1) Many times in this blog we have reported on how the Federal government has gotten so big that often many, many different parts of the government are working on the same issues, usually resolving none of them, but resulting in duplicative efforts and costs to the American taxpayer. The General Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued its latest annual report on this redundancy and found that not much has changed:
- There is significant and duplicative effort within the Federal government’s disability and unemployment system, so much so that the Feds paid out more than $850 million a year in duplicative cash benefits to more than 117,000 people, “replacing a portion of lost earnings not once but twice."
- The Department of Defense has an amazing eight separate organizations within itself that track down POW/MIA personnel that constantly fight over turf and resources which creates: “discord and lack of collaboration among the entities that account for missing persons.”
- The Minority AIDS Initiative is somehow spread throughout ten different agencies just within the Health and Human Services entity.
- Getting back to the Defense Department, it has spread its satellite control responsibilities across ten different organizations which “requires more infrastructure and personnel to manage when compared to shared networks,” according to the GAO conclusions.
- Duplications like these waste taxpayer wealth, diffuse the mission of the organizations, and generally result in more time spent on protecting turf than resolving issues. The good news is that the GAO does a good job of analyzing the situation and providing solutions for them. The bad news is that the political class in Washington usually fails to implement those solutions, with only 124 proposed solutions having been implemented over the years out of the 380 that the GAO had proposed, a success rate of only 33%.
- In Minnesota, it is no longer a crime to carry fruit in an illegally sized container.
- The state’s telegraph regulations have been eliminated.
- It is no longer illegal to drive a car in neutral — if you can figure out how to do it.
- In addition to these three idiocies, the effort also got rid of 1,172 other “unnecessary and incomprehensible laws.”
- The effort also made taxes simpler to understand and follow, cut government red tape and bureaucracy, speeded up the process for granting business permits, and required state agencies to communicate in plain, non-legalese language.
3) Many, many times this President has made promises and vows that never came true, were broken, or were just political stunts that were never intended to come true. President Obama promised to quickly shut down the prison at Guantanamo if elected, it is still open. He promised to cut the Federal deficit in half if elected, he then proceeded to run up five of the largest deficits in the history of the country. He promised you could keep your health insurance policy, your doctor, your hospital, etc. as a result of Obama Care, none of which turned out to be true.
In fact, three of his lies made the Washington Post’s top ten lie list of 2013 including taking the top spot for the top lie in 2013. And now it appears there may be another lie brewing. According to a mid-May investigation by the Washington Beacon, it is very unclear whether or not the President lived up to his promise to take a 5% cut in pay as a result of the sequester last year to show sympathy for furloughed Federal workers.
When recently queried whether or not that cut actually occurred, the White House could not or would not provide an answer. Since Federal law does not allow the President to unilaterally take a pay cut, his promise of returning 5% of his salary, or about $20,000, was to be accomplished by writing a personal check every month to the U.S. Treasury. Again, the White House could not confirm or deny whether of not the President reneged on this promise also.
In fact, although other Washington politicians made similar claims, it is unknown whether or not they too also fulfilled those promises. A discussion with the Beacon article writer can be viewed at:
The Obamas are worth millions of dollars. They get free room, board, and vacation travel expenses for eight years from the American taxpayer. $20,000 would be a minute amount of sacrifice on their parts. One would have thought that if the President actually fulfilled this promise, that a press release with copies of the checks he wrote, would have been readily available to the press as good PR.
The fact that he has not made that proof of payment available and the fact that he has made so many other promises have been broken leaves one with the impression that this was must another piece of hypocrisy and deceit from a typical Chicago politician, not a true leader in any sense of the word. This type of behavior just reinforces the fact that we should not believe anything any politician says at any time until the absolute proof is made available, especially with this President.
4) Let’s finish up today with a funny yet pitiful video montage of high ranking officials of this Presidential administration “doing everything they can” to resolve the issues and crises of our times. These issues range from gun violence to Obama Care to the Russians taking over parts of the Ukraine to the IRS abusing First Amendment rights of private citizens to veterans dying as a result of VA incompetence to a whole range of other issues.
The really sad part is that while these officials are “doing everything they can,” the bottom line is that they are resolving nothing, they are accomplishing nothing, they have not a single success despite “doing everything they can.” One has to be left with the conclusion that if this is your best effort, according to your own words, and you still accomplish nothing, then you are not competent enough to retain your position, your high salary and benefits, or the trust of the American people. It is that simple, your best is not good enough:
Wasteful and expensive duplication still exists throughout all levels of government, silly and useless laws and regulations still exist throughout all levels of government, lies are ongoing and an embedded trait of this Presidential administration, and while maybe getting an “A” for effort for “doing everything they can,” they are still a bunch of inept leaders and managers of the country’s affairs.
Have a good day, see you tomorrow for more political class insanity.
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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