Over the next few months, you will have the opportunity to interact with politicians (those currently in office, and others who hope to be elected) in primaries leading up to the 2012 elections in cities, states, and the Federal government. All of those politicians will want your vote, and they will make promises that they think will make you want to vote for them. Among the many issues that voters will push or pull for, there is one that all of us can agree is important. Tell the politicians that we demand they stop the theft! Let your voice be heard loud and clear that the old and dirty business of stealing value is no longer an acceptable way for our elected leaders to run the American government. Pass the message to stop the theft! to all venues that will listen, and that will help to spread the message. For far too long, politicians have promised just about anything that they thought would help them to get elected, then they just “borrowed” wealth that can never be repaid so they could continue to spend without restraint. We the People must shout enough! We must demand that politicians stop the theft!

The USA has taken on debts and obligations that exceed any possibility that their real value can ever be repaid in an honest way. Instead of repaying the true value of funds that were borrowed, the USA is committed to inflate its currency so it can pay back loans with a currency that has much less real value. That is a process of intentional theft when the USA borrows any funds. Bad as that intentional theft of value is, it is compounded by subjecting our citizens and our future generations to gargantuan debts which will enslave even the not yet born citizens for debts they obviously had no ability to prevent. Furthermore, the US government, in collusion with the Federal Reserve, has conspired to keep interest rates artificially low. That downward pressure on interest rates may reduce the borrowing costs to the government, but it is at the expense of theft from savers who may have depended on the income from their investments as well as theft from anyone who loans funds to the government.

Some optimistic people think that the USA financial problems can be solved by simply reducing the government budget, and that would have been true before 1980. Unfortunately, the USA now has an impossibly large debt burden combined with a terminally weak national employment picture, so budget reductions without other substantial changes will only slow the rate at which the USA Titanic slips below the surface and into an icy bankruptcy.

Over the previous decades, politicians have become accustomed to spend as much as they wish while in office, and then to simply “borrow” whatever funds are needed to pay for the spending. Since it is no longer possible for the USA to repay the true value of loans and other obligations it has already committed, “borrowing” any additional funds is clearly theft from the lenders and from future generations. Demand that politicians stop the theft! American citizens pay elected officials to manage the tasks they are responsible for, and to make the difficult choices needed to keep our nation in proper balance. Any idiot can spend too much money, and then kick the can down the road by “borrowing” the funds to pay for what they do, with no regard for the disaster that imposes on the future generations who will be saddled with the bills. Tell any politician who will listen that we will not pay people to go to public office and then spend as much as they want by leaving IOUs for the future to pay. Insist that politicians must stop the theft! Politicians at all levels of government must act responsibly to make the difficult decisions that are necessary for the government to live within its means.

The message of this commentary is that we must demand that politicians stop the theft! Politicians who want our votes should be prepared to announce how they plan to proceed to bring all budgets they encounter into balance. Each voter can decide if the promises of a politician merit receiving votes. Some politicians, however, may say that since the USA (and many states and cities) cannot possibly repay all the previous obligations, that it is OK for them to simply continue to spend other people’s money in ways that would embarrass a drunken sailor, without regard to who will pay the bills or how the “borrowed” funds would be repaid.

I agree that there is no easy or painless way to gradually work our way out of the huge debt hole that the USA obligations from the previous decades have thrust upon the USA. I am convinced that it may require an abrupt change in philosophy for our politicians to act in an honorable way to stop the theft! People who look for a solution are likely to find many to choose among, and I have neither the ability nor the intent to define the best way to stop the theft! Just to demonstrate that it is possible, however, I present suggestions below for one possible new process that will restore the USA to honest accounting and to a firm financial basis in which we pay as we go for services we ask from our government, without imposing draconian debts upon our future generations. Regardless of the details actually used to solve this massive debt problem, it is essential that the mistakes of the past are not repeated into the future so America will not face this financial nightmare again.

Possible steps to stop the theft!

1) Return jobs to America. That could be accomplished by moving away from the disaster called “Free Trade”, and replacing it with Fair Trade. Free Trade may sound good to those who want a one world government, and it did result in cheaper imports, but it has cost the USA too many jobs. As USA industries relocated to Asia where people work for much lower wages than in America, our citizens are left with only a small fraction of the jobs we once had here. It is essential for Congress to impose sufficient tariffs on the imports from each nation to insure that we have an equitable balance of payments with that nation. No doubt, all prices would rise substantially when we implement the essential fair trade that America needs, but jobs that left the USA to nations where people work for much lower wages would return to America, and USA workers would then have a level playing field on which to compete. National strength flows from production, and a policy of fair trade would return production to the USA.

2) Reestablish gold and silver as legal tender. Precious metals would not replace the paper Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) that are currently legal tender by fiat decree, but would instead offer an alternative method of transacting business. Precious metals as legal tender would not have fixed “prices” compared to FRNs, but would instead be valued as ounces for transactions and contracts. The comparable FRN prices per ounce would float with market action. Government could facilitate re-acceptance of silver and gold by posting daily prices for physical metals, with intra day price adjustments as needed. Those physical prices would likely be different than the futures prices that flow from paper trading. Government could backstop their posted prices by agreeing to purchase physical metals at the posted price plus a few percent and agreeing to sell physical metals at the posted price minus a few percent. Merchants would be free to sell their products in FRNs, and/or to list sale prices in ounces of silver or gold. Similarly, any employer could offer to pay workers in any combination of FRNs and silver and gold that the workers agreed to accept. In the same way that government protects the paper FRN by prosecuting forgers, government would also prosecute all who try to sell fake metals disguised as silver or gold. As an essential step in correcting the previous fatal problems with the USA economy, precious metal transactions would not be taxed (except for tariffs needed to balance payments in international trade, a tax on energy consumption in the USA to promote energy efficiency, and the estate tax described below). Although silver and gold would be legal tender so that new contracts or agreements could specify payment in silver or gold, there would not be any retroactive requirement to pay real silver or gold for obligations implemented with paper FRNs.

3) Print the Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) needed to pay all current obligations. The USA has one get out of jail free card. Former FED Chairman Alan Greenspan said at least twice that the USA will never default on repaying its debts because those debts are denominated in fiat FRN US$. The USA can simply print any dollars needed to pay its debts. That statement by the previous chairman of the FED reflects the reality that USA debts are denominated in promises to pay back only paper FRNs. As a necessary action to stop the theft!, the USA should immediately cease “borrowing” (of value that can never be repaid) and instead simply print FRNs in sufficient quantity to satisfy all previous and current FRN obligations. The USA will meet its “full faith and credit” promises to repay FRNs by printing enough FRNs to fulfill all claims. There would then be no need to perform triage on insurmountable debts by trying to decide which debts should be defaulted on, or whose promised benefits would be denied. By printing FRNs as needed to meet all obligations, there would be sufficient FRNs at all levels of governments and businesses to pay all obligations the full number of FRNs that were previously promised.

Yes, overtly printing enough FRNs to pay all of the USA obligations in full will inevitably and quickly reduce the value (measured in purchasing power) of FRNs to near zero. All entities who previously borrowed will deliver the full number of FRNs that were agreed to be repaid. Nations, businesses, and individuals who loaned valuable funds will receive the agreed number of paper FRNs, but those FRNs will have little if any real value. Some people might argue that printing worthless FRNs now to repay debts would be a new theft from lenders who expected to receive value in return for the value they loaned, but that would reflect a misunderstanding of the default timeline. The actual thefts already happened over the previous decades when politicians “borrowed” more than can ever be repaid, and made promises that cannot be kept. Repaying those loans and fulfilling the promises now by printing a huge number of FRNs not a new theft. Printing FRNs is only a way to close the circle on old theft that was done through loans and promises that cannot otherwise ever be repaid. In contrast, any new borrowing of value now, but which cannot ever be repaid with comparable real value later, would be a new theft. It is long past time to stop the theft!, and that requires the USA to refuse to “borrow” additional value that can never be repaid.

4) Eliminate the inequitable income tax and property taxes. Since any reasonable approach to stop the theft! will essentially re-boot the financial system into a smaller one that will function properly again, that will also be an opportunity to realign the approach that the USA uses to raise needed funds for government operations into a fair and equitable structure. My basic cornerstones for fair and equitable are that every person should have equal rights and equal responsibilities. The government must not use force to take wealth from some individuals so that some of the loot can then be given to other individuals. On the contrary, government can and should refuse to take hard earned wealth from anyone. Instead of paying income and property taxes on wealth that has been earned or saved, individuals should be able to keep their wealth without risk of government confiscation. Instead of taking earned or saved wealth from the people who generated that wealth, government income should be derived from inheritance taxes on the wealth remaining after the owners of that wealth pass away. The current system of taking wealth from workers, while allowing wealthy families to build and pass on huge amounts of wealth to children who may have not yet even been born, is clearly inequitable and unfair. While we petition our government to stop the theft! from foreigners, we should also demand that governments stop the theft! from hard working people in the USA. There is much more detail about this approach to eliminate the unfair and inequitable income and property taxes in this link: Eliminate the national income tax

5) The role of government should be limited to enforcement of responsibilities. One of the reasons that government finds it difficult to stop the theft! is that government seems to think that it has a mission to do everything that anyone wants done. To succeed with a stop the theft! approach, We the People must demand that government operate only within the framework of its available income, and that it does only the things that are necessary to enforce responsibilities. Government does not have the resources needed to police the world or to interfere with foreign governments, so it is necessary to restrict the military mandate to only protection of the USA borders and coastal waters. Phase out and eliminate government sponsored “insurance” (including Flood, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health, and programs of other government agencies that do not enforce responsibilities, and could easily be performed by private businesses). Government cannot “give” anything to anyone because government has nothing to give. Instead, government takes by force from some people, wastes a significant portion through inefficiency or fraud, and then redistributes the remainder to other people. The new vision here is that government should return to the basics of doing only those actions which are required to enforce responsibilities. Only by limiting the scope (and power, and expense) of government to the essentials which are required to enforce responsibilities can we hope to stop the theft!

6) Demand responsibility from all citizens. Government power should continue to deter (when possible) or to punish (for future deterrence) criminal or fraudulent activities in which some people abuse or abandon their responsibilities. Government should also act to protect children who cannot otherwise protect themselves. People who cannot meet their responsibility to their children should not be parents. One of the primary obligations of government is to enforce the responsibilities that people have to their children. By properly enforcing parental responsibilities, government can eliminate the unfair and inequitable giveaway programs like welfare. The reduced population that will result from government enforcement of responsibilities will mitigate many problems with pollution, energy, and jobs. People also have an obligation to spend less than they earn so they can save some for difficult times ahead or for their older years. Government must assist people to meet that financial obligation to themselves by eliminating costly government giveaway programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid which motivate people to depend on the government instead of taking care of themselves. We the People must demand that government stop the theft! by eliminating giveaway programs which distract and discourage people from meeting their financial obligations by living within their means.

7) Enforce responsibilities for all businesses. One of the responsibilities that government has is to prevent any financial organization from becoming too big to fail. The super sized banks and insurance companies that are so grotesquely huge that they can threaten the entire USA financial system must be brought under control. One orderly way to do that would be for a financial tax to be placed on very large businesses. That tax could be low at first, but increased frequently so that it would be advantageous for very large firms to divest some of their subsidiaries and to shrink others that remain so they will not exceed the size threshold. Then all businesses will have the same freedom to take prudent risks, and to fail if the risks do not perform adequately well. Government funds (even if they are “borrowed” from foreigners and never repaid) must not be given to banks or any other business because of their size or their stranglehold over the USA economy. Also, banks must not be allowed to continue the practice of theft through fractional reserve creation of new money for loans. It is long past time to restore sound banking principles within the USA, so that banks will migrate back to the time honored method of honestly borrowing money from savers so the banks can loan those same funds back out to people who can qualify for real loans. Allowing banks to flood the USA with paper money that they have created without limit is an obvious recipe for financial disaster.

8) Restore America to the Republic under which the USA offered freedom and enabled its citizens to achieve prosperity. This essential restoration must be accomplished as government shrinks to live within its means. By embarking on a mission to stop the theft!, our elected representatives will return to the honorable work that they swore an oath to perform. It is long past time to legalize the USA Constitution and the Bill of Rights once again. All government officials must respect the Constitution, and must refuse to pass legislation that conflicts with the Constitution. Many people will discover personal responsibilities that they did not know about during the essential future transition to freedom, but the rewards of living in a free society again will far surpass the inconveniences imposed by personal responsibilities.

Conclusion: Stop the Theft!

Demand that political candidates clearly pledge to stop the theft! It doesn’t matter if the candidate is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Tea Party, or whatever. Each will have a different view about how to slice the pie, but none should be allowed to “borrow” more than can ever be repaid in an effort to steal more to make the pie appear to be bigger. Any politician should be capable of honestly refusing to inflict unmanageable debt onto the hard working people of America. We must demand that politicians stop the theft!