1) Let’s start with a U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu. She has been in the U.S. Senate for almost 18 years during which time we have seen her and the Washington political class preside over and contribute mightily to the following:
- The Great Recession.
- The weakest post recession recovery in the history of the country.
- Chronic long term unemployment and underemployment.
- A national debt close to hitting $17 TRILLION.
- An economic stimulus program that cost over $800 billion with no long term societal benefit in return because of its stupid priorities and programs.
- Health care industry reform legislation known as Obama Care that has virtually no chance of succeeding in reining in out of control health care costs but will suppress employment and economic growth.
- Drops in average household income and wealth that has accelerated since the Great Recession ended.
- No resolutions to any long term national problem, be it illegal immigration, failing public schools, lack of a national energy program, sky high health care costs, a lost war on drugs, etc.
Given the above track record of the Senator and her peers, indispensable is probably the last word I would be using relative to any sitting politician on any topic or issue. Incompetent yes, indispensable no.
2) In our July 9, 2012 post we related a sordid tale of Washington political cronyism. In late September, 2011, the Department of Energy approved a $737 million loan guarantee to a company called Solarserve that is working on a solar plant in Nevada. Talk about a major “coincidence.“ Turns out that the brother-in-law of former Speaker of the House, Democrat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Ronald Pelosi, is second in command at the primary energy investment fund that backs the Solarserve effort. Surprise, surprise.
But lightning recently struck twice regarding a national Democratic woman politician from California. Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California’s high speed rail boondoggle, who do you think won the contract?
Richard Blum and his company won the contract. Turns out that Mr. Blum is the husband of California U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein. Blum is the principle owner of Tutor Perini, the lead firm in the three-firm consortium selected by the California High Speed Rail Authority. Surprise, surprise. The political class continues to take of themselves and their families while the rest of the country suffers and ends up paying for the cronyism mess they create.
3) The Federal government is going to spend $152,000 to study “voice therapy” for transgenders. Voice therapy for transgenders, really? We have a $17 TRILLION national debt and we are worried about voice therapy for transgenders?
Now, do not get me wrong. I really do not care what someone does to their own bodies or what their life style is. But it is their life, they should face reality and pay for the consequences of their choices rather than taxpayers paying for this type of wasteful spending. According to a National Institutes of Health grant:
“This study will illuminate the capabilities of the human larynx and inform the relationship between voice production and perception. The long term goal of this research is to inform and provide new directions for Transgender (TG) voice care, thereby improving the lives of TG people who feel their voice is a great obstacle to living as their preferred gender.”
Again, I have no problem with others messing with their gender. But they should pay for the alterations and the implications of those alterations, not the American taxpayer.
4) You know things are insane in Washington when your read an April 28, 2013 Associated Press article. Lawmakers from both parties have set aside nearly half a billion dollars ($436 million) in taxpayer money over the past two years to build improved versions of the 70-ton Abrams tank for the Defense Department.
However, even the bloated, out of control spending Defense Department does not think they need nor do they want the additional tanks. Why build more tanks then if the Army does not want them and future military conflicts are most likely to be against terrorist organizations where tanks will be useless?
The simple answer is politics and votes. The Abrams tank is made in one location in Ohio and both Ohio Democrats and Republicans in Congress have managed to keep this useless expenditure alive in order to not tick off voters back home in Ohio. Rather than find better uses for this taxpayer wealth, including returning the wealth to the taxpayers, we now have a Federal government that would rather spend the money on useless economic activity in order to protect their political careers.
Producing products just for the sake of producing products that will never be used is certainly suboptimal in any type of economy. It is pure insanity. It is similar to what the Navy did several years ago when they spent over $300 million to build two Navy ships almost to completion and then took them apart for scrap metal before they were ever used.
Between these two atrocities of waste, the combined $736 million could have been used to fund the suspended White House tours for well over 700 years. How many teachers, border agents, drug treatments, and other more beneficial activities could have been funded for over $700 million? But these beneficial activities never happened because some Ohio politicians wanted to protect their own political careers buy funding tanks that even the Army does not want. Pathetic.
5) The MarylandReporter.com reported on April 10, 2013 that the state of Maryland will institute a rain tax in nine of its counties, i.e. people in Maryland will be taxed on how much water falls on their properties. This rain tax will be determined by how much of a property’s area is covered by a hard surface such as a building or a driveway. This calculation will be determined by aerial surveillance of each property.
It will cost Maryland homeowners, business owners, and churches about $300 million a year. The state law exempted state and local government from paying the rain tax (of course, taking care of their own kind!).
Long ago the Beatles warned us this might happen, tax us for rain:
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
They just never imagined we could be taxed on rain.
6) The Washington Times reported on a nice piece of political class elitism on April 24, 2013. As we have discussed many times in this blog. It is quite apparent that President Obama decided to make the government spending cuts from the measly sequester budget cuts as painful as possible for the ordinary American citizen. The latest insult was to furlough air traffic controllers which has resulted in long delays for American travelers.
Well, at least most American travelers. The chief of the FAA told Congress that Washington D.C. area airports will largely escape the effects of the air traffic controller furlough, making travel for D.C. lawmakers much easier and more hassle-free than for most Americans.
Just another example where selfish Washington politicians take care of themselves before even considering taking care of the rest of America.
That will do it for today. I promise tomorrow’s post will be the last in this series of monthly political class insanity reviews. Tomorrow, we will also spend some time proposing steps that need to be taken to get this insanity, idiocy, and waste under control before it is too late…or before it rains.
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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