December, 2012 Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Food Insanity Around the Food, Overpaid Federal Employees, Debt and More Debt

At the beginning of every month we review the latest political insanity, idiocy, and wasteful spending that the political class has recently inflicted on us. Unfortunately, over time, the number of posts each month that we have dedicated to such insanity has grown as the politicians in this country continue to under serve us with all sorts of bad policies, behavior, and embarrassments. This month is no exception, as we will probably need at least three posts this week just to cover everything they have done over the past month or so.

Let’s start with our favorite source of political class insanity, the latest issue of Reason Magazine:

1) Some citizens of Prince George’s county in Maryland apparently do not like being watched by the many traffic light cameras that have been installed around the county to catch traffic violators. Since April, 2012, six of the cameras have been vandalized and destroyed, one of which was shot and another of which was burned.

Replacing these cameras is expensive, costing anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 for each one. Thus, the county announced in September that they will be installing a dozen surveillance cameras to watch the traffic cameras in an attempt to find out who is destroying the traffic cameras. There was no word on how the county was going to prevent the surveillance cameras from being vandalized in the same way the traffic cameras were being vandalized.

Rather than buying, installing, and maintaining these expensive cameras that someone obviously wants to destroy, would it not be a better economic solution to just hire a few more police officers to enforce traffic laws? They are certainly much less likely to be vandalized.

2) Most informed Americans know that the Federal government debt is well over $16 TRILLION or over $50,000 for every American citizen. Unfortunately, that is not the end of the debt nightmare. State governments are currently on the hook for about $4.2 TRILLION in unfunded debt obligations in the future or about $13,000 for every American citizen.

Thus, in addition to home mortgages, car loans, student, loans, etc., the average American, child or adult, will at some point have to pony up well over $60,000 just to bail out the Federal government and state governments whose politicians who have written checks, made promises, and incurred debt that they had no idea how to pay for.

3) The insanity of politicians is not restricted to this country. Politicians and bureaucrats in Falun, Sweden ordered a local school to reduce its vegetable lunch buffet by half and start selling less healthy store bought bread rather than the freshly baked bread it was making every day.

Why? The changes were ordered because the government officials felt it was not fair that students in other schools did not get the same healthy choices at lunch as this school.

Rather than really fix the problem the logical, correct way, find a way for all students to eat healthier, the officials took the insanity route and penalized some kids by making them eat less healthy meals. Idiocy.

4) According to an article in the this latest, January, 2013 issue of Reason magazine and a study by the Cato Institute, a Federal government employee earns an annual average salary of $74,800 while an average American working in the private sector earns $44,400. Is it any wonder that we have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION?

But Reason magazine is not the only source of political class insanity:

5) The city of Chicago is not in the best of shape these days. It has seen its murder rate escalate dramatically over the past few years. It just went through an ugly teachers strike which identified how high Chicago teachers salaries are for very low teaching levels of excellence. It is under severe financial stress and has historically been on of the most corrupt city governments in the country.

Given all of these challenges, one would have hope that the city’s politicians would be focused on these serious pubic safety and financial problems. However, according to a Chicago-Sun Times article from November 14, 2012, this is not the case:

• Obama’s former chief of staff and current Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, wants to impose nutritional restrictions on more than 350 vending machines in city buildings.
• These restrictions would prevent the vending machine owners and the customers that use the machines little say in what is offered.
• The new guidelines allow “high calorie” beverages to make up just one-quarter of all cold drinks sold. The definition of high calories is a ridiculously low 25 calories per serving.
• All hot beverages must also come in below 25 calories.
• Only containers of water and seltzer are allowed to be larger than 12 fluid ounces.
• Just one in four snacks sold can contain more than 250 calories.
• A certain number of snacks must also have less than 250 mg of sodium per serving.
• Additionally, each vending machine must have nut-free and gluten-free offerings.

Obviously, a lot of thought went into this idea, given the amount of details these machines will have to conform to. A lot of misguided thoughts. Taken to the extreme, in the context of Chicago’s real problems, we can assume that the increasing number of murder victims may die healthier deaths in Chicago, Chicago’s kids may be under educated in a healthier way, and Chicago’s corrupt politicians will eat better while ripping off the city’s taxpayers. Talk about a bad set of priorities that divert attention and resources to nonsensical problems while real, every day problems get worse.

6) But Chicago is not alone when it comes to food insanity. As you read the following craziness, keep in mind that almost 50 million Americans are receiving Federal food stamp assistance and that 23 million Americans are either unemployed or under employed so many Americans are struggling with the basic need to feed themselves and their families. According to a recent CBSNews,com report:

• As of October 31, shelters, soup kitchens, and similar facilities in New York City are barred from accepting food donations unless packaged and bearing nutrition data.
• That, effectively means an end to the tons of free meals previously provided by the likes of good hearted citizens like Glenn Richter, who has collected surplus food from synagogues to share with the poor for some 20 years.
• The new rules require that either meals and snacks served to the needy be prepared in compliance with precise nutrition standards laid out by government bureaucrats or not be served at all.
• Thus, all shelters and food banks are no longer allowed to accept food donations that are not prepackaged, because it is virtually impossible to know the precise nutritional content of such foods.
• This means that restaurants, churches, and community groups can no longer easily give surplus or prepared food to those who need it most, food that would have perfectly legal to serve to paying customers but apparently now is not good enough to serve to Americans who really are in need.
• The rules also bar all donations of candy or sugar-sweetened beverages. Heaven forbid that a homeless child should enjoy a free treat once in a while.

I know of know cases or calamities or deaths where caring people in food banks gave out bad food to those in need. As with the example cited, Mr. Richter has been serving the needy for 20 years. I am pretty sure that the city would have shut him down long before now if he was doing something terribly wrong.

This is a prime example where our governments and the politicians have spiraled out of control. It is where government bureaucracies and the politicians that oversee them have gotten so out of touch with America and basic reality that now many more Americans are likely to go hungry for no good reason at all. That is the true definition of political class insanity.

On that sad note we will end today’s version of the latest idiocy from our politicians. But rest assured more will follow in the next few days as reality slips away from those that politically serve America.
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