- The October 14, 2011 issue of The Week contained a story about the failed Federal government program on mortgage support and relief for struggling homeowners. The program has been a failure since it started last year:
- Although funded with a billion dollars to help unemployed homeowners with their underwater mortgages, the program closed after a year with only half of its budget spent. Imagine that: a government program that did not spend all of its budget, you know that it must have been a bad program.
- The article claims that the program was plagued by poor administration and onerous qualifying rules and guidelines.
- Because of the strict eligibility guidelines, less than half of the intended 30,000 recipients received half under the program.
- A Dallas consumer credit counseling center helped more than 1,000 homeowners file the necessary paperwork, only to see about 80% of the needy homeowners get rejected by the program's strict income guidelines, i.e. in order to get government help for mortgage relief as a result of the homeowners did not having a job, they needed to adhere to strong income requirements, which they could not because they often did not have a job.
- An article in the September 21, 2011 issue of The Week talked about the potential for defrauding the Federal government via scams from the for-profit colleges and schools:
- There are 2,000 for-profit colleges in the country which serve 12% of all American students involved in higher education today, up from 3% ten years ago.
- Critics contend that these colleges mislead applicants about loan costs, overstate the post graduation salaries, target the homeless and disabled veterans to increase enrollment, and provide dubious educations and degrees that do not lead to better paying jobs and careers.
- As an example, they cite the University of Phoenix, the market leader, which graduates less than 9% of its students in six years.
- Bridgepoint Education posted a $216 million profit last year from its 78,000 students despite the fact that 84% of its students drop out within two years of enrolling, the school has 1,700 recruiters but only one job placement person on staff, and according to Senator Tom Harkin, the school is "an absolute scam."
- Many students report worthless degrees with mountains of student loan debt after attending these for-profit institutions.
- The largest for-for profit company has annual revenue of almost five billion dollars and the CEO of another leading for-profit education company took down an annual salary of $42 million, sixty times more than what the president of Harvard University made.
A recent Congressional committee report stated that "Some for-profit schools are efficient government-subsidy collectors first and educational institutions second." Some critics claim that the for-profits intentionally target poor and minority students for the express purpose of leveraging their status to get Federal government aid money, which has grown from $4.6 billion in 2000 to $26 billion today.
As a result, according to Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "Millions of low income students are borrowing heavily to attend for-profit colleges and too many of them are dropping out, failing to to get a job, and leaving the taxpayers with the bill. In the meantime, many of the for-profit colleges are getting rich off of Federal grants and support.
Although the article points out that the Federal government is finally starting to crackdown on the fraud and waste in the program, citing the recent suit against Education Management Corporation which is accused of fraudulently charging the Federal government for $11 billion for student aid over the years, one always has to wonder 1) why it took so long to do the right thing and crack down on the fraud and 2) how much taxpayer money has been wasted over the years and how much will continue to be wasted in the future?
At $26 billion a year, this inefficient and ineffective program could fund more than half of Obama's jobs program every year. It is the one government program that might do a worse job at creating jobs than Obama's job proposal, wasting money on students that rarely get educated and never get job placed successfully. Missteps, mistakes, or misses?
- According to an April, 2007 Newsweek article by Fareed Zakara, as reviewed under Step 25 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," China and India were scheduled to open up more than 800 coal burning power plants between 2007 and 2011. This comes out to about 160 plants new coal plants per year, three per week, coming on line.
The article estimates that just these new coal plants, not existing coal plants in China and India, will dump 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air every year. Certainly a cause for concern regardless of whether or not you believe in man made global warming. 2.5 billion TONS is a lot of air pollution.
So what is the political class doing about it? Apparently nothing since they are preoccupied with what American asthma sufferers put into the lungs to be able to breath. According to an article in the Weekly Standard on September 23, 2011, the Obama administration banned the current set of asthma relief inhalers that most asthma sufferers use, as of January, 2012. The reason? An international treaty that seeks to reduce the amount of chlorofluorocarbons released into the air in an attempt to protect the ozone layer.
But these asthma inhalers do not release chlorofluorocarbons into the air, they are released into a person's lungs so that they can breathe easier. However, the Federal government is banning them and forcing Americans to use a different type of inhaler which will cost anywhere from 50% more to three times as much per inhaler.
Let's see, focus on getting the Chinese and Indian governments to reduce the incremental 2.5 billion TONS of pollutants their new power plants will put into the atmosphere every year or make Americans pay more for different medical relief from asthma for the medicine they shoot into their lungs, not the air, different medical relief that may not work as well? What is the better priority and better use of government resources? A misstep, mistake or miss on the part of the political class and Federal government?
- According to an article in Fortune magazine, that was summarized in the October 14, 2011 issue of The Week magazine, prices for prime Midwest farmland have risen 17% on average over the past year as a result of rising food prices and the growth of the corn ethanol market. Thus, tell me again why the American taxpayer still pays Americans farm interests tens of billions of dollars every year in farm subsidies, subsidies that mostly go to big agriculture corporations and not family farmers? Missteps, mistakes or misses when it comes to wasting taxpayer money via corporate welfare?
- The last misstep, mistake, or miss comes from a recent Associated Press news article. The U.S. Senate has voted to block an Obama administration proposal that would limit potatoes in school lunches. It seems that the administration is worried about too many kids eating too many French fries at lunch time in our schools, wanting to restrict schools to two servings a week of potatoes and other starchy vegetables.
The U.S. Senate actually took formal government time and resources and voted to accept an amendment by Republican Sen. Susan Collins that would block the government from putting any limits on serving potatoes or other vegetables in school lunches. Collins is from Maine, a potato-growing state.
14 million Americans unemployed, national debt fast approaching $15 TRILLION, pubic schools in this country still undereducating our kids on average, leaky borders, three foreign military conflicts underway, no national energy policy, health care costs up 9% on a year over year basis, the country as divided as ever, a President who would rather politically campaign than actually execute his Presidential duties, the economy on the verge of another recession, etc. Do our Senators really believe that the great potato debate should take precedence and attention over dozens of other more important and more pressing issues facing the majority of Americans today? Misstep, mistake, a miss or just plain pathetic?
You look at these constant, unrelenting misses, in whatever form they appear, and you begin to see the imperative need for Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," the need to impose term limits on all Federally elected positions. The current crop of politicians has been in office for so long that they no longer understand the reality of the average American's world.
This is a world and a reality where unemployment issues should be handled before potato issues, a world where wasting taxpayer dollars on fraudulent schools, bad mortgage programs, and agriculture corporate welfare should take precedence over potato issues, a world where we properly set balances and priorities so that American asthma suffers do not suffer, both medically and financially, when India and China are doing far more harm to the world's environment. Term limits now, less misses later.
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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