Putin's Russia, Obama's America: Mirror Images of Corruption, Cronyism, and Waste?

Today’s observations are based on the news stories I have been reading about the Russian Olympics. It is not about the athletes but rather about the corruption and criminality that is rampant within the Russian government and political class. 

The initial estimate to put the Russian Olympics on was substantially less than $10 billion. The final cost is already higher than $50 billion. This will make it the most expensive Olympics games ever to be put together, orders of magnitudes more expensive than all previous winter Olympics, a cost overrun that will eventually be paid by the ordinary Russian taxpayer.

Why the disconnect between the forecasted cost and the reality? Investigative journalists have pointed out how corrupt the whole Russian society, government, and political class are. Every effort, every task, every Olympic venue, every politician, every construction company, every transaction was infested with crony politics, blackmail, bribery, kickbacks, and inefficiencies that kept running up the cost of the Games.

I thought it must be a terrible place to live where anything and everything is subject to political connections, bribes, cronyism, kickbacks, etc. But then I came across a February 7, 2014 article from Slate.com which got me thinking: under the current American political class, we are really not that much different from Russia and its politically well-connected, corrupt and crony system of rewarding friends and allies at the cost of the taxpayer and the good of the country.

The Slate article, using data from the Center For Public Integrity looked at the ambassador appointments that President Obama has made during his administration. Details of the analysis include:

• Of the 85 ambassador appointments he has made, 24 (28%) of those appointments were given to people who were designated as Obama election campaign “bundlers,” i.e. political allies who had raised at least half a million dollars for the President’s political campaigns. 
• Another 24 (28%) ambassador appointments were so-called political appointees. Political appointee, another name for political ally.
• Thus, over 56% of the ambassadorships were assigned to political allies who probably have no diplomatic experience and whose only qualifications were that they made financial and/or political contributions to President Obama, tactics right out of the Russian cronyism and kickback playbook.
• The remaining 37 (44%) ambassador appointments were made to the right kind of people, career diplomats, whose experience makes them far more qualified to represent American interests than those 48 people who throw a good fund raising tea or dinner.
• As you will see from the “bundlers” list below, most of these types of ambassador appointments went to really nice situations, modern, advanced countries and economies whose governments we are in very good relations with, i.e. these are the plum and easier diplomatic posts, posts that went to political friends with no diplomatic background of experience. 
• The majority of the career diplomat appointments went to third world, smaller, more dangerous countries, the vast majority of which were in Africa or scattered around the south Pacific, hardly the plum jobs by any stretch of the imagination.

Now, Obama supporters might accuse me of singling out his President for doing something that all past Presidents have done. And I recognize that fact, he is not the first. But I would counter with the following arguments:

1) I do not recall any other President doing it to this extent.

2) I do not remember any other President setting a floor of campaign funding collected, which in this case looks like you had to have collected at least $500,000 to the get the plum ambassador job (the actual amount for each of the 24 bundlers raised is listed below with their names.)

3) Just because others did it does not mean he should also have done it. And maybe this is where Obama overextended himself, or lied outright, when he was running for President. 

He was supposed to be different than all those other Presidents. He was the hope and change President, things were going to be different and better in Washington. He was going to rise above the petty and inefficient politics of Washington past.

He was going to reduce crony earmarks in the Federal budget by half, earmarks that waste tens of billions of dollars every year of taxpayer wealth. He was not going to allow any high powered lobbyists get a high ranking position within his administration. He was going to have the most transparent administration ever, a trait that would help identify and destroy secret crony deals, back room deals, kickbacks, etc. There was going to be less waste and more efficiency in the Federal government under his administration. 

But, alas, his administration looks like a line from an old Who song: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Earmarks and the corruption that comes with them are as big as ever. High powered lobbyists are in high levels throughout his administration. His administration is shaping up as the least transparent of any. Waste is rampant, inefficiencies in government are everywhere and growing. 

And as list below shows, it is not what you know and how well you can serve the country overseas, it is all about the money you raised for his political campaign. Yes, he may have over promised and severely under delivered but that does not make him unaccountable. It only makes him a mirror image of Putin and his Russian government, a government whose corruption is on display in Sochi and the Olympic games.

The list of Obama bundlers, where they have been appointed to overseas or where they have been nominated to serve overseas, along with the amount of money they raised for the Presdient’s political activities:

Kirk W.B. Wagar. Founder and managing partner of Wagar Law firm. Confirmed to Singapore, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Matthew Winthrop Barzun, National Finance Chair for Obama's 2012 campaign. Confirmed to United Kingdom, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Mark D. Gilbert, Director at financial services firm Barclays. Nominated to New Zealand and Samoa, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama 

Michael Anderson Lawson, Former president of Los Angeles World Airports’ Board of Airport Commissioners/ Nominated to UN Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, raised at least $950,000 for Obama 

Timothy M. Broas, Attorney at Winston & Strawn LLP. Nominated to Netherlands, raised at least $945,100 for Obama 

Crystal Nix-Hines. Lawyer at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. Nominated to UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, raised at least $872,500 for Obama 

Suzi LeVine, Former Microsoft executive. Nominated to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, raised at least $800,000 for Obama

John B. Emerson, Executive at investment firm Capital Group Companies. Confirmed to Germany, raised at least $775,000 for Obama 

Denise Campbell Bauer, 2012 finance chair for Women for Obama. Confirmed to Belgium, raised at least $753,500 for Obama 

Bruce A. Heyman, Executive at Goldman Sachs & Co. Nominated to Canada, raised at least $750,000 for Obama 

Alexa Lange Wesner, Former president of technology recruiting firm HireTECH. Confirmed to Austria, raised at least $750,000 for Obama 

Pamela K. Hamamoto, Former executive at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Nominated to Representative to the Office of the U.N. And Other International Organizations in Geneva, raised at least $700,000 for Obama 

John R. Phillips, Founder and partner at Phillips & Cohen law firm. Confirmed to Italy and San Marino, raised at least $700,000 for Obama 

Robert C. Barber, Attorney at Looney & Grossman LLP. Nominated to Iceland, raised at least $600,000 for Obama 

Robert A. Sherman, Attorney at Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Nominated to Portugal, raised at least $550,000 for Obama 

James Walter "Wally" Brewster, Senior managing partner at consulting firm SB&K Global. Confirmed to Dominican Republic, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Colleen Bradley Bell, Producer for Bell-Phillip Television Productions. Nominated to Hungary, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, Executive at private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners. Nominated to European Union, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

George J. Tsunis, Founder, chairman and CEO of Chartwell Hotels, LLC. Nominated to Norway, raised at least $500,000 for Obama

Keith Michael Harper, Lawyer with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. Nominated to UN Human Rights Council, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Noah Bryson Mamet, Founder and president of consulting firm Noah Mamet & Associates. Nominated to Argentina, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

James Costos, Home Box Office (HBO) vice president. Confirmed to Spain and Andorra, raised at least $500,000 for Obama

Dwight L. Bush, Sr., President of financial and business consulting firm D.L. Bush & Associates. Nominated to Morocco, raised at least $500,000 for Obama 

Michael Froman, Former deputy national security advisor. Confirmed to US Trade Representative, raised at least $500,000 for Obama. 

Plum jobs for wealthy political donors, not the hope and change we were sold back in 2008. Just like in Russia, it is not what you know, in America today it is also who you know and how much is the bribe or kickback going to be. [Side note: I find it interesting that for a President who constantly accuses his political foes of waging a "war on woman," only 25% of his ambassadorship appointments were women.]

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:

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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.

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It's Now Official: Political Campaign Donors More Important Than Constituents, Part 1

Many Americans had long suspected that Congress and other Washington politicians were not working very hard for the good of the country and the good of their constituents. The war on drugs was declared over forty years and is still a lost cause. In the early 1980s, a Reagan commission on pubic education showed how poorly our schools were educating our kids. Three decades later that situation has gotten even worse. In the 1970s, the nation’s economy was shocked any number of times by oil shortages, exposing the fact that the country did not have a long term strategic plan for energy independence and stability. Almost four decades later we still have no such plan.

What the heck has Congress and the politicians in it been doing for the past four or five decades? We know that they do not work 40 hour weeks, 50 weeks a year. In fact, Congress will only be in session about 115 days this year. What do they do during these less than robust working hours.? They obviously are not coming up with solutions to the major issues facing the nation.

Well, thanks to a January 8, 2013 Huffington Post article, it is pretty obvious why they have not resolved any major issue: they really are not working on them, being far more concerned with raising money for their next election and their political party. Details from the article include the following details and disgraces:

• The two writers of the Huffington Post article got their hands on a PowerPoint presentation that was given to freshmen Congressmen and women by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
• The presentation outlined how a typical member of Congress should spend their days when actually in Washington.
• This prototype daily schedule laid out by the Democratic leadership expects a nine or 10-hour day while in Washington, of which four hours are to be spent in “call time,“ i.e. calling people in order to get them make a political campaign donation.
• Another hour is supposed to be dedicated to "strategic outreach," which includes fundraisers and press work, i.e. more fundraising time and effort.
• Another hour is to be blocked off for "recharge."
• And finally, three to four hours a day are to be used for the actual work of being a member of Congress -- hearings, votes, and meetings with constituents.
• It is especially good if these constituents are also high potential donors, kind of like killing two birds with one shot.
• In addition to these daily fund raising activities, the presentation also made sure that Congressional members knew that they had to take time to compile quarterly fundraising reports for the Federal Election Commission, more time and energy taken away from actually doing real work and solving real problems.

So, not only do members of Congress not do a lot of real work, i.e. solving problems, there is an actual formal process that discourages that type of problem solving behavior in favor of raising money to keep incumbents in office. No wonder nothing ever gets resolved or real budgets developed and lived up to or fraud and waste wrung out of government operations, the political class is off taking care of themselves and their political careers.

Let’s do some simple math:

1. The average American works about 250 days a year, 50 weeks by five days a week.
2. Congress will be in session about 115 days this year. Let’s assume that they will work another 25 days a year back in their home state or Congressional district, giving them a work year of 140 days.
3. Thus, relative to the average American, Congressional members work only 64% as long (140/250).
4. During the average workday, the average American works about 8 hours a day.
5. During an average workday, we now know from Hufffington Post that the average Congressional members only works about four hours a day on real work.
6. Thus, the average politician works half as hard on real work than the average American (4 hours a day/8 hours a day).
7. Since a member of Congress earns about $170,000 a year, given their work load and what we now know they spend their time on, their annual pay should be reduced to $54,400:

$54,400 = $170,000 X .64 (ratio of working days) X .5 (ratio of working hours per day)

This would be a truer measure of their value, not $170,000. And at $54,400, given their poor productivity, they still might be overpaid.

Consider some quotes from the article that prove how ludicrous and shameful this behavior is:

• "What’s my experience with it? You might as well be putting bamboo shoots under my fingernails. It’s the most painful thing, and they’re no sooner elected and they’re down there making phone calls for the election in 2014." said Congressman. John Larson , a high-ranking Democrat.
• According to former Congressman Tom Perriello, who now works at the Center for American Progress, the four hours allocated to fundraising may even be "low-balling the figure so as not to scare the new Members too much."
• "It bites into your private life. It bites into your leisure time. You shouldn't only do what you have to do, you should be able to read. ... It cuts into time members spend with each other," said former Congressman Barney Frank.
• "It really does affect how members of Congress behave if the most important thing they think about is fundraising. You end up being nice to people that probably somebody needs to be questioning skeptically. It's a fairly disturbing suggested schedule. You won't ask tough questions in hearings that might displease potential contributors, won't support amendments that might anger them, will tend to vote the way contributors want you to vote,” said former Congressman Brad Miller.
• "One thing that's always been striking to me is even the members playing a leading role on specific issues actually could not talk about the issues. They didn't have enough knowledge on their own issues to talk about them at length. I'm probably guilty of that," said a current member of Congress who wished to remained anonymous.

So we end up with distracted members of Congress, members of Congress that do not ask the tough questions or make the tough calls because it could affect fundraising, and we have members of Congress that do not know the details and ramifications of what they are voting on and sponsoring. Great, no wonder nothing ever gets resolved.

This article alone justifies Step 39 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” Step 39 would impose term limits on all Federally elected officials. Maybe if all of these members of Congress knew that they could not run for office for a second term, they would focus more and doing the right thing and not hitting up the right political donor. How much worse could it get with term limits compared to the current process laid out in the Huffington Post article?

If we implement Step 39, which would remove the word “incumbent” from our political vocabulary, and combine it with Step 6, which would allow only individual American citizens to contribute to political campaigns, we might finally get back to representative government that is for the people and by the people as opposed to the current government which is by the political donor and for the political donor.

Two final thoughts:

1. The article also exposes the seedy underside of committee assignments. We will cover this other disgrace and insult to democracy tomorrow.
2. Second, consider a paragraph from the article and visualize the writers’ description of “call time.” It reminds me of a prison work detail, I picture these Congressional people marching off in a straight line to the hard labor work of making fundraising calls, chained together in striped prison garb, based on the writers’ vivid description of the process:

Congress members make the dreaded calls from a room in the office of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or a similar one at the headquarters of the National Republican Congressional Committee. After votes in the House, a stream of congressmen and women can be seen filing out of the Capitol and, rather than returning to their offices, heading to rowhouses nearby on First Street for call time, or directly to the parties' headquarters. The rowhouses, where Larson said he prefers to make calls, are typically owned by lobbyists, fundraisers or members themselves, and are used for call time because it's illegal to solicit campaign cash from the official congressional office. Former Rep. Walt Minnick's (D-Idaho) career in finance enabled him to buy a Capitol Hill rowhouse that he allows Democrats to use for call time. "There's less turmoil and background noise" in the rowhouses compared with the DCCC call center, said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), who retired from office this year.

Again, disgraceful and certainly not worth $170,000 per year per Congressional member.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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