1) Senator Rand Paul and other members of Congress held a news conference in the middle of December where they vowed not to raise taxes on any American, given the incredibly wasteful spending of the Federal government. They cited many examples of massive and trivial spending including this gem: the Federal government spent thousands of dollars to send Federal employees to Hawaii to brainstorm on what types of food future astronauts would eat while on Mars.
It was unclear why 1) these employees had to be sent away (especially to far off Hawaii) from their offices to think about this silly subject and 2) more importantly, why they needed to think about something as inane as this for an event that is highly likely to never happen or, best case, will happen many decades in the future. It is no wonder why we have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.
2) An investigative report in the Washington Times in the second week of December found that a West Virginia millionaire Congressman from West Virginia owed back property taxes on his $900,000 Washington, D.C. house.
Apparently, Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall had spent years claiming a homestead exemption on his D.C. home AND another homestead exemption on his other home back in West Virginia. This is a no-no, no one, by law and Congressional rules, including a Congressman, is allowed to claim more than one homestead exemption. The article reports that while he has paid the back taxes owed, he still owes the penalties and fines he incurred.
This insult to taxpayers should not be confused with what happened to Congressman Fortney H. “Pete” Stark (D.-Calif.) in 2009. He was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for his taking a homestead abatement on his $2 million Maryland home, where he lives with his family, while claiming as his residence a home in his district, lived in and owned by his wife’s parents.
The investigation cleared Stark after it determined that his taking the Maryland tax break because it was credited to him, but he had never requested it. While he never asked for the exemption, it does not appear that he refused when it was given to him.
This is not to be confused with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, a former California Democratic Congresswoman. She had her February 2009 Congressional confirmation hearings delayed until her husband paid his back taxes on his auto repair business.
This is not to be confused with U.S. Democratic Senator Sherrod C. Brown was in arrears to the Washington D.C. city government for the taxes on his $222,000 Capitol Hill condominium. This charge of not paying taxes was used against Brown by his 2012 Republican opponent Ohio Joshua A. Mandel, a charge that was validated as true by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s “Truth-O-Meter” column.
Now you begin to see why Democrats in Washington want to raise taxes. Many of them never get around to paying their “fair share” so raising taxes is not a reality in their lives.
3) We usually combine illegal drug-related news and insanity into periodic posts dedicated to our lost war on drugs. However, this news item was worthy of being included in this month’s insanity. According to a December 14, 2012 Associated Press article, four law enforcement officers in Texas were arrested and charged with taking bribes worth thousands of dollars to protect shipments of cocaine through their law enforcement areas.
We have predicted this type of behavior many times before. Our idiotic lost war on drugs has enriched the Mexican drug cartels and corrupted much of the Mexican government structure, from judges down to local police. This corruption has now jumped the border, if these charges should prove to be true.
4) Speaking of bribes, a Business Week article educated me on how many of our most important ambassadorships are assigned. Ambassadorships are very important posts since they are our official Federal government liaison to other governments and other countries.
Thus, one would think that these important State Department posts are staffed and managed by some of the brightest people in the State Department, people with a long history of international and government affairs. You could think that and you would be wrong.
According to an article in the December 17, 2012 issue of Business Week, some of the most important and most visible ambassador posts are given to political allies who raised the most money for the politicians currently in power. Case in point: President Obama is considering naming Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to be the next U.S. ambassador to England.
What is the number one reason for this potential appointment? Ms. Wintour raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s Presidential run and inspired the “Runway To Win," a fashion line that brought upwards of $40 million to his campaign. Yes, the editor of a fashion magazine is in line to become one of the most important ambassadors in the world. Ludicrous.
Wintour’s competition for the London post is Obama’s national election finance chairman, Matthew Barzun. The article states that Wintour may also be in line for the French ambassadorship but would have to beat out Marc Lasry who raised over $200,000 for Obama’s campaign.
Money talks regardless of who is in power in the White House and Congress, almost always to the detriment of well run, efficient, and effective government operations.
By the way, whoever does become the next ambassador to England will live on a 12 acre estate called Winfield House, a building with dozens and dozens of rooms with private gardens that “are exceeded only by those of Buckingham Palace.” Now, aren’t you sorry you did not raise a lot of money for the campaign?
Three days of insanity: wasteful government spending, tax evading Democrats, armored cars for pumpkin festivals, and more. And just think, in just thirty days we will have to do this all again, with the latest idiocy from our political class.
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:
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http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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