Today, let's use math and statistics just to show how silly and/or how incompetent our political class has become and why the members of the political class need to be replaced as soon as possible. If we do not replace them, the math will continue to not add up. We'll review some current statistics and math to try and figure out how did we allow our politicians to get us in so many silly and depressing places today:
1) President Obama is back on his "tax the rich" kick again, this time again using Warren Buffet as a prop and trying to get Americans to believe that increasing taxes on Americans making over a million dollars a year is a great and critical step to take. Various estimates exist on how much this will increase Federal tax revenue but the most consistent estimate I have seen is about $47 billion over ten years or about $4.7 billion a year.
Rather than worry about the TRILLIONs and TRILLIONs of dollars Mr. Obama has added to our nation's national debt, he refuses to acknowledge this disaster and engages full time in the relatively petty amount of $4.7 billion a year, only because it might get him some election year talking points.
How petty is $4.7 billion a year? Let's do some simple math:
- If you were to somehow directly redistribute that $4.7 billion back to all of the non-millionaire citizens in this country, each of us would get about $.04 a day.
- Last month's deficit spending estimate incurred by the Federal government was about $198,000,000,000 (yes, in one month the Feds overspent their revenue stream by just under $200 billion.) If you assume the additional Buffet tax on millionaires would be spread out equally over each of the twelve months, then the additional millionaire tax money would have covered about .2% of last month's Federal deficit.
- As we discussed above, ten years worth of incremental millionaire taxes would generate about $47 billion for the Federal government. Those tax dollars would be able to pay off about .31% of our CURRENT national debt (in fact, it would be even less since this administration would continue to have us on an ever enlarging national debt increase in the ten years it would take to gather the incremental $47 billion).
Simple math, simpler politicians who cannot even see that this election year ploy is ridiculously stupid. It will never find its way back to other Americans (i.e. we will never see that $.04 a day), it will not significantly reduce any measure of deficit spending and our national debt, and it distracts the politicians running for office and Americans who need to vote from the real issues and financial disaster confronting all of us.
2) If Obama really wants more money, he does not have to increase taxes on any American, rich or poor. According to an article in the March, 2012 issue of AARP magazine, the IRS fails to collect about $385 billion a year in taxes from individuals and businesses that they are legally required to pay. The Federal government's failure to collect this tax liability makes honest taxpayers pay more and further increases the country's national debt.
Let's do some simple math:
- If this legally owed, but uncollected, $385 billion a year could be collected, it could theoretically reduce the every American household's tax liability by over $3,300 a year.
- This extra $385 billion a year is about 82 times larger than what Obama's shallow and politically motivated millionaire tax idea would bring into the Federal government.
- Over ten years, collecting that missing $385 billion a year would generate about $3.85 TRILLION. This is about 26% of our current national debt vs. a measly .31% of the current debt that Obama's new millionaire tax is worth.Simple math, simpler politicians.
3) Here is some depressing math and statistics from the March 2, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, reporting on a Chicago Tribune source: since 1976, 1,531 public officials from the Chicago area have been convicted of corruption. This simple math works out to the following, depressing conclusions
- On average, more than one Chicago public official was convicted every week for 27 years in the Chicago area for corruption.
- These are CONVICTIONS, not arrests, no indictments, not plea bargains, CONVICTIONS.
- This conviction rate was only in the Chicago area, it did not include the entire state of Illinois or any other sub part of Illinois, just the Chicago area.
4) An insight saying that I always remember (source unknown) when discussing government, politicians, and math goes as follows: "The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words."
Maybe we have a $15 TRILLION national debt because the government bureaucracy has gotten so large and cumbersome that we actually hire someone, somewhere to write down 26,911 words on cabbage.
5) But apparently no one in the political class sees this as a problem because according to another article in the March 2, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, in 2013 the number of Federally mandated categories of illness and injuries for which hospitals may claim reimbursement will soar from 18,000 different types of illnesses and injuries to 140,000. Outrageous numbers, probably courtesy of Obama Care. Again, someone, somewhere in the wasteful bureaucracy had to come up with, write down, get approval of, and print up not only 18,000 types of claims but 122,000 new ones.
But the math insanity does not stop at 122,000 because included in those 122,000 new categories are:
- Nine categories of injuries and illnesses that were caused by parrots.
- Three categories of injuries and illnesses that were caused by flaming water skis.
6) Here is some simple math that should hit everyone. According to a Bloomberg blurb printed in the March 30, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, for every penny increase to the cost of a gallon of gas, about $1 billion of consumer spending on other goods and services in the economy vanishes. More simple math:
- When Obama took office in early 2009, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was about $1.86.
- Today in the greater Tampa area, the average price of a gallon of gas is about $3.90, an increase of $2.04 in only 27 months.
- Thus, if you believe Bloomberg, the continued lack of an energy plan for the country has removed $204 billion out of the economy and into the coffers of foreign oil exporters and oil companies.
- This gas increase takes about $1,775 out of every average American household's budget, money that could have helped the economy recover and grow.
7) The April 6, 2012 issue of The Week magazine had some very distressing math relative to one of the most tyrannical humans of the last century. When you think of Joseph Stalin, you do not think of anything good. The head of the former Soviet Union, Stalin was responsible for the killing of millions of political enemies and ordinary citizens. He imprisoned millions of people for little or no reason in inhumane conditions.
With this perspective, The Week reported the statistic that the U.S. now has more than 6 million people in jail or in prison. This is a higher number than the Soviet Union imprisoned in gulag prisons during Stalin's reign.
That is some truly frightening math. We are no better than Stalin. I would bet that the vast majority of those imprisoned are for drug-related offenses, a testimony to the continuing failure of the political class to come up with an effective and compassionate drug strategy.
Simple math, simpler politicians with no imagination when it comes to the drug wars.
Isn't math fun? By using math we can see how we are all misserved by just about every American politician when you look at their track record of numbers.
Many of them are in jail.
Many of them have put untold millions of undeserving Americans in jail due to their failed war on drugs.
They hire and pay people to write extensive cabbage regulations and to dream up thousands of thousands low potential injury scenarios involving flaming water skis and parrots.
They fail to collect hundreds of billions of dollars a year in taxes while wanting to impose new taxes in the face of their tax collection incompetency.
An old sports saying goes as follows: "You are only as good as your record." The above numbers of our political class's performance are not very good at all. Thus, their record is not very good at all. For that, they need to be removed from their positions and replaced with new players, just like any losing sports team would do. Unlike politicians, the numbers and the math do not lie, they are what they are.
"We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
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.
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 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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
No comments:
Post a Comment