The Fiscal State Of The Country - Even Politicians Are Admitting To Their Crime Of National Bankruptcy

We have reviewed many of the commonly published statistics regarding our ailing economy numerous times in this blog:

1. 42 consecutive months of the official unemployment rate greater than 8%.
2. A combined unemployment and underemployment rate of almost 15%.
3. Household income that has dropped more in the three years since the recesson ended vs. the two years of the actual recession.
4. Household wealth that has retreated to levels last seen 17 years or so ago.
5. Millions of homes under water or in foreclosure proceedings.
6. Gasoline prces that have more than doubled since January, 2009.

Okay, enough is enough. But consider some other bad economic trends and situations that have recently been gathered from official government sources and published by the Bankrupting America organization's website, along with my Comments and observations:

 (http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/fact-sheet/by-the-numbers-breakdown-september-edition/?direct):

September, 2012 Monthly SnapShot:
Federal Spending, the Economy, the Budget And Economic Facts

The numbers say it all: Washington has spent its way into a fiscal crisis. This unsustainable habit will have consequences on future generations unless Congress can work together and enact lasting change.

State of the Federal Debt

 -National Debt: $16.06 trillion - Comment: please visit the following post to understand just how astronomically huge 16 trillion is:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/09/fun-with-math-making-our-16-trillion.html

- Debt per American including infants and kids: $51,071

- Debt per Household: $140,586

- Net Interest on the Debt: $343.1 billion (first 11 months of fiscal year) - Comment: at this rate, every American household has already paid about $3000 to the Federal government this year alone just to finance the runaway interest payments on the Federal government's deficits.

State of the Budget

- Budget Deficit (September, 2012): $190.5 billion: Comment - this one MONTH'S worth of Obama budget deficit is actually greater the the ANNUAL spending deficit that Bush ran up in two years of its administration (2002 and 2007).

- Budget Deficit (FY2011): $1.297 trillion: Comment - in 2011, the Federal government spent about $148 million a DAY that it did not have revenue to cover, requiring increases in the national debt.

- Revenue (Fiscal Year to Date): $2.188 trillion: Comment - The Federal government would have to reduce its spending 8.2% a year for five straight years to just get its spending in line with its revenue/tax stream. Imagine how far out of control spending is if you had to reduce your own spending that amount for five years in a row to attain that same status.

- Spending (Fiscal Year to Date): $3.354 trillion

- Budget Deficit (FY2012 to Date): $1.164 trillion: Comment - in 2012, the Federal government spent about $132 million a DAY that it did not have revenue to cover.

- Under Harry Reid's leadership, the U.S. Senate has failed to produce a detailed budget, as required by the Constitution, in over 1,200 days, over three years.

State of the Economy

- Annualized Economic Growth: 1.7 percent (second quarter preliminary): Comment - average long term annual growth of the U.S. economy is about 3.4%, more than double the current anemic economic growth of this economy.

- Trade Deficit: $42.0 billion (July 2012): Comment - Using rough estimates by extrapolating the July results, in all likelihood over $400 billion of wealth leaves this country every year due to the ongoing trade imbalance.

- Unemployment: 8.1 percent (August 2012)

- Jobs Created in 2012: 1.114 million (first eight months of 2012): Comment - every week this year about 360,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment benefits every week, dwarfing the 1.114 jobs created.

- States with the Highest Unemployment Rates:

• NV (12.0 percent)
• RI (10.8 percent)
• CA (10.7 percent)
• NJ (9.8 percent)
• SC (9.6 per cent)
• NC (9.6 per cent)

- States with the Lowest Unemployment Rates:

• ND (3.0 percent)
• NE (4.0 percent)
• SD (4.4 percent)
• OK (4.9 percent)
• VT (5.0 percent)

Comment - Unfortunately, the states with the highest unemployment rates tend to be bigger, more populous states while the states with the lowest unemployment rates tend to be smaller, less populous states.

Horrific numbers and a horrific economic situation our political class has gotten us into. And if you look closely, you see that many of these politicians actually recognize what they have done to us and the country:

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet as quoted in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." Unfortunately, about two years later, we have put another $3 TRILLION onto the national debt and still have nothing to show for it.

Former U.S. Senator John Danforth: "I have never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs. I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected."

Former U.S. Senator Evan Bayh: "Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people’s business is not being done. Two weeks ago, the Senate voted down a bipartisan commission to deal with one of the greatest threats facing our nation: our exploding deficits and debt. The measure would have passed, but seven members who had endorsed the idea instead voted ‘no’ for short-term political reasons."

Yes, most Ameircans are aware of how precarious our fsical health and direction has become, getting worse everyday. Hyperinflation, government default, credit worthiness downgrades, loss of freedom and liberty, reductions in entitlement budgets, etc. are coming at us unless the Federal government and the political class that operate it do something coherent and fast.

It is such a shame that current and former Washington politicians actually know the truth of how bad the situaiton is and what is in store for the nation, as shown in their statements above. The bigger shame is that they were part of the problem that got us a $16 TRILLION national debt and were not part of the solution.

However, we have two appoachess to resolve the problem:

1. First, execute Step 1 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." This step would reduce Federal spending 10% a year for five years to finally get government spending in line with government tax revenue. You cannot start reducing your national debt until you get to a balanced budget.
2. The following blog laid out a detailed plan on not only to get to a balanced budget but also how to reduce spending and debt by upwards of $9 TRILLION over the next ten years:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/09/fun-with-math-making-our-16-trillion.html

Let's resolve the crime of our national debt before it resolves our future for us.

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

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

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

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

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

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

Fun With Math - Making Our $16 Trillion National Debt Easy To Understand...and Fear

Sometime this week the U.S. Federal government exceeded the $16 TRILLION threshold of national debt. I found it ironic that the Presidential administration that has added more to that level of debt than any other previous administration, increasing it by about 50% in less than four years, is also having its Presidential convention this week. I would bet that these debt "accomplishments" will not be part of the agenda or any of the speeches.

$16 TRILLION is a lot of money, a whole lot of money. Let's play with some math to put $16 TRILLION in perspective:

1. $16 TRILLION is the number 16 with TWELVE zeroes behind it.
2. If every American household chipped in the same amount to pay off that debt, each household would have to write a check for about $140,000. Not going to happen.
3. Since the average household income is about $50,000 a year, every household would have to work almost three years, on average, to retire the debt and forego eating, leisure activities, buying clothes, going on vacation, paying taxes, paying for heat, etc.
4. Since the richest four hundred Americans have a total net worth of about $2.4 TRILLION,  even if the Federal government was able to seize their entire wealth and somehow liquidate it to pay off some of the debt, only about 15% of the national debt could be paid off.
5. Since the 400th richest American had a total wealth of about $1 billion, even if you confiscated the entire wealth of the next richest 400 Americans, you would still end up with considerably less than $400 billion or, at best, only another 2.5% of the national debt. In other words, even if you confiscated and liquidated the entire wealth of the richest Americans, you could not come close to paying off the national debt, a moving target that grows by a TRILLION dollars a year under this administration.
6. If you spent $20 million every day, beginning with the day Jesus Christ was born, you still would not have spent $16 TRILLION.
7. If you have 16 TRILLION one dollar bills and laid them end-to-end, you would circle the globe just over 60,000 times.
8. If you have 16 TRILLION one dollar bills and laid them end-to-end, you would stretch back and forth from Earth to Mars about 2,100 times.
9. If you have 16 TRILLION one dollar bills and stacked them into four equal piles of 250 billion bills each, each stack would reach from the Earth to beyond the moon.
10. 16 TRILLION seconds is over 500,000 years worth of time

You get the idea, I do not want to trivialize the dire economic straits the political class has put us in with more simple math examples. Not only are we in dire straits today, the $16 TRILLION has not made life any better for most Americans:

• Our health care costs are still going ever higher so the $16 TRILLION did not curb runaway health care costs.
• Our government is still fighting a lost war on drugs so the $16 TRILLION did not find a way to successfully address this losing war. We still have over 40,000 Americans who die from drug overdoses every year and we probably still spend more for incarceration than we do for treatment and prevention.
• We still do not have a sane, affordable, and environmentally friendly national energy plan so the $16 TRILLION did not solve our ever present energy problems, the latest manifestation of which is that the pump price of gas has doubled in less than four years, or since Obama took office.
• Our public schools, for the most part, are a disgrace when it comes to educating our kids relative to the rest of the world so the $16 TRILLION was not used to fix our dysfunctional public school processes.
• Many parts of our country are living with crumbling bridges and pothole scarred roads so the $16 TRILLION was not used to fix our infrastructure problems.
• We still have a major illegal immigration problem so the $16 TRILLION was not used to legally, fairly and compassionately integrate the current illegal immigrants into our society or was used to seal our leaky borders, giving the Mexican drug cartels virtually unfettered ways to smuggle drugs, guns, humans, and who knows what else into the country.

So, despite the Federal government confiscating and overspending our wealth to the tune of $16 TRILLION, we can safely say that they have not used that wealth to even begin resolving any of the major issues facing the country. This conclusion was also reached by an actual member of the political class who eloquently stated the reality of this farce a few years ago.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet stated the obvious in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." He is right, we had nothing to show for $13 TRILLION worth of national debt and two years later, we already have $16 TRILLION worth of debt and nothing to show for it. 

But it gets worse! If you go to the official White House budget website, $16 TRILLION is nothing compared to where the current administration's budget plans will take us in the next several years:

• According to the latest official White House budget numbers, another $3.44 TRILLION will be added to the Federal national debt by the end of year 2017.
• If this estimate holds true, every American household would be theoretically burdened with another $30,000 share of the overall national debt.
• However, this estimate requires that the economy and the resultant government tax revenue stream have annual growth rates of 17%, 11%, 7%, 7%, and 6% over the next five years.
• Given that the long term, average annual growth rate for the U.S. economy is about 3%, it is highly unlikely that these rosy tax revenue growth rates will hold and we will not add $3.44 TRILLION to our national debt by 2017, we will add significantly more.
• If we assume a much more realistic economic growth rate of 3% annually over the next five years and that the economic growth rate will generate the same growth rate in government tax revenue, than the actual increase in the national debt could more realistically expected to be about $7 TRILLION, or an additional $60,000 or so to each household's share of the overall debt.
• Thus, by 2017, each American household could be on the hook for about $200,000.
• This also assumes a most unrealistic assumption, namely that we do not suffer another recession between now and 2017 which would increase the additional debt even more.

An old saying goes: "When you are in a hole, stop digging." Obviously, the Obama administration, as illustrated by their current, official budget outlooks, have no real plans or ability to stop digging deeper into this national debt sinkhole.

These are scary, scary numbers. And what are our politicians likely worrying about today? Probably the following:

• Their five week vacation is already coming to an end.
• How can they get more money for their reelection campaigns.
• What do Romney's tax returns look like.
• What do Obama's sealed college records look like.
• When is my next five week vacation.

The case for implementing Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" has never been stronger. Step 39 would implement term limits for all Federal politicians immediately. It is obvious to people even within the political class establishment, see Senator Bennet's observation above, that the current people sitting in the White House and in Congress do not have the will, courage, ability, desire, or understanding/intelligence on how to fix this national debt disgrace. Their inaction and inattention will pose a potentially fatal blow to our democracy, our freedom, our careers, our retirements and our futures and our children's futures.

We are in deep trouble. We need new blood and new leadership very, very soon or we will never climb out of the $16 TRILLION hole the political class has thrown us into. We will explore this hole again next week, hypothesizing what could happen if the hole continues to deepen and review out plan to fill that hole in with at least $9 TRILLION in debt savings over the next ten years, with minimal pain to most Americans.

Please check back then for the details. Oh, by the way, keep in mind that the $16 TRILLION does not include the trillions and trillions of dollars worth of unfunded liabilities and future debt stalking within the Social Security and Medicare programs! 

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

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

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

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

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

And What Value Do We Get For Our $14 TRILLION Debt?

Many times we have discussed the fact that the major issues of our times never seem to get resolved by the political class sitting in Washington. The issues of failing public schools, the lack of a coherent national energy strategy, escalating health care costs, leaky borders, Social Security and Medicare heading for insolvency, a bloated military establishment, and other major challenges never get resolved. We have overspent our nation's resources by more than $14 TRILLION and we have nothing to show for it.


Even the politicians that have accomplished nothing realize their incompetence, if you believe the following quote from Colorado Senator Michael Bennet as stated in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." How true.

As a side note, realize that it was less than a year ago when a politician was talking about "only" a $13 TRILLION national debt. In less than 12 months, the Obama administration and Congress have added another $1.3 TRILLION to that figure or about $11,000 per U.S. household.


Don't believe Bennet's opinion? Consider a quote from former President Bill Clinton, as quoted by the Associated Press on September 21, 2010: "Do you know how many political and economic decisions are made in this world by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about?" How true.


So even members of the political class acknowledge they do not know what they are doing and have been abysmally unsuccessful in addressing the major problems. But what about some of the smaller issues of our times, How is the political class doing with those? Not very well if you consider the following examples of horrible priorities, horrible wastes of taxpayer money, and horrible execution of government functions:


- Let's start with one horrible sense of priorities from California Congressman Howard Berman. Congressman Berman and his staff are working on legislation that would order the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to restrict helicopter flight paths and set minimum altitudes over some of the most exclusive residential property in Los Angeles. The affluent neighbors of Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton are upset about the sound of helicopters that these celebrities use and want the Federal government to intervene, a cause that Congressman Berman is working on.


Some serious problems on this issue. First, the country is about to go over a financial cliff and this Congressman is spending taxpayer resources on a matter that affects just a very small number of Americans. Talk about bad priorities.

Second, according to the Associated Press article that reported on this "injustice," the FAA already has existing rules in place to regulate helicopter traffic so the entire effort of Berman is unnecessary, especially since the legislation he is proposing has very few specific recommendations on how to regulate the southern California celebrity helicopter crisis. His proposed bill is leaving those ugly details to the FAA to figure out.

What a waste of time, energy, and taxpayer resources when hundreds of other, far more important issues need to be addressed. Thus, I think you can assume that a lot of our $14.3 TRILLION national debt was expended on these types of empty, very low priority initiatives.


- Second example of bad priorities this week comes directly from the President. With the nation on a collision course with severe fiscal problems in the beginning of August, one would hope that the political class would be in an "all hands on deck, 24 hours a day  mode," trying to solve the debt ceiling issue. They all should be locked in a room and not allowed to come out until they have reached a solution. This includes everyone from the President down to Congressman Berman, his helicopter issue be damned. However, that is not the case.


This past Monday, the President decided that spending a few hours to host the Major League Baseball World Series winners, the San Francisco Giants, at the White House was more important than staying deeply involved with debt ceiling crisis. Better to kill a few hours hanging out with very rich professional athletes than helping avoid the fiscal crisis. The Giants would still be champions two weeks from now and two months from now. Why was this meeting not postponed in light of the fiscal crisis? Bad, bad set of priorities, Mr. President.


It should be interesting to see if his bad sense of prioritizing continues this week: does the President leave Washington for a purely political birthday bash/election fund raiser event in his honor on August 3 or does he put the good of the country first if the debt ceiling issue is not resolved by then? I know what option I would be betting on, given what the President's less than proper priority usually is.


- Let's look at a few other services we get from the Federal government to see if we are getting real value for our $14.3 TRILLION of debt. The first example comes from the Briefing section of the July 29, 2011 issue of The Week magazine. This week the section focused on the medical evidence that is revealing, for the most part, antidepressant usage may be causing more problems than solutions.


An interesting part of the article was the description of how a drug gets approved by the Federal government, through the FDA, for use by Americans. It appears that when a drug company comes up with a new drug, the FDA requires that the drug company must show two drug trials where the proposed drug showed positive effects. If the drug company can show just two successful trials, the Federal government will approve the drug for use.

However, what most people do not know, the FDA does not set a limit on the number of negative trials that the new drug caused before it finally got to two positive trials. Theoretically, a drug company could conduct hundreds of trials and if any two of them showed positive results, the drug is approved.


The analogy to me is golf. If I hit 10,000 golf balls in a row on the same par three hole, I may eventually get a hole in one, not because I am a good golfer but because the odds of probability say if I do anything enough times, I may get a result I desire. Same thing with the FDA's approval process. Conduct enough drug trials, eventually you will get the answer you want. This is what we are paying for, an FDA that allows a golfer to do the same shot over and over until he gets it right. Hardly a valuable Federal government service.


- A while ago we reported on the ill fated and down right stupid program that was implemented by the Justice Departments' ATF division called "Fast and Furious." The objective of the program was to intentionally allow guns to be sold to the Mexican drug cartels and then track them to crime scenes where arrests could be made and the network of gun trafficking could be better understood.


The problems with this program were many. First, it turns out that the government really had not way of tracking the movement of the guns once they left the country so that once the cartels had them, they were lost to the trackers. Second, these were not a few, low caliber guns. There were thousands of guns, many of which were military grade, that our government allowed to easily get into the hands of the violent drug cartels.

Third, and tragically, recent news reports are finding that weapons from this program have resurfaced in connection with at least 122 crimes in Mexico. The New York Times reported that on 48 different criminal occasions between 2009 and 2011, Mexican authorities found weapons from this operation.


At least two of the weapons were used in the killing of a U.S. border agent and who knows how many Mexican citizens were also killed as a result of this botched gun tracking program. Total incompetence that happened to be more than wasted taxpayer wealth, it was and will continue to be a fatal waste of human lives. I wonder how much of the $14.3 TRILLION was a result of insanely bad programs like this one?


- But the waste and incompetence of Fast and Furious gets even better. According to an article from McCatchy Newspapers that was recently reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times, six drug cartel gun runners, the exact kind of people that the ATF failed operation would be looking to apprehend, were actually paid informants on the payroll of the FBI and the DEA.

So let me get this straight: one part of the Federal government (ATF) is trying to catch Mexican gun runners who are actually working for another part of the government (the FBI and DEA)? How much of that $14.3 TRILLION was wasted because one part of the Federal government did not know what another part of the Federal government was doing? Thus, they were actually working counter to each others' objectives, accomplishing nothing in the process but expending a lot of taxpayer money to nothing.

- A scathing article by David Brooks of the New York Times that was summarized in the July 1, 2011 issue of The Week magazine is unmerciful when it comes to Fannie Mae, the giant Federal government mortgage facilitator. According to Mr. Brooks, Fannie was used for over a decade to funnel taxpayer money to Democratic party politicians and to the friends of of Fannie's chief executive, James Johnson.

By flooding the market with risky subprime mortgages, to eventually be backed by taxpayers when that market collapsed, Mr. Johnson was rewarded with over $100 million in compensation. According to a new book on the subject, "Reckless Endangerment," Johnson and his insiders "paid themselves lavishly and used Fannie funding to lobby Congressmen, falsify academic research, and suck in reputable figures such as Bill Daley, Ken Starr, and Larry Summers to defend Fannie's scam." All parties to this disgrace walked away from the nuclear economic meltdown they helped create.

Thus, part of the $14.3 TRILLION debt is a result of this type of criminal behavior backed by both Congressional involvement or Congressional laxity. In either case, nothing good came out of the whole Johnson tenure as head of Fannie, a tenure that will cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars to clean up for years to come.

- The last example of political class incompetence comes from Miami. A recent Miami Herald article reported on how south Florida has become the Medicare scam and fraud capital of the country. Since it is estimated that anywhere from $60 to $90 billion a year in Medicare funds are lost to criminals and fraudsters, why hasn't the political class, via Congress, made south Florida a focus point on cleaning up the taxpayer waste? 

According to the article, whenever there is a little heat put on the scammers, they just take their money and go to Cuba, South America, or Central American to live off of their ill gotten gains. If everyone knows what is going on, why isn't action being taken to crack down on those still scamming Medicare in south Florida and pressuring other governments to extradite those living abroad back to the U.S.? The problem is defined but no solution is forthcoming. In the meantime, the tens of billions of dollars lost every year via south Florida scams contribute to the $14.3 TRILLION debt.

Well, unfortunately, not only can the political class not solve the major issues of our time, they cannot solve any of the less important issue, all of which have contributed to that $14.3 TRILLION national debt over the years. The non-prosecution of criminals, both in south Florida and in Washington, the lack of cooperation and the redundancy across Federal government entities, the bad priorities that cause a loss of focus on what is really important, and government regulations that are not effective. Is there any doubt why we have the debt we do?

As always, three steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" need to be implemented immediately to rescue the country from the debt of the political class:

• Step 1 would reduce government spending by 10% a year over five years in order to get out of control government spending reined in. More importantly, it would require every Federal organization to do a ground up audit of itself to eliminate redundant functions, terminate bad or unneeded programs, and ferret out waste.
• Step 34 would hold members of Congressional committees responsible for the objectives of their committees. Failure to attain those objectives and adequately oversee the government functions their committees oversee would result in those committee members being removed from their committee posts.
• Step 39 would impose term limits for every Federal politician. If you have been in office more than ten years, you are now part of the debt problem and need to be removed.

The political class members currently in Washington have done nothing and are doing nothing to attack the cancer that is that $14.3 TRILLION national debt while providing no meaningful value while they waste TRILLIONS of dollars. No value, but high cost, a deadly combination.




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

Doctor, Please Make the (Political) Voices Stop!

I really do wish that our politicians give us all a break from their verbal insanity and rantings and abide by that old saying: "Its better to remain silent and thought ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt." Unfortunately, the politicians in this country rarely abide by this sound advice, resulting in the following bits of craziness:

- Senator Joseph Lieberman, as quoted in the November 9, 2009 issue of the San Francisco Examiner: " I may be at a point in my career that I am going to do what is right and what makes sense." Does this mean that for all of the decades he served in the Washington political class he was only doing stuff that did not make any sense or that was not right? Given the sorry record of the political class over the past forty years, his statement actually makes a lot of sense and probably applies to most in the political class.

- President Barack Obama, as quoted in the August 10, 2009 issue of the New York Times: "I've got a lot on my plate, and it's very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in a way they don't all just crash at the same time." Does that mean it is better for the big initiatives to crash sequentially? Given the multiple, major issues facing the country, solving these problems sequentially is not acceptable, we do not have the time to wait.

- U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson, as quoted in the The Hill on March 31, 2010, actually quoting from a Congressional hearing on Guam: "My fear is that the whole island (Guam) will become so overly populated it will tip over and capsize." Why is the Congressman only worried about tiny Guam, shouldn't Congress be worried about Manhattan island capsizing with its millions of people? The sad part of this travesty is I believe the Congressman actually got re-elected this past November.

- President Barack Obama, as quoted in the July 21, 2010 issue of the The New York Times regarding his signing of the legislation that supposedly reformed the financial  markets in the country: "If you've ever applied for a credit card, a student loan, or a mortgage, you know the feeling of signing your name to pages of barely understandable fine print." Does that he mean he also does not understand anything approved by Congress and just signs it anyway?

- Former President Bill Clinton, as quoted by the Associated Press on September 21, 2010: "Do you know how many political and economic decisions are made in this world by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about?" Given the failed Cash For Clunkers program, the failed home mortgage program, the failed economic stimulus program, the failed Cash For Caulkers program, the failed first time home buyers rebate program, and the failure to see the biggest economic downturn since the Depression until it happened, I would say all of the political and economic decisions are made by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about.

Senator Michael Bennet, as quoted in the Washington Post on September 3, 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it." By "we" I certainly hope the Senator is talking about the failure of the five hundred or so people in Congress and the White House who spent these trillions of dollars and got nothing in return, not the millions of taxpayers who foolishly entrusted their hard earned tax dollars to his waste. Plus, the Senator is slightly off since in just the nine months since he offered these insightful words, the political class has manged to acquire well over $14 TRILLION of debt with nothing to show for it.

- Congressman Don Young, as quoted on KTVA Television on January 3, 2011: "You should actually sign a contract: I will serve at least 25 years." No, you should actually sign a contract, and pass a law, that says the country deserves term limits from every one of it's politicians and those term limits should not be anywhere close to 25 years.

- Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, as quoted in the January, 2011 issue of Reason magazine: "Everything was going great, and all of a sudden secret money form God knows where - because they won't disclose it - is pouring in." Now I know why the Democrats got a beat down last November. It was not because the national debt under their reign exploded to unheard of heights. It was not because we had stubbornly high unemployment for a long time. It was not because every economic program that was passed on her watch was a total failure. It was not because she allowed Americans with a differing opinion to be called every obscene name in the book. No, it was because mysterious money showed up. Delusional.

- Ms. Pelosi has been the source of many mind numbing quotes during her time as head of the House. She ranted that 500 million Americans were losing their jobs every week (there are just over 300 million Americans currently alive), she  explained that unemployment benefits was the best way to create jobs (leading to the perverted circular reasoning and conclusion that if every American was unemployed and collecting unemployment benefits there would not longer be any unemployment), and the best of all, we would not know what is in the Obama Care legislation until it was passed I guess the President might not have understood that effort either).

Her latest gem comes from a speech she gave at Tufts University last week: "But the fact is that elections shouldn't matter as much as they do." Maybe she is taking hints from Congressman Young but I would beg to disagree. Elections do matter since they are the mechanism of freedom in this country. For a leading political figure to state, and by deduction agree with, that elections do not matter, is unconscionable.

- Vice President Joe Biden, as quoted in a PBS interview on January 27, 2011: "I would not refer to him (President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt) as a dictator." Let's review: Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist for four decades, he has not allowed any legitimate elections during that time frame, he has allowed his cohorts in the armed forces to own broad swaths of the Egyptian economy for their own benefit, he maintained a vicious secret police force that were not adverse to using torture, and he maintained a continuous state of emergency for decades. Wow, glad the Vice President could clear that up, I would have sworn that Mubarak was a dictator. Biden must think that Qaddafi is the second coming of Gandhi.

- The beauty of the Vice President is that his actions can speak volumes even when he does not say anything. During President Obama's speech last night, where he unveiled his deficit reduction plan, the Vice President verbally said nothing of note. However, midway through the speech, cameras got the Vice President in full nap mode as the President addressed the biggest challenge facing the country.

Doctor, doctor, please make them stop talking. Every time they say something it hurts. It hurts because I realize that our financial, economic, health, and retirement future, along with our freedom and liberty, is in the hands of these people, who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about. Guam capsizing, unemployed people creating jobs, not doing the right thing or the thing that makes sense, changing the definition of what a dictator is, etc. The drone and pain never ends, doctor.

Please prescribe something that will 1) change our election processes do allow some smart Americans and true leaders to finally win an election, 2) impose term limits so that we are not forced to live with this insanity for 25 years or so as Congressman Young would like to see, and 3) prescribe some sedatives for every member of the political class since the less they say and more importantly, the less they do, makes for a better life for the rest of us. Stop the droning today!



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.com

Memorable and Forgettable Political Quotes From 2010

As the year draws to an end I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the mostly inane quotes that our political class graced us with this past year. They are either memorable or forgettable but most of them are a sad commentary about the ineffective people that are currently running all levels of government in this country:

"Now, Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody else." President Barack Obama, February 13, 2010. Guess this message did not get up to the Capital as the Federal government again spent over a TRILLION dollars more than it collected in taxes, imposing more than $8,000 additional debt burden on every United States household.

"I may be at a point in my career that I am going to do what is right and makes sense."  Senator Joe Lieberman, January-February, 2010 issue of the CATO Policy Report, quoting from the San Francisco Examiner. Why start now, at this point in his long career the Senator might just as well continue to do what is wrong and makes no sense.

"Act like you're at your grandma's house." California Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, Earthlink News, February 25, 2010. Portantino was sponsoring a resolution in the California legislature that would create "Cuss Free Week" in California. This is a state that faces a $20 billion budget deficit, is shutting down government functions and agencies and  laying off teachers and other state workers because of the revenue shortfall but clean language apparently is a higher priority and bigger problem for the California political class.

"Trust in government rarely gets this low." Andrew Kohut, Associated Press, April 19, 2010. Kohut is the director of the Pew Research Center which had recently released its latest survey findings, showing that nearly 8 out of 10 Americans do not trust the Federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills. Mr. Kohut obviously has a flair for the understatement, especially since this lack of trust has been this bad only twice in the past 60 years or so.

"Many women who do not dress modestly - lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which consequently causes earthquakes." Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, Associated Press, April 19, 2010. And these people want to have nuclear weapons. Be scared, be very scared.

"Anytime you see something growing and expanding and there are no rules, you need to regulate it." Pittsburgh Mayor spokesperson Joann Doven, Pittsburgh Tribune- Review, March 1, 2010. Why let the free market grow the economy when government can step in, for no reason, and regulate it to death?

"My fear is that the whole island [Guam] will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize." Congressman Hank Johnson, The Hill, March 31, 2010. These words were actually spoken, on the record,  at a Congressional committee hearing with naval officers. Why was he not worried about Manhattan island, home of millions of more people? Unbelievable.

"We do not anticipate that happening." Naval admiral responding to Congressman Johnson's Guam capsizing fear. Whew, Guam residents can now rest easy.

"Governor [New Mexico] Richardson has always said that he would consider making good on Governor Wallace's promise to Billy The Kid for a pardon." Governor spokesperson Alarie Ray-Garcia, Associated Press, July 30, 2010. Better to work on a pardon for an outlaw who died about 120 years ago or spend time and government resources helping LIVING New Mexico citizens cope with high levels of unemployment and other contemporary issues? Another atrocious instance of bad political priorities.

"Every boundary of decency has been crossed." Retiring Congressman Bart Stupak, Parade Magazine, November 7, 2010. The Congressman was lamenting the hateful and poisoned atmosphere in Washington where words like baby-killer, racist, knuckle dragging Neanderthal, a__h___, un-American and debasing phrases are thrown around to describe any American who dares to have a different opinion from the speaker of the insults.

"We all have a responsibility where appropriate to seek forgiveness." One term Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Earthlink News, November 17, 2010. Spoken as the Governor, his staff and the Florida parole board wasted government resources and time working on a pardon for Doors lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died almost 40 years ago, despite the fact that Florida is facing devastatingly high unemployment and home foreclosure rates. More bad priorities from your political class.

"Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials. While this may be an effective way to grab attention, it also adds unnecessary stress to the daily lives of many Americans." Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Associated Press, December 3, 2010. The fine Senator was the Senate sponsor of a useless Federal government bill that would restrict the sound volume of television commercials. Would not the Senator's time and his staff's time be better spent on reducing unemployment in the country, fixing our failing public schools, getting the national debt under control, etc.? I think solving these issues might go much farther to reducing "unnecessary stress" in "the daily lives of Americans" then reducing the sound volume of TV commercials. Has no one in Washington every heard of the Mute button or DVR technology?

Best Political Quote of 2010: "Do you know how many political and economic decisions are made in this world by people who don't know what in the living daylights they are talking about?" Former President Bill Clinton, Associated Press, September 21, 2010. Stating the obvious has never been so eloquent.

Runner Up Best Political Quote of 2010: "We have managed to acquire $13 TRILLION of debt on our balance sheet. in my view, we have nothing to show for it." Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, Washington Post, September 3, 2010. And whose fault is that?





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


Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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