This is our sixth installment this month and we are nowhere near the end of the latest insanity from our politicians. A lot of what you will see today and in the following days comes from events that happened this past summer. It is only now that we have been able to get through the recent insanity that we can now review older, but still crazy, political class insanity.
1) Kelly Cohen, writing for the Washington Examiner on June 12, 2014, reported that the Pentagon had spent $3 million on a fleet of eight boats that were to be sent to fight in Afghanistan. Unfortunately for the taxpayer and our fighting forces who may have needed the boats, they are still stuck stateside in a U.S. Navy warehouse in Yorktown, Virginia.
The boats, which cost $375,000 each, were supposed to be used by the Afghan National Police to patrol a river along the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan border. The Defense Department purchased them in October 2010 and were slated for arrival in Afghanistan the following June. However, the order and subsequent delivery of the boats were cancelled just nine months later and the boats were sent straight to the warehouse in Yorktown.
John Sopko, the designated special Inspector General for all U.S. Afghanistan operations, uncovered this disgrace and has demanded answers on why and how the order was cancelled, how much it is now costing taxpayers to pay for storage of the boats, and what would become of the boats’ usage and fate. His initial request for information was not met and he has since asked again for answers: "The list of unanswered questions is particularly troubling given the fact [...] that this program had been an important national security priority for the Afghan National Security Forces prior to its cancellation."
More out of control and useless and wasteful spending by an out of control Defense Department. As readers of this blog know, Mr. Sopko has been a very busy man over the years, uncovering billions of dollars worth of wasteful spending by the Federal government in Afghanistan. His good work also includes a May, 2014 analysis that showed an $11 million Afghan prison, completely funded by U.S. tax dollars, is already falling apart and virtually useless.
2) This next piece of insanity is really, truly depressing and also comes to us compliments of the investigative audit work of Pentagon auditors. According to their analysis and calculations, adjusted for inflation, total American taxpayer aid to Afghanistan now exceeds the cost of the Marshall plan that was implemented after World War II to rebuild Europe
The Marshall Plan is almost universally regarded as a total success. After six years of war had ravaged Europe, the Marshall Plan and the billions of dollars spent helped get the entire continent back on its feet and on the path to democracy, thwarting the intentions of the Communists and other potential dictators in the process. However, according to a report Mr. Sopko recently submitted to Congress, Afghanistan is high unlikely to meet the same happy fate that Europe met, despite spending more real money than what was spent in Europe.
Sopko wrote that:
- Afghanistan is still mired in political, corruption, and financial crises more after more than a decade of foreign aid support.
- Afghanistan will likely remain dependent on foreign donors, primarily the United States, for years to come.
- U.S. spending on a whole slew of Afghan projects and programs over the last dozen years is now over $104 billion, more than the inflation adjusted $103.4 billion value of Marshall Plan expenditures.
- “SIGAR [Sopko’s inspector general office] calculates that by the end of 2014, the United States will have committed more funds to reconstruct Afghanistan, in inflation-adjusted terms, than it spent on 16 European countries after World War II under the Marshall Plan.”
In fact, I still assert we are living through the reign of the worst set of Washington politicians in the history of the country. This is just another historical example that strengthens my argument.
3) Kelsey Harris, writing for the Heritage Foundation on July 3, 2014, pointed out that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a bureaucratic monster created by the useless Dodd-Frank financial industry reform legislation, is renovating its Washington, D.C., headquarters, a building that it only rents, at a cost per square foot that is more expensive than Trump World Tower in New York City.
The CFPB renovations will likely cost taxpayers more than $215 million, causing members of the House Financial Services Committee to question agency officials about its rising price tag. Cost projections have increased an amazing $65 million in just the past six months and $120 million since last year’s estimate.
But one should not be surprised by another government project cost overrun, given what the government employees are treating themselves to:
- There will be a four-story glass staircase.
- There will be a two-story inside waterfall.
- Somewhere in the facility will be a sunken garden.
Those that are running this cost overrun operation and the politicians that let them get away with such waste and bad priorities should be ashamed of themselves. But it seems like shame is not possible with those in the political class in Washington.
4) Most experts and people would agree that the U.S. needs some major infrastructure improvements to its roads, bridges, electrical grids, etc. And back in August, President Obama announced that he wanted to invest $7 billion in infrastructure projects….in Africa.
Yes, while America’s roads crumble and our electrical grid creaks, the President announced $7 billion of U.S. taxpayer money would be used to invest in African energy and electricity grid infrastructure. This is part of the Power Africa program the Obama administration announced in June 2013, which originally aimed to provide 10,000 megawatts of electricity for 20 million homes and businesses in six sub-Saharan African countries.
So when you car hits its next pot hole, when another bridge collapses in the country, when the local power grid goes out because of its age, smile knowing that many Africans have modern energy capabilities and infrastructure due to your tax dollars, courtesy of President Obama.
5) One last piece of insanity from the President to wrap up today’s episode. His path of lies, deceptions, and/or ignorance is long and sad:
- ŸHe said he would close down the terrorist prison at Guantanamo but he didn’t.
- He said he would cut the national annual government deficit in half but he ended up tripling it for a number of years.
- He said he would go through the Federal government budget line by line to weed out wasteful spending but he didn’t.
- He said his health care reforms would reduce the average household’s annual insurance premiums by $2,500 but premiums actually went up, not down.
- He said the Obama Care data systems experiences would be wonderful but they were not.
- He said that if you liked your current doctor, hospital, insurance plan, etc. you could keep it but he was wrong.
- He said the Benghazi terror attack was caused by a video when he knew it wasn’t.
And we recently came across another deception, as witnessed by the following link:
The link contains a video of then Senator Barack Obama discussing the perceived reality that a President should be prepared to give up having any kind of personal life and once elected to that office, that President should “give their life to it.”: “The bargain that any President strikes with us, you give me this office and in turn my, fears, doubts, insecurities, foibles, need for sleep, family life, vacations, leisure is gone. I am giving myself to you.”
Given that the President has embarked on well over four hundred political campaign fund raising events during his Presidency, more than any other President, given that the President has played well over two hundred rounds of golf during his Presidency, given that the President has taken many extended vacations to Hawaii, Ireland, Africa, Martha’s Vineyard, and other exotic places, it does not seem that he has given “his life to the job” or foregone leisure as he promised. Resulting in just another big political sham and we are insane to have believed him, given his now proven track record of deception.
The bad news is that today we have had to wade through another depressing set of political class shenanigans and insanity. The good news is, at least for this month, we are nearing the end of this review, hopefully wrapping up the latest 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.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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