Retro Thanksgiving Day Post From 2012

Note: Given the Thanksgiving holiday this week and the resultant preparations, family visitors, and other commitments, we will be rerunning the top rated and most popular blog posts from the past five years. These posts cover a wide variety of political class insanity, wasteful spending, inane quotes, and other idiocy and are the discussions that most resonated with our readers. We will be back next week with fresh material, starting with our monthly update on "Political Class Insanity."

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012

A Thanksgiving Wish: Helping Each Other and Undoing The Damage and Hatred That Washington Politicians Have Wrought

I hope that today finds you, your family and your friends healthy and well and hopefully together, sharing this Thanksgiving with each other in the way you see fit. I hope that there is good cheer around your dinner table, lots of laughs, and plenty of food.

However, if you are fortunate enough to be in such a situation, may I suggest that you take a minute out of your Thanksgiving day to think about others that may not be so fortunate as yourselves. As you may or may not know, there are about 12 million Americans who are currently unable to find work and may not be having as wonderful a Thanksgiving as you. 

There are about 23 million Americans who are unemployed or under employed, including many young Americans who are struggling to find a job and establishing a career for themselves.

Every week, hundreds of thousands of Americans find the need to apply for first time unemployment benefits as the economy continues to struggle and economic growth is not enough to provide employment to all those who need it.

News stories have been circulating the past few days on how these hard economic times and high travel costs are keeping families apart this holiday season, something that should never happen in America. 

As you sit down to eat, remember that almost 50 million Americans are eating today, through no fault of their own, only because they are receiving food aid from the Federal government.

May I suggest that as a result of the above economic hardships that you take a little time or a little money, only what you can afford, and make the upcoming Christmas holidays a little easier, a little brighter for these million of fellow citizens. 

Throw some change into the Salvation Army bell ringer on the street corner. Next time you go shopping, buy a few extra things for the local food bank. Or better yet, volunteer your time in whatever way possible. 

Write a check to your favorite charity or buy that gift for the child that may not get one this holiday season. If you see a member of our armed forces waiting in line for a coffee or a lunch, step up up and treat him or her, thanking them for their sacrifices and service.

You see, unless we help each other, it is unlikely the political class will help them. Many of the economic hardships these folks are going through are a direct result of the inability or unwillingness of our Washington politicians to do the right thing. If they were willing or had the ability to do the right thing, 23 million Americans would not be hurting for employment this Thanksgiving day. 

Thus, we need to each individually step forward and help our neighbors, waiting for Washington to do the right thing is a no win proposition. These overpaid, under performing politicians have left us and our neighbors with the following dire economic situation today (data and commentary courtesy of the Bankrupting America website):

This season, we are thankful for our friends, and family, and that we live in a nation that can endure a contentious election and still have peace. (Even if the discussion around your Thanksgiving table is not always so serene.) While we are grateful for the things we have, we are mindful of the work we – especially our federal government – has ahead, especially when it comes to repairing the nation’s balance sheet and economy. To that end, here are the five budget- and economic-related events that we are not thankful for this year:

1) No Budget. Congress failed to pass a budget once again this year. The House passed an outline, but the Senate did not. It looks like this trend could continue: according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is likely to take over the Senate Budget Committee, her panel may not even consider one for next year. Disgraceful.

2) $1 Trillion Deficit. For the fourth year in a row the federal government spent $1 trillion more than it took in. Deficits over the last four years totaled nearly $5.1 trillion.

3) Nearly $16.3 Trillion Debt. As of Nov. 15, the national debt totaled $16.278 trillion, about $142,300 for every household in the country. That figure is nearly triple the average household income in 2011 ($50,054).

4) Overspending, High Unemployment, Low Growth. On average since World War II, federal government spending has totaled 19.8 percent of the economy. In FY 2011, it was 24.1 percent and for FY 2012 it was estimated to come in at 24.3 percent. What have been the results? An unemployment rate of 7.9 percent (average since 1948: 5.8 percent) and a two percent economic growth rate in the third quarter(quarterly average since World War II: 3.1 percent).

5) Coming Fiscal Cliff. After last year’s debt supercommittee failed to agree on a long-term plan to tackle the nation’s persistent deficits, billions of dollars of spending cuts kicked in. Congress is now trying to undo many of these cuts and figure out how to deal with trillions of coming tax increases. Together these policies have led to great uncertainty. 

A Reuters survey found 42 of 50 economists believe there is a significant chance fiscal cliff negotiations would reduce consumer and investor confidence. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal revealed at least 40 of the nation’s top companies are planning to cut capital spending because of fiscal uncertainty. Reduced spending by the private sector, combined with lower confidence from consumers and investors, will eventually result in even higher unemployment and worsening growth.

So yes, be thankful for what you have today, whether it is a job, a healthy family, good friends, the ability to come together, and have enough to eat. But also be thankful if you can help others also get through these tough economic times. Our politicians, the ones who created these tough economic times, are seemingly incapable of doing such a noble deed.

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.bankruptingamerica.org

http://www.conventionofstates.com

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

Nancy Pelosi: Political Class Insanity Quote Machine

We very well could have included this post in the last series of posts we did which covered the latest lunacy, idiocy, and insanity of the American political class. However, since today’s post is dedicated to the world and alternative reality of Nancy Pelosi, I felt that she should get her own dedicated space.

The basis for today’s discussion was a research piece recently published by the Independent Journal Review that nominated the eight best, or worse, quotes from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The most kind word I can say about her quotes and political actions and perceptions is that she and I live in two completely different worlds, two different realities. 

In my opinion, she must be in a different world, given her following quotes and outlooks on life, outlooks that are totally in conflict with reality, the numbers, and common sense of today‘s America:

1. No Spending Problem Here

"It is almost a false argument to say we have a spending problem. We have a budget deficit problem that we have to address."

Comments: No spending problem? Consider the following realities:

• The Federal government spends about $10 billion a day, 365 days a year. For comparison, if you had spent $1,000 a day since the day Christ was born, you would still not have spent a billion dollars. The Federal government spends ten times more than that in one day.
• It spends about $410 million an hour.
• It spends about $7 million a minute.
• On average, every U.S. household would have to pay about $31,000 a year to cover the $3.6 TRILLION annual Federal budget. 
• Since the U.S. median household income is about $50,000, about 60% of what an average U.S. household makes, pre-tax, each year would theoretically go to funding the Federal government.
• Excessive spending by the Federal government over the years has burdened current and future American generations with $17 TRILLION worth of national debt burden. 
• That national debt burden has gone up by a whopping $5 TRILLION just since Obama took office.
• This $17 TRILLION national debt is over $50,000 for every U.S. citizen, from the youngest baby to the oldest senior citizen.
• If you could somehow liquidate the total wealth, not income, of Bill Gates, you could fund about only one week of Federal government spending, having no impact at all on the already $17 TRILLION of national debt. 
• More generally, even if you confiscated the total wealth of the “richest” Americans, you probably could not fund even one year’s worth of Federal spending or have any impact on reducing the national debt with that total wealth confiscation.
• The Federal government spending over the past few years has been used to fund research to find out when dogs became man’s best friend, built a robotic squirrel to see how poisonous snakes would react to it, built an underwater treadmill to see if shrimp could run, studied the sex lives of a New Zealand snail species, built two Navy ships for $300 million that were immediately turned into scrap metal without every being used in service, built an $80 million State Department consulate in Afghanistan and THEN realized it was not defensible against terror attacks, etc., etc. etc. The volume and originality of how Washington politicians waste taxpayer wealth is endless.

There is only an excessive spending problem in Washington since regardless of how much you raise taxes, up to and including total wealth confiscation of rich Americans, you could never balance the current Federal spending budget or pay down the debt by increasing taxes. At least in my reality.

2. Unemployment Creates Jobs

"[Unemployment benefits] creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name." Pelosi also said it has the "double benefit" of helping those who lost their jobs and acting as a "job creator" on the side.

Comments: So in her world, it would be best to create more unemployment since that is the best way to create jobs. I am sure that the chronically unemployed, the 23 million Americans are so who are unemployed or under employed, would disagree with this conclusion. 

The Federal government and state governments have probably paid out more in unemployment benefits over the past five years than in any other five year period in our history. And all it has done is make over 20 million American unemployed/under employed and resulted in a record number of consecutive months where the unemployment rate has been stuck well above 7%. No, Ms. Pelosi, unemployment benefits are not a job creating program in this world.

3. Health Independence?

“This week marks one year since the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. It captures the spirit of our founders. The spirit they wrote in the Declaration of Independence."

Comments: The spirit of the Declaration of Independence in my world, is one of liberty, freedom, free choice, minimal government interference in my life. In her world, as it pertains to Obama Care, the spirit of independence must mean:

• The government can force you to buy a product that you may or may not want or may or may not be able to afford.
• Failure to adhere to the government dictates, will result in fines and criminal record.
• The government can force you to go to doctors and hospitals, and other medical options that they want you to go to, not what you want to choose.
• The government can force insurance companies to drop the health care insurance policy that you were perfectly happy with since it fit your needs, not the needs of the Federal bureaucracy, forcing you to purchase a replacement policy that is likely more expensive with fewer benefits.
• The government can force you through a website process that endangers your personal identify protection and security simply because they are incapable of building a secure website.
• Politicians can call ordinary Americans who disagree with the tenets of the Obama Care legislation racists, members of the KKK, obstructionists, and any other number of personal slurs.
• The government can force this legislation down our throats even though the majority of Americans dislike it and want it substantially changed, fixed or repealed.

Obama Care, in this reality, could not be any further from the spirit of the Declaration Of Independence.

4. Obama Care Allows People to Quit Their Day-Jobs

"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or, eh, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance, or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk but not [be] job-locked because a child has asthma or someone in the family is bipolar. You name it. Any condition is job-blocking."

Comment: The problem is that the majority of Americans do not want to quit their day jobs. They want to keep their day jobs and also keep the health insurance coverage their day jobs include. 

That is unlikely to happen with Obama Care since reputable researchers note that tens of millions of Americans are likely to lose their insurance next year when Obama Care causes employers to drop their current health insurance policies and programs.

As far as an artist, photographer or entrepreneurial being able to quit their day job, they can still do that but will still be without health insurance coverage since we now know that insurance coverage under Obama Care is likely to be more expensive for both deductibles and premiums and offer far fewer options for doctors, hospitals, and benefits. Nobody wins in this world.

5. Obama Care is Slashing Deficits

"Many of the initiatives that he passed are what are coming to bear now -- including the Affordable Care Act," Pelosi said. "The Affordable Care Act is bringing the cost of health care in our country down in both the public and private sector, and that is what is largely responsible for the deficit coming down." 

The Affordable Care Act is already three times original cost estimates, now at $2.7 trillion over ten years and will add $6.2 trillion to the long-term debt. That’s how basic math works in this reality, Ms. Pelosi. How does it work in yours? 

Oh, and be the way, according to analyses done of insurance costs listed under Obama Care health exchanges, the cost of insurance will not be coming down as you promise, in either the private or the public sector.

6. Government Fulfills Americans

“To some of us the role of government is about doing things for the American people to help them reach fulfillment."

Comment: I think most Americans agree that if we only could keep the 30% of so of our annual income that we send to Washington and other local politicians, we would find it much easier to reach fulfillment on our own. 

If we did not send so much of our money to the political class to waste in so many ways, we could send our kids to better schools, we could take more vacations, we could start our own businesses, etc., finding individual fulfillment without your help.

Instead, not only to you get to confiscate a large percentage of our wages and earnings, you mismanage the economy so that just finding a job is so difficult, you read our emails, social media posts, and listen to our phone calls without our permission, you slander and demand those of us that do not agree with you positions on the issues, and you waste our wealth. You could not be any further away from helping us reach fulfillment if you tried.

7. Finding Out What's In Obama Care

"It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it..."

Comment: This has to be her most inane comment ever. If, as Speaker of the House, she has no clue what was in the legislation, than why are we paying her and her 434 peers in Congress? What else do they have to do in Washington but develop legislation, READ legislation, and pass or not pass legislation? 

She and the rest of them in Congress should be giving us a refund on their pay and benefits if they do not even know what they are voting on. An insult to our intelligence and common sense. Absolutely pathetic performance and quote in this reality.

8. Politics Getting in Obama's Way

"I don't think [Obama's] ever done anything for political reasons [...] This has been a president as bipartisan as any that I've seen."

Comment: Second most inane comment. Obama rammed Obama Care through Congress with absolutely no input from Republicans.

He has stood idly by as his political allies have called common citizens racists, homophobes, terrorists, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, a__h___s, whores, sluts, and other slanderous names simply for having a different opinion than him through the past few years. 

When a Congressional member of his party said that a group of concerned citizens could just go to hell, he was silent. 

He has directed the IRS to hassle, hinder, and abuse First Amendment rights of citizens who wanted to become actively politically. 

He has ordered IRS audits on individuals who publicly condemned any of his policies.

Everything this President does is for political reasons, he is from the Chicago school of thug politics. If this is being bipartisan, I would truly hate to see him being partisan.

Different realities and perceptions of reality between Ms. Pelosi and myself. I would be laughing at her view of reality if it was not so destructive to the economy, the freedoms, and wealth in the reality that I and most Americans live in. To think that this individual was just two spots away from running the country is frightening to me. 

For other memorable, out of this world quotes from Ms. Pelosi, please access the following ink, a link where we try hard to determine if her quotes and views would be best served by the SYFY channel of Comedy Central:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/12/nancy-pelosi-comedy-central-or-syfy.html

Her other world views are why we need to implement Federal term limits as soon as possible because, really, how much worse could it be if we replaced her and her peers with a whole new set of people:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

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

Part 2, The Obama Administration: Many Promises Made, No Promises Broken

Yesterday, we reviewed six major promises that Presdent Obama made prior coming into office. Part of that review included the fact that he has failed miserably in attaining and executing any of those promises. From not closing Gitmo to wasting over $800 billion on a failed stimulus program to failed economic polices to very little government transparency, this administration has been just one failure after another.

Today, we will look at the other four failed promises, as outlined in a fine report by the Independent Journal Review and expanded with my comments and observations. Tomorrow, we will finish up this failed promises discussion with other major screwups that the Independent Journal Report work did not cover.

 
7. Line by Line to Cut Waste

"Every dollar I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut that it matches. To give an example, we spend $15 billion a year on subsidies to insurance companies. It doesn’t help seniors get better. It’s a giveaway. I want to go through the federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."

And yet President Obama complained about the mere $85 billion he proposed in annual cuts, out of the $3.75 trillion in government spending (just over a measly 2% of total spending), like it's the end of the world.

And he obviously did not go through the Federal budget line by line, matching new spending with comparable spending cuts. We know that deficit spending has exploded to over a TRILLION dollars every year he has been in office and if he had gone through the Federal budget line by line, there is no way he, as a rational person, could have justified just this small sample of wasteful spending:

• A USAID development program in Morocco included pottery classes that was funded using American taxpayer wealth.
• Despite skyrocketing national debt, the Federal government is spending $947,000 via NASA to study what food astronauts could eat on Mars, by simulating a Mars outpost at a barren location in Hawaii. When and if this research might be needed is far, far off in the future if ever.
• A $325,000 government grant was used to create a robot squirrel to study how squirrels and rattlesnakes interact. What makes this expenditure doubly bad is that apparently the American taxpayer has already funded a similar program in the past, making this study doubly unnecessary and wasteful.
• The USDA gave a $300,000 grant to a caviar producer in Idaho for marketing purposes. How big of a market there is for caviar in Idaho, both from a production and consumption perspective?
• The American taxpayer paid out $3.3 million to bail out a local Arkansas tourist boat company that was going out of business.
• The Department of Transportation gave an Alaskan tribe millions to start a ferry business that competes with existing private ferry services. Apparently, these other private businesses, who never asked for or received a government handout, are now struggling to survive in the face of this government subsidized ferry service.
• The Federal government wastes almost $2 billion annually in maintenance fees for grant accounts that are either expired or empty of funds, all because the Department never got around to closing out the unneeded accounts.
• State officials used a Federal stimulus grant to purchase massive, overpowered routers that are too big and unnecessary for rural schools, libraries, and government offices, wasting $24 million in the process.
• The National Science Foundation spent $516,000 on a research program that created a computer game simulating a high school “Prom Night” and the week leading up to the prom night.

This is just an extremely small sample of the tens of thousands of ways the Federal government wastefully and frivolously spend taxpayer money. Many other examples can be found at the following links:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html

You will never get spending under control when you are paying for prom night game development and robotic squirrels and after more than four years in office, there is little chance this administration will “go through the Federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."

8. Cut the Deficit in Half

"And that's why today I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. This will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay -- and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."

$6 trillion in total deficits later from the Obama administration makes this statement seem pretty ludicrous. Consider the annual Federal government deficits over the past decade or so, as documented on the White House’s own budget website (double click for a larger view):

As you can see from the White House numbers, annual Federal government deficits were actually decreasing during the second half of the Bush administration. They skyrocketed once the Democrats and Obama took office. In fact, during the Obama administration some MONTHLY Federal government budget deficits were larger than some of Bush’s ANNUAL budget deficits.

Thus, this promise of cutting deficit spending in half by Obama is a travesty and his outrageous spending will likely “leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.”

9. Pledge Not To Raise Taxes on Middle Class

"And I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase – not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital-gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Another promise severely missed.

Obama raised payroll taxes under the fiscal cliff deal, Obama Care will become the biggest middle class tax increase in decades in many ways, this administration raised cigarette taxes which likely affected the less wealthy in this country since they are more likely to smoke, and the hidden tax of exponentially expanding overregulation in this country is making businesses pass on the cost of regulation to consumers, the most of which are in the middle class.

10. Obama Care Would Lower Healthcare Costs, Reduce Premiums, Keep Your Doctor, etc., etc. This promise is so unfilled it is tough to find a place to start:

• Obama Care is already costing more than two times original estimates that were put forth by Democrats when the legislation was approved.
• Obama Care will add trillions of dollars to our national debt, requiring higher taxes on everyone to pay for it.
• Obama Care is increasing health insurance premiums an average of 30% this year alone.
• Obama Care is causing six in ten doctors to say they will retire early rather than deal with the hassle of the legislation.
• Obama Care is not creating a wealth of new jobs as promised. If anything, Obama Care is suppressing hiring of new employees, suppressing business expansion, and suppressing the hours current employees work each week.
• Obama Care will get result in universal health care coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, that estimated upwards of ten million citizens will still not have health care coverage ten years from now.
• Obama Care will cause about seven million Americans to lose their current health care insurance coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This kills another promise of the President who boldly stated that if you like your current health care insurance, you can keep it. Seven million Americans will shortly find out the fallacy of that promise.
• Recently even Congressional supporters of the legislation have openly admitted that Obama Care will be an operational and financial  “train wreck” and that a lot more money is needed if it is ever to get off the ground, far more taxpayer wealth than originally hyped and planned for.

Missing on all cylinders, this mess called Obama Care.

Obscene deficit spending, obscene wasteful spending, obscene taxation oppression, and the disaster that is Obama Care, horrific performance by this administration. Shaping up as one of the worst Presidential administrations ever, with the remaining broken promises being covered tomorrow.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

 

The Fiscal State Of The Country - Even Politicians Are Admitting To Their Crime Of National Bankruptcy

We have reviewed many of the commonly published statistics regarding our ailing economy numerous times in this blog:

1. 42 consecutive months of the official unemployment rate greater than 8%.
2. A combined unemployment and underemployment rate of almost 15%.
3. Household income that has dropped more in the three years since the recesson ended vs. the two years of the actual recession.
4. Household wealth that has retreated to levels last seen 17 years or so ago.
5. Millions of homes under water or in foreclosure proceedings.
6. Gasoline prces that have more than doubled since January, 2009.

Okay, enough is enough. But consider some other bad economic trends and situations that have recently been gathered from official government sources and published by the Bankrupting America organization's website, along with my Comments and observations:

 (http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/fact-sheet/by-the-numbers-breakdown-september-edition/?direct):

September, 2012 Monthly SnapShot:
Federal Spending, the Economy, the Budget And Economic Facts

The numbers say it all: Washington has spent its way into a fiscal crisis. This unsustainable habit will have consequences on future generations unless Congress can work together and enact lasting change.

State of the Federal Debt

 -National Debt: $16.06 trillion - Comment: please visit the following post to understand just how astronomically huge 16 trillion is:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/09/fun-with-math-making-our-16-trillion.html

- Debt per American including infants and kids: $51,071

- Debt per Household: $140,586

- Net Interest on the Debt: $343.1 billion (first 11 months of fiscal year) - Comment: at this rate, every American household has already paid about $3000 to the Federal government this year alone just to finance the runaway interest payments on the Federal government's deficits.

State of the Budget

- Budget Deficit (September, 2012): $190.5 billion: Comment - this one MONTH'S worth of Obama budget deficit is actually greater the the ANNUAL spending deficit that Bush ran up in two years of its administration (2002 and 2007).

- Budget Deficit (FY2011): $1.297 trillion: Comment - in 2011, the Federal government spent about $148 million a DAY that it did not have revenue to cover, requiring increases in the national debt.

- Revenue (Fiscal Year to Date): $2.188 trillion: Comment - The Federal government would have to reduce its spending 8.2% a year for five straight years to just get its spending in line with its revenue/tax stream. Imagine how far out of control spending is if you had to reduce your own spending that amount for five years in a row to attain that same status.

- Spending (Fiscal Year to Date): $3.354 trillion

- Budget Deficit (FY2012 to Date): $1.164 trillion: Comment - in 2012, the Federal government spent about $132 million a DAY that it did not have revenue to cover.

- Under Harry Reid's leadership, the U.S. Senate has failed to produce a detailed budget, as required by the Constitution, in over 1,200 days, over three years.

State of the Economy

- Annualized Economic Growth: 1.7 percent (second quarter preliminary): Comment - average long term annual growth of the U.S. economy is about 3.4%, more than double the current anemic economic growth of this economy.

- Trade Deficit: $42.0 billion (July 2012): Comment - Using rough estimates by extrapolating the July results, in all likelihood over $400 billion of wealth leaves this country every year due to the ongoing trade imbalance.

- Unemployment: 8.1 percent (August 2012)

- Jobs Created in 2012: 1.114 million (first eight months of 2012): Comment - every week this year about 360,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment benefits every week, dwarfing the 1.114 jobs created.

- States with the Highest Unemployment Rates:

• NV (12.0 percent)
• RI (10.8 percent)
• CA (10.7 percent)
• NJ (9.8 percent)
• SC (9.6 per cent)
• NC (9.6 per cent)

- States with the Lowest Unemployment Rates:

• ND (3.0 percent)
• NE (4.0 percent)
• SD (4.4 percent)
• OK (4.9 percent)
• VT (5.0 percent)

Comment - Unfortunately, the states with the highest unemployment rates tend to be bigger, more populous states while the states with the lowest unemployment rates tend to be smaller, less populous states.

Horrific numbers and a horrific economic situation our political class has gotten us into. And if you look closely, you see that many of these politicians actually recognize what they have done to us and the country:

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet as quoted in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." Unfortunately, about two years later, we have put another $3 TRILLION onto the national debt and still have nothing to show for it.

Former U.S. Senator John Danforth: "I have never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs. I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected."

Former U.S. Senator Evan Bayh: "Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people’s business is not being done. Two weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt. The measure would have passed, but seven members who had endorsed the idea instead voted ‘no’ for short-term political reasons."

Yes, most Ameircans are aware of how precarious our fsical health and direction has become, getting worse everyday. Hyperinflation, government default, credit worthiness downgrades, loss of freedom and liberty, reductions in entitlement budgets, etc. are coming at us unless the Federal government and the political class that operate it do something coherent and fast.

It is such a shame that current and former Washington politicians actually know the truth of how bad the situaiton is and what is in store for the nation, as shown in their statements above. The bigger shame is that they were part of the problem that got us a $16 TRILLION national debt and were not part of the solution.

However, we have two appoachess to resolve the problem:

1. First, execute Step 1 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." This step would reduce Federal spending 10% a year for five years to finally get government spending in line with government tax revenue. You cannot start reducing your national debt until you get to a balanced budget.
2. The following blog laid out a detailed plan on not only to get to a balanced budget but also how to reduce spending and debt by upwards of $9 TRILLION over the next ten years:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/09/fun-with-math-making-our-16-trillion.html

Let's resolve the crime of our national debt before it resolves our future for us.

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

Fun With Math, Part 2 - How Bad Could Life Get With A $16 TRILLION National Debt?

Last week we dedicated a post to doing some simple math to try and get our hands around how big our $16 TRILLION national debt really is. We calculated how many times we could circle the globe if we laid 16 trillion one dollar bills end-to-end (60,000), how far out into space we could go if we laid those same bills end-to-end (back and forth to Mars about 2,100 times), etc. The other examples and subsequent discussion can be found at:

 http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/09/fun-with-math-making-our-16-trillion.html.

Although having a debt of $16 TRILLION is really, really bad, saddling each American family with about $140,000 each, it could get much worse before it gets better. We started doing that calculation last week when we used Obama's White House budget website, which shows that the $16 TRILLION is expected to grow another $3.4 TRILLION by 2017 under Obama's current budget assumptions. This would bring the total national debt to just under a whopping $20 TRILLION.

However, Obama's budget calls for some unbelievably aggressive growth rates in government tax revenue in each of the next five years, growth rates that have never been sustained over a five year period in the history of the country. Thus, we found the $3.4 TRILLION increase to be unfounded and highly unlikely not to happen. Using the long term average growth rate of the U.S. economy, around 3%, we recalculated the next five years' worth of tax revenue, keeping Obama's government spending assumptions unchanged. This results in another $7 TRILLION being added to our burdensome national debt, not his overly optimistic $3.4 TRILLION increase.

An additional $7 TRILLION in national debt theoretically adds another $61,000 or so to each American household's share of the Federal government debt. This would bring the total household debt responsibility to $200,000, a level that would never be sustained.

But it gets worse. Fortunately, for the political class and the country, the U.S. Treasury is paying record low interest rates to finance this ongoing and growing debt load. This is caused by what I call the "queen of the pigs" theory.

As most people know, many, many countries in Europe are economic basket cases. Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc. are having severe economic problems and their own outsized national debt difficulties, which has made their sovereign debt riskier. Riskier investments make it harder to get investors to buy your bonds and those that do buy, want higher returns for their risk. This has pushed the interest for some European sovereign bonds up into the 6-7% range.

The Chinese economy is slowing, the Japanese economy is still in a twenty year funk, the U.S. stock market has been volatile and generally providing low returns, and the U.S. housing market is still in the ditch. With so much economic uncertainty in the world, many investors are looking to park their wealth and money somewhere safe in order to not lose their principle.

The best place to do that recently has been with U.S. Treasury bonds. Basic economic theory prevails: high demand for a limited supply keeps your costs down. In this case, the demand is high for T-bills, the supply is limited, which pushes down the interest rates.

Thus, while we do have historically high national debt levels, the cost to service that debt is historically low. If you go to the official White House budget website and its EXCEL spreadsheets, you will find that the interest expected to be paid (about $224 billion) on the expected 2012 year end national debt level (about $16.3 TRILLION) is about 1.4%. Not a bad interest rate to be paying for such a large debt load.

Let's look at Obama's own numbers. By 2017, our national debt should be about $20 TRILLION according to the White House website. The cost of servicing that debt load in 2017, again, according to Obama's numbers, would be about $565 billion. This comes out to an overall interest rate of about 2.9%. Thus, our debt cost under this base case scenario will go from about $224 billion a year at a 1.4% interest rate to $565 billion a year at a 2.9% interest rate. Thus, Obama is planning to more than double the amount of taxpayer wealth diverted solely to interest payments and the interest rate we pay to service that debt in the next five years.

Hang in there, we are almost there from a math perspective. If you take Obama's 2012 expected tax revenue estimate and divide it into his expected interest payment budget line for 2012 you will calculate a number of 9.1%, i.e. about nine percent of Federal tax revenues will be used to pay interest. By 2017, he expects that number to increase by about 50% with about 14.4% of 2017 tax revenues to be used to pay for interest payments. All bad trends.

However, that debt load will have to be constantly serviced over time as the existing bonds are sold and new bonds issued. The very real concern is that at some point in time, the rest of the world's economic opportunities begin to improve. Let's say that somehow Europe struggles through its economic problems and gets itself on solid financial footing. Investors will start to look to Europe to increase their return on their wealth.

Let's assume that China gets out of its doldrums and with its large population starts humming again, from an economic perspective. An improving U.S. housing market and stock market may be better options for investors than getting 1.4% or so on its investment in Treasury bonds.

Thus, as the world's economy improves, including our economy, and the rating agencies, investors, and the rest of the world get more and more antsy about our ever escalating debt load, there is an excellent chance that there will be fewer and fewer investors willing to give the U.S. Treasury Department some of their wealth to invest. This will require that Treasury interest rates increase just to get money for servicing the debt and our deficit spending. Thus, those 1.4% and 2.9%interest rates may very soon be a pipe dream.

Let's assume that we start to look like Greece and Spain by 2017, given our ever rising debt load. Our interest rate would certainly no longer be so low. Let's assume that the 2.9% rate in 2017 is a more Greece-like 6%. Simple math would say that we would no longer be paying $565 billion a year to service our debt. At 6%, a $20 TRILLION debt financing cost would increase to $1.2 TRILLION a year, more than double up from $565 billion.

Under this scenario over 30% of the Federal government's tax revenue would go solely to servicing the $20 TRILLION debt.

If we assume that we are up to about 120 million households by 2017, on average every American household would have to pay $10,000 each just in 2017 just to pay for the debt servicing. Obviously, more taxes would then have to be collected to cover Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense spending, and every other government function. Scary, scary numbers.

But we can make it worse without stretching the bounds of reasonability. We do not believe that Obama's revenue numbers are realistic, they are much too high. Let's assume that government revenue only grows around 3% a year for the next five years. Then, by 2017, the Federal government revenue stream is not $3.92 TRILLION, it is closer to $2.86 TRILLION. In this scenario, about 42% of every Federal tax dollar goes to debt servicing.

The good news, which is really really bad news, is that this may never happen. We may see an economic collapse long before we get to these 2017 numbers. If we get another recession within the next five years, highly likely, we may have such a suppression in government tax revenue that it cannot service the debt, leading to default. In that situation, any saving bonds or Treasury bonds that any American holds could be worthless, leading to economic hardship for many American families but especially elderly Americans who may have counted on those government securities for their retirement.

Going back to Obama's numbers, a 2017 best case scenario says that expected government spending, $4.5 TRILLION would quickly be reduced by $612 billion or 13% in order for actual tax revenue to equal actual expenditures, no more financing spending and deficit spending. Thus, best case in a default is that every government function, every Social Security check, every Medicare payment, every Federal employee salary, etc. would immediately be reduced by 13%. And I believe that the 13% is best case, it would likely be far worse.

There would be no immediate change/improvement in our economic situation after a default since no one would be willing to lend the Federal government any money. We would have to live only on what the government could tax collect with no deficit spending.

And these calculations do not even bring into account the likelihood of high or even runaway inflation. The Federal Reserve has done two rounds of "quantitative easing," which is nothing more than printing money and injecting it into the financial systems in the hope that it will eventually lead to economic growth.

The first two rounds of easing resulting in the printing of $2.3 TRILLION, money that is sitting somewhere in the banking system waiting for the right opportunity to be invested. If the Fed is not careful, if that investing comes all at once, inflation is likely to skyrocket, putting further pressure on the Federal government, raising interest rates dramatically, raising interest rates, and crushing individual household budgets and savings.

Not a pretty sight. But this is the path we are on. You may dispute some of my numbers, assumptions and calculations since I am not a financial or economics expert. I am just doing some simple, logical math with official government statistics and forecasts.

But I doubt anyone would arrive at a substantially different overall conclusion using any other approach. Using Obama's own numbers, we are heading for a fiscal meltdown that could happen within just a few years, taking our economic well being and our democracy with it. Using more realistic numbers than the official Federal government.White House view results in a much worse economic scenario.

Study Germany in the 1920s and Argentina a few decades ago to see what an economic meltdown and default looks like. Observe what happens to Greece and Spain in the next six months or so to see what is in store for us.

But there might still be time to get our outrageous Federal government spending habits under control. Tomorrow we will go through a detailed plan that will remove $9 TRILLION from our debt load. And best of all, it does that without raising taxes and with minimal impact to most American families.

It can be done. The question is whether it can be done by those sitting in the White House and Congress today. Their lack of courage track record says they cannot and thus, they need to all be removed from office on November 6, 2012 if we are to have any chance of avoiding what I have laid out above.

Note: for those of you who want to tinker with the Obama numbers we used above, go to the following web page for the original numbers and forecasts:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals

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

A Graphical View Why Taxing The Rich More Without Reducing Spending Is Still Senseless

Without going into the details of what we have covered dozens of times in this blog, it is safe to say that the Federal government easily wastes away over $500 billion a year in taxpayer wealth due to inefficiencies and criminal fraud in just a half dozen government programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, tax evasion, unemployment benefits, and food stamps. If we were to detail out inefficiencies, waste, and government fraud in the rest of the Federal government every year, I am quite confident we could easily find hundreds of billions of dollars more waste.

That is why it has always been our position that no American, rich or poor, should have his or her taxes raised until the politicians in Washington learn how to manage the taxes they already receive in a more responsible manner. It is senseless to give these people more of our wealth when they have shown no ability to spend it responsibly. That is why no matter how "fair" or 'unfair" our tax process is today, nobody should pay more when hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted every year.

Which gets us to our post today. I would bet that if you asked 100 people on the street to estimate the number of millionaire owners in America every year, i.e. how many Americans earn a million dollars every year, I would bet that at least 95% of them grossly overestimate the reality of that question.

To illustrate, let's check out a few graphs of actual IRS summarized tax information from the official IRS website from the tax year for 2009. This appears to be the latest year of tax information available online to the public but I doubt if the graphs and the conclusions would change much once the 2010 and 2011 tax data becomes available.

The first graph contains a simple bar chart which shows the percentage of tax returns filed in 2009 by Adjusted Gross Income bands (double click on the picture for a larger view):

The second graph contains a simple bar chart which shows the percentage of the nation's taxes paid in 2009 by Adjusted Gross Income bands:

This third graph puts the data from the previous two charts on the same graph:

Let's look at the numbers behind the graphs:

• In the first graph there looks like there are no taxpayers in the country that earn over a million dollars a year. And that is almost correct. In 2009, of the more than 140 million personal tax returns filed, only about 237,000 of them had earners that were over a million dollars for the year, as measured by the Adjusted Gross Income line.
• This paltry number comes out to only .17% of all earners that year. That is why the graph looks so emply on the right, there are just not that many Americans who earn over a million dollars a year.
• If you consider those "rich people" earning over $200,000 a year, as the President considers them to be, then you will find that there were only about 3.9 million tax returns showing earnings over $200,000 in 2009, or only about 2.8% of all returns.
• If you look at the super high earners, those Americans whose tax returns showed they earned over $5 million in 2009, you find that there were only 22,600 or so out of over 140 million, accounting for .00017% of all taxpayers that year.
• This last point is another reason why the right side of that graph looks so flat, there just aren't that many Americans in the country that earn millions of dollars a year.
• The second graph is almost a mirror reflection of the first. It is the left side of this graph that is almost not even there since the number of tax dollars paid by the people in the lower AGI bands is almost non-existent vs. the percentage of overall taxes paid by the higher band AGIs.
• For example, while 66% of the people who filed tax returns in 2009 earned less than $50,000, this group only paid about 7% of all the taxes paid that year while those earning over $200,000 comprised only 2.8% of all filers but paid over 50% of all the taxes collected.
• The third graph puts the previous two together on the same chart where we see that the very few people earning over $200,000 a year pay a very high percentage of all of the taxes.
• Now, I am not judging what is the "fair" amount of taxes each person should pay. But consider this: if we made those Americans earning over $1 million a year to pay an income tax rate of 100%, i.e. the government would confiscate ALL of the earnings of every millionaire earner, and spread that confiscated money over the rest of the 140 million personal tax returns, each one of those other tax filers would receive a total of about $4,900. Not a bad haul.
• But that haul would only last for a year or so. If the governemnt actually did confiscate 100% of those millionaire dollar earners, you can be sure that those millionaire dollar earners would not be out the next year working hard to duplicate their earnings only to lose it all. Thus, while those other 140 million or so tax filers would get a one year windfall of $4,900 on this 100% confiscation scheme, that is really fool's gold. In subsequent years they would have to pay much more in taxes to cover the shortfall from the current million dollar earners giving up.
• Lets' be more realsitic and assume that the million dollar earners had just another 10% of their earnings confiscated by the Federal government and given out to the other tax filers.
• This 10% surtax would bring about $490 for each of the other tax filers. This $490 comes out to only $1.34 a day, hardly enough to make anyone rich.

Of course, these are best case scenarios. They assume that the confiscation numbers, either 100% or 10%, actually and miraculously got back to the other tax filers. You and I both know that the Washington political class would take those additional taxes and waste it somehow, somewhere, probably on a political crony or campaign donor or criminal fraud.

The bottom line of all these graphs and numbers is that there are just not enough "high earners" in this country to hit up for more taxes and solve all, or even some, of our financial problems. The problem is too much government spending and waste, not too little in taxation.

Consider this: if the government did indeed confiscate EVERY dollar of EVERY millionaire dollar tax filer in 2009, that confiscation would cover less than 49% of that year's Federal government's deficit spending. So taking EVERY dollar does not do the trick, taking less than that, say 10%, would do even less of a trick.

An old saying goes as follows: "Economies cannot tax themselves to prosperity." It has never been done in the history of man. Why this President thinks he can do it is beyond me. There are just not enough millionaire earners to go around, only .17% . However, there is enough wasteful spending to go around, all of which needs to be stopped.


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 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/

The Federal Government's Fraudulent Accounting and The Debt Pit It Has Thrown Us Into

Interesting analysis from USA Today, as reported in the May 24, 2012 issue of Newsmax. The newspaper makes the assertion that the Federal government severely underreports the amount of deficit spending that the political class reports on every year, masking the fact that the Federal government is running up future liabilities that are not being financed with today's taxes and spending.

These liabilities will result in future retirees probably never receiving the future financial and medical support that the current members of the political class are promising, i.e. today's political class is writing checks that the Federal government will not be able to cover in the future.


But first let's look at what the Federal government reports as our annual spending deficits (double click on the graph for a bigger picture):

Ever since Obama became President, our annual Federal government spending deficit has been easily over $1 TRILLION a year. 2012 is not on the graph but credible current estimates put this year's deficit well over a TRILLION dollars again. This traditional definition of deficit is quite simple: it is the difference between what the government collected in taxes and fees and what it spent in a single fiscal year. The difference is the annual deficit which is financed by selling Treasury bonds, future IOUs, to cover the difference between what is collected as wealth and what is spent.

Just looking at these annual results is not a good news story. If we assume that the average annual deficit of the Federal government over the past few years is about $1.2 TRILLION a year, then on average, if the Treasury did not sell bonds and IOUs, every American household would be on the hook for an additional $10,500 per household to cover the deficit shortfall EVERY YEAR of the Obama administration. Since the average income for an American household is about $50,000 a year, this means that we would all have to pay a whopping additional 20% of our gross annual household income just to cover the Federal government's annual deficit.

Of course, every American household really is on the hook for the deficit shortfall, they just do not pay that additional number NOW since the Treasury Department continues to mortgage our future by Treasury selling bonds. Those bonds will eventually have to be paid off by every American taxpayer.

A horrific financial situation. Outlandish and wasteful spending by the Washington political class, which wastes hundreds of billions of dollars every year in order to attain these TRILLION dollar plus deficits.

But these numbers and spending deficits are just for current government operating expenses and costs. The USA Today article presents a more realistic, and more horrific view, of the country's dire financials:

• The official government deficit for the 2011 was $1.3 TRILLION.
• However, according to the USA Today analysis, the more accurate estimate is an astronomical $5 trillion.
• The reason for this large discrepancy is that Congress exempts itself from reporting the cost of promised retirement benefits incurred in any one year when computing the annual deficit.
• This exemption, of course, does not apply to private sector companies which must include these future liabilities and commitments in their business financial statements in order to give a truer picture of their actual financial situation and to not break the law.
• The USA Today analysis found that the liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other government retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, but the amount was not included on the government’s financial ledgers and reports even though they are committed future expenses.
• If these retirement and liabilities and commitments were included in the outlook for 2011, the actual, more definitive, deficit total would be equal to about $43,000 for every American household, about four times higher the horrific estimate we went through above.
• Since the median income of U.S. households is $49,445, according to the latest Census findings, the average American household would have shell nearly all of its annual income in taxes to balance the real government liabilities incurred in 2011 if standard accounting rules were used to compute the Federal government deficit.
• If these better and more accurate accounting rules were taken into account by the Federal government, and the Washington political class, the annual spending deficits from 2004 to 2011 would be six times larger the official total of $5.6 TRILLION.
• The USA Today  report also determined that all future Federal debt and retiree commitments equal $561,254 per household.
• Since the average American household also owes $116,057 for its own mortgages, car loans and other debts, the total debt burden as of today for every household is about $676,311.
• Thus, on average, every American household would have to work 14 straight years, without paying any other taxes, paying any medical bills, eating, taking vacations, fixing up their homes, going to the movies, or incur any other expense in order to dig the nation out of the debt pit the political class has thrown us into.

Mind boggling. Obviously, something is going to have to give, the above trajectory of disaster will eventually manifest itself somehow. The Federal government may choose to continually raise taxes to pay off the debt which eventually will collapse the economy from lack of disposable spending. Or those Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid promises will have to be broken since their exponential rise in cost, without the concurrent collection of wealth to pay for these future liabilities, cannot not be met.

The USA Today article and analysis have provided a great service to the country, a service that most Americans are not aware of and most politicians, given their short term, myopic thinking, do not want you to be aware of. We are in far worst financial condition than most of us are aware of. To stave off the collapse of our financial affairs and save our democracy, the following steps from "Love my Country, Loath My Government" need to be taken immediately:

1. Step 1 - a coherent plan of reducing government spending 10% a year for five years must be undertaken to get Federal government spending under control. Unnecessary and redundant programs and organizations need to be terminated. The wasting of hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to inefficiencies and criminal fraud need to be stopped. Obama's deficit reduction commission, which he completely torpedoed and ignored, would be a good first step to putting this Step 1 into operation.
2. Steps 10, 11, and 12 - These steps would reform Social Security by reducing the Social Security tax rate but applying it to all forms of income without any cap, raising the retirement age to 70 years old with a hardship exemption, and excluding anyone worth more than $3 million from ever receiving a Social Security check.
3. Step 28 provides a process to finally attack the root causes of our escalating health care costs and put a plan into effect to attack those root causes, something that Obama Care will never do.
4. Step 39  would implement term limits so that we can finally remove those sitting politicians that have been around forever but who have gotten us into this financial debt pit. Since they were not part of the solution, they must be part of the problem and need to be removed forever from office.

I do not know if even these five steps are enough to get us out of our debt pit. I do know that the longer we wait for someone, anyone, in Washington to show a little guts, courage, leadership, and vision in this area, the tougher it will be to climb out of this debt pit. We can only hope that the hole does not collapse upon on us before we get out, taking our economy and our liberty with it.


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 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/