November, 2014, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Politicians For Sale, Lost War On Poverty, More Wastebook Waste, and More

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.

This is our fourth post in this month’s series so the insanity continues to flow out of the political class and into our lives, our wallets, and our freedoms:

1) It is election time so it is no surprise that the many moneyed interests across the country are donating millions of dollars to various political campaigns in the hope of eventually billions of dollars in return via tax breaks, favorable legislation, etc. The top donors according to a recent Politico article to our broken political processes, in just the third quarter of 2014, are:

• U.S. Chamber ($28.4 million)
• National Association of Realtors ($18 million)
• U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform ($9.1 million)
• General Electric ($5.3 million)
• Boeing ($4.4 million)
• CVS Health ($4.3 million)
• NAM ($4.3 million)
• American Hospital Association ($4.3 million)
• American Medical Association ($4.2 million)
• Comcast Corporation ($4.2 million)
• Koch Companies Public Sector ($4 million)
• The National Association of Broadcasters ($4 million)
• Google ($4 million)
• National Cable and Telecommunications Association ($3.8 million)
• PhRMA ($3.7 million)
• United Technologies ($3.6 million)
• Lockheed Martin ($3.4 million)
• AT&T Services ($3.5 million)
• American Chemistry Council ($3.2 million)
• Occidental Petroleum ($3.2 million)

Just these twenty entities gave the political class almost $123 million in the past three months. Does anyone really think that the politicians that received these funds care more about our needs than those that gave them millions and millions of dollars? 

Never has there been more of a need for Step 6 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” a step that would allow only individual American citizens to contribute to political campaigns. No businesses, no unions, no PACs, no industry trade groups, etc. should be able to contribute to political campaigns. Only individual citizens, exercising their individual First Amendment rights, should have a say in financing political campaigns.

2) Cato recently pointed out that the War on Poverty recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Passed during the Johnson administration, this war was supposed to eliminate poverty in the country. According to Cato, the American taxpayer has spent $19 TRILLION in this “war,” making it the most expensive war in the history of the country

What do we have to show for our $19 TRILLION:

• About 46 million Americans, about one out of every seven, need monthly government food assistance.
•  The poverty rate of today is about 15%, about what it was fifty years ago.
• Millions of Americans are homeless and millions cannot afford basic medical care.
• As we reported a few days ago, much of the middle class cannot afford the luxuries that used to be taken for granted by the middle class so imagine how much worse off poorer Americans are if the middle class is under such financial assault.

Einstein once said that “the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” After fifty years and $19 TRILLION our politicians must truly be insane, doing the same things and programs over and over, since the war on poverty has been lost many times over.

3) We have already discussed some of the bigger wasteful spending follies that Senator Tom Coburn uncovered within the Federal budget earlier via his latest “Wastebook” research late last month at the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/10/wastebook-2015-unrelenting-wasteful_27.html

But since then we have come up with a few more from the Senator that are just as absurdly wasteful of taxpayer wealth:

•  The Federal government spent $190,000 to study compost digested by worms.
• It spent $297 million for the purchase of an unused mega blimp.
• It spent $1 million on a Virginia bus stop where only 15 people can huddle under a small roof. 

Almost half a million dollars spent on stupidity. As we said when we first discussed the Senator’s research, how many drug addicts could have been treated for half a million dollars? How many meals for the homeless and hungry could have been provided for half a million dollars? A half a million dollars is a very, very small part of the Federal government’s budget but it would be a very large part of a homeless American’s day.

4) And while Americans are going hungry, homeless, and unemployed, how is the Washington political class treating themselves? It must be a nice feeling to know that you can control how much you get paid even with such a pitiful performance while in office:

• The Speaker of the House currently gets an annual salary of $223,500, and will receive a payment of roughly that amount, depending on the years of service, for the rest of his life. 
• He gets paid this amount regardless of how poorly Congress and the political class performs in serving the country and its citizens.
• This $223,500 is about five times what the median U.S. household earns in a year.
• But that is probably at the lower rung of Congressional retirement benefits according to Cato. For example, Nancy Pelosi will not receive annually $223,500 for life, but roughly double that amount since 1) she is a member of Congress, 2) she is currently the House of Representatives’ Minority Leader, and 3) she is a retired Speaker of the House. 

ŸAnd Lord knows she is certainly not worth anywhere near that much, given her pathetic track record while serving in Congress.

Several steps from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” would remedy this disgrace and wasteful spending:

1. Step 37 would subject Congressional pay to an annual “customer/voter satisfaction” survey with the results determining how much Congressional members are paid, based on selected performance criteria
2. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, preventing them from every accumulating so many nonproductive years in Congress and pumping up their retirement benefits at taxpayer expense.
3. Step 41 would prohibit any member of Congress with a net worth of over $3 million from drawing a salary or pension from their service in Congress simply because they can afford to go without such compensation, given their personal wealth. Serving the country should be a calling, not a career.

The political class should not control their pay treatment and pension levels, we should, based on their performance, not their greed.

Another day another set of insanity. Overpaid and unaccountable politicians overseeing useless government expenditures to a failed $19 TRILLION failed war on poverty to the rich getting richer via the political process not via investment and hard work. More insanity 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