January, 2018, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: A Senator Votes For The Opposite Of What He Believes, Another Politician Gets Indicted and More

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

Let's get started:

1) We have often pointed out how confused, dazed, and lost most politicians are. We once reported that a Georgia Congressman thought the island of Guam could tip over in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We reported on a Texas Congresswoman who thought that there were still two Vietnams with North Vietnam ruling over South Vietnam. That same Congresswoman once declared that her own Congressional district was 50 feet below sea level which, of course, it was not. We once had a Speaker of the House proclaim that a piece legislation (Obama Care) had to be passed BEFORE we could see what was in it.

Which brings us to the latest piece of politician confusion. As most of you know, Washington recently enacted some far reaching tax reform legislation that will reduce and simplify the Federal tax process. It is estimated that over 140 America tax filers will see a reduction in their taxes going forward as a result. The tax legislation will also make filing one’s taxes easier and quicker. And the legislation has already resulted in companies taking important steps to reward themselves, their employees, their stockholders, and the charities they support with their tax savings.

Which brings us to our latest confused politician. Joe Manchin is a Democratic Senator from the state of West Virginia. He voted against the tax reform legislation as did every other Democrat in Congress. In a recent radio interview, Manchin acknowledged there was a lot of good in the legislation that he voted against: “There’s some good in this bill. I acknowledge that. The things that you mention are correct. Initially people will benefit and see some changes in their taxes.” He went on to say that, “I think there is going to be benefit from the get-go, which is called the sugar high.”

Now, he did try, vainly, to justify his no vote on the legislation. He said that taxes could go up in ten years if Congress does not renew the tax cuts. Well, that gives Americans ten years of tax reductions, Joe, and in ten years all Congress has to do is renew the tax cuts, that simple. Another way to say the same thing is a line I found describing Manchin’s idiotic position: “Which is like saying you’re going to pass on this delicious chocolate cake right now because there might not be any left in 2027.” 

Obviously, Manchin voted against his conscience and voted along party lines because his handlers in the upper end of the Democratic Party dictated his vote. Which is just another example of what is wrong with our political class in America today: doing the right thing always takes a back seat to doing the things that benefit only politicians and the two major political parties.

2) It is not only politicians that are confused, dazed, and lost. Often celebrities are the same way. For some reason they think that because they are good at show business stuff that they have deep insights into life and politics that they need to share, and impose, on the rest of us who do not have their brains or knowledge.

Third tier comedian Rosie O’Donnell is one of those show business types. She has been a vocal, often hysterical critic, of Trump ever since he decided to run for the Presidency, somehow thinking that her ranting and raving will make some kind of positive difference in the state of the union.

Unfortunately, her out of control ranting and raving may have exposed her to some serious felony possibilities:

• Tim Brown, writing for the Freedom Outpost website recently, reported that O’Donnell could face a $12 million fine and 15 years in prison for attempted bribery.
• In the run up to the vote to reduce taxes, O’Donnell went on Twitter and publicly offered to pay two Republican Senators $2 million if they voted against the tax reduction legislation.
• Unfortunately, selling your vote to the highest bidder is not the way our republic and government processes are supposed to work which makes offering a sitting member of Congress money to vote a certain way a crime.
• According to the article: “18 U.S. Code § 201 criminalizes the attempted bribery of federal officials by whoever “directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official … with intent to influence any official act.””...”The fine to be imposed would be “not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the thing of value, whichever is greater, or imprisoned for not more than fifteen years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.””
• While some people initially thought her bribery tweet was in jest or to make a symbolic point, she followed up with another tweet, insisting she was serious, making her even more susceptible to prosecution.

Still no cure for stupid...or show business people who think they are smarter than the rest of us when it comes to politics, government, and the world.

3) Probably the second most mentioned topic in this blog behind stupidity of politicians is the crookedness of politicians. Which brings us to the latest instance of a crooked politician:

• Virginia Democratic Congressional candidate Shaun Brown was recently indicted by a Federal grand jury.
• The indictment includes two counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property.
• Specifically, the indictment claims that Brown and others filed bogus claims with the Federal government’s Summer Food Service Program in excess of $439,000 via a non-profit group that Brown founded in 1995.
• Her non-profit was supposed to provide meals to children of low income households during the months when those kids could not get meals via school lunches.
• The indictment claims that Brown defrauded the Federal government, and American taxpayers, by submitting for compensation for more meals than she actually served.

If true, and a Federal grand jury indictment is serious stuff, then how low is this potential member of Congress, using hungry kids as a front to defraud the American taxpayer. And she wanted to be a member of Congress. So sad and pathetic.

That will do it for today’s insanity: Another potential greedy and pathetic politician, this one feasting off of low income kids, an idiotic show business celebrity whose big mouth might land her in prison, and a Senator who voted how others in his political sphere dictated how he was to vote rather than voting for the best interests of his constituents. More insanity to follow.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

While There is Still Hope for America, Part 3...Despite The Political Class: Cutting Unnecessary Defense Spending, Cutting Unnecessary Government Reports, and More

Unfortunately, when discussing the political class in America it usually gets pretty depressing. Runaway national debt, leaky borders, escalating healthcare costs, a lost war on drugs, failing public schools, selfish politicians whose only priority in life is their own personal enrichment and egos, a government bureaucracy that fails at everything it does, etc. It can get pretty depressing with all of the bad news that originates with a petty and inept political class. 

This situation led us to write the book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government,” a fifty step plan to fix what ails the country. Sadly, since the book was published in 2009, the politicians in this country have followed absolutely none of the common sense steps that were proposed. Doing so would have put the country in a much better position today vs. what we are currently living through.

So rather than dwell on the continuing bad news that is spawned by today’s political class, lets take a couple of days to talk about some good things that are going on that should give us all some hope that eventually we can actually fix what the political class has broken and finally actually resolve some major issues of our times.

1) We have often discussed the reality that the American taxpayer wastes at least tens of billions of dollars every year by garrisoning military troops around the world. Step 30 from “Love my Country, Loathe My Government,” strongly suggested that such massive deployment of military personnel around the world was useless and wasteful. 

In fact, like most Washington efforts and strategies, a strong case can be made that these deployments made our international situation and homeland security worse. Every year or so it seems there is another rape case on Okinawa involving a local Japanese woman and U.S. military personnel.

Even though the Korean War ended six decades ago, we still have kept tens of thousands of American troops stationed in South Korea, possibly making North Korean leaders even more paranoid and dangerous if we did not have troops massed on their borders.

And though the Cold War ended about three decades ago, why we have continued to station tens of thousands of troops there to fight a non-existent enemy is beyond logic and certainly wasteful.

Thus, it was encouraging to find out recently that the Pentagon was going to close down 15 U.S.military bases in Europe. The closures are expected to save $500 million a year and be completed by the early 2020s. That’s the good news, a real good first step.

The bad news has several components. These positive steps will not be completed for a decade or so, requiring billions of dollars to still be spent on obsolete military bases. The process should be done much quicker. Second, while a couple of thousand U.S. troops in Great Britain will no longer be needed, there will still be tens of thousands of U.S. troops still on the continent costing tens of billions of dollars a year.

But it is a start and that is the good news. To the tune of half a billion dollars a year.

2) Congress also deserves some credit for starting to cut down on Federal government bureaucracy if only a little bit. They voted to eliminate 48 useless annual government reports that probably very few people ever read and which almost definitely never was worth the effort to compile. Hopefully, the President will sign the bill terminating these reports.

To show you how inane these reports are, consider just a few of the more outlandish ones:

• One report dated back to 1930 and was related to dog and cat fur imports. Yes, in 2014, someone, somewhere in th Federal government was compiling the amount of dog and cat fur imports, all paid for by the American taxpayer.
• Another report tracked how many acres of farmland was devoted to raising peanuts.
• Another report reconciled all of the reports related to the Corporation for National And Community Service.

The good news is that this is a small but positive step at cutting down unnecessary Federal bureaucracies and it will save the American taxpayer about $1 million a year. The bad news is that the Federal government will still be compiling another 4,921 annual reports every year, most of which are probably just as useless as the ones that have been discontinued.

If we could somehow terminate half of those $4,921 annual reports and save at the same rate, we could reduce unnecessary government report expenses by about $50 million a year. $50 million a year could shelter a lot of homeless, feed a lot of hungry, treat a lot of the addicted and do a lot lot more good than being used to create reports that no one ever uses.

3) The Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported that a statewide grand jury has recommended criminal charges be filed against Pennsylvania State Attorney General Kathleen Kane. The charge include perjury and contempt of court related to the leaking of secret grand jury information. Let me say up front that these are only charges and that she is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

However, the good news is that someone in the state government of Pennsylvania is actually looking out for the integrity of the law in the state regardless of political position held or political power. The fact that charges were brought is a sign of hope that all are treated the same under the law, at least in Pennsylvania.

The background of the case is centered around a local grand jury that handed down indictments of two Democratic state legislators for taking bribes in exchange for their votes on a bill.Although the grand jury came back with criminal indictments, Attorney General Kane refused to prosecute the case involving two members of her same political party.

As a result, a judge convened a state grand jury with a special prosecutor to follow up on the whole situation which ended up indictments of Kane. Again, innocent until proven guilty but the good news is that the process worked and even the top law enforcement agent in the state is not above the law and scrutiny for integrity.

4) And last piece of good news: the price of oil continues to drop with the resultant price of gas at the pump continues to drop also. Now some politicians are licking their jobs at this good news and thinking that raising the gas tax at this time is a good thing to do. God forbid the American consumer get a break. 

However, I am more hopeful than ever that the American consumer will not stand for more taxation at a time when government wasteful spending is at an all time high. Just in case, may I suggest you give your Washington representatives a call and tell them no to more taxes, in any form.

That will do it for the three days of good news we have reviewed.Today we learned that small but positive steps have been taken to cut down unnecessary military base expenses and government report expenses. We have learned that at least in Pennsylvania, no politician is above the law. And gas prices continue to sink despite the best efforts of Washington politicians to make it more expensive to gas up. 

I hope you enjoyed this brief review of hope and good news because tomorrow we dive right back into the insanity, incompetence, wasteful spending, and dangers of the American political class.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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