April, 2016, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: The National Debt Fiasco Gains Steam, Criminal Email Abuse By The Obama Administration, and Obama's Continued Voter ID Denial Of Reality

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

It looks like our politicians have been especially insane over the past month or so let’s get started with the latest insanity from today’s American politicians:

1) We have often talked about how the skyrocketing national debt is probably the biggest issue facing every American and the future of our country, how it will double under Obama’s watch, and how the American political class has no ability, desire, or will to fix the problem of out of control government spending. And according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it is getting worse and worse every day. 

The comptroller general of the GAO, Gene Dodaro, recently testified in front of Congress that within just a few years, the Federal government will owe more than what the entire U.S. economy produces in a single year: “We’re very heavily leveraged in debt. The historical average post-World War II of how much debt we held as a percent of gross domestic product was 43 percent on average; right now we’re at 74 percent.” Obviously the amount of government debt on both a total basis and a ratio basis as compared to the entire economy are at historic highs.

Unbelievable, we are paying the highest amount of taxes in our country’s history, our so-called Tax Freedom Day is months into the year, we pay more in taxes than we pay for food, shelter and transportation COMBINED every year, and still the politicians in Washington cannot get enough of our wealth to waste. 

And the very sad part about all of this spending is that we have nothing to show for it. Our roads, tunnels, and bridges are falling apart. Our public schools continue to do a lousy job of educating our kids. Our borders leak and are not secured from foreign criminals and terrorists. The country is a mess and we spent a lot of money, entrusting to the Washington political class, and have nothing to show for it. Insane.

2) Continuing with our theme of the severe budget and debt problems of the Federal government, there are people in the country that do realize how bad things are if not a single Washington politician does. Above, the GAO warned us of what was happening. Earlier this week, we reviewed what the Congressional Budget office had to say about the growing national debt and how bad it is. The Libertarian Party has been warning about the growing debt problem for decades.

To these voices of dire warning, let’s add the voice of JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, who recently accurately and succinctly reviewed what is going to happen if government spending is not gotten under control: “The long-term fiscal and tax issues (driven mostly by healthcare and Social Security costs, as well as complex and poorly designed corporate and individual taxes), immigration, education (especially in inner city schools) and the need for good, long term infrastructure plans.”

Dimon went on to properly argue that the longer the Washington political class delays in getting serious about its out of control budget, the more painful the consequences will be. Which means that Washington politicians will wait until the crisis overtakes the country rather than tick off a few voters in the near term.

3) Obama promised that he would operate the most transparent Presidential administration ever. We have shown dozens of times in this blog that this is one of the most obscene lies and deceptions that probably any President has ever made, the Obama Presidency has been the exact opposite of transparent.

One of the favorite ways Obama’s people have sabotaged transparency is by illegally and immorally using private email accounts to conduct government business.This is a blatant violation of ethics and current laws. His previous head of the EPA, his previous attorney general, and other high ranking Obama officials have been found to illegally using non-government emails accounts to hide their actions from scrutiny and review. Unfortunately, none of these high ranking government employees were ever punished or prosecuted for breaking the law, seems those in Washington take care of and shield their own from criminal proceedings.

And apparently this law breaking continues to go on. According to documents uncovered by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) via a Freedom of Information Act request, Obama’s current head of the EPA is doing exactly what her predecessor did, use non-official emails to conduct and hide government business. It seems that Michael J. Bradley, president and founder of an energy consulting firm that represents numerous green advocacy groups, has preferred to use a private email account to interact with current EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy. 

A sample of their law breaking includes the following exchange: “Joe, Would you please send this email to Gina for me? I would have sent it to her directly with a cc to you but I don’t have a private email address for her and would prefer to not use an office email address,” Bradley emailed to EPA Senior Counsel Joe Goffman. This particular email regarded the Cross-State Pollution Rule, noting companies Bradley represents, according to E&E Legal, want to support the regulation.

The topic of the renegade emails is irrelevant. It is illegal and makes one wonder what other secrets are hiding in hidden emails in the EPA and other government entities that the laws were expressly designed to prevent. You cannot be transparent if you have an underworld of email networks and contacts that are hidden from public scrutiny and review. Pathetic disrespect for the laws of the country.

4) I always love it when politicians like Obama boldly state that something as fact and their “facts” can be easily destroyed by reality. A small example of that recently occurred. Obama was in Chicago speaking to law students about how he thinks that state level voter id laws suppress the voting rights and opportunities of minorities. We have already thoroughly destroyed this Obama lie and myth in the following past posts:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/06/destroying-political-class-myths-part-1.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/06/destroying-political-class-myths-part-2.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/06/political-class-myth-busting-part-3.html

But despite these obvious rebuttals to his voter id idiocy, he continued to say these laws hurt minorities. In the same week that he continued this inane line of reasoning, the Western Journalism website reported that: “The president did not cite specific laws, but in the past has opposed state-level voter ID laws. Obama spoke to the Chicago law students just days after Wisconsin implemented its new voter ID law for the first time in its presidential primaries. Voter turnout Tuesday was the largest since 1972.” “Voter turnout was the largest” in 44 years. Yeah, those pesky voter id laws really suppress voting [sarcasm].

Another day and another batch of political class insanity, idiocy, and lies. A President that continues to lie in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, continuing law breaking by high ranking Obama administration officials, and more bad news on national debt levels and the ineptness of Washington politicians to do nothing to avoid a financial disaster of epic proportions. More insanity tomorrow as it seems to never end.

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

January, 2015, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: Stifling Debt and The Incest Of Polticians and Bankers Have For Each Other

It is the beginning of both another year and another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. For regular readers of this blog, you know that as 2014 progressed, the insanity, stupid quotes, ineffective governing and legislating, and general incompetence of our politicians seemed to accelerate as the year grinded on.

No major issues got addressed, never mind resolved. Obama Care’s implications across the entire country and entire economy continued to unfold in disaster after disaster. Our foreign policy, or what was passed off as a foreign policy, was in tatters. Terrorism was on the march across the world. Veterans were dying because the Federal government could not fulfill the medical and health care promises those brave veterans were promised. The national debt hit a mind boggling $18 TRILLION.

And our President continued to play golf and go on political campaign swings like no other President ever did. Congress narrowly missed becoming the least productive Congress of all time. Billions were spent and wasted on the November elections to elect people that did not deserve the time of day never mind billions of dollars. Racial division spread across the country, a division that was fomented and spread by those in office with something to gain.

And guess what? Over the past week or so, we have seen nothing has changed except the calendar. The political class is still out of control, the government entities that they rule over are bloated and ineffective, and the quality of life and freedom in this country continues to deteriorate.

I though yesterday would be the last post in this month’s insanity series but it requires one more day to tidy up the following disasters from the American political class, at least until next month. Today then will definitely be the last post in this series of political class insanity so enjoy one last day of the many ways that the political class wastes your tax dollars, screws up our freedoms and liberties, and generally messes up everything it touches.

1) Our insanity focus today will be on economic mismanagement and crises that the political class have dropped on us and the country. The following information mostly comes from a Heritage Foundation article that was published on November 29, 2014 by Stephen Moore. He is the chief economist at the Foundation.

He takes a stab at estimating the impact and burden that “Obamanomics” has placed on our economy and country:

• Since the day that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in late 2008, a few months before Obama took office, the Federal government has added about $8.3 TRILLION to our national debt.
• This is about $72,000 of debt for each U.S.household.
• The Federal Reserve has devalued the dollar by the $3.5 TRILLION that it has played with through its so-called monetary policy and three rounds of quantitative easing.
• That debasement comes out to about $30,000 for every U.S.household.
• The Obama administration spent about $830 billion on its failed economic stimulus program or about $7,200 for every U.S.household.
• If we add these expenditures up with get $12.6 TRILLION or about $110,000 per U.S. household.

As Mr. Moore points out, all of those trillions have been spent and already “flushed through the economy.” What do we have to show for this flushing:

• U.S. median household incomes have declined year over year for the past six years even though the recession ended five years ago at the same time that banks and bankers have gotten much richer.
• There are about 15 million unemployed or underemployed Americans throughout the country.
• Labor force participation rates are at their lowest levels since the 1970s.
• While the official unemployment rate has declined over the past few years, that has as much to do with discouraged job hunting people leaving the workforce as it does with economic growth.
• Minority unemployment rates are still much higher than the overall unemployment rate.
• An amazing and depressing 45 million Americans are still receiving Federal food assistance every month despite the recession having ended years ago.
• The national debt burden is now trending above 100% of GDP, a ratio that puts it up in the distressed economic realm of Greece, Spain, and other distressed economies.
• According to a  2014 Brookings report, we are currently living in an economic time when more companies are closing and going out of business than than new businesses are  starting up for the first time in a quarter of a century.
• Just about every major expenditure of this administration, from Solyndra and dozens of other failed alternative energy investments to the horrific Obama Care website, have crashed and burned with no societal benefit in return.

So basically, we have flushed TRILLIONS of dollars away and have very little to see in return.

These conditions are bad enough but Mr.Moore points out even worse news. That additional national debt is being paid off today at very low interest rates. But how long will those low rates be in effect? He estimates that if interest rates eventually get rational from a historical perspective, say 3% or so, an additional $5 TRILLION in national debt will materialize solely because of increased interest payments or about $43,000 for each U.S. household.

This would increase the individual household burden to over $150,000 per household. This would make the interest payments on the national debt the biggest expense line in the Federal budget. These TRILLIONs of dollars of interest payments are TRILLIONS that cannot be spent on infrastructure improvements, education, improvements, etc.

Economically and financially as a country, the political class has taken us to a point where we have never been. And while things are not too bad today, higher stock market returns, lower gas prices, tame inflation, etc., he does conclude his article with a history-based warning relative to easy money, deficit spending, and printing money: “When other nations have tried to print their way to prosperity, the story hasn’t had a happy ending. For Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and others, easy-money policies have crashed state economies and ended in misery. The poor have been hurt the most.”

If untreated, personal insanity will eventually kill. If untreated, financial insanity will also do the same and the American political class is part of the disease and the insanity, not the doctor and certainly not the cure.

2) So if the economy is so bad, why is overall economic growth starting to pick up and why is Obama talking about good economic news so much? Well, one source of insight into that disconnect comes from a recent article that appeared in the Guardian newspaper, ”Seven Years Ago Wall Street Was The Villain. Now It Gets To Call The Shots.”

The article was written by Joel Kotkin and it shows how the cozy relationship between the banking industry and the Washington political class has paid off handsomely for both parties at the expense of the rest of America. Mr. Kotkin points out that both major political parties are at fault here, not just the Republicans and the fault covers a wide range:

• Recently proposed legislation will gut much of the financial controls that previous legislation placed on financial and banking institutions, “new rules, written largely by Citibank lobbyists and embraced by the Obama administration,” allowing them to go back to some very dangerous investing schemes with little additional oversight from the government.
• Mr.Kotkin went onto explain why the Obama administration has endorsed this more lax oversight principles: “The ultra-rich so backed the president [Obama] that, at his first inaugural, noted one sympathetic chronicler, the biggest problem for donors was finding parking space for their private jets.”
• Obama’s first Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, came from Goldman Sachs and ended up back on Wall Street in a high paying job while his successor came from Citibank.
• Staying with the Citibank theme, Jamie Dimon, CEO of Citibank, has been called Obama’s “favorite banker.”
• Despite the banking and financial shenanigans of the industry that directly led to the “Great Recession,” Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, has not gone after any major banking figures for prosecution, unlike previous Presidential administrations that put thousands of bankers in jail for their criminal acts.
• In this tepid economic recovery, a period when Democrats controlled most of the Federal government,  the top 1% of earners  saw their incomes rise by 11% while the rest of America experienced stagnant or declining incomes.
• Or as a writer at the Huffington Post summarized it: “The rising tide has lifted fewer boats during the Obama years – and the ones it’s lifted have been mostly yachts.”
• As a result of cozying up and coddling to large banks, in 1995, the assets of the six largest bank holding companies accounted for 15% of this country’s gross domestic product; by 2011 the political class had helped raise that percentage had to a sky high 64%.

Wow, talk about scratching each other’s back. Everyone wins but America and most of its citizens. Woodrow Wilson once warned us: “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.” One hundred years later this piece of insanity has come true, we as a nation have allowed the political class to sell our souls to the banking industry bosses to our detriment and their advantage.

3) While the financial management of the Federal government has been insane, the state governments and the state politicians that operate those state governments have not done much better. According to a recent NewsMax article, state governments have unfunded liabilities of about $4.7 TRILLION, or about $41,000 for every American household.

Combine this estimate with the worse case scenario from the story above and the total government debt load for every U.S. household is about $200,000. In other words, every household would have to write a very large check, i.e. give up $200,000 of their personal wealth, just to pay off the debt the American political class has racked up.

The state debt load of $4.7 TRILLION comes from a new report by State Budget Solutions: "This spells trouble for the millions of baby boomers who are quickly approaching retirement age and expect to collect the pensions promised to them by government officials," writes Joe Luppino-Esposito, author of the "Promises Made, Promises Broken 2014" report. "State taxpayers who are not government employees will also feel the pinch, which could result in reduced government services as larger and larger portions of the states' budgets must be allocated to cover the public pension shortfall."

California carries the largest unfunded liability, an amazing $754 billion, followed by Illinois ($331 billion), New York ($307 billion), Texas ($296 billion), and Ohio ($289 billion). Certainly large liabilities but the report also looks at the liabilities from a funding ratio perspective, which compares state government assets to to state government liabilities.

Using this measurement, Illinois is in worst shape, with a funding ratio of just 22 percent — it has assets of $95 billion, about 22 percent of its liabilities of $426.6 billion. Other states with pathetically low ratios are Connecticut (23 percent), Kentucky (24 percent), Alaska (25 percent), and Mississippi (27 percent). Wisconsin, the state with the best ratio and financial picture is still at only 67% when you calculate their funding ratio.

The report found that most often the problem is that the political class in each state cut its financing of its liabilities such as state employment pensions in order to spend tax dollars elsewhere. Over time, this starving of pension funds and such has resulted in these anemic funding levels and ratios. Thus, state politicians are just as short sighted and economically ignorant as their Federal government brethren.

That will do it for the political class insanity for this month. Today was a little heavy on financing and economics but still insane how the political class at both the Federal and state levels is burying this country, our wealth, and our freedom in debt and how  the politicians and bankers in this country have developed a symbiotic relationship at the expense of our economic well being.

We will return to the insanity early next month where I am sure we will talk about more debt, more stupid political quotes, more failed government programs, and other pieces of political class insanity.

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

Part 2, American Politicians Are "Just Not Into You"

Today is the second in a three part series of posts where we prove what most of America already senses: American politicians do not care what our needs, sufferings, and requirements are, they are too busy catering to the needs of wealthy political contributors and their own selfish gains. Or as we summarized it yesterday, using an old movie cliché, they are “just not into you.”

Yesterday, we discussed an extensive statistical research effort from two political science professors who proved this point quantitatively. We also showed how the Obama administration is infected with high powered and wealthy lobbyist-types and how Nancy Pelosi has probably spent more time enriching her family with taxpayer wealth than enriching taxpayers with government programs that encourage economic growth.

This discussion continues below to show that politicians are more concerned about money and wealth, and how to keep it by sucking up to wealthy entities, than they are in resolving the problems facing the vast majority of Americans.

1) A recent article by the Independent Journal review had a fascinating graph, from the Business Insider website, that showed how much more money residents of the greater Washington D.C. area make over citizens in the rest of the country:



If you look at the vertical axis on the left side you see a scale that runs from 1.2 to 1.8. If a plot point is at 1.2, then the residents in D.C. earned, on average, 20% more than the rest of the country. A plot point of 1.5 means that for that year, D.C. residents on average earned about 50% more than the rest of the country. Other conclusions from the historical data in the graph include:

• From the 1950s through the late 1990s, the ratio stayed pretty constant between 1.25 and just under 1.40.
• However, as a new century dawned, the ratio broke through the 1.4 ceiling and started to accelerate quickly, with the rate of accelerating getting worse under the Obama administration. 
• In fact, all time highs were attained by the ratio during the entire Obama administration with the latest data still way above historical norms.
• The shaded areas in the graph indicate recessions and it appears that the ratio actually grew during recessionary periods, indicating that Washington took much better care of itself in tough economic times than it took of the rest of the country.
• The points of closest parity between D.C. and the rest of the country came under Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan while the largest disparities came under Democratic Presidents Harry S. Truman and Barack Obama. So much for the President’s false focus on “income equality.” 

So much for caring about the middle class. Washington takes care of itself first and foremost, they are “just not into you.”

2) Mary Barker, recently writing for the Deseret News on August 14, 2014, did a comprehensive review of how corporate cronyism uses its influence and dollars to get favorable deals for themselves at the expense of the American taxpayer. Disgraces from her research writing include the following:

• The bailout of General Motors cost American taxpayer over $11 billion that will never be paid back even though GM profits since the bailout have totaled $22.6 billion.
• The author quotes a research study which that between the years 2008 and 2010, 30 of the largest American companies paid more to lobby Congress (about $400,000 per day) than they did in Federal taxes. 
• During that time, only one of the 30 largest companies actually paid Federal taxes, despite these companies’ total profits of $164 billion. 
• Not surprisingly, most of them contributed to the financing of incumbents' reelection campaigns.
• Even though hundreds of bankers went to jail after the 1980s for their illegal actions and shenanigans during the savings and loan crisis, after the Great Recession, no bankers were prosecuted even though the major banks and investment companies were at the root cause of many of the factors which triggered the Great Recession.
• In this banking fiasco, they got bailouts and hefty bonuses rather than jail time, all courtesy of a needy American political class.
• The Government Accountability Office has estimated that the Great Recession cost the U.S. economy $22 trillion and much more in lost careers, foreclosed homes, stress, lost pensions, etc.
• However, a major perpetrator and player in the cause of the Great Recession, JPMorgan Chase, received a $25 billion taxpayer bailout while its CEO, Jamie Dimon, received a 74% pay raise, getting his annual compensation to around $20 million, according to the article.
• Another major bank, HBSC, freely admitted to laundering billions of dollars for the biggest, dirtiest Mexican drug cartels but once again no one was prosecuted. The bank paid a fine and its chief executive, however, said that the bank was “profoundly sorry.”

By the way, if you follow the money that is used to influence politicians via the Open Secrets website, you would find that:

• In the latest election cycle, JP Morgan's political contributions put them in the top .5% of all contributors to election campaigns and their $5.5 million spent on lobbying put them in the top 2% of all companies who had lobbying expense.
• In the latest election cycle, HSBC's political contributions put them in the top 10% of all contributors to election campaigns and their $3.4 million spent on lobbying put them in the top 4% of all companies who had lobbying expense.
• In the latest election cycle, General Motors' political contributions put them in the top 1.5% of all contributors to election campaigns and their whopping $8.8 million spent on lobbying put them in the top 1% of all companies who had lobbyin expense.

Still think that American polticians care about you in the face of these millions and millions spent by the banks and large companies to buy influence in Washington?

You break a law, you go to jail. Wealthy corporate types and bankers break a law, they get taxpayer bailouts and get to say they’re sorry rather than go to jail. Obviously, the political class is “just not into you” when it comes to bailouts and law breaking excuses.

3) But it is just not bankers that get to stay out of jail for illegal behavior. Recent news reports show that Regina Dugan, the former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has been implicated in a U.S. Inspector General’s report for improperly directing agency contracts that were awarded to a company she had previously founded and in which she still had a financial stake in.

She founded and still holds a financial interest in RedXDefense, a company which designs detection devices for drugs and explosives. She was the company’s CEO until 2009, when she left to take the head job at DARPA. According to the Inspector General, while at DARPA, Dugan refrained from involving herself directly in any contract-awarding process for which RedXDefense was a bidder. But the company nevertheless received major contracts which drew the scrutiny of the Inspector General’s office in 2011.

While Dugan has since left that post and government work to go work at Google, the Inspector General found that: “We determined that Dr. Dugan violated the prohibition against using her government position for the stated or implied endorsement of a product, service, or enterprise.” 

Certainly at least the appearance of conflict of interest, if not outright conflict of interest. Better to take care of her own personal financial gain than do the best thing to protect the taxpayers’ dollars.

4)According to a most recent Reuters poll, 70% of Americans believe illegal immigrants "threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs," and 63% believe "immigrants place a burden on the economy." However, both Democrats and Republican politicians in Washington are pushing for favorable treatment of illegal immigrants. 

Why? Democrats see them as future voters. Republicans and their business cronies see illegal immigrants as sources of cheap labor, current citizens’ employment needs be damned. On the one issue where both Washington Democrats and Republicans agree, it is because of their own selfish interests, votes and financial election contributions, not because of the will of the people that they are supposed to represent the vast majority of Americans who do not want more and more illegal immigrants coming into this country.

Why would our politicians have more interest in foreigners illegally coming here than existing U.S. citizens? Obviously, they are “just not into you.”

Our politicians make sure that they get paid first and more handsomely vs. the rest of the country, they make sure that their corporate and banking financial bankers serve no jail time and are rewarded for bad and illegal behavior via bailouts, they take no action when government employees enrich themselves and foreign illegal immigrants take precedence over existing citizens. 

So if we learned anything over the past two days is that when the November elections start to get closer and a politicians promises you that they are looking out for your well being and welfare, keep in mind that they are “just not into you,” you are nothing more than a vote and a subsequent ATM machine once they are in office.

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