April, 2016, Part 3, By The Numbers: Obama's Expensive Vacations, Hillary's Lies About Guns, Bernie's Lies About Denmark, and More

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.

Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month where we look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us. 

1) As Americans file their income taxes this week, consider what a good chunk of those taxes are being used for. According to dogged Freedom of Information Act action by the Judicial Watch organization, they have finally gotten some of the missing information they had been requesting for a long time from the Federal government, namely how much did the 2013-2014 Obama family Hawaiian Christmas vacation cost the American taxpayer. According to Judicial Watch: “This week we received expense records from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that Secret Service expenses for the Obama family vacation to Honolulu during December 2013-January 2014 cost taxpayers at least $316,698.03. These new expense records bring the total for the Hawaii Christmas vacation trip to $8,098,060.33.”

Yes, over $8 million for ONE Obama vacation. How did you do with your bottom line tax bill this year? I bet you are not taking an $8 million vacation anytime soon.

2) Any rational human being wishes there were no nuclear weapons in the world. However, if there are going to be nuclear weapons, it is best that the U.S. have a large enough nuclear arsenal to deter any other nuclear weapons possessor from doing anything with theirs. Given all of this, consider the following nuclear weapons numbers that are occurring today, as reported by Stan Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon:

• The State Department recently announced that while Russia was adding 153 nuclear warheads to its nuclear arsenal in the past year, the U.S. was cutting its arsenal by 57 warheads.
• In addition, the Defense Department recently stated that Russia is doubling the number of strategic nuclear warheads it has and is still over the 1,550 warhead limit that was established by the START treaty in 2010.
• Many of Russia’s new nuclear weapons are modern, multiple-warhead road mobile missiles and submarine launched ballistic missiles.
• By treaty, both the U.S.and Russia are supposed to get their arsenal down to no more than 1,550 warheads by February, 2018.
• Russia now has 198 MORE nuclear warheads than when it signed off on the latest START nuclear reduction treaty, i.e., they are going in the wrong direction.
• Experts in this field are expecting Russia to not fulfill its promise to get down to 1,550 nuclear warheads by 2018, with Russian government press reports already estimating that country’s long term warhead levels to be around 2,100, 40% higher than the what the treaty allows, and a U.S. think tank believes the results will be even worse, with deployed Russian nuclear warheads topping out at around 2,500 by 2015, a whopping 67% higher than allowed by the treaty.

Given the total lack of respect that Putin seems to have for Obama and the ratcheting up of the number of Russian nuclear warhead totals, the numbers would tend to support the hypothesis that the START treaty’s targets are pretty worthless at this point in time and going forward.

3) Hillary Clinton recently renewed her hatred for the Second Amendment by calling American gun owners terrorists. I will not go into an in-depth discussion of how wrong she is about the Second Amendment and how it keeps Americans safer from all types of dangers in life, but I would like to do point out to her that gun owners in this country do not burn others alive like real terrorists do, they do not behead people like real terrorists do, they do not enslave women and young girls like real terrorists do, they do not throw gay men and women off high buildings like real terrorists do, they do not commit suicide bombings amongst innocent people like real terrorists do. 

But this post is about the numbers, let’s leave the above reasons of her idiocy on the Second Amendment and look at the numbers in the following two charts from the Heritage Foundation, numbers which prove that increasing gun ownership is strongly correlated with decreasing violent crime (double click on the graphs for a larger view):


No matter how hard Clinton and her types try, the numbers in these charts prove that you cannot say that increasing gun ownership increases violent crime, the numbers do not lie. 4) Bernie Sanders wants the U.S. to be more like countries like Denmark. The illusion and myth is that these countries have people that get a lot of free stuff and could not be more happy. The fact that these citizens in countries like Denmark pay very, very high income taxes (at least 40%), that there is a value added/sales tax of 25% on EVERY item purchased, and that the cost of gasoline and cars are much, much higher than in the U.S. seems to get lost on people like Bernie. Still, Bernie and his types want to claim that people living in Denmark have a better economic deal.Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute has put together a set of numbers to test Bernie’s theory. He compared the cost of living in every U.S. state with a whole range of countries including those like Denmark. He put together a method to compare a nation’s GDP per person across the world and states based on publicly available data including the World Bank (double click on table for larger view):



A couple of obvious conclusions jump out:

• If we were like Denmark, our economic worth per citizen would be about 20%, $44,916 vs. $54,629, less than it is today and would make our average economic worth comparable to New Mexico.
• New Mexico GDP per person is about 40% less than the high levels of income in North Dakota and Alaska.
• This would make us worse off than 38 states in this country.

Not quite the economic dream world people like Bernie lead us to believe.5) Let’s continue with another set of numbers that follow up with previous point, namely that life is pretty good, economically in this country. These numbers come from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. They show the “average individual consumption” for countries across the world.  The numbers are indexed with the average country having a value of 100. An index value greater than 100 means that the country’s economic well being is better than the world’s average. An index value less than 100 means that the country’s economic well being is worse than the world’s average:

The numbers show the following realities:

• The wealth position of those living in the United States is 47% better than the world average.
• The wealth position of those living in the United States is about 40% better than those living in Bernie’s Denmark.
• The wealth position of those living in the United States is about 20% better than the second and third most prosperous countries, Luxembourg and Norway.

Bottom line from the two sets of numbers: life is pretty good in the United States from an economic numbers perspective ...despite those like Bernie, the numbers do not lie.That will do it for this month’s numbers review. As usual, the numbers are not good despite what our politicians try to tell us. What did today’s numbers tell us:

• The Obama’s like to spend our tax money on very expensive family vacations.
• Russia is getting stronger and stronger from a nuclear weapons perspective.
• Hillary Clinton lied about gun owners being terrorists and causing violent crime to increase.
• Economically speaking, life in the U.S. is much better than anywhere else in the world. 

The numbers do not lie.

Part 3, Freedom and LIberty Guest Speaker, Tim Powers: The Many Impressive Accomplishments of President Obama (Sarcasm Implied)

This is our third in our series of guest speakers who present their views of how the political class and the Federal government are shredding the Constitution and destroying liberty in this country. The first two posts can be accessed at :

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/07/part-1-freedom-and-liberty-guest.html

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/07/part-2-freedom-and-liberty-guest.html

The first of these posts was written by Thomas Sowell and is where we contended that his random thoughts had more meaning, purpose, and common sense than the combined thoughts of every Washington politicians COMBINED. The second speaker was Steven Foley who does a great job of comparing the Obama Care PR effort vs. the actually disastrous affects of Obama Care’s tenets and regulations.

Today’s guest speaker is Tim Powers who wrote the following piece over a year ago on May 22, 2012 for the Western Center For Journalism website. It has recently resurfaced and is getting some attention.

The hope of his piece was to document the many failures of the Obama administration’s first term in the hope that this losing streak and losing administration would not get a second term. Unfortunately, this hope was not fulfilled.

The title of his piece is sarcastically entitled “Obama’s Rather Impressive List Of ‘Accomplishments.’” We say sarcastically since Mr. Powers list is a list of misdeeds, screwups, and pomposity that any other President would find difficult to live up to, or down to.

We have covered many of these misadventures before but include them here to keep Mr. Powers’ article intact. Certainly nothing to be proud of as President of The United States:

**************************

Obama’s Rather Impressive List Of Accomplishment
Tim Powers, May 22, 2013

Whoever said that Obama hasn’t acomplished anything in his first term?

WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS!…

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

First President to defy a Federal Judge’s court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party, a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

First President to spend a trillion dollars on ‘shovel-ready’ jobs when there was no such thing as ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.

First President to recommend changing our National Anthem as it portrays and promotes violence and is warlike in its theme.

First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer Breakfast and activities.

First President to initiate a Cash for Clunkers Program to clean up exhaust that adds to global warming, then extended it because it was so popular — wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.

First President to bypass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company which state they are allowed to locate a factory in.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

First President to fire an inspector general of Americorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 90 to date.

First President to pledge complete transparency while campaigning, then hide his medical, educational, and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to go on multiple global ‘apology tours’.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends; paid for by the taxpayer.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Qur’an and tells us that the early morning Islamic call to worship is the most beautiful sound on earth.

Now it is up to us Freedom-loving Americans to see to it that he is voted out after his FIRST term. May God bless America again. Stay safe, and be aware of your surroundings.

********************************

I cannot not attest to the validity of ALL of these points but I can attest to the validity of MOST of these points since we have covered them in the past with appropriate documentation. The very sad thing is that Mr. Powers has not presented the complete list of dubious "accomplishments" of this administration, a service we provide below:

First President to approve the assassination of American citizens without due process of law, with multiple assassinations of Americans already successfully completed.

First President to have his administration incur a single year TRILLION spending deficit.

First President to have his administration incur four years of annual TRILLION spending deficits.

First President to authorize the collection of just about EVERY electronic communications of EVERY American EVERY day.

First President to have a wife compare living in the White House to living in a nice prison.

First President to take time to go on TV to annually discuss in detail his March Madness basketball picks and brackets.

First President caught secretly confiscating phone logs of reporters who wrote less than stellar reviews of his administration.

First President to kill hundreds of innocent civilians and hundreds of children via drone missile attacks in foreign countries.

First President to incur over 40 consecutive months with an unemployment rate over 8%.

First President who could not deliver a coherent speech or address without a teleprompter present and operating.

First President to purposely violate international arms control treaties with his disastrous Fast and Furious gun running program.

First President to purposely not save U.S. diplomatic personnel by not allowing a timely military rescue mission to proceed to save the two dozen or so U.S. members of the diplomatic staff at Benghazi, resulting in the unnecessary murders of four brave Americans.

First President to have food stamp participation levels go well past forty million Americans.

First President to waste tens of billions of dollars on failed, bogus, and crony-infested alternative energy projects with no societal benefit in return.

First American President to spend approximately $100 million on a First Family vacation.

First President to take absolutely no responsibility for the failings of his administration, the antithesis of Harry Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here” integrity, blaming among others for his failures: it was the fault of the Bush administration, it was the fault of the Tea Party, it was the fault of the Republicans, it was the fault of Congress, it was the fault of the Japanese tsunami, it was the fault of the Euro crisis, it was the fault of wealthy Americans who do not pay enough in taxes, it was the fault of ATM machines that help cause high unemployment, it was the fault of ordinary Americans who have grown “ a little soft” and who “have lost their ambition” over the years, it was the fault of the Chinese, and last, but not least, it was the fault of the Bush administration.

First President of have a First Family budget of over $1 billion a year.

Sad, sad, sad.

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

Washington's Hunger Games Approach To Government, Part 2: 54 Christmas Trees, Politicians Evading Taxes, The Royal Obamas, And More

Yesterday, we reviewed an extensive research effort from Reuters that analyzed how the Washington D.C. area has become wealthier and wealthier over time as the political class has set themselves up as auctioneers of our taxpayer wealth to the highest bidder. Defense contractor, lawyer, and lobbyist efforts and size has grown exponentially, resulting in an elitist set of people growing richer and richer at taxpayer expense while most of the country continues to suffer through tough economic times.

This scenario reminds one of the book and movie, “The Hunger Games.” In the “Hunger Games” there is a very, very small, elitist set of people in the seat of power, far away from the common folks, both in geography and life style and options. The elitists have manipulated their government so that vast amounts of taxpayer wealth flows to this seat of power to the detriment of the rest of the country. Those in the seat of power enjoy self enrichment, status, pomposity, and gluttony, in its many forms, all on the backs and hard efforts of the rest of the citizens out in the country and hinterlands.

As the wealth flowing to the ruling political class and their business cronies increases, they become more and more out of touch with the plight, challenges, and issues facing the very constituents they are supposed to be helping. They are more wrapped up in their own self enrichment, comfort, and wealth than helping the rest of the citizenry.

Consider just a handful of recent examples of this Hunger Games mentality in Washington:

- According to news reports, New York-based designer Thom Browne designed the dress that Michelle Obama wore during her husband’s second inauguration ceremonies, a dress that was estimated to cost at least $10,000. The average American household would probably have to work 3-4 months to afford such a dress.

- As we have reported previously, the entire inauguration event likely cost American taxpayers around $150 million. How many homeless Americans could that $150 million have fed as opposed to a one day, self-congratulatory waste of Washington inaugural parties and balls?

- During the Christmas season, the White House was decorated with 54 Christmas trees. Many Americans could not afford a single Christmas tree, given the economic conditions that still exist in places throughout the country.

- Robert Keith Gray, the author of "Presidential Perks Gone Royal: Your Taxes Are Being Used For Obama’s Re-election," has done some math and claims that the American taxpayer is annually hit with $1.4 billion worth of perk expense incurred by the Obama family, orders of magnitude greater than the $58 million that the English spend on the ENTIRE royal family expenses in one year.

- But the details under that $1.4 billion, as claimed by Gray, are even more grotesque:

• This President flies Air Force One with a whopping twenty-six cabin crew members on board when in operation.
• Included in the twenty six member crew are five chefs.
• For the White House theatre, two projectionists are always present, sleeping in the area of the theater, in order to remain on duty at all times, in case a First Family member or guest wants to see a movie.
• A dog walker is also always on duty to walk the First Family dog, one of which was on salary for $102,000.
• On at least one airline trip, paid for by taxpayers, the only passengers aboard were the First Family’s dog and his handler.
• In 2009, the military payroll at Camp David was $8,000,000. These men and women were not part of the protection detail or there in place of the Secret Service to protect the President, but rather to serve the First Family and its guests.
• Obama has appointed 43 high-priced “czars” to his White house staff, a number far greater than any previous President.
• None of these czars was voted to office by taxpayers or approved by any other governmental body or official.
• During his first term in office, Obama has also appointed 469 White House bureaucrats, with 226 of them being paid over $100,000 a year and 77 of them paid as much as $172,000 a year.

- In our January 3, 2013 post, we reported on how many of the people enjoying the Hunger Games perks in Washington were actually convicted or accused tax evaders. Included in this tax evader club are Congressman Nick Rahall (who illegally spent years claiming a homestead exemption on his D.C. home AND another homestead exemption on his other home back in West Virginia), Congressman Fortney H. “Pete” Stark (also doing some tax avoidance via multiple homestead abatement shenanigans), Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis (who could not take her Secretary job until her husband paid his back taxes on his auto repair business), and Senator Sherrod C. Brown (who apparently did not pay the D.C. city government $222,000 for taxes on his Capitol Hill condominium.)

- These acts of tax evasion are not to be confused with the tax evasion antics of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former Senator Tom Daschle (income tax), current HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius (income tax), Senator John Kerry (tax avoidance on his yacht), and Senator Claire Catskill (tax avoidance on use of an airplane).

Thus, not only do these political elitists get all of the Hunger games benefits, they try to avoid paying their “fair share” into the overall government taxation pot.

- A November 27, 2012 article from USA Today actually asked the question we are discussing, “Are We Living The Hunger Games?” Quotes from that article are so appropriate on this topic:

• Washington is rich not because it makes valuable things, but because it is powerful. With virtually everything subject to regulation, it pays to spend money influencing the regulators.
• You're likely to get a much better return from an investment of $1 million on lobbying than on a similar investment in, say, a new factory or better worker training.
• P.J. O’Rourke is quoted in the article: "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."
• Ross Douhat is quoted in the article: “But it doesn't seem like a sign of national health that America's political capital is suddenly richer than our capitals of manufacturing and technology and finance, or that our leaders are more insulated than ever from the trends buffeting the people they're supposed to serve."

Politicians that get rich. Politicians that shamelessly and wastefully burn though our tax dollars without paying their share of taxes. Politicians that divert wealth from economic growth activities to lobby and cronyism purposes. Politicians who dress better, party better, and take better care of their pets than they take care of Americans.

This is government out of control, ego out of control, spending out of control. This is truly the Hunger Games.

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