September, 2012 Edition, Political Class Insanity - Part 1: The Simpsons, Our Do Nothing Congress, Obama's Fake Twitter Followers and More

As most of our readers know, at the beginning of every month we review the latest insanity, idiocy, and head scratching actions that emanate from our politicians at every level of government. If their wasting of our wealth via high taxes and destruction of our democracy and its freedoms were not so horrendous, their actions could actually be classified as comical. However, they do waste both our tax money and our liberties so "funny" rarely is the final summation each month.

As we have gone through time, we have found it necessary to go to more than one post to capture all of the monthly craziness. This month is no exception, our political class has been busy at work on the trivial and unresolved issues of our times, as illustrated below:

- According to an August 21, 2012 article by Bloomberg, the Post Office Inspector General issued a report critical of the Post Office relative to the special edition Simpsons television show stamps the Post Office issued back in 2009 and 2010. Rather than making them "Forever" stamps that could be sold and used indefinitely into the future, the Post Office decided to value them at the current cost of a first class stamp.

The Postal Service paid $1.2 million and ended up printing one billion of the commemorative Simpsons stamps. Unfortunately, according to the Post Office Inspector General analysis, only 318 million of the stamps were sold between 2009 and 2010. Since the remaining 700 million stamps were never sold and became relatively obsolete once the cost of postage was raised, the Post Office ended up destroying 70% of the one billion stamps they had produced. Simple math would compute that since about 70% of the stamps were destroyed and the total run was for $1.2 million, this one Post Office misadventure wasted over $800,000.

The Inspector General report estimated that this type of Post Office waste occurs every year to the tune of about $2 million. These numbers raise the obvious questions:

1. Why are these types of stamps not produced and sold as Forever stamps that can eventually be sold forever and the taxpayer investment never wasted?
2. Why was production of one billion stamps done before the demand for those Simpsons stamps was known? No rational company in the private sector would do their entire production of any product all at once. They would phase it in over time as they gauged demand. Apparently, modern inventory and production processes have not yet penetrated the Post Office.
3. If the Post office wastes $2 million EVERY year with these types of shenanigans, has not anyone learned from this type of mistake at any historical point in time? Have they learned nothing about their business or do they really not care since at some point in time the American taxpayer will always make up for their waste? Insanity.

- Many times and in many ways we have used some very simple math to show how inefficient, ineffective, and how stupid the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan was. The simplest math was to use the administration's own numbers to show that the cost per job of the stimulus was ridiculous:

• The Congressional Budget Office final cost estimate of the stimulus cost was about $830 billion.
• The administration boasts that the stimulus "created" or "saved" 2.7 million jobs.
• If we divide the jobs created estimate into the cost of the stimulus we see that the cost of each job, on average, was over $300,000 each!
• Since the average household income of an average American household is about $50,000, it cost the Federal government six times more to create a job than what an average job would pay in a year, hardly an efficient program.
• And as we have shown many, many times, the estimate of 2.7 million is likely way too high, making the average cost of each job created much more than the already obnoxious average of $300,000 per job.

But the fun with bogus political class math just got updated in the past week or so. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was bragging about how effective his Department spent taxpayer money within the overall economic stimulus program:

"Yeah, we spent $48 billion and we put 65,000 people to work in 15,000 projects in two years with no problems. I’m very proud of that. I know that the governors can spend this money because over two years we gave them $48 billion, they created 65,000 jobs in 15,000 projects. This is doable. We’re going to get the money out and get people to work.”

Note: The actual interview and actual words of the Secretary can be viewed at:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/lahood-im-very-proud-of-dot-stimulus-spending-at-738000-per-job-video/

Let's do the math: $48 billion to put 65,000 people to work comes out to about $738,000 per job, more than twice as expensive than what the unacceptable overall average was for the stimulus program. And he is proud of the fact that it cost three quarters of a million for each job created. How this is not a problem is lost on me.

Now, one could make the claim that at least we ended up with some infrastructure put in place or repaired for the $48 billion. That is probably a true statement to some degree as opposed to much of the rest of the stimulus program where no value added was created.

But we know and have reported on an Associated Press investigative report that of the more than two thousand bridges in this country that were repaired using stimulus money, over one thousand of them were not in need of repair, that is how bad the waste was.

Thus, if we assume that the stimulus program was handled and managed so poorly that half of the money spent was wasted on worthless projects like the bridge repair program, the cost of $738,000 was really double since half of the expense was wasted, bringing the average cost per job to almost $1.5 million for each job created. Pathetic. Note: the details of the Associated Press bridge article can be read at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/01/2009-year-end-review-good-bad-and-ugly_02.html

- Many times we have called for the termination/elimination of the Federal Department of Energy because of its inability to provide any tangible benefit for the tens of billions of dollars it receives every year for the past few decades. An Associated Press article from August 18, 2012 did not make their case any stronger for not being shut down for incompetence.

According to the article, the Y-12 National Security Complex is the responsibility of the Department of Energy and is known as the Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium:

• It is the source for nuclear weapons production for the United States. 
• The complex produces the uranium parts for every nuclear warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, takes apart old nuclear weapons and is our primary warehouse for military uranium.
• It is designed to withstand earthquakes, tornado-force winds and the crash impact of an airplane.
• It supposedly could also withstand a ground attack.

Obviously, this is one Federal facility that merits the very best security possible.

Unfortunately, several weeks ago, an anti-nuclear crusading 82-year-old nun and two fellow protesters were somehow able to walk onto the facility grounds and walk around for a while before they were found and apprehended. The three intruders claimed that they did not try to hide what they were doing and actually got a full  half mile into the supposedly secure facility. According to the article, this area contained signs that threatened to shoot intruders.

According to court documents, they used bolt cutters to get through three fences which set off security alarms in the process. During the two hours they wandered about, they were able to spray-paint and throw blood on the walls of the facility.

Obviously, this is a very serious piece of political class insanity. Supposedly secure radioactive materials and weapons and an 82 year nun gets deep into the complex. Unbelievable. Thank goodness painting and blood throwing was the extent of their aggression. How much money to we think the American taxpayer pays every year for this level of shoddy service?

- The website, Bankrupting America, had an interesting analysis earlier in August. They looked at the last week of Congressional activity in August before it was adjourned for a five week recess. They started by estimating how much the last week of the recent Congressional session cost the American taxpayer:

1. During that week they estimated taxpayers spent roughly $100 million on Congress.
2. Speaker of the House: $223,500/52 = $4,299
3. House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders: ($193,400/52) x 4 = $14,877
4. Other Representatives and Senators: ($174,000/52) x 530 = $1,773,462
5. Average weekly budget for all House offices: ($1,446,009/52) x 435 = $2,096,421
6. Average weekly budget for all Senate offices: ($3,409,093/52) x 100 = $6,555,958
7. Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462

The website goes onto list out what Congress accomplished, or failed to accomplish that week, a week that is usually pretty productive as our politicians usually try to get things done before rewarding themselves with a lengthy, five week vacation:

•House Of Representatives - Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012. SAVINGS: $256 million over 10 years compared to current baseline, about $26 million a year.
•House of Representatives - Provide for expedited consideration of a bill providing for comprehensive tax reform. COST: $0
•House of Representatives - Amend title 5, United States Code, to make clear that accounts in the Thrift Savings Fund are subject to certain Federal tax levies. SAVINGS: Recovery of $24 million in unpaid taxes.
•House of Representatives - Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2012. COST: $1 million in 2012
•House Of Representatives - Passed a bill that would extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for one year for every American.
•Senate - Reduce the number of executive positions subject to Senate confirmation. COST: $0
•Senate - Passed a bill that would extend some of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for some Americans.

Let's sum it up: the American taxpayer paid out $100 million for this pitiful performance, a performance that will not change during the five weeks that Congress and its current set of politicians are out of town. Pathetic value for our money as taxpayers.

- A New York Times article from August 22, 2012, which was cited in an August 244, 2012 USA Today article, reviewed how easy it is to actually purchases fake Twitter followers for your account. Obviously, buying Twitter followers is an easier way to make you look more popular than you actually are. For a penny or so a follower, you can get thousands of new fake/non-existent followers for a minimal charge without doing any hard work to actually earn them.

Let's see, easy to get, fake, no hard work involved, fake build up in prestige, sounds like an American politician's playbook. And it is, since according to the two articles, about 70% of President Obama's 18 million or so Twitter followers are fake, they do not exist, they were bought and paid for. Apparently, there are services out in the market that can scan the followers' list of any Twitter account and weed out those that are legit and those that are fake. And over 12 million of Obama's followers are fake.

And politicians want us to believe them when they promise to do something during their campaigns? I do not think so, especially when they lie about their Twitter accounts. Since Obama lied when he said he would cut the deficit in half, he lied when he said he would shut down Gitmo, he lied when he said middle class people would not see any tax increases, etc., he lied when he said he would provide positive hope and change, he lied when he said he would be bipartisan, etc., it should come as no surprise he lied about Twitter.

Let's review. Politicians lie, they waste our money, they cannot protect our security, they cannot manage a simple stamp inventory project, and they produce nothing of legislative importance. Yep, sounds like a typical month of political class insanity. More idiocy and craziness tomorrow.

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/