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Proposal Details

Proposal ID	923
Proposal	2018 Platform Amendment Proposal - Economic Justice and SustainabilityNational Debt
Presenter	Platform Committee - Sponsored by Nebraska Green Party
Floor Manager	Andrea Merida
Phase	Closed
Discussion	07/02/2018 - 07/29/2018
Voting	07/30/2018 - 08/05/2018
Result	Failed
Presens Quorum	33 0.6666
Consens Quorum	52 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

None

Proposal

Change Chapter IV. – Section M. National Debt (see original text under References)

Replace Section M. preface paragraphs with the following:

“Greens will deficit spend on public purpose until full employment is met and acknowledge the National Debt is not a threat to a stable sovereign fiat currency system because the level of debt has no effect on the solvency of the Government; there is no fiscal sustainability problem for a fiat sovereign government that is not self-imposed.

Even so, the idea that the National Debt matters for solvency is a very serious political propaganda problem, underlying austerity myths and policies, including the debt ceiling law that has caused recent, periodic fiscal crises and problems.

We need to meet these issues with the following solutions:

Replace point #1 with:

“1. Immediately repeal the law placing a limit on what is now called “the debt subject to the
limit” (Debt Ceiling) by Congress. There is no need for such limits and they do great harm by allowing Congress to avoid its responsibility to allow the Treasury to pay its bills, and to pass appropriations bills that fund federal spending for the public purpose in the first place”

Replace point #2 with:

“3. Nationalize the Federal Reserve under the Treasury Department, providing the Secretary of
the Treasury with the authority to direct the Fed to fill the Treasury Spending Account with all reserves necessary to spend appropriations legislated by the Congress.”

Omit point #3

Resources

Approval of this proposal will amend the 2018 GPUS Platform

CONTACT:
Platform Committee: Bruce Hinkforth, co-chair, bhinkforth@milwpc.com, 262-569-1370; Linda Cree, co-chair, creelinda@hotmail.com, 906-942-7076
Nebraska Green Party: Charles Ostdiek, iconofcharles@gmail.com; David Long, fraterdavid@cox.net

References

Original Text: M: National Debt

Our Position

Greens will reduce our national debt.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have irresponsibly expanded our national debt by trillions of dollars to finance tax cuts for America’s wealthiest citizens, war, corporate welfare and bailouts of Wall Street and the automotive industry. This debt and the interest that must be paid on it is not sustainable.

Working people and the small business community are bearing a disproportionate amount of the federal debt burden. Yet the federal debt is, to a large degree, the end product of tax cuts for the wealthy and big business, and the military-defense industry buildup.

For many years the federal government borrowed trillions of dollars. Money that should have been going into a better "safety net" for the poor, homes for the homeless, environmental and public lands conservation, sustainable jobs, research and development, roads and bridges, schools and the technologies of tomorrow, has been lost to servicing the national debt. We cannot ignore the consequences of our nation's past deficits and the related costs of debt service.

GREEN SOLUTIONS
1.Reduce our national debt by increasing taxes on large corporations, the super-rich and pollution; and decreasing expenditures in some areas, especially for war, armaments and corporate welfare.
2.Oppose privatization of Social Security.
3. Increase funding for green jobs, Social Security, public housing, higher education, public transportation, environmental protection, renewable energy and energy conservation.

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