The U.S. Congress’ long-running social welfare policies have created a snow-balling dependency on government hand-outs…

America needs a new plan.

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“Low-Income Americans Fume In Mile-Long Food Lines After Pandemic Benefits End” ZeroHedge, Mar 7, 2023 – Excerpts:

Over the past year, 18 US states have officially ended pandemic-era states of emergency – including the covid food benefit, while a December mandate from Congress will end aid in March for the other 32 states, along with the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and Guam.

The collective return to pre-pandemic policies includes [curtailing] enhanced unemployment benefits and child tax credits, as well as a rollback adjustment to Medicaid that boosted enrollment.

Now, people are waiting up to nine hours in mile-long lines for free food – some of whom say they can only afford to eat once per day, while others say they limit expensive food items such as meat for specific family members, such as growing teenage boys.

From the front to the back of the line, the sea of despair and hardship along this desolate Kentucky highway foreshadowed what may be in store for millions of Americans as the federal government ended the remaining pandemic increase in monthly food stamp benefits this week. -WaPo

Following the reduction in benefits, the average SNAP recipient’s benefits are expected to drop by around $90 per month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That said, an even greater reduction is in store for seniors and the working poor who receive assistance from other government programs, and will likely qualify for less.

Other states are preparing for the same – “We are bracing, and our agencies, member food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens are not prepared for what is about to hit them,” Said Ohio Association of Foodbanks executive director, Lisa Hamler-Fugitt. “This reduction, and end of the public health emergency, could not be coming at a worse time.”

Even before the benefits retired this month in Ohio, Hamler-Fugitt said demand at food banks soared last year as retail food prices rose by 11.4 percent nationwide, more than five times the historical annual average. She said Ohio charities and foodbanks served 3.1 million people in the last quarter of 2022, which she called a record and about 600,000 more than were served during the same period in 2021.

Now, Hamler-Fugitt expects many of the state’s 1.5 million recipients will also be scrambling to find food assistance, adding she projects the benefit reductions will remove $120 million from Ohio’s retail economy each month. -WaPo

_______________________________________

Washington Democrats work continuously to expand the administrative state – disincentivizing work and productivity, driving up annual budget deficits, hampering economic growth, and curtailing economic liberty.

Washington Republicans do not have a formalized, politically-feasible economic plan to counter Democrat free-giveaway programs – and get America back on for national prosperity and long-term financial security for American families..

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will lift millions of Americans up out of poverty by 1) Eliminating massive amounts of household and mortgage debt; 2) Re-incentivizing work; 3) Countering inflation pressures; 4) And creating dynamic new efficiencies in commerce and health care.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5855 downloads)

Paying Americans Not to Work | Key findings – The Committee to Unleash Prosperity:

• In 24 states, unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies for a family of four with no one working ar the annualized equivalent of at least the national median household.
• A family making almost a quarter of a million dollars annually still qualifies for ObamaCare subsides in every state.
• In a dozen states, the value of unemployment benefits and ObamaCare subsidies exceeds the salary and benefits of the average teacher, construction worker, electrician, firefighter, truck driver, machinist or retail associate.
• In New Jersey, a family of four can receive benefits equal to an annualized earned income of $108,000 with no one working.
• In Connecticut and New Jersey, a family earning $300,000 per year can receive ObamaCare subsidies.

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The Battle Over Work and Welfare – WSJ

States are fighting back against the Biden drive to use the pandemic to increase dependency.

By The Editorial Board, Dec. 11, 2022 – Excerpts:

The Biden Administration is using the pandemic to expand the class of Americans who are permanent government dependents. Some GOP-led states are trying to exit this road to serfdom, and Georgia recently won its lawsuit against the Administration to impose Medicaid work requirements for low-income, able-bodied adults. This is a major fault line between the parties and deserves more attention.

….Progressives are now trying to deter GOP states from imposing work requirements by flogging the compliance costs. “The systems being set up for work requirements are very costly to implement for states,” a left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyst told MedPage Today. Suddenly progressives care about costs to taxpayers?

For the past two years, the Administration has repeatedly extended the national public-health emergency for no ostensible purpose other than to expand the welfare rolls. President Biden in September declared the pandemic over, but the Health and Human Services Department says it plans to extend the emergency until at least mid-April.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 increased federal Medicaid funding to states on the condition that they don’t kick ineligible beneficiaries off their rolls as long as a public-health emergency is in effect. The law also increased food-stamp benefits and waived work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults during the emergency.

Since February 2020, Medicaid enrollment has ballooned by 23 million to an all-time high of 97 million. By comparison, Medicaid grew by 14 million between 2013, just before the ObamaCare expansion took effect, and the start of the pandemic. About 21 million Medicaid recipients don’t currently meet eligibility requirements, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.

As long as the emergency is in effect, Georgia can’t remove able-bodied adults on Medicaid who don’t comply with its work requirements—or if it does, it may have to give up hundreds of millions in federal funds. The emergency is a Faustian bargain for states, delivering some $130 billion in additional Medicaid funds to date while restricting their ability to manage their programs.

The same is true for food stamps whose rolls have swelled by nearly five million nationwide, or about 13%, during the pandemic owing chiefly to the emergency suspension of work requirements, even as unemployment has reached pre-pandemic levels. Anyone who wants a job can get one, but expanded transfer payments have reduced the incentive to look.

Monthly federal food-stamp spending has more than doubled during the emergency to $9.3 billion owing to the sweetened pandemic benefits and a Department of Agriculture regulatory change last year. Benefits are set to increase another 12.5% this fall with an inflation adjustment. Transfer payments fueled inflation, and now the reverse is happening.

States may forgo the enhanced food stamps by ending their own Covid emergencies or disaster declarations. About 20 mostly Republican-led states have done so, including Florida, Tennessee, Iowa and South Dakota. But the lure of “free” federal money has discouraged most, including Texas and Utah.

… Too many politicians of both parties today want to expand government dependency. A top priority for House Republicans in the next Congress should be to reverse the pandemic inflation of the welfare rolls.

_______________________________ 

America does not need narrowly-targeted, incremental change within its its current social welfare bureaucracy – which rewards and promotes dependency on government. 

America needs powerful, comprehensive change – of the type which will ‘lift’ people up out of poverty, and cease incentivizing ‘non-work, and provide a dynamic recharge to the economy, eliminate massive amounts of public and private debt, and generate major federal budget surpluses.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5803 downloads)

So Much For Billionaires: Joe Biden’s IRS Is Now Coming For Waiters And Waitresses’ Tips

ZeroHedge, Feb 10, 2023 – Excerpts:

The Biden administration’s lip service about new IRS enforcement only being targeted toward the country’s wealthiest appears to be just that: lip service.

Instead, while we have been distracted with rhetoric about billionaires paying their fair share, the Biden Administration’s IRS is actually looking to stock its coffers with the tips of waiters and waitresses across the country. This newly planned targeting of middle-class Americans was proposed this week.

Earlier this week the IRS proposed a new procedure to “improve tip reporting compliance”, as they so brilliantly put it. Fox News reported:

As part of the program, which wouldn’t go into effect until after a multi-month public comment period, the IRS could withdraw liability protection related to “rules that define tips as part of an employee’s pay” from employers that don’t cooperate.

The program can’t go into effect until it makes it through a multi-month comment period, Fox News reported. 

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax, told Fox this week: “Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Now, the IRS is going after middle-income families and working moms and dads who are just trying to make ends meet and put food on the table.” 

“My colleagues and I have warned for months that the IRS would start targeting hardworking Americans in the Biden administration’s quest for more taxpayer dollars. Now, we’re starting to see some of these concerns come to fruition,” he continued….

[Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb]: “Bank surveillance efforts, 1099-Ks, 87,000 new IRS agents to target taxpayers, and now a new program to go after service industry workers’ tips are all a direct result of the Biden administration’s desire to tax working families and small businesses as much as possible.”

Smith continued: “Make no mistake: the administration’s many attempts at raising revenue are because they are unwilling to come to the table to address the debt crisis, which would require curbing their spending addiction.” 

____________________________

While is is admirable that House Republicans have pledged to resist the Biden IRS crusade to tighten the noose on service workers’ tips, Washington Republicans do not have a politically feasible plan to curb Washington’s “spending addiction.”

Washington Republicans, in fact, are fully complicit in our federal government’s ‘spending addiction” – as the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently:

The Back End of an Omnibus – WSJ – Dec 22, 2022 — “Republicans… haven’t shown a whiff of interest in fiscal restraint since the early days of Paul Ryan’s tenure as House speaker. Their majorities broke the bank during the Trump administration, enabling Democrats to point to deficits as reason to resist further tax reform. They held hands with the left to partake in five Covid bailouts in 2020 alone. They joined again to pass Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill and the semiconductor slush fund. Members of the new, supposedly responsible Republican House majority weeks ago voted to keep the earmark gravy flowing.”

Washington Republicans have a golden opportunity to get on board and support the most powerful economic acceleration plan on the face of the earth – a plan that will obliterate our big government “spending addiction,” generate massive, ongoing budget surpluses, and help lift millions of Americans up out of poverty.

And, I might add, winning over millions of new working class voters.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5785 downloads)

WSJ: Food Stamp Program in Political Crosshairs as Pandemic-Era Changes End

Lawmakers clash over tightening work rules heading into farm bill negotiations

By Kristina Peterson | Feb. 19, 2023 9:00 am ET – Excerpts: 

WASHINGTON—The ending of the Covid-19 public-health emergency means a reset for the country’s food stamps program, which aids more than 41 million Americans, as lawmakers weigh whether to make more far-reaching changes as part of the next farm bill. 

An extra boost in the food assistance for low-income households that Congress authorized at the start of the pandemic will wind down this month, and additional leeway afforded to states around some of the program’s rules will end in May. 

“As that temporary help and flexibility now ends, we will return to a new normal,” Stacy Dean, deputy undersecretary for food and nutrition at the Agriculture Department, told lawmakers last week.

But even as the program returns to its prepandemic operations in some ways, Republicans are sounding alarms over its eligibility guidelines and price tag. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that the program will cost $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food stamps are funded through the farm bill, typically a five-year bill that yokes together support for farmers with the food stamp program. The current farm bill expires in October….

Democrats generally support the existing work requirements, but said they would resist efforts to further restrict access to food stamps.

Passing a new farm bill will require bipartisan support, since Republicans control the House and Democrats hold the Senate and White House. And with a razor-thin majority in the House, Republicans are unlikely to be successful if they attempt to pass a GOP-crafted farm bill just relying on their own votes. Republicans have splintered over the farm bill in the past, stymieing their efforts to demand more stringent work requirements.  

Earlier this month, five House Republicans sent a letter to Mr. Biden pushing for an overhaul to the food stamp program as part of negotiations over raising the federal debt limit.

“All we’re asking is to put SNAP on the table,” and in particular its work requirements, as part of the discussions, Rep. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.), one of the five lawmakers to sign the letter, said in an interview.

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Reducing Fraud in SNAP Needs Attention Too – AEI

Mar 18, 2022 – Excerpt:

Improper payments are not the only problem in SNAP — some retailers and recipients “traffic” their benefits as well. According to the GAO, trafficking is “a practice in which retailers exchange recipients’ benefits for cash instead of food, often taking a fraudulent profit.” A report from September 2021 found that trafficking of SNAP benefits has also increased in recent years. Using a consistent definition of trafficking, the average annual amount trafficked has increased from $241 million in 2002–2005 to $1.2 billion by 2015–2017.

In practice, trafficking happens when a retailer charges an EBT card (a restricted-use debit card carrying SNAP benefits) an amount such as $100, but gives the individual a lesser amount of cash (say, $50) instead. The individual gets unrestricted cash and the retailer charges the federal government for the full $100, making a profit. Sometimes, retailers will also purchase an EBT card from an individual, use it to purchase items from a bulk store, and sell the items in their store for a profit.

Federal law requires the USDA to investigate retailers for trafficking and researchers extrapolate the extent of the problem from their analysis of EBT data. According to the most recent report and using a consistent definition, in 2015–2017, “$1.271 billion in SNAP benefits annually were trafficked and thereby diverted from their intended purpose.” This accounted for between 1.6 and 2 percent of total SNAP benefits in 2015–2017.

Dramatic SNAP expansions throughout the pandemic have prompted an equally significant increase in SNAP purchases at retailers — which jumped by more than $20 billion in FY 2020, according to the USDA. More benefits flowing through retailers will mean more SNAP benefits trafficked.

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Once again, the political ‘cards’ are stacked against them, and Washington Republicans are simply playing out a ‘losing hand.’

Washington Republicans will get ‘tarred and feathered’ on this issue. And rightfully so, since: 1) Not one Washington Republican will lose any meals when their food stamp belt gets tightened; 2) The economy is so royally ‘screwed’ that even members of the U.S. military rely on SNAP benefits to help make ends meet; 3) In the big picture, chiseling away at the Food Stamp program will do nothing meaningful to help bring the massive budget deficits back under control, nor will it do anything to reign in Food Stamp fraud and abuse; and, most importantly, 4) Washington Republicans should have a politically feasible ‘big picture’ plan to help lift Americans up out of poverty and privation, so they won’t need to rely upon government handouts – and they have nothing whatsoever to offer.

It is thoroughly bewildering to watch.

Main Street Republicans do have a dynamic plan, one that will: 1) Raise all boats and lift millions of Americans up out of poverty; 2) Substantially reduce overall dependence on government; 3) Eliminate the need for military personnel to on Food Stamps; 4) Restore citizen-centered health care in America; 5) Generate massive, $619.5 billion. budget surpluses (2024-2028); and 6) Pay for itself entirely over a 10-15 year period.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5769 downloads)

Credit Suisse: What Exactly Is Going On At The … – Forbes

Oct 12, 2022 – Over the past year, Credit Suisse’s stock value has plummeted, with the company’s market capitalization dropping over 50%. This has happened due to a series of scandals that began in 2021.

Scandal after scandal…

• Greensill Capital: British financial services company focused on supply chain and accounts receivable financing. It originated loans, securitized them and sold them to investors. Credit Suisse had $10 billion invested in the company’s products. In March 2021, Greensill Capital failed, causing Credit Suisse’s clients to lose as much as $3 billion on their investments.
• Archegos Capital: This private company primarily managed the assets of Bill Hwang, an American trader and investor. Credit Suisse provided brokerage services to Archegos Capital, including lending. Archegos Capital reportedly experienced losses of as much as $20 billion in just a few days. A month after the Greensill losses, Credit Suisse lost $4.7 billion due to its involvement with Archegos Capital, and at least seven Credit Suisse executives were removed from their jobs.
• Drug-related money laundering: In February 2022, Credit Suisse was charged with being involved in money laundering by a Bulgarian cocaine trafficking gang. It was the first criminal trial of a major bank to occur in Switzerland. In June, the bank was found guilty, fined 1.7 million euros, and ordered to pay 15 million euros to the Swiss government. Credit Suisse announced plans to appeal.
• Information leaks: In the same month, the details of 30,000 customer accounts holding more than 100 billion Swiss francs in accounts at Credit Suisse were leaked to Süddeutsche Zeitung, a major German newspaper. Included in the leak were accounts held by people involved in human trafficking, drug trafficking and torture. One account was also allegedly associated with the Vatican and fraudulently invested in 350 million euros worth of property in London.
• Ukraine invasion: Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland placed sanctions on Russia. In response, Credit Suisse requested hedge funds and other investors to destroy documents that linked Russian oligarchs to things like loans. This led to probes into the bank’s compliance with sanction requirements.

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More recently…

Credit Suisse Craters After “Staggering” Bank Run And Warning Of Continued Losses

ZeroHedge, Feb 09, 2023 – Excerpts

Back in late 2022, when Credit Suisse stock cratered to never before seen levels after a series of dismal earnings reports and regulatory “missteps” sparked a staggering bank run, amounting to some $88 billion forcing the bank to seek emergency liquidity from the Fed via SNB swap lines, and which also led to a historic corporate restructuring which included the de facto closure of the bank’s investment bank coupled with mass layoffs and bonus cuts, many thought that would be as bad as it gets as the (rapidly changing) management had finally thrown out the kitchen sink….

The second-largest Swiss bank (although it’s probably far smaller now) posted a fifth-straight quarterly loss of 1.39 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion), worse than consensus estimates of a 1.14 billion loss as revenue of 3.06 billion Swiss francs also handily missed expectations of 3.35 billion. But while the operating loss was hardly a shock for a bank which has been in a constant state of chaos and turmoil, what stunned analysts was what KBW analysts called a “quite staggering” level of customer capital outflows which hit a record 110.5 billion francs in the quarter, and although the bank said that some money has been coming back, it also concedes it’s now at a worse starting point for 2023.

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Credit Suisse: This is the very same Credit Suisse that the U.S. Federal Reserve so generously infused with massive liquidity injections during the height of the great financial crisis of 2007-2010.

Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011 – Excerpts:

“Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank by assets, was the biggest user of the Fed’s single-tranche open market operations, or ST OMO, borrowing $45 billion in August 2008. Under ST OMO, securities firms swapped eligible mortgage bonds for cash.

The Zurich-based bank’s U.S. brokerage also used the Term Securities Lending Facility, which allowed firms to swap certain debt securities for Treasuries that could be loaned out or sold for cash. Credit Suisse took no part in any central bank’s collateralized funding facilities in the crisis, said Steven Vames, a bank spokesman in New York. TSLF doesn’t count because it involved no cash transfers, he said, and the bank borrowed from ST OMO only as a so-called primary dealer. Primary dealers weren’t required to bid in ST OMO.”

Peak Amount of Debt on 8/27/2008:  $60.8B

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ST OMO’s were a unique form of liquidity infusions that provided “term funding” to the (big bank) Primary Dealers, primarily benefiting major European (Primary Dealer) banks. –  for the purpose of “mitigating heightened stress in funding markets.”

These ST OMO “secretive bailout operation” pumped out $855 billion between “March and December 2008.”

“These operations were conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with primary dealers as counterparties through an auction process under the standard legal authority for conducting temporary open market operations. In these transactions, primary dealers could deliver any of the types of securities–Treasuries, agency debt, or agency MBS–that are accepted in regular open market operations. By providing term funding to primary dealers, this program helped to address liquidity pressures evident across a number of financing markets and supported the flow of credit to U.S. households and business.”

“Well, not really. As the chart below shows the banks, pardon, primary dealers, that benefited the most from this secret iteration of Fed generosity were once again foreign banks, with the Top 5 borrowers being Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, RBS and Barclays. Together these five accounted for $593 billion of total borrowings, or 70% of the total.”

Below is a summary of who borrowed how much in total from the Fed’s ST-OMO program.

Source:  https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=journal-of-financial-crises

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Update:  The U.S. Federal Reserve provided a cool $6.3 billion to ‘rescue’ Credit Suisse via SNB swap lines, as recently as last October.

Instead of continuing to prop up inept and corrupt global banks, it is time for the Fed to re-target their liquidity flows.

U.S. citizens deserve the same access to liquidity and credit guarantees that the Fed pumped out to rescue the banking system during the crisis period (2007 – 2010) when high-risk sub-prime debt took on ‘junk’ status, and fairly well ‘froze’ the system.

Certain Fed operations, like single-tranche open market operations, heavily favored major European banks – designed to mitigate “heightened stress.”

It is now time for the Fed to activate a U.S. Citizens Credit Facility to grant direct liquidity access to U.S. citizens – to eliminate debt and help relieve “heightened stress” at the family level in America.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5757 downloads)

“A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.

On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality.  Though a by-product of freedom, greater equality is not an accident.  A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives.

It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing others.  It does not prevent some people from achieving position of privilege, but so long as freedom is maintained, it prevents those positions of privilege from becoming institutionalized; they are subject to continued attack from other able, ambitious people.  Freedom means diversity but also mobility.  It preserves the opportunity for today’s disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged and, in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.”

Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006), American economist, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 1976

A look back…

2008: Secret Fed Loans – Largest Bailout in U.S. History                                             Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Bloomberg Markets magazine’s January issue examines how the Federal Reserve and big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. And how bankers failed to mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. (Source: Bloomberg)

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.  Betty Liu reports on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Kenneth D. Lewis Former CEO of Bank of America Corp.                                            On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day. Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

A fresh narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

The size of the bailout came to light after Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, won a court case against the Fed and a group of the biggest U.S. banks called Clearing House Association LLC to force lending details into the open.

The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma — investors and counterparties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort — and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011.

$7.77 Trillion – The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.”  It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.  Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.

“TARP at least had some strings attached,” says Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, referring to the program’s executive-pay ceiling. “With the Fed programs, there was nothing.”

Bloomberg.com:  http://164.67.163.139/Documents/areas/adm/loeb/12_177.pdf

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It is time to take action and get America back on track for economic growth and economic liberty.

It is now time for the Federal Reserve re-target liquidity flows – to grant U.S. citizens the same access to liquidity that was provided to global financial markets during the last Great Financial Crisis.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5748 downloads)

Certainly one of the primary reasons the Fed has been in full scale ‘rate-hike mode’ in recent months has been to jack rates up to a high enough, attractive enough level, to create strong demand for government debt at the monthly Treasury auctions.

The Fed has stopped buying Treasuries (through back door Primary Dealer channels) and is now actually selling Treasuries from their portfolio – to shrink their balance sheet (announced months ago with their QT initiative). So, somebody (indirect bidders) would be needed to pick up the slack and ‘buy government paper.’

Robust private sector demand would therein be critical for allowing Treasury auctions to proceed in an orderly fashion, ‘allowing’ big government, specifically the Executive branch and its various agencies and the U.S. Congress, to continue happily digging America ever deeper into debt.

So far, so good:

ZeroHedge: Staggering Demand For 7Y Paper Delivers Third Monster Treasury Auction In A Row

A stellar 3Y auction on Tuesday, a record-breaking 5Y auction yesterday and moments ago: a blowout 7Y auction completes a sequence of three monster auctions which have seen an absolute flood of demand mostly by foreign buyers.  JAN 26, 2023

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The looming problem: higher net interest costs are now getting ‘baked in’ to our ever-ballooning federal budget deficits, which will inevitably lead into a period of U.S. Dollar instability, chaos in the foreign exchange markets and complete disorder in the credit markets.

There is a solution, a powerhouse economic initiative, to solve America’s debt crisis and keep America’s financial affairs in good order. Re-targeting liquidity flows key to a dynamic resolution of this crisis.

It is now time to grant U.S. citizens with the same direct access to liquidity extensions that was so generously extended, through various credit facilities, to scores of ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions during the great financial crisis of 2007-2010, including the likes of: Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, State Street, Deutsche Bank, RBS, Barclays, UBS AG, BNP Paribas, and multiple others…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5689 downloads)

Pandemic Fraud Gone Wild

Latest estimate of theft from jobless insurance programs: $60 billion.

By The Editorial Board

Updated Jan. 25, 2023 6:35 pm ET

Government spending and fraud are regular dance partners, but rarely as cheek to cheek as they were with unemployment payments during the pandemic. A new report adds more evidence about the failure to protect taxpayers.

The Government Accountability Office this week released a review of the Labor Department’s handling of $878 billion in unemployment insurance handouts from April 2020 to September 2022. Labor estimates that fraud in its normal unemployment program hit $8.5 billion from July 2020 through June 2021. That’s 8.6% of outlays.

GAO extrapolated the lower bound of this fraud rate (7.6%) across the three additional unemployment programs Congress created for the pandemic, and it estimates taxpayers overall underwrote some $60 billion in fraudulent payments. This buttresses last year’s Labor Department Inspector General estimate of at least $45 billion in fraud. As GAO notes, Congress’s “unprecedented infusion of federal Covid-19 relief funds into UI programs during the pandemic

gave individuals and organized crime groups a high value target to exploit.”

Take the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, designed to help self-employed workers and independent contractors. Congress was so eager to hand out cash that for most of 2020 it allowed applicants to “self certify” their eligibility—requiring no documentation of self-employment.

The program predictably ballooned, comprising over 40% of the more than 3.2 million unemployment claims submitted the week ending May 23, 2020. GAO reports that “the increased amount of benefits awarded and the PUA program’s initial reliance on self-certification” inspired a rash of swindlers.

Thousands cheated the system by falsifying information on income or employment. GAO relates one case in which a former state workforce agency employee used pilfered information to submit at least 197 fraudulent applications. Another individual collaborated with prison inmates to bilk $180,000, and one thief stole identities to submit at least 300 claims in 17 states and territories.

The government excuse is that it was erring on the side of getting people aid quickly. Yet any Member of Congress who has read a government watchdog report knows the Labor Department has struggled with chronic unemployment fraud, reporting billions annually in improper payments before Covid. The structure of these pandemic-era programs was an invitation for hoaxers to descend.

GAO reports that while Labor has recently handed out nearly $900 million in grants to state agencies to address fraud, the department itself still hasn’t adopted practices recommended by GAO as long ago as 2015. This follows numerous IG reports that have scored Labor’s refusal to get tougher with states that are lax on fraud.

Democrats in the last Congress covered for these failures and blocked legislation designed to track funds and fix certain practices. House Oversight Chairman James Comer is now getting serious, and next week he’ll hold his first hearing into the waste and fraud in Covid relief programs. Americans deserve to know what went wrong and what Congress is doing to prevent a repeat.

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Again: “GAO reports that while Labor has recently handed out nearly $900 million in grants to state agencies to address fraud, the department itself still hasn’t adopted practices recommended by GAO as long ago as 2015. This follows numerous IG reports that have scored Labor’s refusal to get tougher with states that are lax on fraud.”

America needs a comprehensive economic initiative that delivers direct, tangible benefits to America’s honest, hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens – rather than continuing with their grossly mismanaged, fraud-ridden big government social assistance boondoggles.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5688 downloads)

Social Security, Medicare Cuts Sidelined in Debt-Ceiling Talks – WSJ

Programs face future funding shortfalls but remain politically perilous to both parties

The Wall Street Journal, Feb 2, 2023 – Excerpts:

WASHINGTON—Republicans are backing away from proposals to reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare as they enter talks with Democrats over raising the nation’s borrowing limit, sidelining for now a politically perilous fight over how to best firm up the finances of the popular benefit programs.

The partisan wrangling underscores the difficulty of finding a legislative solution to the stark long-term financial challenges facing both programs, which provide retirement and healthcare benefits to seniors. Overhauling Social Security and Medicare carries such risk—for Democrats who favor raising taxes and for Republicans eyeing cuts to future benefits—that it has become known as the third rail of American politics, threatening to zap any politician who tries to touch it.

One notorious 2012 TV commercial showed a man who looked like then-Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan pushing grandma off a cliff in a wheelchair—after the Wisconsin Republican proposed Medicare changes….

Some Republicans say they would shrink deficits by giving priority to cuts to discretionary military and nonmilitary spending. But such an approach could limit Republicans’ ability to make the deep reductions many seek. As much as 92% of projected nominal spending growth is driven by Social Security, federal healthcare programs and interest payments on the national debt, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Trustees for the Social Security Trust Funds projected last year that the program’s combined reserves would be depleted in 2035. Once Social Security’s reserves run out, revenue would pay for roughly 80% of scheduled benefits, unless Congress steps in.

Reserves for Medicare’s hospital-insurance fund are forecast to run out in 2028, at which point the program would only be able to pay about 90% of hospital coverage.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) said that while Social Security and Medicare are off the table for the debt-ceiling talks, that doesn’t mean that Republicans won’t propose changes down the road.

“When it comes to the debt ceiling, nobody is talking about Social Security and Medicare, nobody. Full stop,” Mr. Donalds said. “Now, for the longer-term fiscal outlook of the country, there are reforms that are going to have to be made in those programs,” he said.

Currently, Social Security taxes aren’t collected on an individual’s wages over $160,200. 

To address Medicare insolvency, some Senate Democrats have considered a tax increase on high earners.

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Washington Democrats are spinning America ever deeper into the great debt void and eventual collapse of the Dollar.

Washington Republicans have no politically feasible, economically credible counter-plan to reverse this slide and get America back on track. They have the opportunity of a lifetime to advance a powerful, citizen-centered economic acceleration plan, and they are ‘dead in the water’….

The Leviticus 25 Plan will produce enormous reductions outlays in Medicare, Medicaid/CHIP/ and discretionary spending, all the while generating $500 billion – $600 billion annual budget surpluses. 

All without any need to “reform” Social Security and Medicare. It will in fact bolster the long-term strength and viability of both trust funds.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will eliminate massive amounts of public/private debt, rejuvenate free-market economics, reduce dependence on government, restore citizen-centered healthcare, restore economic liberty.

Its popular appeal will win millions of new votes – and landslide election victories.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (5686 downloads)