Nebraska Green Party,
Co-Chairs Charles Ostdiek- Iconofcharles@gmail.com; David Long – fraterdavid@cox.net
Approved 10/15/17 by consensus at Nebraska Greens monthly meeting
Authors: Shane Fry – dasfry@gmail.com; Dr. Joseph Firestone – eisai@comcast.net
PROPOSAL TO AMEND GPUS PLATFORM PREAMBLE
Amend the following statements from the Preamble to reflect the sovereign economics as they are, and to acknowledge again that these problems mostly stem from people in our government who are not willing to do what is needed to take care of the problems faced by the American People.
Proposal to amend Green Party Platform Preamble
Omit, “Levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations.”
Amend, “Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts.” To say, “Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts, because Congress refuses to use its sovereign power to spend what is necessary to meet the challenges that face us.”
Amend, “Every single level of government – local, county, state, and federal – is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt.” to say, “Nearly every single level of government – local, county, and state – is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt.”
GPUS Preamble (Original Text)
Never has our country faced as many challenges and crises as we do now. Levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations. Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts. Jobs are being permanently relocated outside the country, while social and educational programs are being gutted. Our food, water, air, and soil are increasingly found to bear toxins and debilitating pollution.
Every single level of government—local, county, state, and federal—is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt. Many of our allies and former friends around the world are disgusted with our imperialist foreign policy, militarism, and arrogant corporate behavior. Realizing that our actions will be judged by future generations, we ask how we can draw on the best of our traditions, calling forth a spirit of ingenuity and citizen participation to achieve a free, democratic, just, and responsible society, one that actively responds to the crucial ecological challenges of our time, rather than denying them.
We submit a bold vision of our country’s future, a Platform on which we stand:
• Our Ten Key Values as a guide to a politics of vision and action,
• A creative, pragmatic plan for a prospering sustainable economy, and
• A call to restore and protect a healthy, diverse environment and to cultivate a sense of community at all levels, from the local to the planetary.
We propose a vision of our common good that is advanced through an independent politics free from the control of corporations and big money, and through a democratic structure and process that empowers and reaches across lines of division to bring together our combined strengths as a people.
We, the Green Party, see our political and economic progress, and our individual lives, within the context of an evolving, dynamic world.
As in nature, where adaptation and diversity provide key strategies through which life flourishes, a successful political strategy is one that is diverse, adaptable to changing needs, and strong and resilient in its core values:
• Participatory Democracy, rooted in community practice at the grassroots level and informing every level, from the local to the international.
• Social Justice and Equal Opportunity emphasizing personal and social responsibility, accountability, and an informing ethic of Nonviolence.
• Ecological and Economic Sustainability, balancing the interests of a regulated market economy and community based economics with effective care for the Great Economy in which we are embedded: the ecosystems of the Earth.
The Green Party Platform seeks to identify the most crucial problems facing our country and offers ideas for responsible action to solve them. Looking to the future with hope and optimism, we believe we can truly correct the course of reckless, destructive governance that has allowed and encouraged the degradation of our ecological life-support systems, gutted our economy, and strained the social fabric to the point of causing material hardship for millions of Americans. Our common destiny brings us together across our nation and around the globe.
We act in service to our children and the future generations of all our relations in the Earth community. We act in service to the future we are creating today
GPUS Preamble with Proposed Changes
Never has our country faced as many challenges and crises as we do now. Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts, because Congress refuses to use its sovereign power to spend what is necessary to meet the challenges that face us.
Jobs are being permanently relocated outside the country, while social and educational programs are being gutted. Our food, water, air, and soil are increasingly found to bear toxins and debilitating pollution. Nearly every single level of government—local, county, and state—is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt.
Many of our allies and former friends around the world are disgusted with our Imperialist foreign policy, militarism, and arrogant corporate behavior. Realizing that our actions will be judged by future generations, we ask how we can draw on the best of our traditions, calling forth a spirit of ingenuity and citizen participation to achieve a free, democratic, just, and responsible society, one that actively responds to the crucial ecological challenges of our time, rather than denying them?
We submit a bold vision of our country’s future, a Platform on which we stand:
• Our Ten Key Values are a guide to a politics of vision and action:
• A creative, pragmatic plan for a prospering sustainable economy; and
• A call to restore and protect a healthy, diverse environment and to cultivate a sense of community at all levels, from the local to the planetary.
We propose a vision of our common good that is advanced through an independent politics free from the control of corporations and big money; and a democratic structure and process that empowers and reaches across lines of division to bring together our combined strengths as a people. We, the Green Party, see our political and economic progress, and our individual lives, within the context of an evolving, dynamic world.
As in nature, where adaptation and diversity provide key strategies through which life flourishes, a successful political strategy is one that is diverse, adaptable to changing needs, and strong and resilient in its core values:
• Participatory Democracy, rooted in community practice at the grassroots level and informing every level, from the local to the international;
• Social Justice and Equal Opportunity emphasizing personal and social responsibility, accountability, and an informing ethic of Nonviolence;
• Ecological and Economic Sustainability, balancing the interests of a regulated market economy and community-based economics with effective care for the Great Economy in which we are embedded, and the ecosystems of the Earth.
The Green Party Platform seeks to identify the most crucial problems facing our country and offers ideas for responsible action to solve them. Looking to the future with hope and optimism, we believe we can truly correct the course of reckless, destructive governance that has allowed and encouraged the degradation of our ecological life-support systems, gutted our economy, and strained the social fabric to the point of causing material hardship for millions of Americans. Our common destiny brings us together across our nation and around the globe.
We act in service to our children and the future generations of all our relations in the Earth community! We act in service to the future we are creating today!
Nowhere in the preamble is there direct mention of the challenges of confronting catastrophic climate change, and the ecological stupidity of an economy dependent on unlimited growth. While technology might be used to increase the availability of planetary resources to a single species and those whose existence it permits, the increase in human misery does not justify it, nor does such an agenda accord with the value system expressed in the Ten Key Values. But it seems strange to assert that values determine the content of political solutions to material problems. Rather it is in the application of sound and testable theory to the solution to problems that our values are reflected, and also in our practice and readiness to detect and correct for unforeseeable consequences. The practice of ecological politics (Cf. Rensenbrink; “Ecological Politics”) remains concerned with factuality — of which “values” are an aspect rather than a determinant. Our politics are concerned with the fate of all concerned rather than with a conciliation of conflicting interests.
I think Elie is right, we need a much stronger and more inclusive preamble than this.
I like this, much more concise, and takes out some stuff that isn’t needed.
Considering that the Green Party on many levels has supported the basic tenents of a 28th amendment to the Constitution, the language here could take a friendly change. In large measure the historic thought in the Nation’s founding was that corporations would be closely controlled from birthing to its death with their purpose limited by government. We lost this over time by Supreme Court interpretations. The point is we acquiesced to their usurpation of personhood rights as presented in the Bill of Rights. Move To Amend seeks to remedy this and has one of our New Mexico Green Party Chapters support.
So, in the section addressing corporations, being, “… independent of corporate control…” could be better worded. Just let it run with ” corporations who have no personhood rights”
A “regulated market economy” is liberal capitalism.
GPNE – MMT Preamble Amendments BEGIN reply.
We have here a proposal to amend the Preamble to the GPUS Platform – because …… ‘to reflect the sovereign economics as they are’. Huh ? A whole new ‘economics’ ?
Isn’t there the preliminary matter of establishing, somehow, exactly what this driving ‘sovereign economics’ entails – as in whereby is it established(?) , so that merely keyboarding the jargon itself does not prevail as a means for accepted public policy advancement.
Sovereign economics ? There must be course work on that somewhere. But absent any general understanding among the National Committee of what that means, we are left with self-serving allegations of special ‘sovereign economic’ knowledge … but this allegation remains as ‘facts not in evidence’.
When I google it (sovereign economics), there’s a bunch of hits about sovereign debt, and even on the economics of sovereign debt, but I can’t find anything on ‘sovereign economics’ …….. being something that these MMT Advisor-maestros consider, well, just so obvious as to change the Preamble to the GP Platform, without any explanation.
THEN
Omit, “Levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations.”
Here, perhaps relative levels of government revenue should be updated, and this note perhaps amended further. Doesn’t seem to require Omitting it completely.
THEN
Amend,
“Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts.”
To say,
“Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts,
because Congress refuses to use its sovereign power to spend what is necessary to meet the challenges that face us.”
So, here again, something about a special sovereign power that the Congress has, yet refuses to even acknowledge, let alone use .
In reality, the Congress has zero special ‘sovereign powers’ except to make the laws and to fund government operations with taxes and new Bonds.
Two points.
One is that annually, Treasury issues an audited report of its Fiscal operations for that year, in which every dollar of revenue is counted and reported, and every dollar of expense is also reported. Doesn’t seem to be any ‘keystroking’ revenue account there .
Let me know if you need a link.
Does the Congress today have any special sovereign powers that it ” refuses to use……. to spend what is necessary to meet the challenges that face us” – such that this special power could impact or change any spending outcome that the Treasury has audited, and reported?
If so, what are these powers? Where did these special powers come from?
When did the Congress achieve these powers. And how?
The second point is more germane to the whole MMT belief system,and its cadre of leaders.
If the monetary theory of MMT had any substantive ‘sovereign-economics’ policy space related to government ‘money creation / issuance’, then why did Dr. Kelton, as Bernie’s economics advisor, not bring Treasury in to the Budget Committee and teach them the money-finance lesson that Congress seems to have missed – the same one that GPNE wants the National Committee to accept?
So, Treasury and the government know nothing about this special sovereign power, but GPNE and its Advisors want the GPUS to accept this theory as a reality, and to base changes to its Platform to accommodate that as yet unstated theory, which could, you know, be wrong.
THEN
“”to reflect the sovereign economics as they are, and to acknowledge again that these problems mostly stem from people in our government who are not willing to do what is needed to take care of the problems faced by the American People.””
Really?
Do we want to build an anti-government Green movement(?) – saying Guv workers are not willing to do what is needed to resolve problems ?
Without a shred of evidence? I hope not.
Most Guv workers I know really wish they could do more of what is needed, but they don’t have the money to do more.
GPNE and their advisors want the GP to ‘acknowledge’ this shortfall in government ‘willingness’ to do what’s needed. Where’s the evidence ?
THEN
Amend, “Every single level of government – local, county, state, and federal – is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt.”
to say,
“Nearly every single level of government – local, county, and state – is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt.”
Wow. So, don’t mention that the federal government is also in the ‘red’ with outstanding debt almost Seven (7) TIMES greater than the sum of state and local public debts put together.
Not to mention that $21 Trillion Gorilla in the room?
Because ?
Is there something about sovereign economics that makes GPNE and MMT love having more public debt ?
CONCLUSION – GPNE -MMT Proposal to Amend the Preamble
Nothing has been offered as a way of explaining the empty argument that some mysterious government power is available to fund everything that the Green Party’s Platform calls for in the way of social justice and economic democracy.
Why are we not openly discussing, and understanding, FIRST – whatever that ‘sovereign economics’ power is?
I see none provided. Rather an attempt is made to serially repeat that some special sovereignty is being misused by government employees and departments. Repetition is one of the discussion techniques used by those without rationale or reason; without science or facts.
Perhaps there is fiscal policy misuse. Perhaps not.
But there is no evidence of what that misuse might be .
Seems there should be some underlying burden on those proposing the Platform amendment to provide the underlying problem with the existing Platform?
The existing platform calls for all the interdependent reforms to the money system that are necessary to advance the Greening the Dollar Policy Agenda, as well as that of GPNE and MMT.
by Joe Bongiovanni
Advisor to the National Committee
Clearly the authors of this proposal seek to eliminate any mention of the $22 trillion Federal debt and its associated interest payments which they seem intent on increasing under the guise of ‘sovereign power.’ Had they defined ‘sovereign power’ we would see the our government currently has none becasue they ceded that authority to the privately owned banking system. We have all the evidence we need to say that banks should not be allowed to create and issue money (as credit) as they do now which has generated such a massive catastrophe, creating poverty for the many while concentrating wealth for the few. Congress should take back its sovereign power by changing the law so it can exercise its constitutional authority as the sole creator of all U.S. Money and establish a transparent and independent public monetary authority to determine the amount of new U.S. Money the Treasury can safely disperse to maintain economic stability. Government cannot be democratic unless it controls the money and its value and right now that power is with the big private banks.
1. All economies other than isolated subsistence economies have markets of some kind. Places and times for the exchange of goods.
2. The “great transformation” (Polanyi’s term) occurs in Europe, in the years following the end of
WW I. The events leading up to this transformation from a society with markets to a market society — in which the value of all social goods is determined by markets — remains uncommon and is badly tolerated in most societies that have paid and unpaid labor; and goods such as health
care, education, whose worth is not established by markets.
3. The liberal ideal is not the state-regulated market, but the self-regulating market.
Hi, I’m Sue Peters, a longtime Green and member of a group of national Greens that created the website GreensForMonetaryReform.org. This website explains the current platform plank called ‘Greening the Dollar’, which would structurally change the monetary system of the U.S. Most Americans think are money is created by our government, but this is not true. Our money is created by private commercial banks, whenever they make a loan to a person, corporation, or government. All with interest to the private banks. This is difficult to believe, since we are not taught about money in our schools. Listen to the words of Mr. Robert B. Anderson, Secretary of the Treasury, 1957-1961: “When a bank makes a loan, it simply adds to the borrower’s deposit account in the bank by the amount of the loan. The money is not taken from anyone else’s deposit… It’s new money, created by the bank for the use of the borrower.“
The current platform ‘Greening the Dollar’ structurally changes the current system of privately issued bankmoney to publicly issued government money.
Following are my comments on the Nebraska platform changes to the Preamble, which keep the ‘money power’ – the power to create and issue money – in the hands of the private banks:
#1 The proposed Nebraska platform amendment to the Preamble ADDS “Congress refuses to use its sovereign power to spend what is necessary…” This statement is misleading: Congress, by law, no longer has the power to create money (except coins), but can only spend money raised by taxes or by borrowing. Thus, the high taxes on the working public and the huge federal debt of 20.5 trillion dollars.
#2 The proposed Nebraska platform amendment to the Preamble REMOVES the word “federal” from the list of governments that have “crushing amounts of debt”. Today our federal government has 20.5 trillion dollars of debt, and constantly increasing. The interest on this 20.5 trillion dollars debt is paid by the federal government either through higher taxes or more borrowing. So why is Nebraska removing this “federal” debt from the preamble?
#3 The proposed Nebraska platform amendment to the Preamble REMOVES the sentence “levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations.” Why remove this reference to the huge inequality of wealth (‘very rich’) and power (‘corporations’) that is a distinguishing mark of our country at this time in its history?