September, 2017, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: Security Breakdowns In Congress, Too Many Federal Laws, And Sex Crimes and Illegal Immigrants In New York

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

1) While Democrats and the mainstream media have been obsessed with Trump and potential Russian connections, trying to prove that Russia endangered this country with its election meddling (a reality they have yet to come close to proving), they have mostly ignored a real crisis involving foreign nationals and U.S. national security. Tim Brown, writing for the Freedom Outpost website on August 18, 2017, detailed the real crisis that is unfolding in D.C.:

• Two former information technology experts on Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s payroll have been indicted for conspiracy against the United States.
• Pakistani born Imran Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, have been indicted on four counts of conspiracy in the DC District Court by a grand jury: ““Defendants AWAN and ALVI did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly conspire, combine, confederate, and agree with each other to commit offenses against the United States,” including bank fraud, false statements, and unlawful monetary transactions, the indictment read.”
• Hini Alvi has already left the U.S. and returned to Pakistan and her husband almost did the same before he was pulled off a plane heading out of the country.
• The scary thing about these two is that they had access to computer systems and records used by almost two dozen sitting members of Congress and even though Wasserman-Schultz admitted in June that security violations had occurred relative to the Awan and his co-workers she had done nothing to curtail their activities and access to sensitive Congressional computer records even though four months before she had been warned about them.
• When police went to Awan’s garage they found smashed hard drives laying about.
• According to the article not only did his wife flee with their kids to Pakistan but apparently they had already moved hundreds of thousands dollars offshore beforehand.

Great, Congress hires foreign nationals and gives them access to highly secret and sensitive materials, ignores warnings that they may be up to no good, and then the accused attempt to free the country before they are indicted on what is so far, four counts of felonies. Insanity.

2) A couple of days ago we reviewed the stupidest state laws from every state. It showed a shameful waste of taxpayer money that politicians would actually propose, debate, discuss, and write up such stupidity while much more pressing issues do not get addressed or resolved. That post can be viewed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/08/stupid-laws-by-stupid-politicians-by.html

But it is not just state level politicians that waste time passing laws that are useless, dangerous, and non-useful. Ed Krayewski, writing for Reason magazine’s August/September, 2017 issue showed how inane the Federal penal code is:

• First of all, no one seems to be able to figure out how many laws there actually are at the Federal level.
• In 1982, the Justice Department estimated there were about 3,000 Federal laws. 
• But the American Bar Association in 1998 said it was probably much higher but had no estimate of what that higher number was.
• In 2008, the Heritage Foundation estimated that there were 4,500 Federal laws.
• But it is not possible to check the accuracy of that number also since the Congressional Budget Office has stated that it did not have enough resources and manpower to figure out how many Federal laws there are.
• Civil rights attorney Harvey Silvergate wrote a book about Federal laws and estimates that the average American breaks or violates three Federal laws everyday of their life.
• If you have ever melted down a penny, used a power tool in the Kenai Wildlife Refuge, or sold jock itch powder but did not tell the buyer to use it every day for two weeks, you have broken a Federal law.
• On May 3, 2017, a U.S. citizen was convicted for disrupting the nomination of Attorney General Jeff Sessions because there is a Federal law against that kind of speech, namely that it is illegal to “parade, demonstrate, or picket in the U.S. Capitol building.”
• The Twitter account, @CrimeA Day, has been posting a different Federal crime everyday for four years and could probably go on doing so for decades since the U.S. Federal Crime Code contains 35 volumes and is 1,300 pages long.

This nonsense is so wrong. Why should Congress propose, debate, and enact, with a President’s signature, the proper way to apply jock itch powder? How many more important issues face tens of millions of Americans vs. whether or not someone melted down a penny? On one level this is a terrible waste of taxpayer wealth and resources. 

However, on a deeper level it is far worse. Since according to the article, many of these laws are vague and general, it gives the government, its bureaucrats, and the political class great leeway in suppressing and persecuting the rights of those citizens that disagree with policies and actions of those bureaucrats and politicians. Much like Obama used the IRS as a political weapon to silence his critics, a 1,300 page criminal code could be easily abused and used as another type of political weapon to the detriment of freedom everywhere.

3) A lot of liberals want do not deport illegal immigrants that have already made it into this country and in many cases have already integrated themselves into the community and workforce. Whether or not this is the right thing to do is a debate for another day. 

What I do not understand is why many liberals do not want to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes in this country. It is as if it is okay for foreign illegal immigrants to commit a crime, we should not to do anything to them but it is fine to apply existing criminal codes and penalties to Americans who commit similar crimes. Makes no logical sense.

Consider a Breitbart article by Bob Price on August 9, 2017:

• Federal immigration officers and officials recently arrested 32 illegal immigrants who had previously been arrested for sex crimes.
• The arrests took place in a so called illegal immigrant sanctuary city in New York.
• The arrests were made as part of the Operation SOAR (Sex Offender Alien Removal) operation.
• The 32 had previously such crimes as sexual abuse, sexual assault on young children, rape, child endangerment, and promoting sexual performance of a child.
• The current charges are wide ranging and horrific including, “acting in a manner to injure a child, assault, third degree attempted rape, burglary, attempted sexual abuse, criminal sex act, endangering the welfare of a child, endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person, forcible touching, promoting a sexual performance by a child, public lewdness, first degree rape, second degree rape, third degree rape, reckless endangerment, first degree sexual abuse, second degree sexual abuse, sexual abuse, forcible compulsion, sexual contact with an individual incapable of consent and sexual misconduct.”
• The arrested have come illegally into this country from many Central American and South American countries.
• According to the article, the offenders included, “A 24-year-old Salvadoran national who was arrested and charged criminally with first degree sexual abuse and sexual contact with a victim less than 11 years old. Criminal charges are still pending. The victim in this case is a 4-year-old female. He was arrested in Wyandanch, Aug. 3 and will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States... 36-year-old national of Guatemala with a prior conviction of second degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child. The victim in this case was a 13 year old female. He was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of probation supervision...a 32-year-old Honduran man with prior convictions of criminal sexual act in the third degree, forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse in the third degree. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation supervision. The victim in this case was a 15 year-old female. He also has prior convictions of driving while intoxicated. This registered Level 1 sex offender was arrested in Brentwood, Aug. 1 and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.” Other, similarly heinous crimes were also included in the article.

Given just this small operation in a single geographic area, how can anyone still maintain that not enforcing criminal and immigration laws on illegal immigrants that commit such horrible crimes is racist or cruel punishment? How many other such atrocities against women and children are going on in other sanctuary cities across the country?

Again, if we want to debate immigration law relative to law abiding and productive illegal immigrants, fine. But government and politicians fail in one of their most basic duties, protecting the lives and property of real citizens when it allows criminals of any sort to go unpunished.

More insanity yet to come this week as government and politicians continue to fail at just about anything they do.

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

November, 2016, Part 3, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: Higher Costs, Less Choice, and Obama's Alternative Reality

Every month for years now we have had to discuss how bad Obama Care is turning out to be under the continuing theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” This month is no different. As the legislation continues to march through America, driving up health care and health insurance prices as it serves as dead weight on economic growth, it cements its rightful place as the worst piece of legislation Washington has ever produced.

It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:

• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
• Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
• Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
• Obama Care never “followed the money” to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
• Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
• Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.

You cannot resolve any problem unless you understand and address the underlying root causes. No difference here: Obama Care legislation never addressed these listed root causes and thus, has no chance of ever being successful.

But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.

These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care., To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.

This week we will be reviewing the latest unfolding disasters from the worst piece of legislation ever written by Washington:

1) A recent article by the Bloomberg news service reinforced how bad things are imploding for the entire Obama Care process:

• At least 1.4 million Americans will likely lose their Obama Care policies since so many insurance companies are leaving the Obama Care market.
• And that 1.4 million estimate covers only 32 states since data for the other 18 states was not available or not provided by state insurance agencies.
• This is about 14% of the entire population covered by Obama Care policies, an incredible churn rate.
• The loss of Obama Care competitors in insurance markets across the country will result in fewer insurance options being available and those that are still available will be more expensive and likely to not include the same doctor and hospital networks.
• S&P Global Ratings sees negative or very little positive growth in the number of people covered by Obama Care policies in 2017.
• In Minnesota, 20,000 people will be losing their Obama Care insurance coverage since the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer in that state is getting out of the Minnesota market, forcing those 20,000 people to look at the remaining Obama Care policy plans that will be increasing in cost by at least 50% in 2017.
• Charles Gaba, who tracks the impact of the Obama Care legislation at ACASignups.net, estimates that it is not 1.4 million people who will lose access to their Obama Care insurance policies but that 2 to 2.5 million will lose access to their current policies in 2017.
• The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that more than 19% of people in the Obama Care insurance market will have only one insurer to chose from in 2017.
• In North Carolina, only one Obama Care insurer will be available in the state’s 95 out of 100 counties since Aetna and UnitedHealthcare have dropped out of the Obama Care market in that state.
• Those dropouts will cause 284,000 North Carolina residents to seek a new insurance plan but be left with only one Obama Care provider to choose from.
• 117,000 residents in Tennessee will lose access to their current Obama Care plans since UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield have pulled out of the Obama Care market in that state.

As we have said many times before, we do not think that you could have tried to design a plan for failure any better than the failure that is Obama Care.

2) Randy Weiss, writing for the Minutemen News website on November 6, 2016, reviewed what is either a bald faced lie by the President or a delusional President that is completely out of touch with reality. At a recent Hillary Clinton rally, the President boldly proclaimed that relative to Obama Care, “Because premiums are going up, it’s true premiums are going up for a handful of people that don’t get tax credits.”

“Are going up for am handful of people?” Let’s try and figure out what his definition of “a handful of people” are:

• Earlier this week we cited numerous sources that agree that 23% of those Americans currently under Obama Care policies do not receive tax credits to help offset Obama Care insurance premium increases.
• If we use the standard estimate that about 10 million Americans are now covered by Obama Care insurance policies, than about 2.3 million Americans are what Obama calls a “handful of people.”
• A city of 2.3 Americans would make it the fourth largest city in the country, trailing only New York City, LA, and Chicago in population.
• It would be a city bigger than Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and San Diego.
• It would have a population bigger than the population of Dallas and San Jose COMBINED.
• It would have a population bigger than the population of Seattle, Charlotte, and Fort Worth COMBINED.
• Its 2.3 million population would have more people than the population of fifteen states’ entire population.
• It would have more people than the population of Alaska, Wyoming, and Vermont COMBINED.

And as we said before, while 77% of Obama Care policy owners will not pay for the entire amount of their premium increases, they all will pay some part of that increase and the American taxpayer will pay the remainder; those premium cost increases do not magically go away, they are paid for by other taxpayers and increase in the overwhelming national debt load. In no way did Obama fulfill his promise of “bending the cost curve” of health care costs in this country, all he did was camouflage where those costs were being paid.

And of course, his smugness does not address the increase in deductible levels. Even if 77% of Obama Care policy holders are getting some relief from the large premium increases, many times those policies are not usable since the deductible levels have gone up so high, often above $10,000 a year for bronze plans or family plans.

Delusional or lying? You decide but your answer does not change the reality that Obama Care continues to fail in keeping costs down in the health care industry.

3) The Tampa Bay Times on October 30, 2016 did a Politifact check on the assertion by Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz that “It’s four or five states where the number of insurance options has narrowed.” Politifact rated this assertion as False as they should have since according to their analysis, and the numbers we have been talking about this week, the number of states seeing less insurance company policy options is at least 29 states.

So, technically Wasserman Schultz is correct when she says four or five states are seeing their “insurance options narrow.” It is just she neglected to point out that at least 24 other states were in the same boat. Another politician’s lie or deception, much like Obama’s alternative reality where just a handful of people will see their policy costs go up. Tell a lie enough times and it eventually becomes the truth. Definitely in an alternative reality.

More of the same today: higher costs, less choice and competition, and lying politicians. More of the same types of disasters tomorrow.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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

August, 2014 Political Class Inanity, Part 1: Stupid Political Class Quotes, Leave My Corruption Alone, and More

It is that time of the month where every month we review the latest insanity, ineptness, wasteful spending, stupid quotes, and other frivolity of the American political class. Unfortunately, we have a pretty full plate this month, a plate that is going to take a long list of posts to get through as our politicians continue to prove that we are living through the worst set of politicians today that this nation has ever had to endure.

1) Ms. Eleanor Holmes Norton is the non-voting Congressional delegate for the District of Columbia in Congress. At a recent Congressional committee hearing that was looking into potential law breaking by a member of the White House staff, she got real hissy and angrily yelled out that the White House should not be held up to scrutiny. She claimed that Congress, and by proxy the American people, had no right to know what it was doing behind closed doors at the White House, even if illegal acts were being done:

"You don't have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government." 

She made these public comments during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

The key word here is “oversight.” Contrary to what Ms. Norton has to say, this committee by its definition is responsible for overseeing and making sure that government and its representatives act in accordance with the existing laws of this country. Her rant goes against the false promise of this President that he was going to run the most transparent Presidential administration ever. Hard to do that when Congress is held back from doing its job.

The ignition for her rant occurred because the committee's Republican majority voted to ignore a claim by the White House that David Simas, director of it's Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, was immune to a Congressional subpoena to testify. Republicans believe the office is being used a political campaign operation, a violation of Federal election law. So I guess in her mind it is okay to ignore the law as long as you work in the White House.

Her idiotic comments can be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch=YfXoK68YXFc&feature=youtu.be

2) We have always been a big fan of term limits. Without term limits, politicians tend to very quickly start worrying about their own self enrichment rather than operating an efficient and effective government. Over time their only focus becomes staying in office in order to reap the financial and other benefits of being in office, both legal and illegal. 

That is why when a politician gets caught doing illegal acts it is usually the ones that have been around the longest and have been rigging the system, to their economic well. That is why our term limits website and effort, 

www.howmuchworsecoudlitget.com 

is important, it would help get rid of politicians before their corruption reaches the depths that it does now.

The latest example of a long time politician really running afoul of the law is unfolding in Dallas. After being in political office for about four decades, John Wiley Price, a Dallas County Commissioner, was recently arrested along with three colleagues on suspicion of bribery and fraud. According to a local media station‘s news report, KDFW, law enforcement officials say the long time elected official received nearly $1 million in payouts and other improper benefits for at least a decade beginning in 2001.

Details of this and other shady dealings over the years include the following:

• This current Federal indictment claims that the payments were primarily made “to influence and reward Price to take action or refrain from taking negative action, as specific opportunities arose.”
• The arrest comes after an investigation began several years ago, an investigation that involved FBI raids of his home and office, among other locations. 
• His arrest came just weeks after prosecutors attempted to reach a plea bargain with Price, which his attorney rejected.
• Local U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana called the indictment against Price “a shocking betrayal of public trust,” asserting that he received a “steady stream” of illegal kickbacks and bribes.
• The charges include one count each of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to defraud the IRS, three counts of submitting a fraudulent tax return, and six counts of mail fraud.
• According to the Dallas Morning News, Price’s legal troubles began to surface as far back as the 1970s when he served as the Democratic Progressive Voters League chairman. 
• Back then he reportedly pleaded guilty to making false statements during a Federal trial in 1976 but the charges against him were dropped following an appeal.
• During his four decade career in politics, he has been arrested for assault, disorderly conduct, and other crimes, he faced several allegations of outrageous behavior, including shooting a dog and point a gun at its owner, physically attacking multiple police officers, threatening to beat an elderly man, defacing private property, and smashing the windshield of a constituent’s vehicle.
• He was caught on tape threatening a reporter in 2011.

Nice guy. If term limits had been in place, this fellow would have been gone and forgotten 35 years ago and the people of Dallas would not have had to put up with this nonsense, corruption, and dishonesty. More details of his shenanigans can be found at:

http://www.westernjournalism.com/dallas-democrats-arrest-comes-decades-scandal/#Q78FeQ80HeWFHLLp.99

3) This falls into the good news/bad news category. According to New York Times reporting, the governor of New York state, Andrew Coumo, took the bold and correct step when, in the summer of 2013, he established a powerful independent commission to look into and hopefully root out corruption in state politics. Good news, setting up an outside agency to look inwards to state political class corruption.

Now the bad news. The commission was in existence for less than two months when its investigators, hunting for violations of state campaign-finance laws, issued a subpoena to a media-buying firm that had placed millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements for the New York State Democratic Party. Sounds like a legitimate use of the an independent commission’s resources.

Oops. The commission investigators did not realize that the firm, Buying Time, also included Governor Cuomo among its clients, having bought the airtime for his political campaign when he ran for governor in 2010. When news of the subpoena got to a top Cuomo aide, Lawrence S. Schwartz, Mr. Schwartz called one of the commission’s three co-chairs, William J. Fitzpatrick, the district attorney in Syracuse. According to three other witnesses that were present when Fitzpatrick received the call from Schwartz, Schwartz allegedly said: “This is wrong,” namely the subpoena to a Cuomo political operative was wrong. And that the commission needed to: “Pull it back.” with the “it” being the subpoena. As a result of the call, the subpoena was withdrawn and the investigation of potential wrong doing by the media company was halted.

According to the Times reporting, “Cuomo said early on that the commission would be “totally independent” and free to pursue wrongdoing anywhere in state government, including in his own office. “Anything they want to look at, they can look at — me, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the comptroller, any senator, any assemblyman,” he said last August.”

So much for doing the right thing, so much for independence, so much for government transparency. Cuomo eventually and abruptly disbanded the commission midway through its expect 18 month tenure and now the FBI is investigating the whole sordid mess. I guess it is okay to investigate political corruption as long as you do not investigate my political corruption.

4) One more piece of insanity for today. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is a U.S. Congresswoman from Florida. She is also the head of the Democratic National Committee. 

In that capacity of representing the positions and views of her entire party, you would hope that she would do a little bit of basic research before opening her mouth in a public forum, a forum that she knew she was going to be a part of. But much like one of her peers, Nancy Pelosi, a politician whose quotes have made our monthly political class insanity posts numerous times, Ms. Wassermann-Schultz leaves you shaking your head over saying stuff that she obviously knows nothing about.

The following exchange took place during a TV interview in the state of Nevada:

Wasserman-Schultz: “Just take a state like Nevada. Where you have a governor who refused to implement a state exchange and as a result people who get Affordable Care Act healthcare plans are getting them on the federal exchange..."

TV Interviewer: “Hang on. Let me just stop you for a second, because you’re misinformed about that. Brian Sandoval put in a state exchange. He did. So, whoever briefed you on that is wrong. He did put in a state exchange. He was the first Republican governor to do that.”

Wasserman-Schultz: “OK. That’s not even the point I’m making. I stand corrected. I’m not from Nevada.”

And she supposedly is one of our Congressional leaders. I am sorry, you cannot be considered a leader when you do not even know basic facts about what you are talking about, in this case, the local Obama Care situation in Nevada. Maybe this is why Obama Care is such a disaster, those who wrote it, voted for it, and supported it do not even know or can comprehend basic facts. 

The live interview of her ignorance can be viewed at:

http://eaglerising.com/7574/democrat-national-spokesperson-idea-whats-going/#scYDP3BZuLb5XQGk.99

That will do it for today. A Congressional representative that wants the White House to do illegal acts while impervious to Congressional and citizen overview, a typically corrupt long term politician, this one in Dallas, a politician that wants to root out everyone else’s corruption but not his, and a Congressional leader that has no grasp of reality or facts. Sounds about right for the first act in this month’s political class insanity.

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

It's Now Official, Part 2: Political Donors More Important Than Constituents

Yesterday we discussed the travesty and disgrace inherent in our political process where Congressional members are spending far more time trying to raise election campaign funds then they are spending on supporting their constituents and doing valid legislative work. The basis of our discussion, a recent Huffington Post article, revealed the formal process that all Congressional members are held to, down to the details of how many hours every day each member is to spend on fund raising (a lot) and non-fund raising activities (not so much).

One would have hoped that members of Congress were dedicating the vast amount of their time and energy to resolving the major issues of our times. That hope, obviously, would be incorrect. Which explains why our lost war on drugs, our failing public schools, our skyrocketing deficit, and other major issues never get resolved.

The article went beyond this exposure of showing that Congressional members are more focused on their political donors than their constituents. When it comes down to Congressional committee and subcommittee posts, one would have hoped that the politicians staffing those positions would be the most qualified and have the most expertise for each committee’s duties.

For example, one would hope that politicians serving on veterans’ affairs committees had some understanding or experience with veterans and the problems they face. Those that sit on banking committees have some kind of finance or banking experience in their background. Same with highway committees, housing committees, etc.

But again, that hope would be dashed. According to the article, the best members matched to the appropriate committees is farthest from the reality of what goes on in Washington. Consider the following insightful quote from the article

“The quality of a committee assignment is directly related to the amount of dues owed, as black-and-white an admission of the connection between fundraising and policy outcomes as can be found.”

This quote and Huffington Post article introduce a process that I was not aware of. They called it a "dues process" and apparently all members of Congress, from both parties, are given monetary targets that they have to hit and raise money that is funneled to the national Republican and Democratic political organizations.

Apparently, making or missing your dues target determines the quality and quantity of Congressional committee assignments a member of Congress can land. It has little to do with someone’s skills, experiences, or education, it all has to do with raising money to meet your dues target.

And these dues target are not trivial. In fact, they are obscenely high, which probably requires sitting politicians to do much more fund raising and hitting up political donors than actually doing their jobs and serving their hometown citizens. A March 11, 2012 Politico article highlighted how obscene these dues targets were for Democrats in 2011 (as you read them, ask yourself how much energy is diverted to these activities vs. problem solving activities):

• Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer - $800,000 each.
• Pelosi was given the additional assignment of raising another $25 million for the party and Hoyer had to find another $2.5 million.
• Assistant Leader Jim Clyburn was to raise $1.5 million.
• John Larson and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Xavier Becerra and George Miller (Calif.), and Steve Israel (N.Y.) were expected to give $450,000 apiece OF THEIR OWN MONEY. Which raises the issue of why anyone would want to be a Congressman for an annual salary of $170,00 when in the case of these sitting politicians, according to Politico, they have to put up $450,000 of their own money for dues. Something like corruption smells here in this math.
• DeLauro and Miller were told to raise another $500,000 for the national Democratic Party while Israel has to raise an additional $10 million.
• Vice chairs Joe Crowley (N.Y.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Pedro Pierluisi (P.R.) and Allyson Schwartz (Pa.) were to transfer $300,000 apiece (which I am assuming is also their own money), and their goals for raising money ranged from $300,000 for the latter three to $4 million for Wasserman Schultz and $6 million for Crowley.The lists goes on but you get the idea.

These people are expected to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money and then go out and raise tens of millions of other dollars for their mother ship’s political activities. If successful, they apparently get the plum committee assignments, regardless of their abilities and expertise.

This obviously suboptimal process results in suboptimal legislating. The Huffington Post article discusses this disgrace in detail:

One member of Congress said that the fundraising takes up so much time that members don't even have time to become experts on bills they sponsor. "One thing that's always been striking to me is even the members playing a leading role on specific issues actually could not talk about the issues," said the member, who didn't want to be quoted by name. "They didn't have enough knowledge on their own issues to talk about them at length. I'm probably guilty of that." He recalled one meeting early in his career, where he brought several members together to try to hash out a compromise, just as he had done earlier as a state legislator.

"Staff members were all twitching at the discussion, because their principals were saying things that were just flat-wrong or uninformed or wondering aloud about what the industry practices really were," he recalled. "The staff members of course had a pretty good idea. ... The members were sitting around the table having a remarkably uninformed and unproductive discussion."

Pretty scary stuff that a member of the process thinks that the process results in a remarkably uninformed and unproductive discussion. Which probably led to a remarkably uninformed and unproductive piece of legislation that never resolved the war on drugs failure, the high national debt problem, the lack of a national energy program and strategy, etc.

Members of Congress are so distracted into raising ungodly sums of money that pervert our democracy that they themselves end up being unremarkable, uninformed, and unproductive. When a Democratic Congressman confronted Pelosi in a meeting, stating that the dues process and levels were unreasonable, she simply replied that they were not doing enough to raise money. Never mind that not only are the dues levels unreasonable, the whole process and focus on raising money to the detriment of everything else is an abomination.

As a closing to the today’s and yesterday’s exposure of what really goes on in Washington, think about the image the following describes, in the words of a current Washington politician:

 U.S. Senators do not bother going to their party’s headquarters or the rowhouses near the Capital building to make fund raising calls since it is against the law to make fundraising calls from their offices: “But they [U.S. Senators] go outside and sit in their cars and make calls.

Yes, your U.S. Senators, some of the most powerful people in the country and the world, go sit in their cars and grovel for money from political donors over their cell phones. What an obscene and disgraceful image. Paying dues, raising money. Making calls, raising money. Attending fundraisers, making money. With a little bit of uninformed legislating thrown in. No wonder we are in such sad shape as a country.

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

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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