Unfortunately for the country, over the past month we have uncovered more than the average amount of stupidity and unbelievably bad behavior from our politicians, so much so that we need to divide this month's insanity review over two days. Tomorrow we will look at the regular types of insanity that pervade our political landscape. However, today we will look at the insanity "by the numbers," the quantitative view of what our politicians continually inflict on us and the numbers of despair they create in the process:
- According to a blurb in the February 24, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, a recent Pew Research study found that 1.8 million dead people are still registered to vote in various states, 2.75 million people are registered to vote in more than one state, and 51 million Americans are not registered and cannot vote.
If voting is the ultimate expression of democracy, it has to be scandal free and corruption free. It cannot reach this integrity if the voting rolls are so out of date, so bad, and so lacking in tens of millions of registered voters. You would have hoped that more than two centuries after our democracy was created, the political class would be able to implement a voting process that was a true reflection of the desires and freedom of Americans. According to Pew, that was too much to ask of our politicians and the voting processes they oversee.
- In that same issue of The Week, a review of a recent Rasmussen poll found that 43% of Americans would rather have Congress operated by a random selection of people from the phonebook than by the current members of the Congressional political class. Only 5% of those polled thought Congress is doing a good job.
Reminds one of the recent Brazilian elections where a famous clown (yes, a clown) called Grumpy was actually elected on the campaign slogan of, "How much worse could it get?" It looks like Americans are starting to see the wisdom of Grumpy's insight.
- The U.S. Postal Service lost $3.3 billion in the last QUARTER of 2011, a tenfold jump from the same period in 2010, according to the Associated Press. Despite the dire results and trend, who wants to make a bet that the President and Congress will do nothing in time, or anything that makes sense, to address the issue before the American taxpayer will again have to step in with a major bailout?
- The February 24, 2012 issue of The Week also reviewed the President's recently unveiled program to help stressed homeowners get mortgage and refinance help. The program will cost about $20 billion, which sounds like a lot of money, but really is not. U.S. homeowners are underwater, they owe more than their homes are worth, to the tune of $700 billion. Thus, $20 billion is about 3% of the $700 billion problem, hardly enough to make any kind of dent in the problem.
Even more ridiculous, according to RealtyTrak, about 2.87 million U.S. homes entered into foreclosure in 2010. If each of these homeowners got an equal share of the $20 billion, assuming nothing was lost in the administration of the program, either administration costs or fraud, than each of these foreclosed homeowners would have gotten just under $7,000. Again, this relatively small amount would probably make no difference in stemming the tide of foreclosure.
Just another $20 billion of taxpayer wealth thrown at a problem without 1) solving the problem and 2) understanding the underlying and pathetic math of why the problem was not solved. But we have seen this wasting of billions of dollars for nothing in return many times over the years from politicians that use useless solutions like this to help their reelection rather than come up with real solutions that make logical and financial sense.
- According to CNNMoney.com, the percentage of young people without jobs is at its lowest point since the government began tracking the statistic in 1948. Only 54.3% of people ages 18 to 24 were employed in 2011, down from 62.4% in 2007.
And the longer these young Americans are unemployed, the more likely they are to never reach their potential in the economy and job market as more and more young people become of age and also try to enter the job market. This tragic statistic is a ringing indictment of both our failed education system and the failed economic policies of the entire Washington political class.
- According to a recent article by Time.com, the American taxpayer is still owed about $133 billion that was doled out to banks and other financial institutions in the TARP bank bailout program. More than 450 companies still owe us money. Most of these debtors are small banks. However, the article points out that AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, and the auto financing divisions of these car companies are still on the hook for $90 billion of outstanding taxpayer wealth.
It has always been our position that TARP and all of the bailouts were a political sell off to corporate America in return for current and future reelection campaign support and that these companies should have been allowed to adapt and make the difficult financial decisions to survive or go out of business because of their own bad decisions. However, each American household is still owed about $1,200 each for the unpaid balance of the bailouts.
- According to an article in the November 23, 2011 issue of The Week magazine, president Obama has agreed to station 2,500 military troops in Australia, along with Navy war ships, "as a way to exert pressure on China."
It is my recollection that China has over 1 million people in its military, which raises the obvious question: just exactly how are 2,500 U.S. troops, no more than 2.5% of the size of the more local Chinese armed forces, supposed to exert pressure? Just another wasteful and strategically stupid deployment of U.S. troops overseas.
- Business Week reported in its January 16, 2012 issue that the Dodd-Frank financial industry reform law was 2,300 pages long. How many of the 535 members of Congress do you actually think read this piece of legislation that the majority of them voted to enact into law? Given the attitude of long term Congressman John Conyers, as illustrated by the following video, I would say the over/under bet line for the number of politicians who read the 2,300 pages is about 10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=t32ckkdlcao&NR=1
There you have it, the latest political class insanity, by the numbers. Pretty depressing and certainly continued sub-standard performance from substandard politicians, the numbers do not lie.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
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The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
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http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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