June, 2015, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: Money For Nothing In South Carolina, TSA Gropers, and More

It is the start of another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity that the American political class has dropped on our heads in the past month or so. We do this review every month in order to continually prove our view that we are currently being served by the worst set of politicians in the history of our country. Their inane quotes, their failed programs and laws, their wasteful spending, their ineptness, and continued focus on their own careers and self enrichment at the expense of taxpayers is constant and disgraceful.

This month could be one of the worst ever, given the backlog that needs to be discussed. The insanity will cover a full range of areas where today’s politicians continue to disappoint and fail us. As always, the new ways they find to screw up is never ending and always creative.

Today is the eighth update to the insanity for this month:

1) Let’s be honest, it is good to be a Washington politician. They earn over $170,000 a year, more than three times the median American household annual income.They have incredible health and retirement benefits. They get to lease expensive cars on the taxpayers’ dime. In total, the number of hours they work every year probably would classify them as part time workers since they get numerous vacations throughout the year. And most of them leave Washington far wealthier than when they came to Washington.

And it does not matter how well or how poorly they perform their jobs. They still get all of these perks. And let’s face it, given their poor performance and the sad state of the country, they have not done a good job at doing their jobs.

But apparently all of this is not enough for Congressman Alcee Hastings. He recently made headlines when he stated that members of Congress and their $174,000 salaries need a raise since it costs a lot of money to live in Washington D.C.: “Members deserve to be paid, staff deserves to be paid and the cost of living here is causing serious problems for people who are not wealthy to serve in this institution.”

Congressman, if you are making three times the median annual household income you are already being paid quite well. And based on performance, you do not deserve anywhere near that amount of money based on results.

But according to a recent article in the Washington Free Beacon, Congressman Hastings might have an ulterior motive for wanting a pay raise since allegedly he has a few bills from when he was investigated on corruption charges:

• Robert Catz, $500,000 – $1 million debt incurred from 1981 to 1985
• Terrance Anderson, $1 million – $5 million debt incurred from 1981 to 1989
• Patricia Williams, $500,000 – $1 million debt incurred from 1981 to 1989
• Karr and McClain, $100,000 – $250,000 debt incurred from 1983 to 1989
• Mark McDonald, $15,000 – $50,000 debt incurred from 1981 to 1983
• Lewis Meyers, $15,000 – $50,000 debt incurred from 1981 to 1983
• Bright Star (Mortgage), $100,000 – $250,000 debt incurred from 2009
• In total, Congressman Hastings is more than $7.5 million in debt. And that should be his problem,not the taxpayer’s problem.

2) According to a recent Gallup poll, U.S. economic confidence suffered a sharp decline, the "lowest weekly score since December" and "the largest week-to-week drop since July."



Gallup offered some suggestion on the spike in economic pessimism: “Though stocks rebounded by last Friday, the previous week had been fraught with market losses in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 market indexes. Meanwhile, the prices Americans were paying for gas increased in the latter half of April, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration reporting an increase of 17 cents per gallon over two weeks. Gallup has found that Americans' confidence in the economy is related to how much they pay at the pump. Additionally, the recent report that the nation's GDP grew a lackluster 0.2% in the first quarter—a disappointing figure compared with previous quarterly growth—may have dampened consumers' economic hopes.”

So, despite an $800 billion economic stimulus program, an energy revolution that created high paying jobs and reduced energy costs, and a Federal Reserve that printed trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy, Washington still has not figured out how to implement and live by viable economic policies and strategies.

3) The previous posts in this month’s political class insanity series has been infested with scandal after scandal involving the TSA. Today’s post is no exception. Judicial Watch obtained and made public 58 pages of government documents that showed TSA agents allegedly sexually assaulted American airline passengers at three major U.S. airports. 

According to the documents:

• Airline victims of the sexual assault allegations said they were “shocked,” “violated,” and “humiliated,” documents show.
• One woman said a female TSA agent “placed both palms against my breasts and I was shocked, humiliated, alarmed and assaulted and said ‘Stop!'"
• She reported the October 2013 incident at the Los Angeles Airport to a supervisor, according to documents. She was told the supervisor would look at the video, but that she was not allowed to know what actions were taken against the officer. She was also told that she couldn’t look at the video herself.
• A second female TSA officer groped a passenger’s breasts at the O’Hare Airport in 2013. Two other officers watching and “even the supervisor … began to roar with laughter,” according to the documents.
• Shortly after, also at O’Hare Airport, a woman claimed that her mother, a breast cancer survivor, felt her pat down was akin to rape and that she would “never travel again” because of her treatment.
• Another passenger “was struck very hard in the groin area” during a pat down at Denver International Airport on April 7, 2013.
• Two TSA officials at Denver International were fired after manipulating screenings to allow a male agent to “fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers,” CBS4 in Denver reported last month.

So sad that we have allowed the Federal government and its bureaucrats to abuse our physical bodies in such public way. And then to add insult to injury, the TSA was so resistant to releasing these documents that Judicial Watch had to sue in court to obtain these embarrassing records of Americans being abused.

4) According to a recent Washington Times article, the House of Representatives recently approved over $300 million for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. Impressive name but why does it need $300 million?

Well, according to some critics, not only does it not deserve $300 million, the entire operation should be shut down:

• The program is part of the United States’ strategy to get rid of excess plutonium-based nuclear weapons by converting the weapons-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide fuel to sell to U.S. commercial nuclear reactors.
• Originally, the program was supposed to cost $1.6 billion and construction completed by 2007.
• But eight years later, in typical government fashion taxpayers have already sunk $4 billion into the project, it is only 67% complete, and the only customer the project had, Duke Energy, bailed out as the sole customer in 2008, leaving the project today with absolutely no customers.
• Which is why government watchdogs are saying that Washington politicians are throwing money out the window just to keep some unnecessary jobs around in South Carolina.
• “The funding is just to keep the project alive and keep it on standby. It really requires almost $200 million more a year to move forward, so Congress is really just throwing money in a hole,” said Lydia Dennett, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
• Autumn Hanna, a senior program director at Taxpayers for Common Sense, said that the entire effort has “become one of those pet projects for members and senators that are pushing for their home states and are unwilling to look at other options because there is so much money coming in to their state.”
• For signing off on another expensive year of funding for a questionable nuclear proliferation project at the taxpayers’ expense, the House Appropriations Committee wins the Golden Hammer, a weekly distinction awarded by The Washington Times highlighting examples of wasteful federal spending.

Wasteful spending on a project that has no end in sight which eats up hundreds of millions of dollars every year and which has no customer for its output if and when it ever gets completed.Sounds about right for a Washington effort.

Another day, another set of nonsense from the American political class. An expensive project that serves no purpose, TSA gropers, more economic sadness from Washington, and a selfish and out of touch greedy politician. Still not done, more insanity tomorrow.

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