1) I have always loved the old line of wisdom that goes as follows: “It is better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt.” This came to mind recently when a Congresswoman did not obey this adage when Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton stated that "perhaps the most catastrophic war of the 20th Century - invasion by the United States of America" in Iraq. How ignorant is this statement:
- First of all, the invasion occurred in the 21st century, not the 20th century.
- Although it is impossible to accurately estimate the number of humans killed in World War II most reputable sources put the death toll at between 70 and 80 million people, certainly more catastrophic than the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
- These 70 to 80 million deaths included 700,000 British military casualties and 60,000 civilian deaths, Soviet Union deaths of 26.6 million people, about 5.7 million Polish deaths, 5.3 total German deaths, and over 400,000 U.S. military deaths (source: www,worldwar2.org).
- In World War I there were about 16 million deaths and 20 million other casualties, making this war also far more catastrophic than Iraq.
2) As a country we spend a lot of money on educating our kids. Unfortunately, spending money and getting good education attainment results on our investment are usually not related. Our kids always end up behind the kids of dozens of our countries on standardized tests.
This dichotomy of high spending and low results is nicely illustrated by the following graph from the U.S. Department of Education and other reputable sources:

While we are spending almost 200% more on public schools than we spent in 1970, far above the rate of inflation, and the staffing growth in public schooling is up almost 100% since 1970, math, reading, and science performance has barely moved since 1970.
In no other aspect of our lives would we tolerate this sort of incompetence. For some reason, though, we seem to think nothing of handing over massive resources to the political class, hoping they would improve the lot of our kids, and then sit idly by for over forty years during which no improvements are made.
Given that the current Presidential administration has been in place for more than five years and there is no sign that they have any plans or strategies to fix this four decade old problem, it is highly unlikely that this situation will change in the remaining years of this administration. Thus, we would have wasted another eight years and hundreds of billions of dollars to allow this graph to remain unchanged.
No plans, no strategies, no changes, just massive spending for minimal results. Are we starting to see why we need term limits? Forty years of incompetence should not be rewarded with continued employment in Washington.
3) Speaking of more costs, consider the following graphs that recently appeared in a Washington Examiner article, based on data form the Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Over the past five years, quarterly growth in the nation’s health care spending has gone up between 2% and 4% on average with quarters being above 4% and some quarters being below 2%.
However, over the past two quarters, we have seen the growth rate break out of this range, so much so that in the fourth quarter of last year the quarterly growth in health care spending in this country was almost 6% and in the first quarter of this year the quarterly growth was an unprecedented 10%. It just so happens that those two quarters, which had the highest growth rate in the past five years, corresponded with the rollout of Obama Care, a piece of legislation that was supposed to reduce health care costs and spending, not increase them.
Now, the Examiner article correctly points out that these figures will likely be revised in the future as more data becomes available. However, that means they also could be higher than currently estimated. It is looking like just another case where legislation coming out of Washington is doing the exact OPPOSITE of what it was supposed to do, raising costs rather than lowering them. Only in the American political class can you get the exact opposite result of what you intended to do.
4) There are over twenty million Americans who are unemployed or under employed. The economic growth from the latest quarter is almost nothing. People are dying and homeless in the Midwest from tornados. The Ukraine is being torn apart from within and without. Wasteful government spending is out of control, our kids are not getting educating, and health care costs are going up.
So what does Senate Majority Harry Reid give a speech about on the Senate floor recently? He wants the National Football League to pressure the Washington Redskins owner to change the name of the team since in Mr. Reid’s opinion it is racist.
No new economic policies, no strategic planning to contain the Russian threat in eastern Europe, no overhaul of our public education system, nothing of consequence to the majority of Americans. Just the name of a football team that has been around for 80 years.
Now, I am not saying the name is not racist. I am saying that a Senator from Nevada should really shut up and work on the major issues affecting all Americans vs. worrying about the name of a football team that resides almost three thousand miles away form his home state. A pathetic set of priorities.
5) One last piece of insanity today. An ABC News poll recently found that President Obama’s approval rating has sunk to 41%, the lowest level of his Presidency. This is about five years and four months into his administration. [The fact that ABC television news hardly mentioned the dire poll results is a topic of another blog on media prejudice.]
On March 7, 2006, an ABC News poll showed that President Bush’s approval rating had fallen in the same range, a 42% approval rating. Thus, it would appear that we are not much better off with this President than the previous President, especially when you consider that Obama hit the same low point in his Presidency about one year sooner than Bush hit the same level in his Presidency.
The more things change the more they stay the same with political class failures across the board in education, war on drugs, foreign affairs, wasteful spending, and Americans’ disapproval of the job the Washington political class is doing. Term limits anyone:
More insanity tomorrow.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
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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