April, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 5: A Congressman Claims Poverty, Hillary Loses $6 Billion, DC Gets Richer While We All Get Poorer

This is our fifth and far from last post this month in our monthly political class insanity series. In this series, every month, we look at the insanity, idiocy, wasteful spending, and condescending attitude of the American political class. 

It seems that the members of this political class have been especially pathetic over the past month since it is likely we will surpass the most posts needed in one month to get all of the insanity reviewed. This is a very poor commentary on our politicians, the fact that they are getting worse over time, wasting taxpayer wealth and destroying our liberties and freedoms as they go.

1) We have often maintained that our politicians are the most ignorant politicians of all time when it comes to the economy, economic theory, and economic policies. The Independent Journal Review recently took some important economic indices’ values from 2008 and compared them to their 2013 levels.

Keep in mind a few facts before we review the indices:

1. Since 2008 we suffered through a severe recession but that recession ended four years ago.
2. The Obama administration spent well over $800 billion in an economic stimulus package to spur the economy back in 2009.
3. The Federal Reserve Board has held interest rates at historically low levels for a historical length of time to spur the economy.
4. We are living in the midst of an energy revolution which should be keeping business costs down and spurring economic expansion.

Despite all of these positive economic environmental factors, the political class has been only able to post the following economic results over the just past five years:

• The number of full time American workers has dropped from 120 million to 116 million.
• The work force participation has dropped from 66% vs. 63.2%.
• The home ownership rate has dropped from 70% to 62%.
• The median household income has dropped from $55,484 to $52,098, with most of that drop occurring AFTER the recession ended.
• The poverty rate has climbed from 13% to 15%.
• The number of Americans on food stamps has risen from 31.6 million vs. 47.8 million.
• The nation’s Debt-to-GDP has jumped dramatically from 64.8% vs. 101.6%

It is hard and sad to believe that despite all that the political class had going for it from a positive economic environment, this is how pathetic their policies have turned out to be in reality: lower American incomes, lower home ownership, higher national debt, more hungry Americans, etc. Pathetic ignorance of economic theory and policies.

That is why Step 36 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” was proposed. Under this step, every member of any Washington political office would be required to take a class on basic economic theory and pass a test from that class before being allowed to take office. 

2) Given these awful economic results generated by the current political class, it really smacks of being out of touch and a Hunger Games mentality when a long term Congressman tries to make the case that members of Congress are underpaid. Jim Moran, a 12-term Congressman from Virginia recently opined that members of Congress deserve a per diem payment, as they cannot afford to stay in Washington, D.C., according to reporting by The Hill. 

Keep in mind that members of Congress currently receive $174,000 a year in salary, more than three times what the average American household earns. Members get substantial help to pay for their health care coverage thanks to an illegal and un-Constitutional move by the Obama administration. They are only in the office for small parts of each month. They get a lot of other perks that save them money that ordinary Americans have to pay for. And their economic performance is putrid and the approval rating hovers around a historical low of 10%. 

And he somehow thinks they are underpaid. Step 37 from “Love My Country, Loathe my Government” suggested that a customer/taxpayer approval review process be instituted every year and that members of Congress and the President have a large part of their pay based on how well they scored in this citizen review. If this process was actually in place today, anything paid to a current Washington politician would likely be considered too much, given how little they have accomplished.

3) According to a recent report from the State Department Inspector General, the State Department has lost track of approximately $6 billion used to pay its contractors over the past five years or so. Just this one instance of $6 billion wasted and lost money comes out to about $52 for every U.S. household.

The report found a basic inability to file paperwork properly and a “lack of internal control at the department has led to billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years,” State Department Inspector General Steve Linick said in a “management alert” recently made public.

How could this waste have happened and the $6 billion lost in a Federal department that has been around for hundreds of years, a department that should now better on how to handle basic accounting processes? Well, it is simple. Linick was appointed to his current position in 2013 after the State Department went without an Inspector General for nearly five years, the longest that any Federal entity has gone without a chief auditor, the Washington Post reported.

Thus, when the inspector general cat was away, the mice at the State Department played fast and loose with accounting rules, processes and taxpayer wealth: “The failure to maintain contract files adequately creates significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” the report states.

The department’s mismanagement of contract funds and contract-related files started a little before Hillary Clinton was appointed Secretary of State and continued throughout her entire tenure at the State Department. Which raises a simple and legitimate question: if Hillary Clinton showed no ability to manage the State Department budget while in charge of the State Department, why in heaven’s name would we ever trust her manage the Federal government’s entire budget as President of the United States? 

4) We have reviewed the following analysis in previous years but it is worthwhile to look at the latest results of a Forbes magazine analysis. Every year Forbes personnel look at U.S. Census data and compute the wealthiest counties in the United States. This year, six of the wealthiest counties are in the greater Washington DC metro area:

1. Falls Church City, Va. 
2. Loudoun County, Va. 
3. Los Alamos County, N.M. 
4. Howard County, Md. 
5. Fairfax County, Va. 
6. Hunterdon County, N.J. 
7. Arlington County, Va. 
8. Douglas County, Colo. 
9. Stafford County, Va. 

Only three counties outside of Washington were able to crack the top nine in the Forbes analysis. The average household income in the richest Washington metro counties, Falls Church and Loudoun was almost two and a half times larger than the overall U.S. median household income.

Now we know where all of our tax money is going, it is feeding the out of control and far reaching government bureaucracy in true Hunger Games fashion. 

5) The U.S. is hopefully going to get all of its troops out of Afghanistan pretty soon and leave the hell hole behind in our history. However, before we go, it is important to realize how much taxpayer wealth has been wasted in this ill fated military mission. The following instances and levels of waste do not include the wasted military costs and the cost of Americans killed and wounded in the fighting. 

According to the Special Inspector General For Afghan Reconstruction audit of non-military spending in the country, the American taxpayer has already spent over $14 billion. However, it appears we have gotten very little value for our money, given what the inspector general uncovered:

• The US has been trying to complete a dam project since the 1950, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars but the project is still not completed.
• A $34-million military facility in Helmand Province was built and THEN the Army decided that it did not need it, resulting in a need to decide whether to tear down or turn over to the Afghans. The Army decided to hand it over but for some reason the unused building will need a “major overhaul” before Afghanistan's government can use it/ So the Pentagon decided to throw good money after bad so the military gave additional $1.2 million to the Afghans to finish the work even though we will be long gone and unable to see what happens to it.
• An $11.3-million prison in Baghlan, built with a Department of State contract, has “serious structural damage” that endangers staff and prisoners because it is located in one of the country’s most earthquake-prone areas and may never fulfill its mission.
• Much if not most of the American wealth flowing into the country for civilian program ended up in the pockets of corrupt politicians, corrupt police, and not surprisingly, members of the Taliban, the very people we have been militarily fighting over the past ten plus years.

What a mismanaged, disgraceful project management example of political class incompetence. That has wasted trillions of our tax dollars and thousands of our brave service people’s lives.

So let’s review: the Washington politicians have wasted over $14 billion for civilian programs in Afghanistan, Hillary Clinton’s state Department lost $6 billion, people In DC are getting richer and richer while the rest of the country is getting poorer and poorer, and a U.S. Congressman is struggling to live on only $174,000 a year plus benefits and perks. Yes, sounds about ride for one day of political c lass insanity.

Unfortunately, much more insanity is coming down the the line in the days to come.

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:

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http://www.robertringer.com/
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