February, 2015, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Corruption and Ineptness at the Federal, State,and Local Government Level

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again for the our monthly review of political class insanity. We believe that the nation is living through the worst set of politicians to ever hold office in this country, from the President down to the local mayors. Our current politicians never resolve any problems facing Americans, waste untold billions of dollars every year, and operate government programs that never deliver what they promise, always miss their deadlines, always go over budget, and often make the original problem even worse. And these shortcomings do not include outright criminal activity, a topic that will be an integral part of this month’s insanity review.

Over the past week, we did an in-depth, multi-day analysis of how the Obama administration has failed in an epic way across five dimensions. As you will see over the next week or so, it is not only the President that is an epic fail in the American political sphere today. Let’s get started, it is going to be a long trek as the political class came out of the holiday season with more incompetence than ever before.

1) Before we delve into the first piece of insanity, consider the following realities:

• Thousands of veterans are not receiving the medical care they were promised and deserve.
• Millions of Americans are suffering from a wide variety of different cancers.
• Millions of Americans face a future of aging diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
• Medicare and Medicaid are quickly approaching insolvency.

Thus, if the government is going to spend money on health care issues, then one would hope all resources would be focused on these four issues above. But, alas, that is not happening, as outlined by a January 22, 2015 article in the Washington Free Beacon:

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently given $432,000 worth of taxpayer money to Columbia University to study how gay men use smartphone apps to hook up with other gay men.
• The study is attempting to determine if gay men using smartphone apps are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.
• According to the grant: “Smartphone technologies have provided a new venue for sexual partnering among men who have sex with men (MSM). Indeed, there are a rapidly growing number of smartphone applications designed to facilitate sexual partnering among MSM.”

Where to start with this insanity:

• This study, even if successful, will serve only a minute fraction of Americans, gay men who use smartphones to hook up for sex, as opposed to the tens of thousands of veterans who need medical help or the millions and millions of Americans who are facing a life of cancer and dementia.
• The sample size consisted of only 60 subjects, nowhere close enough to being a valid statistical sample to make accurate conclusions.
• Dividing the sample size into the study cost we see that the cost of the study comes out to an obscene cost of $7,200 per study subject. No way this is a cost effective study design.

Look, I have nothing against the gay lifestyle. But when viewed in the context of an $18 TRILLION national debt and the health and medical needs of millions of other Americans, this is a complete waste of resources for a very, small fraction of the citizenry on what is likely an invalid study design. 

How many veterans could have gotten the real medical care they needed for the $432,000? How many cancer researchers could have been hired for the $432,000? How many dementia drugs could be tested for $432,000? 

You get the idea, we have an out of control government wasting money on insignificant projects while big issues never get resolved.

2) Sarah Westwood, writing for the Washington Examiner on January 15, 2015, reported on how the Pentagon paid almost a half a million dollars to build a military training facility in Afghanistan that started “melting” once it got wet. Details of the wasteful spending and failure include the following:

• The Special Inspector General For Afghanistan Reconstruction called the failed facility “not only an embarrassment” but “a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money,” given the fact that Afghans had to tear down the Defense Department contractors’ work and rebuild it themselves.
• The facility cost $456,669 and was supposed to be a simulated Afghan village where Afghan troops could train.
• Defense Department officials signed off on the completed construction in October, 2012, signifying that the building was completed, adequate, and ready to go.
• But just four months later, the buildings began to disintegrate once rain water seeped into the bricks that were used to build it.
• Thus, even though some Defense Department officials signed off on the completion, subsequent inspections showed that the contractor never followed proper protocol and building requirements in the construction, requiring the entire project to be stripped down to the foundations and rebuilt correctly since it was deemed “completely unsafe” by the Inspector General.

Thus, another half a million dollars of taxpayer money spent with absolutely no return benefit. Want to bet that no one involved in this project, including the officials that initially deemed the construction done and complete and safe, got fired or demoted for such incompetency? 

How many homeless Americans could have been housed for that half a million dollars? Home many hungry could have been fed for that half a million dollars? How many drug addicts could have been treated for that half a million dollars? Answer: a lot. Instead we are left with a mountain of wet sand halfway around the world.

3) We have previously reported how Nancy Pelosi, when she was Speaker of the House, arranged transportation legislation to get passed that had a great financial benefit for her husband's real estate interests in California. We more recently reported on how California U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein supported Federal Postal Service legislation that provided a financial boon to her husband's business, possibly to the tune of a billion dollars. 

However, it is not just Washington politicians that are inept, greedy, and criminal and who use their positions of public trust to self enrich themselves. Consider a recent New York Post article that reported how the Speaker of the New York State Assembly had been arrested by the FBI for criminal activity:

• Sheldon Silver was accused of using his powerful state government position to arrange to get millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks that were falsely classified as legitimate income.
• The FBI arrested him on a series of public corruption charges.
• Law enforcement officials said at the time of his arrest: “There is probably cause to believe that Silver obtained about $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position.” 
• His attorney denied any criminal activity had taken place.
• However, the Post article did point out that Silver did try to stifle a state government commission that was looking into just these types of public corruption in 2013.

American politicians today are mostly selfish, self serving hypocrites, whether in D.C., in Albany, New York, or elsewhere around the country.

4) Okay, we have talked about Federal government political class insanity, state government insanity, so it makes sense to sign off today with local government political class insanity. According to a recent Heritage Foundation article written by Kate Scanlon, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration announced that effective July 1, 2015, restaurants in New York City will no longer be allowed to serve any food in polystyrene foam containers, whether the containers are for food or drink.

Apparently, this edict fulfills a de Blasio campaign promise to eliminate the foam since it supposedly causes environmental harm. A spokeswoman for the Mayor claims that there are far better options for serving food and drink than foam that she claims has had dire environmental consequences including clogging landfills and not being biodegradable.

But is this a real solution to a real problem? Consider some other opinions and objections to this political decree:

• A spokesman for the New York State Restaurant Association said alternative containers can be upwards of 50% more expensive that will either cause prices to rise or small food operators to go out of business.
• Diane Katz, a research fellow in regulatory policy for the Heritage Foundation, claims that the ruling is mostly nonsense: “Mayor de Blasio would be better to to focus on more pressing problems plaguing New York City these days. The green lobby’s claims about polystyrene are largely nonsense, and the alternatives to foam consume more energy and produce more waste.”
• The Competitive Enterprise Institute also claims that foam containers are often more environmentally friendly. 
• A study by the research group Franklin Associates found that “the average 16-ounce polystyrene uses a third less energy, produces 50% less solid waste by volume, and releases a third less of so-called green house gases. than does a 16-ounce paper cup with a sleeve. Over their life cycles, polystyrene packaging products require 20 to 30% less water than do paper alternatives."
• Plus, talking about self defeating, food providers with less than $500,000 in annual revenue can apply for a waiver that exempts them from the ban. Since I would be that many of restaurants and food stands and trucks that serve their food in foam containers make less than $500,000 a year, the ban will probably affect a small percentage of food providers.

A classic example where a politician’s actions make an existing problem worse. In this case, more pollution, less “green” behavior, and by exempting many restaurants, having a minimal impact anyway.

That will do it for today’s insanity. Stupid studies focused on gay smartphone apps, a building that literally melts at a cost of almost a half a million dollars, potential corruption at the highest levels of New York state politics, and a NYC solution that probably makes a likely imaginary problem worse.

Until tommorrow, consider joining our cause to impose term limits on all Federal politicians because really, how much worse could it get than melting buildings if we replaced every politician in Washington every few years:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

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