January, 2019, Political Class Insanity, Part 1: Two Senators Crushing the First Amendment and Every Congressional Person Wasting Our money for Stupidity

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) For the almost three hundred years that this country has been around, two things have been constant. First, the First Amendment, which includes freedom of religion, has been sacred. Second, judges have been appointed to bench positions based on their judicial experience, expertise, and education. It is a system that has worked fabulously from a freedom perspective.

But two U.S. Senators would like to destroy that tradition and tenet of our society:

• Brian Buescher is a candidate to be appointed to the Nebraska District Court.
• He happens to be Catholic, which is certainly allowed under the First Amendment.
• As a result, he also participates in the activities of a Catholic charity.
• But because of his religion, U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris feel he may not be impartial and suitable for this position in Nebraska, not because he is not legally qualified but because of his religion.
• According to the Catholic News Agency: “In written questions sent to Buescher by committee members Dec. 5, Sen. Hirono stated that “the Knights of Columbus has taken a number of extreme positions. For example, it was reportedly one of the top contributors to California’s Proposition 8 campaign to ban same-sex marriage.””
• Unbelievable that in this day and age having an opinion and exercising your First Amendment rights can get you grilled and lambasted by members of Congress, just for being of a particular religious faith.
• Specifically, Hirono asked Buescher if he would quit dealing with the charity, a charity that does many, many noble and good things for their communities, if he was confirmed “to avoid any appearance of bias.”
• Fortunately, Buescher gave a great answer, the proper answer, a much more ethical and proper answer than Hironon had the gall to ask: “If confirmed, I will apply all provisions of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges regarding recusal and disqualification.”

This type of political overreach clearly smacks of a totalitarian regime where “think like I think or be ostracized” is the way of life. The Constitution, and other long standing legal and judicial procedures to ensure freedom and non-bias, have been in place and have been in place long before Hiron and Harris came to Congress. Maybe they should have examined them and read the Constitution before making such dangerous statements and taking such anti-freedom positions.

2) Over the years we have spoken many times about how the Federal government has wasted our hard earned tax dollars on absolutely useless and stupid efforts. The government once spent over half a million dollars on building a video game which simulated prom week. The government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars estimating exactly when dogs became man’s best friend. The list is endless but expensive, wasted tax dollars that:

• Could have been used to help homeless, hungry, or drug addicted Americans or
• Could have been used to pay down part of our $22 TRILLION deficit or
• Could have been returned to the people that actually paid those dollars to the government, the taxpayers.

But despite many people, including ourselves, pointing out how wasteful the Federal government and its bureaucrats are, the waste continues to pile up, according to the Convention of States website:

• $21 Million - Loans to Rolex jewelers
• $670 Million - Grants for Colleges of Beauty and Cosmetology
• $670 Million - Two sculptures for a facility that serves blind veterans
• $5.7 Million - Dystopian climate change voicemails from the future

These examples come from a recent article in the Washington Times newspaper that documented wasteful spending to be about $50 billion, or enough to pay the Federal income taxes of 5,000,000 average American taxpayers. 

Imagine what that would do the economy and job creation if 5,000,000 American families could spend that money efficiently in the economy rather than having it wasted on stupidity by the Federal government. Imagine how many homeless Americans got be sheltered, how many hungry Americans could be fed, or how many drug addicted Americans could receive treatment for their addiction. Certainly more noble used of those $50 billion than building prom video games.

3) But the Washington Times is not the only source of wasteful government spending. Senator Rand Paul recently released the annual “Waste Report” of the Federal government and it contains more egregious examples of politicians’ wasteful spending:

• The report highlighted wasteful spending totally $114,514,631, a large number but not even close to be all inclusive of all wasteful government spending since it only included 100 examples of waste.
• The American taxpayer paid $76 million to the country of Somali to help pay their army’s soldiers.
• A quarter million dollars was sent to Rwanda to teach Rwandan citizens how to lobby their government.
• The National Institutes of Health spent $800,000 to study the sex lives of quail...who are high on cocaine.

Again, even if you do not want to give this wasteful spending wealth back to the taxpayers, surely it could be better spent on the homeless, hungry, and needy in this country. $800,000 could feed a lot of hungry Americans, the sex lives of quail be damned. 

Step 44 from our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” would not allow ANY of these expenditures since it would restrict government spending to only projects that positively and significantly impact the lives of Americans in at least five states. Lobbying efforts in Rwanda, quail sex studies, etc. would never get funded under this simple principle.

This is a good start to this month’s political class inanity: politicians trying to crush the First Amendment and politicians crushing our pocketbooks with worthless, stupid expenditures. More insanity too sure follow.

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