But government incompetence is wild and rampant throughout the entire Federal bureaucracy, not just in the social support programs listed above. The following examples of the unabated, unrelenting, and unproductive actions of our Federal organization also waste untold billions of dollars every year with no tangible assets or benefit in return:
- Reiterating data we have reported on before, Senator Tom Coburn, in an interview in the May 7, 2012 issue of Business Week, stated that the Federal government currently operates at least 47 distinct and independent job training programs for U.S. citizens across the Federal bureaucracy. These 47 programs, according to the Senator, cost the American taxpayer $19 billion a year, all but three of them are mostly duplicative of each other, and judging by the nation's high unemployment rate, do not seem to be very effective in the current configuration.
How much money could be saved by combining these 47 programs together, eliminating overhead and possibly focusing the government's job training effort in the process, hopefully resulting in better results?
- Apparently, the Federal government's flood insurance program needs to raise its rates in order to start paying off the $18 billion in debt that the program has run up over the years, according to a recent news article. More Federal government debt, more burdens on taxpayers.
Which raises the age old question again: why did the Federal government get into the flood insurance business in the first place? Why should most American taxpayers help pay for the bad decisions of a few other taxpayers who insanely insisted on building their homes in flood prone areas? Did someone actually think that this was a good idea and the government would not run up negative financial returns to support poor decisions on home location?
- Bernie Madoff, as most people know, operated one of the biggest Ponzi swindle schemes of all time until he was caught, tried, and convicted. In order to try and help the swindled investors get at least some of their money back, the Federal government set up a process to do just that.
According to an article in the May 7, 2012 issue of Business Week magazine, Irving Picard was named the trustee of this recovery effort and for the past few years has been supposedly trying to do just that: liquidating Madoff's firm and assets to repay victims of the Ponzi scheme. He has filed claims and lawsuits against investment funds, banks, individuals, and some of Madoff's clients themselves.
However, three years after the plot unraveled, this Federal government effort is still basically stuck in the starting blocks. Quoting from the article, "winding down the Madoff estate has cost more than Picard has handed out to customers, with total administrative spending as of March 31 at about $554 million." The article points out that Picard personally has been paid $5.1 million and his law firm has earned just over a quarter BILLLION dollars for their efforts.
Similar to the ill fated government flood insurance policy, who in the Federal government thought it was a good idea to set this gentleman up in such a lucrative deal that he and his law firm make more than the many victims of the Madoff scheme recover? Madness.
- The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is supposed to oversee the election processes in this country to ensure everyone is playing by the rules and the laws when it comes to elections and the related campaign fundraising and spending. A Business Week article also from May 7, 2012 reviewed how poorly this government program is working out.
The highlights of this embarrassment include the following:
- Five of the six members of the commission are living on borrowed time since their terms were supposed to have ended already but their replacements have not been named.
- One of the commissioners, Ellen Weintraub, should have been replaced five years ago.
- The article concludes, probably correctly, that "the lack of fresh blood on the commission has rendered it nearly powerless" to oversee what is likely going to be the most expensive election season in the history of the country in 2012.
- The commission consists of three Democrats and three Republicans and they have deadlocked along party lines 34 times since 2008 on whether or not to investigate potential wrongdoing on the part of politicians. As a result, nothing happens to investigate most potential wrongdoing.
- On more than two dozen of the 34 times, The FEC's own legal staff recommended that an FEC investigation be started since there was enough data and evidence to suggest wrongdoing had actually happened.
- Apparently, this gridlock situation has gotten worse over time, with one expert quoted as saying: "You've reached a real major shift here, when the commission can't even start investigations."
- In 2007, the FEC handed down $4 million in fines for election wrongdoing. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, only $2 million in fines have been handed down in total over the three years. (I doubt it is because our political class got honest and legal all of a sudden.)
- Despite a campaign promise to submit nominees for consideration during his 2008 Presidential campaign, the President only submitted one name so far in his term, which was later withdrawn.
A fox guarding the hen house situation if there ever was one. For this illusion of fairness and enforcement we probably pay billions of dollars every year.
The only solution to this problem was suggested by Step 8 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." This step would make the head of the FEC a nationally elected office that would be structured so that we get a seasoned prosecutor elected into place that knows how to go after law breakers rather than political cronies that get appointed into place and whose primary responsibility, it seems, is to protect, rather than prosecute, fellow party members.
- After more than forty years of a failedand expensive "war on drugs," one would have thought the political class would get the idea that maybe their heavy handed prevention tactics were not working. Maybe they would have figured out that certain types of people want to use certain types of drugs, whether such usage is legal or not. And given there is still a demand, some other people will find ways, legal or not, to supply and satisfy that demand.
But apparently forty years is not sufficient time to prove a failing government strategy is not working. A recent article from the New York Times, that was reprinted in the Tampa Bay Times, pointed out that U.S. military forces have again been deployed in another country to try and impede the flow of drugs to the U.S. This time, American troops have been deployed to Honduras.
According to the article, as the drug cartels distribution channels got squeezed and compromised in Mexico, the cartels simply just moved their operations to Honduras, which is now the the hub for 90% of the cocaine heading towards the United States. It appears we are in a never ending, costly and deadly, battle of Whack-A-Mole. As soon as one conduit for drugs is shut down in one country, another conduit comes to life in another country.
Rather than play decades of Whack-A-Mole/Illegal Drug version and getting nowhere except to spend a lot of money, wouldn't it be a better and less expensive plan to play Treat-The-Addiction game? In this game, we allow people to do whatever they want to do their bodies but provide the addiction treatment resources for them to save themselves? It has to be cheaper and more effective than what we have been doing for over 40 years and getting nowhere.
- And in one of the silliest government actions of all time, the Obama administration is forcing U.S. electric ultillies across the country to shut down older, dirtier coal fired electric generating plants because of the potential ill effects on global warming. Sounds like a good idea, if you believe in global warming, but there is one really big problem.
According to the April 20, 2012 issue of Business Week magazine, coal exports from the U.S. to places like China and India have risen 57% since 2009. These countries are very busy operating and buidling coal fired electric plants in their own countries to keep up with their skyrocketing demand for electricity.
Thus, on one hand the Federal government is imposing hardships on U.S. utilities, businesses, and consumers by making electricity scarcer in this country while the potential positive impact on global warming by these domestic actions will be easily wiped out by U.S. coal being used in more and more dirty electric generation plants overseas. Makes you wonder if these Washington people ever think through a problem and the likely consequences of any of their actions. It does not appear that they do.
47 different, redundant Federal government training programs, a government program that encourages people to put their home where it is likely to sooner or later get flooded out, a criminal recovery program that is more expensive to operate than the money it recovers, an election oversight committee who oversees everything like a blind man in a tunnel at night, deploying U.S. military forces around the world to solve a problem that can only be solved within the U.S.'s borders, and finally, killing coal usage on one hand while letting it go wild on the other hand.
We are truly living in a world where it is "Federal Government Gone Wild." Unfortunately, we pay for the wild part with hard earned tax dollars and get nothing in return except wild stories of incompetence like those listed above.
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/
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