As you read through these embarrassments, consider the need for term limits, as laid out in Step 29 of “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” How much worse could it get if we replaced all those in office with new people, given the insanity they constantly rain down on us?
Today’s episode of insanity will focus on items from the latest issue of Reason magazine. Reason does an outstanding job of doing in depth research and analysis of politics and the issues facing the country, often exposing stupidity and insanity and providing solutions to problems that constantly elude our politicians.
1) The May, 2013 issue of Reason did a fabulous job analyzing the total failure of Obama’s economic stimulus program, a program that burned through over $800 billion worth of taxpayer wealth with no real economic societal benefits in return. We will do an in-depth review of their analysis in the near future, an analysis that is as thorough as it it damning of the stimulus program in total.
But today, consider some more of the moronic programs that the American taxpayer funded and the overall results:
- The Obama administration approved a grant worth $462,912.30 to a Spokane, Washington company to build and install 22 precast concrete toilets in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. Two pieces of insanity here:
- How does building 22 toilets in the middle of Missouri create long term, sustainable jobs and economic growth?
- 22 toilets at a cost of over $462,000 comes out to a per toilet cost of about $21,000? What toilet in what reality is worth $21,000?
- But apparently toilets were a recurring theme in the stimulus program. The state of New Mexico got $2.8 million to spend on new toilets in its park system while another $42 million in stimulus funds went to Alaska to upgrade toilets and other sanitation facilities in Alaska.
- A comprehensive follow up survey described in the Reason article found that:
- A whopping 59% of the companies that received stimulus funds did not hire a single worker despite the fact that the whole purpose of the stimulus program was to get people employed.
- Additionally, 12% of the companies surveyed said they laid off the people they hired as a result of the stimulus funding once the funding was exhausted.
- 6% of the companies surveyed said they kept only some of the employees they hired as a result of stimulus funding.
- Thus, 77% of the companies that received stimulus funding either did not hire anyone or their hires were short term.
2) One of the main culprits in the country’s anemic economic performance over the past few years is likely the imposition of unneeded and unwarranted regulations that divert attention, money, and resources away from growing the economy to satisfying mostly unneeded government regulations. Consider what the Obama administration has done to burden the economy over the past few years:
- Obama did make a big deal when he came into office to get overly burdensome regulations off of the government’s list, stating that we needed to rid the books of “outmoded regulations,” we need to go about “reducing costs and simplifying and harmonizing rules,” and put in place regulations that were “more effective or less burdensome.” All worthy goals.
- However, while his administration did reduce existing regulations in 2012 that wiped out $2.5 billion worth of burden on the economy, his administration added $236 billion MORE in economic burdens, as measured by the American Action Forum.
- Their analysis identified the EPA as the main culprit, incurring $172 billion worth of economic burden out of the $236 billion.
- They estimated that Obama Care will require that 44 million hours of work be needed to comply with its regulations every year from businesses and individuals.
- The Dodd-Frank legislation will require an additional 32 million hours worth of compliance time every year.
- These additional 76 million hours will take time away from growing and improving the economy, creating wealth and jobs in the process.
- These 76 million hours will be done in the name of two massive government bureaucracies that have virtually no chance of being successful.
- These new regulations will crush many small businesses that do not have the time, money, and resources to comply, further dragging down the economy.
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-2013-political-class-insanity_2.html
which looked at some detailed and stupid government regulations. The most inane one was the fact that the Federal government maintains a 244 word regulation on how to label a frozen turkey. Not how to freeze it, not how to transport it, not how to store it, but how to label it.
Ridiculous regulation, as is most other government regulations that do nothing to keep us safe and have everything to do with keeping a government worker employed.
3) Political class insanity is not restricted to just Washington politicians and government, it infests state and local government also. A Reason article in the latest issue reviewed a Utah state law that prohibited restaurant patrons from ordering an alcoholic drink prior to putting in their meal order.
Yes, a current Utah law prohibits serving alcohol “except in connection with an order of food.” Thus, it is illegal in Utah to order a drink in a restaurant five minutes prior to telling the waiter what you want to eat but it is legal to order an alcoholic drink five minutes later at the same time you put your meal order in. Insanity, but a law that apparently is actually enforced, according to the article, resulting in fines that could range from $300 to $5,000 and suspension of a restaurant's liquor license.
Not only is this a stupid law in itself but it is also stupid in that it requires tax payer money to be used to hire inspectors that actually go around to enforce this stupidity. Inane regulations at the state government level by state level politicians.
4) Getting back to Federal regulations, according to existing Federal law, any new government regulations are supposed to go through a public review process called “notice and comment” in order to get input and feedback form the public on the possible ramifications and downsides of new government regulations.
But there is a loophole to this law called the “good cause exemption.” This exemption allows a Federal entity to bypass this notice and comment requirement when it, and only it, determines if a new regulation’s notice and comment option would be impractical or harmful.
Thus, we end up with Federal organizations regulating themselves, never a good thing in a democracy that strives for limited government. According to a study done by the General Accountability Office, from 2003 to through 2010, about 35% of major government rules and regulations (those having an impact of over $100 million) were not subjected to review and comment, a disgrace in itself.
However, in the past few years that percentage has risen to 40% and in 2009 and 2010 the Federal government set records for the most major rules not subjected to comment and review periods. Thus, Obama’s promise that he would operate the most transparent administration in history continues to fall apart in reality and more and more government operations are conducted in secret.
5) Myles Wilkinson of British Columbia beat out 4 million other fantasy football league players to win an all expense paid trip to the Super Bowl earlier this year, certainly the life long dream of many a football fan. However, when he tried to enter the country, U.S. Customs agents prevented his entry because he had been convicted of possessing a mere two grams of marijuana 32 years ago in 1981. 32 years ago. Apparently, he had not run afoul of any law since then but still, the Federal government would not allow him entry to see the Super Bowl.
Talk about petty, talk about bad government and political priorities. Millions of people have illegally entered the country over the years through our leaky borders, many of whom were criminal elements. But when a law abiding person legally tries to enter the country on a temporary basis, we throw him out because of something he did 32 years ago. Something that probably millions of Americans do every week. Ridiculous.
Okay, enough for today. We are working through the backlog of insanity but more to come tomorrow. Of special interest tomorrow will be a review of a current Washington politician who claims she has super powers in that she is indispensable to her constituents. Ego unchained and more tomorrow.
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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