Love My Country, Loathe My Government: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Part 1: Why Gay Marriage and The Confederate Flag Are Meaningless issues Relative To the Lobbyist Behind the Curtain

Later this week we will post our monthly series of political class insanity posts. Every month we gather and discussed the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, and corruption of the American political class. Unfortunately for us, over the years we have been doing this feature, every month we have needed more and more time just to cover one month’s worth of insanity.

Before we do that for July’s insanity, let’s look at some bigger picture, longer term issues that dwarf the wasteful spending, idiotic programs and laws, stupid quotes, and overall inept performance of the American class. Yes, it is important to point out how wasteful spending goes on in Washington, how government and political class programs never efficiently or effectively implement their goals, how stupid our politicians often sound when they open their mouths.

But the longer term two topics we will discuss in the next two days dwarf these issues. In fact, the top two social and political issues being hotly debated this these days are also nits relative to the two overarching issues we will be discussing today and tomorrow. It really does not matter what you think about gay marriage and the Supreme Court’s recent decision on it. It really does not matter what you think about the Confederate flag and what it stands for.

Talking about them in the context of the bigger issues is a total waste of time since both issues pale in comparison to the two bigger issues. The gay and lesbian community consists of less than 5% of the nation’s population. Confederate flag supporters are probably comparable in numbers, small minorities in the country.

But unless we address the major issue of political corruption in Washington (today’s topic) and the unrelenting build up of the national debt (tomorrow’s issue), then who can get married and who can fly a flag of their choice will become totally, totally irrelevant in our near future since these two bigger issues affect EVERY American, not just a small minority of them.

Today’s post is based on the writings of liberal former Senator and Presidential candidate Gary Hart. He is the author of 21 books and the following quotes come from his recent book, “The Republic Of Conscience.” While I have pulled out only a subset of quotes from his book that was discussed in a recent Time magazine article, I encourage everyone to go to that online Time article at:

http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

Mr. Hart eloquently and precisely points out how our democratic processes have been thoroughly corrupted by the American political class and the media, lobbyists, and organized political entities that feast on those processes and American tax dollars and freedoms. We have discussed this corruption of the democratic processes before,both in this blog and our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

However, I think that you read the following quotes from his book, you will see that he is probably a little more eloquent than this blog in pleading the case that money and the infestation it is installed in our democracy has fundamentally changed America and that change has not been for the best. While it has enriched politicians and those that abuse the political process, it has left the rest of America poorer and less free in the process.

*******************

Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.
In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.
There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.
What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.
Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both.
There is little wonder that Americans of the right and many in the middle are apoplectic at their government and absolutely, and rightly, convinced that the game of government is rigged in favor of the elite and the powerful. Occupiers see even more wealth rising to the top at the expense of the poor and the middle class. And Tea Partiers believe their tax dollars are going to well-organized welfare parasites and government bureaucrats.
Recent months have seen, in effect, the legalization of Watergate. Who would have thought, forty years after the greatest political scandal and presidential abuse of power in U.S. history, that the Supreme Court of the United States would rule the practices that financed that scandal were now legal?
And, of course, the ultimate victims of the corruption of the democratic process are not defeated candidates and parties but America’s citizens.
The advent of legalized corruption launched by the Supreme Court empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential and congressional campaigns as pet projects, to foster pet policies, and to represent pet political enclaves. You have a billion, or even several hundred million, then purchase a candidate from the endless reserve bench of minor politicians and make him or her a star, a mouthpiece for any cause or purpose however questionable, and that candidate will mouth your script in endless political debates and through as many television spots as you are willing to pay for. All legal now.
To compound the political felony, much, if not most, campaign financing is now carried out in secret, so that everyday citizens have a decreasing ability to determine to whom their elected officials are beholden and to whom they must now give special access.
To add to the profound misdirection of American politics by the Supreme Court, we now have what might be called convergence in the garden of government influence.
The context is the lobbying maze in Washington and the convergence of dozens of noxious weeds in the garden of government into a handful of giant predator thornbushes now devouring that garden. Of this handful, the largest by far is WPP (originally called Wire and Plastic Products; is there a metaphor here?), which has its headquarters in London and more than 150,000 employees in 2,500 offices spread around 107 countries. It, together with one or two conglomerating competitors, represents a fourth branch of government, vacuuming up former senators and House members and their spouses and families, key committee staff, former senior administration officials of both parties and several administrations, and ambassadors, diplomats, and retired senior military officers.
Think of the banks that can be bailed out, the range of elaborate weapons systems that can be sold to the government, the protection from congressional scrutiny that can be paid for, the economic policies that can be manipulated.
The lobbying business is no longer about votes up or down on particular measures that may emerge in Congress or policies made in the White House. It is about setting agendas, deciding what should and should not be brought up for hearings and legislation.
America’s founders knew one thing: The republics of history all died when narrow interests overwhelmed the common good and the interests of the commonwealth.
What would our founders make of this nightmare of corruption? We only know, in Thomas Jefferson’s case, for example, that his distrust of central government had to do with the well-founded and prescient suspicion that its largesse would go to powerful and influential interests, especially financiers, who knew how to manipulate both the government and the financial markets.
All they knew was how to respond to their industry lobbyists’ requests for very large contributions to compliant members of congressional finance committees and to do so quickly and often. And they did get their money’s worth.
Americans cannot hold ourselves up to the world as the beacon of democracy so long as we permit, as long as we acquiesce in, corruption so far beyond the standards of the true republic that our government cannot be proclaimed an ideal for other aspiring nations.
On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic?
But it is impossible to claim to love one’s country and not be outraged at how corrupt it has become. For former senators and representatives to trade a title given them by the voters of their respective states and districts for cash is beyond shameful. It is outrageous.
It is an error of serious proportion to dismiss corruption in twenty-first-century American democracy on the grounds that this has all been going on from the beginning, that boys will be boys, that politicians are always on the take. Past incidents of the violation of public ethics provide no argument for accepting the systemic and cancerous commercialization of modern American politics.
And, as scholars of ancient Greek and Roman political texts, they knew in their minds and in their hearts that a republic with leaders who lacked virtue would not long survive.
...is to invite the eventual erosion of the ideal of the American Republic, to reduce this great nation and its heritage to the worst kind of mundane governance, to prostitute a noble experiment on the altar of expediency and greed, and to leave coming generations to ponder what went wrong.
“Just because it is legal doesn’t make it right” should be carved above every congressional doorway, every cabinet department, and even the White House itself.
The fact that many former presidents and prime ministers of European democracies have enriched themselves in questionable ways after leaving office does not justify similar behavior on the part of American politicians. We hold ourselves to a higher standard.
We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.
Because of the erosion of the integrity of our governing system, and the principles and ideals underlying it, the fiscal deficit increases. The government spending so many conservatives claim to abhor includes not only the social safety net of Roosevelt and Johnson, but also the war-making excursions of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is all government spending. And it includes favorite pork-barrel projects of every member of both houses of Congress of both political parties...
We were not created to be like other nations. We were created as an alternative to monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and corrupt political systems. The more we follow the easy path, the one paved for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful, the more we stray from our originally intended purpose and the more we lose our unique purpose for existence.
The question is: By adhering to its highest principles and ideals, will America continue to have the moral authority to lead all people of goodwill? The answer remains to be seen. And that answer will have much to do with whether we have the courage to drive the money changers from the temple of democracy and recapture government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
Campaigning is a major industry now that consumes hundreds of millions of dollars and, in national campaigns, billions of dollars. Almost all of it goes to the media, the same media whose commentators regularly deplore the costs of campaigns.
It [lobbying] is a great hydra-headed monster, one that is rapidly devouring American democracy.
The significant issue is the effect of this relatively recent conversion of a democratic process to a major industry that devours money.
We are not the same country we started out to be. We cannot conduct our political process the way we are doing in the twenty-first century and claim to adhere to our earliest principles. We must decide who we are. And if that decision is to restore our highest ideals, then major changes must be made in the way we elect our presidents and our members of Congress.

*******************

In light of his comments, insights, and the massive corruption he correctly identifies, worrying about who marries who and who can fly a certain flag pale in comparison. Because in the end, if all we are left with in our democracy is a new type of marriage license and a piece of cloth on a flagpole, at the expense of our economic and political freedom, then who really cares? They are nothing more than small consolation prizes.

As Woodrow Wilson once said: "The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy." Never has this quote from a hundred years ago been so right as it is today.

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

Monday, June 29, 2015

June, 2015, By The Numbers: A Woeful Economy, Long Term Fnancial Ruin, The Economic Anchor That Is obama Care and MOre

On a regular basis we review the latest numbers and statistics as they appear in the real world to find out what reality is. You see, you cannot listen to American politicians to find out what is going on. They have a vested interest in keeping the truth and reality out of sight, given how poorly, selfishly, and greedily they act and perform.

They will either ignore numbers and facts or distort them, anything to keep us from finding out what they are hiding from us and what it means to them personally. I once worked for a manager whose favorite saying was: “there is nothing more devastating to an opinion that the right number.” In this series we examine those “right numbers” to show how poorly we are being served by what has to be the worst set of politicians ever to serve the country.

So here we go, no spin, no political BS, just the numbers and the usual sad political, financial, and economic reality they represent:

1) As we have proven any number of times, we have had to live through the weakest economic recovery in the past few years than any in the past century or so. This is all due to the fact that Washington politicians have no concept of how to implement sound economic policies that encourage economic growth. The latest government statistics on the economy show that we cannot expect anything different into the near future:

The Bureau of Economic Analysis recently their final view on the annual economic growth in the first quarter of 2015. Although their new forecast showed slightly better economic conditions, their view is that the economy is still contracting. Rather than estimating a .7% contraction in the first quarter, they now estimate a .2% contraction.
The nation’s whopping trade deficit subtracted 1.9 percentage points off the GDP in the first quarter as export levels are way down and cheaper imports increased. Obviously, as exports drop dramatically, the jobs that rely on exports will become more and more endangered.
Business investment shrunk by 2%, the worst performance since 2009, indicating that manufacturing jobs will also be difficult.

So despite spending over $800 billion on a failed economic stimulus program, despite living through an energy revolution that kept energy costs under control, and having the Fed printing trillions of dollars in false money, the Washington political class still cannot find a way to lead the country to a normal economic growth trend, leaving us stuck with anemic economic conditions and numbers.

2) Investor’s Business Daily recently reviewed the latest catastrophic condition of the country’s national debt situation, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Unless we start forcing our politicians to have any kind of financial discipline, this is what the sad future economic numbers and condition of the U.S. looks like:

The CBO view is a 25 year forecast based on current trends.
The Investor’s Business Daily concluded that the findings are terrifying with the latest CBO estimate showing a whopping $7.4 TRILLION being added to the current level of $18 TRILLION of national debt.
If Washington does not change its spending ways, the national debt will almost triple by 2040 to a horrifying $54 TRILLION.
Since this would put the national debt at multiple times larger the the nation’s annual GDP, it is highly likely the economy and the country will collapse long before the $54 TRILLION level is reached.
This type of debt will cause Washington politicians to raise tax rates to pay off the ever rising debt which will result in lower economic growth and tax streams which will result in lower tax revenue which will result in higher tax rates…..
At the same time, as the debt grows out of control, investors of U.S. government debt will require higher and higher interest rates which will also add to larger debt to cover the higher interest rates which will require higher tax rates….
At some point the majority, if not all, of the tax revenue goes solely to paying interest payments on the debt which eliminates funding needed for defense, infrastructure, human needs, etc.

But as we said above, if the CBO numbers are right, the country will collapse long before funding for other government functions dries up.

3) We have often pointed out that criminal elements often take advantage of inept Federal government programs, bureaucrats, and politicians to steal taxpayer wealth from the Social Security program. Well, according to some recent inspector general findings and numbers, we do not need criminals to waste taxpayer wealth via Social Security:

A recent inspector general report found that over a ten year period, the Social Security Administration (SSA) overpaid benefits to 44.5% of its beneficiaries.
“Our review of 1,532 beneficiaries in current pay status as of October 2003 found that over a 10-year period (from October 2003 through February 2014), SSA assessed overpayments for 44.5 percent of sampled beneficiaries.”
This translates into 4 million beneficiaries getting an extra $16.8 billion from the American taxpayer.
The SSA did eventually recover $1.8 billion in those overpayments but that amounts to only a little over 10%

Fraud and incompetence is still alive and well throughout Washington as these Social Security Administration numbers point out.

4) We have discussed other sources of this type of analyses before but let's look at what the Congressional Budget office says would likely happen if Obama Care was repealed:

The latest CBO says that repealing Obama Care would boost annual economic growth by an average of .7%.
If correct, such a boost would get annual GDP numbers back almost inline with historical averages, way above the anemic economic recovery the Obama administration has crafted.
"CBO has determined what many in Congress have known all along," Republican Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi of Wyoming said in a statement. "This law acts as an anchor on our economy by dragging down employment and reducing labor force participation."
Based on the CBO's most recent economic projections, this additional economic growth amounts to between $100 billion and $200 billion in today's dollars.
This economic growth is mostly driven by the fact that with Obamacare in place, some people face incentives to work less because they might lose subsidies or credits if their earnings rise. Removing those incentives leads to more hours worked and more jobs.
Another factor is that repealing some of Obamacare's taxes would cause businesses to invest and grow more.

Those are the latest insane numbers out of Washington. Obama Care is stifling economic growth (no secret here based on the multiple analyses we review every month in our “unfolding disaster that is Obama Care” series), Social Security continues to give away taxpayer money it should not be giving away, long term we are heading ever faster to a fiscal and financial disaster that we will never recover from, and short term,our economic prognosis continues to look tepid and weak. Have a good day.

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:

Sunday, June 28, 2015

June, 2015, Politicians Say The Darndest Things: Still Delusional, Still Out Of Touch With Reality

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.”

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that American politicians are saying today:

1) “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States in world opinion ranked below China and just barely above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth.” Barack Obama. As is often the case, when a politician says something you recall the old saying, “you cannot make this stuff up.” Are you kidding me, more respected, most respected? Consider the following realities in the real world and not in his head:

Putin and Russia respected him so much that they marched into a neighboring country without fear, the Ukraine, and have set up a puppet government loyal to Russia.
China respected him so much that they are creating man made islands across the Pacific Ocean and daring the anyone, including Obama, to stop them from claiming that those islands give them territorial rights over much of the Pacific and much of the world’s shipping lanes.
When Obama invited the six leaders of Persian Gulf countries to attend a Camp David summit he was hosting, only two leaders decided to attend and one of the non-attendees decided that a horse show in England was more worthy of his time than a summit with Obama.
For the first time in decades, Egypt is using Russia as a source of weapons vs. once being exclusively a U.S. supplied military.
The President of Brazil blew off a state dinner at the Obama White House as a protest against the Obama administration spying on her and her government.
Despite U.S. protests, Saudi Arabia is reportedly in negotiation with Pakistan to purchase nuclear weapons from that country if the U.S. folds in its negotiations with Iran.
Israel is now working with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations against a common enemy, the nation of Iran, leaving the U.S. and Obama out of that equation.
The U.S. asked Arab countries not to get militarily involved in the Libyan disaster after which some of those countries started bombing terrorist positions within Libya.
Iran’s leadership often and openingly mocks the Obama administration and right now seems to be taking it to the cleaners in its nuclear arms discussions.

Does not seem like Obama and his administration is getting a lot of love and respect around the world, despite him saying the darndest thing.

2) “You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office. For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.” Barack Obama. Really, the closest thing to being a Jew? Again, delusional on so many planes:

Obama has openly stated that Israel should return to its 1867 borders, a geographic step that would ensure its annihilation, given the missile technology that has developed since 1967.
Obama has dissed the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu more than once by not taking a meeting with him even when the Prime MInister was in the U.S.
Obama dispatched, probably illegally, political operatives into Israel prior to the last Israeli national election to help prevent a Netanyahu reelection.
Obama has had a long and strong affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a devout enemy of Israel.

Delusional and preposterous to think that this President is more of Jew than any other President.

3) "I think sometimes people want to be in public service just because they like seeing their name up in lights; they like being important And that's a bad reason to go into politics; you should be like an actress or a singer, or make a lot of money." Barack Obama. This from the current narcissist in chief in the White House. A President who gave a speech at the funeral of Senator Daniel Inouye but ended up mentioning his own self more than the late Senator. A President whose portrait in the White House is larger than any other Presidential portrait. A President who disrespected Neil Armstrong by displaying a picture of himself looking up to the skies in his Armstrong comments on the astronaut's death.

4) “I say to every Israeli: Today we have the ability to stop them if they decided to move quickly to a bomb. And I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the ability to know what they’re doing, so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb.” John Kerry. Of all the quotes we will go over in this post, this one is the most idiotic.

First of all, the Iranians have already publicly stated that they will not sign an agreement if it involves inspections and searches for nuclear weapon research and manufacturing on their military bases. So if they get such a condition in any agreement, all they have to do is do move all of their nuclear weapons work on military bases. In which case Kerry’s “guarantee” is nothing but hot air. The U.S. could not stop India, Pakistan or North Korea from getting nuclear weapons, and will not be able to stop Saudi Arabia from getting them from Pakistan, but somehow Kerry thinks the U.S. can stop the nut jobs running Iran from getting nuclear weapons?

No way Kerry has “the ability to stop them [Iran]” or can ”absolutely guarantee” they “know what they are doing.” This is the darndest thing and most delusional quote of the whole post.

5) ”I said earlier that when we celebrated Robert Kennedy’s 50th anniversary of his swearing in 2011, people said that was the golden age for the United States Department of Justice. Well, I think 50 years from now, maybe even sooner than that, people will look at the work you all did and say this was another golden age.” Eric Holder. This was part of the speech Holder gave when he stepped down as the U.S. Attorney General.

He obviously has a different definition of “golden age” than I do since during his tenure as the top law enforcement official in the country:

He allowed the illegal Fast and Furious operation to go on, breaking both international and domestic law, getting dozens if not hundreds of innocent people killed with U.S. weapons he sanctioned and then covered up the illegalities from Congressional investigators.
He allowed the IRS to destroy emails and other documents, clear violations of Federal law.
He allowed the IRS to harass and impede the First Amendment rights of citizens and organizations that held contrary views of this administration.
He refused to enforce the DOMA legislation which was the law of the land at that time.
He made little or no effort, and had little or no success, to prosecute criminals that steal upwards of $200 billion a year from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and other Federal programs.
He threw the full weight of the Justice Department into investigations of the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown but gave no effort to investigate the murders of white victims by black police officers or black perpetrators.

Yep, he and I both have a different definition of “golden age.”

That will do it for this rendition of “politicians say the darndest things.” A lawless attorney general who thinks he presided over a golden age of law enforcement, a clueless Secretary of State who thinks the Iranians are going to allow him to inspect anything he wants, and a delusional President who thinks he has been a friend to Israel, a humble public servant, and who has led the country to respectability in the eyes of the world. Politicians do indeed say the darndest, and most idiotic things, yet believing their own insanity at the same time.

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:

Friday, June 26, 2015

Even When The Feds Get It Right They Still Get It Wrong

Even when the Federal government and the Washington political class do something good for taxpayers, they cannot help themselves but step right back into another screw up that overwhelms whatever good their first good deed did. Consider the recent announcement of good news that the Feds had busted 46 doctors and other healthcare professionals across the country for bilking the government, and the American taxpayer, out of $712 million.

Details of the fraud and bust include the following, as reported by CNN:

This was the largest Medicare bust ever.
In total, 243 people were arrested in 17 cities for Medicare billing of $712 million worth of patient care that was either unnecessary or never given.
In one case, owners of a mental health facility in Miami billed tens of millions of dollars for psychotherapy sessions based on treatment that was little more than moving patients to different locations.
Four other people are charged for mass-marketing a talking glucose monitor, shipping the monitors to Medicare patients across the country who didn't need or order them, and then billing Medicare for the devices to the tune of more than $22 million.
Health care providers got in on the scam by paying kickbacks to fraudsters who got their hands on Medicare patients' personal information which they would then use to bill Medicare for care never given.
These fraudsters often got the patient information by preying on the down and out in society by canvassing places like homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
A Los Angeles doctor allegedly billed $23 million for 1,000 power wheelchairs and home health services that were not medically necessary and often not provided.
In a Florida case, a health care provider received $1.6 million from Medicare for prescription drugs that were never purchased and never given.
"In these cases, we followed the money and found criminals who were attracted to doctors offices, clinics, hospitals and nursing homes in search of what they viewed as an ATM," said FBI Director James B. Comey.
The DOJ's Medicare Fraud Strike Force team led the investigations which since 2007 it has charged 2,300 people who have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $7 billion.
In recent years, the Strike Force team has expanded from two cities to nine.

Great news, criminals ripping off the American taxpayer might finally be brought to justice. But let’s consider some of the downside to this whole, less than comprehensive law enforcement effort:

These people were arrested for ripping off $712 million. However, there is no mention of how much of that $712 million will actually be recovered, much of it is likely to already have been spent and is gone forever.
We have previously reported many times that credible, nonpartisan analyses and sources estimate that Medicare loses anywhere from $40 to $60 billion a year to waste and criminal activity. Thus, if we assume that the $712 million was all ripped off in one year, unlikely, than the recovery rate from the “biggest bust in Medicare history” is a measly 1.8% on $40 billion or 1.2% on $60 billion.
Since the $712 million was probably obtained over a period of years, then the recovery rate is highly likely to be well below 1%. And this is the biggest bust in history, meaning other busts likely got far less.
The strike force has been in operation for nine years, 2007 to 2015 and has busted criminals who had illegally collected $7 billion in Medicare funds. If we assume the lower end of annual Medicare ripoffs and waste is $40 billion, nine years worth of such behavior is about $360 billion. That means the task force has recovered a staggering...only 1.9% of the criminal activity and waste.

Look, I am happy that hundreds of people were busted and hundreds of millions of dollars were identified as stolen (not recovered). If some of that money can be recovered and funneled to reducing the national debt, helping the homeless and unemployed, feeding the hungry, then great.

But come on, a measly 1.9% rate for nine years. Seems the taxpayers are still being abused by a government that cannot get out of its own way when it comes to wasting taxpayer wealth.

But the story somehow gets a little worse. Even if the Feds can collect the $712 million that these 243 people stole, it will get wiped out by the embarrassing findings of a recent inspector general report relative to Obama Care. That Federal audit report found that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot find out what happened to about $2.8 billion of Obama Care subsidies that have already been paid out.

This should not come as a surprise. The entire Obama Care data processing effort has been a disaster from day one. The online exchanges failed to work properly for weeks. The systems security features were almost non-existent, subjecting millions of Americans to identity theft risk. The interface between the exchanges and insurance companies were chaotic.

Thus, we should not be surprised when the inspector general’s report shows that those systems now cannot track almost $3 billion in just the first four months into the Obama Care world. Apparently the whole system was launched without finishing and checking the accuracy of the back end processes that would communicate between the Federal exchange and insurance companies.

The audit went onto say that HHS did not have an internal system to ensure that subsidies went to the right enrollees, or in the correct amounts: “[The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] CMS’s internal controls did not effectively ensure the accuracy of nearly $2.8 billion in aggregate financial assistance payments made to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act during the first four months that these payments were made,” the inspector general said. Furthermore, “CMS’s (HHS) system of internal controls could not ensure that CMS made correct financial assistance payments.”

Other findings in the report show that HHS did not have a process in place at the time money was being paid out to “prevent or detect any possible substantial errors” in Obama Care subsidy payments and could not “ensure that financial assistance payments were made on behalf of confirmed enrollees and in the correct amounts.”

Great, the Justice Department may have recovered upwards of $712 million that were likely stolen over a period of years from HHS’s Medicare program and then HHS goes out and likely lost almost $3 billion, in just four months, by being totally inept when it comes to Obama Care subsidies. Even when the Federal government and the political class that operate it give us good news they still manage to overwhelm us with bad news.

There are only two solutions to this incredible criminal waste and theft of taxpayer wealth, a short term and long term solution:

- Short Term: Nine years after trying to track down criminals that are stealing from taxpayers via the Federal government and it is safe to say that hundreds of billions of dollars went unaccounted for and the recovery rate is incredibly small, less than 2%. Thus the better short term solution is to offer rewards for anyone who turns in anyone who is scamming the government. Give them a 10% reward of what ever is recovered from their tip.

Police departments have been using this tip process for decades to have the community help them apprehend street criminals. Why not use the same theory to apprehend white collar criminals who rip off taxpayers? Get the whole citizenry involved with the potential of a large financial reward, a cut of what money is recovered. Waiting nine years for the task force to put a substantial dent in the criminal activity is not working, time to try something new and creative.

- Long term: this is just another example of a government beast that is out of control and totally dysfunctional. As we have pointed out a number of times, the Federal government today is no different than Jabba The Hutt from the Star Wars stories. Jabba was a large, formless blob that fulfilled no worthwhile function but who consumed massive amounts of resources via tyranny.

Severely downsize the Federal government and have it work on far fewer efforts that might actually work rather than what they do today, work on way too many efforts that are either not needed, too expensive, are criminally infected, or plain just do not work.

Because even when the Federal government gets it right (finds the criminals involved in $712 million worth of fraud over years), it still gets it wrong (loses almost $3 billion in just four months).

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:

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Supreme Court Rewrites Obama Care Legislation, Destroys the Consitution and Rule Of Law In the Process

Democracy in America died today when the Supreme Court ruled that although an existing law explicitly states something cannot be done, the executive branch can act like it can be done without first obtaining Congressional approval. Today the Supreme Court decided that it somehow had the authority to rewrite current law without the approval of the Congressional or Executive branches of government, a clear violation of the Constitution.

So in the future, when a future President unilaterally decides that an unborn child takes precedent over that silly Roe vs. Wade decision or unilaterally decides that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needs to be reinstated or unilaterally decides that the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act are too old to be relevant anymore, understand that the path for these unilateral actions was forged today when the Supreme Court, in concert with the present administration, arbitrarily changed standing law without input from the people or their elected representatives. In the process, this country’s rule of law and the Constitutional separation of powers has been crushed.

As Judge Scalia wrote in the dissenting opinion, “Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is ‘established by the State.’” Or to put it in Orwellian terms, we have fallen down the rabbit hole of Big Brother where, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” God help us.

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:

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

The Federal Government's Data Systems World: A Hacker's Paradise

We have already discussed today’s topic in a previous post but since that discussion, more and worse information has become known. Previously, we had reported on how hackers from China, quite possibly within the Chinese government, had gained access to the Federal government’s personnel data files and had stolen the personal and private information of millions of Federal employees.

This was obviously a disaster on any number of fronts:

These employees could now be subject to identity theft since a foreign entity has all of the information (address, age, birthdate, social security information, etc.) of millions of Americans from which they can do a lot of financial damage and criminal activity.
Since job titles were also stolen, these Americans could also be subjected to bribery or blackmail since the hackers now know what each of those employees do for the Federal government and American citizens.

Nasty stuff. But the incompetence of the Federal government in this matter gets far worse, according to an article by Daily Beast writer John Schindler that was summarized in the June 26, 2015 issue of The Week magazine:

Information that was collected by the hackers included the files of every government worker who was granted a security clearance including many intelligence operatives, in other words, the hackers may now know who our spies around the world are, placing both them and their families in serious danger.
The hacked files also included individuals’ information and vices including gambling problems, drug abuse history, drinking afflictions, sexual affairs, credit histories, etc., in other words, the hackers now have an easy way to find out who might be most easily bribed or blackmailed based on the failings of an individual Federal employee.
The information hacked also included family members information such as wife’s name, kids’ names, addresses, etc. making the blackmail angle that much more real since the hackers can use the safety of family members as a threat.
Thus, not only has personal information of 4 million Federal employees been obtained, but information on each employee’s family and friends, both in the U.S. have been obtained, making the hack much larger than just the obscene 4 million.
Mr. Schindler also correctly points out that not only can our spies now be identified and exposed, they can also be blackmailed in place in any number of ways while remaining in their sensitive U.S. government jobs.

Nasty, nasty scandal. Mr. Schindler correctly points out how bad the hack is using such terms as the hack is a “genuine debacle for Washington" and for those who had their personal information compromised, “this is a matter of life and death.”

But as bad as his article is, it is getting even worse. According to a June 15, 2015 Associated Press (AP) article:

The White House sat on the information that millions of Federal employees personal information had been stolen for four weeks, four weeks that millions of employees could have used to lock down their credit reports and at least start to protect themselves from identity theft.
Instead, unbeknownst to them, their financial futures sat exposed.
The AP reported that not only were 4 million current employees’ records compromised, but upwards of and amazing 14 million current and former employees records were likely compromised.

Even the face of such a massive screw up by the political class and the Federal government it poorly operates and oversees, the White House, you remember, the one that was going to be the “most transparent ever,” tried to downplay, hide, minimize the hack since its official press release to news organizations initially called the hack “an issue with implications for the U.S. intelligence community was about to be disclosed and predicted that it would generate some minor [my emphasis] news coverage in Washington and trade periodicals.”

Pretty amazing that someone, anyone with any common sense would try to pass off the biggest computer hack of personal information in the history of mankind “minor” but such is the cover your butt mentality of the Federal government.

But it gets even worse. A simple Internet search of Chinese hacking reveals the following history of such behavior:

The Daily Mail reported on October 1, 2012 that the Chinese government hacked into White House office in charge of the nuclear launch and also the state-run Medicaid system in Utah.
The Washington Post reported on November 12, 2014 that Chinese hackers had gotten access to Federal government weather and satellite data systems.
On March 11, 2013, The Hill reported that the Obama White House demanded that Chinese hackers stop trying to hack American companies.
On October 1, 2014, Fox News reported that Chinese hackers had hacked into White House computer systems.
Not to be outdone by the Chinese, on April 8, 2015, CBS News reported that Russian hackers had hacked White House computer systems.

In other words, for at least three years, the Obama administration and the Federal government actually knew they were under attack by Chinese hackers and still could not prevent the latest, massive download of 14 million Americans’ records to Chinese hackers. If you looked up the word “incompetence” in the dictionary, putting a picture of the Federal government next to it would be totally appropriate.

But there is more. According to a June 22, 2015 Washington Examiner article by Sarah Westwood, Hillary Clinton has admitted that the State Department’s data system network was also vulnerable to hacking attacks when she ran that operation: "The State Department was attacked at least every day, if not several times a day while I was there. Many of those were repelled by the security protections that were in the system, but we know there have been increasingly sophisticated attacks that are penetrating."

And yet despite knowing that the State Department, with what one would assume is the best brains of the Federal government trying to protect the Department’s data systems, was under constant hacking probes and attacks, she went ahead and put an unofficial and probably lightly secured email server IN HER HOUSE from which she did State Department business. Excuse the language, but how stupid is that move? And she wants to be our next President? Horrible, horrible judgement.

Given what we now know about the sophistication and focus of foreign governments’ hacking abilities I think it is a pretty safe bet that anything that Clinton ran through her private IN HOUSE email server was immediately known to foreign governments around the world. Absolutely no way to run our foreign affairs organization.

So let’s review:

Even though the political class and Federal government had ample warning they were constantly being hacked by foreign entities and governments for years, they still could not prevent the biggest computer hack and security breakdown in the history of mankind.
Even though the Secretary of State knew her department’s operations were under daily hacking probes and attacks, she still, somehow, thought it was a good idea to have her own email server in her house, likely leading to the world knowing everything going on within the State Department.
As a result, millions of Americans are now under a definite threat of identity theft, blackmail, bribery, and possible death threats.

The American taxpayer gives the Washington political class roughly $3 TRILLION every year in taxes and this is the garbage we get in return: total ineptness. Just another example of what we have been calling for over the past few years:

The Federal government has to be downsized by at least 50% since today it does a lot of things horribly bad; we need to get it much smaller so that the politicians and Government entities in Washington focus on far fewer priorities and maybe, just maybe actually resolve an issue once in a while or do their jobs effectively.
We need to install term limits for all Federal politicians, one and done. How much worse could it get, how much more secret personal and State Department information could be lost to hackers if we replaced every single career politician with new faces and new ideas, and possibly people that actually cared about the country and its taxpayer citizens instead of their own egos, greed, and perpetual reelection?

As always, when trying to understand the depths of politicians' and government incompetence, you cannot make this stuff up.

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:

June, 2015, Part 4, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: The Outright Scare Tactics and Deceptions Of The Political Class

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control on our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly post lists on the right side of this page.

Today will conclude this month’s update on this series on global warming and science. Our focus today will be to separate factual reality from political hype. The most recent political hype came from the President who claimed that failure to address the potential problems he sees in man made global warming and climate change will result in more severe weather in the years to come.

But is that true or is it just another political lie/deception,self serving statement? Lord knows that this President is not above making these types of baseless assertions and promises:

If you like your current doctor you can keep your current doctor under Obama Care. Not.
If you like your current insurance policy you can keep your current insurance policy under Obama Care. Not.
American families will see up to a $2,500 reduction in their annual health insurance premiums under Obama Care. Not.
This administration will reduce the annual budget deficit by half within four years. Not.
This administration will be every pending piece of legislation up on the Internet for everyone to comment on it before it is signed. Not.
This will be the most transparent administration ever. Not.

Let’s stop here but you get the idea. Lie to me enough and soon I will assume that everything you say is a say or baseless.

And in the manmade global warming/climate change arena it appears that this tendency of this President is also present. Yesterday, we discussed the reality that a major hurricane has not hit the U.S.mainland for the past ten years. Given that global warming advocates have been advocating for decades that global warming was going to result in horrific weather impacts, what happened hurricane wise for the past decade? Was the President not aware that this was a reality when he recently promised that weather was going to get worse because of manmade climate change?

But are hurricanes just outliers in his more severe weather forecast and other weather occurrences are getting worse? Well, let’s check out data and reality and see:

Wild Fires

Research by James Taylor, writing for Forbes magazine, found that “2013 was one of the quietest wildfire years in U.S. history.” If global warming/climate change was such a bad thing from a weather perspective, one could expect to see a growing trend of wildfires as severe weather, droughts, etc. resulting in more wildfires.

But according to a government agency, the National Interagency Fire Center, an entity that tracks the number of forest fires every year and has been doing so since 1960, well before global warming theory took hold:

The year 2013 had the fewest forest fires since data tracking began.
From 1962 through 1982, there were at least 100,000 forest fires tracked every one of those years. But since 1982 there has not been a single year where forest fires totalled above 100,000.
Fifty years prior, in 1964, forest fires totalled three times as many vs. 2014 and burned up twice as many acres.
Twenty years ago, in 1994, there were 79,000 forest fires vs. 63,000 in 2014.

But this is not the only source of real data that shows forest fires, and the severe weather that might affect them, is down on a historical basis despite global warming/climate change:

According to the Weather Underground, the two largest forest fires in American history occurred in the late 19th and early 290th centuries.
The first of these forest fires occurred in Wisconsin 1871 and burned 3.8 million acres and killed 1,500 people.
The second worse forest fire hit Idaho and Montana in 1910 and destroyed 3 million acres and killed 87 people.
The 47,579 forest fires in 2013 destroyed only 4.3 million acres, an average of 90.79 acres per fire.

Furthermore, research in 2009 analysis by R.M. Beaty and A.H. Taylor researched charcoal records in northern California to study wildfires over thousands of years. They concluded that “current fire episode frequency is at one of its lowest points in at least the last 14,000 years.” And certainly manmade global warming and climate change was not a topic of concern or a reality 14,000 years ago.

Droughts

So, hurricane severity is down significantly, forest fires are down significantly despite the dire claims of this President and the global warming advocates. What about droughts, can the President go 0 for 3 when trying to scare us about weather conditions worsening as a result of global warming/climate change?

Roger Pielke Jr. is an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in Colorado. On may 22, 2015 he a graph on his blog that showed a slight DECREASE in global droughts since 1982, a time period of extensive worries about global warming and weather. His data is based on a 2013 publication in the magazine Nature which tracked “historical drought severity data.”

Fraction of the Globe in Drought: 1982-2012

The graph above shows the proportion of the planet in drought, by intensity, 1982-2012. The graph comes from a paper in a new Nature publication called Scientific Data and is open access.

But what about the devastating drought currently underway in California you say? This past January, the San Jose Mercury News reported that “studies of tree rings, sediment and other natural evidence” have shown historiically “severe megadroughts [that] make the Dust Bowl of the 1930s look tame.” In fact, Scott Stine, an environmental studies professor at California State University, East Bay, studied tree ring data and found that while 2013 was a very dry year, this past century “has been among the wettest of the last 7,000 years.”

Additionally, researchers led by J.A. Kleppe found concluded in 2011 that “dry conditions have occurred regularly, in cyclical fashion, ‘every 650-1150 years,” suggesting “there is nothing unusual, unnatural, or unprecedented about the nature of [Californian] drought.”

You can find direct links to the above statistics and sources at the following website:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/sean-long/2014/06/05/networks-blame-wildfires-droughts-climate-change-despite-fact-they-ve-dec?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_term=Facebook&utm_content=Facebook&utm_campaign=ClimateChange-Wildfire

So, today we learned that the President continues to make stuff up to fulfill his political intentions and views as it pertains to severe weather growing in intensity because of climate change (it isn’t) as hurricanes, droughts, and forest fires are still within historic measures, if not less frequent. When politicians make up realities, when scientists adjust or even discuss adjusting raw data to fit preconceived theories,and when the government itself manipulates historical data for political ends, it helps destroy any credibility manmade global warming/climate control advocates have. Which makes our position, “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science” even stronger, regardless of what Al Gore screams.

That will do it for this month and this topic. But I am pretty sure we will be back next month with more data manipulations, more deceptions, and more science and realities that dispel the global warming myth.