Given the ability to take trillions of dollars out of our debt, the “tax the rich” argument that Obama has put forth in these fiscal cliff negotiations is ludicrous. What is needed is a good "spring cleaning” of the Federal bureaucracy, where the President and Congress go through the Federal government budget item list, item by item, and throw out those entities, programs, and expenses that do not benefit a vast number of Americans.
Three steps from “Love My Country, Loath My Government” would be a good starting basis on how to execute this spring cleaning:
- Step 1 would reduce Federal spending by 10% a year for five years in order to finally get the Federal government to a balanced budget. By stripping out excess budget dollars from EVERY Federal organization, only essential government services could be provided with the greatly reduced funding available.
- Step 34 would remove politicians from their Congressional committee posts for dereliction of duty, specifically for wasting taxpayer money on silly programs and projects.
- Step 44 would eliminate any Federal program or expense that did not serve a high proportion of citizens from at least five states. No more funding bike trails in Michigan or farmers' markets in Kentucky (actual historical uses of federal funds). If Michigan needs a bike trail, let Michigan’s citizens fund its construction. If Kentucky needs a new farmers market, let the good folks in Kentucky fund it.
Today we will present two disgusting examples of misspent taxpayer money. The first example is the most popular post we ever did in this blog. It discusses the wasting of $310 million of Defense Department funding that was used to build two brand new Navy ships and how once they were almost complete, and $300 million spent, the Navy decided to spend another $10 million to turn them into scrap metal before they were ever used. You cannot make this stuff up.
The second example cost the American taxpayer $80 million for nothing in return. It relates how the State Department built an $80 million consulate building and THEN decided that it was not defensible from a terrorist attack. The very sad part of this story is that the State Department ignored its own guidelines for constructing buildings on foreign soil. If they had followed their own guidelines, $80 million would have been saved because construction never would have happened in the first place. Disgraceful
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Friday, July 22, 2011
U.S. Navy Ships For Sale! Cheap, Never Used, Act Now
Just when you think that you have identified the latest government waste of taxpayer money, some big new wastes jump into your face. Consider some recent news reports that reported on how the U.S. government was scrapping two of its Navy ships even though they had never seen one day of service. Details of the waste include:
•Two large Navy ships, that have never been used, are headed for the scrap yard even though they are almost completely finished and ready for duty.
•Work began on the USNS Benjamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford in 1985 at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company and were intended to carry fuel to the Navy's ships around the world.
•When the company defaulted on their Navy contract in 1989, the 600 foot ships were sent to Florida for completion. At the length of two football fields, these were not insignificant ships.
•The ships were eventually moved to the James River Navy yard and have sat there at 95% and 84% complete the past 18 years.
•A British company considered buying the ships and completing their build out for sale to a NATO country.
•However, since the ships are single hulled and double hulls are required for today's fuel carriers, the British company decided not to complete the construction and instead, settled on a $10 million contract and taxpayer expense to scrap the ships altogether.
•This week the ships are being towed to Texas to be cut up for scrap iron and scrap steel for recycling.
Thus, after spending $300 million to begin building the ships, almost finishing their construction, getting absolutely no use out of them, and paying to tow the ships from port to port, the taxpayers will get hit with one last insult and be charged $10 million to destroy the never used ships.
Where to start on this insanity:
1.Who is responsible for ordering the construction of these ships but never getting any use out of them? In the private market, if a business person was to incur that big of a screw up they would be out of a job.
2.Was there nowhere in the world that these ships could have been sold in order for taxpayers to get some money back rather than incurring another $10 million cost to have them destroyed? Even though the could not be used to haul fuel, was there no company in the world who would not want a sturdy Navy ship to ship other goods in its hold that was not fuel related?
There must be a Chinese shipping company who could use a new ship or two, especially since China's exports in the first half of 2011 was a record level of $874 billion, 20% higher than in 2010 (The Week, July 22, 2011). Thus, not only should the people responsible for building $300 million worth of ships be fired, the people who could not get anything in return by selling the ships should also be fired.
3.This is a classic example of Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Step 34 would remove politicians from any Congressional committee that does not do its committee job to at least to minimum standards. Whatever Congressional committee or subcommittee members were responsible for flushing $310 million of taxpayer wealth down the drain need to be removed from their committee or subcommittee posts.
The article contains a quote from Joseph Keefe from www.maritimeprofessional.com who stated that the scrapping the ships will "close one of the saddest chapters in American shipbuilding history and for that matter, Federal fiduciary folly." In other words, what a waste of taxpayer money. Very well said, Mr. Keefe.
Another scary aspect of this story is the thought that this may not be an isolated incident. What other $300 million wastes are hanging around the Pentagon closets? With Pentagon resources deployed in three war zones, dozens of foreign countries, and probably most of the fifty states, I find it hard to believe that this is the only wasted money in the Pentagon budget. Eliminating this type of despicable behavior would reduce the Pentagon budget without further endangering the defense of the United States.
While we are on the topic of waste, let's move out of the Defense Department domain and move to another area of gross government waste. According to an USA Today article, that was highlighted in the July 7, 2011 issue of The Week, the Federal government wastes about $17 billion of taxpayer wealth every year in the operation of its unemployment benefits program. Almost 12% of the program's budget is paid out fraudulently to Americans who are either collecting benefits they are not entitled to or are those people that have gotten a job but are still accepting unemployment benefits.
Compare these figures to the politically motivated ramblings of President Obama over the past few weeks. He has made a big deal about closing tax loopholes for oil companies and corporate jet users. Now, while I agree these loopholes should be closed, they are a pittance compared to the unemployment fraud.
Over ten years, the oil company loopholes would amount to about $20 billion and the corporate jets loophole would amount to about $3 billion, a total of $23 billion or so over 10 years. Ten years worth of this type of unemployment benefits waste comes out to $170 billion, which is almost eight times more than the political gamesmanship loopholes of Obama.
It never ends. The government cannot plan its Navy needs, resulting in wasting over $300 million on just two of its ships. The government cannot efficiently run a simple unemployment benefits program, wasting 12% of its budget and $17 billion a year. The politicians worry about the smaller, trivial wastes of taxpayer money while the bigger wastes go on and on every year.
The worst part of all, there is no apparent accountability. No one ever seems to be held responsible for all of the waste. Politicians continually get re-elected in the face of the waste. Government bureaucrats never seem to lose their jobs despite inefficiency and waste.
You wonder what kind of world those in DC live in where how well or bad you perform your job has no ramifications on your monetary reward and career paths. Its the kind of world I would like to live in where performance is unrelated to reality. But first, I need to see if any of those ships are still available, they are too good a deal to pass up.
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012
U.S. Consulate For Sale! Never Used, Cheap, Act Now!
The all time most popular post ever written in this blog occurred on July, 2012 and was entitled, "U.S. Navy Ships For Sale! Never Used, Cheap, Act Now!" It reviewed the sorry history of two U.S. Navy ships, the USNS Benjamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford:
- These two ships were built using taxpayer money to the tune of about $300 million.
- They were almost complete when the Navy decided that they were no longer needed.
- Rather than find a foreign or domestic buyer for these perfectly good ships, either military or commercial, and get at least some money in return for the $300 million investment, the Navy decided to scrap them.
- The ships were then scrapped at an additional cost to the American taxpayer of about $10 million.
And what a great example of continued bad priority setting by the Washington political class. While Congress went nuts with hearings and indignation about the blatant waste which incurred when the GSA treated itself to a lush, expensive, $832,000 party in Las Vegas, I do not believe any Congressional investigations or hearings were done to investigate the military's waste of $310 million, an escapade that was 372 times more expensive.
But if you missed out on buying those Navy ships, we have another great deal for you, courtesy of a wasteful effort from your State Department. According to an Associated Press article from May 6, 2012:
- The United States is considering abandoning a consulate it was building in the northern part of Afghanistan because the building is now considered too dangerous to occupy.
- $80 million of American taxpayer money has already been spent on the construction of the consulate.
- The construction was being done to a former hotel "despite glaring security deficiencies."
- These deficiencies included shoddy construction which was overlooked during construction.
- Apparently, waivers were granted to go around strict State Department building rules in a rush to open the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif as a sign of U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. i.e. they took an $80 million short cut with taxpayer money.
- The article described the various security problems including a susceptibility to car bombs, the sharing of a perimeter wall with local shopkeepers, being surrounded by tall buildings that could be used for an attack, the short distance between the compound's buildings and other buildings, the outer wall was not up to U.S. standards, and in the event of an emergency, there wasn't even enough space to land a single helicopter, so one would have to land on a nearby street.
- Besides the actual building location and security, the article goes on to say: "Neighborhood security also was in question. The compound was near a large mosque that is often the center of large protests in the city, and a nearby truck stop and pickup spot for day laborers provided easy cover for surveillance or attack."
Or said in official administration language: "Consequently, establishing a diplomatic presence at the current location is no longer believed to be tenable and the search for an alternative site has been initiated."
Another $80 million of taxpayer wealth down the drain for absolutely no benefit or return on investment. And apparently no Congressional indignation or investigation even though this fiasco is 96 times more expensive and wasteful than the GSA Las Vegas conference, an expense that made everyone's headlines and started Congressional investigations.
Three steps need to be taken relative to this disaster:
- Those involved in this waste of taxpayer money, those that picked the location without doing their security due diligence, those that signed off on the waivers that made a bad security situation worse, and those that supervised those that made these bad decisions need to be fired. In the private sector, if someone wasted $80 million like this, you can be sure they would be fired. If GSA people got fired for wasting $832,000, State Department people need to be fired for wasting $80 million.
- The entire process that led to this disaster needs to reviewed and changed so that it never happens again. One would have thought that after two hundred years, the Federal government would know how to do a simple thing like selecting a secure consulate location. Apparently they do not, so a complete, professional review of this decision process needs to be put in place.
- Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" needs to be put in place. Step 34 would remove Congressional members from their committee posts for massive screw ups such as the Navy fiasco described above and this embassy waste. Maybe if Congressional members knew that their committee posts were at stake, their performance and overview of their committees' responsibilities might be a little more diligent and effective.
So my questions to them would involve the following:
- How does taking $300 million out of the economy via taxes and spending that $300 million on Navy ships that are never used lead to economic growth? There are no usable assets available for continued economic growth after the ships dismantling is complete. That $300 million could have been used to build factories and businesses that would lead to continued economic growth into the future by the private market. Now all the country has is a pile of used scrap steel for its $300 million expenditure.
- How does the wasteful government spending of $80 million on a consulate half way around the world, that will never be used, contribute to domestic economic growth?
- How does losing $600 billion a year on waste, criminal fraud, and inefficiencies in the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other government programs improve the economy? If the Federal government and political class were doing their job, this $600 billion in waste could be returned to taxpayers for their use in the economy, a use that would be more efficient, more beneficial to the economy, and restore some degree freedom to the nation's citizens.
- Why do they still claim that politicians know how to efficiently and effectively spend our wealth?
- How can they possibly claim that spending $80 million in Afghanistan is a Federal government expense that should not be cut?
- How can they possibly claim that building and dismantling ships before they are used is a Federal government expense that cannot be cut?
- How can they possibly claim that losing Medicare funds to criminal fraud by the Armenian mob is a Federal government expense that cannot be cut (see the following post for the Armenian reference: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/10/speak-out-against-madness-of-irritating.html)?
But do not let this political insanity get in your way of a great investment. I doubt that those Navy ships are still available but if you move quickly, I bet you could get a sweet deal on this unused $80 million consulate, probably for pennies on the dollar. It is convenient to the local marketplace, is within walking distance to a main place of worship, and is out in the country, away from the hustle bustle. Just watch out for the Taliban, they can get a little agitated, in a terrorist sort of way.
[Note: Please visit the following post to see what actually happened once upon a time when the Federal government dramatically cut its spending, calling every Keynesian economic theory into doubt:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-really-happens-when-you-cut.html]
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$380 million spent with no return. That is why no American should ever pay another penny in taxes when such waste and idiocy pervades our Washington political class and Federal government.
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.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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