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1/ We must tax the rich, but it is **not possible** to use their money to “pay for” federal programs.
[#LearnMMT THREAD]
All federal spending is and has always been financed with created currency.
[#LearnMMT THREAD]
All federal spending is and has always been financed with created currency.
2/ This is true because of the realities of reserve accounting.
3/ Specifically, this is confirmed by research by @StephanieKelton. (Notice it says, "After carefully considering the complexities of reserve accounting...")
4/ Economists @ptcherneva and Randall Wray further confirm: since the government spends by creating money, they don’t need tax revenue in order to spend. 
@ptcherneva 5/ Kelton again, from the same paper. The collection of (federal) taxes *implies* their destruction. This is no different than how the 100 is "destroyed" when you do this subtraction problem on a calculator:
1,000 - 100 = 900
1,000 - 100 = 900
@ptcherneva 6/ So federal spending is not AND CANNOT BE financed with tax revenue. However, we still must tax the rich, because they’re TOO DAMN RICH. So rich they can destroy our democracy, government, our day-to-day existence, and our literal existence as a species.
7/ General information on why we pay federal taxes.
8/8 To learn more about #MMT, start here. ✌️ it
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