Paying For Failure - Why The Federal Government Will Never Be My Latex Salesman

Yesterday we reviewed the many ways that government and the political class have significantly eroded many of our rights over time. We closed that post with a reminder that in addition to eroding our rights and extending their control over our lives, the political class has been a failure at just about anything they do: public schools, war on drugs, budget management, energy policies, etc. Consider some more of their failures, while on a smaller scale, still waste time, taxpayer dollars, and resources:

• According to an article in The Week magazine from April 9, 2010, Federal auditors submitted fake products designs to the Energy Department in an attempt, that was successful, to get the designs certified as energy efficient and awarded the Department's EnergyStar rating. This rating is useful in marketing such designated products as energy efficient and eligible for tax breaks. However, the designs were not for some sophisticated consumer electronics or a breakthrough technology that would save energy. The two designs that were awarded the EnergyStar rating were for a gasoline powered alarm clock the "size of an electrical generator" and plans for an "air purifier" which was nothing more than a feather duster attached to a space heater. If the Energy Department can award their prized ratings to outrageously bogus products as these, what value do their ratings have on other products that are awarded the same designation? The article concludes that the certification process and stamp of approval as worthless. However, as taxpayers we continue to pay for worthless.
• According to an article in The Week magazine from its March 26, 2010 issue, two IRS agents personally visited a California car wash to hand deliver an unpaid tax bill to the owner, Aaron Zeff. The tax bill was for $.04. Yes, $.04. Now that $.04 shortfall had grown to $202.31 since it was identified in 2006 due to late fees and taxes. However, even at $202.31, was it worth the time of two IRS agents to make an on site visit? Would not have one agent been able to do it and the other work on catching some real criminals? If you assume that each agent makes about $60,000 a year and it took two hours (four hours total = two hours times two agents) to drive out and deliver the bill, then just the cost of salary used to deliver the $.04 bill comes to about $120. Not a good use of taxpayer money.
• According to an article by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune, as summarized in the April 16, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, your cell phone acts like a GPS device that wireless companies could use to track your whereabouts, if they wanted. Even if they do not want to track you, law enforcement organizations may want to and they do NOT need a search warrant to do it. According to Mr. Chapman, "police need only tell a judge that the information is relevant to a criminal investigation - even if you are not the target" of that investigation. Obviously, you do not live in a free country if police agencies have virtually unfettered access to where you are and where you have been. George Orwell would be so proud. And we pay the Federal government for this privilege of invading our privacy.
• In a Washington Post story from January 17, 2010, a poll showed that 58% of Americans prefer smaller government with fewer services to 38% who prefer larger government with more services? What has the political class done over the past few years? Saddled us with skyrocketing budget deficits as they do just the opposite, increasing the size of government exponentially, against the will of the majority of Americans.
• Not to be outdone, state level governments and politicians continue to just as poorly serving the public as the Federal politicians. In a short article in Reason magazine from May, 2010, it was reported that Florida lawmakers have decided to sell some of their state buildings in order to help make up a budget deficit. However, no one knows exactly how many and where all of the state-owned buildings are located. For that, they are considering hiring an outside company to find and compile a list of all the real estate the state government thinks it owns. How incompetent is this? You have grown so large and inefficient that you do not have an accurate inventory of your buildings? Those are pretty big things to lose track of. Three other questions arise to make this even more ridiculous: first, there are 67 counties in Florida and the state "thinks" it has about 18,000 buildings or about 270 per county. Seems like an awful lot of buildings to have in each county. Second, if the state of Florida cannot find all of its buildings, do we really think that the much larger Federal government has any idea how many buildings and properties it owns and where they are located? Finally, Florida is going to sell these buildings at the lowest point in recent Florida history regarding real estate values. Thus, they are almost definitely going to be selling low after buying high, what a waste of taxpayer money.
• A Washington state senator says that poor children should not be called "at risk" anymore because (at least in her mind the label is "discouraging"), they should be called "at hope." She has proposed that all uses of the words "at risk" be removed and replaced in all state laws. Nothing better to do in Washington? Wow, they must have solved their public education problems, their drug addiction problems, their crumbling infrastructure problems, their budget deficit problems, etc. if they are now focusing on wordsmithing state laws for no apparent reason beyond someone's opinion. (Reason magazine, May, 2010)
• On ABC's news show, This Week, on January 24, 2010, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod was discussing the health care reform bill and was quoted as saying: "People will never know what's in the bill until we pass it." Huh? Is this anyway to run a democracy, passing bills that no one knows what is in it? No wonder Americans were up in arms about the legislation, even those supporting it had no idea what was in it. Not a free country when your leaders are making decisions on these bills but do not read or understand what is in them. This reminds of Congressman Henry Waxman's retort when he was asked what was in the proposed cap and trade legislation and he said he did not know all that was in it. The reason this was disturbing was that he was a primary sponsor of the bill.

Much like Jerry Seinfeld, I do not want these George Constanza-like politicians becoming my latex salesmen. In fact, I want them out of my life and the stupid, wasteful programs they cooked up to be terminated immediately. That is why a primary suggestion from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" needs to be implemented quickly: a zero based, ground up approach needs to be done for every single Federal agency in order to root out needless programs, look for efficiencies, fire incompetent or lazy Federal employees and get the remaining ones focused on real problems. Step 39 would also be helpful: term limits for all Congressional politicians. They have not solved anything of consequence for over 40 years, lets not wait another 40 before we dump the career politicians, the George Constanzas of America. I would love to pay for a success once in a while.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.