Simple Math, Simpler (And More Depressing) Politicans - Attack Parrots, Flaming Water Skis And More

In last Friday's post we did some simple math calculations to show a path to energy independence and clean energy sources. In past posts, we have used some simple math to show the idiocy of Obama Care. We have used simple math to illustrate the fatal path we are on relative to deficit spending and $15 TRILLION worth of debt. Math can make the complicated simple, the unclear focused, the lies and other misperceptions proven false and unveil the inadequacy that is our political class.


Today, let's use math and statistics just to show how silly and/or how incompetent our political class has become and why the members of the political class need to be replaced as soon as possible. If we do not replace them, the math will continue to not add up. We'll review some current statistics and math to try and figure out how did we allow our politicians to get us in so many silly and depressing places today:


1) President Obama is back on his "tax the rich" kick again, this time again using Warren Buffet as a prop and trying to get Americans to believe that increasing taxes on Americans making over a million dollars a year is a great and critical step to take. Various estimates exist on how much this will increase Federal tax revenue but the most consistent estimate I have seen is about $47 billion over ten years or about $4.7 billion a year.


Rather than worry about the TRILLIONs and TRILLIONs of dollars Mr. Obama has added to our nation's national debt, he refuses to acknowledge this disaster and engages full time in the relatively petty amount of $4.7 billion a year, only because it might get him some election year talking points.

How petty is $4.7 billion a year? Let's do some simple math:

• If you were to somehow directly redistribute that $4.7 billion back to all of the non-millionaire citizens in this country, each of us would get about $.04 a day.
• Last month's deficit spending estimate incurred by the Federal government was about $198,000,000,000 (yes, in one month the Feds overspent their revenue stream by just under $200 billion.) If you assume the additional Buffet tax on millionaires would be spread out equally over each of the twelve months, then the additional millionaire tax money would have covered about .2% of last month's Federal deficit.
• As we discussed above, ten years worth of incremental millionaire taxes would generate about $47 billion for the Federal government. Those tax dollars would be able to pay off about .31% of our CURRENT national debt (in fact, it would be even less since this administration would continue to have us on an ever enlarging national debt increase in the ten years it would take to gather the incremental $47 billion).

Simple math, simpler politicians who cannot even see that this election year ploy is ridiculously stupid. It will never find its way back to other Americans (i.e. we will never see that $.04 a day), it will not significantly reduce any measure of deficit spending and our national debt, and it distracts the politicians running for office and Americans who need to vote from the real issues and financial disaster confronting all of us.

2) If Obama really wants more money, he does not have to increase taxes on any American, rich or poor. According to an article in the March, 2012 issue of AARP magazine, the IRS fails to collect about $385 billion a year in taxes from individuals and businesses that they are legally required to pay. The Federal government's failure to collect this tax liability makes honest taxpayers pay more and further increases the country's national debt.

Let's do some simple math:

• If this legally owed, but uncollected, $385 billion a year could be collected, it could theoretically reduce the every American household's tax liability by over $3,300 a year.
• This extra $385 billion a year is about 82 times larger than what Obama's shallow and politically motivated millionaire tax idea would bring into the Federal government.
• Over ten years, collecting that missing $385 billion a year would generate about $3.85 TRILLION. This is about 26% of our current national debt vs. a measly .31% of the current debt that Obama's new millionaire tax is worth.Simple math, simpler politicians.

The laws and tax code are already on the books to generate far more than a new law and new part of the tax code that is unlikely to ever get passed into law, it is only an election year ploy.

 3) Here is some depressing math and statistics from the March 2, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, reporting on a Chicago Tribune source: since 1976, 1,531 public officials from the Chicago area have been convicted of corruption. This simple math works out to the following, depressing conclusions

• On average, more than one Chicago public official was convicted every week for 27 years in the Chicago area for corruption.
• These are CONVICTIONS, not arrests, no indictments, not plea bargains, CONVICTIONS.
• This conviction rate was only in the Chicago area, it did not include the entire state of Illinois or any other sub part of Illinois, just the Chicago area.

This number does obviously not include those corrupt public officials that got away with their crimes and corruption.Very depressing but a simple math explanation of why our government at all levels, is ineffective, inefficient, and a disgrace: those that are in office are ineffective and inefficient because they are looking out for only their self interest which makes them a disgrace relative to being a public servant.

 4) An insight saying that I always remember (source unknown) when discussing government, politicians, and math goes as follows: "The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words."

Maybe we have a $15 TRILLION national debt because the government bureaucracy has gotten so large and cumbersome that we actually hire someone, somewhere to write down 26,911 words on cabbage.

5) But apparently no one in the political class sees this as a problem because according to another article in the March 2, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, in 2013 the number of Federally mandated categories of illness and injuries for which hospitals may claim reimbursement will soar from 18,000 different types of illnesses and injuries to 140,000. Outrageous numbers, probably courtesy of Obama Care. Again, someone, somewhere in the wasteful bureaucracy had to come up with, write down, get approval of, and print up not only 18,000 types of claims but 122,000 new ones.

But the math insanity does not stop at 122,000 because included in those 122,000 new categories are:

• Nine categories of injuries and illnesses that were caused by parrots.
• Three categories of injuries and illnesses that were caused by flaming water skis.

Simple math, and simpler politicians that allow this type of nonsense to go on and on and on. Attack parrots and flaming water skis, insanity.

6) Here is some simple math that should hit everyone. According to a Bloomberg blurb printed in the March 30, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, for every penny increase to the cost of a gallon of gas, about $1 billion of consumer spending on other goods and services in the economy vanishes. More simple math:

• When Obama took office in early 2009, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was about $1.86.
• Today in the greater Tampa area, the average price of a gallon of gas is about $3.90, an increase of $2.04 in only 27 months.
• Thus, if you believe Bloomberg, the continued lack of an energy plan for the country has removed $204 billion out of the economy and into the coffers of foreign oil exporters and oil companies.
• This gas increase takes about $1,775 out of every average American household's budget, money that could have helped the economy recover and grow.

Simple math, and simpler politicians that cannot come together with a coherent energy program, to the detriment of every American household and the American economy.

7) The April 6, 2012 issue of The Week magazine had some very distressing math relative to one of the most tyrannical humans of the last century. When you think of Joseph Stalin, you do not think of anything good. The head of the former Soviet Union, Stalin was responsible for the killing of millions of political enemies and ordinary citizens. He imprisoned millions of people for little or no reason in inhumane conditions.

With this perspective, The Week reported the statistic that the U.S. now has more than 6 million people in jail or in prison. This is a higher number than the Soviet Union imprisoned in gulag prisons during Stalin's reign.

That is some truly frightening math. We are no better than Stalin. I would bet that the vast majority of those imprisoned are for drug-related offenses, a testimony to the continuing failure of the political class to come up with an effective and compassionate drug strategy.

Simple math, simpler politicians with no imagination when it comes to the drug wars.

Isn't math fun? By using math we can see how we are all misserved by just about every American politician when you look at their track record of numbers.

Many of them are in jail.

Many of them have put untold millions of undeserving Americans in jail due to their failed war on drugs.

They hire and pay people to write extensive cabbage regulations and to dream up thousands of thousands low potential injury scenarios involving flaming water skis and parrots.

They fail to collect hundreds of billions of dollars a year in taxes while wanting to impose new taxes in the face of their tax collection incompetency.

An old sports saying goes as follows: "You are only as good as your record." The above numbers of our political class's performance are not very good at all. Thus, their record is not very good at all. For that, they need to be removed from their positions and replaced with new players, just like any losing sports team would do. Unlike politicians, the numbers and the math do not lie, they are what they are.


"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/

$4.00 For A Gallon Of Gas And Retro Nancy Pelosi - Not A Pretty Combo

Driving around the Tampa Bay area today I was struck by the fact that it seems as if the price for a gallon of regular gas has gone up a dime in just the past day or so. The area average price is about $3.95 a gallon. It is probably a safe assumption that the average price of gas is more than $4.00 a gallon in many places in the United States, months before the heavy summer driving season begins along with its traditionally higher gas prices.

This $4.00 or so a gallon is more than double what it was when Obama became President (up about 124%). It is up 76% since Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic Representatives took over the House of Representatives in 2007 and Harry Reid and his Democratic Senators took over the Senate.

This leads us to review the following statistics that we have already reviewed in this blog:

1. Over the past five years (2007 through 2011), the Democrats have controlled the House of Representatives for four years and the Republicans have controlled it for one year.
2. Over the past five years, the Democrats have controlled the Senate for all five years.
3. Over the past five years, the Democrats controlled the White House for three years and the Republicans controlled the White House for two years.
4. Thus, in total, over the past five years, the Democrats have controlled the bodies of government 80% of the time and Republicans have controlled the bodies of government 20% of the time.

Which is a roundabout way to get to a five year old Nancy Pelosi press conference. That press conference, and her own words, can be reviewed at the following link:

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

I find the video interesting for the following reasons:

• Pelosi is lamenting the fact that the price for gas has gone from $1.47 to $3.05 and lambasting the Bush administration for not having a comprehensive energy plan.
• This increase is about 107%, which is a smaller increase than what has happened from when Obama took office to today (124%).
• Pelosi proclaims that July 4, 2007 will be Energy Independence Day, a day that has yet to arrive in America, five years after she proclaimed it.
• Back at this 2007 press conference, Pelosi talks about removing tax breaks from oil companies, much like Obama discusses today, a move that makes no sense today like it made no sense in 2007. Think about the logic of Pelosi and Obama: if the oil companies are less profitable, as a result of a higher tax expense, it will make oil and gas prices go down. Stupidity.
• She also talks about growing alternative sources of energy in 2007. Five years later, we are really not much closer to making alternative energy sources a viable alternative in this country. Instead, we have had pathetic failures of government energy programs (e.g. Cash For Clunkers, Cash For Appliances, and Cash For Caulkers) and pathetic failures of Federal government investments of taxpayer money in alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra, Beacon, Evergreen, ENER1, Spectra, Fisker, Tesla, The Chevy Volt, and more) at a cost of billions of dollars.
• In 2007, Pelosi wanted to spend more of our energy dollars in the Midwestern United States vs. the Middle East. However, five years later, we still import about half of our petroleum from other countries and as a result, our high energy costs are driven by tensions in the Middle East, not our Midwest.

Thus, despite Pelosi's blaming the Bush administration for high gas prices in 2007, five years later, with the Democrats in charge of 80% of the Federal government since then, we are no better off today than we were back then. And the bad news for the Democrats, if history is any guide, 124% increase is not the peak of the price curve.

As with every other Pelosi assertion and effort, and the failure of just about any Obama program or project, the promises from 2007 to implement a coherent and comprehensive national energy policy are still nowhere to be found. From an unbiased perspective, i.e. not as a politician, and looking just at the data, both members of the political class (Democrats and Republicans) are both to blame for high gas prices and the lack of a strategy for energy.

Starting with the oil shocks and embargoes back in the mid 1970s, both the Democrats and Republicans have been in charge of the Senate, the House, and the White House at various points in time. None of them have been capable of putting together an energy plan.

For Pelosi to blame the Bush administration for a smaller increase in gas prices and not blame Obama for the larger increases in gas prices is pure hypocrisy.

For Pelosi to blame the Bush administration for not having a national energy program and not blame herself or Obama, more than three years into his term for not having a national energy program, is pure hypocrisy.

Since the Bush administration did not take a coherent Clinton administration national energy program (there was no program) and destroy it, for Pelosi to blame the Bush administration, and not the Clinton administration, for not having a national energy program is pure hypocrisy.

But hypocrisy is what we should expect from Pelosi since she is a lifetime politician. Bush, Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, et al have all proven that politicians are incapable of solving this problem, possibly because all of them spend more time and energy trying to stay in office rather than solving problems while in office. This perversion of our political processes is probably fed by the need to accept campaign donations from every entity possible, including oil companies (remember that the largest recipient of BP's political campaign funding in 2008 was Obama).

So, that is why $4.00 a gallon and Nancy Pelosi are not a pretty combo. We have not seen the height of gas prices yet in 2012 and given that after five years of trying, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have been total failures in every aspect of the energy field, there is virtually no chance of them solving our energy problems going forward.

Maybe they should have reviewed the solution to our energy problems as proposed by the United States of Purple Presidency drive:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency_09.html

This solution would reduce our consumption of foreign oil sources, would improve our energy consumption relative to what may or may not be a valid global warming situation, and would do so without giving a larger and larger proportion of our money and wealth to the political class. Energy independence, cleaner energy, and minimal additional cost to consumers, a combo that is certainly better than the debilitating $4.00 a gallon of gas and retro Nancy Pelosi combo.


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

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

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

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

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

The State Of The Union - Take The Quiz To Find Out

Tonight the President will deliver the annual state of the union message. I am sure it will be a typical political speech, full of bluster signifying nothing. Thus, as a public service, we provide the following short quiz and so that you can determine for yourself what the true state of the union is:

• Is our nation’s economy better or worse than in 2008? Remember that out national economic growth rate has been only in the 2% range or so for the past few years, consistently below the historical average.
• Is our nation’s unemployment situation better or worse than in 2008? Remember that there are about 14 million unemployed Americans and millions more of underemployed Americans.
• Is your job security and job satisfaction any better or worse than in 2008? Remember the 14 million.
• Is our nation’s foreign affairs position better or worse than in 2008? Remember that Iran and North Korea are three years closer to having nuclear weapons, our relations with Pakistan have never been worse, our State Department never foresaw the "Arab Spring," and China is still kicking our economic butts.
• Is our national unity and civility better or worse than in 2008? Remember that our politicians have recently and continuously called Americans terrorists, barbarians, and racists for simply having a difference of opinion from them.
• Are gasoline prices better or worse than 2008? Remember that gas prices are about double what they were when Obama took office.
• Is our level of freedom better or worse than 2008? Remember that the freedom destroying Patriot Act was renewed under the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder has continued many of the liberty killing policies of the Bush administration including warrantless searches, unwarranted electronic communications access, etc.
• Is the influence in our politics from the obscene amount of union, corporate, and PAC money better or worse than 2008? Remember that spending records are being set at every election.
• Is Social Security fiscal solvency better or worse than in 2008? Remember that thousands of Baby Boomers are retiring every day, leaving less workers making Social Security payments to support them with no viable solutions to the problem being put forth by the political class.
• Is Medicare and Medicaid’s’ fiscal solvency better or worse than in 2008? Remember that the two programs still waste upwards of $100 billion a year through fraud and waste.
• Is the fairness and effectiveness of our nation’s tax system better or worse than in 2008? Remember that some rich Americans pay a lower percentage of their income in income taxes than middle class Americans and about 45% of Americans pay nothing at all in federal income taxes.
• Is the nation’s national debt situation better or worse than in 2008? Remember that the national debt is now over $15 TRILLION a year and this administration is on track to incur more national debt than what was incurred by every previous President COMBINED.
• Are college costs better or worse than in 2008?
• Is government incompetence and waste better or worse than in 2008? Remember that the incompetent Federal government performance and reaction in the Gulf oil spill disaster was comparable to the incompetent Federal government performance and reaction in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
• Is your home worth more or less since 2008? Remember that there are probably several more million homes likely to into foreclosure this year, putting a further damper on housing prices.
• Is the country any closer to solving the major issues of our times such as failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, the lack of a nation energy strategy, leaky borders, and ever escalating health care costs than in 2008? Remember that our kids' test scores still trail test scores of kids in many other countries, our lost war on drugs is turning Mexico into a lawless narco state, we still have no national energy strategy or program, and Obama Care deficiencies are being uncovered every week. Despite this situation, the current administration has no plans, and no clue, to address any of these issues.
• Is the nation’s leadership any better or worse than in 2008? Remember that this is the same leadership that gave us all of the "remember" facts listed above, from $15 TRILLION in national debt to the slandering and demeaning of Americans for having an opinion to the failures to resolve even minor issues facing Americans today.

There is no need to view the broadcast of the state of the union message. By taking the above quiz, you probably now know how bad the state of the union is, regardless of what bluster the politicians tell us. If you do decide to watch, have a copy of this post with you so that you can check off all of the issues the President addresses with real plans, not rhetoric. I bet you do not make a lot of check marks.


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

Even The Government Thinks That Social Security Is A Bad Deal

Many times in this blog we have pointed out numerous studies which showed how bad of a financial and retirement deal Social security is, citing numerous sources:

1. In a December 30, 2010 Associated Press (AP) article, AP reported on a recently published Urban Institute Social Security analysis that showed, on average, the typical American pays more into the Social Security system during their lifetime than they receive back during their retirement years.
2. In 1998, the Heritage Foundation published a similar analysis. It showed an average married couple would have been rewarded with twice their Social Security payments if they had been allowed to keep the money that was contributed to the Social Security Administration in their name and been allowed to invest it tax free in a balanced bond stock mutual fund.
3. In a number of posts in this blog, I have shown how much better off I personally would have been if the government had allowed me to put all of the Social Security contributions that were made in my name over my lifetime into an IRA-type account decades ago

Reliable, non-partisan analyses that show how bad a deal Social Security is. However, these types of analyses are often largely ignored or ridiculed by the political class in favor of the myth that Social Security is a fantastic retirement vehicle that should be protected at all costs...and kept under their control.

By perpetuating this myth, the political class maintains control over a large part of our lives, our retirement standard of living. This control not only reduces our freedom and our standard of living but gives our politicians more power and a constant election issue to perpetuate their time in office.

However, it is not only non-government sources that debunk the Social Security myths. I recently came across a government analysis from the late 1990s that also proved how lousy a retirement program Social Security is. On November 12, 1999, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published an economic analysis of the system's financial rate of return. The highlights of their findings include:

• The average worker in the Social Security system attains a rate of return on their Social Security contributions that is less than 2% when adjusted for inflation.
• In 1999, an American could have gotten almost twice that rate of return by personally investing in Treasury bills that at that time were averaging about 3.5% on an inflation adjusted basis.
• Even with the low rate of return, the analysis concluded that this low rate of return should be viewed as "rosy" since the political class had not addressed the long term solvency issues facing the Social Security system and those issues would either result in higher Social Security taxes or lower Social Security pay outs in the future.
• The San Francisco Fed concluded in 1999 that failure to address the solvency issues would reduce the average rate of return on Social Security contributions to around 1%.
• Not mentioned in the study, but what is obvious, is that if the rate of return on Social Security is only between 1% and 2%, this pales in comparison to what an American could have gotten over a long term investment of their Social Security contributions in an average stock mutual fund.
• The study takes note that numerous ideas have been put forth but Congress, i.e. the political class, had not acted on any of them, and concluded with the warning that "continued delays in addressing Social Security's long-term financing problem will only lead to more painful adjustments in the future."

This analysis and these conclusions were not reached by a think tank or a blog writer, they were reached by the economists at the San Francisco Fed  TWELVE years ago. Thus, at least parts of the government knew what a lousy deal this program was, and is, long ago. And it correctly pointed out that the system would be put under increased financial strain if changes were not made when they did the analysis TWELVE years ago.

Sadly, they were correct and as a result of inaction, lack of leadership, and lack of courage from our politicians, the changes will be more painful. Recent news reports have stated that the Social Security system went cash negative this year. In other words, the system is now paying out more money than it collects in taxes, requiring the Treasury Department to incur more national debt to cover the current Social Security liabilities and negative cash flow.

Typical political class performance. Why address an issue in a coherent, strategic, and financially sound way ahead of time that might endanger a few votes? Better to protect their personal turf, protect a few votes, satisfy a few lobbyists, and enhance their re-election chances, regardless of the increased pain and increased cost it will cause down the road.

How typically shortsighted but totally consistent with their mode of operation:

• Decades after ignoring the oil shocks of the 1970s, the political class has still not come up with an effective energy strategy, a delay that has resulted in high energy costs, reliance on unreliable foreign sources of energy, and potential harm to the environment.
• Decades after implementing a weak and ineffective drug addiction strategy, the "war on drugs," we have allowed violent drug cartels to flourish and we have incarcerated millions of Americans at the cost of trillions of dollars with no discernible impact on drug usage or change in our approach since the Nixon era.
• Decades after identifying the threats from under educating our kids via an under performing public school system, the political class has still not come up with a coherent education strategy that would provide American kids with a world class education experience, despite spending trillions of dollars to get mediocre education results.

In all major facets and issues of our lives, the political class has failed us, making their personal gains and political careers higher priorities than service to America and its citizens. Fixing any of the the above problems should not be insurmountable, we just need leaders with a little focus.

For example, three steps from "Love My Country, Loathe my Government," would fix an ailing Social Security system in a fair, coherent manner:

• Step 10 - reduce the Social Security tax rate but uncap the maximum amount of income subject to the tax and include all forms of income in order to make the percentage taken out of a household's income consistent across all income levels.
• Step 11 - prohibit citizens with a net value of over $3 million (e.g. Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet) from drawing a Social Security retirement check in order preserve limited resources for the most needy.
• Step 12 - raise the retirement age to 70 years, with a hardship exception, in order to reflect the changed demographics in the country since the Social Security program was introduced.

There, that was not hard. That should not be not hard, assuming that we had politicians in office with a little backbone and vision. The government and the political class came up with this horrid retirement plan, we are unfortunately stuck with it. The least they can do is fix it, twelve years after the same government identified its pathetic returns and needed changes.

The actual conclusions from the San Francisco Federal Reserve's analysis are listed below:

****************************************
Social Security has evolved from humble beginnings in 1935 as a program of "forced saving" intended to ensure retirement income for the elderly into its present form: a complex, resource-intensive program that redistributes income across individuals and households based on a wide variety of characteristics. In general, Social Security favors low-wage earners over high-wage earners, older workers over younger workers, women over men, and immigrant workers over U.S.-born workers.

The "average" U.S. worker faces a rate of return on contributions that is quite low--less than 2% after adjusting for inflation. By comparison, the real yield on a 10-year inflation-indexed Treasury Bond is currently around 3.5%. In addition to being low, rates of return from Social Security must be viewed as risky because they are subject to change from future political actions that will be needed to ensure long-term solvency of the program.

Under intermediate demographic and economic assumptions, Gokhale (1998) reports that the OASI payroll tax rate must be increased by about 4 percentage points (from 10.7 to 14.6%) to pay for projected benefits on an ongoing basis, i.e., for 75 years and beyond. Alternatively, long-term solvency could be achieved by cutting benefits by 25%. Either action would reduce the real rate of return for the average U.S. worker to around 1%. A tax increase would be disproportionately borne by young workers (who are further from retirement) whereas a cut in benefits would penalize young and old workers in a more even-handed way.

While numerous ideas for reforming Social Security exist, none have yet to be formally proposed in the U.S. Congress. Continued delays in addressing Social Security's long-term financing problem will only lead to more painful adjustments in the future.



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 respectfreedom for both yourselves and others everyday.




Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/

Obama and Jobs - What He Should Do Vs. What He Will Do

Tomorrow night President Obama is going to unveil his much talked about “jobs” program. Given the track record of his administration in economic matters so far, I am not expecting a lot from his speech to Congress:

• Unemployment is persistently high at 9%, setting a record for still being this high months following the end of every other recession in our history.
• This 9% translates into 14 million Americans without jobs.
• There are another 9 million Americans or so who are either underemployed or who have stopped looking for a job and are not included in that 9% number.
• The last time this administration implemented an economic stimulus program it resulted in a cost per job created or saved of well over a quarter of a million dollars each, half of the stimulus bridge repair money was spent on bridges that were not in need of repair, stimulus money was used to replace windows in a Mt. Saint Helen’s visitors’ center that has been closed for years and is unlikely to ever be opened, other stimulus funds supported work to catalog insects on an island off the coast of Africa, and while there were hundreds of other pork laden wastes of money, unemployment still not come down.

Government taxpayer money has been awarded to “green” companies like Evergreen Solar and Solyndra to create green jobs, both of whom have gone bankrupt shortly after being awarded hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.A pretty abysmal track record and thus, my low expectations.

However, it does not have to be that way. Let me recommend what the President should say if he was bold and courageous and then I will predict what he will say given his track record of being just another politician.

Infrastructure

1) What he should say: We have a crumbling infrastructure. Our bridges and roads are in much need of repair. Thus, tonight I am proposing a Federal government infrastructure initiative that will help put people to work fixing these problems that will serve the country well into the future.

Given our dire national debt situation, I will fund this initiative by cutting back on unnecessary government spending elsewhere. Since my administrative has been responsible for hiring over 200,000 more Federal workers over the past few years, I will issue termination notices to them immediately and funnel whatever money would have been used to pay them into this infrastructure initiative. This is a better use of taxpayer money since what the infrastructure projects accomplish will have a long lasting affect. Whatever these extraneous new Federal employees would have contributed to the country will pale in comparison to the permanent infrastructure improvements.

Further infrastructure funding will come from:

• The termination of unnecessary Pentagon programs such as the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and the V22 Osprey, and other redundant and/or unnecessary systems and programs.
• Most corporate welfare programs will be immediately terminated including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Market Access program, and all Federal subsidies for foreign marketing by domestic trade organizations.
• Given the current high profits of the American agriculture industry and the sky high prices of American farm lands, I will terminate all farm subsidies to farmer operations with over $500,000 in annual revenue immediately. This includes the termination of all Federal subsidies for ethanol production.
• I will ask Congress to redirect resources that are currently allocated to building out a high speed rail line to be directed to fixing existing infrastructure problems. The high speed rail line work may never get completed and may never fulfill its purported benefits while we need to fix existing infrastructure that is broken today and being used, in a dangerous way, by Americans today.

Furthermore, no one in Congress will decide how these infrastructure funds will be spent. In the last stimulus program, money was spent on bridges that did not need repairs and other trivial and low priority projects due to the biased influence of powerful Congressional members. This infrastructure money will be sent to the states on a prorated basis to allow them to decide what projects are their most vital infrastructure repair needs, not what someone in Congress wants done for their own personal benefit.

What he will say: We need to incur more debt at the Federal government level in order to get thousands or tens of thousands of construction workers back on the job regardless of the deficit impacts.

Obama Care

2) What he should say: It has become pretty obvious that Obama Care has turned out to be a disaster. It will add to the national deficit, it will cause companies to terminate their health insurance programs for tens of millions of Americans since the legislation makes it less expensive to not offer insurance than to offer it, it will not address the root causes of our high health care costs in this country, and most importantly, it has introduced an unprecedented amount of uncertainty into the minds of business owners and leaders.

These owners and leaders have no clue how Obama Care will impact their business since the political class has written an almost unreadable 2,500 page law that no one really understands. As a result of this uncertainty, businesses have become “deer in the headlights,” concluding that it is better to hunker down with current employees rather than hire new ones, take the risk to expand their businesses, and possibly/likely be burdened with onerous Obama Care taxes, fees, and unforeseen costs.

Thus, given all of the negatives aspects of Obama Care and the non-existent positive ones that have been identified so far, I am asking Congress to repeal the bill immediately in order to remove much of the uncertainty in the private sector. I am asking Republicans AND Democrats to come together and authorize a blue ribbon panel of experts to start over on health care reform in this country, free of the political and lobbying influences that ruined Obama Care. By returning to the status quo while this panel does the job correctly, we can inject a high level of certainty and confidence back into the job market.

What he will say: Nothing.

Overseas Corporate Profits

3) What he should say:  We have a very broken tax code. It is long, complicated, unfair, and requires too much effort from Americans and American companies to comply with, time and resources that could be better spent on growing businesses and jobs rather than dealing with the tax code. This has resulted in American companies stashing untold hundreds of billions of dollars in profit overseas because our tax laws make it a better decision for them to sit on cash elsewhere than to invest it in America.

Thus, I am proposing a one time, six month tax holiday for any American company that repatriates their foreign earnings back to America for investment in America’s economy and America’s job market. During this tax holiday, the effective tax rate will only be 5%, the proceeds of which will be used to fund the infrastructure initiative. The remaining 95% of the returned earnings can be used to increase stockholder dividends, open new factories and facilities, hire more workers, and invest in research and development. It cannot be used to increase executive salaries, sit idle to make company profits look better, or to close existing U.S. factories and move the work overseas. Companies would have up to five years to prove they invested back into America to avoid paying taxes beyond that 5%.

However, this is a short term, one time effect. There should never have to be a tax holiday like this in the future. Our entire tax code needs to be revised so that everyone and every business pays a fair share. Thus, I am asking Congress to authorize another blue ribbon panel of experts to rewrite the tax code away from the partisan bickering in Washington, a tax code that is simplified, fair, easy to comply with, and which contributes to investment in American without giving the Federal government more taxpayer wealth than it gets today.

What he will say: We need to reform out tax code.

Excessive Regulation

4) What he should say: The Federal government has become far too intrusive to the lives and operations of Americans and American businesses. Thus, I am ordering the Federal government to halt all regulatory activities that do not directly impact human safety and environmental safety. I am also asking Congress to immediately repeal the Sarbannes-Oxley law, a law that has proven effective only in generating tons of work and paper trails that no one ever looks at. This will free up those business and corporate resources to do more productive things.

In addition, the Federal government and political class should stop meddling in the private affairs of businesses who are trying to make the right business decisions for their companies to increase their financial health and create more opportunities for hiring and expansion. Thus, I am asking the National Labor Relations Board to immediately stop prosecuting Boeing for the simple business decision of moving a part of their business from one part of America to another part of America. Boeing should be able to execute that business strategy without an overbearing Federal bureaucracy picking at their decisions and diverting business resources.

Also, the Federal government will stop its over zealousness intrusion into the Gibson Guitar business and other companies for what appear to be non-events. These and other regulatory heavy-handedness, almost tyrannical, efforts will stop immediately in order to allow business owners to focus on expansion, not fighting nonessential regulations.

What he will say.: We have too much regulation.

Energy

5) What he should say: My administration and every administration and Congress that has preceded mine has failed to come close to formulating a strategic, effective, efficient, and coherent national energy plan and related policies. Thus, in the short term, we will necessarily have to continue to rely on fossil fuels to generate the power and energy we need to run our economy and country.

Developing other, non-carbon based fuel sources will take time. In the meantime, we continue to ship our nation’s wealth overseas in return for energy sources from regimes that do not often have our best interests at heart.

Therefore, in the short term, I propose that we immediately put people to work building up our internal energy infrastructure and sourcing using Americans to do the building and retaining our energy wealth on our shores. To serve this short term need, I propose the following actions to free up domestic energy and create the environment for more industrial jobs:

• Terminate all oil drilling moratoriums on Gulf of Mexico drilling. Simultaneously, I will increase the quality and number of oil rig inspectors in order to minimize the possibility of another BP oil rig disaster.
• I will support drilling in the Arctic with government oversight increased significantly and requiring oil companies to have a detailed, and tested contingency plan and resources in place before drilling begins.
• I will support the construction of the proposed pipeline from Canada to Gulf oil refineries to bring dirty crude to the United States for processing into fuel from the tar sands. But I require those refineries to do everything known to clean up the potential pollution impacts. This oil will be burned somewhere in the world once it is pumped out of the ground. Better to keep it here and do whatever is possible to clean up the refining process than let it be shipped around the world to countries and refineries that may not be as environmentally friendly as us.
• The above three steps will use no Federal funds, it is our approval to drill and the oil companies responsibility to fund that expanded drilling.

Simultaneously, I am asking Congress to authorize an energy blue ribbon panel to develop the first ever, long range national energy policy. That policy must rest on five principles: it must move us away from fossil based fuels as quickly as possible, it must integrate renewables into the energy mix as quickly as possible, it must be domestic production focused, it must not significantly increase the cost of energy in the country, and it must minimize government intervention in the energy sector.

What he will say:  I know that the government’s investments in energy companies have been a failure but let’s do it some more.

Education

6) What he should say: We have allowed the education of our children in this country to sink to unheard of depths over the past few decades. Even though the Reagan commission on education reform identified the problems with education in the United States way back in 1983, we have failed to provide the necessary skills needed by our citizens to compete at a high level in the world economy.

As a result, we have watched as the rest of the world has gained ground, and in some cases, passed our ability to integrate a vibrant economy with a highly educated, motivated, and trained workforce. We have both a short term and long term problem in education.

Short term, we need to retrain and increase the skills of our existing workforce. Therefore, I am announcing tonight that the dozens of Federal job training programs that currently exist will be combined into a single Federal government job training organization within the Health and Human Services organization.

This centralized training organizations will be the one stop shopping for retraining Americans and connecting those Americans with companies that need well trained personnel. There is no need for dozens of independent, sub-optimizing Federal groups to have job training responsibilities. They need to all be consolidated and focused on only one thing: improving job skills and connecting job seekers with job openings.

Long term, we need to completely overhaul our education processes, not necessarily by dumping more taxpayer dollars into a dysfunctional system but by fixing our education system to be effective. I am asking Congress to appoint yet another blue ribbon panel, this one of education experts to accomplish this task and provide a blueprint for the future of American education. A primary task of this panel will be to bench mark what dozens of other countries are doing in the realm of education, dozens of countries who are doing a better job of educating their kids than we do educating ours.

What he will say: We need to fix our education process.

Taxes

7) What he should say: Last fall we extended the Bush tax cuts for one year for every American and we cut the Social Security tax. Tonight I am proposing that we follow the lead of the Federal Reserve Board, which recently stated it will hold interest rates low and steady for the next two years, and extend those lower income and Social Security tax rates for at least the next two years. Both actions are aimed at removing some uncertainty from the economy so that people know how to plan for the next two years around a non-changing tax rate.

What he will say: Let’s extend those tax rates for only one year n order to get past the next election.

National Debt

8) What he should say: It has become obvious to me that our national debt crisis is like an anchor on the economy. It sucks productive wealth out of the nation’s economy to pay what is becoming a staggering debt load on the financial viability of the Federal government. This debt load will burden future generations of Americans unless we can get it under control.

The political class in Washington has been unable to reach a satisfactory compromise to significantly reduce this debt burden. Therefore, I am asking Congress to create a super debt commission panel whose job is to quickly, within four months, combine the work of the original debt reduction commission, that I created but ignored, with other fine work such as what has been done by the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Cato Institute, and others to present to Congress an integrated plan of debt reduction.

Congress would then vote for the entire plan, approving all of it or disapproving all of it, no changes, not tweaks, no exceptions. Failure to approve their findings, if that is the wish of the Congressional majority, would automatically result in the decreasing of the Federal government budget by 10% across the board for the next five years.

Only when we have a definitive plan on how to control government spending will the private sector have enough confidence to get out of the headlights and start investing in a stable government and economic environment.

What he will say: We need to reduce government spending and it is not my responsibility to come with a the plan, it is the responsibility of Congress to do so and their fault if they fail to do so.

Unemployment Benefits

9) What he should say:  Every legitimate study that has been done on unemployment benefits, including one done by my new top economic advisor, has shown that continuing long term extensions of unemployment benefits actually encourages long term, chronic unemployment. Therefore, starting six months from now, the Federal govenrment will no longer support payments to anyone who has been on unemployment benefits for more than six months. This should provide those currently unemployed ample time to find some form of employment.

What he will say:  We will extend unemployment benefits again on an open ended basis, contrary to what has proven to be the best remedy for unemployment, shorter unemployment benefit periods.

International Trade Treaties

9) What he will say: We need to approve the pending free trade treaties that we have reached with other countries in order to open up those markets for exports of American products.

What he will say: We need to approve the pending free trade trade treaties that we have reached with other countries in order to open up those markets for exports of American products.



What should he say vs., what will he say:

- Will he be a leader who is bold and thinks out of the failed frame of thinking he has used so far?
- Will he just trot out new words to describe the same old failed economic policies?
- Will it be forward thinking initiatives or more Cash For Clunkers and Cash For Caulkers?
-Will it be strategic thinking with the potential to change the world or small time tactical thinking designed to get him re-elected?
- Or will he be just another politician, afraid to tick off his voting blocs and backers while hurling slings at his political opponents?

We shall see by the end of the week but I think we all know the answer before he even speaks and the words bold, strategic, forward thinking do not come to mind. I dare him to surprise me.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available, at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday Please visit the following sites for freedom:
 http://www.loathemygovernment.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment.com/

Note To The Polticial Class: While You Were Out On A Five Week Vacation And Fund Raising For Your Reelection

Notes To The American Political Class:

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the United States of American lost its top debt credit rating for the first time in many, many decades as a result of your reckless and wasteful spending over those same decades.

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...two and a half dozen of our brave armed forces died in a war that you have allowed to linger on for far too long with a strategy that is far too vague to be successful.


While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the British Prime Minister had enough guts to recall Parliament back to work off of its summer vacation to address the widening violence and riots besetting that country.

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...14 million Americans continued to be unemployed, almost 20 million Americans continued to be unemployed or underemployed and 400,000 Americans filed first time unemployment benefits again last week.

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the stock market suffered continuous daily falls of significant magnitude, wiping out Americans' savings and investments.

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...American kids got ready to go back to school at the same public schools that failed many of them last year

While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the Federal government likely spent more than $150 billion that it did not collect in taxes and fees, adding to the national debt.


While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...Syria continued to butcher its own civilians by the dozens, if not hundreds.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection... the nation continued to import more energy sources than it could produce domestically because the country still lacks a strategic and coherent national energy policy.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...Europe continued to stagger from a financial markets perspective, with Italy fast becoming the latest Euro nation to destabilize the currency and add to the world's bad financial condition.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...a new Zogby poll estimated that more than two thirds of Americans now believe the jobs lost in the recession are unlikely to ever return to the nation, an estimate that is about 4.5% higher than when the same question was asked last year.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the stalemate in the Libyan fighting continued  as did the probable expense to the American taxpayer for this illegal and undeclared military effort.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...the drug cartel violence continued unabated in Mexico, aided to a large degree by the illegal gun running operation executed by the U.S. Federal government, which has failed miserably, has probably resulted in the killing of innocent people, and for which no one in the government has been held accountable.
 
While you were out on your five week paid vacation and fund raising for your reelection...Social Security and Medicare continued their headlong rush into insolvency with no credible plans available to stop pending these financial disasters.

After you return from your five week paid vacation and campaign fund raising, please let us know when you will be answering the above calls. We do believe that there is a little urgency to these matters, even if you do not find them as important than your five week paid vacation and campaign fund raising.




Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Where Did Our Nation's Wealth Go?

I got to wondering the other day about what happened to all of our wealth. It is true that the United States still has the largest economy in the world. Our citizens, on average, are some of the wealthiest in the world. At one time, our wealth allowed us to dominate the world in so may areas include militarily, politically, diplomatically, economically, athletically, and culturally.


I am not sure I can make that statement of dominance today. One reason we may not be able to do that is we are much less wealthy, relative to our past, than we have been. Consider the many ways the government and the political class that operates it have allowed our nation's wealth to leak out of the country over time:


- Probably the biggest drain on our nation's wealth has been the political class' inability to develop and implement a coherent and strategic energy policy for the country. Despite the OPEC oi shocks from the 1970s that rocked the country and the economy, in 2011 we still have no energy policy that protects and retains the nation's wealth.


According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2010 the United States imported about 4.3 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products from other countries. These imports are needed because the U.S. economy goes through over 7 billion barrels a year. 

The political class has not found a way, or even tried to find a way, to close that gap over the decades, by either diversifying our energy sources away from petroleum or increasing domestic production to close or eliminate that gap of three billion barrels of oil. In fact, the gap has likely gotten larger since the 4.3 billion barrels of imported barrels is about twice what it was in 1980, according to the Federal government.


At $90 a barrel, 4.3 billion barrels a year roughly results in about $386 billion dollars of our wealth leaving our domestic economy annually. These hundreds of billions of dollars end up building the economies of other nations that feed our energy addiction, nations that are not always friendly to our interests or our safety.


- Another major wealth drain is due to the illegal drug market, primarily the Mexican drug cartels. According to a January 26, 2011 research paper developed by the Law and Public Policy group at the Wharton School at the University of  Pennsylvania, the Mexican drug cartels' revenue from the United States is between $35 and $45 billion a year. The majority of the revenue, according to several other sources, comes from marijuana but also includes amphetamines, cocaine and other illegal drugs.

We have seen Mexicans die by the thousands every year due to drug cartel violence. We have seen the police, judges, and government officials in Mexico corrupted by cartel money. And as a result of our politicians' forty year failed war on drugs, we have seen hundreds of billions of dollars diverted from this country into foreign gangs, who much like the oil exporting nations above, do not always have our best interests and safety in mind.

- While we have seen trillions of our wealth leak out over time because the political class has not acted and has not developed coherent strategies and plans for energy and drug addiction, the third major wealth drain has been the political class actually acting but acting poorly when it comes to military matters. We have deployed hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops around the world over the past decades, most often in ill-defined and ill-executed wars or in places where there was no need to deploy them.

We have likely spent over a trillion dollars already in Iraq and Afghanistan with no clear, concise, and defined benefit in return. Between Europe, Japan, and South Korea, we have well over 120,000 U.S. troops deployed overseas or no reason at all, at a cost of probably over $50 billion a year. In return, the economy and the American public gets no tangible benefit, another leak of our wealth pool.

- According to the Cato Institute's government downsizing analysis, the American taxpayer would save over $100 billion a year of the U.S. Department of Education was eliminated. Why should it be eliminated? Consider the following "accomplishments" of the Department:

• A recent Associated Press article indicated that almost 25% of U.S. armed forces recruits could not fulfill basic language and math skills needed to enter the armed forces.
• Another recent Associated Press report showed that upwards of 40% of community college freshmen in this country need to take remedial courses in basic subjects before they can begin their college work even though most of them had high school diplomas.
• A whole host of international student testing initiatives show that U.S. students almost always trail dozens of other countries' kids when it comes to math, language, and science skills.
• And the latest bad news, a June 14, 2011 Associated Press report showed that only 13% of U.S. high school seniors have a solid understanding and knowledge of American history.

All of which raises the important question: couldn't the nation do just as poorly and not spend $100 billion every year to do so badly? Cato has done its investigative analysis and has shown that yes, the country can change and dramatically improve its educational policies and approaches without having a Department of Education, resulting in $100 billion a year in taxpayer savings.

If we add in additional waste that we have documented, waste that exists in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we easily can see where over $200 billion a year leaks out of the productive area of the economy into the unproductive and often criminal areas of the economy.

So let's review:

- We allow about $386 billion a year to leak out to foreign oil exporters because the political class has not deployed an effective energy strategy.
- We allow about $40 billion a year to leak out to criminal drug gangs in Mexico because the political class has not deployed an effective drug addiction policy.
- We allow about $50 billion a year to leak out of the productive area of our economy because we continue to unnecessarily deploy U.S. troops around the world.
- We allow over $200 billion a year to leak out of the productive area of the economy due to an ill performing Department of Education and waste and fraud in our Federal social services programs.

If we add up these various wealth leaks out of the U.S. economy, we end up with a grand total of leaks worth about $679 billion a year. This figure does not include the more than trillion of dollars we have allowed to leak down the military drain that is Afghanistan and Iraq. It does not include the tax breaks we give U.S. companies to close domestic factories and move production to other countries. It does not include the tens of billions of dollars that illegal immigrants send back home to their countries, dollars that are not retained and spent in this country.

Thus, the $679 billion is probably a conservative estimate of how much our government and the politicians that run it allow these leaks to deplete our world and our economy every year. $679 billion is equivalent to an annual tax break for every American household of about $5,900, at a minimum. I believe that we would be much wealthier as a country if every household had at least another $5,900 a year in disposable income to spend as they see fit.

And the good news is that we would be just as safe as a nation, more economically independent, and probably raising smarter kids in the process. The steps to accomplish this wealth retention are laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," steps that address energy independence, education reform, military consolidation, and the changing of our political processes so that these processes eventually would produce elected officials that know how to fix a leak.

Until we take these steps, our wealth and our economy will die a little bit more each day, death by a thousand cuts. The problem with a thousand cuts is that eventually the leaks stop, not because they have been fixed, but because there is nothing left to leak out.




Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Did You Know? And Possibly Do Not Want To Know?

Recently, I came across an interesting presentation that was shown at the 2009 Sony shareholder meeting. It was entitled "Did You Know?" and it contained some very interesting facts about today's reality around the world. Given that it was presented to Sony's shareholders in a public forum, I am assuming the information presented was factual and accurate at the time.

Thus, did you know:

• China will soon become the #1 English speaking country in the world. In other words, quite soon, there will be more English speaking people in China than in the United States.
• The 25% of India's population with the highest IQs are greater than the total population of the United States.
• India has more honors kids in school than America has total kids.
• In the past five minutes, 67 babies were born in the United States...274 were born in China...395 were born in India.
• The top ten in-demand jobs in 2011 did not exist in 2004.
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that do not exist...that will use technologies that do not yet exist...to solve problems we don't know about yet.
• Today's American student will hold 10-14 jobs, on average, by the time they are age 38.
• 25% of American workers have been with their current employer for less than one year.
• 50% of American workers have been with their current employer for less than five years.
• If MySpace users were a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world.
• Bermuda has the highest broadband Internet penetration in the world, the Untied States ranks 19th.
• The amount of new technology information doubles every two years making  half of what an incoming college freshman learns, in a technical degree career path, obsolete by the time that student is a junior.
• In 1984, 1,000 Internet compatible devices were in use...by 1992, 1,000,000 Internet compatible devices were in use...by 2008, 1,000,000,000 Internet devices were in use.
• In a typical month in 2009, 31 billion Google Internet searches were done...in a typical month in 2006, 2.7 billion searches were done.
• It took radio 38 years to reach a market penetration of 50 million users, it took television 13 years to reach a market penetration of 50 million users, in took the Internet four years to reach a market penetration of 50 million users, it took iPods 3 years to reach a market penetration of 50 million users, and it took Facebook two years to reach a market penetration of 50 million users.

Fun facts but also distressing facts in many ways when viewed in comparison to the political class that operates our government and nation today.  Ask yourself these questions in light of the fast moving world we live in today:

1. Do we really believe our current set of politicians is capable of managing the country in the ever evolving and faster moving reality? Remember, these same people had trouble putting together a one year budget for the country these past few months, delivering a fiscal 2011 U.S. government budget six months into the fiscal year. Not only was it late, but it will add at least another $1.5 TRILLION to our national debt. Nimble is certainly not an apt adjective for this group of people.
2. Do you really think that our current set of politicians is capable of and nimble enough at managing an education system in the ever evolving and faster moving information age we are whizzing through? These same people have given us our current education system that produces education performance that is surpassed by dozens of other nations, that results in nearly 25%  of U.S. armed forces inductees failing basic math and reading skills tests, and results in about 40% of community college students requiring high school remedial classes before beginning their college studies.
3. Do you really think that our current set of politicians is capable of and smart enough to deliver a coherent and effective energy policy and strategy in the face of the ever growing demand for energy? Forty years ago, a typical American household might have owned a television or two and several radios. Now, a typical American household might own several televisions, a fax machine, several DVD players, a cable box or two, several computers, several iPods, maybe an iPad, a computer scanner, one or more digital cameras, etc., resulting in an ever increasing demand for just domestic energy. Skyrocketing relative birth rates in India and China will result in further worldwide demand for energy and the sources that provide it. Given that our political class has yet to develop any kind of effective energy policy, it is doubtful they will be able to in the face of a new energy reality crashing over us today.
4. Do you really think that our current set of politicians can stop focusing on yesterday's problems and start leading for the future? While the current set of U.S. politicians have recently been focused on Libya, the Israel/Palestinian impasse, Yemen, Syria, abortion, gay rights, etc., the Chinese and Indian governments have been busy building their economies for tomorrow, improving the education levels of their kids, and focusing their resources on improving the lives of their own citizens. We deploy U.S. armed forces around the world, at great expense to the nation, preparing for crises that vanished decades ago (80,000+ U.S. troops in Europe, 30,000 U.S. troops in Japan, 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq ,etc.) while China and India spend their wealth, not on foreign deployment of troops, but by preparing their people for tomorrow's reality.
5. Do really think that our current politicians can solve any problem when their focus is almost always on how to get re-elected and not how to solve a national problem?

Albert Einstein once said: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." The nation faces some serious problems. It faces a reality that changes at an ever faster clip. It faces demographic, education, and energy challenges that become more and more difficult the more time is wasted in not addressing them. It faces these situations with a selfish and ineffective political class, whose manner of thinking, analyzing, and acting is no better than an abacus in a broadband world.

That is why many steps in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" need to be taken as soon as possible. We need to fix our political processes so that we finally get some 21st century thinkers and actions out of Washington. These political process steps include instituting term limits for all Federally elected positions so that we finally get a current and up-to-date set of people in office. We need to task groups of smart Americans with the responsibilities of developing coherent and effective education reform and energy policy strategies and tactics to address our ever more challenging world and competition. Waiting for the current political class to do so has turned out to be a doomed expectation.

We need to stop accepting political slogans as solutions. President Obama's "change" theme turned out to be just that, a hollow political theme. Hollow themes and unfulfilled promises got us into this mess, they will not get us out of it.

Finally, we have to accept the above insights from Einstein. We have to really change the way we do things in this country, we have to change our way of thinking. Otherwise, you do not want to know what could and will happen if we do not.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.


Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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