Illegal Immigration Is Not A Victimless Crime, It is A Failure of The Obama Administration

We almost always protest when government and the American political class try to do something. We object for two basic reasons:

1. The more government and politicians do, the less freedom and liberty we have.
2. The more government and politicians do, the more they screw up life, often making an existing problem worse with their “solutions” while wasting money and liberty in the process.

In our view, we would like government and politicians do far less with the chance that they would actually resolve a problem once in awhile. Instead, they do a lot of things, getting all of them wrong instead of focusing on a few issues and maybe resolving one of them. 

In our view, one of the prime functions and responsibilities should be to protect Americans. I think if they could do that well then we could forgive them if they did not try to do some of the other inane and unnecessary thinks they do that never work out while wasting taxpayer wealth in the process. 

However, even though their are laws on the books to protect us from illegal immigrant criminals and non-criminals, the Obama administration has decided that these are not laws but merely “suggestions.” relative to illegal immigration. We have previous related on how this adminsitration admitted in Congressional hearings that it has released tens of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants into American society where they have committed thousands and thousands of new crimes against American citizens:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/08/to-build-wall-or-not-to-build-wall-part.html

We have also reported on how the Obama administration’s inability or non-desire to rid the country of illegal immigrant criminals, many, many American citizens have been maimed and killed by illegal immigrants that have not been deported or confined or have been deported and confined but Obama released them back out to prey on American citizens:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/08/part-1-illegal-immigrants-killing.html

Today, we will review the sad cases of other innocent Americans who have been killed because Obama has refused to enforce current immigration laws,  proving once again that illegal immigration is NOT a victimless crime (note: these sad cases of suffering American families comes from the Fair US website):

- Tess Tranchant of Virginia Beach was a 16 year old that was killed on March 30, 2007 when an illegal immigrant, Alfredo Ramos rammed into the back of Ms. Tranchant’s car that was stopped at a red light. Ramos was drunk and speeding when he rammed the car and killed her. He had a history of criminal activity and convictions but since Virginia Beach fashions itself as a sanctuary city that ignores current immigration laws, he was never taken into custody by local officials and deported. He was charged with two counts of manslaughter, Ms. Tranchant’s friend, sitting in the passenger seat was also killed, and he got a sentence of 40 years in prison.

- Sarah Root, 21, of Omaha, was killed in January, 2016 when her car was rammed into by Eswin Mejia, an illegal immigrant from Honduras. Mejia was street racing when he hit Ms. Root. She had just graduated from Bellevue University with a 4.0 GPS and had a bright future in front of her. The town where she was killed is also a sanctuary city which has policies that restrict the execution of Federal immigration laws. Mejia was charged with homicide but somehow got bail which was he posted and disappeared, depriving Ms. Root’s family of closure over the murder of their daughter.

- Shayley Estes was killed in 2015 in Phoenix by an illegal immigrant from Russia, Igor Zubko. Ms. Estes had gotten an order of protection against Zubko a week and half prior to the murder but he still invaded her home and murdered her. He had overstayed his visa which enabled him to commit the murder for which he faces first degree murder charges.

- Roberto Gallo was an unlicensed driver and illegal immigrant from Honduras but lived in sanctuary city of San Francisco which protected him from Federal immigration laws. He ended up killing second year law student Drew Rosenberg when Gallo ran him over three times. Unbelievably and disgracefully, even though Gallo was found guilty vehicular manslaughter, he was sentenced to only six months in jail AND was released after serving only 43 days. The Federal government refused to even deport him until Mr. Rosenberg’s family’s activism finally got Gallo deported three years later.

Don Rosenberg, Drew’s dad, summed up our feelings on the function, and failure, of government perfectly: “The number one responsibility of the federal government is to protect the citizenry. We have been betrayed by successive administrations who have allowed campaign contributions and votes to supersede that responsibility with the result being the deaths of tens of thousands of our loved ones.” Well said.

- Grant Ronneback, age 21, was murdered by illegal immigrant, Apolinar Altamirano, in January, 2015, over a pack of cigarettes when Mr. Ronnebeck was working his job at a convenience store. Sadly, Altamirano was out on bond from a previous conviction while the Obama administration tried to decide whether he should be deported. Steve Ronnebeck, Grant’s father also had some sorrowful insights to his son's unnecessary murder: “My son's death was completely preventable. Obama's immigration policies cost my son his life.”

The article goes on to document some other atrocities and affronts to Americans and rule of law: 

• Cecil Burrows, an illegal immigrant from India, is scheduled to be deported after three years in prison for organizing a gang rape in his home in 2012.
• Two illegal Salvadoran immigrants and gang members were convicted of murder in Virginia.
• Mauricio Morales-Caceres, an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member from El Salvador was sentenced to life in prison in Maryland to life in prison for the stabbing death of another Salvadoran. 
• Juan Carlos Sepulveda-Castro, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for threatening people with an assault rifle in Idaho despite the stupid and inane law that prohibits illegal immigrants from owning a firearm.
• Eleven illegal immigrants, all members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang, were convicted of a series of crimes including murder in New Jersey in the spring of 2016.
• Illegal immigrants, Reinol Vergara and Edson Benitez, pled to second degree murder when they invaded the home of a 90 year Mnnesota man whom they beat up and left to bleed to death while they ransacked his home.
• Another Salvadoran illegal immigrant, Mauricio Morales-Caceres, was convicted of first degree murder in Maryland in April, of 2016.
• Juan Razo, a Mexican illegal immigrant in Painesville, Ohio, pleaded guilty to a life sentence to a series of crimes that included the shooting death of a 60-year old woman, the attempted rape of a 14-year old girl, kidnapping and burglary. 

As often with Obama, the rule of law is merely a suggestion to him and his political ambitions. And as often happens when the law is broken, Americans die and American families mourn. Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. It is just another failure of the Washington political class who has failed miserably in this area to carry out a basic function of government, protect those that it governs.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2016, Bonus Post, By The Numbers: The Wreckage That Obama Has Caused The Democratic Party

Note: For the past four posts we have been doing a series that we occasionally focus on called “by the numbers.” I thought we were done with the latest numbers yesterday but a another set of numbers popped up that I thought we should review now rather than wait another month or two since it is related to the November Presidential election. So, let’s consider this a bonus post for this month’s "by the numbers" update.

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) Before we do this post, let me clarify my political voting behavior over the past four decades:

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life.
• Thus, I did not vote for Donald Trump in November.
• Up until 2010, I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life.

Thus, I am not a Republican headhunter taking great pride in the disaster that the Obama Presidency has brought down on his own, Democratic, party, I only care about the numbers.

This set of numbers is particularly ironic since in the lead up to the November election, many liberals and Democrats were bragging how their party was the party of the future, how Democrats would rule supreme going forward. These folks pointed to any number of demographic trends to prove to at least themselves that their party was fated to dominate America going forward. 

Based on what the following numbers and realities show, they were certainly premature in their supremacy celebration and either looked at the wrong numbers but misinterpreted what numbers they were looking at.

So let’s look at a set of numbers that were recently reported on the Washington Free Beacon website and the destruction that Obama has rained down on his own party. From the time that Obama won the Presidency in 2008 until the 2016 national elections: 

1. Democrats have 63 fewer seats in the House of Representatives.
2. Democrats have 11 fewer seats in the Senate.
3. Democrats went from having a majority in the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate to being the minority party in both parts of Congress.
4. Democrats have 11 fewer governorships.
5. Democrats have almost 1,000 seats in state government legislatures.
6. And now, Democrats have one fewer President in the White House.

Certainly a pathetic set of numbers for Democrats to contemplate, especially in light of how optimistic they were leading up to the November elections. How pathetic? According to the article, one Democratic politician observed that the Democratic Party “was no longer a national party, noting it has its fewest members in Congress since the 1920s.” Another Democratic Congressman stated that “the party has no strategy and no plan.” 

So much for Obama’s initial campaign theme and slogan of “hope and change.” Who knew at the time that he was giving hope and positive change to Republicans and not Democrats, how ironic. The numbers are pretty clear.

2) We have previously reported on how although Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, she was soundly trounced when you look at every other measure of the election. Trump won more counties, more states, more Electoral College votes, etc. 

Her votes basically came from a few concentrated population centers across the country, most of which were focused in the state of California. Which led to an interesting map put together by the Investors Business Daily website. If you map out the counties that Clinton won, keeping them as land masses, and change the counties that Trump won and turn them into water, you end up with the following map of the United States of Hillary:

Basically, you end up with a scattered bunch of disconnected islands with vast areas of ocean (Trump voters) in between them, proving two points that the numbers have already shown:

• The Congressman who observed that Democrats were no longer a national political party was correct, it only controls some long strips of geography on both coasts and an occasional island in between.
• The country has never been more divided, the Democrat skinny coastal strips vs. the rest of the country.

Sad numbers certainly for the Democrats but also for the country as we remain as divided as ever politically. All thanks to the Obama Presidency, the worst Presidency, diplomatically, militarily, economically, racially, lawfully, Constitutionally, and numerically in my lifetime. The numbers do not lie.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2016, Part 4, By The Numbers: The Obama Recovery Stinks, The Pentagon Lies, and IRS Employees Love the Ritz Carlton Lifestyle.

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) Let’s start today’s “by the numbers” series with a look at one of the worst managed Federal government operations of all time, the development of the F-35 fighter jet. Winslow Wheeler, writing for the War Is Boring website, gives us the details: 

• After Donald Trump recently stated that the F-35 costs were “out of control,” U.S. Air Force Lt. General Chris Bogdan, who is in charge of the project, issued a press release to give out his view of reality. 
• The general said that the cost to build a new F-35 would range from $102.1 million for the Air Force version to $132 million for the Marine and Navy versions. 
• But these costs do not include the costs to make and buy maintenance equipment and other support needs nor do they include the need to fix unforeseen problems which undoubtedly arise in a new plane. 
• Estimating these additional costs moves the cost of the Air Force version up to $157 million per plane and the upwards of $355 million for a single navy or Marine version of the same plane, more than a third of a BILLION dollars for a single plane. 
• These are much higher costs than what was originally sold to Congress and the American taxpayer: the Congressional Research Service reports that in 1994 the Pentagon promised that the final cost of the F-35 would range from $31 million to $35 million each, or in 2017 dollars, the cost per plane would be $53 million to $60 million. 
• This is a far cry from what is actually happening today where a single plane could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. 

As if these costs are not bad enough, they do not include the hundreds of billions dollars that have already been spent in research and development on this plane. We previously reported on analyses that estimated over a trillion dollars had been spent over the past two decades to develop this plane. 

Thus, not only are the construction costs per plane much higher than promised, but if you spread the embedded research costs across each plane that may eventually be built, the fully loaded cost of each plane is easily over a billion dollars each. Typical numbers of a typical government project, low ball the initial estimate to get funding and then manage the project so poorly that the costs eventually get out of control.

2) Tyler Durden, writing for the Zero Hedge website on December, 21, 2016, put some numbers to a problem we have talked about for a while, another blow to any credence that Obama’s economic strategies have been effective, namely the reality that the number of American millennials living at home has reached a 75 year high: 

• Back in 1940, 76 years ago, at the end of the Great Depression, 40% of millennials were living at home, which one might expect in such a difficult economic time. 
• Today, six years into the Obama economic recovery, just under 40% of millennials are living at home, just short of the record set back in the waning days of the Depression. 
• This data comes from an analysis of census data carried out by the real estate tracker Trulia and reported in the Wall Street Journal. 
• Back in 2005, about one in three millennials were living with family but again, six years into the Obama recovery, that number is still ridiculously high at about 40%. 
• This runs counter to historical economic cycles where this number always went down once a recession ended, indicating how bad Obama’s economic policies and strategies have been. 
• In fact, over the past decade, including the six years of the Obama recovery, the number of adults under the age of 30 has increased by 5 million but the number of households for that age group has grown by just 200,000 in that same time frame according to the Harvard Joint Center For Housing Studies. 

With rising rents in some cities, tougher mortgage lending standards and most importantly, the economy’s inability to generate sufficiently high paying jobs that would allow many more millennials to strike out on their own, it is no wonder that junior is still living at home and not out buying furniture for his or her new place, buying a house, etc., further depressing an economic recovery that has been pathetic by just about any measure. 

The numbers do not lie, this recovery sucks.

3) Ali Meyer, writing for the Washington Free Beacon on December 15, 2016, gave a contrasting set of numbers vs. the numbers from above that show how millions of American young adults cannot find a decent enough job to get out of their parents’ house. Apparently, life is much better for IRS employees vs. struggling millennials: 

• According to Meyer, IRS employees spent $1.l4 million of taxpayer wealth on lavish travel arrangements. 
• A Senate committee investigation found these travel options by IRS employees “to be excessive and inappropriate.” 
• The committee found that “the IRS had 27 employees who traveled 125 business days at a cost of more than $1.4 million in fiscal year 2015. The average cost of each trip totaled $52,800...” 
• In fact, one employee ran up $72,544 in hotel costs, spending an amazing $43,726 just at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington,Virginia while another IRS employee spent half a year living at the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC at a taxpayer cost of $38,799. 
• Another IRS employee decided to avoid hotels and spent $4,950 a month to stay at a million dollar townhouse in Arlington,Virginia while another IRS employee rented a downtown Chicago apartment on taxpayer dollars at $4,605 a month. 
• Other outrageous costs included “a $100 Uber Black car service tab for an airport ride. One employee spent $1,513 on dry cleaning, another spent $178 per month for a cable bundle that included premium channels, and another employee spent $1,185 for a monthly metro pass—which exceeded the daily commuting cost from their lodging to the IRS headquarters.” 
• The Senate report concluded that: “The lodging selected by these employees often appeared to be excessive and inappropriate. The committee also notes that there were a number of instances where vouchers and/or receipts appeared to be missing when compared to the initial aggregate IRS data for all employees traveling more than half a year. The committee found that while the IRS has a number of employees who travel more than half of the fiscal year incurring $1.4 million in travel costs, the IRS has routinely failed to take allowable steps to reduce its travel expenditures. The lack of effort by IRS employees to exercise prudence and economy when utilizing taxpayer funds is concerning, and more importantly, a direct apparent violation of the [Federal Travel Regulation].” 

A disgusting waste of taxpayer funds. I wonder (and doubt) that any of these employees will be forced to pay back the money they wasted. I also wonder how many times this type of behavior goes on throughout the entire Federal bureaucracy, an insult to every working American whose kid cannot find a decent job after getting out of high school or college but whose tax dollars support Ritz-Carlton level living for government employees.

That will do it for today’s and this month's “by the numbers” series. Today we learned that the IRS has little regard for taxpayer dollars, that the Obama recovery stinks for anyone under 30, and never believe the Pentagon when the give you a cost estimate since it will always go up. More numbers next month.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2016, Part 3, By The Numbers: How To Save $2.5 TRILLION Easily

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us.

A friend of mine recently sent me an email that showed some of the Federal government programs that the Republicans in Congress would like to cut in order to get government spending under control, not blow up the Federal national debt any more, and maybe, just maybe, at some point reduce the oppressive tax burden on working Americans. I cannot go through all of these to verify if they are valid and current Federal government budget items.

But given that we have reported on hundreds, if not thousands, of real and stupid Federal expenditures over the years, I would bet that most, if not all, of these line item expenses are real and totally unnecessary. Read through them and decide which one of these do we really need and which really help a large number of Americans, keeping in mind that we are spending these billions and billions of dollars on these items while:

1. American military veterans die before they get the necessary medical care and attention that they are promised.
2. Tens of millions of Americans need Federal food assistance every day.
3. Millions of Americans need job training help to compete in today’s economy.
4. Millions of Americans are homeless throughout the year.
5. Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from drug addictions before than can get drug treatment help.
6. Our kids are still getting lousy public educations relative to the rest of the world.

Keep these real world needs in mind when you consider whether it is a good idea to give the sugar industry $14 million a year in subsidies or send $17 million every year to the International Fund for Ireland every year:

* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.

* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.

* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.

* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.

* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.

* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.

* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.

* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.

* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon , eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

* U..S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.

* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.

* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.

* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.

* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.

* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.

* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings

* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.

* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.

* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.

*Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings..

* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.

* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.

* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.

* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings

* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.

* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.

* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.

* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.

* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.

* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings..

* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings..

* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.

* Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.

* U.S.Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings..

* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.

* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.

* Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years..

* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.

*  End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.

* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

*Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings.

* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.

*Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.

*Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings.

* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.

* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.

* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.

* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.

*Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.

* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..

* HUD Ph.D. Program.

These programs would save the American taxpayer about $2.5 TRILLION over a ten year period with minimal impact to the average American’s life. But, this list does not even attack some of the more egregious wasteful spending instances:

• Massive criminal fraud in the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Obama Care programs wastes billions and billions of dollars every year.
• The Pentagon morass of spending insanity, which Obama’s deficit reduction task force long ago claimed that $100 billion a year could be cut from the Pentagon’s annual budget without harming national security.
• The idiotic spending that goes to National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
• The inept IRS that fails to collect upwards of $400 billion a year from tax dodgers and which sends billions of dollars out in refunds to tax frauds.
• The spending of tens of billions of dollars every year on Cabinet level Federal government entities that should be eliminated altogether including the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Commerce,with the few vital functions that these departments provide begin shipped off to other Federal agencies or delegated to the states to handle.

The numbers are clear, the Federal government is out of control from a spending perspective. And while the list of potential expense cuts from my friend is a great start in taming the Federal spending monster, it should only be a first step in reducing taxes and increasing freedom while getting the Federal government out of our lives as much as possible.

December, 2015, By The Numbers, Part 2:Trump Voters Were Not What Is Assumed, More War On Drugs Failures, and More

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) We have often pointed out how poorly Obama has handled economic matters in this country over the past eight years despite having three of the most helpful economic tail winds to help him:

• He implemented a massive (and failed) $800 billion economic stimulus plan.
• Energy prices went down dramatically that should have produced a major boost to the economy as businesses and consumers had newly available disposable income that they did not have to spend on energy costs.
• The Fed flooded the market with trillions of dollars to stimulate the economy.

Despite these major economic helpers, Obama still managed the following disastrous and meager economic results:

• He doubled the national debt burden from about $10 TRILLION to about $20 TRILLION, incurring more debt than all previous Presidencies COMBINED.
• Wage and household economic and wealth growth has been meager or non-existent for much of his economic recovery period.
• Over 84 million American adults are not in the workforce at this time, an all time record.
• The labor participation rate is at its lowest levels since the Carter administration.
• More Americans over the age of 65 are still working than ever before while more adults aged 18 to 30 are living at home with their parents than ever before.
• Millions of Americans are working part time jobs because they cannot find full time work in the Obama recovery.
• The true unemployment rate, the U-6 rate is still almost 10% despite six years of the Obama recovery.
• The Fed has kept interest rates at historical lows for a historically long time, indicating they also think the Obama recovery is as weak as can be.
• Annual GDP growth during the Obama recovery has never attained the long term average growth rate of just over 3% a year, indicating a recovery that is the weakest over at least the past eighty years or so.

So for most of the country, the Obama recovery has been tepid at best. Unless you happen to live in the Washington DC area, in which case, live is very good for you economically. According to Terence P. Jeffrey, writing for the CNS News website on December, 15, 2016:

• The four richest counties in the whole country are located in the Washington DC metro area.
• These counties are Loudoun County, Virginia which had a median household income of $125,900, Falls Church City, Virginia which had a median household income of $122,092, Fairfax County, Virginia at $112,844 and Howard County, Maryland at $110,224.
• “Poor” Arlington, Virginia lagged behind at only the number 8 wealthiest county in the country at $104,354.
• In fact, nine of the wealthiest 20 counties in the c0untry are in the DC metro area.
• These DC metro households had median household incomes that were more than double the national average which is $55,755.

To keep this in perspective, counties around New York City, home to hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, stock market players were not in the top ten. One one county in Silicon Valley, home to tech geniuses and billionaires, put only one county in the top ten.

I know of no major industry, business segment, research center in the Washington DC area except one: feeding at the Federal trough at the expense of the American taxpayer. No value added, minimal societal benefits, no breakthrough to make Americans lives easier or safer, just very high taxpayer funded salaries, boondoggles and little value added. That great sucking sound is not American jobs going to Mexico because of NAFTA, it is taxpayer dollars being sucked down the toilet of the Washington metro area with no payoff in return. The numbers do not lie.

2) One of the more contemptible myths that the mainstream media and liberal hateful types kept up during the Presidential election were that the only people voting for and supporting Trump were poor, dumb, uneducated rural Americans. It was a cruel and condescending attack on fellow American citizens.

Well, it turns out that the name callers may have been the uneducated ones:

• Jolene Peters, writing for the I Have The Truth website on December 17, 2016, discussed some interesting numbers regarding Trump voters.
• Ms. Peters reported on a CBS News report on a study by the Urban Institute.
• Surprising to liberals is likely the reality that the 55 counties in the country with the highest average credit scores, defined as 720 or better, Trump actually won 51 of those counties.
• Conversely, the 11 counties across the country that have the lowest overall credit score averages all went for Hillary Clinton.
• People with higher credit scores usually have a higher level of affluence, usually pay their bills on time and generally have higher income levels.

Thus, the numbers prove that the mainstream media got it wrong...again. Trump supporters may not have been poor, dumb, uneducated, and rural.

3) One last set of numbers for today. We have often pointed out that the 40 year “war on drugs” has been an indisputable failure. It has caused our country to have the highest prison population in the world by just about any measure, it has created dangerous, wealthy, and violent drug cartels around the world, and has done very little to impact the usage of illegal drugs in this country. And this carnage has come at the price of likely over a trillion taxpayer dollars over the past four decades.

The numbers from a recent Tampa Bay News article point out how futile this “war” has been:

• Drug overdose deaths have increased by 35% over the past five years.
• In some states, the increase in overdose deaths has been over 200%.
• The main root causes of ther increase in overdose deaths has been heroin and prescription painkillers.
• In 2015, 52,000 Americans died from drug overdoses with about two thirds of them being caused by prescription painkillers.
• Death from the failed war on drugs in 2015 were about 40% higher than the number of Americans who died from traffic accidents or gun deaths
• Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Forty years later and 50,000 Americans still dying every year from drug abuse certainly fits this definition of insanity.

So, what did the numbers tell us today: the war on drugs is still a failure after forty years, TRUMP supporters may not have been as dumb and poor as the myth says they are, and rich people live in the Washington DC area. More numbers tomorrow.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2016, Part 1, By The Numbers: Leaving Democratic States and Moving To Republican States

Before I start today’s post, let me reiterate my voting history like I have done many times in the past:

• I have been a legally voting since the 1970s.
• Since then, I have never voted for a Republican for President.
• I have rarely voted for a Republican for national office over that time period.
• I have never been a registered Republican voter.

Keep that in mind as you go through the following discussion. 

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

Benny Johnson, Jason Howerton, and Parker Lee, writing for the Independent Journal Review recently summarized what the economic conditions currently are in the states that heavily voted in favor of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in last month’s Presidential election. Besides having the common characteristic of favoring Hillary over Trump, they also have the common characteristic of having some pretty lousy economic and out migration trends going on in their states. This conclusion is based on citing a Washington Times article by Stephen Moore.

Moore concludes from his analysis that the out migration from these Hillary strongholds is driven primarily by economic reasons including: “high tax rates; high welfare benefits; heavy regulation; environmental extremism; high minimum wages.” Amazingly, the ten states that Hillary Clinton won by the largest percentage margins saw a net loss in population from 2004 through 2014. California and New York by themselves saw a net loss of 2.75 million Americans over that ten year time frame.

As you go through the ten states economic profiles below, keep in mind that these states are almost always dominated by Democrats in elected office. Yes, occasionally, a Republican or two might get elected in these states, but for the most part these are strictly Democratic controlled and operated states. I am not saying there is a cause and effect of Democrats creating lousy economic conditions but the correlation, as you will see below is certainly quite strong.

1) Massachusetts - Between 2004 and 2014, Massachusetts lost 156,861 more residents than it gained. One reason for such a loss is that Massachusetts has a top business income tax of 8%, one of the highest overall property tax burdens in the country, and also has estate and inheritance taxes.

2 ) California - California has lost an amazing 1.3 net residents over the past decade despite having some of the richest people in the nation living in the state in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Thus, something must not be right for the over 1 million people who decided to leave the state for a better life

3) Maryland - Maryland has lost a net 145,000 residents over the past decade, possibly caused by the reality that the state ranks 44th in economic outlook according to the in-depth analysis done by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has a top personal income tax rate of 8.95%, and has the 13th highest business income tax rate. Over the past 47 years the state has had only two Republican governors.

4) New York - The ALEC ranks New York as dead last in its economic outlook ratings, a spot it has been “honored” with in six of the past seven years. It has some of the highest tax rates in the country and its net loss of population over the past ten years, 1.5 million people, is the largest loss of any other state in the union.

5) Rhode Island - The ALEC rates this state as 48th in economic performance and 35th in economic outlook. Rhode Island has a very high property tax rate and has had a net loss of 70,000 residents over the past decade, a lot considering how small the state’s population is to begin with.

6) New Jersey - My former home state has some of the highest tax rates, personal income tax, property tax, and business tax rates, in the country. The ALEC ranks the state as 48th relative to economic outlook and has had a net loss of about half a million residents since 2005.

7) Connecticut - HIgher than average tax rates and ranking 47th on ALEC’s economic outlook measure makes it no surprise this state has lost 153,000 residents in total over the past decade.

8) Vermont - The ALEC has Vermont ranked 49th in economic outlook, the state has the second highest personal income tax structure and has enacted many new tax changes that will make it more expensive to live in the state. No surprise, it has had a net loss of 9,000 residents over the past ten years.

9) Illinois - Possibly one of the biggest basket cases of all the states, given its incredibly high unfunded pension and retiree benefit liabilities for government workers, the state does have a reasonable income tax rate but higher than average business tax rates and high property taxes. As a result, it has had a net loss of 700,000 residents over the past ten years.

10) Hawaii - The ALEC found that Hawaii has the highest marginal personal income tax rates in the country and the highest sales tax rates in the country. Despite its beautiful weather, the state had a net loss of 36,000 residents since 2005.

Conversely, five states that the ALEC rank in the top 15 relative to having really good economic futures, Wyoming, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Tennessee, South Dakota and Idaho, have not only seen net gains in state populations over the past ten years but also had the highest percentage of voters that voted for Donald Trump. In fact, if you look at the ALEC table below which rank orders all 50 states relative to their economic outlook rankings, the top twenty states with the brightest futures are usually dominated by more conservative, Republican politicians.

Thus, is it any surprise that people are moving to states with lower taxes and brighter economic futures? Is it any surprise that states that are losing population are states with higher taxes and less bright economic futures? People who work hard for their money and their families realize that the best way to be happy is to keep as much as they earn and will make life decisions accordingly. 

And that more than any other reason is why an old, tired, same old Democratic politician, Hillary Clinton, lost an election to a non-politician with no Washington or international experience who was plagued by personal behavior problems and who was outspent by about a two to one margin. Freedom, the desire to keep what was earned, and to not be taxed to death is why people behave the way they do, whether it is choosing a place to live or who to vote for. The numbers do not lie.

More numbers tomorrow.

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:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w