October, 2023, Political Class Insanity, Part 2: Homeless In Denver, Carjacking A Member of Congress, Overdosing In Alaska, and More

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country. 

Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.

1)We have often discussed the reality and embarrassment that the richest country in the history of the world usually has about 600,000 homeless citizens living on the streets of the country at any one time. While Washington continues to send hundreds of billions of dollars overseas on failed foreign aid efforts, Americans are living on the sidewalk or in their cars.

Most of the time we have focused on the ever growing homeless population in big cities especially San Francisco and  Los Angeles. But the homeless problem is also in other big cities:

• Denver is not immune to the homeless crisis.

• The city has an estimated 7,000 homeless residents living outside on the streets of the city.

• This gets Denver into the top ten cities from a homeless population perspective.

• This has resulted in open air drug use and public defecation and urination problems from the 7,000 homeless folks, endangering the health of all city residents.

• It has also damaged the business prospects of  city businesses since customers are now thinking twice about walking the city streets.

The city mayor recently declared homelessness as a public emergency and proposed a $50 million program to provide temporary housing for 1,000 of those 7,000 people. And while it is nice that he is trying to do the right thing, his plan does not make a lot of sense:

• The $50 million for 1,000 people means that the mayor is proposing spending a whopping $50,000 for EACH of those 1,000 people in the city housing efforts.

• Consider the reality that the national average cost of a hotel  room is about $150 a night.

• Thus, theoretically, that $50 million could house each of the 1,000 homeless folks in an  average hotel for 11 months.

• If you double up the number of homeless living in each hotel room, the $50 million could provide very comfortable housing for almost two years.

It is doubtful that the city politicians would provide as nice quarters for as long a period of time as this hotel model but as always the easy, cheaper, better way is never the path politicians take. And do  not forget, that $50 million only takes care of 1,000 homeless folks, there would still be  6,000 others still on the streets. Thus, the homeless situation will continue, be it in California or Colorado.

2) And while the 7,000 homeless folks continue to live on the streets, Biden has been handing out over $100,000,000,000 to the Ukrainian government to fight the Russian invaders. Or has that money not all been used for this alleged purpose:

• A recent “60 Minutes” report found that American taxpayer money is also being used by the Ukranaians to buy seed and fertilizer for their farmers, not American farmers.

• Also, American taxpayer money is being used by the Ukranians to pay all of their 57,000 first responders, not American first responders.

• American taxpayer money is being used to subsidize Ukrainian small businesses, not American small businesses.

I have no problem helping out others in need for a short amount of time as long as there is a plan to make sure it is a short time. But Biden has not even tried to work with the two sides to end this war, has not even been in contact with Putin. And it is my understanding that Biden’ Secretary of State has had exactly ONE meeting with Russia’s foreign minister. Enough is enough, this war has turned into a bottomless pit, sucking down American taxpayer money while we cannot even give shelter to 7,000 homeless Americans in Denver. Horrible priorities.

Or as Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested:  "Modest suggestion: Let’s support farmers, small businesses, and first responders in our own country instead." 

3)Auron MacIntyre apparently is the host of BlazeTV. I think he had one of the best lines and observations ever when it comes to Washington giving out billions and  billions of dollars in foreign aid every year, whether it is going to an endless war in Ukraine, terrorists in the Gaza strip, gender studies in the Middle East, pottery classes in Morocco, etc. when he observed: "You [the American taxpayer] don’t live in a country, you live in a tax farm for a global empire."

4)We have often talked about the drug overdose death epidemic that is happening right now across the country. Since Biden’s border policies have practically made border security non-existent, the amount  of illegal drugs (e.g. fentanyl, cocaine, tranq, etc.) flowing into this country has been unprecedented. We predict that when the latest annual drug overdose death tallies are released by the Federal government the increase in the fatality rate because of his border policies will be astronomical.

Unfortunately, this plague of Mexican drug cartel supported wave of illegal drugs has reached its ugly tentacles all the way up to Alaska, far, far away from our southern border:

• The cartels drop their illegal  drug shipments in major cities in the state such as Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks and from there their networks take the drugs out into the remote areas of the state for sale.

• In 2021, the number of Alaskan drug overdose deaths went up 75% in one year.

• The 75% is the highest increase in drug overdose deaths in all 50 states.

• According to FBI agent Brandon Waddle, “What keeps me up at night is the fact that fentanyl is killing our small, most vulnerable communities. The opioid crisis is attacking us, and we don’t have enough personnel to effectively combat it.”

• In 2021, 253 Alaskans died from drug overdoses and about 76% of those deaths were a result of synthetic narcotics like fentanyl.

Given the rough and spread terrain of the state, catching the purveyors of the cartel’s illegal drugs is difficult. Thus, Biden’s porous and horrible border policies are now having fatal effects all  the way up towards the Arctic Circle.

5)I would never wish harm to any human being who is just going about their lives. Crime and criminal, violent behavior usually does not get picky of who and how they affect regular, law abiding citizens. However, sometimes there is karma in the world that might bring a little smile to one’s face:

• Henry Cueller is a Congressman from Texas.

• Until recently, Cueller was an avid, hard core advocate for the inane, fatal, and downright illogical “defund the police” movement.

• This concept was big in his home away from home, Washington D.C., a city whose politicians were big proponents of the movement which has turned the District into a high crime area.

• Earlier this month, Cueller was a victim of a carjacking while parking his car near his apartment building.

• He was accosted by three armed gentlemen who stole his car at gunpoint.

• In the past he supported the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” and voted several  times to support legislation that would have reduced funding for police departments.

• Fortunately, he was not harmed and his car, but not the culprits, was found a little while after the carjacking.

• As a result of the city’s politicians weak stance on crime and its defund mania, carjacking in the District now averages about two a day compared to one every three days a few short years ago.

• Total carjackings in both the District and surrounding areas were over 1,000 in 2022 compared to 200 in 2018.

• And the D.C. area including the District has become a hotbed of violence since armed robberies are up 95% this year and carjackings are up 57%, all of which has happened while 1,400 police officers have quit their area jobs since 2020.

• Local enforcement agencies have blamed local politicians for their antagonistic attitudes and defunding of police agencies for so many officers leaving the profession..

Again, glad he is safe and he got his car back. But just another example where politicians were quick to jump on a slogan, and “defund the police” was no more than that, a slogan. Unfortunately, their actions resulted in many incremental deaths, a fate the Congressman  avoided but many others have  not.

That will  do it for today’s political class insanity: homeless in Denver, American taxpayer wealth continues to be wasted worldwide, the cartels reach Alaska, and defund the police continues to be stupid.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:

https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom

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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:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-My-Country-Loathe-Government/dp/1604942789/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=love+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&qid=1607716020&sr=8-1

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com

http://www.cato.org

http://www.openthebooks.com

http://www.conventionofstates.com

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

 

September, 2015, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science, Part 2: Obama's Alaskan Fallacies and More

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

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

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

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

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) Brandon Griggs, writing for CNN on September 8, 2015, made the serious prediction that rising sea levels as a result of global warming would threaten to flood over NASA launch sites in Florida. In addition, the writer asserted that NASA claimed that 2014 was the hottest year EVER. My goodness, why are we not doing more to combat global warming?!?!

Well, before we do anything, let’s look at some facts, something this writer did not do:

• If most die hard global warming advocates have abandoned that term and have gone to the rebranded term climate change because the reality is that average temperatures around the world have been holding constant for about 18 years, debunking the global warming theory.
• Turns out that the NASA claim was a little premature since NASA eventually came out to admit that they had jumped the gun and that 2014 had only a 38% chance of being the warmest ever.
• Mr. Griggs' own bio describes himself as "specializing in coverage of pop culture, entertainment, technology, travel and lifestyle trends." Yes, we should listen to someone on climate change and global warming who is an expert in “lifestyle trends” and such.

Pathetic, people going crazy about a theory that is falling apart at the seams who has absolutely no credentials at all in the area. A recent article on the Newsbusters website cites data from the Climate Change Dispatch website to further bury Mr. Griggs writings: “We’re analysing the decimal points of the acceleration of a trend that was largely created by adjustments in the first place. Why bother? The raw satellite data showed almost no rise at all from 1992-2002, and was post hoc adjusted up from less than 1mm to 2.3mm/yr (Aviso, 2003). And the raw low rate was skewed high by the El Nino in 1997. These adjusted figures have been used to generate thousands of headlines about how sea levels are rising faster after 1992.”

In other words, nothing to see here from a climate or a lifestyle perspective. Let’s move on Mr. Griggs. Additional discussion points can be seen at:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2015/09/08/cnn-rising-sea-levels-threaten-flood-nasa-launch-sites?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=b-nasa-cnn#sthash.K6luw080.dpuf

2) President Obama was recently in Alaska and did another dog and pony show to try and convince us doubters that we are on the verge of having mankind’s carbon activity destroying the earth’s climate. His specific words include the following:

“Our understanding of climate change advances each day. Human activity is disrupting the climate, in many ways faster than we previously thought. The science is stark. It is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is now very much in the present.

In fact, the Arctic is the leading edge of climate change — our leading indicator of what the entire planet faces. Arctic temperatures are rising about twice as fast as the global average. Over the past 60 years, Alaska has warmed about twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Last year was Alaska’s warmest year on record — just as it was for the rest of the world. And the impacts here are very real.”

But Breitbart reporting took apart the President’s assertions and showed, again, that he is blowing hot air:

• If you look at climate and temperature data from the Federal government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), if Alaska is warming, it is warming at a very, very tiny rate, that the drastic rate the President states:

• However, given that NOAA has a notorious reputation for lack of data integrity and for adjusting raw data for political purposes in order to exaggerate “global warming,” we cannot even trust that this very tiny increase is the truth and reality.
• The Breitbart article looks at another set of data which is the total change in average seasonal and annual temperatures in 19 Alaska geographic areas in Alaska from 1977 through 2014:

• In 14 out of the 19 Alaskan areas, the annual temperatures over the past 37 years have actually gone down, not up, as the President asserted.
• In total, those 14 out of 19 decreases have resulted in the entire state seeing slightly lower temps since 1977.
• The overall state average temperature decrease would have been a lot lower than .1 degrees if you take Barrow out of the calculation since that was the only area in Alaska that saw a significant increase in average temperatures.
• And Barrow’s increase may be because it has grown in population size, resulting in the so-called “Urban Heat Island” effect.

Again, once one actually looks at data rather than trusting what a politician tells you we see that data and reality are almost always in conflict with the lies and deceptions of a politician. 

The President also asserted during his Alaska trip that the Alaskan glaciers are retreating and shrinking, further proof, at least in his mind, that global warming and climate change is proven because of smaller glaciers. But scientists tell us that the glaciers have been shrinking in Alaska since the late 1770s, long before mankind could have had any effect on the size of glaciers.

Oh, one last piece of reality, Mr. President. The warmest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Alaska was 100 degrees in Fort Yukon, Alaska on …...June 27, 1915, long before Al Gore or anyone was advocating for global warming.

Another day of proving that it is perfectly rational, sane, and scientific to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. Whenever we look at real data and real science, we find that global warming and climate change caused by mankind’s carbon activity is either non-existent or far, far smaller than any global warming advocate would advocate, be that person is a President or a lifestyle writer.

September, 2015, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science,Part 3: More Fallacies From Obama's Alaska and More

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

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

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

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

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims.

1) First up today is the story of an EPA global warming expert and employee who managed to bilk the EPA management and American taxpayer out of loads of money while also serving as a global warming expert. A recent Fox News report found that the EPA’s highest paid employee and reputed top expert on climate change was recently sentenced to almost three years in prison.

Why did he go to Federal prison? Apparently he lied to his EPA managers for years by telling them he was a CIA spy working for the CIA and that was why he was not showing up at his EPA job. Besides going to prison he was ordered to pay back $1.3 million to the Federal government. Unbelievably, he pulled off this charade from 2000 until 2014.

He usually disappeared for months at a time on his bogus “spy assignments,” at one time not showing up at the EPA for 18 consecutive months even though the EPA was paying him the whole time. His lawyer said that the liar spent that time exercising and working on his house.

Usually, we would include this type of government disgrace in our monthly political class insanity series. But I include it here to point out how incompetent the EPA is today. Why should any of us trust anything the EPA says relative to the environment or global/warming/climate control when they allowed a renegade employee to run roughshod over them for upwards of fifteen years? With a cover story as phony as being a CIA in Pakistan? 

This guy was supposed to be one of the EPA’s climate change experts. Really? How deeply did they check out his credentials to be an expert since they obviously never thought to check out his CIA credentials by making a simple phone call over to Langley to see if he really was a spy. Insanity.

2) Katie Tubb, writing for the Heritage Foundation, recently discussed some of the holes in logic and strategy after Obama went on his global warming, climate change rampage through Alaska. Her points and realities include the following:

• Less than one third of the nations going to a late 2015 United Nations climate conference have submitted plans to cut carbon output, indicating that most of the world is a global warming doubter or just do not care.
• Obama’s Alaskan talking points were not in line with climate realities as pointed out by a real scientist, Judith Curry, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and not in line with the bogus assertion that there is “climate consensus” since there is not any kind of consensus, regardless of what Obama and Al Gore types state.
• Despite the lack of consensus, Dr. Curry, and others with evidence countering the president’s narrative of an accelerating and catastrophic warming, are labeled by Obama as “critics,” “cynics,” “deniers,” and on “their own shrinking island,” certainly not a scientific or adult approach to getting real answers based on all of the real science.
• This name calling goes on even though the article points out, as we have sourced many times before, that “data of observed reality collected from the U.N.’s International Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. National Climate Data Center does not show increasing frequency of extreme weather across the globe, whether you look at hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, or floods.”
• The article also raises a great point that if Obama is so sure and so precise that mankind is killing the earth’s environment, what will his plans and strategies do to save the world? 
• He yells there is a problem but proposes no quantifiable plan or timeline of objectives to fix the problem that probably does not exist. 
• For example, after wasting tens of billions of dollars given to start up alternative energy companies, all of which failed, none of the Obama administration’s plans did anything to move the needle on U.S. alternative energy usage.

Thus, the President ignores a lot of realities and says we have to do something but does not say what that is, how much it will cost in money and lost economic growth, what the objectives are, when those objectives will be met, etc. In other words,he has no plan, no strategies, and no basis to wreck the economy, just empty rhetoric.

3) One last set of data and realities that show it is okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. A report on the MRCTV website reported on the following realities of climate relative to the President's visit to Alaska:

• In a stroll down an Alaskan trail the President pointed out how an Alaskan glacier had receded from its glacier edge marker in 1951, inferring that the mankind was causing global warming and causing the glacier to recede: "This is as good a signpost of what we're dealing with on climate change as just about anything."
• But the Federal government has reported that this glacier has been receding for over two hundred years, long before global warming was even a theory. The article cites an Alaskan local newspaper article from the a 1910 issue of the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal:

• The map below is from the United States Geological Survey, which shows where that Alaskan glacier is today vs. two hundreds years ago, indicating that it has been receding long before Obama's Alaskan trip: 

• The article also contains an updated chart we have used before that tracks the earth’s overall temperatures and has found that besides year to year random variation, there has been no sign of global warming for more than 18 years:

• Consider a passage from a July, 2015 article in the U.K. Telegraph that reviewed real data from the Arctic, "How Arctic ice has made fools of all those poor warmists:" In recent years there has been more polar ice in the world than at any time since satellite records began in 1979. In the very year they had forecast that the Arctic would be “ice free”, its thickness increased by a third. Polar bear numbers are rising, not falling. Temperatures in Greenland have shown no increase for decades.
• And finally, consider some more measurements and science from Nature Geoscience: “However, we observe 33% and 25% more ice in autumn 2013 and 2014, respectively, relative to the 2010–2012 seasonal mean, which offset earlier losses. This increase was caused by the retention of thick sea ice northwest of Greenland during 2013 which, in turn, was associated with a 5% drop in the number of days on which melting occurred—conditions more typical of the late 1990s. In contrast, springtime Arctic sea ice volume has remained stable." 

That will do it for this month’s update. Lessons to be learned are that there is no climate change consensus among scientists, always look behind what a politician tells you for the real data and the real realities since politicians do not look for truth, they look for spin, and the data does not support the hysteria that Al Gores always want to stir up, insulting doubters in the process. But name calling is not science and the science continues to prove that being a global warming doubter is a sane, rational decision.

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

March, 2015, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: America For Sale To Foreigners, Kindergarten Level Political Discussion, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time once again to review the latest insanity and ineptness from the American political class. We do this review every month to prove our hypothesis that we are currently being served by the worst set of politicians in the history of our country. 

They waste hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth every year, they never resolve any of the major issues facing Americans today, they continually put their foot in their mouth with their idiotic statements and positions, and they operate government functions that are bloated and ineffective in delivering quality service to taxpayers. And worse of all, they have rigged the country’s elections processes so that their election and subsequent re-elections are almost guaranteed to ensure their mediocrity continues. 

To review the past examples of political class insanity just type in “political class insanity” in the search box above.

So lets get started on what is becoming a multi-day review of their latest incompetence and insanity:

1) One would hope that those serving in Congress would be high in integrity, mature, and unifying influences in order to get some of the major issues of our time resolved. One could hope but as always that would be a false reality. Recently, House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer were arguing over the scheduling of votes to be taken in the House. 

After Hoyer criticized Republicans for leaving Homeland Security "twisting in the wind" McCarthy reclaimed his time on the floor from Hoyer immediately and said the voting schedule would proceed as planned: "This House has taken action to make sure the DHS is fully funded … We did our part and I yield back," McCarthy said, before walking away to continue voting.

In pure kindergarten style, Hoyer yelled at McCarthy: "You coward," which C-SPAN was able to get on its live broadcast. Oh yeah, calling a political opponent a coward over a simple scheduling disagreement is not likely to result in a civil and adult conversation on how to resolve any issue.

The Washington Post reported that Katie Grant, a Hoyer spokeswoman, said her boss apologized to McCarthy for the remark, who accepted it. McCarthy's office declined to comment. Any doubt why nothing ever gets accomplished in Congress when they go around calling each other cowards? 

2) John Podesta is a political operative that has been doing jobs for politicians for a long time, especially jobs that involved the Clintons and Barack Obama. As a result of playing in political circles, he now finds himself in the middle of a conflict of interest situation.

In 2013, Podesta was paid $87,000 by a reclusive foreign billionaire who is actively working to prevent oil and energy exploration on American land. Today, Podesta is a member of Obama’s staff and is working hard to help the White House block oil exploration on 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This arrangement may have caused Podesta to run afoul of Obama’s high minded but oft broken election promise to force political appointees to disqualify themselves in matters relating to the interests of a former client or employer.

How Podesta does not fall into this conflict is hard to justify since he was hired and paid by Hansjorg Wyss in 2013 just before he got hired by Obama. Wyss is apparently passionate about protecting American public lands from oil and gas drilling. Additionally, Wyss has been a generous donor to Podesta’s Center for American Progress (CAP), having given $4 million to the group during Podesta’s tenure, according to organization's tax documents and filings. Conversely, Podesta has returned the $4 million favor by giving Wyss a seat on CAP’s board. 

All kinds of insanity here. Possible violation of Federal ethics rules. Conflict with another empty Obama promise to clean up the influence of outside interests in government. And worse of all, a foreigner trying to manipulate and influence U.S. policy and actions via the use of money and influence peddling. Another Presidency, but the same old money buying influences of the rich and powerful at the expense of Americans.

3) Six years ago or so, Joe Biden made a fool of himself in an interview with Katie Couric. He boldly stated on video that when the Depression started, FDR went on television to reassure the country that everything would turn out alright. Problem is that 1) FDR was not President when the Depression started in 1929 and 2) television did not exist as a communications medium in 1929. This is the type of people that are serving us in Washington, people that either have no clue about our nation’s history or who are willing to manipulate facts to their advantage even if it is a lie or deception.

Well, his boss recently did the same thing, either being ignorant of American history or manipulating it to his own advantage. During a recent live interview on NBC, President Obama claimed that he is the first President to “make some booze” in the White House since George Washington. Unfortunately, George Washington never lived in the White House during his Presidency and thus,never made booze there. Another lie from this President or just plain ignorance? Neither is an attractive trait in a President or any politician.

4) Politicians do not often do the right thing but when they do, we like to acknowledge their behavior. Such is the case of legislation recently introduced in the House by Congressmen Ron DeSantis and Trey Gowdy. 

The legislation is named the “End Pensions in Congress Act” and it will do exactly what it says: end the generous pensions for those who retire from Congress. 

Given that very few Americans still get traditional pensions from their places of employment, it seems only right that members of Congress, many of whom are millionaires several times over, also share the same fate: forced to save via retirement accounts vs. getting traditional pensions benefits, especially since those pensions are funded by taxpayers who in all likelihood do not have the same option in their lives.

And these Congressional pensions are not cheap for taxpayers to fund. According to the Congressional Research Service, as an elected U.S. Senator or Representative, one can get a Congressional pension after serving only five years once you reach the age of 62. If you were elected to Congress at a young age and put in at least 20 years, you become eligible for a pension at age 50. This has resulted in 617 retired members of Congress receiving annual Federal pensions ranging from roughly $42,000 to $72,000.

So many things wrong with this situation relative to the rest of us:

• Most of us cannot even get a traditional pension, never mind one as rich as these Congressional ones.
• For the few non-politicians that do have traditional pensions, most are probably no where near as lucrative as Congressional pensions relative to the length of time needed to qualify and and receive a pension and the value of that pension.
• These people qualify for these Congressional pensions even though they earned over three times the annual median income of the average American family while in office.

High Congressional salaries while in office, rich pensions at an early age when out of office, insanity. Fortunately, some members of Congress actually recognize the unfairness of such an arrangement:

Congressman Thomas Massie: “If congressmen want to save for retirement, they should do so with 401K-type plans, rather than rely on taxpayers to take care of them even after leaving Congress. To tackle out-of-control federal spending, Congress must lead by example.”

Congressman Ron DeSantis: “The Founding Fathers envisioned elected officials as part of a servant class, yet Washington, D.C. has evolved into a ruling class culture. Pensions for members of Congress represent an inappropriate use of taxpayer money.”

This legislation was specifically mentioned in Step 9 in our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” which called for the end of not only Congressional pensions but all Federal employee pensions. We would go two steps further than this legislation with the following steps, also from “Love My Country , Loathe My Government:”

1. Step 41 would not allow any member of Congress who has a net worth of over $3 million to receive a salary while in office. As Congressman Desantis points out above, those serving in Congress should be serving for love of country, not personal greed and enrichment. If you are a person like Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who is worth tens of millions of dollars, you would not receive a salary under Step 41. That money should go back into the Treasury for the betterment of the country, not pocket change for political millionaires.
2. Step 39 would impose term limits on all Washington politicians, one and done. Thus, under a term limits political process, no one would ever be in office long enough to qualify for a Congressional pension.

Passage of a legislation like this, and Steps 39 and 41, would go a long way to restoring lost faith in the Washington political class. We wish DeSantis and Gowdy good luck in their endeavor to force Washington politicians to once again become a serving class and not a ruling class.

That will do it for today’s insanity but we are far from done on discussing the political class insanity we have had to suffer through over the past month or so. Today we learned that:

• Washington political discussion and debate has degenerated into kindergarten level name calling.
• Despite Obama's promises, Washington is still for sale to the highest bidders including foreign billionaire bidders.
• Biden and Obama are either grossly ignorant of American history despite their advanced degrees or they manipulate facts to serve their needs.
• For a bit of good news, at least two Washington politicians are trying to go back to the past when politicians were public servants and not political royalty.

So many ways to screw up the country and our freedoms and we still have more insanity to follow in the next few days.

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.loathemygovernmobama,washington post,politifactent.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Sinkhole States vs. Sunshine States - You Decide

In a previous post, within our ongoing “by the numbers theme,” we explored a bunch of numbers as they applied to ten states. Five of those states were nicknamed “Sinkhole States” since they were being overcome with state government debt that was turning the states’ finances and the financial future of those state residents into sinkholes.

The second set of five states were nicknamed ‘Sunshine States” since their state government had either a budget surplus or a very small, manageable debt load that wouldn’t be a financial burden to future residents of those states. Thus, while the first five states were mostly likely to get lost in a sink hole of debt within the fifty states, the Sunshine States were mostly likely to be basking in sunshine, given their better fiscal skills.

We extended that distinction in that post to look at other numbers of those ten states including maximum state income tax rates, unemployment rates, and buying power of residents within each state. Our findings were often dramatic and indicative of what government should do and not do:

• Sinkhole states had much higher debt levels than Sunshine states.
• Tax rates in Sinkhole states were higher.
• Unemployment levels were higher in Sinkhole states.
• Consumer buying power was less in Sinkhole states.

Thus, Sunshine state residents enjoyed lower taxes, lower unemployment, more buying power and a financial future that was not weighted down with debt. In other words, most people, from a financial perspective, would likely chose to live in a Sunshine state than a Sinkhole state.

All of those numbers and analyses can be accessed at the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/09/september-2014-by-numbers-part-1.html

Since that post, we came across some more data that shows how much better it is to live in a state with lower taxes, lower debt, better purchasing power, and a brighter future. A recent Gallup poll asked state residents to rate whether their state was the worst state to live in and whether it was the best state to live in. The results were quite interesting and consistent:

Sinkhole States - home state is the worst state to live in:

1. Connecticut - 17% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 2)
2. Illinois - 25% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 1)
3. New Jersey - 10% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 7)
4. Massachusetts - 6% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 15)
5. Hawaii - 4% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 23)

Average - 16.8%, Rank Average - 9.6

Sunshine States - home state is the worst to live in:

1. Alaska - 4% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 22)
2. North Dakota - 2% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 42)
3. Wyoming - 1% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 46)
4. Utah - 2% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 40)
5. South Dakota - 3% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 29)

Average - 2.4%, Rank - 35.8

Comments:

• Sinkhole states on average were seven times more likely to rate their state as the worst state to live in vs. Sunshine states.
• Sinkhole states ranking as far as having the worst state to live in was about four times worst rank wise vs. Sunshine states.
• Four out of five Sunshine state residents were far more optimistic about their states than all of the Sinkhole states.
• The worst Sinkhole state, Illinois, had residents that were more than ten times more pessimistic about living in their state than the average of the Sunshine states.

You get idea. Sinkhole state residents are far more likely to hate living in their states than those people living in Sunshine states. Could it be that Sunshine states have lower taxes, lower debt levels, lower unemployment levels, and higher purchasing power? 

In that same poll, Gallup also reversed the question and asked state residents if their state was the best state to live in.

Sinkhole States - home state is the best state to live in:

1. Connecticut - 31% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 41)
2. Illinois - 19% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 49)
3. New Jersey - 28% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 44)
4. Massachusetts - 46% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 24)
5. Hawaii - 68% of state residents say it is the worst state to live in (rank = 6)

Average - 38.9%, Rank Average - 32.8

Sunshine States - home state is the best state to live in:

1. Alaska - 77.0% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 2)
2. North Dakota -66% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 8)
3. Wyoming - 69% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 4)
4. Utah - 70% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 3)
5. South Dakota - 57% of state residents say it is the best state to live in (rank = 14)

Average - 67.8%, Rank - 6.2

Comments:

• The Sunshine states were among the top states, among all states, where state residents feel their state is the best place to live, placing four of the five Sunshine states in the top eight best states to live in.
• The Sinkhole states were among the bottom states where state residents feel their state is the best place to live, placing three states in the bottom six best states to live in.
• Residents in Sunshine states were almost twice as likely to think their states were the best places to live vs. the Sinkhole states.

Different numbers, same result. People like living in Sunshine states much more than living in Sinkhole states. Could it be that having less of a state tax burden, less of a state income tax burden, better purchasing power, and lower unemployment is what makes for happy state residents?

And if that is true, why would politicians not strive to provide those conditions for their state residents since it is what apparently makes them happiest? And taking the analogy a step further, why wouldn’t Washington strive to do the same thing? Lower taxes, lower debt, lower unemployment, and better purchasing power? 

But that is the exact opposite of what Washington has done over the past few years:

• National debt, and the burden it places on all Americans today and in future generations, has skyrocketed as a result of out of control Washington spending.
• Taxes have gone up across a wide spectrum of taxes and rates, much of which has been driven by the many, many new taxes and increased tax rates caused by Obama care.
• Despite what the Federal government says, Americans purchasing power has dropped dramatically over the past few years with food prices going up substantially and the price of a gallon of gas up over 70% since 2009.
• And while the unemployment rate has come down somewhat from the depths of the Great Recession, there are still about 17 million Americans who are unemployed or under employed, indicating that high unemployment is still a large and persistent problem.

Thus, the numbers show that the Washington political class is utilizing the same political strategies and policies of Sinkhole states, higher debt, higher unemployment, higher taxes, lower consumer purchasing power, and applying it to the national levels. The numbers do not lie.

The question we face is whether we want to continue abiding by Sinkhole policies or make a fresh start and start looking at Sunshine policies. The numbers indicate the latter while we have allowed our politicians to pursue the former. One option to start down a Sunshine path is to impose term limits on all current Sinkhole era politicians. Until they are changed, the sunshine we will see is whatever gets to the bottom of the sinkhole that we find ourselves in today.

You can help us start climbing out of the sinkhole by joining the term limits effort at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because, really how much worse could it get if we changed out every Washington politician. From the bottom of a sinkhole, the way only is up.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w