Retro 2: Wasteful Government Spending Week: Pimp My Congressional Ride - Part 2

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."

Monday, May 21, 2012

Wasteful Government Spending Week: Pimp My Congressional Ride - Part 2

Many Americans probably do not realize that a lot of their tax dollars are used to provide free car leases and free gasoline for those car leases for use by their Congressmen and Congresswomen. We had covered this spending atrocity previously in this blog, back in August, 2009,

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2009/08/pimp-my-ride-taxpayers.html

but thought it was worthwhile to cover again, Pimp My Congressional Ride - Part 2, since nothing has been done to terminate this obvious example of wasteful government spending by the political class in the House Of Representatives.

While the amount of money wasted is relatively small compared to the bloated overall bloated Federal budget, as former Senator Everett Dirksen once said: "A billion dollars here, a billions dollars there, and pretty soon you are talking about some real money."

In order to save trillions of dollars of unnecessary spending by the political class, you first have to start saving thousands which eventually becomes saving millions which eventually becomes saving some real money, billions, which eventually becomes saving trillions.

This is especially true when you consider how useless these Congressional expenses are in light of the following numbers and facts, brought to you by a recent investigation done by Inside Edition (http://www.insideedition.com/news/8119/inside-edition-investigates-congressional-cars.aspx):

• The typical Congressman in the House Of Representatives earns about $170,000 a year in salary, placing every one of them well within the upper 5% of wage earners in the country. Bottom line: they can afford to lease their own vehicles with their own money.
• The Senate does not have a similar program of taxpayers subsidizing autos for their members, Senators use their own funds and own vehicles. Bottom line: if Senators do not get free transportation from the taxpayer and seem to do okay without such a program, even though they have to cover the geography of a whole state, not the much smaller geography of a Congressional district, members in the House certainly do not need a free car program.
• Consider Gregory Meeks a Democratic Congressman from New York. He drives a luxury Lexus 450 Hybrid, a taxpayer funded lease that goes for $1,289.40 a month. This results in the taxpayer shelling out $15,374 a year. Bottom line: according to ecent United States Census data, (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0690.pdf), the taxpayer funded lease for this one car is greater than the household income of 13% of American households, about 15 million households. Talk about bad priorities, one unnecessary luxury car lease with more value than a year's earnings of so many American households.
• The really sad thing about this program is that Meeks is not the only Congressional driver whose annual lease cost is greater than the annual income of so many Americans. Bottom line: even if the program was essential, which it is not, for Congressional people to get around their districts, good sense should dictate that driving around in Lexus, Lincoln, and other high cost autos is totally unnecessary from a basic transportation perspective and blatantly egotistical on behalf of these supposed public servants.
• If you add up the monthly lease costs of 82 examples of taxpayer leased cars identified by the Inside Edition report, you find that the American taxpayer is on the hook for almost $700,000 a year for this unnecessary program. If you throw in the down payments of some of the leases and the taxpayer-funded gasoline that goes into these autos every year, it is probably a very safe bet that more than $832,000 a year is incurred each year by this program. Bottom line: when the GSA wastes $832,000 ONCE on a Las Vegas party, Congress goes into a rage even though it wastes at least $832,000 every YEAR on auto leases.

It never ends. Bad priorities, wasteful spending, over inflated egos of self importance, and never, ever the solution of any major problem facing most Americans. Since Congress cannot clean up its act, it falls back on us to do it ourselves. This involves the short term fix of dumping out all incumbents in the November elections since it is obvious that the current sitting Congressional people have not learned their lessons of leadership and thrift.

The longer term solution is the implementation of Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." This step would install term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done." Current Washington politicians continue to prove that they are out of touch with reality, budget constraints, and struggling Americans. If you car lease is greater than the household income of 13% of America, you are out of touch. You are also expendable.

The following data comes from the Inside Edition website (http://www.insideedition.com/news/8119/inside-edition-investigates-congressional-cars.aspx) which recently did an investigative journalism piece on this wasteful government program.

Members of the House Of Representatives who lease tax payer-funded vehicles.

Source: Statement of Disbursements – House of Representatives – 4th Quarter 2011

44 Democrats and 38 Republicans.

Representative State Monthly Payment Additional information

1. Dan Burton – Rep. (two leases) Indiana $600 + $684.78 Leases two vehicles
2. Mary Bono Mack – Rep. California $682.94
3. Rodney Alexander – Rep. Louisiana $167.99 Includes a $20,000 down payment
4. Xavier Becerra – Dem. California $271.80
5. Adam Schiff – Dem. California $489.24
6. Adrian Smith – Rep. Nebraska $692.52 Includes a $7,554.24 down payment
7. Al Green – Dem. Texas $436.89
8. André Carson – Dem. Indiana ***payment amount varies from $657.99 to $748.65 per month
9. Anna Eshoo – Dem. California $389.60
10. Barbara Lee – Dem. California $898.55
11. Bill Flores – Rep. Texas $455.55
12. Bill Johnson – Rep. Ohio $370.13
13. Bill Shuster – Rep. Pennsylvania $392.00
14. Bobby Rush – Dem. Illinois $1,027.53
15. Brad Miller – Dem. North Carolina $431.87
16. Chip Cravaack – Rep. Minnesota $1,008.22
17. Cliff Stearns – Rep. Florida $789.25
18. Collin Peterson – Dem. Minnesota $362 + $290.00 Leases two vehicles
19. Cory Gardner – Rep. Colorado $910.80
20. Dana Rohrabacher – Rep. California $918.63
21. David Dreier – Rep. California $598.92
22. David Scott – Dem. Georgia $519.40
23. Dennis Rehberg – Rep. Montana $499 + $799.00 Leases two vehicles
24. Don Young – Rep. Alaska $748.73
25. Donald Manzullo – Rep. Illinois $619.19
26. Ed Pastor – Dem. Arizona $294.33
27. Edolphus Towns – Dem. New York $1,285.06
28. Edward Royce – Rep. California $509.98
29. Eleanor Holmes Norton – Dem. D.C. $807.55
30. Emanuel Cleaver – Dem. Missouri $1,900.00 Lease is for mobile office used in district
31. George Miller – Dem. California $520.10
32. Gregory Meeks – Dem. New York $1,289.40
33. Gus Bilirakis – Rep. Florida $449.60
34. Heath Shuler – Dem. North Carolina $485.31
35. Hank Johnson Jr. – Dem. Georgia $725.79
36. Henry Cuellar – Dem. Texas $594.28
37. Howard Berman – Dem. California $382.78
38. Howard “Buck” McKeon – Rep. California $662.83
39. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – Rep. California $479.86
40. James Clyburn – Dem. South Carolina $1,139.26
41. Jim McDermott – Dem. Washington $346.46
42. Joe Baca – Dem. California $732.86
43. Joe Barton – Rep. Texas $998.89
44. Joe Donnelly – Dem. Indiana $450.00
45. John Abney Culberson – Rep. Texas $880.00
46. John Conyers Jr. – Dem. Michigan $1,251.66
47. John Garamendi – Dem. California $910.82
48. John Lewis – Dem. Georgia $578.21
49. John Carter – Rep. Texas $880.96
50. John Sullivan – Rep. Oklahoma $258.30
51. José Serrano – Dem. New York $485.31
52. Kenny Marchant – Rep. Texas $899.67
53. Kevin McCarthy – Rep. California $716.25
54. Laura Richardson – Dem. California $852.96
55. Linda Sanchez – Dem. California $861.87
56. Louie Gohmert – Rep. Texas $466.40
57. Lynn Woolsey – Dem. California $647.97
58. Mario Diaz-Balart – Rep. Florida $722.02
59. Melvin Watt – Dem. North Carolina $431.81
60. Michael Simpson – Rep. Idaho $698.13
61. Michael Michaud – Dem. Maine $795.00
62. Mike Coffman – Rep. Colorado $671.51
63. Mike McIntyre – Dem. North Carolina $430.82
64. Mike Pence – Rep. Indiana $282.68
65. Mike Pompeo – Rep. Kansas $486.00
66. Mike Ross – Dem. Arkansas $851.28
67. Nick Rahall – Dem. West Virginia $671.41
68. Pedro Pierluisi – Dem. Puerto Rico $1,400.00
69. Peter Welch – Dem. Vermont $425.68
70. Phil Gingrey – Rep. Georgia $470.88
71. Randy Neugebauer – Rep. Texas $333.33
72. Raul Grijalva – Dem. Arizona $709.28
73. Sam Johnson – Rep. Texas $758.65
74. Sean Duffy – Rep. Wisconsin $1,350.00 Lease is for mobile office used in district
75. Sheila Jackson Lee – Dem. Texas $751.99
76. Silvestre Reyes – Dem. Texas $655.46
77. Steve Womack – Rep. Arkansas $565.61
78. Steven LaTourette – Rep. Ohio $502.24
79. Theodore “Ted” Deutch – Dem. Florida $301.17
80. Wally Herger – Rep. California $650.00
81. William “Lacy” Clay Jr. – Dem. Missouri $779.08
82. William Keating – Dem. Massachusetts $968.85

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

Making Government More Efficient - A Lesson From BMW

As our national debt levels have skyrocketed, most rational and knowledgeable Americans in the country realize that something has to be done to get our government spending and budget under control before we bankrupt the country. This blog has previously suggested any number of ways to start the downsizing process:

• Bring home the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops we have deployed all over the world in deployments that serve another time and another era but which no longer serve any military or diplomatic purpose, saving hundreds of billions of dollars a year in defense costs.
• Aggressively address, track, and prosecute those that defraud government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid or who do not pay their fair share of income taxes. The Obama administration has conceded that almost $100 billion is lost every year in government medical programs through fraud and criminal activity.
• Eliminate all earmarks, which only serve as a deceptive way of financing incumbents' re-election campaigns, saving almost $20 billion a year.
• The Cato Institute has been working on a long term project where they have been going through the Federal budget line by line and have already identified places and programs that can be cut or scaled back to save over $600 billion a year.

Thus, there are many obvious ways to get our government growth under control. However, an article in the October 10, 2010 edition of the St. Petersburg Times provided some insight from BMW that could be used by the Federal government to wring additional savings and efficiencies out of the Federal government bureaucracy. According to the article, by 2007 BMW was faced with an aging work force and declining productivity. Older workers tended to call in sick longer than the younger employees and they had to work harder to keep up with the demands of their work. To combat the increasing inefficiency of an aging workforce, the company put together a pilot production line, staffed by older workers, and let the workers make whatever changes they felt were necessary to keep this production line productive and efficient. This experimental production line resulted in the following accomplishments: 

• The older workers came up with 70 process improvements to their work.
• These changes included using larger fonts on their computer monitors and installing wooden floors to make standing easier on older knees and legs.
• They adapted their tools to larger handles and started using orthopedic footwear to make standing and working easier and less painful.
• Workers were rotated between more physically and less physically stressful jobs during the same shift to keep them fresh and installed adjustable chairs which allowed workers to sit for at least part of their shift.

What was the result of instituting these worker-identified changes? Productivity went up 7%, absenteeism dropped to 2%, which was lower than the overall plant average, and the line achieved zero defects. The cost for all of these wonderful, money saving performance improvements was only $50,000 which included both the cost of new equipment and additional training.

The lesson to be learned form this BMW success story is that there is much to be learned by the people that do the real job everyday. They can see where efficiencies and savings can be found, if only you give them the chance. This phenomenon was suggested under Step 1 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government."  Step 1 calls for an annual 10% downsizing of government for five years in order to wring out waste, fraud, and redundancy. A major process envisioned under Step 1 was to set up a procedure where Federal employees could easily suggest ways to improve the operating processes of the Federal government by either identifying waste or suggesting new ways of doing things.

As an incentive for looking for changes in operations, a lottery system would be set up where Federal employees would have a chance to receive a monetary reward if their suggestions were actually implemented. It is pretty obvious from watching any Congressional hearing that members of the political class sitting on those committees are quite clueless when it comes to understanding how the intricacies of how government functions work. They would never be able to identify the small ways to save taxpayer money without sacrificing functionality or quality. If you find enough ways to save a small amount of money, you eventually end up saving a lot of taxpayer money. As Senator Everett Dirksen once said: " A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Before you know it we are talking about real money."

Let's do some math. Obama's current budget is $3.5 TRILLION. If you could repeat the experience of BMW, where they used their line workers to identify cost and time savings, and get a 7% increase in productivity of the Federal government, you could cut the Federal budget by about $245 billion ($3.5 TRILLION times 7%) without sacrificing any quality or service. $245 billion and we are all of a sudden in Dirksen territory. That comes down to an equivalent of more than $1,200 per U.S. family per year. For the first time in our history, you would have the Federal government doing more with less, a mantra that has driven the private sector of our economy from day one.

Thus, reducing the size of government needs to be attacked at both the macro and micro level. At the macro level, we need to do the big changes such as bringing our troops home, eliminating earmarks, and prosecuting fraud. At he micro level, we need to exploit the knowledge and insights that our veteran Federal workers can bring to the table to fine tune the government so that it acts and looks more like a lean, mean fighting machine and less like an overblown Jabba The Hutt.

Our new 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 these other sites for freedom:

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