So let’s pick up where we ended yesterday, a day where we covered how politician’s seem to almost take delight in closing down food banks that safely serve the hungry and homeless in this country, how they seem to not care that they continue to waste billions of dollars in Afghanistan for nothing in return, and how their ineptness when it comes to economics has resulted in a substantial drop in median household income AFTER the Great Recession ended:
1) Many times in this blog we have cited government sources and investigators who have estimated how much money major Federal government programs lose to waste and outright criminal fraud every year:
- Mediciad: $30-40 billion every year.
- Medciare: $70-90 billion every year
- Social Security: At least $100 billion every year.
Thus, in just one typical year, the ineptness of the Federal government results in at least $200 billion a year not fulfilling what the political class promised it would fulfill.
I bring these numbers up after reading an interview of Bill Gates in the recent interview issue of Business Week magazine. Mr. Gates and his wife are active philanthropists whose charitable foundation is doing wonderful things around the world. One of their biggest objectives is to wipe out the disease of polio in the near term and malaria in the longer term timeframe. Fabulous and worthwhile work serving all of humanity around the world.
What caught my eye was some background numbers on their foundation which indicated that since the foundation was up and operational, it has handed out $26.1 billion in grants to help fight worthy causes like these. It gave out $3.4 billion in grants in 2012.
Thus, they are able to invest about $3.4 billion a year in great initiatives as compared to the Federal government who wastes over $200 billion a year. This is almost 60 times more wasted and lost to fraud than what the Gates’ foundation is able to provide to the world. I was just thinking what a shame it is that we cannot reverse these numbers, spend over $200 billion to wipe out diseases and fix other major problems while wasting only $3.4 billion in the process. The Gates do it right, our Washington politicians obviously do it way wrong.
3) One of the bigger political jokes over the past four years or so is the claim that Obama operates one of the most transparent administrations of all times. We have previously reported on a Bloomberg report that tried to get simple travel records of high level administration officials but were blocked at every turn in their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the Obama administration, in violation of the FOIA law.
We reported on how the Department of Labor demanded a million dollar payment/ransom when the Associated Press submitted a FOIA request for a simple list of administration email addresses.
We reported on how this administration has gone after more than twice the number of government whistle blowers than ALL previous administrations combined.
Congressional committees have been blocked dozens and dozens of times as they try to get documents and information to get to the bottom of the many Obama scandals including Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS misdeeds, spying on reporters, etc.
Bottom line: this is not even close to being the most transparent administration of all time. But the most insulting and silliest violation of this claim was pointed out in the August, 2013 issue of Reason magazine. The American Civil Liberties Union wanted to find out how the FBI was applying court ordered guidelines to accessing the text messages of American citizens. Thus, they filed a FOIA act request with the Justice Department.
The good news is that the Department complied with the letter, if not the spirit of the law. They sent the ACLU a copy of the memo that the ACLU was looking for entitled, “Guidance For The Minimization of Text Messages Over Dual Function Cellular Telephones.” This cover letter was attached to a 15 page document that supposedly had the guidelines that the ACLU was looking for.
I say supposedly because the Justice Department had taken a black magic marker function and had blackened out the contents on ALL 15 pages. Every page looked like a black hole with a white border around it. Reason magazine’s article illustrated two of the pages to show how useless the Justice Department had been in providing the information. They provided the memo just none of the information in the memo. Pathetic.
So that is why when Obama states anything, numerical, policy, or practice, I assume it is false until proven otherwise. His track record of integrity when discussing anything is wobbly at best, and if the Justice Department action relative to the ACLU request is typical, his administration is the least transparent and most devious of any I can remember.
4) I do pick on the current set of Washington politicians a lot but I do it out of respect since I believe they are the most inept and incapable set of politicians we have ever had to live through in the history of our nation. But that is not to say past politicians were not also devious and underhanded. Newly declassified audio tapes from the Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon era show again how Nixon would fit right into today’s Washington crowd, according to an article in the March 29, 2013 issue of The Week Magazine.
The recordings show that Nixon intervened with the government of South Vietnam and convinced them not to accept any peace plans from Johnson or North Vietnam to end the war, promising South Vietnam they could get a better deal if he was elected President. Nixon apparently thought if the war dragged on until after the election he ran against Hubert Humphrey, he would be more likely to win. He did this despite the fact that North Vietnam was willing to make some major concessions at Johnson’s urging to bring the war to a quick end.
Well the South Vietnamese bought his sales pitch, the war continued on for another five years, 22,000 more American servicemen lost their lives, billions and billions more taxpayer wealth was unnecessarily spent, and North Vietnam ended up winning the war and taking over South Vietnam. All because a Washington politician wanted to win an election. Nixon would have fit right into today’s political class.
As a side note, Johnson thought that Nixon had indeed committed treason but did not say anything since it would reveal that his administration was illegally wiretapping South Vietnamese leaders. Given Obama and the NSA’s massive wiretapping of every American’s electronic communications, looks like Johnson also would have fit right into today’s political class and its scheming and illegalities in Washington.
5) One last piece of depressing bit of news courtesy of the political class before we wrap up today, assuring you that there is more idiocy and hi-jinks from our politicians to be reviewed tomorrow. According to a Wall Street Journal report that was summarized in the August 30, 2013 issue of The Week magazine, less than a third of American teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs this past summer, as reported by the Labor Department. Before the recession, more than 40% of teenagers in this age bracket had summer jobs.
Just another indication that this set of politicians in Washington has no economic planning and instincts at all. More than three years after the Great Recession ended, household income is down and teenagers are still a forgotten segment in the unemployment department, not able to get a job in the summer. Pathetic.
Four insanity posts and we are still not close to being done, more of their antics and incompetence tomorrow. In the meantime, please visit our sister website where you can join our effort to institute term limits on all current Washington politicians because, really, how much worse could it get than what we have today:
www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
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:
Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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