There is a lot going on in the world: Obama and Russiagate findings, Middle East powder keg, the Russian/Ukrainian war, etc. But through all this, the American political class continues to constantly deliver its own special brand of insanity, stupidity, wasteful taxpayer spending, and ineffective government programs:
1)For many, many years we have had to point out how inept the Federal government is in spending taxpayer wealth efficiently and effectively. From failing social programs like Social Security and Medicare to failing infrastructure to failing education systems, etc., Washington politicians and bureaucrats never cease to amaze and disgust taxpayers with the wasting of their money.
And according to Senator Joni Ernst, the Department of Transportation is one of the biggest failures and money wasters in DC:
Ernst recently revealed an analysis that the current Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, had compiled based on a letter from VP J.D. Vance.
That letter identified 14 Department of Transportation projects that have either overspent their allotted budgets by at least $1 billion or were at least five years behind schedule.
In total, these 14 projects have overspent their budgets by almost $163 billion.
The Columbus Crossroads improvements is an amazing 19 YEARS behind schedule and its current cost is almost double its original cost estimate of $801 million.
The project began in 2011 and was expected to be done by 2018 but now has an expected completion date by 2037, 19 years behind schedule, assuming they hit the 2037 estimate.
The Honolulu Rail Transit Project and the light rail project in Maryland are also years and years behind schedule.
According to Duffy: "If you’re receiving taxpayer dollars, you should expect to be held accountable by the American people. No more boondoggles! Thank you, Senator Ernst, for your leadership in Congress to ensure federal dollars are being used effectively and efficiently."
But Ernst's wasteful spending reporting did not end in the Department of Transportation:
An electronics record keeping system for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs is somehow $34 billion over budget.
There is $3.1 BILLION plan to renovate the Federal Reserve headquarters building, not build a new building, just fix up the old one for billions of dollars.
Unbelievable that Washington politicians have so little regard with how our tax dollars are being spent and wasted while delivering very little of value in total or on time. Disgusting.
2)Over the years we have shown many times that many members of Congress are not the brightest bulbs in the country:
We reviewed how a Georgia Congressman, in public testimony, actually thought that the island of Guam could physically tip over if too many military resources were put on it.
We reviewed how a Texas Congresswoman asked in a public hearing if the Mars Rover would be landing anywhere near where Neil Armnstrong walked on the moon.
We reviewed how a New York Congresswoman not only did not know the definition of how the official unemployment rate was calculated, despite having a business degree, but she also loudly proclaimed once that the three branches of the Federal government were the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Presidency, the Supreme Court be damned.
And just recently we showed how a Congresswoman in a public hearing presented a huge pie chart graphic in which the three pie slices in the chart added up to 110%.
But the latest foul up may be one of the best ever:
Someone associated with the National Democratic Party thought they would make Trump’s economic policies look horrible in that those policies were resulting in horrible food inflation.
They would do that by putting together a line graph that showed how the prices have increased over time for various food categories such as meat and eggs.
They then put out a tweet titled “Trump’s America” which showed food category price increases over time.
They mentioned in the caption that “Prices are higher today than they were in July, 2024 all in major categories listed below.”
But as you can see from the graph the rapid rise in food prices did not begin spiking upwards until 2021, Biden’s first year in office, a year after Trump first left office.
And during the period when the graph turns upwards, 2021 until 2025, Biden was President for all of that time except for the past seven months.
And if prices did rise over the past year, July to July, Biden was still president for half of that time.
And if anything, it appears that the average prices in some of the food categories have actually stabilized since Trump came into office.
Thus, this attempt that was somehow going to show how horrible food prices have risen because of Trump actually highlighted the runaway food inflation that occurred during the Biden administration.
The reality is that overall food prices jumped 22% during the Biden administration according to Federal government data, much higher than the overall rate of inflation. Thus, how stupid does one have to be to think this chart actually would show Trump in a bad light when all of the bad news the chart was trying to communicate happened on Biden’s watch?
But if we remember that someone in the Washington netherworld thought that an island could actually tip over it is not too much of a stretch to think that someone in the area of Washington politics thought this would make Trump look bad when it actually did the opposite, making their man, Biden look bad.
3)We have spent years identifying and condemning wasteful government spending on stupid projects and being so inept that criminals have defrauded Federal government programs out of untold billions of dollars over many years. That is why it has been so satisfying to see Trump and Musk via DOGE ferret out, identify, and cancel stupid government spending projects.
A recent case out of Louisiana show how bad the criminal fraud is when it comes to scamming government projects:
Candace Taylor was recently arrested for allegedly scamming the Medicaid program out of millions and millions of dollars over the years.
She set up six different fake ids that collected Medicaid funds that were meant to support the health needs of needy Americans even though her income level from her businesses made her ineligible for Medicaid benefits.
The state Attorney General dubbed her the “Medicaid Millionaire,” getting rich off of American taxpayers and Federal government incompetence.
Fortunately, Taylor got greedy and stupid and decided that her stolen millions entitled her to purchase a 2022 Lamborghini, a vehicle that costs upwards of $230,000.
State health officials noticed the purchase, reported it to the Attorney General's office, and they lowered the boom on her.
She ended up vetting over $9 million via her scams.
She apparently spent her ill gotten gains on real estate, jewelry, plastic surgery, and other luxury items and services.
As always, the good news is that this alleged scammer got caught so hopefully she will be forced to pay back at least some of the taxpayer money she scammed and also spend some good tim in prison. The bad news is we do not know how many other “Medicaid Millionaires” are still scamming the American taxpayer out of their hard earned tax dollars while at the same time depriving needy Americans the health care they need.
Keep in mind the Department of Justice recently announced criminal charges as a result of investigating a $14.6 BILLION healthcare fraud involving 300 alleged criminals. Thus, a lot of work obviously still needs to be done to protect the American taxpayer.
Enough for today: more defrauding of government programs, idiocy in the Democratic Party from a graphics perspective, and Federal Transportation Department as just another Federal entity that cannot deliver the goods on schedule and on budget.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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