Here are the steps the President can take to win the battle for full employment over the opposition of the Republicans.
-- First, tell Americans that they have A RIGHT to a job at a decent wage with decent fringe benefits. If the private sector can't provide these jobs, then the Government must intervene to secure this right by implementing a Federal Job Guarantee (FJG).
-- Second, mint a platinum coin with face value of $60 Trillion, deposit it in the U. S. Mint's Public Enterprise Fund (PEF) Account at the Fed, then have Treasury “sweep” the difference between the cost of minting the coin and its face value into the Treasury General Account (TGA).
-- Third, immediately pay off the $6.2 trillion owed by the Federal Government to the Federal Reserve Bank, the various Government Agency Trust funds, among them Social Security and debts to other Government Agencies.
-- Fourth, pay off the non-Government sector debt, as it comes due using Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PPCS) revenue when necessary. Since the estimated cost is about $300 Billion paid off per month; we can expect another $1 Trillion to be paid off by the end of the year leaving a national debt of about $7.3 Trillion, with a bit less than $53 Trillion still left in the TGA.
-- Fifth, pay for any 2011 spending already appropriated but not covered by taxes between now and the end of the year, estimated at about $600 Billion, using the credits in the TGA, rather than issuing debt.
-- Sixth, introduce a Federal Jobs Guarantee (FJG) bill in the Congress.
-- Seventh, call for a five million person ongoing peaceful demonstration in DC petitioning Congress to end unemployment by passing the FJG, and then see to it that the DC police and the Military do not violate the Civil Liberties and Rights of the demonstrators, the way they've been doing routinely when people demonstrate outside the White House or military bases in the DC area. Create an alliance with Labor and progressive organizations to get the continuous five million person demonstration implemented ASAP. In other words, use the force of mass protests to persuade Congress that they have no alternative to legislating the FJG.
-- Eighth, then step back and let Democracy work its magic.
The function of minting the high face value proof platinum coin, filling the Federal purse using PPCS, and beginning to pay off the national debt quickly, is to demonstrate dramatically that there is no US solvency problem, nor any debt and/or deficit reduction problem.
Issuing the coin and getting the Fed to issue $60 Trillion in credits to Treasury, will demonstrate exactly that, and blow any justification for further austerity and spending cuts out of the water. The Republicans won't be able to spin that. Without a plausible claim that austerity is necessary, and in the face of five million angry demonstrators occupying DC, the drive to force austerity on America and create even more unemployment will evaporate. Within a few weeks we will have a new political discourse, and no more excuses for not getting people back to work.
If the President doesn't take these steps, then it doesn't matter what he does from here on in the way of speechmaking, because it's already apparent that the Republicans will refuse to help him create jobs, and he will fail again because he will have done nothing to change the perceptions people have of the underlying reality and trade-offs we face.
(Cross-posted from Correntewire).