March, 2015 Part 5,Political Class Insanity: Biden Gropes, A Governor Resigns, A Tax Code Baffles and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time once again to review the latest insanity and ineptness from the American political class. We do this review every month to prove our hypothesis that we are currently being served by the worst set of politicians in the history of our country. 

They waste hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth every year, they never resolve any of the major issues facing Americans today, they continually put their foot in their mouth with their idiotic statements and positions, and they operate government functions that are bloated and ineffective in delivering quality service to taxpayers. And worse of all, they have rigged the country’s elections processes so that their election and subsequent re-elections are almost guaranteed to ensure their mediocrity continues. 

To review the past examples of political class insanity just type in “political class insanity” in the search box above.

So let's get started on what has become a multi-day review of their latest incompetence and insanity. Hopefully, we can wrap up the latest insanity, wasteful spending, idiotic comments, and general ineptness today:

1) According to a recent blurb in Businessweek, in 2014, 3,415 U.S. citizens renounced their U.S. citizenship. Although this is a small number relative to the country’s overall population, consider the following points:

• The 3,415 is an annual record that has been trending upwards over the past few years.
• More than 10,000 Americans have given up their citizenship since 2010. 
• That was the year when the Federal government started going after foreign banks to give up financial data on Americans who have accounts with them. 

Thus, rather than getting additional tax dollars by pursuing them, the IRS now has over 10,000 fewer taxpayers from which they can collect any taxes from. A classic political class example where a political decision does the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do, rather then get more taxes from existing taxpayers it is now getting no taxes from fewer taxpayers. 

I would be willing to bet that most of these people are high income/wealthy individuals and families who have the wherewithal to move overseas and renounce their citizenship in order to avoid the ever growing tax burden on every American in this country. These are the last types of people you should be ticking off and having them take their wealth and investments overseas. Insanity.

2) Here is another example of the Federal government doing something that results in the exact opposite of what is intended. According to another recent article in Businessweek:

• Several decades ago, the Federal government set mileage standards and targets for American vehicles, both cars and trucks. 
• There were only two categories, cars and trucks, and each category got its own targets. 
• This forced car makers to either find ways to make their vehicles more fuel efficient or sell a mix of cars and trucks that focused on higher mileage vehicles. 
• For example, if an auto maker sold a smaller higher mileage truck model and a larger lower mileage truck model, they had to make sure that the mix of trucks they sold complied with the government targets for mileage that was established for the WHOLE truck category. 
• But in 2011, the Obama administration carved up the non-car category into sub categories, each with its own mileage target. For example, smaller trucks now have one mileage target and larger trucks now have their own, lower mileage target. 

Thus, rather than getting the overall truck mix right, manufacturers just have to get the mix right in the subcategories of trucks.

For example, before the Obama administration made this change, all trucks in a brand’s lineup had to help make the mileage targets, Now, a brand can sell only larger, less fuel efficient trucks if it wants since they only have to meet the fuel target for larger, less fuel efficient trucks. This results in an overall lower gas efficiency rating for new vehicles being sold. 

This is likely the exact opposite of what Obama wanted since his fixation on global warming would want him to get the highest mileage possible. His rules out of his administration do the exact opposite, relieving car and truck manufacturers of having to hit more stringent gas targets. Insanity.

3) It is always fun, and depressing, to talk about the Federal tax code since at over 70,000 pages long you know there is a ton of insanity buried in those pages. Yet another Businessweek article recently identified just a small handful of these unreal and illogical tax tenets:

• If you are blind, you get a higher standard deduction when you file your Federal tax return. If you are deaf or otherwise disabled, you do not. 
• If you are a songwriter who sells his music catalog, you have to pay capital gains taxes on the sale amount. If you are a painter, writer, photographer or other type of creative artist and you sell a body of your work, you have to pay taxes at the likely higher Federal income tax rate vs. the lower capital gains tax rate that songwriters are subject to. 
• If you buy a vintage anything, such as a vintage old car or vintage painting, you can get a large tax break by establishing a nonprofit museum that you control, donating the art works or car or vintage anything to the museum, and then opening up your “museum” only a few days a month for a viewing. 
• If you purchase an energy efficient hybrid or electric car, you could get an income tax credit for up to $7,500. This could viewed as a good as it encourages people to reduce their carbon footprint by getting energy efficient, with the help of the Federal government and the American taxpayer. But you can also get a large tax break as a business who purchases a large gas guzzling truck, van, or SUV that weighs over 6,00 pounds, also courtesy of the American taxpayer and Federal government, by getting a large depreciation break. Thus, on one hand the government is helping reduce gas usage and on the other hand, within the same tax code, helping increase gas usage via depreciation breaks for large vehicles. Insanity. 
• A grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) allows someone to place their assets in a trust in exchange for an annuity payment. Any increase in the assets above the annuity payment goes to the heirs tax free. Apparently, casino owner Sheldon Adelson used GRATs to pass at least $7.9 billion to his heirs tax free from 2010 to 2013, avoiding a whopping $2.8 billion in Federal taxes. 

Amazing confusions, unfairness, and contradictions within the same tax code. Unfortunately, given the the Federal government could not build a relatively simple website for Obama Care, it is highly doubtful it is capable of fairly streamlining the tax code to get rid of these idiotic and contradictory tax regulations.

4) We have often said, in referring to politicians, that the appearance of a conflict of interest is just as bad, just as damaging as a real conflict of interest. That is what jumped and bit the now former governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber. Apparently, the governor had to resign because of a growing crisis that involved a criminal investigation by a number of law enforcement agencies related to the role his fiancee played in his administration.

The former governor’s fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, not only lived with the governor in the governor’s mansion but quite possibly violated state ethics rules or broke actual laws by advising him and his administration about clean energy while simultaneously serving as a consultant on the topic to outside sources. 

Oh yeah, actual or appearance of a conflict of interest, in either scenario it cost him his job. Too bad the rest of the political class can’t also be canned for similar actions that go on every day as the politicians in the country are bought and paid for as needed.

5) I had thought that we could finish up this month’s insanity today but we will need tomorrow also to finish up. However, let us leave you today with a video that has been entitled, “Joe Biden’s Creepiest Moments.” The video basically shows Biden groping, touching, and stroking any number of females associated with politicians, and their children, or female politicians themselves. If you or I behaved with strangers in public we would probably be arrested for lewd behavior and possibly assault. A politician does it and nothing happens.

The creepiest moments video can be accessed at:

http://conservativevideos.com/joe-bidens-top-10-creepiest-moments/

Okay, today we learned that: 

1. Joe Biden can be real creepy. 
2. A politician finally got nailed for conflict of interest, a sin and/or crime that most politicians are likely also guilty of. 
3. Our tax code is insane and idiotic in so many ways. 
4. The Obama administration self defeating itself on global warming and carbon footprints. 
5. And a record number of U.S. citizens saying enough is enough relative to the financial oppression and freedom suppression of the current American political class. 

I thought we would be finished with this month's political class insanity but as quickly as we write about it, more pops up. Tomorrow will definitely be the last day of insanity regardless of how long the post needs to be!

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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