May, 2015, Part 1, By The Numbers: Tax Numbers Stink, Economic Numbers Stink, Welfare Cheat Numbers Stink

On a semi-regular basis we revisit the theme "by the numbers" just to check in on the state of the country and political class using actual realities and their underlying numbers, not the spin or lies from our politicians. You see, politicians usually have nothing to gain by looking at reality and the numbers since they are more than likely to have screwed up reality and our lives in the first place.

That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.

So let’s take a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.

1) We have often talked about how insane the nation’s tax code is. Physically it runs about 70,000 pages. We once cited the example that the GE annual Federal tax return would have been 56,000 pages long if it had been printed out. American households spend billions of dollars a year preparing their taxes since it is such a complicated exercise, billions that would have been better spent growing the economy.

But nowhere is the tax code idiocy more on display when it comes to major corporations and their overseas operations. Since the U.S. has the second highest top business tax rate, 35%, in the world, it makes better financial sense for corporations to keep their profits offshore rather than bringing them back to this country where they might actually help grow the economy and improve the employment opportunities of all Americans.

Think about it: why bring billions of dollars back to the U.S. just to pay a whopping 35% income tax on those profits when they can be kept far away and invested in other countries at a much lower tax rate? 

How bad is the problem? Consider an analysis that was recently published in Businessweek that showed how much the Federal government would reap in taxes if those large corporations actually brought their profits home and what entities of the Federal government could be funded with those taxes:

• Microsoft has $92.9 billion of profits sitting offshore, which results in $29.6 billion in lost taxes which could be used to annually fund the Department of Justice and half of the Commerce Department.
• Apple has $69.7 billion of profits sitting offshore, which results in $23.3 billion in lost taxes which could be used to annually fund all but $500 million of the Department of Agriculture’s discretionary budget.
• Oracle has $39.3 billion of profits sitting offshore, which results in $12.2 billion in lost taxes which could be used to annually fund the Treasury Department.
• Citigroup has $43.8 billion of profits sitting offshore, which results in $11.6 billion in lost taxes which could be used to annually the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The list goes on and on but you get the idea: tens of billions of dollars in lost tax dollars due to the second highest business tax rate in the world. What if the corporate tax rate was 10%? The Federal government would then get $9.29 billion in taxes if that rate was low enough to get Microsoft to bring those profits back to the U.S. vs. getting $0 at 35%? And how much more research jobs, sales jobs, and programming jobs would be created in the U.S. if Microsoft did bring that $92.9 billion back to the U.S.?

The numbers are a no brainer: drop the tax rate, the Feds get billions of dollars vs. nothing today, the economy gets a big boost by the infusion of billions and billions of dollars, and companies can focus on growing their business rather than sheltering profits. Everybody wins this numbers game….which means it will never happen if the current set of politicians stay in control.

2) The government released the first quarter GDP growth estimate and it was an anemic .2%. That is right, not 2%, .2%, two one tenths of a percent. A very bad number.

Even worse, the population was up .8% so the GDP per person was actually negative in the first quarter, not a very inspiring number. But less than inspiring economic numbers is to be expected from this administration and this set of Washington politicians. According to a recent comparison of economic recoveries between the Obama administration and the Reagan administration done by the Heritage Foundation:

• 23 quarters after the last recession ended, the annualized GDP growth rate under the Obama administration is a meager 2.24%.
• This places the Obama recovery dead last compared to the six other post recession recoveries since 1960.
• Those recoveries averaged 3.97% after 23 quarters. 
• This difference between the Obama recovery and the average of the other six recoveries translates into nearly $1.7 trillion (in constant 2009 dollars) in missing economic growth.
• But Reagan’s economic recovery’s was a whopping 4.8% annualized growth through 23 quarters.
• That was more than double the Obama economic recovery. 
• If Obama’s recovery had been as robust as Reagan’s the country’s annual GDP number would be $2.48 trillion larger than it is today.

A $2.48 trillion larger economy would have provided a lot of job opportunities for Americans that are finding it difficult to find jobs. But the reasons for the anemic economic numbers is not to hard to discern:

• The Obama administration has added, on average, nine new Federal regulations every day, burdening businesses and business growth with unnecessary government interference.
• The higher taxes on the wealthy has restricted discretionary spending and economic development by the very people that actually have discretionary income.
• The out of control EPA has shut down in the energy industry in this country with no coherent reasons for such overpowering interference and regulation of that industry.
• Obama Care has added taxes and bureaucracies to the whole economy, reducing economic growth and employment opportunities.
• If a no brainer like building the Keystone pipeline and the creation of the thousands of jobs associated with that effort was blocked by this President,chances for other economic opportunities are gong to be far and few between.

The numbers stink, the reasons they stink are obvious, and that is why politicians should never play with economics.

3) Michele Hickford, writing on April 28, 2015 for the Allen West website, put together some very interesting numbers. She showed how easy it was to earn almost $70,000 a year by milking the Federal government’s welfare processes and doing no work and not being employed in the process. 

Her analysis has some validity. According to recent Bureau Of Labor Statistics in 2014 19.9% of American families had no one in the household that had a job. Amazing number, one out of every five households had no one earning wages or a salary last year. Which says either the economy is in terrible shape with unemployment around 20% or many Americans are ripping off the welfare system.

Given that the unemployment rate, no matter how you measure it, is nowhere close to 20%, the following numbers show that there is a good case to be made that ripping off the Federal taxpayer is now a full time job for many Americans. According to Ms. Hickford, this is the easy way to earn almost $70,000 a year:

1. If you’re a man, don’t get married
2. Have a couple kids
3. Use your mom’s address for your mail
4. Buy a house
5. Rent your house to your girlfriend and your two kids
6. Section 8 will pay $900 a month for the rent on the 3 bedroom home
7. Have your girlfriend sign up for Obamacare
8. Your girlfriend gets to go to college free as a single mother
9. She also gets $400 a month form food stamps. 
10. She gets a free cell phone. 
11. She also gets a cash grant to help pay for heating costs
12. Move into your house with her, but keep your mom’s address for your mail
13. Each of you can claim one child on your taxes so now you both get to claim head of household credit ($1295)
14. Have your girlfriend get a permanent disability for “marked difficulties maintaining concentration” or having a “back pain.”

This is all perfectly legal, and is likely being done by millions of people. Adding all the numbers up:

$22,800 disability + $10,800 housing benefit +$4,800 food stamps + $3,300 Obamacare subsidy + $900 utilities grant + $5,645 Pell Grant  + $12,000 annual college tuition grant + $8,000 single mother tax benefit  + $1,295 head of household credit…- Almost $70,000

Okay, the economic numbers stink, the welfare abuse numbers stink, and the tax numbers stink, regardless of Washington’s politicians tell us. Remember, there is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right numbers and we will devastate more tomorrow.

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

December, 2014, Part 2, By The Numbers: A Lame Congress, Food Stamp Mania, IRS Giveaways, and More

On a semi-regular basis we do a series of posts with the theme: “by the numbers.” As we all know, we can really never trust any politician to tell us the truth, especially if it does not fit their selfish needs and strategies. However, while they can lie, deceive, and skew their message, the realities of actual numbers always give us the truth of the situation. 

I used to work for a boss whose favorite saying was: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” By looking at the raw numbers of a situation, we can look past the political spin and other BS that politicians constantly rain down us to divide us, trick, us, and insure their continued time in office. We try to dispel these myths and travesties by looking at reality's numbers to devastate the politicians’ opinions.

1) Let’s start with an easy one today. The current session of Congress is finally over. Without even looking at the numbers, one knows that this was probably the most inept, incompetent and worthless set of Congressional politicians ever to sit in Congress.

But let’s look at the numbers anyway. According to a recent Associated Press article, this Congress ended up passing about 200 bills into laws. The Congress that sat during the years 1947 and 1948 was infamously called the “do nothing Congress” by Harry Truman. That “do nothing” Congress passed over 900 bills into law, four and half times more laws that passed under this past Congress to give you an idea of how bad our current politicians are.

And many of these meager 200 laws had nothing to do with helping Americans. Many of them were simply for the naming of new post offices or Federal buildings or the renewal of existing laws. One of the bills that actually went before all of Congress and was passed was the decision to give golfer Jack Nicklaus a Congressional gold medal for sportsmanship. And for this type of meager performance, these people get over $170,000 a year in salary, very generous benefit packages, and probably work less than 150 days a year. Pathetic numbers from a pathetic set of politicians.

2) Yesterday, we reviewed some bad economic numbers that showed that no matter how much President Obama brags about his economic skills and policies, the bottom line numbers show that this economy has been stagnant and lethargic under the Obama administration. To verify that point, we recently came across some food assistance numbers that are very depressing and embarrassing.

According to the website, www.cnsnews.com, and the USDA numbers and data they pulled, the number of Americans who receive financial food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, has been over an amazing 46,000,000 Americans for 37 straight months. 

In September, 2014, which is the latest data from the USDA, there were 46,459,998 Americans who received food assistance from the SNAP program. The number of beneficiaries has exceeded 46 million since September 2011, a total of 37 months, more than three years. And these numbers are occurring even though the recession ended about five years ago. You cannot claim that the economy is doing great, as Obama does, if more than 15% of the country needs Federal food assistance every month just to eat.

To visualize this embarrassment graphically, consider the following monthly graph of food assistance recipients, courtesy of the website, www.trivisonno.com:

As you can see, the number of people receiving food assistance grew steadily AFTER the recession ended. Even though it has dropped since its peak in 2013, it is still about 20 million people higher than during the recession. This means one of two things are happening: 

A) The economy really does stink for most Americans despite what the Obama administration is telling us. Or…

B) This is one of the biggest taxpayer ripoffs in the history of the country, meaning the Obama administration is totally inept at rooting out corruption and criminal fraud in the food assistance program. In either case, the Obama administration comes out as totally incompetent, either economic failures or managerial failures.

3) Another way to look at the food assistance numbers is as follows: There are more people receiving food assistance in this country than the TOTAL number of people that live in:

• Argentina, population = 42.7 million
• Poland, population = 38.5 million
• Iraq, population = 36.0 million
• Canada, population = 35.5 million
• Saudi Arabia, population = 30.8 million
• Malaysia, population = 30.4 million
• Venezuela, population = 30.2 million
• Australia, population = 23.7 million

In fact, the U.S. has more people on food assistance than the overall population in each of over 200 other countries.

4) How about some lobbyist numbers to review today? According to the Against Crony Capitalism website, up until around mid-1990s, Microsoft had practically no lobbyist presence in Washington, D.C. They also paid virtually no money to political campaigns. 

By 1998, the company was spending $3.7 million on lobbying and contributing more than $1.4 million to political campaigns. That is $5.1 million that Microsoft could not spend on creating better products, hiring more people and thus growing the economy, or rewarding their shareholders.

Instead, it went into the sinkhole that is Washington D.C. and the political class people that inhabit it, never to be seen again or to have any positive impact on Americans’ lives.

5) Imagine how many homeless Americans could be fed or housed with $6 billion, imagine how many drug addicts could be treated for $6 billion, imagine how many veterans could get the medical care they need for $6 million. Then imagine how angry you are when you learn that the IRS inspector general has recently found out that the IRS mistakenly gave out $6 billion to people who did not legally deserve the money.

Stephen Ohlemacher of the Associated Press wrote on December 9, 2014 that the IRS paid at out least $6 billion in child tax credits in 2013 to people who weren't eligible to receive them. The payments went to families that either erroneously claimed the tax credit or claimed the wrong amount, as well as taxpayers who committed fraud, according to an audit by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

According to the article, for years the IRS had claimed that the risk for improper payments related to the child tax credit was very low. Oops. The inspector general report says that assessment is incorrect: "It is imperative that the IRS take action to identify and address all of its programs that are at high risk for improper payments," George said in a statement.

The $6 billion error was contained within the $57 billion that was paid out for the credit in 2013, resulting in a more than 10.5% error rate. And this is just the bad payments the inspector general’s analysis found, the error rate could be even higher.

6) Let’s finish this set of “by the numbers” update with a really depressing set of numbers. The following chart and analysis comes from a Heritage Foundation analysis of Social Security numbers:

Highlights, or lowlights, from the chart include the following:

• In 1983, the Social Security fund’s trustees estimated that the reforms instituted in that year would keep Social Security solvent for 75 years or until 2058.
• However, the latest trustees’ report now estimates that the Social Security program will go insolvent in 2024.
• This is a whopping 34 years sooner than originally estimated and even worse, that date of insolvency is only ten years from now, right in the middle of the Baby Boomer retirement years.
• And even worse than worse, the estimated insolvency date has been coming more and more immediate so that the 2024 date might even be too optimistic.

Very depressing numbers. And in reality, the program is already bankrupt since several years ago it started paying out more money than it was taking in and had started relying on general Treasury funds to make up the difference. The fact that it has not been declared insolvent already is because of inter-department government accounting tricks.

These numbers do not lie, something has to be done about the entire busted program or the reality of these numbers will hit within the next decade. Several steps from “Love My Country, Loathe my Government” would help avert this disaster. These steps include raising the retirement age for those that can afford to wait, banning wealthy people from receiving a Social Security check to save scarce resources for those that truly need the financial help, cleaning up the massive fraud within the system today, and uncapping the maximum Social Security income limit while dropping the Social Security tax rate. 

But this would require leadership and guts on the part of the Washington political class so forget about these solutions, just get ready when the whole program crashes on the numbers of reality within the next ten years.

That will do it for our “by the numbers” update this month. The numbers do not lie and the numbers are not good. From a failing Social Security system, to massively increasing national debt, to large budget overruns in the Veterans Administration’s operations, and more, the numbers tell a very disheartening picture of what the political class has wrought on the country and its citizens. Have a great day!

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