February, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3 - Google's Tax Dodge, Getting Rich In D.C., Food Stamp Fraud In Ohio, And More

This is the third post for the political class insanity of February, 2013. Over the past two days we have seen numerous charges and allegations of political bribery and corruption, political cronyism, a politician wanting to use government resources and operations to persecute those citizens with a different opinion than her, government officials and politicians that cannot develop and live by a simple budget, and other acts of lunacy. Fortunately, the insanity ends with the following:

1) We have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION. According to a January 17, 2013 Associated Press report, there are hundreds and hundreds of deficient and dangerously flawed levees across the country that are at risk of collapsing at any minute and endangering the lives and properties of millions of Americans in at least 37 states. Hurricane Sandy victims are still waiting for relief. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are rapidly approaching insolvency.

Despite all of these dire financial situations, what did the Federal government recently spend $100,000 on: “The National Endowment for the Arts is funding the Spelman College of Atlanta, Ga.’s multi-episode game called “HERadventure.” In the grant announcement made last year, the NEA said the story “focuses on a young female superhero sent to Earth to save her own planet from devastation because of climate changes caused by social issues impacting women and girls.”

Now, $100,000 is not going to fix any of the problems listed above. However, before you can start saving millions of dollars in wasted spending, you have to start saving thousands. And before you can start saving billions, you have to start saving millions, etc. Wasting $100,000 on an inane game would have been a great start on the road to fixing what ails this country in a meaningful way as opposed to idiotic, wasteful, useless programs like this.

2) In late December, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors workers will each receive an annual bonus of between $5,500 and $7,000 a piece. This past week it was reported that the Treasury Department is about to unload the last of the millions of GM shares it still owns. If that sale of shares comes to past, the American taxpayer would stand to lose about $12 billion on the direct bailout of General Motors.

Such a deal, the American taxpayer theoretically contributes just over $100 per household to a bankrupt company that in turn gives bonuses to its workers of up to $7,000. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? And this is just the result of the direct GM bailout. The forgiving of back taxes and the failed bailouts of other former GM corporate components is not included in this scam.

3) The Dayton Daily news reported in late December, 2012 that A Federal judge had sentenced a local resident, Al-Idu Al-Gaheem to one year and one day in prison for his leadership in a scheme that bilked $3.8 million from the Federal food stamp program.

Al-Gaheem had faced as many as four years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, food stamp trafficking and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. The scheme involved Al-Gaheem and his co-conspirators illegally paying customers 50 cents in cash for every $1 in food stamp benefits they redeemed.

The $3.8 million they stole from the American taxpayer was allegedly spent on themselves and their businesses. Although the court order requires them to pay back the $3.8 million, the article concludes that this will likely never happen since the money has all been spent.

You really have to be kidding me, only one year in jail for stealing almost $4 million? Doesn’t seem fair or just, maybe that is the reason that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid lose over $200 billion a year to waste and criminal fraud. The penalties for getting caught are just not steep enough to scare off the criminals.

4) As you begin to get your tax documentation together in order to prepare your Federal income tax return, consider a short article that was published in the December 21, 2012 issue of The Week magazine. The article, originally from Bloomberg, reported that Google avoided paying about $2 billion in taxes in 2011 by transferring $9.8 billion in revenue to a Bermuda holding company.

The amount transferred to Bermuda, where there is no income tax, represents about 80% of Google’s pretax profits. Thus, while many American small business owners saw their taxes go up when the fiscal cliff deal was signed, apparently Google can continue to shield billions in tax liabilities offshore.

I believe that everyone’s taxes on average should be reduced, given the trillions of dollars the Federal government has wasted over the years. However, for someone that is always yapping about paying one’s fair share of taxes, Obama and the Democrats really seem to be taking their time dealing with atrocities like this while the successful local pizzeria owner might have just seen his tax burden go up.

5) Let’s stay with the income tax theme. How high is your household income that you will be taxes on in April?

According to the AARP Bulletin magazine from December, the estimated median income of each state and the District Of Columbia ranges from a low of $36,919 in Mississippi to a high, almost 100% higher, of $70,004 in Maryland. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau). Since the average household income across the entire country is just below $50,000, we also see that Maryland residents make about 40% more than the average U.S. household.

But who lives in Maryland? A large portion of those high income households are high paying jobs that depend on the Federal government and your tax dollars. In fact, the fourth highest median household income are those households living in the District Of Columbia, $63,124, about 26% higher than the average U.S. Household.

As always, the political class, and the lobbyists, contractors, and industries that depend on extensive large Federal spending, are certainly taking care of themselves financially. In fact, we have previously reported that seven of the top ten richest counties in the country are in the greater D.C. area.

Thus, another example of the evolving elitist ruling class in this country, a class that pays themselves better than the people that make their salaries possible, a class that needs private bathrooms worth over $200,000 a class that readily excepts bribes while in office, etc. Insanity and insults, a monthly affair that never ends.

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.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Bailout Review - TARP, Too Big To Fail, Fannie, Freddie, Chrysler, and The General Motors Con Job

CNNMoney recently published some analysis that they had completed using the latest U.S. Treasury information. They went through the history and payback, or lack of payback, behavior of those entities that had been fortunate enough to receive taxpayer bailout money, courtesy of the Washington political class.

The results of their investigation are not pretty and include the following conclusions:

• The government has already written off some of its losses on the Chrysler bailout. Chrysler, which is now owned and  controlled by Italian automaker Fiat, left behind an unpaid tab of $1.3 billion for U.S. taxpayers to pay off from its total infusion of $12.4 billion.
• The former financing arm of General Motors, GMAC, which is now known as Ally Financial, received $16.3 billion of taxpayer wealth but has only paid $5.7 billion so far. The CNNMoney analysis concluded that Ally may never be able to pay the remaining $10.6 billion without a successful IPO.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal government's housing subsidy disasters received about $187.5 billion of bailout money but have only paid back $70.7 billion. Independent analyses have proven that the difference, $116.8 billion, is unlikely to ever be repaid and will probably continue to get worse over time.
• While the biggest banks in the country have paid back their TARP funds, about 400 smaller banks still owe the American taxpayer $35 billion from various TARP programs.
• General Motors received $51 billion in bailout funds from the American taxpayer and has repaid about $24 billion so far. However, the GM stock price would have to increase about 150%, from the current price of about $23 to $57, highly unlikely, for the taxpayers to just breakeven.
• Thus, the article's analysis leads to the conclusion that each American household, on average, is still owed about $1,750 each for the unpaid balance of the bailout funds.

Disgraceful waste of taxpayer wealth. Chrysler is no longer an American company and the American taxpayer paid over a $1 billion to make it so. Poorly performing banks are still around, not due to the great leadership of their management, but the $35 billion American taxpayers gave them to cover their mistakes and mismanagement. Fannie and Freddie are still eating up taxpayer wealth with no reformation or termination plans underway.

But the greatest sham pulled on the American taxpayer is General Motors. The Obama political campaign continues to boast that "Bin Laden is dead but General Motors is alive" but considering the GM facts above and the following facts, you consider if this is really "living:"

• As mentioned above, General Motors and its former financing arm, GMAC, are alive today and in  their present format only because of the unpaid $35 billion or so they owe the American taxpayer.
• Delphi was once a subsidiary of GM. News reports, based on actual released government email communications, show that Obama's Treasury Department was instrumental in deciding that thousands of non-union Delphi employees would have their pensions terminated while union employees at Delphi would have their full pension rights maintained in the auto bailout plans. How sad that Ameircans' futures are determined not on fairness but on political favors and potential votes.
• The CNNMoney website reported in February, 2011 that The U.S. Treasury forgave $14 billion in tax revenue because of unconventional deal it granted to General Motors. Although GM has had profitable periods since the bailout, it will not have to pay taxes since the Obama administration allowed GM to maintain past financial losses on its book to offset future profits for years to come. According to CNNMoney, this tax break is completely against standard bankruptcy proceedings and laws and will reduce GM's U.S. tax bill by an estimated $14 billion in the coming years, and its global taxes by close to $19 billion, according to a company filing. Another favor to Obama's political supporters at the expense of Ford and other honest carmakers and other American companies.
• In June of this year the current GM, Dan Akerson, gave a speech where he bragged how now seven out of ten GM cars are now made by factories outside of the United States, mostly China, and that GM was also moving research and development resources overseas.

Thus, who still thinks that this bailout was a good idea to pay tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer wealth so that the recipient of that wealth could build up its business overseas? Insanity.

No matter how you cut it, none of these bailouts were good ideas. The government should never have gotten involved. It should have allowed normal bankruptcy laws/procedures and market forces shape the events  that have unfolded over the past few years. It would have resulted in fairer treatment of investors, employers, and taxpayers and not rewarded incompetent business managers and political cronies.

When government gets involved, it gathers control over the nation and its people. And government control not only wastes taxpayer wealth it also destroys freedom when petty politicians get to choose winners and losers in life.


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The following words are something I have never done before. My blog posts are always based on as unbiased mews sources as possible. These almost always include actual government reports and statistics, Associated Press reports, Bloomberg news reports, Reuters news reports,Wall Street Journal reports, USA Today reports, New York Times reports, and other main stream media reports.  

I do not include Fox News reports or conservative blog reports since I find liberal leaning friends and family will automatically reject those reports, not because they are wrong,  but solely because of their source. This sometimes makes verifying government misconduct difficult since many of the main stream news sources do not always follow up, investigate, and report on Obama administration shenanigans.

Given today's topic, government mishandling and biases in bailout decisions, I have included a report that came through my email about how badly the Chrylser bailout and process was handled from a political and cronyism perspective. I never use emails that come floating in but this one looks interesting from a sourcing perspective, it names names, and certainly has a ring of truth to it, given what we discussed above. 

I present it below and ask any readers if they can come up with reliable sources to prove or disprove that this disgraceful behavior actually happened relative to the Chrysler. If we can find some sources, I will put it into a regular blog post in the near future. If true, than we have fallen down the corruption rat hole further, deeper, and faster than even I imagined.

Chrysler's Railroad

This could be a scandal of epic proportions and one that makes Nixon's Watergate or Clinton's Monica Lewinsky affair pale by comparison. Why was there neither rhyme nor reason as to which dealerships of the Chrysler Corporation were to be closed?

Roll the clock back to the weeks just before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straits and federal government "graciously" offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs." Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, "Too big to fail," same story with GM.

The feds organized their "Automotive Task Force" to fix Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House's official Car Czar - literally, that's what his title is. Rattner is the liaison among Obama, Chrysler, and GM.

Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler 'had made this list of dealerships. Not true! The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox News and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put together by the "Automotive Task Force" headed by no one other than Mr. Steve Rattner.

Now the plot thickens. Remember earlier we said that there was neither rhyme nor reason why certain dealerships were closed?

Actually there's a very interesting pattern as to who was closed down. Again, on May 27, 2009, The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the connection. Amazingly, of the 789 dealerships closed by the federal government, 788 had donated money, exclusively to Republican political causes, while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes. The only "Democratic" dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary's campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards. This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama's campaign. Does that seem a little odd to you?

Steve Rattner is the guy who put the list together. Well, he happens to be married to a Maureen White.

Maureen happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she has access to campaign donation records from everyone in the nation- Republican or Democrat. But of course, this is just a wacky "coincidence," we're certain.

Then comes another really wacky "coincidence." On that list of dealerships being closed down, a weird thing happened in Arkansas, North Louisiana and Southern Missouri. It seems that Bill Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McClarty, owns a chain of dealerships in that region, partnered with a fellow by the name of Robert Johnson. Johnson happens to be founder of Black Entertainment Television and was a huge Obama supporter and financier.

These guys own a half dozen Chrysler stores under the company title of RLJ-McClarty-Landers. Interestingly, none of their dealerships were ordered closed - not one!

While all of their competing Chrysler/Dodge and Jeep dealership were! Eight dealerships located near the dealerships owned by McClarty and Johnson were ordered shut down.

Thus by pure luck, these two major Obama supporters now have virtual monopoly on Chrysler sales in their zone. Isn't that amazing?

Go look in The Washington Examiner, the story's there, and it's in a dozen or so other web-based news organizations; this isn't being made up.

Now if you thought Chrysler was owned by Fiat, you are mistaken. Under the federal court ruling, 65% of Chrysler is now owned by the federal government and the United Auto Workers union! Fiat owns 20%. The other 15% is still privately owned and presumably will be traded on the stock market. Obama smiles and says he doesn't want to run the auto industry. 

As horrifying as this is to comprehend, and being as how this used to be the United States of America , it would appear that the president has the power to destroy private businesses and eliminate upwards of 100,000 jobs just because they don't agree with his political agenda.

This is Nazi Germany stuff, and it's happening right here, right now, in our back yard. There are voices in Washington demanding an explanation, but the "Automotive Task Force" has released no information to the public or to any of the senators demanding answers for what has been done.

Keep your ear to the ground for more on this story. If you've ever wanted to make a difference about anything in your life, get on the phone to your national senator or representative in the House and demand an investigation into this.

Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said, "All that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

An amazing thing happened as this story was going to press. Obama's Car Czar, Steve Rattner, resigned on July 13 and was promptly replaced by former steel workers union boss Ron Bloom.

According to CBS News, Rattner left "to return to private life and spend time with his family."

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said, "I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future."

By the way, Rattner is under investigation for a multi-million dollar pay-to-play investment bank scandal in New York ....

Uh-oh! But, we're certain that had nothing to do with his resignation. And, according to several news sources out there, there are rumors he's being investigated for what could be pay-to-play scandal involving the closing of Chrysler and GM dealerships. Really? Again, that couldn't have anything to with his resignation -- that's ridiculous! Like CBS said, this guy just wants to "spend more quality time with his family."

Obama has 32 personally appointed "czars" who answer to no one but him, all of whom are acting without any Constitutional authority.

But hey, we're sure they all have "unique skills"......as Tim Geithner likes to say!

SOOOOO. HOW'S THE HOPE/CHANGE WORKING FOR YOU?..

This goes beyond corruption in high places - to gross criminal actions on the part of our government!

I hope you will spread this far and wide, and hopefully the taxpaying public will demand some of that transparency we were promised ... followed by criminal prosecution of the perpetrators!

What a crooked government we have!!!!! Vote 'em all out ... November, 2012
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Despicable if true? Anyone find any sources that liberal friends and family could not reject outright?

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of our times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment

Bin Laden Is Dead And GM Is Alive...But Just Barely and Other Bailout Blunders

One of the campaign slogans coming out of the Obama camp is that "Bin Laden Is Dead and GM is Alive" which tries to show the Obama administration's success both domestically and overseas. Bin Laden is indeed dead, the work of thousands of American citizens and military personnel that spanned the time from before to during the Obama administration. In other words, America finally killed Bin Laden, Obama was present and able to give the order that culminated the work of many, but America finished him off, not Obama.

As far as General Motors being alive, that is debatable, especially relative to the money owed to the American taxpayer, courtesy of Obama's bailout of the company. Let's recap the history of this ill fated bailout. When a company gets into financial trouble, it usually goes through the tried and true  bankruptcy proceedings that exist in this country in order to do some or all of the following:

• Void distribution contracts with existing dealers and resellers of that company's products and services.
• Void labor contracts that exist between the company and its employees.
• Restructure debt with existing bond holders and stock holders.
• Sell off divisions or shut down unprofitable divisions.
• Look to restructure or default on existing debt obligations to suppliers, vendors, etc.

Companies go through this type of thing all the time, no big deal and no government intervention required, just a judicial proceeding. However, in order to preserve some level of loyalty with Obama's labor interests, his administration unnecessarily stuck itself in the middle of what should have been a typical bankruptcy proceeding and, at last count, had not seen the return of about $25 billion worth of taxpayer bailout money that went to GM as a result of this unnecessary government intervention.

Now, some defenders of this intervention and ill use of taxpayer wealth will claim that Obama saved the car industry in this country. No, he saved some union votes. Let's illustrate via an example: in normal times, I believe the annual market for cars and small trucks in this country is about 16 million vehicles. I also recall that GM's market share of this market is about 25%.

Question: if GM went out of business, how big would the domestic car market be in this country? If you said 12 million vehicles, 16 million less GM's 25% share, you would be wrong. The size of the domestic car and small truck market would still be about 16 million vehicles. The 25% share that GM claims now would be taken up by Ford, Honda, Nissan, etc. Thus, the market would be about the same size but GM would not be a part of it. That is the fallacy in his argument.

But even if the Obama administration had stayed out of the GM bankruptcy proceedings and saved billions of taxpayer dollars, there would still be a GM today. GM might have restructured differently, GM might be smaller than it is today, GM's unions may not have gotten such a sweet deal, but GM and the domestic car market would still exist and those jobs that go into making the 16 million cars a year would still exist. They might exist at Ford, they might exist in a domestic factory of a foreign car maker, they might exist at a slimmed down GM but they would exist.

This is a long winded way of saying that the risking of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars via this bailout was insanity, especially when you look at the numbers today. According to a Huffington Post article from earlier this year,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/bailout-taxpayers_n_1233374.html,

General Motors still owes the American taxpayer about $25 billion. Although this article is a little on the old side (about five months old), I could find no more recent credible source that indicated that GM had paid back any of this debt since then. So let's go with the Huffington piece as the reality of today. As of the close of the stock market yesterday (August 2, 2012), the market value of General Motors (number of stock shares times the stock price) was about $30 billion.

If the market capitalization or value of the entire GM operation is now valued at about $30 billion, about 83% of that value would have to be used to pay back the $25 billion owed to American taxpayers.  Thus, the Obama administration has gotten us into a very bad financial situation if our debt load is more than 80% of the company's ENTIRE value. The chances of that $25 billion ever being repaid is almost zero.

That near zero possibility was laid out in the Huffington article. The writer asserts that the stock price of GM stock would have to get to almost $54 a share for the American taxpayer to break even on this investment. Given the track record of the GM stock price (double click on the graph for a larger view):

it is highly unlikely that the $54 stock price is going to be attained any time soon. And unlikely that the taxpayers of this country will get paid back any time soon.

Yes, Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive. But GM is on life support relative to the bad, unnecessary investment the Obama administration made in this company. But this is not surprising, given Solyndra, Beacon, Abound, Spectra, Ecotality, and a myriad of other poor investments his Presidency has made with taxpayer money expended and no value returned.

But let's not stop here, let's move on to other bad investments that have burned though billions of taxpayer dollars for nothing in return. Now, President Obama may not have been the overriding force behind these bad investments like he was on the GM bailout but as Senator and then President, he was in agreement with their ill fated financial principles.

 According to the same Huffington Post article, American Insurance Group (AIG) still owes the American taxpayer about $50 million. But the recent stock performance of AIG put the market value/capitalization value at about $56.2 billion. Thus, AIG's liability to the American taxpayer of $50 billion or so is about 89% of its total market value. Doubtful that AIG will ever be able to pay back the entire $50 billion taxpayer bill if what it owes is a whopping 89% of its market value.

But the damage to taxpayer wealth by the recent and current political class does not stop with these two companies. The Huffington article reports on the testimony of the inspector general of the bailout funds who told Congress that in total, 371 banks still $133 billion and that the funds are unlikely to be paid back any time soon.

Even that amount of taxpayer money would be higher since one hundred thirty-seven banks repaid their bailout money using cash from a separate Treasury-run fund, which obviously was also funded with taxpayer money. If you add in the $189 billion (and counting) of taxpayer wealth that the political class has diverted to salvage the remnants of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you can easily calculate that on average, every American household paid about $3,000 of its own wealth to bailout GM, AIG, Fannie, Freddie, and 371 other banks, a total that is unlikely to decrease any time soon.

Which brings us back to a point we have made many times in this blog with one simple chart. How could the entire political class, Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House, and the entire Federal government (SEC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, HUD, Fannie, Freddie, Senate committees on housing and banking, House committees on housing and banking) been so oblivious to the housing bubble that was occurring over the past ten years and not taken remedial action beforehand to stop the resultant bailouts and wasting of hundreds of billions of dollars (double click on graph for a larger view):

      









How could something so obvious as the bubble on this chart by ignored or not understood by so many people in Washington? Yes, Bin Laden is dead but so is the ability of the Washington political class to think strategically and proficiently, negative traits that always get dumped on the wealth of the American taxpayer.  

Just another reason to implement Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe my Government." Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done." Since most of the people in Congress, and the current resident of the White House, were present when the economic flame out occurred, requiring massive taxpayer bailouts despite advance warning, we have to assume that they were part of the problem and are unlikely to be part of the solution of efficient, competent, and effective government.

Please visit our Presidential website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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 http://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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

DOPES: Democrats Offering Preposterous, Empty Statements, In Their Own Words

Our friend Nancy Pelosi was at it again this past week, with public comments that make you shake your head at their stupidity. This week Ms. Pelosi tried to convince the world that Obama Care was consistent with our  Founding Fathers' dream of creating a nation where "the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" was a central tenet of our democracy (details and her actual statements can be found at http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pelosi-defends-obamacare-using-declaration-of-independence/).

Disregarding the massive and evolving economic fallacies and failures of Obama Care, this position seems to also fail on every dimension of our Founding Fathers' intentions:

• Life - Obama Care will set up an independent, unaccountable panel of currently unnamed bureaucrats that will determine what treatments Medicare will and will not fund for senior citizens. The potential for these 15 people to focus only on costs and not life could very easily result in the so-called "death panel" mentality that many of us worried about in the past. Thus, surrendering your ability to choose what treatments you want and may need later in life, just to hit an overall Medicare cost target, is potentially dangerous to your life.
• Liberty - forcing any American to purchase a product or service, like Obama Care does in its requirement that every American purchase health care insurance, is not consistent with the Founding Fathers' concept of liberty. Forcing any American or American organization to forego their religious freedom and freedom of speech, like Obama Care does to Catholic religious organizations with regard to birth control, is not consistent with our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Whenever the words government and force are used in the same sentence, freedom usually suffers.
• Pursuit Of Happiness - Obama Care is written so poorly that it could have serious financial implications on Americans' decisions when it comes to marriage, retirement, health care availability, and other life changing situations. The "pursuit of happiness" in this country should not be driven by a massive government bureaucracy's rules and regulations.

But such preposterous, empty statements should not be unexpected from Ms. Pelosi. Recall during the Obama Care debate how she boldly explained how "we need to pass the bill [Obama Care] so you find out what is in it." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To). This is the Speaker of The House, one of the most powerful and influential people in the country, telling the American public that the legislation has to be enacted BEFORE we know what is in it.

This statement left me with the impression that not only should the bill be passed so that Americans could see what is in it but it needed to be passed so that those in Congress could actually see what was in a 2,500 page piece of legislative monstrosity. Very scary stuff that our elected representatives need to pass legislation before they can explain it to their constituents.

But scary statements from our political class are not confined to Ms. Pelosi. Numerous times over the past few years, Democratic politicians have gone on record with some of the most preposterous, empty, inane, and just plain stupid statements and positions imaginable. It makes you wonder how did out political processes get so broken that we ended up with the current set of Washington politicians and their less than stellar views and abilities.

Staying with Obama Care, consider the words of Congressman John Conyers explaining why he did not bother reading the legislation before he voted on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbwND52rrw

His arrogance, and ignorance, is quite unbelievable. What else do members of Congress do in Washington except to research, write, READ, and vote on legislation? One would have hoped that READING any legislation BEFORE voting on that legislation would be a basic requirement of the job. Given how poorly Obama Care is turning out, this condescending attitude of Conyers and probably many other members of congress is not surprising, as is the many failures of the Obama Care legislation that they did not read.

If you think it is unbelievable that a long term Congressman finds it below himself to read a major piece of legislation that will impact most Americans, consider the lack of understanding that Congressman Hank Johnson has on geology. The following video is real, it was not a joke or a mock up fake.

The Congressman, speaking at a Congressional hearing concerning the U.S. Navy's presence on the island of Guam, actually worries that the island of Guam could tip over if too many more Navy resources are stationed on it. Yes, that is a correct statement, you cannot make this stuff up, as the Congressman explains his concern of the island tipping over in the middle of the Pacific Ocean:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=congressman+htnks+guam+could+tip+over&view=detail&mid=C7FF551F39BE3D728B81C7FF551F39BE3D728B81&first=0&qpvt=congressman+htnks+guam+could+tip+over


 If you look at the expression on the admiral's face, you can see that he is trying to figure out if the Congressman's concerns are real or this is a Candid Camera-like stunt. The sad part of this affair, is that it is my understanding that this Congressman actually got reelected even though he obviously is very out of touch with reality and the basic tenets of geology. Again, you cannot make this stuff up when it comes to dopey political class statements.

Sometimes the timing of politicians' statements make them look dopey. Case in point: in late February, 2012 President Obama gave a speech where he talked glowingly about sitting in a Chevy Volt, GM's highly touted electric car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOoUwJV8WY8

Seems he really likes the car, if only to help justify wasting tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to bail out GM.

The bad part for the President is that within days after he made these complimentary comments about the Volt, GM decided to shut down production of the car, likely due to fire problems and the fact that most other people in America had decided against buying the car, it is a dud. Sort of makes the President look out of touch with reality. One would have thought his press and PR people would have been sure that the Volt was going to continue to be made BEFORE the President went on about how great the car is three days or so before production was halted.

This would have been the equivalent of President Eisenhower extolling the virtues of Ford's Edsel just days before Ford cancelled its production. The word "Edsel" has gone on to become synonymous with failure, a potential fate of the Volt and what turned out to be a dopey Presidential statement.

Moving on, let's talk about the failed attempt to pass a massive cap and trade energy bill a few years ago that would have been a disaster for the American economy and consumer without solving either the global warming or energy problems. The chairman of the committee writing the bill at the time was Congressman Henry Waxman. Waxman was one of the main sponsors and primary writers of the legislation.

However, much like John Conyers admitting that he had not read the Obama Care legislation, in the following clip we find out that Waxman had not read his OWN piece of legislation when he seems stunned that something was in the proposed law that he did not know about, requiring him to turn to his legal advisor for clarification:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3zIoiJc3Xc

Again, one would think that a veteran Congressman like Waxman would know what is actually in a piece of legislation he supposedly wrote. Unbelievable, what do these people do with their time and our money while in office if they do not write or read their proposed new laws?

Let's talk about my home state of new Jersey. There had been Federal plans to built a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan to help make it easier for commuters and visitors to get into New York City from New Jersey and would theoretically produce a lot of construction and permanent jobs for the state.


However, despite getting a lot of Federal funding for the project, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie killed the project, citing escalating construction costs that would have been the responsibility of the state's taxpayers. According to an Associated Press article at the time, the project's cost started at $5 billion in 2005 and grew to $8.7 billion by 2008.


By 2010, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff has made public statements that put the price tag between $9 billion and $10 billion. Christie said his advisers put the costs at $11 billion to $14 billion. Thus, within five years, the projected cost had grown between two and three times what the original cost estimate had been, BEFORE substantial work had even begun. This process is reminiscent of Boston's "Big Dig" transportation project where the initial cost had been a mere $2 billion or so but the final cost had been well over $20 billion.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. viewed Christie’s cancellation of the project as “one of the biggest policy blunders in New Jersey’s history.”  Lautenberg had helped secure federal funding for the project. However, according to the AP report, his dopey statement followed when "Lautenberg acknowledged that cost overruns on a project of the tunnel’s size were inevitable, but said Christie’s numbers are inflated."


Think about how stupid that view is: cost overruns are inevitable. Why, then, should a taxpayer trust any politicians' estimate of a major program when the chance of taxpayers paying more for what they sign up for is "inevitable?" Even if you believe this, why would a politician openly state that we cannot believe what they tell us a project or program will intially cost?


When it comes to joe Biden we could probably devote several days of posts to his dopey statements. My favorite is when he talks about leadership and how FDR was a leader when he went on television to explain why the stock market crashed in 1929:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jf17Yo7hBM


Two problems here from this leader. First, FDR was not President of the United States when the stock market crashed in 1929. Second, television did not exist in 1929, no one in the country owned a TV, they all owned radios. Makes you feel kind of uneasy that the second in line to lead this country is so ignorant when it comes to our country's history.

Again, we could go on and on about dopey statements form the Vice president. Many of these include dropping the f-bomb in public, certainly not a very mature or leadership-like trait to have. If you access the above YouTube link to see his FDR/television comment, you should be able to access other inane comments from the Vice President.

However, the queen of all dopey statements from the political class has to be Nancy Pelosi. Consider:

1) According to Ms. Pelosi's understanding of basic economic theory, the more people that are unemployed in this country and the more people that collect unemployment benefits, the more jobs will be created. Thus, in her world, if everyone was unemployed, more and more jobs would be created. But everyone would be unemployed so who would fill the newly created jobs? Dopey economic reasoning certainly not of this world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdAj8zui6ss&feature=related

2) The former Speaker also believes that food stamps are a better economic stimulus than tax cuts. Thus, why not give everyone food stamps, not just the unemployed, doesn't it seem to reason that the economy would be so much better off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omxQuDtF1ZM&feature=related


3) Ms. Pelosi was so funny when she said that she would not allow any extraneous or nonessential programs to be loaded onto the economic stimulus legislation. Either she was not able to attain that objective or she considers funding research of insects on an island off the coast of Africa as essential for job creation, she considers replacing windows in a closed and extinct visitor's center at Mt. Saint Helen's essential for job creation, she considers the replacing of windows in a Wyoming Catholic church as essential for job creation (I never knew window replacement could be such a great economic stimulus), and she considers replacing a heating system in an Indiana Methodist church as essential for job creation, etc. You get the message. It was a ludicrous statement to make, given the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste that unfolded from the stimulus program:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwMHH2ONtbw&feature=related


4) In Ms. Pelosi's world, the counting system is entirely different, if you believe her numbers. In the following YouTube clip, the frantic Speaker boldly states that every week, 500 million more Americans lose their jobs. In our world, there are only about 310 million total Americans in the country, including kids and infants, making it impossible for 500 million Americans to lose their jobs in one week, never mind many weeks. However, in her world, the counting process must be different in order to count 500 million job losses a week.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UR5M5teyQ0


If people like these Democrats did not have such wide control over our lives, our freedoms and our wealth, they would be prime material for a Comedy Central sitcom show. Unfortunately, they have way too much control. Maybe that is why the country is in such sad shape.


When our so-called leaders from the Democratic Party do not know how to count, they do not know basic facts about our nation's history, the f-bomb is a normal part of their everyday vocabulary, they do not read the laws the enact, they endorse products that the rest of the country knows are modern day Edsels, they have bizarre and inaccurate understandings of basic economics and basic geology, and most importantly, do not even realize how dopey their statements are, it should not surprise us that the economy is in shatters, the country is divided, and major problems go unresolved for decades.


In light of these statements from Democrats in Washington, the case for Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" has never stronger.  Step 39 would impose strict term limits on any politician running for national office. Allowing these long term politicians to stay in office (Biden, Pelosi, Conyers, Waxman, etc.) results in not only these dopey statements but their dopey non-solutions to our problems. How much dopier could it be if we required term limits on all Washington politicians? (please visit the following site to actually sign a petition in favor of term limits for all Federal politicians: http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/united_states_of_purple_015.htm)


Note: I would be happy to do a ROPES post in the future where it covered Republicans Offering Preposterous, Empty Statements if enough episodes of Republican dopiness are identified. However, dopey statements from people such as Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney would not be included since these people have no impact on our lives anymore, unlike Pelosi, Obama, Conyers, Johnson, Waxman, and Biden.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

The Relationship Between President Obama, Democrats, And General Electric - Political Incest or Coincidence?

Several articles and revelations over the past few months have raised a curious relationship between President Obama, Democratic politicians, and General Electric. It could all be a coincidence, but it also could be a classic example of the cozy relationship between powerful interests in business and government getting together. Woodrow Wilson recognized this type of incestuous political relationship almost one hundred years ago: "The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of bosses and their employees, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy."

Did Wilson get it right? You decide, coincidence or political incest:

- Before going into the first point, remember that the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress from 2007 through 2010 and controlled the White House for the past two and a half years. Thus, no one can totally blame Bush for the following situations.

A few months ago news reports were all a flutter when it was revealed that General Electric had over $14 billion in worldwide profits and over $5.1 billion in domestic earnings in 2010 but had not paid any Federal income taxes. In fact, not only did GE not pay any income taxes, the Federal government, via the income tax laws and process, actually gave GE a $3.2 billion dollar tax refund. This happened when Democrats were in charge of just about any function of government.

The Democrats almost made GE pay some taxes. "Active Financing" is when a company like GE makes a loan overseas and generates interest income. Under current tax laws, all of that revenue is tax free. A few years ago, Congress was looking to close this loophole, an action that was supported by Charles Rangel, then the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee. His committee had the primary responsibility for writing and revising the tax code.

One day, Rangel was fully supportive of closing the loophole and forcing overseas American financing companies to pay taxes on the active financing revenue. However, almost overnight, Rangel reversed his position and as chairman of the committee was able to block any attempt to close the loophole, a loophole that would have generated billions of dollars a year for the Treasury. Turns out a GE foundation shortly afterwards donated $30 million to New York City schools, of which $11 million went to schools in Charles Rangel's Congressional district.

Thus, GE avoids possibly billions in taxes over the years while Democrat Rangel gets a one time gift worth only millions for his district. Coincidence or incest?

- It is no secret that the economic policies of this administration and the Democratic Party controlled Congress have been a disaster. High unemployment persists, private sector  job growth is anemic, economic growth is low, and the national debt skyrockets. The President is desperate to find a way to generate job growth. What does he do?

He calls Jeff Immelt, currently the CEO of General Electric and appoints him chairman of the newly formed Presidential Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, a group given the task of generating ideas for job growth. Shortly thereafter, rumors start in Washington that Immelt is going to leave General Electric and take a high ranking job with the Obama administration. Incest or coincidence?

- In an article written by Charles Kadiec of Forbes, which was summarized in the May 20, 2011 issue of The Week magazine, we find another Obama/GE tryst. The article was titled "Obama Can't Hide His Lust For Power." According to Mr. Kadiec, Jeff Immelt of CEO of General Electric (you remember him from above), was a major contributor to Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign. He was also one of the first American CEOs to ask the administration for a financial bailout from TARP.


However, while the administration capped executive bonuses at other financial institutions and companies that received TARP bail out funds, the Obama administration placed no such limits on GE's executive compensation processes. Incest or coincidence?


- The next example comes from the March 16, 2011 issue of Forbes magazine. In an article titled, "Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors - Who Is Going To buy All These Cars" and it was written by Patrick Michaels. Mr. Michaels was not too kind in his review of the Volt concept, General Motors' all electric car:

• The Volt will cost over $40,000 so GM successfully lobbied the administration and the political class to give Volt buyers a $7,500 federal rebate for buying a GM Volt.
• A Volt model failed to start when it was to be demonstrated at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, not a good start.
• The expected mileage using a fully charged Volt battery had been continuously revised downward, so much now that it is expected to have only a 25 to 50 mile range on electric power only.
• Consumer Reports ran a series of tests on the Volt and they estimated that the electric motor range is only 25 miles or so and it gets that much only because the Volt heating system is especially weak since running the heater drains the battery even quicker. The article questions how much lower the mileage will go in hot weather and the car's air conditioning system is working.
• The Volt requires premium fuel so any gas savings from using the electric motor is at least partially offset by the more expensive use of premium gas.
• The Volt has been billed as an electric car that has a small gas motor that kicks in when the electric battery runs out of power. However, according to the article, the premium gas engine also kicks in when the vehicle travels at highway speeds. Thus, the Volt is really not a revolutionary electric car, it is a hybrid car. Nothing special, considering the many other hybrid cars on the market that sell for much less and get nowhere near as much taxpayer subsidy.
• GM has announced that they will produce 100,000 Volts in the next two years but in the three months preceding this Forbes article, only 928 Volts had been sold in total.

This is a major embarrassment not only to GM but also to the Obama administration who has been a big advocate of electric cars. If the Volt fails and tens of thousands of Volts are not sold, it will seriously damage the Obama administration's goal of getting a million electric cars on the roads of America within a few years. It will not look good if the primary driver of this goal, the Volt, has unwanted vehicles sitting in GM's parking lots.


However, not to worry. According to the article, General Electric has committed to buying 50,000 Volts in the next two years, seriously reducing the possibility that Volts will go unsold in the short term. Almost everybody wins in this case. General Motors is happy to sell a poorly performing auto. President Obama is happy because it falsely looks like he is greening the country. General Electric is happy because President Obama is happy.


The only people that are not happy are U.S. taxpayers. If GE actually buys the 50,000 Volts, the U.S. government will  be paying GE $375,000,000 of taxpayer money via the Volt rebate program that GM lobbied so hard for. Thus, not only did GE not pay any income taxes in 2010 and received a $3.2 billion Federal income tax credit, they will also get another $375 million in this Volt deal while continuing to cozy up to the Obama administration. Incest or coincidence?


- Why might GE want to continue to cozy up to the Obama administration? GE is one of the largest wind energy turbine manufacturers in the world. What if somewhere in the near future, the political class decided to give tax breaks to companies that invest in alternative energy sources, say wind? Incest of coincidence?


Pretty sad stuff. U.S. taxpayers suffer while political favors are bought and paid for. That is why Step 6 from "Love  My Country, Loathe My Government" is so important. It would allow only individual citizens to contribute to political campaigns. Corporations like GE, unions, PACs, etc. would not be allowed to contribute to campaigns. In this world, politicians would be much more likely to act for the good of the country and not the good of their next election campaign. Taxpayer money would not be wasted on projects that benefit only the political class and the unions and businesses that fund our politicians.


Until Step 6 is implemented, we will likely see more and more political incest than we see sheer coincidence.




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 http://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.loathemygovernment.com
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com

Almost A Good Idea

Although it does not happen often, a member of the political class sometimes has a good idea and it should be recognized. It has come to my attention recently that Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander recently proposed a bill that demonstrated some real outside of the box thinking and would have done a little good in restoring some freedom to this country's citizens. As you all know, the Federal government took over $60 billion of our taxpayer money and used it to bailout GM and Chrysler. In a previous blog we discussed this insanity in detail and how it was a total waste of our hard earned dollars. The result of this bailout and the accompanying bankruptcy proceedings has left the Federal government with about 60% ownership of GM.

Senator Alexander's idea is very simple: given that the American taxpayers paid for this bailout, the American taxpayer should own the 60% via a GM company stock distribution process, i.e. all of us who paid for the bailout would own stock in the new GM. Seems only fair, we paid for it, we should own it. Unfortunately, his proposal was defeated in the Senate. Apparently, the political class wants to hold onto the power of ownership even though they had nothing to do with financing the bailout.

Distributing shares to Americans would have a number of advantages:

1. First, it is only fair since we paid for it (the government did not pay for it, it just took our tax dollars and bought the companies). Our dollars, it should be our reward if the stock actually is worth anything in the future.
2. Second, being owned by many, many Americans would force GM management to be solely focused on running the company efficiently and profitably for the shareholders and not have to worry about the political class interfering in that drive for profitability by having the executives of GM and Chrysler scurrying off to Washington every time some vain politician wants to get his or her name in the paper. The company executives would be accountable to the shareholders, all Americans, and not the whims of the political class.
3. Third, do not think for a minute that the political class will not interfere with company activities. Consider two quotes from Obama in the SAME press conference regarding government ownership of GM as reported on Earthlink's news page on June 1, 2009:

• " What I am not saying, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM." He want on to say that auto executives "will call and make the decisions about turning the company around."
• Later in the press conference he said, "looking ahead, GM will be prodded at every juncture by the administration's top officials"."

HUH? In the same breathe he says he does not want to run GM and the executives will make the decisions and that GM will be prodded at every juncture. Makes no sense. You can bet that this administration will meddle in the ongoing efforts of GM, advocating and pressing its position for GM to make small, fuel efficient cars. Unfortunately, a whole lot of America does not want small, fuel efficient cars. Thus, in short order GM will fail again because it did not listen to the needs of the market (first time because of its own shortsightedness and second time because of political class dictates that were not consistent with market needs ands desires) and our billions of tax dollars spent on the bailouts will be wasted.

Nice try Senator Alexander, you gave it a shot for freedom, fairness, and sanity, too bad the rest of your cohorts did not see it that way.