English: The Trump Administration is undoubtedly the most chaotic in modern American history. The most worrisome aspect is the dismissal of high level appointees and staff members who dare to provide advice contrary to the President’s current views. The departure of high level senior civil service managers in the State Department and other agencies is very disturbing because of the increasingly uncertain direction of foreign policy in the Middle East, with the accidental risk of uncontrollable violent armed confrontations with the Syrians, the Russians, and possibly the Turks. Similarly, uncertainty extends to trade relations with China and also with the Europeans. The President is correct pointing out that trade deficits should have been addressed long ago, but he didn’t mention that fact that the European Uniohas a 28% external import tariff and that Germany collects about $1,000 for every resident annually from trade surpluses with the United States, in contrast to China’s $275. Domestic policy is in shambles also, with the poor getting an even bigger shaft from proposed budget cuts. The continuing turmoil from issues raised about the conduct of the past election is not desirable and is having a very negative impact on the political management of our nation.

English: The 2017 tax cuts are indefensible because they add to the deficit, further enrich the already well to do, and endanger the long term stability of the economy. They will force the Federal Reserve to resort to more legal counterfeiting to create the cash required to meet federal government expenditures. The national debt doubled during the previous Administration, not including the $4.5 Trillion off the books debt incurred by the Federal Reserve. It was spent for inflating the financial sector and consumer credit debt instead of creating cost saving efficiencies from critically needed public infrastructrure projects. The temporary economic stimulus from debt funded stock market speculation and consumer expenditures will result in another 2008 level financial crisis when debt servicing costs become unpayable. With half of our population now living from paycheck to paycheck without savings to fund an unexpected $400 emergency, the risk of uncontrollable widespread personal defaults has been made even worse by the 2017 tax cuts. The tax cuts are exacerbating and making the maldistribution of income and wealth much worse than in 1928, which was the cause of the Great Depression.

English: As mentioned previously, the increasing burden of debt servicing will result in severe economy wide expendiiture contractions for non-essential needs. The dry goods industry is already declining, with store and even shopping center closures in poorer communities. The recent decision of WalMart not to construct two promised new stores in the District of Columbia and conversion of much floor space for non-perishable food sales by Target and K-Mart are indicative of the decline in dry goods consumer sales from reduction in inflation adjusted incomes in those communities. Increases in minimum wages to partially restore consumer purchasing power are needed, but huge reductions in the wasteful and useless expenditures for unending and ever increasing foreign military force projection and interventions, as well as progressive income tax increases on the wealthy, must be done to balance the budget. The alternative will be the collapse of the domestic economy from the escalating counterfeiting by the Federal Reserve that will inevitably result in uncontrollable hyperinflation. Venezuela’s current economic catastrophic collapse from a worthless currency will be repeated in the USA when the dollar as the world reserve currency is replaced by the gold-backed Chinese yuan. The Chinese economy will be larger than the USA’s sometime around 2030.

English: The level of inequality in the United States is the problem! I learned as a Sophomore Economics 101 student that the real cause of the Great Depression was “too much money becoming concentrated into too few hands”. The national economy, for which the dollar is the measurement unit of human effort interactions and exchange as well as wealth accumulation, could be described as a functioning interacting closed loop live economic system. The circulation of the dollar within the system provides both the “nutrients” among all of the components as well as the being the barometer of economic well being for the stable functioning of the entire system. The closest analogy would be the human body. Assuming that the head, which is ten percent (the wealthy) of the body’s weight and usually receives perhaps twenty percent of the blood flow for healthy living, would suddenly receive much more of the blood flow (as the US economy does presently), what would happen to the rest (everyone else) of the body if that were to occur? Just as transfusions of blood would be needed ( to prevent the rest of the body from going into shock and expiring), so to are unending transfusions of money (debt) to keep the present unstable economy from collapsing. The only solution is to balance the budget both internally and externally with tax increases on the wealthy, reduction of force projection military expenditures, and elimination of foreign trade and balance of foreign payment deficits.

English: More gun laws directed at specific weapons such as the AR-15 would only result in the use of other weapons such as sawed off multi round repeating semi-automatic shotguns or semi-automatic handguns with ten round clip magazines . Unlike the AR-15 with its bulky box magazines, these other weapons could be easily concealed and extra shotgun shells or compact pistol ammunition clips could be carried in the shooter’s pockets. One shot from a sawed off shotgun could strike several persons at one time as the result of the the wide dispersion of the pellets in the shell. The shooter at the amusement park in Norway used a pistol with concealed spare clips and killed about 95 victims during that episode. There are an estimated 300 million or more handguns in the country now, and restrictions on specific types of weapons would only create an underground black market for uncontrolled concealed production and sale of those weapons. ( Unlike automobiles, guns are easily concealed and exchanged.) The only viable solution is to have robust and thorough background checks for all gun purchasers, to include continuously updated real time computerized records of violent domestic and other criminal behavior, as well as legally certified incompetence or dangerous mental conditions, for all potential gun purchasers over the age of twenty nationwide. It is the only non-confrontational, workable, and acceptable solution to everyone concerned. Everyone could agree that guns should not be sold to persons with severe mental health problems or violent criminal backgrounds.

English: The ACA was flawed from its beginning because it, like Medicare, had limited cost reduction controls imposed as a precondition for its Congressional approval. It was doomed from its inception by the flaw of rapidly increasing annual costs with large premium increases and/or increasing deductible limits for the subscribers. The only long term permanently workable and economically as well as medically sound solution is the enactment of a Single Payer Canadian Styled uniform health care system at the federal level for the entire country. Until that system could be implemented, Medicare for all should be gradually extended by annually for inclusion of new subscribers until everyone including babies in utero are enrolled. Within five years after enactment, assuming a one year delay for implementation, everyone in our country would be enrolled. Simultaneously, seniors already enrolled in Medicare should be gradually changed over to the new single payer health care system with newer Medicare enrollees then being converted to the single payer system. Just as public schools are supported by all taxpayers in our country regardless of whether they or their children never intend or ever attended public schools, it is a needed public good for everyone to have an educated as well as healthy population for our nation. The private boutique health care providers such as the Mayo Clinic still would be available for the patronage of those desiring that care at their own expense.

English: A comprehensive muiti-disciplinary coordinated joint federal, state, and municipal task force at the national level with representatives from all interested states with large urban populations should be assembled to develp an immediate critical response plan to address and quickly correct the most serious current urban problems such as ongoing homelessness, hunger, educational deficiencies, and inadequate health care BEFORE directing attention to the development of long term remedies for eliminating those problems. As the consequence of the continual repricing of real estate assets by marking to market valuations imposed by capitalism, with ever escalating rents needed to maintain returns on owners investments, municipally owned housing for the poor is the only financially sound long term alternative. The second imperative is to keep families intact with fathers in the home. Half of the nation’s black children are being raised in single parent homes compared to 21% for other families. A study made for Colorado’s prisons revealed that well over 70% of the inmates there were raised without strong male guidance during their teen aged years. Well funded federal agency multi-disciplinary urban support programs developed with flexible variations for every city’s unique situation are the only viable permanent solution for urban renewal and revitalization efforts. Massive federal investment for restoration of blighted urban areas would also create construction jobs if set asides for local hires in those areas were incorporated into the renewal programs. Those jobs also could be combined with on the job training in the construction trades for the local residents.

English: The regulation of controlled substances like addictive drugs is a federal government responsibility, but the dispensing of those substances is done at the local level. Guidance from the National Institues of Health and other federal agencies regarding the prescription, sale and use of those drugs has been strenthened, but enforcement and treatment of addiction occurs at the local level. There is little the federal government presently could do at that level. Public education programs such as the very successful Smokey Bear forest fire prevention and smoking cessation programs should be implemented. Special educational programs for intermediate and high school students should be developed as part of the circulums that would instruct those students about the dangers of drug use. They would also provide information about free confidential drug counseling and treatment services that could be arranged by their school counselors. Federally funded free addiction treatment centers should be provided in areas of high addiction with longer term residential treatment centers made available for persons with repeated addiction episodes. In cases where repeated violent non-criminal behavior results from opioid and other drug use, treatment at federally funded local residential facilites should be provided. Violent criminal behavior resulting from addiction should be treated at federally funded separately designated secure hospital wards or, if requred, separate prison hospital wards.

English: The most effective but politically unacceptable change would have been the certain and severe prosecution of those who deliberately employed illegal immigrants and provided the incentives for their illegal entry into this country. As long as employers are able to escape prosecution for providing employment incentives for illegal entry into this country , it will continue unabated. For companies needing foreign labor, a Federal program similar to the Canadian program should be established permitting foreign guest workers to be hired using a federally managed and controlled temporary labor employment program that would be conducted and supervised by the federal Department of Labor. Applications for permanent residency could be made while guest workers are here and could be processed during the time spent after their return to their home countries. Regarding illegal immigrants already here that have become established and productive fully self-supporting members of their communities, separate paths for obtaining green cards and citizenship should be enacted by Congress. Specific deadlines for qualifying for green cards and then full citizenship within reasonable time periods of less than five years duration should be made for each individual’s particular situation. Speedy deportation hearings should be given for other illegal immigrants who have not become established and productive members of our society. However, families with U. S. born children under age 18 should not be dismembered and the non-citizens evicted until the youngest child reaches age eighteen if they have not achieved resident status by that time.

English: No, the existing long term trade policies were unsustainable because it is very likely that more than 20 Trillions of dollars from American purchases of foreign made goods were not returned to our economy during past decades by equivalent purchases of American made products. The present annual $600 Billion trade deficit amounts to an approximate ten percent reduction in the current US domestic Gross National Product after internal muiltiplier income losses are added, including a $400 Billion shortfall in annual federal taxation receipts. Foreign trade could only be beneficial to all involved if an equal exchange of comparable purchasing expenditures among all participants is achieved. Otherwise, it is a ‘beggar thy neighbor” exportation of internal unemployment to the trading partners from the resulting loss of income to their economies. Other trade practices such as the 95% local content and 51% local ownership requirement for the factories in China making American cars sold there add to the unequal exchange of goods and magnify the American trade deficit with China.) Cumulative trade and other balance of payments deficits over the past 60 years have resulted in the Unites States from then being the world’s largest creditor nation to becoming today the world’s largest debtor nation. Negotiations to “level the playing field” are extremely important if beneficial long term trade outcomes for all participants are to be achieved . Balance of foreign payment deficits have resulted in the United States from being the world’s largest creditor nation to now its largest debtor nation.

English: Yes, because the results of recent International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities have not revealed any discrepancies to date. Military installations in Iran are not included in the agreement so there is still the possibiity of concealment of prohibited activities. It should be mentioned that there is another country in the region with a nuclear reactor and a likely weapons inventory that is not but also should be a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty. However, despite that troubling concern, the alternative of not continuing to support the agreement with Iran and our partner countries would be detrimental to future negotiations to address the many other unresolved threatening regional issues in the Middle East if Iran is excluded. Iran is a major country vital to any successful resolution of the serious problems in that region and no agreement would be possible without its particpation and consent.

English: The ending of the long running hostility between both Koreas appears to be a possibility as the favorable result of their joint particpation during the recently concluded winter Olympics. The United States should take this oppportunity to encourage further negotiation between both countries and let them take the lead in arriving at a mutually agreed upon agenda for further progress leading to reunification of their divided nation. The US should offer to remove its and personnel and weapons from the South as part of a settlement that would eliminate the nuclear arsenal of the North as a needed prerequisite for the reunification of both states. Guarantees of the independence of the reunited nation from the United States, China, Russia, and Japan and non-interference in their affairs would be an inducement for the non-alignment of the reunited Korea with any other nation and for the guaranteed neutrality of that reunited nation. Austria became a neutral country by a four WWII power Allied treaty in 1955, so the same outcome is possible for Korea.