Category Archives: Congressional Campaign

On Budget Deficits and the U.S. National Debt, and Replacing Militarism and Giveaways to the Rich With Social Spending That Benefits All Americans

The United States of America has a tremendous advantage over other countries and much of her* populace—our money and debt are both incredibly popular, and so we actually are getting an incredible deal on our national debt. Overall, we pay negative real interest rates on our $23 trillion of debt—”real” meaning having adjusted for diminished purchasing power due to inflation, which is about 2% per year as of late. This means that our real debt would actually diminish, albeit slowly, if we had a balanced federal budget. Of course, that’s a big “if.”

A more optimistic estimation of the national debt deducts $6 trillion of U.S. Treasury instruments owned by other parts of the federal government—chiefly the Social Security Trust Fund—leaving only $17 trillion. China and Japan are high on the list of foreign owners of U.S. debt, with foreign governments and investors accounting for about 40% of the $17 trillion, with the remaining 60% being held by domestic private investors (39%), the Federal Reserve itself (15%), and state governments (6%). This should be somewhat reassuring. An example of state government ownership is the Florida Retirement System pension plan, which I examined as part of my Ph.D. dissertation—it has assets of $163 billion and 20% of this is in fixed-income and liquid investments, including corporate debt, mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, and U.S. Treasury debt.

The United States is distinct from her constituent state and local governments in her capacity for unrestrained deficit spending. The State of Florida has a $91 billion budget this year. If Florida decided to spend $116 billion instead, that would be a crisis. However, this is the same ratio of the U.S. budget deficit, which is revenue minus spending and adds on to the national debt each year. For the year of 10/01/2019–9/30/2020, the U.S. government is projected to take in $3.6 billion but spend 28% more at $4.6 trillion, which is another $1 trillion annual deficit like the prior year. With Federal Reserve interest rates already being around 1.5% per year, this leaves little wiggle room to cut rates or increase spending if a recession hits.

Ultimately, the deficit represents twin failures of the U.S. Congress and government (a) to capture an appropriate share of the engine of prosperity that is the U.S. economy and (b) foolish spending decisions that are not in the public’s interest. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was a robbery of epic proportions by Republicans on behalf of the wealthy and top corporations. The idea of trickle-down economics—already debunked—is that big giveaways to the top 1% will result in them throwing scraps to the pheasants. Instead, Jeff Bezos, founder/CEO of Amazon, is focusing on owning more mansions than anyone else, private jets, and getting him and his rich buddies off this planet while spewing out tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases on the little people in the process. His philanthropic operations have begun in earnest only recently, and shockingly involve large cash gifts to nonprofits with little vetting and no stipulations.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 lowered the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. In reality, top profitable corporations are paying only 11.3%, and a large number of technically unprofitable corporations pay 0%—including Amazon, which perpetually expands in order to evade taxation. Compare this to the 15.3% payroll tax on typical American schmucks for Social Security and Medicare—plus federal income tax (if not offset by credits), state sales and income taxes, and myriad other taxes. The GOP—which is now a different party having been co-opted by Lyin’ Donald Trump—endorses the narrative that so-called “socialism” and welfare for the disadvantaged are what we should fear. Research shows, however, that welfare spending actually funnels back into economies resulting in little impact on national debt.

Massive corporate giveaways and tax breaks and lack of enforcement for the rich have resulted in grotesque wealth inequality in the United States, which is getting tacked right onto the national debt without the economic benefits one would see with welfare spending on Medicaid, education, food and housing subsidies, infrastructure, or even a universal basic income. A $700 billion war budget per year is outrageous with manifest destiny having been realized and few if any threats from our northern and southern neighbors. Lyin’ Donald Trump’s insane budgets increase only war spending while slashing education, diplomacy, labor and health funding. Americans who are most injured by this insanity are paradoxically Trump’s greatest cheerleaders.

I’m not a believer in modern monetary theory (MMT), but I will say this—if we pretend it is a sound theory, the only nation on earth it would apply to is the United States. The basic idea of MMT is that nations can take on more debt than generally believed by creating money. Nations that have experienced runaway inflation such as Brazil, Germany, and Zimbabwe are cautionary tales, but the United States is exceptional because of her linchpin status as a worldwide financial safe haven and economic juggernaut. Nonetheless, one can conceive of a much more sensible budget that helps 99% of Americans and has a much smaller deficit. We just have to get our priorities straight. It isn’t easy when you’re up against an enormous engine of propaganda, lobbying, bribes, and revolving doors among politicians and their puppet masters. We didn’t arrive at a plutocratic oligarchy by accident, but rather by relentless, deliberate, mendacious actions by its beneficiaries—at the expense of the United States of American and the bulk of her populace.

As a candidate for U.S. Congress, I am unusual for having endorsed a great expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its technological systems. We’re getting robbed blind. The IRS has fewer employees now than 10 years ago, despite more burdens with Obamacare, more Americans working, greater corporate trickery, countless share buybacks and mergers and acquisitions, and ever-larger armies of attorneys, accountants, and consultants employed by wealthy individuals and firms. Millionaires are now 80% less likely to be audited than they were in 2011, and Lyin’ Donald Trump’s insane 35-day 2018–2019 government shutdown compounded the issues and disenfranchised many taxpayers as enforcement actions continued unabated. Although it should be repealed and replaced, even while the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 stands, we could do a much better job of collecting taxes owed to the United States of America.

We can fund healthcare for more, abatement of student loan interest, excellent K–12 and higher education, remediation of the climate crisis, Social Security and Medicare, and more without increasing the deficit. We just need to raise enforcement and taxes on those who are benefitting from American opportunity while robbing us blind, and take a sledgehammer to War Dogs-level military graft and lunacy that President Eisenhower warned us of so long ago. Please donate and vote to send representatives such as I to Washington to end the insanity.

– Richard Thripp, Ph.D.
Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 6th district
(Daytona Beach, Deltona, Palm Coast, & More)

* My use of “her” was deliberate to personify the USA, and I will not make a regular habit of it.

10 Reasons Why I’m Running for Congress

Richard Thripp logo

February 6, 2020

Here are 10 reasons why I, Richard Thripp, am running for Congress in Florida’s 6th Congressional district.

1. I have the skills and charisma to win!

2. The climate crisis endangers my son’s future. Even now, the human toll from fires, heat waves, hurricanes, droughts, flooding, and crop failures is huge. I support the Green New Deal and want to fight for legislation and policies that address the crisis.

3. Lyin’ Donald Trump must be stopped, and the Republican party is irretrievably corrupt and broken. I will support Democratic policies and candidates during and beyond this election as they are the only party of the two major parties who are moving in the right direction when it comes to equality and equity, the climate crisis, healthcare, and many other issues.

4. As a young person and young father I can connect with voters and represent their interests in a way that most candidates cannot.

5. Florida’s 6th district needs local representation in Congress. I was born at Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach and have lived in Volusia County my entire life. I know this district and its issues. The incumbent lives in St. Augustine Beach, outside the district. Ambassador Soderberg came down from Jacksonville to run. Mr. Curtis is from up north. Enough is enough!

6. Florida’s 6th district is looked at as a lost cause for Democrats. Ambassador Soderberg outraised Rep. Waltz mightily but failed to translate this into votes. I think this can be a competitive district. Nancy is wonderful and superbly qualified, but I don’t think she makes for a good politician. Her speeches, TV commercials, and positions did not have the “oomph” or inspirational/motivational message one needs. She lacks vocal variety—something I learned well giving speeches and being a Club President in Toastmasters. In my opinion it wouldn’t have mattered if she raised $10 million. Rep. Waltz is a more animated speaker but he often says things that make no sense and really can be attacked quite effectively for it along with his promise to reform entitlement spending (instead of taxing high incomes which can easily fund Social Security forever), and on Medicaid expansion and Obamacare both of which are popular and poll well.

7. I am the best candidate to run and this is a golden opportunity due to the lack of other qualified or well-connected candidates. I can make a huge difference in Congress and just by running am bringing attention to important issues. This is not all about me, but also the Democratic political machine in Florida, the outrageous and unlawful conduct of Lyin’ Donald Trump, Butt-Dialin’ Rudy Giuliani, and the GOP that will drive away voters, and the many volunteers and efforts we are making to register and enfranchise voters as well as getting out the vote. The 2020 blue wave could be HUGE and could give us a unified Democratic government that really gives us the opportunity to reverse many of the terrible policies we are seeing now and implement legislation, policy, and leadership that can protect the future of Americans, earth, and humanity as well as addressing widespread issues of inequality, inequity, and social justice.

8. I just came off completing my Ph.D. dissertation which was a HUGE amount of work and put me behind a computer screen for far too long. I am not cut out for the tenure-track professor career route. Dissertations and academic journal articles do not get read by many people. By running for Congress I feel I can make a real difference. I am writing this response from Washington, DC with my wife and son. We visited the U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, Mt. Vernon, and Holocaust Museum. We love the city and although the commitments of being a U.S. Representative are difficult, we can make it work.

9. We need innovative people with broad-spectrum competence in Congress. When I see our representatives going up there and comparing the Internet to a series of tubes, or asking Mark Zuckerberg to write legislation to regulate Facebook for them, it makes me cringe. I teach educational technology to future teachers. I can leverage this to get nearly all the teachers and other educators in FL CD6 to vote for me. We have too many lawyers and phonies in Congress and this needs to change!

10. Constituent services are very important to me. I’m the only candidate who has promised to open a district office in mid-town Daytona Beach (not a mobile office that visits for 2 hours a few times a year). As a U.S. Representative I will interview and hire a staff that will set a national example of leadership for constituent services. Nationwide, polls show 25% of Americans think Obamacare was killed by Lyin’ Donald Trump and the GOP—NOT true—it is still alive and 10 million Americans could be getting a huge health insurance subsidy but are not enrolled. Even if I cannot actually get much done in the U.S. House of Representatives as a freshman Congressman, I can have a huge impact wielding my title and annual budget in excess of $1 million that each U.S. Representative receives toward helping and advocating for constituents with federal agencies, as well as holding numerous town hall meetings to listen to and advocate for their concerns. The Republican incumbent rarely if ever holds a town hall meeting. Let’s go! We can do this!

Please pitch in if you can! Even a small contribution helps.

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Letter to Michael Waltz Regarding His Comments on the State of the Union Address

Letter to Michael Waltz Regarding His Comments on the State of the Union Address

February 4, 2020

Dear Rep. Waltz,

Limbaugh is pro-rape and the medal insults the legacy of MLK, Rosa Parks, and many others.

People are off welfare because they’re being booted off but they are still struggling.

You, Michael Waltz, said in 2016 that we need to stop Trump and look into his record.

We have corporate welfare, massive deficits and giveaways to the rich, and a corrupt and incompetent administration.

Mitch is blocking HUNDREDS of bills in the Senate.

Trump said the unemployment numbers were phony under Obama, failing to tell the real story of American carnage, but now somehow they are the gold standard?

Our planet is on fire. Republicans’ climate denialism and subsidies toward fossil fuels will kill more humans in the long run than died in the Holocaust.

Donald Trump is a New York former Democrat who was pro-choice and for strong gun regulations. He saw an opportunity, changed his tune, co-opted the Republican party, and radicalized the American people.

Mr. Waltz, I respectfully suggest you become a Democrat immediately. Jeff Van Drew switched parties recently (but went backwards).

Sincerely,
Richard Thripp, Ph.D.
Democratic Candidate for Florida’s 6th Congressional district


Addendum:

There is also Congressman Justin Amish who switched from being a Republican to an independent in July 2019. This would be more realistic for Mr. Waltz than becoming a Democrat. Mr. Waltz already is somewhat progressive on some issues, such as funding education in Afghanistan, adding Puerto Rico as a state, and other positions that upset Trump’s base.

Those who say the left is turning us into a “socialist” disaster can be easily trolled: As we all know, the real job of government is to provide unlimited amounts of privilege, giveaways, and welfare to the rich and to large corporations.

A favorite talking point of climate deniers is that the earth changes on its own so humans aren’t to blame. But, human emissions outstrip natural events by orders of magnitude. Going from ~ 300 to 414 ppm CO2 this quickly has never occurred in millions of years!

Many of Mr. Waltz’s PAC donors are airlines, sugar industry, military contractors, and others who love being able to emit greenhouse gases and other ecological damage without having to pay for it.

Wow, look at all that PAC money (click the screenshot below for a high-resolution version in a new browser tab or window). Michael Waltz must sure be sweet because big sugar loves him. These big companies are so charitable and generous and surely have nothing to gain. Nothing to see here!

Waltz PAC Money 2020 Q4

Vote Richard Thripp for #FL06 — A vote for my opponent is a vote for special interests.


Response to the PAWS Act to provide service animals to returning veterans:

This is nice but it’s like the human interest stories on the news. Our planet is on fire, wealth inequality is so big it’s like feudal times, we have an out-of-control dangerous and incompetent administration enabled by the GOP, we are running massive and unnecessary budget deficits, we have a Senate majority leader who stonewalls tons of legislation, and we have the PAWS act to distract us.

Campaign Social Media Links: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn

Here are my social media links! I post quite a bit on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram that doesn’t get put on Thripp.com:

Twitter   Facebook   Instagram

I also post videos on YouTube and articles on LinkedIn occasionally:

YouTube   LinkedIn

Please follow, like, connect, or subscribe to my social media accounts, and also like, comment on, and re-tweet my individual posts. This is very helpful for spreading my message and awareness of my candidacy, so I can win in November 2020 and start working for you in the U.S. House of Representatives and within this district (Volusia and Flagler counties at-large, and parts of St. Johns and Lake counties).

Rebuttal to Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address

Here is my typed response, composed in real time, to Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union response on February 4, 2020.

Donald Trump began his State of the Union address boasting about how great the economy is doing, and claiming that America is now respected again on the world stage. This is absurd given that he is laughed at and booed on the world stage, frequently has to be schooled on basic issues such as Chairman Xi explaining North Korea to him, and cannot even visit the United Kingdom due to being so despised.

“The state of our union is stronger than ever before.” Actually, it is more fractured, divided, and endangered than it has been in a long time. We have huge political divisions stoked by the most petty president in modern history, and a president leading an executive branch via unvarnished incompetence and unprecedented power grabs reducing the status of the two other branches of federal government.

The unemployment rate for African Americans was lower in the 1950s but the current statistic being used was not calculated going back this far using the present criteria. Trump’s focus on the unemployment rate is pretty ridiculous considering that he said it was a phony statistic not telling the true story of American suffering when it was trending lower during the Obama administration.

People being taken off the food stamp rolls and “lifted off welfare” is a ridiculous statement. The administration is forcing needy people off benefits. Wealth stratification and corporate welfare is at an all-time high. Real wages are not increasing much if at all.

“Blue collar boom”—more like American carnage. Trotting out phony statistics about real wages going up for the have-nots does not convince anyone with any real knowledge. The wealthy are robbing us blind with the help of the GOP tacked straight on the national debt.

Overall, Trump’s focus on the economy is opportunistic and laden with falsehoods. The economy is doing well according to many popular measures, but someone who told us Americans would never be forgotten is certainly forgetting a lot of Americans when it comes to everyone but the top 1%.

“I keep our promises. We did our job.” Pretty rich for someone who said he would give us something better than Obamacare, build a wall that Mexico would pay for, and balance the budget within 8 years… instead we are on track for dangerous and ever-increasing deficits.

“As we restore American leadership throughout the world.” Was it leadership to abandon our allies, the Kurds, in Syria? To threaten Ukraine financially to influence a presidential election? To hob-nob with North Koreans many of which met Trump and were subsequently executed? He “loves” Mr. Kim? He acts as a shill for Mr. Putin in Russia, which is no example of leadership.

Military spending is off the charts and out-of-control. There is no getting around this. It doesn’t matter how patriotic you are or how much you support and love our troops and contractors. American military spending and militarism must decline, sooner rather than later.

This week, I’m visiting Washington, DC with my wife and son. I visited the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court yesterday, and Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, today. I also re-read the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Trump is a grand disappointment.

Many of the complaints about King George III in the Declaration of Independence could easily be replaced with “Donald Trump” and “Mitch McConnell.” Read through it and you will see. I may make a video about this later!

“No parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government school.” Perhaps they should not be sent to a school that hates gay children or perpetuates patriarchy and misogyny? Why don’t we work on improving the government schools instead of undermining them?

“A good life for American families also requires the most affordable, innovative, and high quality healthcare system on earth.” Allowing states to slash Medicaid benefits via block grants undermines the poorest and lowest income Americans. Repealing or attempting to invalidate the Affordable Care Act makes healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible for Americans.

“We will always protect your Medicare and we will always protect your Social Security, always.” Trump just said in a recent interview that he will look into cutting both of these programs! The insane national deficit is funding a stock market boom that reflects large corporations receiving an unprecedented amount of corporate welfare that is tacked directly onto our massive national debt. About 50% of Americans have no stocks and many others merely have them in retirement accounts such as 401(k) and are not substantially benefitting from this illegal, anti-American gravy train.

The so-called do-nothing Democrats are getting plenty done in the U.S. House of Representatives. We should be talking about the do-nothing, obstructionist Republicans. Mitch McConnell, the “grim reaper,” is preventing hundreds of passed bills from being heard in the Senate. On prescription drug prices, the House passed the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act which Trump will not mention and McConnell will block from becoming law.

Giving Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom is an insult to our veterans and war heroes. It’s an insult to Rosa Parks and so many others. It undermines American values and confidence in American institutions. Rush Limbaugh is a sexist and promotes rape. He said, regarding sexual consent: “How many of you guys . . . have learned that ‘no’ means ‘yes’ if you know how to spot it?” We may as well give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey.

Rush Limbaugh, like Donald Trump, claims, with no facts, that the climate crisis and all of climate science is a hoax. Such propaganda will kill far more humans than were ever killed in the Holocaust. We are talking hundreds of millions of people, within this century, who will die because of the human-caused climate crisis which is charging full-steam ahead under the Republican party in the United States of America, the corrupt coal-funded Labor Party in Australia, the Communist Party’s insanity in the People’s Republic of China, and beyond.

Trump speaks of keeping America safe. Does promoting racism, hatred, and division help such safety? Wasn’t the mass murderer at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas—a domestic home-grown terrorist—spurred on by our president’s vitriol?

Trump speaks of merit-based immigration, but his administration turns away more immigrants than any president in modern history. He won’t give protected status to refugees in war zones, in Venezuela, or victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

“We celebrate faith. We cherish religion.” Only SOME religions. The religions we like. Others are scapegoated and attacked by Trump’s followers.

Trump says he is protecting your 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms. Let’s not forget that Trump radicalized the American people and co-opted the Republican party. Trump is a New York Democrat who used to be pro-choice and in favor of stronger gun regulations. In the long run, a failure to regulate guns and prevent them from getting into the hands of family annihilators, mass murders, and other criminals actually undermines the 2nd amendment, and of course, is a prime example of the American carnage being caused by this administration. We cannot continue to have this many unprovoked mass murders of innocent American citizens without public opinion eventually turning against the 2nd amendment. If you want to enforce your right to keep and bear arms, the best way would be to prevent mass murders which reflect poorly on all American gun owners, however unfairly, by guilt of association. Remember that it was just over 100 years ago that alcohol was banned by an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The USA is a bastion of unprecedented innovation, ingenuity, intellect, financial and military power, and charity. We are a grand experiment in representative democracy that has shown that government for the people, by the people, and of the people can work. Donald Trump is possibly the most unqualified president in history and is testing the limits of this system. The Constitution’s framers knew George Washington would likely be the first president, and imbued the office of President of the United States with sweeping, grand powers with the hope that he would set an example for each future president to use these powers for the good of the people and of the Union. Donald Trump, like King George III, is a tyrant and a usurper who should be removed from office and must be voted out of office. He has committed crimes against the United States, such as the recent Ukraine affair, and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Signing off,
Richard Thripp, Ph.D.
Candidate for Congress in Florida’s 6th District