November, 2014, Bonus Post, Political Class Insanity: NASA's Wasteful Spending, White Staffer And The Prostitute, and Subsidizing Cotton Farmers In Brazil

Please note: yesterday was supposed to be our last post on political class insanity for this month. However, before we could publish all of the posts that we had written to cover the last 30 days or so of insanity, more insanity popped up, resulting in this bonus post of political class insanity for the month of November, 2014. I promise this will be the last insanity post this month, not necessarily because we covered it all but because by covering it all we got too depressed to go on until early next month.

It is the start of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity that has been dumped on us by the worst set of politicians to ever hold office in the history of this country. From wasteful spending to bad priorities to general ineffectiveness, the insanity rolling out of Washington and other political centers and governments around the country seems to be accelerating as the idiocy of our political times increases.

1) A recent Heritage Foundation article by Daren Bakst revealed that the U.S. taxpayer recently paid out $300 million to help the Brazilian cotton industry. Apparently, back in 2002, Brazil brought a case against the U.S. in front of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that claimed American Federal government cotton subsidies paid out to American cotton farmers violated WTO rules.

We lost the case in front of the WTO, paid some fines, and finally reached an agreement with Brazil to pay them a final $300 million payment to make the whole affair go away. Well, go away at least temporarily, until 2018 or so. If the subsidies are not removed by 2018, Brazil and others could reinstate their complaint with the WTO and the fines could continue again beyond this final $300 million payment.

What do the subsidies do? According to the Heritage Foundation report: Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) which is a special supplemental crop insurance program just for cotton. Taxpayers are forced to subsidize an astonishing 80 percent of the premiums for participating farmers, and the program guarantees anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of anticipated revenue (it covers shallow losses, i.e. minor losses). Brazil had argued that this new program would increase U.S. trade-distorting subsidies.

So, Americans lose three ways:

1. Our tax money is used to subsidize cotton farmers in this country.
2. As with any government subsidy, this probably keeps the cost of cotton and cotton products higher than they normally would have been.
3. Our tax money is also used to subsidize Brazilian cotton farmers because Congress insists on always renewing the farm subsidies legislation whenever it comes up.

A triple play of losses for American taxpayers.

2) Many of you probably remember a Secret Service scandal a few years ago when the Secret Service’s advance security team went down to Columbia to secure the travel arrangements for a President Obama visit. But, in addition, the team members ended up cavorting with Columbian prostitutes while on the job. A lot of these folks lost their jobs and careers as a result of their bad judgment.

But the Washington Post recently reported that it was not just the Secret Service personnel who were cavorting. While the White House continues to claim that no White House officials were involved with prostitutes down in Columbia, newly reviewed government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were indeed in possession of information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an actual overnight guest in the hotel room of a Presidential advance-team member. I am shocked, this administration lied! Who would have thought. Yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.

While the White House denied any of their people were involved, a separate set of investigators in the inspector general’s office of the Department of Homeland found additional evidence from records and eyewitnesses that this was not the case. The lead investigator in this inspector general office told Senate staffers that he felt pressure from his superiors in the office of Charles K. Edwards, who was then the acting inspector general, to withhold evidence that White House staff had been involved.

In this case the cover up is worse than the crime. For security reasons, a White house staffer should not be involved with a prostitute in a foreign land ahead of a Presidential visit. That is just stupid. Unfortunately, lying and cover ups after the fact from this administration is routine.

3) We keep coming up with additional stupid Federal spending uncovered by Senator Tom Coburn’s latest casebook publication. The latest ones include the following idiocy strictly centered within NASA:

• NASA's A3 Rocket-Testing Tower, also known as the "Tower of Pork," which is still being built even though the rocket launch program that would use this new tower was cancelled four years ago.- $44.5 million
• NASA Study on How Humans React to Space Aliens. An official NASA document justified the study, saying that "communicating with intelligent terrestrial beings removed from us in time can be deeply problematic." I do not know what that statement means, seems like nonsense, but really, communicating with alien life forms needs to be studied and financed? Americans have enough trouble communicating with the political class in Washington, that might be a better place to spend these communication dollars.- $392,000
• NASA at Comic-Con. To idiotic to even discuss.- $10,000
• NASA Study Predicting the Collapse of Human Civilization. Seems like a very small sum to study the collapse of the entire human civilization, I mean we are talking the collapse involving over 7 billion humans. - $30,000
• NASA's Loss of Electronic Devices. A report from NASA's inspector general said that NASA did not have a "complete and accurate inventory of agency-issued smartphones, tablets, cellphones, and Aircards." Apparently 14% of NASA’s electronic devices went unused for seven months from 2013-2014. Estimated cost of unused and lost devices: $97,000 per month. - $1.1 million

As we have said many times this past week, millions of Americans are hungry and homeless, millions are unemployed, millions are saddled with various addictions, and the Federal government spend millions of dollars on launch pads that will never be used, aliens that will never be met, and attending Comic-Con. Insane.

4) The wonderful website, Bankrupting America, had some great Halloween political class insanity this past week:

• The Washington Times recently reported that every year, Federal, state and local governments spend millions of dollars of taxpayer wealth on pumpkin patches and fall festivals; “Most of the festivals and events financed by state and local tax dollars this time of year focus on pumpkins, and many of those pumpkins are grown with the assistance of pricey farm subsidies courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
• From 1995-2012, More Than $2 Million Was Spent Subsidizing Pumpkin Farmers: “From 1995 to 2012, farm subsidies to American pumpkin growers came to more than $2 million, according to USDA figures compiled by the Environmental Working Group. Up until 2010, Federal pumpkin subsidies averaged about $75,000 a year. In 2011 and 2012, the two most recent years for which numbers were available, taxpayer handouts spiked to an average of $420,000 a year.”
• West Virginia Lawmakers Spent $75,000 To Support 21 Pumpkin Parties And Fall Festivals. According to The Washington Times: “In total, Mountain State lawmakers devoted nearly $75,000 to support 21 pumpkin parties and fall festivals. Much of that money came from state lottery funds intended to help the beleaguered state send more of its students to college and draw more businesses and jobs to West Virginia.”
• West Virginia Spent $13,000 Subsidizing Just One Of Those Festivals: “West Virginians may be one of happiest states to hear that some pumpkins were salvaged from the storms. The state’s legislators earmarked $13,000 in West Virginia’s budget for this year’s edition of the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival, including a $5,000 payout for advertising from the state tourism commission and another $8,200 subsidy to help cover general expenses.”
• Vermont Residents Subsidized Their Fall Fest Using State Lotto Money. The Washington Times reported: “The Burlington Pumpkin Harvest Festival received $4,100 in state lottery money. The state budget awarded $4,125 to the Frankford Autumnfest and $2,200 to Princeton’s Autumnfest. Not to be outdone, the Wetzel County Autumnfest snagged $4,500 in public funds.”

While these are relatively small amounts of taxpayer dollars wasted on pumpkins, just because you can waste a smaller amount of taxpayer wealth on stupid programs does not mean that you should.

That will definitely do it for the political class insanity this month. Sending money to cotton farmers in Brazil, sending White House staff to prostitutes in Columbia, sending taxpayer wealth up in smoke at NASA, and funding pumpkins, there is no limts to the ways Washington, and other American politicians, can waste our wealth and embarrass themselves and the rest of the country in the eyes of the world.

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