Harry Reid: Insulting and Slandering American Citizens While Ignoring Reality

Senator majority Leader Harry Reid had some recent harsh words for people/citizens that are associated with or who support Tea Party principles of minimal, effective government with maximum freedom and liberty:

We have a situation where this country has been driven by the Tea Party for the last number of years. When I was in school, I studied government and I learned about the anarchists. Now, they were different than the Tea Party because they were violent. But they were anarchists because they did not believe in government in any level and they acknowledged it. The Tea Party kind of hides that.

They don't say they're against government, but that is what it all amounts to. They're not doing physically destructive things to buildings and people, directly, but they are doing everything they can to throw a monkey-wrench into every form of government, whether it's local, state or federal. That's what it's all about. And so, anything they can do to through a monkey-wrench in the wheels of government, they're happy doing that. And I'm sorry to say that my friend from Oklahoma is helping them. Maybe not directly, but indirectly, and that's wrong. Government is not inherently bad; government is inherently good. That's why we have a Constitution and that's what we direct the activities of this government based upon. (Senate Floor, April 23, 2013)

Harry, Harry, Harry, where to begin to discuss this insanity of yours? Tea Party people and organizations never said they were against government, they are just against bad government, oppressive government, wasteful government, the type of government and government policies that you and others have been operating for a long time.

You mistakenly interpret our disgust and frustration with the American political class as disgust and frustration with the American form of government as laid out in the Constitution. Our disgust and frustration is not with our government structure but with the way you and others operate within and outside of that structure.

Here is how the Tea Party supporters and probably most of America view our form of government (double click on the picture for a larger view):

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are the foundation of our form of government, with the tenets of liberty laid out in these documents executed by a minimalist Federal government which puts individual American freedom at the pinnacle of this Freedom pyramid.

Unfortunately, people like yourself have perverted this concept of freedom in the following manner:

In your perverted view of government, the political class is at the pinnacle, not individuals and individual freedoms. That is what many object to, this perverted pyramid of freedom, not the desired, original, Constitutional pyramid of freedom.

Note: a more detailed discussion of these pyramids can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-freedom-pyramid-where-it-is-and.html

Government is not inherently good as you contend, government is inherently necessary. The original intent of government was to have a limited, centralized entity to do a limited number of functions for citizens that could be done more efficiently, inexpensively, and effectively from a central process. Build and maintain roads and other infrastructure, provide protection of citizens with an unbiased police force and judicial system, provide for a common national defense, and a few other, limited functions.

Our government today in Washington is not inherently good, it is a bloated, expensive, ineffective, and dangerous bureaucracy:

• The Federal government and the political class that operate it are neither inexpensive, effective, or efficient.
• They have run up a national debt of almost $17 TRILLION, an individual debt of over $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.
• And as a U.S. Senator once said, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." No modern infrastructure, no first class education system, no national energy strategy, nothing to show for a debt that has grown from $13 trillion to almost $17 trillion in less than three years.
• Decades after the problems of illegal drugs, failing public education, skyrocketing health care costs, crumbling infrastructure, leaky borders, and overpowering military/industrial complex, etc. were identified as national problems affecting almost every American, the Federal government has managed to resolve none of them while spending and wasting TRILLIONS of the dollars in the process.
• To fund this bloated bureaucracy with no societal benefit in return, our tax freedom day, the day when we stop working for government and politicians and begin working for our families and ourselves is now been pushed out to the latter part of April, raising the question: when does the cost of government and the associated tax burden switch from taxation to oppression?
• Now that this administration, with the implicit approval of Congress, has made it clear that it can, it will, and already has assassinated American citizens without due process of law, how can you still say that government is inherently good and that our government operates under the principles of the Constitution?
• Given that the Washington political class and its passage of the Patriot Act, NDAA, and other freedom suppressing measures can bug, track, and maintain records of all forms of our communications without due process or warrants and can hold us in prison indefinitely on the whim of a politician, we have certainly mutated away from an semblance of a good government.
• Good government does not waste billions and billions of taxpayer dollars and wealth on crony-based and failed alternative energy companies, large banks, and other industries.
• Good government does not waste billions of taxpayer dollars and wealth on absolutely stupid programs such as investigating how shrimp behave on an underwater treadmill, funding the construction of robotic squirrels to see how they interact with snakes, researching the sex lives of New Zealand snails, measuring duck genitalia lengths, developing a half million computer program to simulate prom week, and tens of thousands of other idiotic wastes of money.
• Good government does not lose over two hundred billion dollars a year to waste and outright criminal fraud in its Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp, and unemployment benefit programs.
• Good government does not fail to collect over $380 billion a year from tax evaders.

Thus, even if one buys into Reid’s position that government is inherently good, what we have today in Washington does not even fit his definition. It is dysfunctional, expensive, and damaging to our wealth and our freedom.

The best that can be said about government is that it is necessary and needs to be kept under control. Remember that Hitler, Stalin, and the nut jobs in North Korea all operated or currently operate governments. None of them could be characterized as good, they are oppressive, brutal, and an insult to humanity, freedom and liberty.

So Harry, rather than criticize those you disagree with, unfairly and scandalously lumping them with anarchists, how about we tone down the hateful rhetoric and try to meet on some common ground? Those of us that love and respect liberty and freedom do not want to abolish government, we are not violent anarchists. We may want to minimize government, we may want to make it efficient, we may want to make it smaller so that it focuses on a smaller set of problems which hopefully gives it a better chance of resolving a major problem or two but we are not anarchists.

And by the way, we are not going away. So calling us names and insulting us when the evidence laid out above completely undermines your points, that government is inherently good, both here and around the world, does no one or the country any good.

I will say it again, minimal government is necessary. However, what is practiced today in Washington by yourself and others is neither good, effective, minimal, or worthwhile pursuing. Just because you do not always get your way does not mean that Tea Party people are wrong, they just have a different opinion, an opinion that you disrespect and create even deeper divisions within this country with your insults and slanderous rhetoric.

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  

Civil Discourse, Civil Disobedience, or Civil War, Part 2

Yesterday started the discussion on whether this divided nation of ours would find any leader that would lead us in a civil discourse regarding our many issues or whether this country would allow the political class to suck the nation into a state of civil disobedience or worse, some type of civil war. Please note before reading the following, I would never advocate for war or violence of any kind.

But in all my days and all the crises of this country that I have lived through, at none of those times has the nation seemed so close to exploding at the seams. Politicians would rather destroy than lead. They would rather satisfy their own goals than the needs of the country. They would rather energize their bases than resolve the real problems that affect us all.

The end product of this leadership void is that many states and citizens are deciding to openly oppose, ignore, or fight against the many mandates and overreaches of the Federal government. This opposition takes many forms against many injustices and reductions in freedom, ranging from affronts to the second Amendment, the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care, the suspension of human and legal rights by NDAA, and other insults to freedom. The review of these struggles and opposition continues below:

1) On February 7, 2013, the California Sheriffs Association weighed on the Second Amendment debate by sending a letter to Vice President Joe Biden. This would appear to be another group of Americans that have a better handle on what is happening in the real world than Washington politicians.

Their letter had an interesting twist on the whole issue Their view is that guns are not the underlying root cause of violence, it is this country’s mishandling of mental illness and mentally ill citizens. They think that the solution to reducing violence is not to ban assault weapons but to have better treatment of the mentally ill. Instead, we currently have a revolving door policy of putting criminals that haven’t had proper mental health rehabilitation back out into the public and we as a nation need to take more measures to stop the mentally ill from purchasing firearms: “Additional treatment resources and placement options for substance abusers, the mentally ill, and family members who need help must be provided before an act of violence, an arrest, or suicide occurs.”

The sheriffs get it, Washington does not.

2) In February, action was underway in Indiana and South Carolina by state Senates to nullify parts of the NDAA. In Indiana, state senator Jim Banks pointed out that the sections of the National Defense Authorization Act violated the U.S. Constitution, specifically Sections 1021 and 1022 that allow for the indefinite detainment of American citizens without due process. The committee reviewing the proposed legislation to nullify was unanimous in their approval of the legislation.

Likewise in South Carolina, legislation development was underway seeking to nullify the “indefinite detention” provisions of the NDAA. The bill was filed last fall by state senator Tom Davis who called Sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 NDAA “a direct threat to the liberty, security, and well-being of the people of South Carolina.”

As we said yesterday, what if the Federal government passed a law that no one obeyed? Seems like Indiana and South Carolina have now lined up behind that proposition regarding NDAA.

3) Earlier this year, an Arizona state senate committee approved legislation that would oppose many of the gun control measures that Obama and others in the Washington political class are trying to get approved. The proposed Arizona legislation would prevent enforcement of any new Federal laws affecting semi-automatic firearms or high-capacity magazines.

It would also make any Federal official trying to enforce such laws guilty of a felony and it allows the state Attorney General to defend anyone prosecuted for violating Federal gun laws if the gun was made in Arizona, among other provisions. Other, similar measures were being pressed forward in both houses of the Arizona state government.

4) CBS DC news reported earlier this year that the Wyoming house voted in favor of legislation that would try to block the Federal government from restricting assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the state. It had recently amended the bill to specify that Federal officials who tried to enforce any ban would be subject to state misdemeanor charges instead of felony charges.

5) The Tenth Amendment center reported earlier this year that the state of Montana had voted via voter referendum to nullify parts of Obama Care regardless of what Washington does. The “Montana Health Care Freedom Act” has the following major tenets:

The state or Federal government MAY NOT:
(a) mandate or require a person or entity to purchase health insurance coverage as defined in 33-22-140; or
(b) impose a penalty, tax, fee, or fine of any type if a person or entity declines to purchase health insurance coverage.

So it is not only gun control and the NDAA that people are rebelling at, the voters in Montana expressed their rejection of Obama Care rules and did so defiantly, 66% vs. 34%.

6) Earlier this year, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on a radio program that going to jail may be an effective way to protest a mandate tied to Obama Care, a mandate that requires employers to provide contraceptive coverage even if it conflicts where their moral and religious beliefs. The Republican candidate for governor said civil disobedience is one way to attack the Federal health care law's requirement.

“Civil disobedience,” interesting choice of words since it is part of yesterday’s and today’s post titles.

7) Indiana is also getting into the ignore Washington act when state politicians put forth the following short piece of legislation stating that anyone trying to enforce Obama Care in Indiana would be guilty of a state class D felony under state senate bill 0230:

Applicability of Federal law in Indiana. Provides that any federal act, order, law, rule, regulation, or statute found by the general assembly to be inconsistent with the power granted to the federal government in the Constitution of the United States is void in Indiana.

Provides that a resident of Indiana has a cause of action to enjoin the enforcement or implementation or the attempted enforcement or implementation of a federal act, order, law, rule, regulation, or statute declared void by the general assembly. Provides that a plaintiff who prevails in such an action is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees and costs. Provides that a person who knowingly or intentionally implements or enforces, or attempts to implement or enforce, a federal law that is declared void by the general assembly commits a Class D felony.

Finds that the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the federal Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 are inconsistent with the power granted to the federal government in the Constitution of the United States.

8) But the disagreements are not just with the Federal government. According to an NPR report from March 22, 2013, forty counties in upstate New York have passed resolutions condemning New York state's tough new gun laws, pushed quickly through the state government in the wake of Newtown. So here the beef is between the state government and forty county governments.

A similar conflict is brewing in Colorado. The Denver Post reported in early April that more than half the 62 sheriffs in Colorado are preparing a lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of broad gun-control laws the Colorado state government passed in March. In conjunction with that passage, consider the quote of state senator Greg Brophy: "I'm telling you right now: I will not obey this law. [regarding the part of the law limiting magazine sizes] I will willfully and purposefully and civilly disobey this law."

There are those words again, “civilly disobey.” And these examples of turmoil are within local governing entities.

I am not sure any of these efforts would stand up in a court of law. I am not sure any of these efforts, besides the Montana referendum, ever became law. But they do give you the sense of what is going on in the country. Overreaching and the destruction of state and personal rights by the Washington political class is meeting local and state level resistance like nothing I have ever witnessed in this country.

When different levels of political institutions tell each other to get lost and when different levels of law enforcement institutions tell each other to get lost and when large swaths of citizens tell the Federal government and the politicians who operate it to get lost, there is a possibility of civil discourse, disobedience or worst going down.

And if you thought that civil discourse was likely, that true leadership and understanding from our national level politicians was possible, you are probably daydreaming. Consider what one of these so-called leaders recently had to say to those citizens and state and local government entities who dared to disagree with him on the Second Amendment. In a New York city radio interview in early April, anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg threw out the following insult to gun owners and their families:

“Number two, I would argue if you want to sell your gun to your son, maybe you have a problem in your family.”

Truly not a way to start a civil discourse, insult gun owner families. But this lack of civil discourse is to be expected from the political class. Do not agree with Obama Care? You must be a racist, according to any number of politicians in Congress. Do not agree with an Obama policy? You must be a “knuckle dragging Neanderthal, according to a Congressman. Do not agree that we should find out what actually happened in Benghazi? You are a conspiracy nut, “what does it matter” and “we need to move one.” according to a former and current Secretary of State.

Tough to have a civil discourse when the so-called leaders are insulting your family, calling you names, and telling your to shut up. And when civil discourse fails, the next step is civil disobedience followed by…..

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 
 

Civil Discourse, Civil Disobedience, or Civil War, Part 1: Obama Care, Second Amendment Rights, and NDAA Horrors

I have lived through many periods of American history when some people thought the country was coming to an end. These periods included the invention of rock and roll, the race riots of the 1960s, the crazy politics of the Vietnam War and the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the oil shocks of the 1970s, etc. During all of these periods, there was talk about the disintegration of the country and our democracy.

But somehow we and the country survived. Relying on the basic tenets of freedom as set forth by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, we got through the tough times, the nation held together, and we often thrived as a result of the struggles and worries.

However, there are some very disturbing trends going on in America today, trends that have the real potential for tearing apart the nation. A lot of the friction and conflict comes from an overreaching and overbearing Federal political class that is trying to impose its will on state governments and individual citizens, restricting or blowing away state rights and individual rights.

These Federal political impositions include the imposition of Obama Care and its mandating of health insurance purchases by every American. The secret collection of citizens’ personal electronic communications (email, text messages, social media posts, etc.) without warrant or due process of law. The indefinite detention of Americans with judicial review and hearings. The designation for assassination of Americans without trial by peers.

The Patriot Act, NDAA, Bluffton, Utah data collection center, the shredding of the Second Amendment, etc. The tentacles and restrictions continue to get longer and longer coming out of Washington and the greater and greater resistance from those that reside outside of the Beltway. Read the following reports and then decide if we are in for civil discussion of the issues, civil disturbances, or civil war.

1) Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and the Kansas state government recently put in place a legal a protection for Kansas citizens relative to any attempts by the Federal government to nullify Second Amendment rights.

According to "The Second Amendment Protection Act," as the legislation is called, the Second Amendment is locked in as understood in 1861. The year that Kansas entered the Union. Any Federal law that is viewed as a violation of the 2nd Amendment in that year will be viewed as a violation in 2013.

Moreover, such a Federal law would then be considered "null, void, and unenforceable in the state of Kansas:”

The Second Amendment of the United States reserves to the people, individually, the right to keep and bear arms as that right was understood at the time Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861, and the guaranty of that right is a matter of contract between the state and people of Kansas and the United States as of the time the compact with the United States was adopted and agreed upon by Kansas in 1859 and the United States in 1861.

So what could happen if the Federal government passes a law and a state government(s) say never mind? Do we end up in civil discourse, civil disobedience, or civil war?

2) March 20, 2013, the Michigan state government and governor, followed the lead of Kansas, and told the Federal government in no uncertain terms that Michigan would oppose any Federal government attempts to register or ban any type of currently legal firearm or accessory in the state of Michigan.

The stand and statement was marked by a gathering in the state capital that included Republican and Democratic members of the Michigan House of Representatives and Senators, county sheriffs from around the state of Michigan, several gun rights organizations and hundreds of Michigan citizens. Two states now saying hands off our guns and our Second Amendment rights, in defiance of the Feds.

3) In early March, 2013, the state government in Michigan took another stand against the overreach of the Federal government when the state Senate voted 37-0 to pass the Liberty Preservation Act, that set out the state’s stand against the NDAA Federal law that applies the law of war and indefinite detention to anyone, including citizens, on U.S. soil. This piece of Federal legislation was one of the most obnoxious insults to freedom that the Federal government has passed in recent history.

Components of this legislation include the following:

• The most anti-freedom aspects of the NDAA are sections 1021 and 1022, which allow the arrest, detention, and/or transport to foreign prisons of anyone the Federal government “suspects” is a terrorist.
• Those imprisoned under the hazy definition of suspects can be denied trial, access to an attorney, and the ability to even advise someone they have detained.
• To enforce NDAA, the Federal government will need assistance from the states, assistance that is unlikely to come from at least the state of Michigan. This Senate bill announces the strong determination of the people of Michigan to determine that the NDAA is unconstitutional.

SB94 is a companion bill of HB4138, a similar anti-NDAA bill that passed the Michigan House last fall on a vote of 107-0. Good for Michigan turning out to be true defenders of the Constitution.

4) In late February, 2013, Texas took a big step to telling the Federal government to bug out when it comes to imposing Second Amendment restrictions in the state. Legislation in the Texas State legislature, attempts to stop Texas law enforcement officials from confiscating so-called “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines, items that some in the Federal political class want to ban.. This Texas legislation is called the Firearm Protection Act.

This bill would create a Class A misdemeanor for any police officer enforcing any new Federal gun regulations. It would also empower the state attorney general to sue anyone who seeks to enforce new Federal gun regulations. The primary sponsor of the legislation put out a press release on the bill: “The ‘Firearms Protection Act’ or HB 1076 would make any Federal law banning semi-automatic firearms or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state’s boundaries. Any municipality, county, or special district trying to enforce a Federal gun ban could face monetary holdings by the state and misdemeanor charges under this proposal.”

This could get nasty. What happens when an Federal ATF agent or someone from Homeland Security tries to take away a gun from a Texan? Do they get arrested by state law enforcement officers and brought to trial in a state court? Major, major, and scary, questions.

5) In early February, the state of Colorado’s started hearings and examination of a proposed to oppose and stop certain provisions of the NDAA law. This proposed legislation, which is reputed to be similar to the same effort in Washington state, oppose the inclusion of U.S. citizens in the NDAA’s definition of “covered persons,” i.e. suspected terrorists, who can be indefinitely detained by the military without charge or trial.

The proposed bill declares Colorado is not a “battlefield” subject to the “laws of war” and prohibits the detention, capture, or use of deadly force against any person in Colorado without charge or trial, as protected under the U.S. Constitution.

More NDAA resistance. More anti-Second Amendment resistance. Many states have already opted out of the Federal government’s Obama Care health insurance exchanges. Interesting times.

The big question is whether or not there is a leader or leaders in this country that will step up and temper the growing friction and divisions in this country and get us all into a with civil discourse frame of mind and respect before civil discourse devolves into civil disobedience and at that point who knows what happens. As I said in my opening remarks, not quite sure in my lifetime we have been this close to this potential for open conflict.

Tomorrow, we will follow up with other examples of citizens and state and local government telling the Federal government to get its tentacles out of our lives, our wallets, our families, and our Constitution. Until then, please review the following link which takes you to a previous post in this blog, a post where we first identified the fissures that have only gotten wider since then:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/06/not-so-united-states-of-america-will.html

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

Washington D.C., The Great Kitchen Garbage Disposal - Subprime Lending Revisited, Head Start, and High Speed Rail

There are a lot of famous quotes on stupidity:

Stupid is as stupid does. Forest Gump

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte

Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference. Jim Butcher

Far be it for me to ever let my common sense get in the way of my stupidity. I say we press on. Sherrilyn Kenyon

There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. Frank Zappa

We’ll stop there. Yes, there is a lot of stupidity in the world and unfortunately, the Washington political class seems to attract a lot of stupid thinking. Consider the latest stupidity emanating out of the Beltway from the Washington political class and what quote above most ably describes the stupidity:

1) Consider what the brainiacs in Washington want to do the housing industry according to an April 2, 2013 article in the Washington Post:

• The Obama administration stated it is working to get banks to lend to a wider range of and potential homeowners by taking advantage of taxpayer-backed programs.
• These loans/mortgages would go to a “wider range” of people and would be backed by government organizations, i.e. the American taxpayer, such as the Federal Housing Administration to insure home loans that default would not hurt banks earnings.
• This “wider range” is a code phrase for giving mortgages to people with bad credit and less chance of supporting a mortgage before getting foreclosed on.
• Federal housing officials are encouraging the Justice Department to provide assurances to banks that they will not face legal or financial recriminations if they make loans to riskier borrowers who meet government standards but later default.
• Government officials are also encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan, in other words give out mortgages to people that are less likely and unlikely to ever be able to pay them back, resulting in defaults and the American taxpayer picking up the tab.

Didn’t we just relive this horror show? Wasn’t it called the “Great Recession” where sub prime lending to people with questionable credit received mortgages from banks, who made large profits but dumped the risks on the Federal government via Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA, risk that was paid off by taxpayers? Didn’t that bailout cost the American taxpayer almost $200 billion with the final tab yet to come.

This insanity is especially stupid in light of recent news reports that reported the Federal Housing Authority was likely to need a $943 million taxpayer bailout to cover expected losses from mortgages it insured as the U.S. housing bubble was deflating during the Great Recession. The Obama administration reported this problem on April 10, 2013.

It would be the first bailout of the government's mortgage insurer in its nearly 80-year history. The FHA is required by Congress to keep enough cash on hand to cover all expected future losses and must take a taxpayer subsidy if its projected revenue falls short. And it could get worse. In November, an independent audit found that the FHA faces projected losses of $16.3 billion and was at risk of depleting its cash reserves. Guess who ends up paying for this shortfall?

So Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already choked themselves and the American taxpayer on mortgages that were given to and defaulted on by low credit and low income people. The FHA may need billions dollars more because it backed mortgages on bad mortgage customers. And the Obama administration wants to loosen current credit processes so more people with bad credit and poor chances of carrying a mortgage get a mortgage, to be backed in case of default by the taxpayer. Stupid, did these people learn nothing from the Great Recession and the underlying mortgage/housing/subprime issues that created it?

My best analogy for this shortsightedness is a kitchen garbage disposal. It’s like the stupid person who mangles his right hand in the garbage disposal and just as the scabs and scar tissue are falling off from that disaster that person puts his left hand right back into the garbage disposal. Stupid is as stupid does and that is exactly what the Obama administration is about to do with reenacting the subprime disaster.

2) Apparently, one of the proposals in Obama’s delinquent and ridiculous budget proposal is to provide Federal pre-school programs for every kid in America. But why should we do that when we know that the existing Federal pre-school program in America, Head Start, has been a financial, educational, and administrative disaster:

• A detailed study by Obama’s own Health and Human Services Department conclusively showed that any positive gains by kids in Head Start programs are lost forever by the end of the first grade versus kids that had not been in Head Start programs, with all other areas of variation being controlled by the study analysis.
• Another detailed study, again by Obama’s own Health and Human Services Department, looked at third and fourth grade students and compared students that had been in Head Start programs vs. that had not been in Head Start. That study found that in general there were no differences between Head Start kids and non-head Start kids and in some areas, non-Head Start kids were actually further along from an educational and development perspective, all other sources of variability being controlled.
• Numerous government studies have found rampant waste and fraud throughout the Head Start program.

So, the many promises of the Head Start program from an educational, cultural, and childhood development perspective have never materialized and the program has been administered in a sloppy, fraudulent manner. Thus, we have spent billions and billions of dollars over the Head Start years to run an overrated, glorious babysitting service with no redeeming societal benefit in return.

And given this backdrop, the President wants to vastly expand the concept of daycare to every kid in the country without being able to fix the existing Head Start program. He just has the grandiose concept with no plan on remedial action on how to prevent a more expensive Head Start disaster.

In this example, we still have our right hand stuck down in the garbage disposal (Head Start) and want to stick the left hand down it also (Obama’s proposal). But alas, in politics, stupidity is not a handicap.

The previous posts we did that explain the Head Start fiasco in more detail can be found at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/04/government-education-programs-that-do.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/failing-our-kids-again-massive-fraud.html

3) Our final example of stupidity also comes from the President’s budget proposal. Apparently, he still wants to build this national high speed rail line that will cost untold billions of dollars for questionable benefits. But before going down this garbage disposal, maybe he should fix the current Federal government railroad service, Amtrak.

Earlier this month (April 4, 2013 post) we reviewed an article from the March, 2013 issue of Reason magazine, an article that contained some interesting analyses of Amtrak, the distressed, Federally operated national train system:

• Amtrak is the most expensive way to transport oneself from city to city, on average costing consumers twice as much than commercial airline travel.
• The average American travels 15 miles a year via Amtrak but 15,000 miles a year via car.
• Amtrak per-passenger miles subsidies are more than nine times higher than subsidies paid to airlines and 20 times more than subsidies paid to car drivers.
• In 2012, Amtrak needed about $1.4 billion from the American taxpayer to run its operations.
• Only three of its twelve routes are profitable without taxpayer subsidies.

In our September 5, 2012 post we reviewed as New York Times article that described the insanity and waste in just one aspect of Amtrak:

• According to a New York Times article that was summarized in the August 17, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, Amtrak lost $834 million just on its food and beverage services over the past ten years.
• This comes out to about $83 million a year, or almost a quarter million dollars a day, 365 days a year.
• We found it amazing that any organization, even a government organization, can lose so much money so quickly just on food and drinks.
• The article blamed the astronomical losses on poor management, waste, and employee theft.
• Despite being in the train management industry for decades, it is apparent that the political class and the government agencies it operates have learned nothing on how to be efficient and effective.

Pitiful. Rather than learning from the Amtrak garbage disposal experience, billions wasted on an unprofitable rail line, imagine how much the American taxpayer would lose if the Federal government ever went ahead with their ill conceived and unnecessary high speed train pipe dream. Far be it for Washington to ever let common sense get in the way of its stupidity.

Einstein once said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We would substitute the word “stupidity” for “insanity” to summarize the state of the political thinking in Washington:

- Subprime mortgage lending to people with poor credit and poor chances of carrying a mortgage caused the Great Recession but Washington wants to go down that path again today.

- Head Start has been a disaster for over four decades and the Obama administration wants to do the same program on a grander scale, likely wasting a grander sum of money.

- The Obama administration wants to build a massive high speed rail line across the country even though the current Federal rail line loses over a billion dollars a year.

The Washington kitchen garbage disposal is alive and well, continually shredding taxpayer wealth every day.

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

How About More Hate Control Before More Gun Control, April Update

Earlier this year we did a series of posts with the theme, “How About A Little More Hate Control Before More Gun Control.” The basis of our premise is that if we took some of the hate and venom out of our political discourse and started treating others with a lot more respect, even if they held views that were different than ours, we would be a whole lot better off from a violence perspective.

We hypothesized that the true cause of violence, such as the tragic gun violence we saw at the Sandy Hook school shooting late last year, would not be solved by enacting more ineffective gun control laws or shredding the Second Amendment. Calling citizens whores, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, wishing that people would go to hell, (all actual wishes verbally expressed by current politicians) etc. eventually lead to devaluing the lives of anyone who happens to have a different opinion than ourselves.

The first post in that series can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-about-more-hate-control-before-more_4871.html

Today we will follow up on some of the themes we originally introduced back in January.

1) One of those themes involved the reporting of American citizens who are protecting themselves, their families, and their assets everyday using their Second Amendment rights. Those that would impose severe restrictions or actually gut the Second Amendment tend to ignore the other side of the story of Americans protecting themselves because of the Second Amendment.

A March 29, 2013 report from television station KSL in Utah reported on how a man protected himself in his own home because of the Second Amendment. Eric Martin was in bed with his girl friend when at about 4:30 a.m. he heard a commotion in his house. Martin got out of bed, picked up his legal firearm, and went off to investigate.

He came across a burglar that had been taking Martin’s possessions out of the house to the front lawn where he obviously was going to steal them. Martin chased him out of the house and jumped on top of the intruder when the intruder tripped over the stash he had piled on the front lawn. He held his firearm on the intruder while his girl friend called the police.

When the police arrived they found Martin on top of the intruder where he was taken into custody. It is assumed that Martin went back inside and dressed since the police report indicated he was totally naked when he ran down the intruder and captured him using his Second Amendment rights. Further details on the Second Amendment in action can be found at:

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24585827&nid=148&title=homeowner-holds-burglar-at-gunpoint-until-police-arrive&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-2

2) KOMO television reported on a similar incident on April 15, 2013 in the Seattle area. A husband and wife came home early one afternoon to find two intruders already inside their home. The husband was able to get his legally owned shotgun and opened fire on the intruders, killing one and causing the other to flee when he stole the homeowners SUV.

The video story can be accessed at:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Intruder-shot-dead-by-homeowner-in-Enumclaw-203093401.html

3) PoliceOne.com, reputedly the leading online resource for law enforcement, recently released the results of a national survey of law enforcement officers. The survey was conducted in March and received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals.

The results of the survey indicate a strong attitude against stricter antigun legislation:

• 86% of those surveyed feel the proposed gun control legislation would have no effect or a negative effect on improving officer safety
• 92% feel that banning semi-automatic firearms, or "assault weapons," would have no effect or a negative effect on reducing violent crime
• 71% support law enforcement leaders who have publicly refused to enforce more restrictive gun laws within their jurisdictions
• 82% believe gun buyback or turn-in programs are ineffective in reducing the level of gun violence
• 91% support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or have not been deemed psychologically incapable
• 80% feel that legally-armed citizens would likely have reduced the number of casualties in recent mass shooting incidents
• 38% believe the biggest cause of gun violence in the United States is the "decline in parenting and family values."

So those on the front lines of battling crime everyday seem to feel that the Second Amendment is a good thing. Those that are not battling crime everyday, Washington politicians, seem to feel that the Second Amendment is not a good thing. Which of these two groups do we think have a better understanding of reality?

4) In early February, CBS Chicago reported the following news:

“Starting this week, Chicago police are changing their responses to 911 calls. They’ll no longer come right away to reports of things like criminal damage to property, vehicle thefts, garage burglaries, or other crimes in which the suspect is no longer on the scene, and the victim isn’t in immediate danger.”

Remember, Chicago has the strictest gun control laws in the country. But that has not made Chicago from becoming one of the most violent cities anywhere in the world, according to the Washington Post:

• In 2012, Chicago police recorded 2,364 shooting incidents.
• The city suffered through 487 homicides.
• 87% of the homicides were gun-related even though the city has such strict gun control. City shootings increased 12% in 2012 and homicides were up 19%.

Remember, Chicago has the strictest gun control laws just about anywhere.

How does this tie into the 911 news reported above? Police Supt. Garry McCarthy explained the reasons for ignoring many 911 calls: “I don’t mean to be flippant here, because I’ve been the victim of a burglary at least three or four times…I’d rather have the officer on street, where he can prevent the shooting. Seizing guns offers limited benefit, with Chicago already claiming guns at a rate three times greater than Los Angeles and nine times higher than New York.”

So, in conclusion, controlling and confiscating guns from law abiding citizens via strict gun control laws results in less service from the police departments, more violent crime, and any more guns in the hands of criminal elements.

5) On Sunday, April 7, 2013, TV 12 News in Lumberton, Texas reported the following news story:

• Three robbers kidnapped and robbed one woman and then they moved on to attempt to rob two more women.
• In that first robbery the three robbers abducted a woman at gunpoint, and forced her to drive to an ATM to withdraw cash.
• There has also been an unconfirmed report that she was sexually assaulted.
• The three robbers, 21-year-old Scott Willis, Jr., 21-year-old Malik Washington, and 21-year-old Ariel Malveaux, have apparently been targeting women as victims of robberies for the past month.
• However, in the second robbery attempt, the three punks approached two women and demanded money.
• Fortunately, one of the women retrieved her legally owned, Second Amendment sanctioned hand gun and shot Willis in the abdomen.
• Upon his release from the hospital for his wound, Willis will be charged with aggravated robbery.
• Washington and Malveaux are both being held by Lumberton police on aggravated robbery charges. Washington also faces a kidnapping charge.
• The three are likely to face additional robbery charges, pending an ongoing investigation.

Crime wave stopped, criminals in jail, and two women and their safety and possession are safe. Why would we want to take guns away from these women in this society?

6) Consider the results form Gallup poll that was conducted April 4-7. The poll surveyed 1,005 adults by telephone and asked, “What do you think is the SINGLE most important problem facing the country today? Here are the results:

• Economy In General - 24%
• Unemployment/Jobs - 18%
• Dissatisfaction With Government - 16%
• Federal Deficit/Federal Debt - 11%
• Healthcare - 6%
• Ethical/Moral/Family Decline - 5%
• Immigration/Illegal Aliens - 4%
• Education - 4%
• Guns/Gun Control - 4%
• Situation With North Korea - 3%
• Lack Of Money - 3%
• Welfare - 2%
• Lack Of Respect For Each Other - 2%
• Poverty/Hunger/homelessness - 2%
• Foreign/Focus Overseas - 2%
• Taxes - 2%

Thus, on average, Americans rank gun control no better than seventh and possibly no better than ninth in their priorities of what the political class should be working on. Overwhelmingly, America wants Washington working on the economy, unemployment, jobs, and citizens' lack of money situation, 45%. Thus, again Washington is working on what is not important to the citizens it is supposed to be serving.


So, let’s review:

1. Law abiding, nonviolent citizens are still protecting themselves, their families, and their assets via the Second Amendment from potentially violent perpetrators.
2. Law enforcement officers in general strongly believe that stricter gun control laws will not help fight crime.
3. The strictest control laws in the country in Chicago have not resulted in less criminal violence but has decreased the amount of service Chicago police can pay to many other forms of crime.
4. Guns and gun control issues are a poor seventh to ninth in ranking of importance in America but the political class still insists on working an unimportant issue, ignoring more personal and important issues for Americans.

And many in the Washington political class still think that curtailing or eliminating the Second Amendment is a good thing. In light of this week’s experience that saw heavily armed terrorists racing through the streets of Massachusetts with bombs and guns and a recent admission by a North Carolina Sheriff that violent drug cartel gang members are operating within his North Carolina county
(http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/19/North-Carolina-Sheriff-Drug-cartels-are-in-my-county-with-weapons-drugs-and-money?utm_source=feedly), it would seem that the more law abiding citizens that were trained to safely use their Second Amendment rights the better off we would all be.

Unfortunately, President Obama and others are not aware of this reality and continue to use the shooting victims of the Newtown tragedy as props to force their views and alternative realities on the country rather than consider all aspects of the issue. Makes no sense.

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
 

Congressman Rangel: Still Waiting For Your Apology For Calling Me An Obama Care Racist

Congressman Rangel:

Good day, sir. I wanted to follow up on an accusation you made regarding people like myself and many other Americans several years ago and see if you would be man enough to offer an apology. During the Obama Care legislation debate in 2009, you accused myself and millions of other Americans of being racists, similar to the violent and bigoted racists who opposed civil rights back in the 1960s:

"I want you to know and your viewing audience to know that the group that were in Washington fighting against the health care bill and fighting against the President, looked just like and shouted just like those groups that attacked the civil rights movement in the South."

(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/rep-charles-rangel-likens-conservative-foes-health-care-reform-racist-foes-civil-rights-article-1.168098)

To be honest with you, I took those comments as a severe personal insult. First of all, you do not know me or any of the other Americans who had legitimate concerns over the contents and potential effects of Obama Care. We were simply voicing our opinions, as is our right to disagree with our government and the politicians that operate it. I have that right even if it ticks you off and sends you off on a rant that belittles the true heroes of the 1960s who fought real racism.

I have never considered myself a racist but I do consider myself a concerned American who considered all aspects of Obama Care and found it to be a horrible piece of legislation. I concluded that it would not curtail sky high health care costs, it would not make America healthy, it would not address the root causes of our problems in this area, and it would stifle the economy. Based on the comments of your peers:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/03/dopes-democrats-offering-preposterous.html),

who may have not even have read the legislation they voted on, it appears I and many other did more to understand this legislation than those in Congress and in the White House. And for caring enough to gain that understanding, you associated us with racists.

1) But let’s fast forward from your comments in 2009 to present day. A few months ago, seventeen Democratic Senators who had voted to pass Obama Care petitioned the Obama administration to cut back on its taxing of medical device manufacturers:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-devastation-that-is-obama-care-part.html

This tax was going to be one of the major funders of the Obama Care legislation. Does their desire to remove this funding source make them racists in your eyes since it will help undercut how this legislation is supported?

2) This past week, Senator Max Baucus of Montana had the negative following words regarding Obama Care at a Senate hearing (as reported by The Hill on April 17, 2013:

“I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”

(http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/294501-baucus-warns-of-huge-train-wreck-in-obamacare-implementation).

These comments were made at a hearing that grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Obama Care implementation. Does correctly calling Obama Care a “train wreck,” the same conclusions that myself and many other Americans reached years ago, now make Senator Baucus a racist?

3) This past week, Regal Entertainment Group, which has over 500 movie theaters in 38 states announced that it has to cut back the hours of most of its workers to 30 or less because of Obama Care‘s definition of full time workers:

“To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law’s definition of a full-time employee. To manage this budget, all other employees will be scheduled in accord with business needs and in a manner that will not negatively impact our health care budget.”

Does this action of Regal make them racists because the impositions and conditions required by Obama Care is crushing their ability to operate a successful business?

Since Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and thousands of other restaurants have had to cut hours of employees as a result of Obama Care or go out of business, does that make them racists?

Since Palm Beach State College, Kean University, and many other colleges and universities have done the same thing, does that make them racists?

Since many American medical device manufacturers have had to cut hours and cut job positions as a result of Obama Care, does that also make them racists?

4) In a March 26, 2013 Wall Street Journal article, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that health insurance premiums for many Americans are likely to go up substantially as a result of Obama Care during comments she made in Philadelphia. That same article reported on a new report from the Society of Actuaries, a nonpartisan professional association, a report that has warned and predicted that the cost of medical claims in the new individual-insurance market could rise by an average of 32% per person over the first few years the law is in place.

So does these conclusions make the Secretary and the Society racists for daring to point out what we were saying years ago, the inability of Obama Care to address the root causes of our escalating health care costs will result in Americans paying more for health care insurance?

5) Several years ago, when Obama Care was being hyped, unions were very big supporters of the legislation. However, on April 17, 2013, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers International President Kinsey M. Robinson issued the following statement calling for a repeal or complete reform of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA):

“Our Union and its members have supported President Obama and his Administration for both of his terms in office.

But regrettably, our concerns over certain provisions in the ACA have not been addressed, or in some instances, totally ignored. In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the Act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer sponsored coverage could keep it.

But provisions jeopardize our multi-employer health plans, have the potential to cause a loss of work for our members, create an unfair bidding advantage for those contractors who do not provide health coverage to their workers, and in the worst case, may cause our members and their families to lose the benefits they currently enjoy as participants in multi-employer health plans…

Does this change of view, based on the realization by the union that this is not a good piece of legislation, a conclusion us so-called "racists" reached years ago, make this union and their members racists?

6) Senator Jay Rockefeller, one of the architects of the Obama Care, made the follwing statements on the legislation earlier this week:

• “[Obama Care] is probably the most complex piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress.” 
• “[Obama Care] is just beyond comprehension.”
• “[Obama Care] so complicated and if it isn’t done right the first time, it will just simply get worse.”

These conclusions of a one-time supporter of Obama Care are the same feelings and worries we expressed a few years ago when you accused us of being racists. Do these comments put one of your Democratic peers in that racist category also?


No one should be called a racist for simply having a different opinion of a politician. It is demeaning to Americans, it is demeaning to the profession of politics, and most importantly, it is demeaning and insulting the people in the 1960s who fought actual racism and hatred. I look forward to your apology. Thank you.

Bruno Korschek
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

April, 2013 Wasteful Government Spending, Part 3: Biden Bills Taxpayers, Government Buys Rebounding Machines And More

Okay, I thought we were done with silly and stupid government spending, especially in these times of soaring budget deficits and the whole sequester adventure but I was wrong, as I continue to underestimate the Washington political class abilities to wastefully spend taxpayer wealth. We had tried to confine our discussion on wasteful spending this month to just two posts:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-2013-wasteful-government-spending.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-2013-wasteful-government-spending_15.html

But, unfortunately, that was impossible since these two posts were written, another avalanche of inane spending has come to light.

Consider these government expenditures in light of the fact that the Obama administration has closed down the White House to traditional tours by Americans, their families, and school classes, using the meager excuse of the meager 2% reduction in government spending as a result of the sequester.

Consider these government expenditures in light of the fact that the Obama administration has cut education resources to Native American education programs because of the sequester.

Consider these government expenditures in light of the fact that the Obama administration has curtailed or canceled the deployment of military assets around the world because of the sequester.

Consider these government expenditures in light of the fact that the Obama administration has rung up over $5 TRILLION in additional national debt in less than five years, a debt load that now totals almost $17 TRILLION or a debt load of over $50,000 for every single American, young and old.

Yes, we are truly a country which has allowed our spending priorities and focus to be distorted and wasted by the current set of politicians in Washington and elsewhere.

1) The United Liberty website reported on April 9, 2013 that the Departments of Interior and Transportation have dropped more than $20K of taxpayer wealth on several basketball rebounding machines. Not one rebounding machine, several rebounding machines.

And apparently these are not just any kind of low end but functional basketball rebounding machines. They purchased the Shoot-A-Way machine, a popular basketball rebounding model used by teams at all levels of basketball. Two out of the Final Four college men’s basketball teams use the Shoot-A-Way. Louisville, the winner of this year’s men’s March Madness owns eight of the machines.

Not a lot of money in light of a nearly $17 TRILLION deficit but just because you can do something (waste taxpayer money by buying high end basketball rebounding machines) does not mean you should.

2) The Bankrupting America website reported on the careless loss of $8 million on April 3, 2013, this time at the state government level in Nebraska. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services officials misspent some $8 million while operating a program intended to help keep needy citizens’ homes warm and cool using Federal funds.

However, instead of sending the payments directly to the utility companies providing the heating and cooling, as required by the Department’s own rules and regulations, the money was sent via checks directly to the citizens enrolled in the program, citizens that were supposed to be needy.

As a result of breaching the rules, three mishaps occurred with taxpayer money:

• Some 261 payments were made to deceased individuals.
• Since many of these checks ended up getting cashed at liquor stores, funeral homes, and at least one keno parlor, it’s a safe bet to assume that the millions in taxpayer-funded assistance did not serve their intended purposes of heating and cooling.
• And to add insult to injury, Nebraska officials also pocketed some $1 million in unspent funding that should have been handed back over to the Federal government.

$8 million could have provided over 8 years of White House tours. Instead, a lot of the money likely went to alcohol, funerals, betting, and deep into a state government bureaucracy.

3) The Associated Press reported on April 2, 2013 that President Obama is proposing spending $100 million next year to start a quest to map out the details of the human brain. The hope is that by understanding the inner workings of the human brain, greater understanding will lead to better cures of diseases that affect the brain such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

This is certainly a worthy goal…until you read further down in the article and realize that the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health will be involved in allocating the $100 million. These organizations have previously spent taxpayer money seeing how shrimp move while on an underwater treadmill, funded a half a million dollar project to educate people on how to use a condom, spent over half a million dollars to develop a video game the simulated prom week, among other totally useless projects.

What makes one think they will do any better managing this project and this amount of funding? Here’s a better idea:

• Rather than having the government operate this effort, turn the effort over to private researchers, companies, universities, etc.
• Put up a reward of $50 million to the persons/organizations that can complete the map within five years (or ten years or whatever number of years is realistic).
• This would follow the experience of the mapping of the human genome where competition between competing groups led to faster and better results.

Save tens of millions of dollars and get the same result, probably sooner and at a lower cost than if the Federal government ran the effort, a nobrainer. Also, it guarantees that we do not end up with prom video game development masquerading as science from the National Science Foundation.

4) On of the few government organizations I respect is the General Accountability Office (GAO). This entity is about 100 years old and was created to help keep government operations and spending efficient and effective. The second post listed above contained some of their fine work that identified annual savings of about $64 billion in the Federal bureaucracy if only those running the bureaucracy took their advice.

But apparently, the cost savings listed in that post were not the sum total of their work. I recently came across more of their analysis and more of their identified cost savings:

• The Federal government has 76 programs to treat drug abuse scattered and uncoordinated across 15 different Federal agencies.
• The Federal government has 47 different and uncoordinated job training programs.
• The Federal government has three different agencies that inspect catfish.
• The Department of Defense operates six different entities all responsible for camouflage uniforms.
• The Department of Energy and 13 other Federal agencies are currently running a whopping 679 different alternative energy programs.
• The Department of Homeland Security is using five different contractors to detect the same chemical.
• These are just six examples identified by the GAO among 162 areas where there are duplicative Federal programs going on and money being wasting because of the redundancy.
• The GAO and Senator Tom Coburn estimate these redundancies cost the American taxpayer about $250 billion a year, more than three times the amount of the sequester.

Disgraceful.

5) Vice President Joe Biden gets free room and board while in office. He gets free transportation. He gets a load of free personal perks. He gets free Secret Service protection. In 2012, his Federal income tax returns show that he and his wife reported $385,072 in adjusted gross income, putting them in the top 1-2% of all American taxpayers.

In spite of all this privilege and wealth, the Bidens actually had the audacity of billing the Secret Service, and American taxpayers, $26,400 for the privilege of protecting him by allowing the Secret Service to use a cottage on his private property. Talk about nerve. Talk about pomposity. Talk about ego and greed.

Again, $26,400 would not resolve our $16.7 TRILLION debt problem. But the chutzpah of such an act verifies again how the current set of politicians are so wrapped up in their own greed and self enrichment that the wasting of money on THEM is not a bad thing, even if it eventually contributes to a cross generational debt burden for the average American family.

That is all I have for today. Hopefully, this cleans out the folder of stupid, wasteful government spending for at least a little while. This is why these posts from the past week, along dozens of others we have written about over the past few years, proves unequivocally that no American, rich or poor, should pay another penny in taxes to any level of American government until these atrocious, idiotic spending misadventures are eliminated forever.

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

Tax Freedon Day, 2013 Or Taxing Our Breakfast Beverage

Four days ago was the dreaded April 15, the day when the IRS and the Federal government demands that you file your Federal income taxes and allow the government to confiscate what they determine to be their “fair share” of what you should pay them. I decided to wait a few days to let the pressure settle down before talking about taxes and what the Tax Foundation calls Tax Freedom day. Rather than having me explain what tax freedom day is, consider the Foundation’s definition directly from their website:

Tax Freedom Day® is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year. Tax Freedom Day provides Americans with an easy way to gauge the overall tax take-a task that can otherwise be daunting due to the multiplicity of taxes at various levels of government and "hidden" taxes and fees that are often buried in the cost of living. Tax Freedom Day computed by dividing total tax collections by the nation's income, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Every dollar that is officially called income by the government is counted, and every payment that is officially considered a tax is counted. The resulting percentage is then converted into days of a 365-day calendar year.

We will be going into depth to review and analyze their data over the next week or so including a dive into what states are the most economically free and the consequences and positives of being “more economically free” than other states. However, today I thought it would be worthwhile to look at some high level tax numbers to see how out-of-control government spending currently is in this country.

We often talk about the thousands and thousands of ways, programs, projects and government redundancies that waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Recently we talked about how taxpayer wealth was used to study the sexual habits of snails in New Zealand, about a video game that was developed at a cost of about half a million dollars to simulate high school prom week, how almost half a million dollars was spent to develop and instruction process for how to wear a condom and many other such nonsense. These types of government expenses result in the following taxation disgraces at a high level:

• In 2013, Americans will pay $2.76 trillion in Federal taxes of all kinds and $1.45 trillion in state and local taxes of all kinds, for a total tax bill of $4.22 trillion.
• This $4.22 trillion is 29.4% of the nation’s total income.
• April 18th is 29.4% into the calendar year and thus, tax freedom day, on average for the entire country, is April 18th.
• Thus, since January 1 until yesterday, you have not been working for yourself and your family, you have been working for the American political class and the governments that it operates.
• Today is the first day of 2013 where you have been working for yourself.
• Tax freedom day is five days later than last year, i.e. you started working for yourself and family on April 13 last year.
• This $4.22 trillion comes out to an astounding $11.5 billion being spent every day of the year, over $480 million every hour of the year, and over $8 million every minute of the year, astounding and disgraceful numbers.
• April 18 assumes that you were working seven days a week to get to your tax freedom day. If you omit weekends and only consider a typical five day work week, all of those stupid expenses that the government incurs pushes your tax freedom day out until May 29th.
• This recalculated tax freedom day covers almost five full months of each working American’s work effort or 42% of the year.
• But while the $4.22 trillion is what government at all levels collect in this country, it is not what they spend, the Federal government sells Treasury bonds in order to finance the shortfall between what it gathers as taxes and what it actually spends, resulting in deficit spending just about every year.
• If we low ball an average of $1 trillion a year in deficit spending, similar to the deficits the Obama administration has been running every year, that $4.22 trillion increases by $1 trillion of about 24%.
• This 24% increase would push the April 18 tax freedom day out to about May 12th or so.
• If you repeat the exercise and calculation above where we only consider weekdays, the true tax freedom day that covers the Federal government’s deficit spending and the typical five day workweek pushes the tax freedom day into early July, ironically just in time for the July 4th Independence Day celebrations.

Thus, Americans are working about half of the year to support government in this country.

Outrageous. One has to ask oneself, “When does taxation become outright repression?” By sending 30% to 50%, depending on how you want to calculate tax freedom day, of the wealth we create every year from our hard work to government entities we see our freedoms and liberty severely curtailed:

• Such high levels of taxation restrict our freedom to send our kids to the schools we would like to see them attend.
• Such high levels of taxation restrict our freedom to live where we want to live and in the type of homes we want to live in.
• Such high levels of taxation restrict our freedom to start our own business to better the lives of others and help fulfill our dreams.
• Such high levels of taxation restrict our freedom to live the type of retirement we would like to live.
• Such high levels of taxation restrict our freedom to live our lives the way we would like to live them.

But we cannot exercise those freedoms because the American political class loses hundreds of billions of dollars a year from waste and criminal fraud in the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp, and other welfare programs.

The IRS is so incompetent that it readily admits that it fails to collect over $380 billion a year from tax evaders, increasing the amount of taxes honest Americans have to pay.

And of course billions and billions of dollars are spent and wasted every year on snail sex, prom games, and thousands of other nonsensical expenditures.

Again, when does taxation become repression? I think we have crossed that line when 30-50% of our hard earned dollars are taken by politicians with far less in value returned. Think about it, politicians are spending $8 million a MINUTE, are you getting $8 million in value a MINUTE? I doubt it.

In follow up posts we will getting under these top line results to explore more fully how we are being exploited by the American political class, a class of people that need to be forced into a term limit environment to stop this insanity.

Consider the following insight from comedian Dennis Miller: “Our forefathers would never put up with this crap. They were blowing people’s heads off for just taxing their breakfast beverage. And it wasn’t even coffee.” I would never condone or encourage that someone’s head be blown off or any other kind of violence. But from a tea, coffee, and tax perspective, he does have a point.

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