I would reintroduce the 1999 LaHood bill, H.R. 1452, the State and Local Government Empowerment Act, which I believe would have had the Treasury make $360 billion (over 5 years) in interest free loans to state and local governments for capital investments. These funds would have been credits in United States Notes. Beyond that, I would be open to studying the Kucinich bill (it's been a long time since I read up on it).
Canova, who has corresponded frequently with Ellen Brown as well, says unequivocally:
Yes, I support a Public Bank for Florida.
(Full disclosure: I referred Canova to a long-standing e-petition I had created to support a Public Bank for Florida for dark horse candidate Farid Khavari)
Canova, who in 2011 worked for "U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders serv(ing) on an advisory committee on Federal Reserve reform along with such leading economists as James Galbraith, Robert Reich, Jeffrey Sachs, and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz," also supports expanding Social Security.
I wrote an article last Spring "How to Pay for Social Security is Asking the Wrong Question" which also appears in my book, America is Not Broke! in which I proposed using Sovereign Money to pay for Social Security since every dollar spent produces up to two dollars in national income, according to two studies I cited. I reminded Canova of that article and asked him if he would consider a similar idea. He responded:
I recall your argument about using debt-free money to pay for Social Security. I'm not opposed in theory, but first would suggest let's see where Social Security is in a genuinely full-employment economy, with another 25 million people (and those discouraged and part-time workers) finally working again and paying into the system.
"25 million" unemployed people is an interesting figure since it is completely at odds with the latest official figure of just 7.9 million unemployed, but note that Canova is including "discouraged and part-time workers" as well. Shodowstats.com supports this higher figure and puts the unemployment rate at over 22% when including the largest category, discouraged workers (many of whom subsist only on increasingly scarce public assistance). Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been known to cite this higher figure as well, which as Shadowstats notes, was "defined out of existence in 1994."
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