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.
Last month we set a record by
needing almost two full weeks of posts to get all of the insanity documented
and discussed. Given what I see today, we will be hard pressed not to get close
to or exceed that record of insanity this month. It keeps getting worse and
worse and the effectiveness of the political class gets less and less.
1) The U.S. Army has a proud
tradition of fighting and winning land wars over the centuries. It is the main
component of any “boots on the ground” facet of American foreign policy. Which
brings to the latest insanity out of the Pentagon, namely right out of the
mouth of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. At a recent conference he suggested
that part of the U.S. Army be repurposed as “a coastal defense force.”
Say what? A coastal defense
force against who? ISIS is marching through the Middle East, Russia is busy
annexing parts of Europe, our southern border is being overrun with illegal immigrants
and the top ranking person in charge of our armed forces thinks that the Army
should be used to protect our coasts? From who?
Now, if he had said to
protect our land borders with Mexico, that may have made at least a little
sense. But no, he very specifically talked about coastal defense, a
non-existent threat today if there ever was one. Insanity.
2) The October 31, 2014 issue
of The Week magazine had a summary of an article from MarketWatch.com. The main
thrust of the article is that from 1995 through 2012, American taxpayers paid
out $11.3 million in farm subsidies to billionaire-owned farms and
agribusinesses. Thus, non-millionaires were paying millions to billionaires,
that is how upside down and illogical our political class and Federal government
have become.
How many homeless and hungry
Americans could have been taking care of with $11.3 million without having any
trace of downside to billionaires? How many veterans would get much needed
medical help without crimping a billionaire’s lifestyle? Shameful.
3) Very few people would
disagree that the Middle East is a mess. Shiites fighting Sunni, religious
minorities fleeing or fighting for their lives, Iran trying to go nuclear,
Israelis fighting Palestinians, etc. A lot of different entities get blamed for
the turmoil including ISIS, religious terrorists, poverty, and dictators.
But perhaps the worst element
in the whole mess is not over there but right here in this country. According
to an article from VOX.com, that was summarized in the October 10, 2014 issue
of The Week magazine, in just the first seven months of this year, the U.S.
exported $557 million worth of guided missile technology to more than twenty
countries around the world. And more troubling,
Middle East countries were six of the top ten buyers.
This is just guided missile
technology. This does not include the other arms and weapons that have been
sold or given by the U.S. to various ground forces in the countries throughout
the region. So maybe, just maybe, we are the ones causing a lot of the turmoil,
using American taxpayer dollars, to make the Middle East more of a violent mess
than it otherwise would be.
4) The Obama administration
recently tried to make points with the fact that this year’s Federal budget
deficit will dip below half a TRILLION dollars for the first time since Obama
took office. Of course, they failed to point out the insanity that this lower
annual deficit number is still higher than ANY deficit put forth by ANY
previous Presidential administration.
They also failed to point out
a recent analysis from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University which
shows that Federal government spending will outpace
tax revenue by $9 trillion from 2014-2024. The details of their analysis are
highlighted in the following chart:
If this estimate comes true,
it will add $9 TRILLION onto our already obscene $18 TRILLION national debt
burden, resulting in a total national debt load of about $27 TRILLION or over
$200,000 for every household in America. As you can see, unless the political
class grows some backbone and finds a way to truly reform Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid, the main drivers of this ever growing national debt,
the debt load will likely collapse the economy and our democracy long before
ten years are up.
5) One last piece of insanity
for today. The Heritage Foundation recently ran a nice summary of President
Obama’s campaign fundraising activities (see chart below). While his
administration has accomplished very little in the first six years of its run,
one cannot deny that the President has been very busy doing political
fundraising.
While he has been hopping
around the country on strictly political junkets and activities, Americans are
suffering through the worst economic recovery of recent history, the Middle
East is spinning out of control, Russia is aggressively expanding its influence
in Europe, the Chinese economy continues to outgrow ours, Iran and North Korea
advance their nuclear weapons programs, etc., etc., etc. I think it can safely
be said that when Presidential leadership was required, this President was more
often out of town doing political fundraising or on the golf course.
According to the Heritage
count, in less than six years in office, Obama has attended 426 political
fundraisers or about 74 a year, an amazing 1.4 fund raisers a WEEK since he has
been in office. Bush attended a total of 318 political fund raisers in his
eight years in office, an average of less than 40 a year, a rate that is 46%
less than Obama’s.
Add in Obama’s 200 plus
rounds of golf and we see that this President has been out of the White House
raising political funds or playing golf more than twice a week during his term.
An insane focus on bad priorities in the face of a country with so many
problems.
That will do it for today. A
clueless Secretary of Defense, enriching billionaires, arming the Middle East
crazies, exploding the national debt upwards, and an absentee President. So
much insanity in such varied ways, and more to come 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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