Wastebook 2013 Review, Wasteful Government Spending Part 1: Facebook Pays No Taxes, $297 Million Blimp Goes Flat And More

For the next four days or so we will be reviewing the latest research, done annually, by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Every year, the Senator produces his “Wastebook” publication which looks at one hundred of the worse, most inane uses of taxpayer wealth by the Federal government. Just these 100 examples alone cost the American taxpayer a whopping $30 billion a year in waste. 

At a time when the nation’s national debt load is exceeding $17 TRILLION, when the President and other petty Federal politicians are crying about the minimal cuts incurred by the sequester, when these same politicians call for higher and higher taxes, the “Wastebook” serves as an excellent counter balance to out of control government spending. We do not have an under taxation problem in this country, we have an overspending, wasteful spending problem in this country, as witnessed by the stupid spending expenses we will review over the next four days.

As you read these examples of stupid spending, consider the following concepts:

• How many of these stupid spending priorities help to find employment for the 23 million unemployed or under employed Americans?
• How many of these stupid spending priorities help to feed or shelter the millions of homeless in this country?
• How many of these stupid spending priorities help to treat the millions of drug addicted Americans in this country?
• Given that no Federal taxpayer money was used to repair the Statue of Liberty several decades ago, why should the same type of Federal taxpayer money be used for these insane expenses today?
• How do these stupid expenses address the major issues of our times such as failing public education, illegal immigration, the lack of a strategic national energy plan, skyrocketing health care costs, etc., issues that affect just about every American?
• The Federal government just reduced the long term benefits it pays out to our veterans but continues to pay for such rubbish as what is documented in the “Wastebook.”

The obvious answer is that these programs address none of these issues. Senator Coburn captures the insanity of such spending in his “Wastebook” publication for 2013:

“Times remain tough in America. The number of people working has dropped to the lowest level in decades. More than 23 million of our fellow citizens do not have good jobs, and wages for many others are stagnant and even declining. Families are struggling to do more with less. 

But not everyone in America is living on a smaller budget. Washington politicians don’t even bother to give themselves a budget anymore. For the third consecutive year, Congress failed to pass a budget. And, for the fourth straight year, these compulsive spenders charged more than $1 trillion to our national credit card, pushing us to a $16 trillion debt. Some try to rationalize the excessive borrowing and spending as necessary until the economy gets back on track. 

But the increased demand for help is precisely why Washington must be more careful how tax dollars are spent to ensure we can care for those who are truly in need. To do this Washington must set priorities, just like every family. The problem is Washington has all the wrong priorities.

Thousands, millions and even billions of dollars in an annual budget in excess of $3.7 trillion may not seem like much to Washington politicians, but these days a dollar can make a big difference for families on fixed budgets. How many of our friends, families and neighbors could be fed with the nearly $1 million the government spent taste testing foods to be served on the planet Mars? How many nutritious school lunches could have been served with the $2 million in financial assistance provided to cupcake specialty shops?

We are not going to review all hundred insane instances of wasteful spending over the next four days for several reasons:

• We may have already reviewed them in prior posts.
• They are similar to ones we are reviewing.
• The explanation of them would take up too much space.

However, the many we are reviewing will give you an idea of how badly our taxpayer wealth is being managed by the Washington political class and how shallow and stupid their calls for more taxes are. Keep in mind that these are only 100 examples, there are likely thousands and thousands of other wasteful spending efforts that the Senator never got to.

2. It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s Superman! – (National Guard) $10 million 

This year, the Army National Guard teamed up with Superman on a $10 million “Soldier of Steel” promotional campaign, intended “to increase awareness and consideration of service opportunities in the National Guard.”25 The recruitment ads “dovetailed with the release of the Warner Bros. blockbuster movie, ‘Man of Steel,’” the latest Superman movie and, strangely enough, with a downsizing of the National Guard. 

3. Uncle Sam Looking for Romance on the Web – (NEH) $914,000 

The Federal government Popular Romance Project has received nearly $1 million from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) since 2010 to “explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction, taking a global perspective—while looking back across time as far as the ancient Greeks.” 

5. Beachfront Boondoggle: Taxpayer’s on the Hook for Paradise Island Homes – (Hawaii) $500 million 

A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) home loan program created to assist those with low and moderate incomes in rural areas to obtain “safe and sanitary dwellings," has expanded to cover “mortgages for millionaires” and homes in suburban and urban areas, as well as seaside “resort communities.”

This year more than 100 individuals or families received loan guarantees for $500,000 or more from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase a residence in Hawaii. If these new homeowners later cannot afford their new homes, it’s no problem; the federal government will protect the banks from losses by repaying 90 percent of the loans.

6. Pimping the Tax Code – (Navada) $17.5 million

Through the tax code, Uncle Sam is assisting the operation of the legal brothels in Nevada. Though prostitution is illegal almost everywhere in the nation, the federal tax code still allows brothels to qualify for standard business deductions and expenses. These deductions significantly reduce a brothel’s overall federal income tax liability, even though annual revenues for the industry have been approximately $50 million. All while other sectors of the economy shriveled. 

Brothels can take deductions for groceries, “salaries and wages of prostitutes, rent, utilities and taxes and licenses.” The Mustang Ranch brothel, which was Nevada’s oldest, reduced its income tax liability by also deducting costs of “promotion,” which included “free passes.” 

Brothel workers are also allowed business deductions. “[B]reast implants and…costumes” have also been ruled allowable deductions by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Workers can also deduct the cost of “equipment for that specialized stuff,” noted one tax expert. 

7. Mass Destruction of Weapons – (DoD) $7 billion 

As the U.S. war effort in the Middle East winds to a close, the military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of useable vehicles and other military equipment. The total amount of equipment eventually to be scrapped—the equivalent of 77,000 metric tons—is approximately 20 percent of the total war material the U.S. military has in Afghanistan.

The military has decided to simply destroy more than $7 billion worth of equipment rather than sell it or ship it back home. 

8. Let Me Google That for You: National Technical Information Service – (Department of Commerce) $50 million 

One federal agency is charging other offices and taxpayers to provide government reports that are largely available free of charge on the Internet. It is essentially the “let me Google that for you” office of the federal government. Home to more than three million records, the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service (NTIS) collects “government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information” and reports and sells them to other federal agencies. Only it turns out most of what it sells can also be found for free on the Internet with little effort.

10. Cost of Unused Mega-Blimp Goes Up, Up and Away – (Army) $297 Million 

In an era of technological advances that make the machines of war smaller and more agile, the Army spent three and a half years developing a football field-sized blimp that would provide continuous surveillance of the Afghan battlefield – called by some an “unblinking eye.”

In 2013, however, the Army closed the blimp’s eye forever when it brought the project to a halt after spending nearly $300 million. The Army sold the airship back to the contractor that was building it for just $301,000. 

12. Indie Rock Music Execs’ World Tour – (ITA) $284,300 

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) received $284,300 this year from the International Trade Administration (ITA) Market Development Cooperator program. This is “the first time” the federal government’s “trade arm” has funded the promotion of the U.S. music industry.

With the government subsidies, independent music label executives have been traveling around the globe promoting rock music in foreign markets on what might be called “the Indie Rock Music Execs World Tour.” Last year, ITA officials accompanied A2IM members on a trip to Asia. This year the group was rocking in Rio. 

13. Status Update: Facebook Pays No Taxes, Instead gets a Tax Refund – (IRS) $295 million 

Here is a status update no one will “like” – one of America’s largest companies avoided paying federal or state income taxes, and is poised to do so again this year. In fact, they will likely receive a check from the federal government in the form of a tax refund.

Despite bringing in more than $1 billion in U.S. pretax profits last year, the social-media giant Facebook reported a combined $429 million refund from their federal and state tax filings. Uncle Sam cut a check to Facebook for roughly $295 million in 2012, according to one analysis of the company’s 10-K filing.

14. Government Study Finds Out Wives Should Calm Down – (NIH) $325,525 

If your wife is angry at you and you don’t want her to stay that way, you might avoid passing along the findings of this government study. Wives would find marriage more satisfying if they could calm down faster during arguments with their husbands, according to government-funded research. 

The researchers observed 82 married couples. “The marriages that were the happiest were the ones in which the wives were able to calm down quickly during marital conflict,” explained one researcher.

Ticked off yet? We are just getting started, three more days of wasteful spending to follow, all with your hard earned tax dollars.

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

Retro Post Wasteful Government Spending Part 4: Thirty Absolutely Stupid Uses Of Taxpayer Wealth

For the past several posts we have been representing some of our most popular posts form the past as they related to wasteful government spending. Since many of these posts were written, the national debt of the federal government has grown to an unimaginable $17 TRILLION. This is over a $50,000 debt burden for every man, woman, and child in the country.

We are revisiting these posts now to once again prove how careless and stupid the Washington political class is with our hard earned wealth and to show what a disgrace the latest Congressional budget agreement is. We will delve into the details of this insult to the American taxpayer next month. The budget agreement promises to reduce annual Federal government spending by tens of billions of dollars in the future years while we really need to reduce spending by trillions of dollars over the coming years. Failure to do so will eventually lead to the collapse of our financial system, our way of life and our democracy.

Reducing wasteful spending in the name of reducing the national debt burden is not hard. We have showed how to that dozens of times. We have come up with a plan that would reduce Federal government spending by $9 TRILLION of ten years. 

However, the concept of living within your means and running a fiscally prudent, non-wasteful government seems to be a lost concept on politicians in Washington. That is why over the next few days we will restart the education process of how to get rid of wasteful government spending without creating hardships for the majority of Americans.

Today's retro look goes back to early 2013 to look at 30 idiotic uses of our taxpayer wealth, uses that have nothing to do with fixing our broken public education system, cleaning up and reducing the cost of energy, fixing our busted war on drugs, or remedying any other major issue facing the majority of Americans today.

***************************

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

30 More Stupid, Wastful Spending Examples And Why No American Should Pay Another Penny In Taxes 

In the past week we have had to live the idiocy of Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, and other politicians who seem to think it would be a good thing for Americans to send more of their hard earned wealth to the political class in Washington. They have this sick, perverted view of reality that somehow Americans do not pay enough in taxes.

They seem to think that Americans, who work about 30% of the year just to pay off their overall tax burden, every year, do not pay enough in taxes. 

They seem to think that even though they operate one of the most incompetent, wasteful, and inefficient human organizations in the world, the Federal government, Americans do not pay enough in taxes. 

They seem to think even though their inept IRS organization fails to collect over $385 billion a year from tax evaders, Americans do not pay enough in taxes.


They seem to think that sending more and more personal wealth to be wasted by Washington bureaucrats does not have a detrimental impact on the economy.

We have covered the insane and disgraceful spending and wasteful behavior by the Washington class many times before. The following post was the first in a series of wasteful government spending:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/wasteful-government-spending-week-pimp.html

We did a related series of posts on why no American should have to pay another penny in taxes, given the wasteful spending that exists already in Washington:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/12/day-1-seven-days-of-logic-and-sanity.html

We have also showed how painless it would be to take $9 TRILLION out of our obscene national debt, currently $16.4 TRILLION, if only Washington did their jobs and had any touch with reality:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency-plan.html

However, just when you thought you have ferreted out all of the wasteful spending, you trip over more. I have found another source of idiotic spending that these very same politicians have presided over. Think about these when you hear any politician when they try to convince you that they need more taxes and wealth from you to make life better. 

I am sure that the following stupid government expenditures had minimal, if any, positive impact on any American’s life:

#1 The U.S. government is spending $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay

#2 The Obama administration plans to spend between 16 and 20 million dollars helping students from Indonesia get master’s degrees.

#3 The U.S. government has spent $175,587 “to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”.

#4 The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, California.

#5 The federal government has shelled out $3 million to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft.

#6 The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $500 million on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.

#7 Fannie Mae is about to ask the federal government for another $4.6 billion bailout, and it will almost certainly get it.

#8 The federal government once spent 30 million dollars on a program that was designed to help Pakistani farmers produce more mango.

#9 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once gave researchers at the University of New Hampshire $700,000 to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#10 According to USA Today, 13 different government agencies “fund 209 different science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs — and 173 of those programs overlap with at least one other program.”

#11 A total of $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

#12 China lends us more money than any other foreign nation, but that didn’t stop our government from spending 17.8 million dollars on social and environmental programs for China.

#13 The U.S. government once spent 2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.

#14 One professor at Stanford University was given $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.

#15 The U.S. Postal Service spent $13,500 on a single dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.

#16 The National Science Foundation once spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.

#17 A total of $1.8 million was spent on a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#18 The federal government spends 25 billion dollars a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.

#19 U.S. farmers are given a total of $2 billion each year for not farming their land.

#20 The U.S. government handed one Tennessee library $5,000 for the purpose of hosting a series of video game parties.

#21 A few years ago the government spent $123,050 on a Mother’s Day Shrine in Grafton, West Virginia. It turns out that Grafton only has a population of a little more than 5,000 people.

#22 One professor at Dartmouth University was given $137,530 to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.

#23 According to the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. military spent “$998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida”.

#24 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once shelled out $30,000 to a group of farmers to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”.

#25 The National Institutes of Health paid researchers $400,000 to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk.

#26 The National Institutes of Health also once spent $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#27 The National Institutes of Health loves to spend our tax money on really bizarre things. The NIH once spent $800,000 in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.

#28 According to the Washington Post, 1,271 different government organizations work on government programs related to counterterrorism and homeland security.

#29 The U.S. government spent $100,000 on a “Celebrity Chef Fruit Promotion Road Show in Indonesia”.

#30 The feds once gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 “to paint a Chinook salmon” on the side of a Boeing 737.

As always, if the political class ever resolved any major issue such as our lost war on drugs, failing public schools, high national debt, escalating health care costs, a lack of a national energy strategy, etc., we might be able to live with stupid uses of our money. 

However, we get nothing in return for high levels of taxation and have to sit back and watch as the political class hands out our money to stupid projects like these. 

As Forest Gump once said: “Stupid is as stupid does.” When it comes to politicians that have the nerve and chutzpah to ask us for more money via taxes after squandering previous tax receipts on these worthless efforts, when they talk like this it reinforces our view that “Stupid is as stupid talks.” These are just another 30 reasons why term limits for all Federal politicians cannot come soon enough.

The original source for these 30 stupid expenditures can be read at:

http://www.mrconservative.com/2012/03/2471-30-government-waste-projects/30/

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

Retro Post, Wasteful Government Spending, Part 3: Robosquirrel, Presidential Golf Junkets, Circus Day Funding And Other Spending INsults

For the past several posts we have been re-presenting some of our most popular posts from the past as they related to wasteful government spending. Since many of these posts were written, the national debt of the federal government has grown to an unimaginable $17 TRILLION. This is over a $50,000 debt burden for every man, woman, and child in the country.

We are revisiting these posts now to once again prove how careless and stupid the Washington political class is with our hard earned wealth and to show what a disgrace the latest Congressional budget agreement is. We will delve into the details of this insult to the American taxpayer next month. The budget agreement promises to reduce annual Federal government spending by tens of billions of dollars in the future years while we really need to reduce spending by trillions of dollars over the coming years. Failure to do so will eventually lead to the collapse of our financial system, our way of life and our democracy.

Reducing wasteful spending in the name of reducing the national debt burden is not hard. We have showed how to that dozens of times. We have come up with a plan that would reduce Federal government spending by $9 TRILLION of ten years. 

However, the concept of living within your means and running a fiscally prudent, non-wasteful government seems to be a lost concept on politicians in Washington. That is why over the next few days we will restart the education process of how to get rid of wasteful government spending without creating hardships for the majority of Americans.

Today's post is from April of 2013 where we showed how the Washington political class was moaning about the so-called sequester cuts and how that was going to topple Westrern civilization. However, at the same time they continued to allow the Federal govenrment to pay for totally worthless programs and projects. These projects and programs had nothing to do with addressing the major issues facing Americans today. Some , in fact, used American taxpayer money to support the citizerns of far away lands, haivig nothing to do with supporting American citizens.

************************************

Monday, April 1, 2013

Chicken Little and The Washington Political Class, Part 3: Final Words On The Sequester And Wasteful Spending 

We wanted to stop this series at two posts but the hilarity from our political class relative to the meager sequester spending cuts just keeps on coming. As many know, the Federal government was recently forced to reduce its outrageous spending ways by 2% as a result of a budget deal that Obama and Congress agreed to in August, 2011. Rather than work together to rationally cut the incredible amount of wasteful spending that goes on in Washington, the politicians in D.C. did nothing for 17 months, resulting in across the board cuts of about 2% to Federal spending.

Rather than do his job, the President went off like Chicken Little, ranting and raving that the end of the world was near because of this minimal spending cut. Even worse, though, he decided to make even these meager cuts as evil and vindictive as possible to make life worse for Americans. His petty reactions to the sequester was to terminate the long tradition of allowing American citizens to tour the White House, also known as the “people’s house,” not Obama’s house. 

He also unnecessarily release thousands of illegal immigrants from custody, hundreds of which had been convicted of violent crimes and also threatened to cancel the long tradition of a White House lawn Easter Egg hunt. He made sure that Federal funding for Native American kids education was cut.

His vindictiveness was proven in the following two posts where we reviewed many cases of unnecessary, wasteful, and often insulting spending by the Federal government, spending that could have easily been cut with minimal impact to the vast majority of Americans:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/03/chicken-little-and-washington-political.html

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/03/chicken-little-and-washington-political_26.html

However, he chose the opposite path and chose spending cuts that would impact far more American lives than necessary.

Since these two posts ran, we have identified additional sources of spending that should have been cut first, and cut long ago, from the Federal budget rather than the petty, vindictive cuts this President chose.

Details on these first six examples of wasteful spending can be found at:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Media/Slideshow/2012/10/15/12-Incredible-Examples-of-Government-Waste-This-Year.aspx?index=11#7gZjUIHDU4u0seAo.99 

1) A major component of a $27 million plan by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve the economic competitiveness of Morocco involved training Moroccans to design and make pottery for sale both locally and in international markets. Yes, we spent money traiing foreign citizens to make more competitive pottery. Even the Inspector General USAID concluded the training was "ineffective and poorly implemented." 

The better conclusion is why did we spend this money at all? $27 million would have paid for over 27 years of White House tours, having a far greater impact on far more Americans than training foreigners to make better pottery.

2) The U.S. Department of Energy, not the Russian Department of Energy, has spent $15 million on a program which has helped Russian weapons institutes recruit scientists. The DOE says the program has created nearly 2,800 private sector jobs… in Russia. The $15 million would have operated the White House tours for over 15 years or maybe it could have created jobs for American scientists.

3) Smuttynose Brewery in New Hampshire has annual sales of more than $5 million Why then did the American taxpayer pay it three quarter of a million dollars to buy three new brew tanks and set up sewage connections for a new location outside Portsmouth? Shouldn’t this be a company expense and not a taxpayer expense, an expense that could have operated White House tours for almost a year?

4) A similar example of corporate welfare is shown by taxpayer funds, about $500,000, being given to Sergeant's Pet Care Products, a company with $140 million in revenue, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The money was for capital improvements, like buying machinery to make pet toothpaste and shampoo, money that should have been a company expense, not a taxpayer expense.

5) The following may be the most outrageous waste of taxpayer wealth I have ever come across. Researchers at San Diego State University and the University of California, Davis spent part of a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant to make “RoboSquirrel,” a taxidermied rodent that can wag its tail. Why you ask? To help study interactions between squirrels and rattlesnakes. You cannot make this stuff up it is so stupid:

A Congressional report correctly came to the following conclusion, in somewhat of an understatement: "During these difficult fiscal times of massive deficits, paying $325,000 for a robot squirrel seems a bit squirrelly." Hopefully, other projects that are in the planning, equally ridiculous, including RoboSquirrel 2.0 and RoboKangarooRat, will never see the light of day.

6) The National Endowment for the Arts has given $84,000 over the last three years to the Circus Day Foundation, now known as Circus Harmony, for a one-year circus arts program that teaches students how to juggle, hula hoop, and other circus skills, probably because these skills are in such demand in today’s job market (sarcasm). 

Now, some people might say that these are not worth worrying about, they are too small in the big picture. However, I would counter with the following discussion points:

• While these expenses might be small relative to a multi-trillion dollar budget, why spend the money if you do not need to? Just because you can does not mean you should. 
• You cannot save a billion dollars in wasteful spending until you save a million dollars in wasteful spending until you save a thousand dollars in wasteful spending. You have to start cutting waste somewhere. 
• These are just a small sample of bad spending priorities. Multiply these types of unnecessary spending instances thousands of times across hundreds of government entities and these small numbers in the sample become really large numbers in total. 
• These are just the specific program or project costs. Remember, that there are embedded government salary and operating costs that also have to be allocated to these programs. For example, salary dollars were spent by National Science Foundation employees to review the Robosquirrel proposal, taxpayer wealth wasted beyond the $325,000 grant. 
• And finally, better to spend $27 million in Morocco on a failed program or less than one million dollars a year to keep White House tours going on?

7) Charles Cooke recently wrote a sequester article for the National Review that was summarized in the March 22, 2013 issue of The Week magazine. According to the article, and other news sources, the White House no longer allows tours of the building but still keeps THREE calligraphers on staff. Annual cost: $277,500. 

In this wonderful age of computers, why in the world does the President need one calligrapher on staff, never mind three? Are we saying that a secretary could not fire up her Mac computer and knock out some fancy invitations or stationery, saving the almost $300,000 annual expense? 

It is a bit ironic that the President uses an Autopen machine to sign important legislation into law that usually affects every American but insists on having manual labor do far less important signing and writing.

8) In that same article we learn again that the White House employs a full time dog manager for the family pet at a cost of over $100,000 a year, more than double the average U.S. household income. Shouldn’t family members be responsible for taking care of the family pet, even if that family is the First Family?

9) And finally from Mr. Cooke, we learn that it costs the American taxpayer $181,757 an HOUR to keep Air Force One in the air. Thus, the single trip the President recently took to Florida to play one round of golf with Tiger Woods probably could have paid for a year or so of White House tours.

You get the idea. These nine examples of useless spending, combined with the previous two posts of useless spending, show that much rational budget cutting could have been done to avoid the blunt axe of the sequester. But the Washington political class, starting with and Obama and driving down through each freshman Congressman and woman, had neither the initiative, the intelligence, or the ability to make smart cuts to stupid government spending. 

As a result, the Chicken Little reaction of this Presidency, leadership by hysteria, resulted in the shutting down of White House traditions and the release of potentially dangerous criminal elements into the population. At least Chicken Little hurt no one but herself.

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

Retro Post: Wasteful Government Spending, Part 2: $1.2 TRILLION Worth Of Stupid Govenrment Expenses

For the next several post we will be representing some of our most popular posts form the past as they related to wasteful government spending. Since any of these posts were written, the national debt of the federal government has grown to an unimaginable $17 TRILLION. This is over a $50,000 debt burden for every man, woman, and child in the country.

We are revisiting these posts now to once again prove how careless and stupid the Washington political class is with our hard earned wealth and to show what a disgrace the latest Congressional budget agreement is. We will delve into the details of this insult to the American taxpayer next month. The budget agreement promises to reduce annual Federal government spending by tens of billions of dollars in the future years while we really need to reduce spending by trillions of dollars over the coming years. Failure to do so will eventually lead to the collapse of our financial system, our way of life and our democracy.

Reducing wasteful spending in the name of reducing the national debt burden is not hard. We have showed how to that dozens of times. We have come up with a plan that would reduce Federal government spending by $9 TRILLION of ten years. 

However, the concept of living within your means and running a fiscally prudent, non-wasteful government seems to be a lost concept on politicians in Washington. That is why over the next few days we will restart the education process of how to get rid of wasteful government spending without creating hardships for the majority of Americans.

Today’s post is interesting because it compiles a mind boggling $1.2 TRILLION worth of Federal government spneidng over the past dozen years or so that was spent on the most inane and stupid programs and projects yoou can imagine. These programs and projects have nothing do to with national defense, health care, pubic education, or any other topic of interest and concern to Americans today. For lack of a better word, they were $1.2 TRILLION worth of tax wealth spent on stupidity.

***************************
Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wasteful Government Spending Week - A Historical Perspective 

This week we have diligently been going through all types of government waste from all corners of the Federal bureaucracy. We discussed the $80 million wasted on an unused State Department consulate in Afghanistan, $184 million of wasted airport security equipment purchases that are likely to never be used, over $3 billion wasted on failed green energy companies, etc. 

Today, we will take a more historical perspective. The following Federal government spending instances go back over the past three decades or so. They come to us today courtesy of the website, www.boycottliberalism.com. I do not know if all of this information is correct but since I recognize many of these unnecessary expenses from other research I have done, it would not surprise me that these are actual, and unneeded, previous random wasteful spending examples.

All of the examples come from:

 http://www.boycottliberalism.com/ 

Other examples of unneeded spending by the political class at our website:

http://www.loathemygovernment.com/

You can actually visit that website and vote on whether the forty or so expenditures were worthwhile use of taxpayer dollars. So far, those that have voted have overwhelmingly rejected the notion that these are worthy of taxpayer wealth.

The very sad part about today's waste is that it comes out to over $1.2 TRILLION worth of misused taxpayer wealth. Over a roughly thirty year period, this waste averages out to about $60 billion a year, or about $348 a year for every current American household. Imagine how much more robust our economy would be if every household had an extra $348 or so each year to spend, rather than have it wasted on the idiotic expenditures listed below.

The cumulative running total of government waste as identified by the website:

$1,230,956,867,592.00:

The National Institutes of Health spent more than $400,000 in taxpayer money by paying researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk -- and just what can be done about it.

The U.S. government spent $2.6 million to make sure prostitutes in China consume less alcohol while working. As part of the five-year study that the National Institutes of Health bankrolled, researchers are visiting more than 100 houses of prostitution to monitor their employees, designated as FSWs, or female sex workers.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a study on the use of ecstasy, LSD and other “party drugs” in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To do this, U.S. taxpayers will invest $117,876 for the three-year study, conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware, who will work in collaboration with researchers from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period in business- or first-class airline tickets bought in violation of travel policies, Congressional investigators say.

It looks like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., is going to get his wish – $2 million in taxpayer funding for a library commemorating his 37 years in the House of Representatives. The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public service will serve as a repository for his "papers," and the Congressman will have his own office in the Harlem complex.

The earned income tax credit (EITC) provides $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. The IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount—nearly one-third—is wasted in overpayments.

A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million.

Since World War II, the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on foreign aid to 70 countries – and all are worse off than they were in 1980, according to the U.N.

For the Department of Commerce for giving the City and County of Honolulu $28,600 in 1981 to study how they could spend another $250,000 for a good surfing beach. 

For the Health Care Financing Administration for Medicaid payments to psychiatrists for unscheduled, coincidental meetings with patients who were attending basketball games, sitting on stoops, etc. -- the cost of which was between $40 and $80 million from 1981 to 1984. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities for a $25,000 grant in 1977 to study why people cheat, lie and act rudely on local Virginia tennis courts. 

The Office of Education for spending $219,592 in 1978 to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch television. 

The Environmental Protection Agency for spending an extra $1 million to $1.2 million in 1980 to preserve a Trenton, NJ sewer as a historical monument. 

In 2005 - $469,000 for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina.

In 2005 - $100,000 for the Punxsatawny Weather Discovery Center Museum.

In 2005 - $350,000 for the Inner Harmony Foundation and Wellness Center in Scranton, Penn. 

In 2005 - $1,430,000 for various Halls of Fame, including $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn., and $70,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.

Medicare, the U.S. health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, erroneously paid out $19.9 billion during fiscal 2004, up from $19.6 billion a year earlier, because of mistakes, waste and fraud, a government report said. In most cases, hospitals and doctors billed for medically unnecessary services or didn't provide proper documentation to support the fees for services.

The GAO estimated that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department spent an estimated $100 million for airline tickets that were not used over a six-year period and failed to seek refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

While Andrew Cuomo was HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton, the agency set up a "Creative Wellness" program that spent $1,100,000 million taxpayer dollars on “gem” bags and taught public tenants to burn incense. 

The study, titled "Status/Dominance and Motivational Effects on Nonverbal Sensitivity and Smiling," attempts to find out if it's really true that women smile more than men, and if people of higher status smile less. Judith Hall, a highly respected researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, is conducting the smile study — and it is not her first. Since 1993, she has been awarded more than $500,000.

A National Science Foundation study looking at whether White House reporters have become more adversarial sounds a bit strange to reporters and critics. Even more surprising: the study cost taxpayers $180,000. 

In 2001 more than $600,000 in tax money was spent on researching the sex lives of South African ground squirrels.

The head of the IRS sent out a notice to every person advising them that they would be receiving a tax refund in 2001 - the estimated cost $30,000,000.

In 1998 more than $800,000 was approved for a coal library in Pennsylvania. Defenders stated that it would provide historical insight into a very important part of Pennsylvania and history. 

In 2001 the U.S.. Government gave $5,000,000 to the University of Alaska, North Pacific University, and the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to fund the "stellar sea lion recovery plan." 

In the year 2001, Congress appropriated $340,000,000 in federal tax dollars to PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for a Mississippi research project on "manure handling and disposal". 

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,500,000 million to promote silk production in Laos.

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1 ,000,000 for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii). 

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry."

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia).

In 1999 the U.S. government spent $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team.

In 1999 $1,200,000 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $100,000 to study the causes of sediment buildup at a Santa Cruz, New Mexico dam.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in San Luis Obispo, California.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute to improve the profitability of the state's sheep industry.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $273,000 for the Blue Springs (Missouri) Youth Orchestra Outreach Unit for educational training to combat Goth culture.

In 2003 the U.S. government spent $1,000,000 appropriation for the Center for Public Service and the Common Good (a think tank) at the University of San Francisco. 

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $400,000 for manure management research at the National Swine Research Center.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,100,000 for the Mountain Made Foundation in Thomas, West Virginia for business development and the education of artists and craftspeople.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $4,000,000 to implement the forest and fish report of the Washington State.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $500,000 for exhibits on the Sullivan brothers at the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $61,000 for the State Historical Society to archive the history of Iowa workers. 

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for the Ohio Arts Council to expand international programs.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,900,000 for the Mountaineer Doctor Television program at West Virginia University.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for an educational mall at the Raleigh County Commission in Beckley.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $2,000,000 for West Virginia University to establish a Center on Obesity.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $260,000 for asparagus technology in the state of Washington.

In 2002 the U.S. government spent $1,200,000 for music education at the GRAMMY Foundation.

In 2000 the U.S. government spent $50,000 for the development of a Welcome Center Facility City for Enumclaw, Washington.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 for the Gambling Impact Study Commission.

In 1997 - $330,000 for Stellar Sea Lion research of the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Consortium.

In 1997 - $785,000 for bluefish/striped bass research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In 1997 - $2,700,000 added by the Senate for the Animal Resource Wing at South Dakota State University.

In 1997 - $4,000,000 added in conference for the Discovery Center of Science and Technology.

In 1997 - $19,600,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland, a program that tries to aid the peace process in Ireland by paying for golf videos, pony trekking centers, and sweater exports.

In 1997 - $16,369,000 added by the Senate for public library construction. 

In 1997 - $9,469,000 added in conference for Migrant Education programs including: $7,441,000 for the High School Equivalency Program; and $2,028,000 for the College Assistance Migrant Program.

In 1997 - $3,100,000 added by the Senate for the National Writing Project.

In 1997 - $8,200,000 for a new classroom building at the Rowley Secret Service Training Center in Beltsville, Maryland, which is the district of House Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations subcommittee member Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and the state of Senate appropriator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.). 

In 1998 - $220,000 added by the Senate for lowbush blueberry research in Maine. 

In 1994 - $221,000 for lowbush blueberry research at the University of Maine in the state of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME). 

In 1998 - $150,000 added by the House for the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness.

In 1998 - $127,000 added by the Senate for global marketing support services in the state of Senate appropriator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.). According to testimony, the goal of this research is to identify “potential foreign markets for Arkansas products….”

In 1998 - $32,000 added by the Senate for the Center for Rural Studies in the state of Senate appropriator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). A portion of this grant money is used for analytical reports to guide the development of Vermont retail shopping areas.

In 1998 - $500,000 added by the House in the district of House appropriator Richard Durbin (D-IL) for the construction at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Illinois, of Charles Corneau’s house, a neighbor and friend of Abraham Lincoln.

In 1998 - $10,912,000 added by the Senate for foreign language assistance.

In 1994 - $200,000 for locoweed research at New Mexico State University in the state of House appropriator Joe Skeen (R-NM). Since 1992, $716,000 has been appropriated, and there is no expected completion date for this research.

In 1994 - $1,000,000 added in the Senate for the Multispecies Aquaculture Center in the state of Senate appropriator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

In 1994 - $19,600,000 added in the House for the International Fund for Ireland. The conference report “restores language stricken by the Senate and appropriates up to $19,600,000 for the International Fund for Ireland.” In the past, this program has used American taxpayer dollars for a golf video and pony trekking centers.

In 1993 - $19,704,000 for the International Fund for Ireland requested, according to committee sources, by House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-WA).

In 1993 - $9,170,000 added in conference for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission in the district of House appropriator John Murtha (D-PA).

In 1992 - $2,000,000 added in conference by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for a New York Bight Center for undersea research.

$1.2 TRILLION spent with very little societal benefit to show for it except the ability of incumbent politicians to use taxpayer money to fund their continual reelection.

What a shameful waste. A few observations and suggestions come to mind:

• When the Statue of Liberty was badly in need of refurbishment back in the 1970s, no taxpayer money was used to fix it up. It was all financed by citizen and corporate donations. Going forward, the political class should not be able to allocate any money for local projects like the dozens listed above unless that project was more important than the Statue Of Liberty, one of the shining examples of liberty of our country. Thus, if this rule was in place, no Federal taxpayer money would ever be wasted on bike trails, repurposed cabooses, etc. since none of those projects are more worthy of government financing than the Statue of Liberty.
• Step 44 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" should also be deployed to eliminate the trillion dollars of wasteful spending highlighted above. Step 44 would not allow any Federal money to be used on any project unless that project had a substantial impact on a significant number of citizens from at least five states. For example, Federal money would continue to be used to support Amtrak since that affects many states and many states' citizens across the country, However, under Step 44's criteria, no Federal dollars would ever be used again to build a local river trail, build a local farmers' market, etc., since these types of projects should all be handled with instate tax dollars.
• And our favorite step from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" also comes into play here. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done," Many of the above examples of wasteful spending are done by incumbent politicians to show the back home voters how they can get Federal dollars flowing back to their states and Congressional districts, no matter how stupid the projects being funded are. If incumbents knew that they had no chance of being reelected due to term limits, the need to funnel money back home to support their reelection chances goes away.

Most Americans recognize the insanity of wasting their tax dollars on these types of programs and projects. It makes you wonder why the political class does not see it the same way.

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

Retro Post: Wasteful Govenrment Spending, Part 1: Navy Ships For Sale! Cheap, Never Used, Act Now

For the next several post we will be representing some of our most popular posts form the past as they related to wasteful government spending. Since any of these posts were written, the national debt of the federal government has grown to an unimaginable $17 TRILLION. This is over a $50,000 debt burden for every man, woman, and child in the country.

We are revisiting these posts now to once again prove how careless and stupid the Washington political class is with our hard earned wealth and to show what a disgrace the latest Congressional budget agreement is. We will delve into the details of this insult to the American taxpayer next month. The budget agreement promises to reduce annual Federal government spending by tens of billions of dollars in the future years while we really need to reduce spending by trillions of dollars over the coming years. Failure to do so will eventually lead to the collapse of our financial system, our way of life and our democracy.

Reducing wasteful spending in the name of reducing the national debt burden is not hard. We have showed how to that dozens of times. We have come up with a plan that would reduce Federal government spending by $9 TRILLION of ten years. 

However, the concept of living within your means and running a fiscally prudent, non-wasteful government seems to be a lost concept on politicians in Washington. That is why over the next few days we will restart the education process of how to get rid of wasteful government spending without creating hardships for the majority of Americans.

Today’s post remains the all time most popular post we have ever written. It reviews the utter and total wasting of over $300 million on two Navy ships that were built and then scrapped without ever fulfilling an military need or service. $300 million for absolutely no purpose at all.

***********************

Friday, July 22, 2011

U.S. Navy Ships For Sale! Cheap, Never Used, Act Now 

Just when you think that you have identified the latest government waste of taxpayer money, some big new wastes jump into your face. Consider some recent news reports that reported on how the U.S. government was scrapping two of its Navy ships even though they had never seen one day of service. Details of the waste include:

• Two large Navy ships, that have never been used, are headed for the scrap yard even though they are almost completely finished and ready for duty. 
• Work began on the USNS Benjamin Isherwood and the USNS Henry Eckford in 1985 at the Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company and were intended to carry fuel to the Navy's ships around the world. 
• When the company defaulted on their Navy contract in 1989, the 600 foot ships were sent to Florida for completion. At the length of two football fields, these were not insignificant ships. 
• The ships were eventually moved to the James River Navy yard and have sat there at 95% and 84% complete the past 18 years. 
• A British company considered buying the ships and completing their build out for sale to a NATO country. 
• However, since the ships are single hulled and double hulls are required for today's fuel carriers, the British company decided not to complete the construction and instead, settled on a $10 million contract and taxpayer expense to scrap the ships altogether. 
• This week the ships are being towed to Texas to be cut up for scrap iron and scrap steel for recycling.

Thus, after spending $300 million to begin building the ships, almost finishing their construction, getting absolutely no use out of them, and paying to tow the ships from port to port, the taxpayers will get hit with one last insult and be charged $10 million to destroy the never used ship.

Where to start on this insanity:

• Who is responsible for ordering the construction of these ships but never getting any use out of them? In the private market, if a business person was to incur that big of a screw up they would be out of a job.
• Was there nowhere in the world that these ships could have been sold in order for taxpayers to get some money back rather than incurring another $10 million cost to have them destroyed? Even though the could not be used to haul fuel, was there no company in the world who would not want a sturdy Navy ship to ship other goods in its hold that was not fuel related? 
• There must be a Chinese shipping company who could use a new ship or two, especially since China's exports in the first half of 2011 was a record level of $874 billion, 20% higher than in 2010 (The Week, July 22, 2011). Thus, not only should the people responsible for building $300 million worth of ships be fired, the people who could not get anything in return by selling the ships should also be fired.
• This is a classic example of Step 34 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Step 34 would remove politicians from any Congressional committee that does not do its committee job to at least to minimum standards. Whatever Congressional committee or subcommittee members were responsible for flushing $310 million of taxpayer wealth down the drain need to be removed from their committee or subcommittee posts.
• The article contains a quote from Joseph Keefe from www.maritimeprofessinal.com who stated that the scrapping the ships will "close one of the saddest chapters in American shipbuilding history and for that matter, Federal fiduciary folly." In other words, what a waste of taxpayer money. Very well said, Mr. Keefe.

Another scary aspect of this story is the thought that this may not be an isolated incident. What other $300 million wastes are hanging around the Pentagon closets? With Pentagon resources deployed in three war zones, dozens of foreign countries, and probably most of the fifty states, I find it hard to believe that this is the only wasted money in the Pentagon budget. Eliminating this type of despicable behavior would reduce the Pentagon budget without further endangering the defense of the United States.

While we are on the topic of waste, let's move out of the Defense Department domain and move to another area of gross government waste. According to USA Today article, that was highlighted in the July 7, 2011 issue of The Week, the Federal government wastes about $17 billion of taxpayer wealth every year in the operation of its unemployment benefits program. Almost 12% of the program's budget is paid out fraudulently to Americans who are either collecting benefits they are not entitled to or are those people that have gotten a job but are still accepting unemployment benefits.

Compare these figures to the politically motivated ramblings of President Obama over the past few weeks. He has made a big deal about closing tax loopholes for oil companies and corporate jet users. Now, while I agree these loopholes should be closed, they are a pittance compared to the unemployment fraud. 

Over ten years, the oil company loopholes would amount to about $20 billion and the corporate jets loophole would amount to about $3 billion, a total of $23 billion or so over 10 years. Ten years worth of this type of unemployment benefits waste comes out to $170 billion, which is almost eight times more than the political gamesmanship loopholes of Obama.

It never ends. The government cannot plan its Navy needs, resulting in wasting over $300 million on just two of its ships. The government cannot efficiently run a simple unemployment benefits program, wasting 12% of its budget and $17 billion a year. The politicians worry about the smaller, trivial wastes of taxpayer money while the bigger wastes go on and on every year. 

The worst part of all, there is no apparent accountability. No one ever seems to be held responsible for all of the waste. Politicians continually get re-elected in the face of the waste. Government bureaucrats never seem to lose their jobs despite inefficiency and waste. 

You wonder what kind of world those in DC live in where how well or bad you perform your job has no ramifications on your monetary reward and career paths. Its the kind of world I would like to live in where performance is unrelated to reality. But first, I need to see if any of those ships are still available, they are too good a deal to pass up.

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

December, 2013 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care, Part 9: Why and How Obama Care Is Failing And Will Fail

This will be the ninth and final update on the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care for this month. This does not mean we have covered all of he screw ups, anguish, hardships, and corruption that have been caused by this legislation. 

In fact, we are sitting on over two hundred news reports, analyses, and research findings that prove this is the single worst piece of legislation ever passed by Washington. We could probably use these sources to write another fifty or more blog posts on Obama Care, it is that bad. But there is other insanity and trampling to our freedoms being done everyday by the American political class that need to be addressed and that is what we will do starting tomorrow.

This does not mean we will not come back to the Obama Care fiasco. It seems to get worse everyday, new surprises, new costs, new corruption, etc. We will circle back around to what the legislation is doing sometime in the middle of next month.

In the meantime, I have listed the titles of about one hundred information sources that examined the ramifications of Obama Care below. These information sources arose just in the past thirty days or so, I have another hundred or so sources that are older. If you cut and paste these titles into your search engine, the original article should pop up for your review prior to our next set of posts on Obama Care next month.

Until then, let’s summarize some of the general problems and disasters of Obama Care that we have documented and reported on over the past four months:

• Millions of Americans are losing access to their current and preferred health insurance policies as a result of Obama Care.
• Millions of Americans are losing access to their preferred doctors.
• Millions of Americans are losing access to some of the top hospitals in the nation.
• Millions of Americans have either lost their jobs because of Obama Care, have lost work hours as a result of Obama Care, or never got the opportunity at new job opportunities as businesses restricted their expansion and hiring plans as a result of Obama Care.
• Washington politicians illegally made exemptions and exceptions for themselves and their staffs relative to Obama Care requirements.
• The President illegally and unilaterally changed components of the legislation without popular or Congressional approval.
• Many Americans are likely losing access to the necessary medicines they need, medicines that were covered in their previous policies but not in all replacement policies.
• The Obama Care systems and operations have accurately been described as an identity thief’s paradise.
• The legislation forces entities and individuals to disobey their religious tenets and principles, a violation of First Amednment rights.
• The adminsitration has gone after those that dared to speak out against the legislation, resulting in IRS audits, loss of work hours, loss of jobs, etc., a violation of First Amednment rights
• The legislation will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt over the coming years.
• The legislation will likely not meet its objective of getting insurance coverage to every American, likely leaving tens of millions of Americans without health care insurance over time.
• The legislation is causing a severe doctor shortage that may result in many, many Americans having health care insurance but there not being enough doctors for them to actually take advantage of that insurance.

But even if these problems did not exist and the Obama Care rollout out happned as some imagined, it still would not have resolved the basic problem of ever escalating health care costs in this country since it never identified and addressed the real root causes of those problems. If you do not know what the causes of a problem are, you have very little chance of resolving that problem.

Rather than resolving the underlying causes, Obama Care provides nothing more than a complicated, Rube Goldberg-like insurance bureaucracy that merely shifts health care costs and expenses around with resolving the causes which include the following:

• Americans are vastly overweight leading to allsorts of self inflicted diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, etc.
• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, food that comes from a food processing system that overuses high fructose corn syrup, a result of Federal government over subsidizing of corn production, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much, in part caused by the Federal government subsidizing of the tobacco industry.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• Laws inhibit the cross state line competition in health insurance sales, restricting competition and increasing health insurance prices.
• The legislation did little to reform the health industry tort laws, reforms that have proven highly successful at the state level in reducing health industry costs.
• The legislation never focused on curing the growing problem of “aging” diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and other afflictions of an aging population, a trend that will financially crush any health care reform unless addressed and tamed.
• The writers and creators of the legislation never “followed the money” to build an economic model of where every health care dollar spent in this country flows; without understanding the underlying business model, you cannot eliminate the waste and fraud within that model.
• The legislation never addressed the over $100 billion a year that the government already loses via waste and criminal fraud through its existing health care programs, billions that could have been used to help those today without health care coverage without destroying the current health care arrangements of millions of Americans. 

There you have it in a nutshell. The many reasons why the legislation is going to fail, unable to identify the underlying root causes of our high health care costs and the many ways it is causing havoc on Americans families across the country without any real societal benefit in return.

Interested in more bad news? Check out the following hundred or so other information sources that we have NOT even gotten to in our review of the worst piece of legislation ever written, Obama Care.

Whoops! Top Secret Obamacare Navigator Training Manual Made Public Online | Independent Journal Review 

America Passed ObamaCare for the Uninsured. And Guess What? They Don't Even Want It. | Independent Journal Review 

Creepiest Obama Story Yet 

Medicaid Growth: Catastrophe For State Budgets - Lunch Alert! 

Report: Ill-Trained Obamacare Navigators Encouraging Fraud, Jeopardizing Private Info 

Insurance companies to pour $500 million into ads promoting Obamacare in 2014 | AgainstCronyCapitalism.org 

Issa Slams Obamacare Navigators; Schumer: Cut Veterans' Benefits; NY Catholics Win Birth-Control Challenge 

Larry The Cable Guy's ObamaCare Joke Makes Critics "Cry Like Babies" 

Obamacare: What's Next? 

“Happy Holidays with Obamacare” #6: Medicaid | Americans for Prosperity 

Obamacare Patients To Cost Doctors And Hospitals Millions 

Sebelius ‘Urging’ Insurers to Cover People Who Haven’t Paid 

Errors Continue to Plague Government Health Site - WSJ.com 

Doctor Takes on Washington 

Anti-Obamacare Parody Song: 'You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Blue Shield' 

(Because of Medicare Reimbursement Rules) An effective eye drug is available for $50. But many doctors choose a $2,000 alternative. | AgainstCronyCapitalism.org 

‘There Was Nobody in Charge in the Administration’ 

Report on Obamacare Prep Shows 'No One in Charge' of White House 

Obamacare Architect: If You Like Your Doctor, You Can Pay More 

Conservabuzz – California Censors Government Employee for Daring to Criticize Obamacare 

Cruz SLAMS the 'lawless implementation of Obamacare' 

OBAMACARE PLANS EXCLUDE TOP HOSPITALS 

Crist's Full Obamacare Embrace/ Obama Accused of Freeing Iranian Spy In Iran Nuke Deal/ Welfare Recipient Mocks "Taxpayers & More... 

Millennials Abandon Obama and Obamacare - NationalJournal.com 

Dem Rep: People Losing Their Insurance Under Obamacare ‘A Good Thing’ 

EXPOSED: 126,000 Obamacare Enrollees Not Real // Mr. Conservative 

Dem Rep. Says Americans Losing Health Plans Under Obamacare is a 'Good Thing' 

IRS inspector general warns of Obamacare subsidy fraud | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government 

Doctors boycotting California's Obamacare exchange | Mobile Washington Examiner

Obama Claims ‘Regular’ Secret Meetings with Sebelius 

The Ruling Class is STILL shielding Obamacare 

Insurers on "honor system" for health plan subsidies | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government 

Florida's Own Pravda Blog/ God Approves Of Obamacare/ Palin Reacts to Bashir Quitting 

Americans for Prosperity on Pelosi's broken Obamacare promise | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government 

Obamacare Site For Congressional Staffers Crashes 

Obama Not Only Funds The Muslims they can opt out of the Obamacare with no penalties | 

More Obamacare woes: Federal website gives unusable Medicaid data - News-Sentinel.com 

Notre Dame Sues Obamacare; NSA Tracking Your Cellphone 

Megyn Kelly Loses It Over Huge New Obamacare Problem: 'That’s Your Money!' 

Obama Using Honor System to Pay Insurance Companies 

Harvard: Students turn on Obama, want him recalled, reject Obamacare | Mobile Washington Examiner 

Prize-Winning Obamacare video says not to worry about ricing prices 

'Dirty Harry' Exempts Staff From Obamacare 

Yes, Obama, Republicans have offered Obamacare alternatives | Mobile Washington Examiner 

Obama is a Racist for Promoting Obamacare 

More ObamaCare Chaos 

Healthcare.gov Cost 60 Times Too Much 

TheDC Links - Find out about the Obama administration's latest health care blowout 

Fox News Reporter Screenshots Healthcare.gov, No ObamaCare for Obama, Howard Dean Goes Full Socialist 

ObamaCare’s Latest Numbers Don’t Add Up. You Will Pay the Difference. 

Shocking Obamacare Poll Results... 

NY Times: Medicaid expansion could worsen doctor shortage | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government 

Anyone Who Promotes ObamaCare is a Racist and Here's Why 

Healthcare.gov is still a big security risk | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government 

Some Reid staffers exempt from Obamacare 

Does Obama want you infected with THIS? 

Obamacare Premiums Higher than the Mortgage 

UnitedHealthcare Dropping Hundreds Of Doctors From Medicare Advantage Plans - Kaiser Health News 

Barton: OCare Website Hidden Source Code Says Users "Have No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy" - YouTube 

Plouffe: Obamacare "Will Work Really Well" By 2017 

Corsi: Obamacare Nightmare Has Only Just Begun 

Obamacare premiums higher than the mortgage! 

Group Paid $1.1 Million To Promote Obamacare "Success Stories" - The Shark Tank - The Shark Tank 

Obamacare: Echoes of Stalinism Past 

The Obamacare Website has Relaunched - Here's How it Puts You in Danger. 

Sinister Source Code embedded in Obamacare program! 

Ellison Barber: Obamacare Website Is Not Fixed - YouTube 

Shocking video reveals way to repeal ObamaCare 

Polls Show ObamaCare Wave Building Against Senate Democrats 

Carney: Americans ‘Don’t Want an Effective Website’ 

No, Obamacare isn't fixed | Mobile Washington Examiner 

ObamaCare Website Crashes When CNN Tests Upgraded Version 

Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against Obamacare - Audited by IRS 

George Will: Medicaid is Next Obamacare Crisis 

Obamcare Forcing DEM's To Run For Cover/ Obama Dead Wrong On Terrorism/ More Dr.'s Run For Congress 

George Will: Medicaid Is Next Obamacare Crisis; Corker: Expect Higher Premiums, Less Choice 

TheDC Links - Obamacare website maker's Army corruption revealed 

"Shocking Obamacare Poll Results..."

Mark Halperin: Obamacare Contains 'Death Panels' 

Boy With Cancer, 7, Loses Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare | 

Mom with MS loses coverage due to Obamacare 

Poll: 59% Oppose Obamacare Insurance Mandate for Abortion, Sterilization | CNS News Mobile 

Obamacare is Killing a Mother with Multiple Sclerosis 

IRS auditing cancer patient who ripped Obamacare 

Allen West Rips Obamacare Website's Scheduled "Extended Maintenance" Down Time - The Shark Tank - The Shark Tank 

Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited 

TheDC Links - Obama loses another Hollywood big shot 

Lack of Doctors May Worsen as Millions Join Medicaid Rolls 

Democrats Poised For Rebellion Against Obama If Exchange Website Isn’t Fixed By December 1 Deadline 

Boy with cancer loses coverage after Obamacare launch 

See Everything This Mom’s Cutting to Pay for Obamacare 

Hobby Lobby vs. Obamacare Reaches Supreme Court 

Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict | Fox News 

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