- According to a June 6, 2012 article in the Denver Post, the state government of Colorado erroneously paid out $128 million in unemployment benefits in 2011. This is about 15% of the total budget paid out, an unacceptable error rate. This $128 million is up about $31 million more than in 2010 so the problem is getting worse.
Adding insult to injury, although the state made the mistake, it is now going back to Colorado residents and insisting that those residents who incorrectly received unemployment benefits, because of the state screw up, have to return the funds. Many of the residents have already spent the benefits they received through no fault of their own since they were unemployed (but for whatever reason were not eligible for benefits). Good luck getting that taxpayer wealth back.
- I usually do not report on news reports from outside the country but given President Obama's vanity and the fact that former Democratic candidate for President, John Edwards, used to pay $400 for a haircut, I could not resist including what looks like a legitimate news article from the Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom.
According to the article, a recent news report claims that President Obama flies his own personal barber from Chicago to Washington twice a month to cut his hair. According to German Public Radio, Mr Obama's Hyde Park barber of the past 17 years gets flown to the capital for the haircut every 10 to 14 days. The article can be found at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153055/Who-paying-President-Obama-flies-favorite-barber-Chicago-White-House-TWO-WEEKS.html#ixzz1wVyLKwsc
The article's writer was not able to find out who pays for the twice monthly trips for the barber, the President or the taxpayer. Regardless of who pays for it, are you kidding me? No one in the D.C. area can cut the President's hair? And the President has time to get a haircut every 10-14 days? Sounds like a bad set of priorities to me, given that tens of millions of Americans are having a hard time with unemployment and under employment.
- Last week in this blog when we were reviewing the disgraceful amount of wasteful government spending, we identified about half a dozen alternative energy companies that the Obama administration had given over $3 billion worth of taxpayer wealth to. All of these alternative energy companies have failed miserably, taking that $3 billion worth of taxpayer wealth down the bankruptcy drain with them before providing any redeeming, positive benefits to society.
Compare this total disaster to the details from a June 5, 2012 Associated press article. The article highlighted an uninterrupted 20 hour trip an experimental solar-powered plane made from Madrid, Spain to Morocco, the first transcontinental journey by a craft of its type.
This is the same plane and technology we had discussed in a previous post which had stayed in the air for 24 hours, powered solely by the solar energy from its 12,000 solar cells. The plane was obviously in the air during both night and daylight hours. The plane is capable of flying as high as 28,000 feet and 75 miles per hour.
The cost of developing such wonderful technology? According to the article, the cost is about $100 million. The Obama administration spent more than thirty times that amount on its poor selection on alternative energy projects and has nothing to show for it. Insanity.
- Last week we spent a lot of time talking about the various and inventive ways that the Federal government wastes and loses taxpayer wealth. We pointed out how the Navy spent $300,000,000 to built two new ships and then turned around and spend another $10 million to turn them into scrap metal since the nearly completed, but never used, ships were no longer needed.
We pointed out how the State Department had spent $80 million to build a consulate in a northern Afghanistan city and THEN decided it could never be used since it was not defendable against terrorist and Taliban attacks.
We pointed out how the government's primary social safety net programs lose over $200 billion a year to criminal fraud and incompetence.
We pointed out how a regional arm of the Federal government's General Services Administration had wasted over $800,000 on a Las Vegas party thinly disguised as a business meeting.
Yes, the waste just keeps on coming and coming from all sorts of directions, with the above examples not even being close to being comprehensive. And now we find out that the Library of Congress has jumped on the waste bandwagon. A recent investigation by the library’s inspector general found $771,163 in questionable spending from the prior six months.
As an example of what is going on in the Library, an outside consulting firm randomly selected and examined $52 million in contracts issued by the library. More than half of the contracts were awarded without opening up the contracts to competitive bids, obviously opening up questions on potential kickbacks and overspending.
Inspector General Karl Schornagel stated: “The reason this has gone on for 10 years is because there is a lack of continuity in leadership. And beyond that, there’s really no excuse. That’s not even an excuse.” So the if the $771,163 were potentially wasted in just the past six months and the Inspector General says this type of behavior has been going on for 10 years, how many millions or tens of millions of dollars has just the Library of Congress wasted over that time?
There you have it. Three solid days of wasteful spending and other insanity by the American political class. Disgraceful shameful, and certainly reason to dump every incumbent out of office in November. We cannot waste another minute allowing this insanity to continue.
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 our 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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