1) We have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION. According to a January 17, 2013 Associated Press report, there are hundreds and hundreds of deficient and dangerously flawed levees across the country that are at risk of collapsing at any minute and endangering the lives and properties of millions of Americans in at least 37 states. Hurricane Sandy victims are still waiting for relief. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are rapidly approaching insolvency.
Despite all of these dire financial situations, what did the Federal government recently spend $100,000 on: “The National Endowment for the Arts is funding the Spelman College of Atlanta, Ga.’s multi-episode game called “HERadventure.” In the grant announcement made last year, the NEA said the story “focuses on a young female superhero sent to Earth to save her own planet from devastation because of climate changes caused by social issues impacting women and girls.”
Now, $100,000 is not going to fix any of the problems listed above. However, before you can start saving millions of dollars in wasted spending, you have to start saving thousands. And before you can start saving billions, you have to start saving millions, etc. Wasting $100,000 on an inane game would have been a great start on the road to fixing what ails this country in a meaningful way as opposed to idiotic, wasteful, useless programs like this.
2) In late December, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors workers will each receive an annual bonus of between $5,500 and $7,000 a piece. This past week it was reported that the Treasury Department is about to unload the last of the millions of GM shares it still owns. If that sale of shares comes to past, the American taxpayer would stand to lose about $12 billion on the direct bailout of General Motors.
Such a deal, the American taxpayer theoretically contributes just over $100 per household to a bankrupt company that in turn gives bonuses to its workers of up to $7,000. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? And this is just the result of the direct GM bailout. The forgiving of back taxes and the failed bailouts of other former GM corporate components is not included in this scam.
3) The Dayton Daily news reported in late December, 2012 that A Federal judge had sentenced a local resident, Al-Idu Al-Gaheem to one year and one day in prison for his leadership in a scheme that bilked $3.8 million from the Federal food stamp program.
Al-Gaheem had faced as many as four years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, food stamp trafficking and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. The scheme involved Al-Gaheem and his co-conspirators illegally paying customers 50 cents in cash for every $1 in food stamp benefits they redeemed.
The $3.8 million they stole from the American taxpayer was allegedly spent on themselves and their businesses. Although the court order requires them to pay back the $3.8 million, the article concludes that this will likely never happen since the money has all been spent.
You really have to be kidding me, only one year in jail for stealing almost $4 million? Doesn’t seem fair or just, maybe that is the reason that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid lose over $200 billion a year to waste and criminal fraud. The penalties for getting caught are just not steep enough to scare off the criminals.
4) As you begin to get your tax documentation together in order to prepare your Federal income tax return, consider a short article that was published in the December 21, 2012 issue of The Week magazine. The article, originally from Bloomberg, reported that Google avoided paying about $2 billion in taxes in 2011 by transferring $9.8 billion in revenue to a Bermuda holding company.
The amount transferred to Bermuda, where there is no income tax, represents about 80% of Google’s pretax profits. Thus, while many American small business owners saw their taxes go up when the fiscal cliff deal was signed, apparently Google can continue to shield billions in tax liabilities offshore.
I believe that everyone’s taxes on average should be reduced, given the trillions of dollars the Federal government has wasted over the years. However, for someone that is always yapping about paying one’s fair share of taxes, Obama and the Democrats really seem to be taking their time dealing with atrocities like this while the successful local pizzeria owner might have just seen his tax burden go up.
5) Let’s stay with the income tax theme. How high is your household income that you will be taxes on in April?
According to the AARP Bulletin magazine from December, the estimated median income of each state and the District Of Columbia ranges from a low of $36,919 in Mississippi to a high, almost 100% higher, of $70,004 in Maryland. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau). Since the average household income across the entire country is just below $50,000, we also see that Maryland residents make about 40% more than the average U.S. household.
But who lives in Maryland? A large portion of those high income households are high paying jobs that depend on the Federal government and your tax dollars. In fact, the fourth highest median household income are those households living in the District Of Columbia, $63,124, about 26% higher than the average U.S. Household.
As always, the political class, and the lobbyists, contractors, and industries that depend on extensive large Federal spending, are certainly taking care of themselves financially. In fact, we have previously reported that seven of the top ten richest counties in the country are in the greater D.C. area.
Thus, another example of the evolving elitist ruling class in this country, a class that pays themselves better than the people that make their salaries possible, a class that needs private bathrooms worth over $200,000 a class that readily excepts bribes while in office, etc. Insanity and insults, a monthly affair that never ends.
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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