Let's start this month's political class insanity with three examples from Reason magazine:
- A recent study from two university professors found that Democrats serving in Congress averaged investment returns on their personal portfolios that was 9% above the market average. Republicans in Congress averaged investment returns on their personal portfolios that was 2% above the market average. These results are consistent with the conclusions one of the professors found when he did a similar study in 2004 where he found that U.S. Senator's portfolios averaged 10% higher than the market average.
Two possible reasons for this higher than average investment returns. A first possibility is that politicians are much smarter than the experts in the investment industry. Given their performance in all other areas that they touch, this is a highly unlikely reason. The second, more likely reason, is that these politicians are using their positions of knowledge on pending legislation to adjust their own investment positions before the rest of the world knows what is going to happen.
Given how intrusive the political class and Federal government have become intertwined in our lives and the market, actions by these politicians can determine which companies and industries win or lose in the marketplace, a very powerful position to be in. In the real world, this is known as insider trading and most Americans get thrown in jail for this type of insider trading. However, the real world does not exist in Washington and higher than average Congressional investment returns are just a normal part of their life.
- In 2006, animal activists convinced Congress to defund a government agency that was responsible for overseeing horse slaughterhouses. Without government oversight, American companies could no longer slaughter horses and were forced to go out of business and fire all of their employees.
However, the activists did not get the humane horse results they wanted. Shortly after the U.S. slaughterhouses shut down, the prices for horse meat internationally dropped substantially. Thus, it was no longer worthwhile to ship the horses to Mexico for slaughter. As a result, cases of horse abandonment, abuse, and neglect increased significantly.
This is hardly the humane treatment most animal activists had envisioned and is just another example of politicians who pass legislation and take action when they do not understand the root causes and interrelationships of a problem. Political action to help horses results in higher levels of abuse of same horses. Insanity.
- All levels of California government are under extreme economic stress. Shortfalls of tax recipients and an ever expanding debt and expense burden has resulted in government entities cutting back on school budgets, social support programs, and other worthwhile government programs.
Given the dire financial situation, one would think and hope that California politicians were focused only on the most important issues facing California residents. However, according to Reason, the San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission has proposed that the city forbid the sale of all pets within city limits, including gold fish.
Certainly a bad set of priorities. Why worry about reduced school budgets when we have to take care of the dreadful goldfish problem plaguing the city? Insanity.
Consider some recent insanity that was documented in the September 2, 2011 issue of The Week magazine:
- A part of the economic stimulus program was to provide Federal government support to first time home buyers. Unfortunately, the government bureaucrats mistakenly sent $9 million of taxpayer wealth to 1,300 prisoners, some of whom were serving life sentences.Obviously, these lifers were not in need of financial support to buy a house.
- Another economic stimulus program, that was funded with $5.8 billion of taxpayer funds, was supposed to encourage homeowners to weatherproof their homes. This program sent fraudulent checks to infants, prisoners, and others who did not own homes.
More insanity:
- It appears that Onyango Obama was recently arrested in Massachusetts for a recent DUI incident. He was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to yield the right of way. According to the incident report, the incident involved the defendant rolling through a stop sign while under the influence and nearly hitting a police cruiser.
Oh, by the way, Onyango Obama is the uncle of President Obama. When asked whether he wanted to make a phone call, Mr. Obama, the accused, said he wanted to call the White House. How embarrassing is this for the President. A relative is arrested and his first reaction is to look for help from the President Of The United States. Feels like the second coming of the Billy Carter era.
However, it is worse than this. Onyango Obama is actually an illegal immigrant and is now being held on an immigration detainer. He has been in this country illegally for almost 20 years. Given the sensitivity of the larger illegal immigration issue and our leaky borders, the President's credibility has taken a huge hit:
- Did he know his uncle was here illegally?
- If so, did he withhold information that would have let to his uncle's apprehension and deportation?
- If an ordinary American had an uncle that was here illegally and abetted his freedom, would they be arrested for breaking the law?
- How can the President assert any kind of authority in this issue when his own family are criminals in the eyes of the law?
- According to ABC News, and other major news outlets, an American solar company in California, Solyndra, recently announced it is going out of business, terminating over a 1,000 jobs in the process. The interesting, and most depressing part of this story, is that it is likely taking over half a billion taxpayer dollars with it.
It appears that the Obama administration gave the company over $500 million in Federal government loan guarantees to expand its operations just a year or so ago and to hire up to 4,000 workers. In just a short time, not did only the 4,000 jobs fail to materialize but the existing jobs and the government/taxpayer money was history.
This brings to mind a very insightful observation I recently read: "a new technology that serves a market need does not need government support and intervention. No amount of government support will make a non-viable technology viable." Too bad the President and his Department of Energy does not abide by this insight, we may have saved half a billion dollars worth of taxpayer wealth and avoided more Presidential embarrassment.
- Try to figure this one out. A major trucking company, Old Dominion Trucking, has recently been sued by the Federal government because the trucking company would not let a recovering alcoholic on its staff to get back driving any of the company's 18 wheelers.
Apparently, several years ago, the driver told the company that he was an alcoholic. The company paid for his treatment process and gave him a non-driving job. However, the government said that this recovering alcoholic, not a recovered alcoholic, under the Americans With Disabilities Act should be allowed to drive again. Think of the possible bad consequences of this action:
- Who is responsible if this recovering alcoholic has a drink or two and ends up killing someone while driving? Certainly not the Federal government.
- Even if the driver did not have any drinks prior to an accident, you know the opposing attorneys will bring up the alcoholic's past in any lawsuit, increasing the risk and liability of the trucking company.
- How high do you think this company's insurance rates will go once the insurance company finds out that a recovering alcoholic is driving again?
- How many jobs will be lost since the company will have to divert expense money to higher insurance premiums rather than expanding their business?
- What happens if the company ends up having recovering meth heads, cocaine abusers, or ex-marijuana users drive their trucks? Do you want to be on the same highway when that recovering meth head decides to take a hit to stay awake?
So let's review the latest insanity. Millions and millions of dollars lost to fraud, millions of dollars lost to stupid government solar investments, bad political class priorities, embarrassing relatives that could impact national policy making, and endangering lives for no reason. Combine that with the goatherder regulations we disucssed two days ago and you can see that political class insanity lives another month.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/
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