Sunday, October 12, 2014

October, 2014 Part 8 Political Class Insanity: Funding Pot Use With Welfare, Obama Out of Touch, and Harry Reid's Misplaced Koch Paranoia and Priorities

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time to check in with the American political class to see what insanity they have wrought over the past month or so. It is always amazing to follow the exploits, quotes, and actions of our politicians and the government entities they operate to see how often idiocy, incompetence, and heartbreak are almost always the output from their actions.

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 eighth entry in this series for this month, with the first seven posts appearing over the past few days.

By needing eight posts to cover just one month of political class insanity, we have set a record for this blog. Never before have we needed so much time to review so much wasteful spending, ineffectiveness, failed promises and other political misdeeds and foul ups.

Thus, based on this crude measure, our politicians are likely getting worse over time. Given the state of the country, that is not a good thing to observe and live through.

1) Yesterday, we discussed the fact that it is a long stretch of the imagination to believe that the very rich and wealthy people serving in Congress and the White house have any clue how many challenges the average American family faces each day. Their wealth, high paying salaries, and insulation from the everyday life of the rest of us often leads them to think that life is great outside of the D.C. Beltway since it is certainly great for them inside the Beltway.

The President recently showcased that ignorance in recent speeches relating to the economy where he boasted that job growth had been steady and that most Americans were better off now than five years ago. Things are going great in the economy, according to his rosy view point.

But are you and I and the rest of America better off under his economic guidance or misguidance. After his speeches, the press took over with the following reality headlines and stories:

Reagan’s seminal campaign question: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ … But a similar message has failed to resonate for Obama primarily for one reason: …average family incomes have slipped.” (Reuters, 9/22/14)

The Obama Economy: ‘US Wages Have Gone Precisely Nowhere’

Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Real average hourly earnings increased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from August 2013 to August 2014.” (“Real Earnings, August 2014,” Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 9/17/14)

“US wages have gone precisely nowhere over the past year. Inflation-adjusted US hourly earnings growth was 0% in July compared to the previous year, according to just released stats.” (Quartz, 8/19/14)

“…anemic wage growth is dampening price pressures. Average hourly earnings adjusted for inflation rose 0.4 percent in August. Even so, they have risen only by that same amount over the past year.” (Reuters, 9/17/14)

Economic Policy Institute: “Inflation-adjusted wages have fallen for every income group in the past year except very low-paid 
workers, says an Economic Policy Institute study out Wednesday.” (USA Today, 8/27/14)

“Wages were stagnant or declining at all education levels, and those with the most schooling experienced the largest drops, according to the study. Hourly pay fell 2.7% for Americans with advanced degrees, 1.6% for college graduates, 1% for those with some college, 1.1% for high school graduates and 0.6% for people lacking a high school diploma.” (USA Today, 8/27/14)

Thus, according to the news reports and government numbers, everyone is getting slammed by this economy and those that are the highest earners and the most educated are getting slammed the hardest. So much for “being better off” as stated proudly by the President. We are not better off, with the only ones being better off, and more out of touch, are those that are making the bad economic policies in Washington, policies that protect them and emasculate us.

2) While the following example of wasting and abusing taxpayer wealth involves a relatively minor amount of money, it is a good example of how poorly government welfare programs are operated and how easy it is to divert taxpayer wealth from noble intentions to totally wasteful means.

According to reporting by the website, Colorado Watchdog, Colorado state regulators and politicians are ignoring a two-decade old state law prohibiting welfare recipients from receiving cash from ATMs in liquor stores and casinos. In the past two years, nearly a half-million dollars being withdrawn from such locations. This does not include the $12,000 that have been withdrawn from ATMs within Colorado marijuana dispensaries.

Apparently, the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services is aware of the violations, but doing nothing to stop them, according to the watchdog site. A spokesperson for the regulation agency in charge stated that the amount wasted by welfare recipients is too small to worry about. 

Really? Think about how many meals for Colorado’s homeless population could be provided by half a million dollars. How many drug addicts could be treated for half a million dollars. How many nights in a shelter could be provided for homeless folks for half a million dollars.

Yes, it is a small amount of wasted taxpayer wealth in the big scheme of things. But it would probably not be a small amount for a hungry, drug addicted or homeless Coloradan.

3) Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has been on the warpath against the Koch brothers, American business owners who contribute to a lot of political campaigns and causes, none of which are in alignment with Reid’s political views and ideology. He states openly that their outlandish amounts of money given to political causes are endangering our democracy and need to be stopped.

Reid has attempted to pass Senate legislation that is intended to not only stifle the Koch brothers Constitutional right to participate in the American political process but also would eventually stifle the First Amendment rights of all Americans.

He has devoted so much time to this Koch hatred that he has allowed over 300 House passed bills to sit unattended, undebated, and unvoted on in the Senate. He has put political means and hatred above the best interests of the country.

He has also failed to mention a number of realities relative to the Koch brothers political contributions:
  • As far as Koch political campaign contributions, they rank 59th in the list of campaign contributors. In other words, there are 58 other entities that contribute more to the downfall of democracy than the Kochs, despite the Reid hatred. 
  • The biggest contributor to campaign races, according to the OpenSecrets website, is ActBlue, a PAC that’s raised an immense amount of money, $121,099,109, since 1989 (99% of which has gone to Democratic candidates).
  • Ranked 2nd on the OpenSecrets list is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, another entity whose contributions are almost surely all for Democrats like Reid
  • The National Education Association, rounds out the top 3 with $60,510,533 raised since 1989, of which 57% went to Democrats like Reid.
  • Other entities and individuals that contribute far more than the Koch brothers are various unions that are also likely mostly Democrat supporters.
Thus, one reason why America is in such bad shape is that Reid is chasing the 59th campaign contributor to political activities at the neglect of actually developing and passing legislation to help America. An insane set of priorities for a Senate Majority Leader.

And in reality, if you look  at other activities of the Koch brothers, they are doing much more for humanity with their resources than Reid, or the other 500 or so politicians in Washington, are doing with their resources, according to a recent report form the Independent Journal Review:
  • Koch Industries employs about 100,000 globally (60,000 in the US alone).
  • Koch companies support more than 200,000 US jobs and “about $11.8 billion in compensation and benefits.”
  • Of Koch companies’ 60,000 US employees, approximately one-third are unionized.
  • Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Foundation’s partnership with the United Negro College Fund has resulted in a “$25 million grant that will provide nearly 3,000 merit-based awards to African American undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctorate students seeking scholarship assistance.”
  • Globally, Koch companies “have earned 917 awards for safety, environmental excellence, community stewardship, innovation, and customer service.”
  • Koch Industries has sponsored the Special Olympics in Wichita, Kansas for the past 33 years.
  • “Through the Helping Heroes initiative, Koch companies have contributed nearly $230,000 to emergency response organizations in communities where they operate since 2011.” Koch’s Georgia- Pacific Bucket BrigadeTM program, “has contributed more than $1 million to fire units in communities where the company operates to meet critical needs, as well as provide educational materials to schools.”
  • Through the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, Koch has contributed or pledged “more than $1.2 billion to cancer research, medical centers, educational institutions, arts and cultural institutions, and to assist public policy organizations.”
  • David Koch’s charitable foundation also provided $100 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital to build a new ambulatory care center, as well as $28 million to research causes.
  • Yet another major Koch grant contributed $100 million to research cancer at MIT.
  • Flint Hill Industries (a Koch company) earned a Clean Air Award from the Environmental Protection Agency
Again, given the 59th ranking of the Koch brothers in political contributions in the context of their other contributions to humanity, I maintain that it is Harry Reid who has a bad set of priorities that is hurting America vs. the 59th worst financiers of the American political process.

That will do it for this month’s political class insanity. We have set the record by needing a full eight days to get through all of the wasteful pending, stupid quotes, ineffective governing, bad priorities, most out of touch, and other nonsense from the worst set of American politicians to ever hold office.

My fear is that we set the record while the Washington politicians were off on a two month vacation, not returning to Washington until mid-November. What happens when the return and pick off where they left off their insanity back in September? Heaven help us

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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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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http://www.reason.com
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http://www.robertringer.com/
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