We started dong these updates several years ago, usually taking one or two days every month to get all of their insanity covered. Unfortunately, over time, the insanity has seemed to accelerate almost exponentially, causing us to now have to take six or seven posts each month to get it all in. This month will be no different. As our foreign policy implodes, the economy stagnates, and the midtem elections approach, the insanity levels are intensifying daily.
To check out past instances of political class insanity in this post, simply go to the first week of each month and check out the posts that begin, “Political class Insanity.” This is the fourth entry in this series for this month, with the first four posts appearing over the past few days. The first post in this update can be accessed at:
For the latest insanity, read on:
1) It is not often that I agree with Ralph Nader but an interesting and telling analysis of his really shows how little value we get from our current set of Washington politicians. When reading his calculations, remember that this set of politicians has presided over the weakest economic recovery in the past century or so, they have doubled the national debt in just the past ten years or so, they have left tens of millions of Americans in poverty and without a job, tens of millions of Americans needing Federal food assistance every month, they have neglected our veterans, and have not resolved a single major issue facing Americans since at least the 1960s.
For this pitiful performance, Mr. Nader correctly estimates that:
- Our current set of Congressional members will earn about $608 per hour in their positions in the latter part of this year.
- How is that possible? Congress will be in session for only eight days during a 102-day span between August 1 and November 12.
- Based on their $174,000 annual salary and assuming a ten hour work day (Mr. Nader was being very generous), lawmakers will earn $608 an hour during those days in the nation's capital.
- Mr. Nader sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner regarding this pathetic performance: "While millions of Americans are working more and more for less and less, you and your House of Representatives seem to have no problem working less and less for more and more.“
- To refresh your memories, Congress took a five-week vacation from Washington on August 1 and returned on September 8.
- After working only two four-day workweeks, Congress adjourned again on September 18 and are not due to return until November 12 for a lame-duck session following the midterm elections.
- This $608 hourly wage for the eight days they are supposedly working is several times the hourly compensation of anesthesiologists, one of the country's highest-paid professions at an average of $113 an hour, according to writing by The Hill.
- And anesthesiologists actually perform a positive duty for society as compared to Congress.
- While defenders of these lean work hours claim that these politicians need to spend time home mingling with their constituents, at least in my neck of the woods, that is a fallacy. They only time you hear about them mingling is when they need my vote for their reelection.
- Nader is not buying this lame excuse either: "You are paid by the taxpayer to work in Congress at least a 40-hour week. If you want to do anything back home after that, that's discretionary time. They don't pay you to campaign for your re-election."
2) A recent article by Luke Rosiak, writing for the Washington Free Beacon, reported that from 2009 to 2012, the number of Maryland citizens signed up for free Lifeline telephone service (i.e. Obamaphones) grew to twice as many as Maryland's eligible residents. Six-hundred-and-forty-five thousand Maryland residents had so-called Obamaphones in 2012 — one hundred times as many people on the programs as there were in 2009, and, amazingly, double the number in that state who are supposed to be eligible for the program based on their income.
Talk about an out of control program that is grossly wasting the money that the Federal government collects as a tax on everyone else’s telephones. Obama has told us in his recent “60 Minutes” interview that the economy is doing great. Thus, how does anyone in the government, up to and including Obama, justify increasing a welfare program 100 fold since the END of the recession? Insanity.
These numbers came to light during a Congressional investigation and hearings: "By the third quarter of 2012, the number of Lifeline subscribers in Maryland had risen almost 100 fold to 645,000" compared to three years prior, industry consultant Billy Jack Gregg told Congress. "Moreover, the current number of Lifeline subscribers in Maryland is almost double the number of low income households in the state" who are eligible.
Must be a coincidence that one of the primary providers of Obamaphone service is TracFone, which is owned by major Obama fundraiser, Carlos Slim. No way crony capitalism is involved, is it?
Congressman Steve Scalise summed the disgust best during the Congressional hearing: "A family of four making $35,000 a year is paying for this. They can't get the free phone... They might not go out to eat one night because that is an important priority that they have set, and it angers them when now they are paying somebody else's free cell phone bill." A voice of sanity, fairness, and reason in a sea of insanity.
3) We have covered the insanity and idiocy coming out of the National Science Foundation (NSF) many times in this blog. The first and most detailed review of the insanity can be accessed at the following link:
In the past, the NSF has used taxpayer wealth to determine when dogs became man’s best friend, built a robotic squirrel, determined if online dating sites were racists, and also developed a game that simulated prom week. I would have hoped that the NSF would be looking at ways to curb obesity in our kids, prevent people from getting addicted to destructive drugs, cleaned up our environment, etc. I do not want them to do what they have been doing, which is worthless to just about every American taxpayer.
Unfortunately, just when you thought that NSF spending could not get any more inane, you come across another pathetic waste of money. According to a Washington Free Beacon article written by Elizabeth Harrington, published on September 28, 2014, the National Science Foundation has funded a $300,000 study on how “humans interact with bicycles.” Veterans cannot get the medical care they were promised but taxpayer money is being spent on a bike interaction program.
The objective of the NSF grant was to better understand dynamics, which apparently are “poorly understood,” and help researchers come up with new designs to encourage more Americans to bike to lower their carbon footprint. Shouldn’t that be the objective and responsibility of bike manufacturers and their shareholder owners, not the American taxpayer?
Texas GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, correct pointed out that the study was unnecessary when considering the bicycle industry is nearing $65 billion a year in size and puts huge financial resources into research: “The NSF has gone off the road, and taxpayers are paying for it. Scarce public funds were awarded for an ill-conceived study to improve bicycle designs. Peddling their proposal, the researchers asserted that bicycle riding dynamics are ‘poorly understood.’ Yet bicycling invests … hundreds of millions in research and development. … What’s really poorly understood is why the NSF wasted $300,000 of taxpayer money on this project.”
And veterans cannot get in to see a doctor. Drug addiction continues to run rampant. Millions of Americans are homeless, foodless, and jobless but at least they might be able to buy a really cool bike….once they get a home, a job, and some food.
4) One last piece of insanity for today. Fortunately, Attorney General Eric Holder recently resigned and will step down from the position as the top law enforcement officer in the country. I am very happy about his resignation, because in my opinion, he was one of the most lawless attorney generals this country has ever had to endure.
He obeyed laws only when it suited his political views and the needs of his political peers.
He initiated, covered up, and lied about the disastrous Fast and Furious operation that directly resulted in the death of a U.S. agent and hundreds of Mexican civilians.
He encouraged attorney generals around the country not to enforce laws that he disagreed with even though they had been passed by Congress and previous Presidents and signed into laws.
He promoted racial divisiveness when it came to high profile shootings, ignoring the fact that thousands of others face the same fate every year without Justice Department interest because of the color of their skin.
Just my opinion but he morphed the Justice Department from one of law enforcement into one of political agenda operations.
But I may not alone in that view. J. Christian Adams is a former Justice Department official who served during both the Bush and Obama administrations said that “the law was a suggestion” under Attorney General Eric Holder and “there is a culture of lawlessness in the Justice Department” in a recent television news interview.
“During the Bush years, when we enforced civil rights laws, we looked at the law, that was the starting point…under the Obama administration, after the inauguration, the law became a suggestion. It was sort of a ‘eh, this law says this, but we’re really after this’…this is an administration that selectively enforces the law, doesn’t apply the law properly, and uses the law as a political weapon” he stated. And “there is a culture of lawlessness in this Justice Department. Right now, there are people, who, according to the Inspector General, committed perjury, still working in the voting section. There are employees who stole laptops, used government credit cards to visit their mistress in Miami, who got a buyout at the Justice Department. There is a culture of lawlessness and tolerance for wrongdoing.”
I do not know Mr. Adams, maybe he has a biased axe to grind against Holder. But his words resonate with me and probably millions of others relative to the lawlessness of this administration. And if the top law enforcement official in the country disobeys the laws of the land, why should ordinary citizens not do the same?
Another day, another batch of insanity. Hopefully, we can wrap it all up by tomorrow…but don’t bet on it. Political class insanity, be it studies of bicycle interactions, free phones, overpaid politicians, or lawless law enforcement, happens every hour of every day with our political class.
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