bankers, can supply unlimited funds; with a push of a key money is transferred out of thin air into the coffers of the government, which promptly issues bonds to the banks, which pay excellent interest to the bond holders -- our friendly Federal Reserve house of thieves.
Life is grand, I send the government a note saying I gave you fifty billion, you give me a lien on all of your productivity, its called a bond. I take those bonds and sell some to gamblers who are looking to get rich off the interest they bear. The bond interest from the government flows into our pockets. Isn't life really grand? I gave you nothing, told you you have billions and you give me money for it, lots of money, until one percent of us is garnering 90% of all income - all from nothing, I am a Magician and I have an inexhaustible supply of nothing.
You can't get something for nothing you say, turns out you are right. Every time I send you non-existent money it lowers the value of all money in existence. It only represents so many hides or shoes or steaks and if there is too much money not tied to a work standard or a gold standard the prices will rise. This is a reflection of the loss of purchasing power of any existing money. So where are all those fortunes coming from? Out of the savings accounts and pockets of those who work for a living and don't practice war or election campaigning or financiering.
When it comes to making money, Ponzi and Bernie Madoff were rank, stupid, amatuers.