January, 2015, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Twelve Wastes Of Taxpayer Wealth and Over Regulation Nation

It is the beginning of both another year and another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. For regular readers of this blog, you know that as 2014 progressed, the insanity, stupid quotes, ineffective governing and legislating, and general incompetence of our politicians seemed to accelerate as the year grinded on. 

No major issues got addressed, never mind resolved. Obama Care’s implications across the entire country and entire economy continued to unfold in disaster after disaster. Our foreign policy, or what was passed off as a foreign policy, was in tatters. Terrorism was on the march across the world. Veterans were dying because the Federal government could not fulfill the medical and health care promises those brave veterans were promised. 

The national debt hit a mind boggling $18 TRILLION. And our President continued to play golf and go on political campaign swings like no other President ever did. Congress narrowly missed becoming the least productive Congress of all time. Billions were spent and wasted on the November elections to elect people that did not deserve the time of day never mind billions of dollars. Racial division spread across the country, a division that was fomented and spread by those in office with something to gain. 

And guess what? Over the next week or so, starting with yesterday’s post, you will see nothing has changed except the calendar. The political class is still out of control, the government entities that they rule over are bloated and ineffective, and the quality of life and freedom in this country continues to deteriorate. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy next seven days or so. 

1) The Heritage Foundation in an article by Romina Boccia recently listed out twelve ways that the Federal government wasted your tax dollars last year. Even though we have already covered a few of them, I include all twelve here today in case you missed the previous mentions: 

 - NASA spent $237,205 to study how rainfall affects the red crab’s annual migration to Christmas Island. Vital information for …no one. - Medicare Part B paid $132.9 million for the same medical supplies for cancer treatment that Medicare Part D paid $22 million to receive, a difference of six fold. Not very efficient sales bargaining. don’t these people working in the same organization ever talk to each other? 

 - The United States Postal Service lost or cannot confirm receiving 37 trailers from a leasing company. The United States Postal Service purchased the titles of the missing trailers and paid $287,000 for the trailers yet they cannot be found anywhere. So not only does the Postal Service lose our mail on a semi-regular basis they also lose vehicles. Who knows, find the missing trailers and we might find the missing mail. 

 - The Defense Department overpaid by $3.3 million for radios for the Afghan army because the Defense Department failed to follow contracting procedures. Same lack of purchasing skills as the Medicare Part B people. 

 - The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) paid an informant working for Amtrak, an actual AMTRAK employee, $854,460 over 20 years to get hold of Amtrak passengers’ names. However, the DEA could have received this information for free since the Amtrak Police Department will share this information with other law enforcement agencies. You cannot make this stuff up, it would be too unbelievable for fiction. 

 - The National Institutes of Health spent $484,000 to study whether hypnosis can reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal woman and breast cancer survivors. A self-help book entitled “Relief from Hot Flashes” describes a session as “You go to a place in your mind that’s going to cool you off. It’s almost like your body is cooling itself off.” 

 - Federal agencies paid close to $50 million to the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service for information that is almost always available online for free. 

- Paralegals at the Patient Trial and Appeal Board were paid $5.1 million over four years as they watched Netflix, shopped online and used social media while on the job. Nice work if you can get it. And you can bet the paralegals were not the only Federal employees doing such nonsense, they were just too stupid and got caught, which does not say much for the government’s legal eagles. 

- The Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program provided $400,000 to the liquor lobby, which used part of those funds to transport foreign journalists to different breweries and distilleries in the southeastern United States. I am sure we can all drink to that. 

- The Department of Agriculture granted $500,000 to provide start-up materials for butterfly farming to Native Americans in Oklahoma, which included butterfly eggs and vehicles to transport them. Butterflies, really? 

- The National Institutes of Health has granted more than $10 million towards the creation of “Escape from Diab,” which is a video game about five children who must get healthy enough to escape from a town full of obese people and their evil king. Yes, those obese people can really be mean and evil. 

- Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency used government credit cards to purchase $79,300 worth of “prohibited, improper and erroneous” goods and services. Included in the purchases were gym memberships for EPA employees and their family members, DVDs and academic memberships. 

Disgraceful abuse of taxpayer wealth. And to add insult to injury, I would be that few if any of these abusing Federal employees were disciplined, fined, or terminated for their inability to perform their jobs or for basically stealing from the American taxpayer. 

Just these twelve programs alone unnecessarily cost the American taxpayer almost $85 million. When you multiply twelve by thousands and thousands of other abusive Federal government spending insults, you really get a good picture of how careless the political class and Federal employees are with your money. 

And even if this money never made it back to the taxpayer, imagine how much better the country would be if that $85 million was used instead to: 

• Feed the homeless. 
• Shelter the homeless. 
• Treat drug addiction victims. 
• Train the unemployed. Repair infrastructure. 
• Increase cancer, aging, and other major disease research. 

The payoff for humanity and American citizens would be so much higher rather than subsidizing butterfly farming, video games and other such nonsense. 

2) Just before Thanksgiving, the Obama administration secretly introduced over 3,000 new regulations into the Federal bureaucracy. This averaged out to about nine new regulations every DAY of the year in 2014. 

At that time, we questioned and still believe that such over regulation is a waste of time and only happens as bloated Federal government entities try to justify their continued existence and worth. It is difficult to believe that all previous Presidential administrations were so lax that this administration needs to introduce nine new regulations a day within a single year. 

Over regulation, especially regulations that do usually nothing except support government bureaucracies, burden business owners and workers with excessive and needless paper work and costs, it bogs down the growth in the economy and employment as resources and time is diverted to meaningless government conformance and not growing the market and economy. This is likely a driving reason why the economy has been such a laggard and poor performer under Obama, even years and years after the recession ended. 

But despite the overwhelming regulation wave in late November, according to an article by Onan Coca writing for the www.freedomforce.com website, the regulation tsunami is not over yet: Just before 2014 ended, the Obama administration burdened the country with another 1,200 regulations. 

This brings an average daily total of almost twelve new regulations every DAY. Energy and environment rules are the biggest category, with 139 published by the Federal government in the last 15 days of 2014. Just one of those regulations, the coal ash rule, is expected to burden the economy with a cost of $20.3 million or about $176 for every household in the country. 

According to the article, 2015 will see more and more regulations form this administration, regulations that could add at least tens of billions of dollars in regulatory costs to the economy and American households. Many of these regulations are seen as unneeded and politically motivated and will likely face court challenges. 

I am not an expert on environmental or any other kind of regulations. But again, I find it difficult to believe that things are so bad, that past Presidential administrations were so delinquent in their duties, that this administration has to add so many regulations to the economy with seemingly little direct or indirect benefit to Americans. 

Add in the fact that these regulations are announced during light news coverage periods rather than being upfront with the American people raises suspicions that there is something seriously amiss. This administration and this President for once ought to be a man and be upfront with these types of actions rather than acting like a typical Chicago politicians, always working in the shadows. Very little good and very little trust get transacted in the shadows. 

Only two topics of insanity today but they are big ones, Government entities and government employees abusing taxpayer wealth in so many original and disgraceful ways and the Obama administration sneaking out thousands of regulations that are likely unnecessary but are overly secretive and destructive to the economy and economic well being of American workers. 

More insanity tomorrow, many forms and many shapes and many disgraces.

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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