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April 18, 2011

Solving the debt crisis without raising taxes or cutting spending: U.S. Notes

By Scott Baker

I sent the following email off to a couple of reporters at CNBC - that right-wing in-the-box bastion of capitalism. It had to be short, pithy and succinct. If we even get the solution mentioned in the email on the air, even to be ridiculed, it'll still be a major victory over what passes for solutions right now to our twin revenue shortfall/debt increase disaster.

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I sent the following email off to a couple of reporters at CNBC - that right-wing in-the-box bastion of capitalism.  It had to be short, pithy and succinct.  If we even get the solution mentioned in the email on the air, even to be ridiculed, it'll still be a major victory over what passes for solutions right now to our twin revenue shortfall/debt increase disaster.  Right now, all that's talked about is raising the debt ceiling, raising taxes, cutting spending (but not on the wars, taxes for the rich, oh no, not that!), and even eliminating Medicare as we know it.  None of these solutions are necessary nor desirable.  Read on...

To CNBC:
There is a way to solve the unsustainable debt crisis without raising taxes, cutting spending (in fact, you could increase it and provide jobs in underfunded areas like infrastructure), or even raising the debt ceiling.  Looked at the proper way, it should increase our debt rating too, because we would be generating less debt.   Furthermore, there is ample precedent from Lincoln in the Civil War. 
Simply follow Lincoln's example, as well as the Sovereign right of all nations and the mandate from Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution to "coin money" in the form of United State Notes.  Unlike Federal Reserve Notes, U.S. Notes are not "borrowed" money, they are real money, produced by an act of Congress.  Congress did this at Lincoln's request to the tune of $450 million (a huge sum in those days), and the true Greenbacks (because they had a green back) were in limited circulation all the way until the 1990s !  Immensely popular in the late 19th century, the banks hated them because they wanted to keep the monopoly to manufacture money and loan it out at interest to themselves!  If Obama is serious about taking on the self-destructive Tea Party faction, he should do what his Illinois predecessor did in during our country's darkest hours and re-issue Greenbacks, dedicated specifically toward weak areas of the economy like infrastructure and the energy grid.


Authors Website: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio:

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of articles for Common Ground's national publication, GroundSwell, and has advocated for the Georgist Land Value Tax to public and political audiences.

A complete list of his publications can be found here:

Click Here



He is also New York State Coordinator and Senior Advisor for the Public Banking Institute

Click Here, which seeks to promote Public Banking. The PBI is chaired by another OEN blogger, Ellen Brown.
Scott has appeared on TV/Radio and in in-person Presentations to explain the principles of Georgism, Greenbacking, and State Banking. These may also be found on his personal blog: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/


Scott has a dozen progressive petitions on Change.org which may be found here:

http://chn.ge/10nUAmJ

Scott was an I.T. Manager for a major New York university for over two decades where he earned a Certificate for Frontline Leadership.


He had a video game published in Compute! Magazine: Click Here

Scott is a graduate and adjunct faculty of the Henry George School of Social Science in New York City.


Scott is a modern-day Renaissance Man with interests in economics, science and all future-forward topics.

He has been called an "adept syncretist" by Kirkus Discoveries for his novel, NeitherWorld - a two-volume opus blending Native American myth, archaeological detail, government conspiracy, with a sci-fi flair http://amzn.to/10nUoDV


Scott grew up in New York City and Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and was a member of the Psychology honor society PSI CHI.

Today he is an avid bicyclist and ride co-leader in a prominent bike advocacy organization.

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