April, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 7: Tax Freedom Day, Idiocy In Connecitcut Economic Theory, The TSA Blows Another Billion Dollars and More

This is our seventh post in this month’s monthly review of political class insanity, idiocy, ineptness, and wasteful spending. The very sad part of this series is that we will not be able to contain the insanity to just seven posts. It seems that the American political class is working overtime in their stupidity, wasteful spending, and ineffective and inefficient government programs.

1) President Obama was viewed as the first American President who truly understood the challenges of African Americans in this country. He would be the one that would finally be able to help African Americans to rise out of poverty and start fulfilling the American dream to a much greater extent than in the past.

Well, six years into this Presidency, that expectation is not coming true. According to a Wall Street Journal article that was summarized in the April 4, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, African American entrepreneurs received just 1.7% of the $23 billion of Small Business Administration loans made in 2013. This compares to African American small business owners getting 8.2% of small business government loans under the Bush administration in 2008. 

Thus, it appears that another Obama promise and expectation has not be fulfilled, just like most politicians’ promises. If the Bush administration had almost five times as many small business loans going to African Americans than the first African American President, disappointment is probably the mildest negative adjective that can be used for this failing administration.

2) It has been tough identifying which is the most corrupt, ineffective, inefficient, and inept Federal organization over the years. However, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would certainly be at the top of the list for their many wastes of money and ineptness.

Reinforcing that view, a recent New York Times article, that was summarized in the April 4, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, reported that the TSA spent a whopping one billion dollars to train thousands of its employees to detect facial expressions and other nonverbal clues that would identify terrorists. However, more than 99% of the 30,000 American travelers identified and stopped as being nonverbally suspicious EVERY year are let go without any charges being filed.

Adding insult to injury, even among the remaining 1%, not a single person has been linked to a terrorist plot by the TSA under this program. Talk about pathetic, a billion dollars spent for absolutely nothing. This has to shoot the TSA to the top of the worst Federal entities.

It makes you wonder why the Federal government did not trial this procedure BEFORE spending a billion dollars in order to see if it was effective. But that would be too logical, too smart for the political class and the government it operates.

3) The May issue of Reason magazine, always a good source of political class insanity, did a quick review of the insanity and wasteful spending inside of the recently passed 1,000 page Federal farm bill legislation:

• The Federal taxpayer subsidies to domestic sugar companies, which results in Americans paying twice as much for sugar than the rest of the world, continues to exist in the latest farm bill.
• The legislation creates a new, $20 million department within the Department of Agriculture to, wait for it, expedite the nation’s catfish inspection process.
• A new elaborate and complex crop insurance process will cost the American taxpayer at least $89 billion over the next ten years.
• A provision to cut the Federal farm subsidies that have historically gone to high income Americans, i.e. Americans that do not need the money, was scrubbed from the final version of the legislation.

New legislation, same old song: the American taxpayer paying billions and billions of dollars in subsidies to wealthy Americans under the flimsy guise of a farm bill. Pathetic.

4) Ever why most Washington legislation makes no sense in the real world? We may have found out one of the reasons recently, courtesy of an Indiana Senator. Apparently, Senator Dan Coats was recently sitting in a Congressional committee meeting, which is no big deal. However, he was in the wrong committee meeting and obviously asking the wrong questions before he realized his screw up. 

He had the right building but the wrong hearing. As soon as he was handed a note identifying the problem, he said: “I just got a note saying I’m at the wrong hearing. I’ve got the right room number, but the wrong hearing.”

If this problem is endemic to Washington politicians, it might help explain why their legislation is always wrong and ineffective, they have been asking the wrong questions in the wrong meetings about the wrong legislation.

The embarrassment can be viewed at:

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/126492-oops-senator-shows-asks-question-wrong-hearing/

5) Its mid-April which means many Americans who work for a living are filing their Federal and state tax returns. In honor of that April activity, the non-profit Tax Foundation recently did an analysis of longest and shortest periods, by state, to determine when different Americans start working for themselves and not the government each year:

• The state where residents have to work the longest before they reach the so-called Tax Freedom Day, the day when they have paid off their total tax bill for the year, is Connecticut, where it takes until May 13.
• This is so pathetic, Connecticut state residents have to cough up a whopping 36% of their annual income on average to pay to government entities BEFORE they start helping themselves and their families to the fruits of their labor.
• While Connecticut has the largest per-capita state/local tax burden at $7,150, New York comes in second at $6,622 with a Tax Freedom Day of May 6, New Jersey is third with a Tax Freedom Day of May 4, and Massachusetts is fourth with a Tax Freedom Day of April 25.
• The other high-tax states and their respective Tax Freedom Days are: Illinois (April 25); California (April 24); Minnesota (April 23); Maryland (April 21); Washington (April 20) and Virginia (April 20).
• Mississippi is the state with the lowest tax burden and shortest Tax Freedom Day with a state/local tax burden of $2,620 and a Tax Freedom Day of March 29, a full month and a half before Connecticut.
• The second best state Louisiana with a tax burden of $2,872 and a Tax Freedom Day of March 29.
• Tennessee is third best with a Tax Freedom Day of April 2.
• The other states with far lower Tax Freedom Days are South Carolina (April 3); New Mexico (April 3); South Dakota (April 4); Alabama (April 5); Arizona (April 5); Oklahoma (April 6); and Kentucky (April 6).
• All of these states’ residents get to keep more than a month of their labors for themselves vs. sending it to government entities as in Connecticut and New York.

Now let’s be clear, having to work more than three months to pay off our government obligations, regardless of what state one lives in, is ridiculous, given how wasteful, inefficient, ineffective, and useless most government programs are. 

Our infrastructure across the nation is crumbling, our schools fail to educate, our politicians enrich themselves and their business and political donor cronies at our expense, and a myriad of other national issues never get resolved despite this huge confiscation of our wealth. If we were getting value in return for our tax dollars, you might, might be able to justify such high taxation levels. 

But we are not getting good return, or much of any return, for our tax dollars, and have to live in a country where the high taxation levels cause one to pose the following question: when does taxation evolve into outright repression? Given a Tax Freedom Day that seems to get longer every year, I would say we have long ago passed from a state of taxation to a state of repression and confiscation.

6) And finally, lets consider a true insult to the taxpayers of Connecticut. The governor of the state, Danniel Malloy, has proposed having the state government send out $155 million in tax rebate checks to 2.7 million state residents a few weeks before his re-election vote in the fall. He claims that such a rebate program would create jobs.

This is a ridiculous and insane proposal since:

• The rebates amount to only about $55 per person, maybe enough for one decent dinner on the town or on large thankful of gas, neither of which is going to create any jobs.
• This $55 is less than .8% of the average Connecticut resident’s tax liability and far less than the average Connecticut resident’s overall household income. Again, far too little to make any economic difference in the state.
• Furthermore, giving a tax payer a tax rebate is nothing more than giving taxpayers back their own money since they originally earned in the first place, there is no magical incremental increase in wealth or economic activity.
• And finally, if the Governor truly thinks that giving every resident $55 back of their own wealth will create jobs, wouldn’t giving them back $110 create twice as many jobs? Wouldn’t giving them back $550 create ten times more jobs, wouldn’t giving them back $5500 create a hundred more jobs? I doubt that the good Governor would agree with these valid points.
• Chris Powell, managing editor at The Manchester Journal-Inquirer, said it best: “Bribing voters with their own money is an old trick in politics.”

And not only is it an old trick, it is a purposeful deception, it is a move ignorant of economics, and it is an insult to the taxpayers of the state. Gee, sounds like most of the Washington politicians.

Tax freedom is very important since without economic freedom there can be no political and personal freedom. The more we pay to the American political class, and the inefficient government entities they oversee for little value in return, the less wealth we have to put our kids in a better school, the less wealth we have to start a business for ourselves, the less wealth we have to give to our favorite charities, the less wealth we have to treat our families to the fruits of our labor, the less freedom we have to go through life.That is why Tax Freedom Day is so important and why a one time tax rebate for a measly $55 is so idiotic and insulting.

Today is a good sampling of acts of political insanity, from the President to a senior U.S. Senator to a useless TSA to a wasteful farm bill to a Tax Freedom Day that is an insult to all liberty loving Americans. More insanity tomorrow…unfortunately.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

February, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 5: Giving Away Taxpayer Wealth To Everyone Except Taxpayers

This will be the fifth and last post in this month’s series on American political class insanity. It is a shame that every month we have to take so many days just to identify and discuss the idiocy, wasteful spending, ineffective government programs, and other embarrassments from our current set of politicians, certainly the worst set that this country has ever had to tolerate.

1) The leader of a Florida drug ring, Pablo Borgen, was recently arrested by sheriffs deputies for operating a substantial heroin ring. It turns out that Borgen is a Dominican Republic citizen who is in this country illegally.

Great, two major violations of our laws, illegal immigration and illegal drug running. But to add insult to injury, the sheriff’s arrest report and news release also revealed that Borgen was illegally collecting Federal food stamp assistance to the tune of $900 every month. Thus, the American taxpayer was feeding this person who was here illegally and pushing heroin on the streets of this country. Adding more insult to injury, news reports indicated that other employees in Borgen’s drug ring were also on food stamps and three of the women involved were receiving WIC benefits for their kids.

So much for the claims by politicians like Senator Dick Durbin who for months, if not years, have been claiming that “undocumented immigrants can’t collect welfare.” They can, they do, and often as we see in Mr. Borgen’s case, they are criminals to boot. Pathetic government processes and waste.

2) But defrauding the American taxpayer is not restricted to illegal immigrants from poor countries. According to an Associated Press report from early December, 2013, 49 Russian diplomats and their wives scammed about $1.5 million out of Medicaid over the past several years, according to charges made public by U.S. government officials.

The Russian diplomats, both current and former diplomats and their spouses, were stationed at the Russian Mission to the United Nations, the Russian consulate and Russian trade offices. They submitted fraudulent applications for medical benefits for pregnancies, births, and care for young children.

Details uncovered during the 18 month investigation by the FBI include the following insults to the American taxpayer:

• A whopping 58 of the 63 (92%) births attributed to Russian diplomats and their spouses in New York City between 2004 and 2013 were funded through Medicaid.
• Despite using American taxpayer money to deliver their kids and cover the related medical costs, according to the court papers filed for these crimes, the diplomats and their spouses spent tens of thousands of dollars on vacations, fancy watches, expensive jewelry and designer clothing at luxury retail stores including Bloomingdale’s, Tiffany & Co., Jimmy Choo, Swarovski and others, indicating they had more than enough personal wealth to handle the hospital costs themselves.
• The court papers also indicate the diplomats also spent tens of thousands of dollars on electronic merchandise at Apple stores and elsewhere and they also bought concert tickets, robotic cleaning devices, and chartered helicopters.
• The added insult is that after ripping off the American taxpayer for $1.5 million, none of these people are ever likely to be prosecuted since they all probably have diplomatic immunity. And really, it is not their fault, it is the fault of our political class and the inefficient and busted programs they run that allow illegal immigrants and foreign diplomats to easily get access to American taxpayer funds and support, from food assistance to pregnancy coverage. Insane. 

3) Sometimes foreigners do not scam the American taxpayer out of their wealth via Federal government incompetence, the American political class gives the wealth away themselves. 

In late 2013 the Federal government issued a report to the United Nations which documented how the U.S. had given out $7.45 billion to 120 countries around the world over a three year period to help them combat the issues raised by global warming. A number of issues are raised by this giveaway:

• If you are like me and have serious doubts that global warming, or its rebranded marketing name “climate change,” is a serious man made crisis, then giving away over $7 billion for a non-existent problem is certainly a waste of money.
• If mankind is causing negative climate changes, wouldn’t the $7.45 billion been better spent domestically cleaning up our emissions output since we are one of the biggest emitters of global warming gases in the world? 
• The Federal government cannot even keep track of money it gives away domestically, e.g. illegal drug dealers living off of food stamps, so what makes anyone think that giving American taxpayer money to countries around the world will actually be used for its intended purpose? 
• On a per year and per country basis, the average share comes out to about $21 million a year per country, a relatively insignificant amount of money to turn the tide on global warming even if the majority of the money is actually sued for that purpose.

Another giveaway with no audits in place for a dubious purpose with little chance of being successful. A typical Washington operation. For a previovus review of why global warming and climate change are doubtful froma scientific perspective, please visit the following post:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-am-global-warming-doubter-and.html

4) The Salt Lake Tribune reported on January 31, 2014 that the Utah law enforcement organization had received a mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) from the Federal government under the so-called 1033 Program being run out of the Department of Defense. Other Utah law enforcement organizations have received thousands of military grade weapons from the program.

But most insanely, according to the article, Utah law enforcement authorities have also received four grenade launchers. All of which raises some serious issues:

1. For what possible reason does domestic/local law enforcement need grenade launchers for unless to attack a citizen’s home? I cannot recall any time in my life where there was a criminal incident where law enforcement said: “If only we had a grenade launcher handy to handle the situation.”
2. If the Department of Defense has so much left over war materials shouldn’t someone be fired at the Pentagon for not managing the inventory needs of the military to the highest standards, wasting taxpayer wealth in the process of producing way too much military gear?
3. And most ominously, is this “militarization” of local police forces around the country a precursor to a much bigger national crisis for freedom, the creation of a national police force, an action that is against current Federal law and shades of the Nazi SS forces in Hitler’s Germany?
4. The American Civil Liveries Union has a massive investigation underway to examine the actual and potential infringements on Americans’ lives and liberties as a result of this heavy arming of local police forces around the country.

Incompetence or just another step towards national martial law and the end of our democracy? You decide while I try to figure out why a local police force needs grenade launchers.

5) We have often reviewed and discussed the fact that the annual massive Federal government farm bill often has nothing to do with helping American farmers. Its intent has been perverted so much over the years by Washington politicians that it is now a corrupt, crony infected program that has given billions of dollars over the years to large agricultural corporations and to well positioned and wealthy insiders who know how to look like a farmer without ever picking up a hoe. 

Consider the findings of a watch dog organization, Open the Books,  their recent analysis and findings of Federal farm subsidies:

• Within the city borders of the City of Chicago, 930 different entities received an aggregated total of $6.129 million in federal government farm subsidy payments over the years.
• Chicago recipients of Federal farm aid include grain traders and members of the Chicago Board of Trade, wealthy second generation inheritors, and non-profit organizations such as the Mallard Habitat Foundation and a charity of The Nation of Islam. 
• Many Chicago entities receive the Federal subsidies checks at their downtown Chicago office buildings or residences.
• Nearly every Chicago neighborhood in the city has someone living in that neighborhood that receives Federal farm subsidy payments
• The 12th highest farm subsidy recipient is Three Years Economic Savings, Inc., a charity addressed at the home of Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of The Nation of Islam. The entity also received a “commodity loan” for an additional $26,357 under the George W. Bush administration

Let’s be honest, paying people in downtown Chicago Federal farm subsidies is doing nothing to save the nation’s family farms, it is a pure, unadulterated taxpayer ripoff, abetted by the Washington political class. Their payoff: likely campaign contributions to their perpetual reelection campaigns and some cases, direct payments to themselves as they stick their nose into the farm subsidy trough of excess. 

Louis Farrakhan does not need to receive a farm subsidy. Grain traders do not need to receive a farm subsidy. Board of Trade members do not need to receive a farm subsidy.

Let’s close this month’s political class insanity with on contrasting thought. The Federal government over the past few years has allowed illegal drug running immigrants, Russian diplomats, foreign governments, and rich residents of Chicago to rip off the American taxpayer of tens of billions of dollars. 

In the meantime, Congress and this President have just agreed to cut the retirement benefits of our veterans, those brave Americans who hoped defend this country and its freedoms over the years. Wasting the money is bad enough, insulting and causing potential financial hardships of our veterans is the most insane and pathetic thing any politician can do.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

June, 2013, Political Class Insanity, Bonus Post: Horrific Political Priorities, Welfare For Dead People, Welfare For Rich People, And More

Okay, I know I promised no more political class insanity this month but by the time I got done with the first five posts of lunacy, another set of idiocy from our politicians and dysfunctional government have cropped up. Some of these are so precious, and inane, that they cannot wait until next month.

The first post for this month’s insanity can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/06/june-2013-political-class-insanity-part.html

The remaining insanity posts follow after this one. The final, final, final set of insane behavior from the American political class is listed below:

1) We have a $17 TRILLION debt. We are under educating our kids. We have a bad homeless problem in this country. Not enough research is being done to cure diseases of the aging like dementia that will soon overwhelm the country. There are lots of good needs in this country that are starved for resources.

But these good needs have not stopped the Federal government, via the Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded more than $1.3 million to Columbia University to study how straight people are using the Internet for “online sexual pursuits."

“Researchers have raised significant concerns about the Internet's potential to facilitate sexual encounters that result in unsafe sex and place individuals at risk for STD/HIV,” states the grant, awarded to Columbia University. “Yet, how using the Internet for sexual pursuits may shape sexual behavior, including risk taking, remains a very poorly understood phenomenon, especially among heterosexuals.”

Additionally, this study will also look into how people misrepresent themselves online, and how the “online presentation” attracts people to engage in real-life sexual encounters. Misrepresentation of self on the Internet, who knew?

Are you kidding me? Bottom line is “who cares” and really, how will this small (only 150 people in the sample size) study make a substantial impact on a substantial amount of Americans? Bad, stupid priorities. Lord know this issue does not make the average American’s top 100 list of pressing issues in their lives.

2) A recent audit by Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) found that:

• At least 1,164 dead Massachusetts welfare recipients had been sent $2.39 million over the course of six to 27 months AFTER going into their burial plot or cremation urn.
• The audit found that in “a majority of sampled cases, store purchases, and ATM transactions were made after the recipients’ dates of death, suggesting that unauthorized persons were using public benefits.”
• The audit also shows that food stamp benefits are going to individuals who live outside of Massachusetts, a no-no, and that Massachusetts food stamp recipients were using their welfare largesse in resort towns such as Las Vegas and even in the Virgin Islands.
• On a similar note, The Boston Herald recently found "the state overpaid $27 million to food stamp recipients and then paid another $3.4 million in employee overtime to correct problems."

That last one is a double whammy. The Massachusetts government and the political class that operate it are so inept that it cost that state’s taxpayers an additional $3.4 million to fix what the government screwed up. If there was any justice in politics, the $3.4 million mistake should have been covered by docking the pay of the governor and everyone politician in the state legislature.

3) We will cover this topic in much more detail in the near future but I wanted to get a taste out about this insanity today. Congress is currently debating a new farm aid bill that is probably the most wasteful piece of legislative that constantly gets reenacted whenever it is about to expire. To give you an idea of how wasteful and insane it is, consider just a very small sample of people that have benefited from previous farm bill subsidies:

1. According to government data compiled by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the farm owned by former President Carter and his family collected $272,288 in subsidy payments from 1995 through 2012.
2. During that same period, our current Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack received $82,874 in USDA benefits for his 592-acre farm in Davis County, Iowa.
3. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Michael T. Scuse owns about 21% of a farm in New Castle County, Delaware, a farm which taxpayers have paid out a whopping $1,051,107 from 1995 through 2012.
4. There are no farms in Manhattan, but NYC residents there have collected subsidies totaling nearly $9 million in the past seven years.
5. NYC struggling farmers include Mark F. Rockefeller ($356,018) and David Rockefeller ($591,057). These are the Rockefellers of obscene wealth fame who got filthy rich via Standard Oil, Chase Manhattan Bank, etc.
6. In the ghetto of Beverly Hills, California, the ESTATE of comedian Jack Benny has collected $18,120 for a farm in Madera County, California, while $142,933 was been paid to Mary Ann Mobley (Miss America of 1959) for a farm in Madison County, Mississippi.

Disgraceful. Current and ex-politicians setting themselves up to get free taxpayer wealth even though the had or currently have high paying government jobs. Wealthy Americans in the largest urban city in the country getting taxpayer wealth probably for only owning some farmland somewhere.

4) Remember the Chicken Little sequester horror stories Obama and his colleagues were throwing out earlier this year? The Federal government sequester required the Obama administration to cut Federal government spending by a measly 2% or so, or about $80 billion in a grossly bloated multi-trillion dollar budget.

Rather than minimize the “pain” of sequester, the Obama administration went out of its way to make the small, small budget cuts as painful as possible for ordinary Americans. White House tours were terminated, Native American schools had their funding cut, air traffic controllers were put on leave in order to make the travel experience as bad as possible, etc.

According to a recent Washington Times report and analysis, they lied. There is no other way to describe their Chicken Little horror predictions. Why? The Times analysis found that there are currently about 27,000 Federal government job vacancies being advertised for potential new employees:

• The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors.
• But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people.
• The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,000 or more, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of federal job listings.
• Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year.

More jobs have been posted since sequester. High paying jobs, much more than what most average Americans earn. Almost a $2 billion a year to be spent on future Federal employees‘ wages. Wouldn’t it have been a better idea not to hire additional employees and put that saved money towards the sequester requirements?

You cannot say the budget cuts are harmful and dangerous on one hand and then go out and hire 27,000 more Federal employees on the other hand. And they expect us to trust anything they say?

5) One last item. Ten members of Congress recently signed a letter which they made public and which said they wanted the National Football League’s Washington Redskins to change their name, make it less offensive to native Americans.

Let’s get real one more time: in these times of chronic and high unemployment, the under educating of our kids, the lack of a national energy strategy, escalating health care costs and a disaster known as Obama Care, a $17 TRILLION national debt, the integrity sapping Benghazi/IRS/press spying/Fast and Furious scandals, a lost and expensive war on drugs, and a myriad of other major problems facing just about every American, these ten Congressional people and their staffs have nothing better to do then to work on this issue, an issue that also does not make the top 100 of the average American’s fears and concerns.

I promise, that is it for political class insanity for this month. I cannot take any more of their lying, their wasting of money on wealthy Americans using farm subsidies as a cover story, sending money to dead people, and silly and useless Internet sex studies. It never ends.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

Abra Kadabra - The Right Hand Of The Federal Government Still Does Not Know What The Left Hand Is Doing

Several times we have discussed the fact that our Federal government has grown so large and unwieldy, becoming more like Jabba The Hutt of Star Wars (a parasitic blob that wastes resources) than an efficient and effective organization, that we often come across ludicrous situations where one part of the Federal government is doing something that is in direct conflict with what another tentacle of the government is doing:

• A little while ago we saw how the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department were doing the exact opposite of each other. One entity was busy trying to reduce the volume of long term Treasury bills in the market and increase the amount of short term Treasury bills while the other entity was trying to expand the volume of long term notes and reduce the volume of short term notes.See the following link for more details: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/10/clueless-in-washington.html
• Another time we saw how the Department of Agriculture was increasing the amount of cheap corn in the market with its farm subsidies, making obesity provoking foods less expensive and more widely used due to the proliferation of cheap corn fructose while other parts of the government were trying to reduce the use of corn fructose infested foods to fight obesity. See the following link for more detail: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/06/your-local-and-state-government-in.html

I am sure I could pull up some other examples from past blog posts but you get the idea. This thing called the Federal government has gotten so large and cumbersome that it cannot help but get in the way of itself every day. If the loss of taxpayer wealth and loss of freedom was not so tragic, some of these antics and working at cross purposes would be kind of funny in a Keystone Kop kind of way.

Unfortunately, these actions do waste incredible amounts of taxpayer money and do rob us of our freedom as the government intrudes to our personal lives more and more with its bureaucratic bumbling.

Today let's talk about the latest crashing together of different government priorities and how this crashing negates the use of taxpayer wealth in the process. Specifically, the latest cross purpose example comes out of the recently passed Senate farm bill. Most of the following information comes from an article in the July 8, 2012 issue of Money News:

• The Federal government and every state government adds a multitude of taxes onto each pack of cigarettes that consumers buy in order to 1) collect taxes on each pack sold and 2) to discourage the purchase and use of cigarettes (not included in the Money News article).
• The Federal government recently announced a new $54 million, 12-week TV ad campaign it will be airing to encourage smokers to give up the smoking habit.
• State level and Federal spending on anti-smoking efforts have topped $800 million in some years.
• Which raises the question that if government entities want to discourage smoking, why does the latest Senate approved farm bill contain continued taxpayer financial support for the industry responsible for the product targeted by those anti-smoking ads, namely the tobacco farming industry?
• From 1995 through 2011, the Federal government has paid out $1.329 billion in subsidies for the tobacco industry. In 2011 alone, Federal taxpayers paid out over $190 million in tobacco subsidies to 58,350 recipients, according to analyses done by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
• North Carolina receives the largest share of the subsidies — 39.7% of the total or $528 million from 1995 through 2011 — followed by Kentucky at 28.7%. The taxpayer waste is not even spread out across a lot of states if only two states sop up almost 70% of the total subsidy.

So let me get this straight. Smoking is a leading cause of disease and death in this country and a prime driver in our problem with escalating health care costs. As a result, the Federal and state governments in this country spend taxpayer money, sometimes to the tune of $800 million a year, to discourage Americans from smoking. This is so important in one part of the Federal government that it is launching a $54 million television ad campaign to encourage people to stop smoking.

However, in the past seven years, the same people running these same government entities have also given away over $1.3 billion of taxpayer wealth to tobacco farmers to help them grow tobacco that leads to disease and death and contributes to our escalating health care costs.

Wouldn't this money have been better spent by either returning it to the American taxpayer, using it to fund lung cancer research, or to help treat victims of lung cancer, a cancer that is most often caused by tobacco smoking? These seems like better uses for over a billion dollars than giving it to tobacco farmers who grow a product that governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to discourage people from using. Makes no sense.

But making no sense by our political class should not come as any surprise. They do it every day. How else to you explain the fact that these same politicians have overspent and incurred a national debt of almost $16 TRILLION without resolving a single major issue facing American families today: our public schools still fail to educate, we are still losing a war on drugs, our borders still leak, we still do not have a national energy policy, our health care costs continue to rise, our infrastructure continues to decay, etc.

That is why Step 1 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" is so important. Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five years. Not only would this result in a tremendous relief to our national debt problem and spur our economy, it would force these politicians to focus on a much smaller set of priorities since they would have far less taxpayer money to spend and waste and divert their attention. With a smaller set of priorities, maybe, just maybe, they might resolve an issue or two.

Lord knows paying tobacco farmers to grow tobacco to be consumed by consumers that the Federal government wants to discourage consumers from consuming is not the right priority.

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

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

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

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

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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