April, 2024, Political Class Insanity, Part 3: Houston's Crime Problems, Hunter Biden's Legal Problems, Joe Biden's Lying Problem, and More Hateful Rhetoric From Another Democrat

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of efficiently operating any level of government in this country. 

Even their best efforts are almost always ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.

1)As we have discussed too many times, a very basic function of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it governs. Unfortunately, because of the stupid “defund the police” movement and the weakness of many city district attorneys when it comes to actually prosecuting criminals, American politicians across the country are failing to execute this safety responsibility.

And Houston is just another city where this reality has taken hold:

• The Houston Police Officer Union is raising concerns that criminals now roam freely in the streets of the city.

• Their explanation is that there are not enough police officers on staff to rein in the  criminal activity and the perpetrators.

• Ray Hunt is the  executive director of the  union: "I have never in my lifetime – and I'm a lifelong Houstonian – seen this many suspected murderers and capital murderers who are walking the streets of Houston out on multiple bonds. I would not let my wife or my kids walk down the streets of Houston at midnight under any circumstances. It is not safe in major cities in 2024, and it's not safe here."

• One of the reasons is that in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots, politicians have often sided with criminals and not police officers, resulting in a disdain for joining police forces across the  country:"Who in the heck wants to be a police officer in 2024?" Hunt questioned, highlighting the intense scrutiny officers face, with their every action being second-guessed through body-worn camera footage. "I could not encourage any of my family to come be a police officer in 2024 with the situation that's going on."

• And while the problem has gotten worse since the George Floyd patriots, the problem of understaffing was reported to the city council back in 2014 but nothing was done to staff up.

• The shortage has resulted in a significant number of criminal cases just never being investigated since the force is so short staffed.

• Also, if people are arrested for suspicion of a crime, the district attorney lets them go on lenient bonds where they very often go out and indulge in more crimes with many criminals out on the street on multiple bonds.

• And many of these suspected criminals often do not go to court for five to six years,  given the court backlogs.

Again, a very basic  tenet of any government organization is to  protect the lives and property of the citizens under its domain. And in Houston, and other major cities, the American political class is failing miserably in this responsibility.

2)It looks like Hunter Biden, Joe’s son, will have some legal difficulties to deal with in his future:

• Recently, a US District Judge rejected Hunter’s request to dismiss Federal  gun charges against him so it appears he will have to defend himself against those charges in  court.

• In addition,  a California grand jury recently indicted him on charges of tax evasion, failure to file and pay taxes and filing a fraudulent tax return.

• Specifically, the indictment alleges that he "participated in a four-year scheme to evade paying at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for the tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020."

A great example of the family business that the Biden clan seems to continually be involved in. Unfortunately,  I would wager that if that same grand jury took as deep a look at the tax and financial situation of those in Congress as they did for Hunter Biden that the indictments would be flying fast and furious.

3)We have often pointed out that Joe Biden has been a pathological liar for most of his political career. One of our recent posts pointed out 38 instances where he flat out lies about something:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2023/01/38-times-that-joe-biden-blatantly-lied.html

And during a recent Earth Day event he put forth another, easily rebutted lie when he claimed that last year’s Earth Day recorded the hottest Earth Day temperature ever, that it was the “hottest on record.”

As with most of his lies, that statement is easily rebutted since that day the temperature at that location was 51.4 degrees, .2  degrees cooler than the 20th century average. Tough to believe anything he says on any topic when so very, very often what he says is a complete and utter fabrication.

4)We have often made the argument that while Republicans voted Donald Trump into office, it was liberals and Democrats that got him elected. That was because over the course of 8 years of the Obama administration, Obama and other leading Democrats sat quiet while liberals and Democrats across the nation insulted, endangered, and demeaned ordinary American  citizens who had a simply difference of opinion with them, calling them Nazis. racists, stupid, and calling for their death.

The history of that abuse is summed up in the following post:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

And that hateful rhetoric and thought process has not ceased, as recently spewed from another Democrat running for Congress:

• Nate McMurray is a Democrat running for Congress from New York.

• On his Twitter feed after the House of representative passed a $60  billion aid package for Ukraine in its war against Russia, McMurray posted this message: “Slava Ukraine. Die MAGA die. You lose.”

• Yes, a citizen running for Congress wants those who disagree with him to  die.

• His hatred of Americans with a different opinion did not end there: “Dear MAGA: Send your regards to MAGA Mike, not me. [A reference to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA.)] He loves freedom and Ukraine, too. You see, not even your leaders REALLY like your sick, twisted, anti-freedom, anti-American MAGA movement. It should…let me see, what word should I use? Expire? Fade? Or maybe something that starts with a ‘d’ Disintegrate.” 

• Thus, his hatred now believes  that others who simply have a different opinion with him are anti-American for exercising their First Amendment  rights.

This kind of rhetoric from a politician does nothing to untie the country in the quest to resolve the problems facing everyone. It is how Donald Trump got elected, people got tired of being called vicious names for simply having  an opinion.

If McMurray wanted to contribute something positive to the whole Ukraine/Russia issue, he might consider the following realities:

• Biden has been a total failure diplomatically when it comes to resolving this issue, having not directly called or met with Putin in over two years of fighting to try and peacefully resolve the conflict.

• Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken,  has also been a total failure diplomatically since it is my understanding he has met with his Russian equivalent exactly ONE time since the war began.

• As a result, the war has dragged on  and without a diplomatic solution in sight, a reality that is the fault of both Biden and Blinken, Ukraine will eventually fold under the massive manpower advantage of the Russians and that $60 billion and the other billions of dollars the American taxpayer has sent down the the Ukraine/Russian toilet will be flushed away forever with absolutely no benefit to anyone.

Hate resolves nothing, a simple  concept lost on  McMurray and the many other  liberals and Democrats that have spewed it over the past decade or so.

That will do it for today’s insanity: more hate from another Democrat, wasting more money in Ukraine, Hunter Biden has legal  problems, Biden continues to lie about everything, and defund the police continues to endanger Americans.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:

https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom

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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:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-My-Country-Loathe-Government/dp/1604942789/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=love+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&qid=1607716020&sr=8-1

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com

http://www.cato.org

http://www.openthebooks.com

http://www.conventionofstates.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

 

April, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3: Tax Evading Politicians, Unwanted Army Tanks, and More

This is Act III in this month’s political class insanity review. The first two acts can be reviewed at the following links:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-2013-political-class-insanity_4.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-2013-political-class-insanity.html

Act III starts now.

1) The Democratic controlled Senate recently put together its first full budget since April, 2009, breaking standing law for the four years since then. Their budget calls for tax increases of over one trillion dollars on Americans over the next ten years. As regular readers of this blog know, this is a ridiculous position to hold given the wasteful spending, inefficiencies, and government redundancy that exist today in the Federal government, insanity that has been presided over by this Democratically controlled Senate since 2007.

One reason why Democrats are so fast to raise taxes is possibly because they do not pay all of the current taxes that they owe. The prime example of this comes from an article done by the Daily Caller on February 18, 2013. According to their research of D.C. tax records, Louisiana’s Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu is very big on raising taxes on the country, having openly advocated for higher taxes on Americans during Senate hearings last month. However, she seems a bit less excited and punctual to pay her own taxes:

According to public records available online in the District of Columbia’s “Real Property Assessment Database,” the D.C. government has penalized Landrieu $1,003.33, plus $202.62 in interest, for 2012 taxes on her mansion on East Capitol Street. It is unclear what the penalty is for.

Talk about hypocrisy, she wants to raise your taxes but is late paying her taxes, to late that penalties are now attached. But we should not be surprised when a politician calls for us to pay higher taxes but decides they do not have to pay even their current tax burden:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/02/washingtons-hunger-games-approach-to_11.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/01/politicians-creed-do-as-i-say-not-as-i.html

If you get into these posts you will find a whole cadre of politicians who have tried to avoid paying current taxes while they concurrently say that we should pay more in taxes.

2) A recent Federal government inspector general report and analysis found that in 2012, the Federal government spent about $337 million for shipping and postal costs. Of that $337 million, the U.S. Post Office’s share of that business was about $4.8 million or only about 1.42%. That’s right, one on the most incompetent and inefficient organizations in the history of mankind, the Federal government, finds that they cannot trust or use a sister entity within the Federal government to deliver its mail. I can think of no worst insult than to have the Federal government view you as less trustworthy and inefficient than itself.

3) CBS released a survey of its own on March 26, 2013 and the results should not surprise most Americans who are fed up with the insanity and idiocy of the American political class:

• CBS reports 80% of Americans are unhappy with Washington, and 30% are “angry” at the nation’s politicians.
• 30% are now “angry”, a result that is up 9 points since December, 2012.
• Those who say the U.S. is heading in the right direction is down 8 points to 32% in just one month.
• Those who say America is on the wrong track is up to 64% from 51% over that time frame.
• President Obama’s approval rating is down to 45% and his polling on most issues (including the economy) are down almost across the board from last month. Note: given that the sample for this survey significantly overweighted Democrats in the sample vs. Republicans, Obama’s decline in approval is probably worse than reported by this survey vs. if an honest, balanced sample size had been used.

Makes you wonder if those sitting in Congress and the White House really know how much we hold them in contempt for screwing up the country’s financials, liberties, and future.

4) A particularly galling aspect of the survey is in one of the subset of questions in the CBS survey. When asked what is the most important issue facing America today, 41% of the survey takers said it was the economy and jobs. The budget deficit/national debt, health care, and partisan politics were the next three most important problems.

Guns was the fifth most important problem facing the country but it is probably the problem getting the most attention from Washington politicians today. Another set of bad priorities with Washington out of touch with what Americans find important.

It could be that since he political class has not been able to fix the economy/jobs, national debt/deficit, health care, and partisan politics issues, they have just moved on to something that they will probably not be able to resolve either.

5) In the their never ending quest to take more and more of our money for their own selfish use, Gordon Wozniak, a Berkeley, California city councilman, proposed taxing citizens’ email usage during a recent council meeting. He believes that by taxing email usage, it would prevent professional marketers and spammers from sending out thousands and thousands of emails at one time. Taking the insanity one step further, Wozniak said an email tax could then be given to the U.S. Postal System to keep it in operation.

How stupid is this idea. First, how would this tax be collected and what would it cost to collect it. Since many people use free email services, the logistics to set this up would be expensive and offset much of the revenue it would collect.

Second, I am pretty sure that spammers and marketers are smarter and more clever than most politicians so I am confident they would find a way to get around the payment process.

Third, why would we flush good money after bad by giving it to the Post Office without fixing what ails the Post office from a financial perspective. Fix the root causes of the problem, do not just throw money at a continuing bad situation.

6) The October 5, 2012 issue of disgraceful wasteful spending by the Federal government. According to the article, in 2011 the U.S. Army made an unusual request to Congress: stop sending us new tanks.

Congress and the Washington political class ignored this plea, adding a Defense Department budget line that added $255 million to the overall budget for 42 new M1 Abrams tanks. Apparently, the Army already has 2,300 M1 tanks deployed around the world and 3,000 tanks sitting idle around the country. Thus, the Army’s plea not to send any more tanks to them.

But Ohio politicians, from both parties, pushed to get the tanks made using taxpayer money. Apparently, these tanks would be produced in an Ohio factory and the politicians did not want to see those factory jobs to go away or be reduced. Better to waste taxpayer money on useless military equipment than to give that money back to the rightful owners, the American taxpayers.

An Ohio Republican Congressman issued a most inane comment in defending the production of unneeded military tanks: "I think it’s in the best interests of the U.S. to defend our country." Could not agree more on the need to defend our country but with over 5,100 M1 tanks already in existence, and 60% of them not being used, I doubt another 42 tanks are vital to national security. Nice try Congressman but truly an idiotic statement and idiotic expense.

So, let’s review:

1. Politicians want higher taxes but do not pay their “fair share.”
2. The Federal government does not even trust its own postal system.
3. A recent poll proves what we all know, most Americans think Washington politicians are doing a lousy job.
4. The politicians are working on guns why Americans hold that as a very minor priority in their lives.
5. A silly politician wants to tax our email transmissions.
6. An even the Army wants to spend less on defense but our politicians do not.

Insanity, idiocy and bad priorities. And still more to come 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:

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

A Country Founded By Geniuses But Run By Idiots

The following thoughts came to me from a friend’s email. I do not know if Mr. Junius P. Long actually exists or if the following thoughts are his. Regardless of his status, these words and thoughts sum up quite nicely how the ruling political class has screwed up the country’s finances, priorities, liberties, and common sense.

By Junius P. Long - Food For Thought

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally ...you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old American woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher’s "cute," but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested “homes”... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing and free cell phones ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government's plan for getting people back to work is to incentivize NOT working with 99 weeks of unemployment checks and no requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more "safe" according to the government ... you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

To Mr. Long’s thoughts I would add the following bits of political insanity:

If your government thinks the best way to stop illegal gun running is to become an illegal gun runner via Fast and Furious…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government thinks that light security is best for a U.S. embassy located in one of the most unstable and violent areas of the world (Benghazi, Libya)…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government has a massive and ineffective tax code and inept tax collection agency (IRS) that results in over $380 billion in lost tax revenue every year via tax evasion…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government operates social safety programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamp, Unemployment Insurance) that loses over $200 billion a year to inefficiencies and criminal fraud…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government operates a Defense Department that is in such financial disarray that trained GAO auditors have found it impossible to audit its financial operations…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If your government has 15 different agencies overseeing food safety laws, more than 20 different programs to help the homeless, 80 programs for economic development, 82 Federal programs to improve teacher quality spread across 10 different Federal agencies, 80 programs to help disadvantaged Americans with their transportation needs, 47 programs addressing job training and employment, 56 programs to help Americans understand finances, 20 programs that support business incubators, 19 different programs that support tourism, 18 programs, which spend a combined $62.5 billion a year, to address food and nutrition aid, and 100 different programs across five divisions within the Transportation Department that all fund efforts for highways, rail projects, and safety programs…you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

Never has the case for term limits been stronger since as Einstein once said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Or the same politicians and idiots.

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 

Obama's March Of Dimes...Into Oblivion

In his recent state of the union message, President Obama proposed that over two dozen new Federal government programs be implemented. In doing so, he spoke one of his more comical lines in his whole Presidency, stating that implementing these programs would not cost the American taxpayer a single dime. Which raises two conflicting questions:

A) If these programs do not cost a dime, how will they actually work and be implemented and how effective could they possibly be?

B) If they are going to be effective, shouldn’t they cost more than a dime?

More political nonsensical talk from an ineffective political leader. Especially this political leader, who has the annoying habit of throwing out these grandiose rhetoric ideas without any solid back up plans at all, never mind even pie-in-the-sky ineffective plans to back up his empty promises.

And why would we even believe that 29 new programs will not cost anything, given the Federal government’s mismanagement of trillions of taxpayer payers dimes historically:

• Every year, Medicare and Medicaid waste or lose to criminal fraud over $100 billion (One trillion dimes).
• Every year, Social Security wastes or loses to criminal fraud over $100 billion (One trillion dimes).
• Every year, the IRS readily admits that it fails to collect over $380 billion from American tax evaders (3.8 trillion dimes).

We could cite hundreds of other examples of Washington political class financial mismanagement that cost Americans a lot of dimes and would cost Americans a lot more dimes of these new programs ever happened.

Consider four recent examples of wasted dimes that extend Washington’s tradition of wasting dimes:

1) A January 25, 2013 article on the CNN/Money website reported actual criminals, locked up in prisons across the country annually bilk the IRS out of millions and millions of dollars by filing fraudulent tax returns with the IRS from within their prison walls. Thus, not only are would-be convicts pillaging the American taxpayer from outside of prisons, actual convicts are also doing some pillaging inside prisons.

Details of this fraud include the following:

• This tax fraud usually involves prisoners filing fraudulent tax refunds from their respective prisons using stolen or fake identities.
• The prisoners often are in partnership with non-prisoners outside of prison, with all parties sharing in the cut of fraud that they execute.
• In one variation of the scams, prisons access company annual reports in the prison library that list Federal tax ID numbers, and then claim they worked for these companies on phony 1040 forms that they file.
• Other scams involve prisoners claiming wages from companies that are in bank bankruptcy proceedings since those wages can be harder for the IRS to track and verify.
• Some prisoners scan obituaries, looking for people’s identities to steal to be used in filing the false tax returns.
• Others use prison computers to file tax returns electronically online and have their fraudulent refunds easily and electronically deposited into the bank accounts of friends on the outside.

How embarrassing, the Federal government is so inept financially that even those already convicted can continue their crime sprees behind bars where their room and board is already being paid for by the taxpayers across this country. The article estimates that in 2010, prisoners attempted to fraudulently bilk the IRS for over $750 million and were successful in obtaining $35 million of taxpayer wealth.

Now, in the big Federal budget picture, this does not sound like a lot. But consider two things:

1. This is the IRS estimates of what is going on. Who knows how accurate these estimates are. The IRS could be lowballing the estimates to minimize their embarrassment in not being capable or they really do not have a handle on the extent of the fraud and it is much worse than what they can identify.
2. Second, theoretically this $35 million could have been used to put armed police professionals in over 600 U.S. schools in order to prevent future Newtown-like school shootings, a much better use of the resources than allowing criminals to continue their crime sprees in prison.

In any case, this losing $35 million, or 350,000,000 dimes every year is a testimony to ineptness of the Federal government.

2) The Bankrupting America website carried an interesting but depressing article on January 30, 2013 about how another Federal government program wastes billions and billions of dollars every year via incompetence

• An important, comprehensive report from the Government Office of Accountability (GAO) reported that $108 billion of unemployment benefits and other government appropriations went towards “improper payments” over the past several years.
• These improper payments often went to the wrong person or were issued in the incorrect amount.
• Citing a Roll Call article: “No business would allow this much of its budget to be wasted. Sadly, this is business as usual in Washington, and solutions are tough to come by.”

The website goes on to give examples of what this wasted $108 billion in taxpayer wealth could have been used for in order to illustrate the extent of the waste:

• On an average American household basis, this error rate would have reduced that average household’s monthly income by about $200 a month. This is $200 that they could not have used for food, gas, and other expenses, a significant drag on a household’s financials, an economic drag repeated over 110 million times across every U.S. household
• The $108 billion could also be used to buy 366,000 Ferraris.
• It also could have been used to make 101 million mortgage payments at $1061 per month.

To this list we would add the calculation that the $108 billion that was wastefully distributed could have put one armed police professional in every U.S. school for about 15 years, a much better use of the 1,080,000,000,000 dimes.

3) An Associated Press report from February 8, 2013 reported that the U.S. Post Office lost $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 or about 13,000,000,000 dimes. This loss came despite the fact that billions and billions of dollars were spent on the November elections, a lot of which ended up funding mailings from the various candidates and other political entities. Thus, the better measure of the slumping Post Office financials iis not the loss of $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 but the loss of $3.3 billion in the comparable timeframe of 2011 where there was no major election spending.

But this should come as no surprise. We reported on the mess that was the Post Office over a year ago in September, 2011:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/09/political-class-when-it-comes-to-post.html

In that post we quoted Senator Joe Lieberman’s warning that “we must act quickly” to fix the red ink problems of the Post Office. Apparently, that warning did not get the right attention since seventeen months, later the dimes keep getting wasted due to Post Office inefficiencies.

Quick note: this is not meant as a knock against the management of the Post Office. Back in September, 2011 and now, management seems to have a good handle on what is happening to their industry and what could be done to adjust the Post Office operations to address those changes, e.g. their recent announcement to stop Saturday mail deliveries. It is the political class that is dithering while our dimes slide away, not those employees and executives that recognize the need to change.

4) And finally, a case where the number of dimes being lost is actually incalculable. That, at least is the conclusion of a GAO report on their audit of the Federal government financials. In a massive audit of the entire Federal government, the GAO report concluded the following:

• Our report on the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statements illustrates that much work remains to improve federal financial management. Further improvements are urgently needed.
• Certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the fiscal years 2012 and 2011 accrual-based consolidated financial statements.
• About 34 percent of the federal government’s reported total assets as of September 30, 2012, and approximately 21 percent of the federal government’s reported net cost for fiscal year 2012 relate to the Department of Defense (DOD), which received a disclaimer of opinion on its consolidated financial statements.
• Because of significant uncertainties, primarily related to the achievement of projected reductions in Medicare cost growth reflected in the 2012, 2011, and 2010 Statements of Social Insurance, we are unable to, and we do not, express opinions on the 2012, 2011, and 2010 Statements of Social Insurance, as well as on the 2012 and 2011 Statement of Changes in Social Insurance Amounts.
• Material weaknesses resulted in ineffective internal control over financial reporting for fiscal year 2012.
• Our tests of compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations for fiscal year 2012 were limited by the material weaknesses and other scope limitations discussed in our report.

In other words, the Federal government’s accounting processes are so screwed up that we have no idea what is going on or how many trillions of dimes are wasted every year. How scary is this report, the Federal government is so messed up that trained auditors cannot unravel the mess.

All of these examples get us back to the original discussion on Obama’s two dozen plus new programs. If he and the rest of the Washington political class were actually doing their jobs and watching over our dimes, they could fund their additional programs and it truly would not cost the American taxpayer a dime in additional taxes. They could put armed police professionals in every U.S. school to protect our kids. They could do a lot if they just started watching and caring for our dimes.

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

February, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3 - Google's Tax Dodge, Getting Rich In D.C., Food Stamp Fraud In Ohio, And More

This is the third post for the political class insanity of February, 2013. Over the past two days we have seen numerous charges and allegations of political bribery and corruption, political cronyism, a politician wanting to use government resources and operations to persecute those citizens with a different opinion than her, government officials and politicians that cannot develop and live by a simple budget, and other acts of lunacy. Fortunately, the insanity ends with the following:

1) We have a national debt of over $16 TRILLION. According to a January 17, 2013 Associated Press report, there are hundreds and hundreds of deficient and dangerously flawed levees across the country that are at risk of collapsing at any minute and endangering the lives and properties of millions of Americans in at least 37 states. Hurricane Sandy victims are still waiting for relief. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are rapidly approaching insolvency.

Despite all of these dire financial situations, what did the Federal government recently spend $100,000 on: “The National Endowment for the Arts is funding the Spelman College of Atlanta, Ga.’s multi-episode game called “HERadventure.” In the grant announcement made last year, the NEA said the story “focuses on a young female superhero sent to Earth to save her own planet from devastation because of climate changes caused by social issues impacting women and girls.”

Now, $100,000 is not going to fix any of the problems listed above. However, before you can start saving millions of dollars in wasted spending, you have to start saving thousands. And before you can start saving billions, you have to start saving millions, etc. Wasting $100,000 on an inane game would have been a great start on the road to fixing what ails this country in a meaningful way as opposed to idiotic, wasteful, useless programs like this.

2) In late December, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors workers will each receive an annual bonus of between $5,500 and $7,000 a piece. This past week it was reported that the Treasury Department is about to unload the last of the millions of GM shares it still owns. If that sale of shares comes to past, the American taxpayer would stand to lose about $12 billion on the direct bailout of General Motors.

Such a deal, the American taxpayer theoretically contributes just over $100 per household to a bankrupt company that in turn gives bonuses to its workers of up to $7,000. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? And this is just the result of the direct GM bailout. The forgiving of back taxes and the failed bailouts of other former GM corporate components is not included in this scam.

3) The Dayton Daily news reported in late December, 2012 that A Federal judge had sentenced a local resident, Al-Idu Al-Gaheem to one year and one day in prison for his leadership in a scheme that bilked $3.8 million from the Federal food stamp program.

Al-Gaheem had faced as many as four years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, food stamp trafficking and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. The scheme involved Al-Gaheem and his co-conspirators illegally paying customers 50 cents in cash for every $1 in food stamp benefits they redeemed.

The $3.8 million they stole from the American taxpayer was allegedly spent on themselves and their businesses. Although the court order requires them to pay back the $3.8 million, the article concludes that this will likely never happen since the money has all been spent.

You really have to be kidding me, only one year in jail for stealing almost $4 million? Doesn’t seem fair or just, maybe that is the reason that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid lose over $200 billion a year to waste and criminal fraud. The penalties for getting caught are just not steep enough to scare off the criminals.

4) As you begin to get your tax documentation together in order to prepare your Federal income tax return, consider a short article that was published in the December 21, 2012 issue of The Week magazine. The article, originally from Bloomberg, reported that Google avoided paying about $2 billion in taxes in 2011 by transferring $9.8 billion in revenue to a Bermuda holding company.

The amount transferred to Bermuda, where there is no income tax, represents about 80% of Google’s pretax profits. Thus, while many American small business owners saw their taxes go up when the fiscal cliff deal was signed, apparently Google can continue to shield billions in tax liabilities offshore.

I believe that everyone’s taxes on average should be reduced, given the trillions of dollars the Federal government has wasted over the years. However, for someone that is always yapping about paying one’s fair share of taxes, Obama and the Democrats really seem to be taking their time dealing with atrocities like this while the successful local pizzeria owner might have just seen his tax burden go up.

5) Let’s stay with the income tax theme. How high is your household income that you will be taxes on in April?

According to the AARP Bulletin magazine from December, the estimated median income of each state and the District Of Columbia ranges from a low of $36,919 in Mississippi to a high, almost 100% higher, of $70,004 in Maryland. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau). Since the average household income across the entire country is just below $50,000, we also see that Maryland residents make about 40% more than the average U.S. household.

But who lives in Maryland? A large portion of those high income households are high paying jobs that depend on the Federal government and your tax dollars. In fact, the fourth highest median household income are those households living in the District Of Columbia, $63,124, about 26% higher than the average U.S. Household.

As always, the political class, and the lobbyists, contractors, and industries that depend on extensive large Federal spending, are certainly taking care of themselves financially. In fact, we have previously reported that seven of the top ten richest counties in the country are in the greater D.C. area.

Thus, another example of the evolving elitist ruling class in this country, a class that pays themselves better than the people that make their salaries possible, a class that needs private bathrooms worth over $200,000 a class that readily excepts bribes while in office, etc. Insanity and insults, a monthly affair that never ends.

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

January, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 3: Food For Mars, Democrats Evading Taxes, Cartel Corruption Reaches Texas, Buying Ambassadorships

Okay, I thought we could get way with only two posts this month to review the insanity and idiocy we were forced to absorb from our political class last month. However, since I finished the first two posts, more insanity arose, requiring this third, and hopefully, final post for this month’s craziness.

1) Senator Rand Paul and other members of Congress held a news conference in the middle of December where they vowed not to raise taxes on any American, given the incredibly wasteful spending of the Federal government. They cited many examples of massive and trivial spending including this gem: the Federal government spent thousands of dollars to send Federal employees to Hawaii to brainstorm on what types of food future astronauts would eat while on Mars.

It was unclear why 1) these employees had to be sent away (especially to far off Hawaii) from their offices to think about this silly subject and 2) more importantly, why they needed to think about something as inane as this for an event that is highly likely to never happen or, best case, will happen many decades in the future. It is no wonder why we have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.

2) An investigative report in the Washington Times in the second week of December found that a West Virginia millionaire Congressman from West Virginia owed back property taxes on his $900,000 Washington, D.C. house.

Apparently, Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall had spent years claiming a homestead exemption on his D.C. home AND another homestead exemption on his other home back in West Virginia. This is a no-no, no one, by law and Congressional rules, including a Congressman, is allowed to claim more than one homestead exemption. The article reports that while he has paid the back taxes owed, he still owes the penalties and fines he incurred.

This insult to taxpayers should not be confused with what happened to Congressman Fortney H. “Pete” Stark (D.-Calif.) in 2009. He was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for his taking a homestead abatement on his $2 million Maryland home, where he lives with his family, while claiming as his residence a home in his district, lived in and owned by his wife’s parents.

The investigation cleared Stark after it determined that his taking the Maryland tax break because it was credited to him, but he had never requested it. While he never asked for the exemption, it does not appear that he refused when it was given to him.

This is not to be confused with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, a former California Democratic Congresswoman. She had her February 2009 Congressional confirmation hearings delayed until her husband paid his back taxes on his auto repair business.

This is not to be confused with U.S. Democratic Senator Sherrod C. Brown was in arrears to the Washington D.C. city government for the taxes on his $222,000 Capitol Hill condominium. This charge of not paying taxes was used against Brown by his 2012 Republican opponent Ohio Joshua A. Mandel, a charge that was validated as true by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s “Truth-O-Meter” column.

Now you begin to see why Democrats in Washington want to raise taxes. Many of them never get around to paying their “fair share” so raising taxes is not a reality in their lives.

3) We usually combine illegal drug-related news and insanity into periodic posts dedicated to our lost war on drugs. However, this news item was worthy of being included in this month’s insanity. According to a December 14, 2012 Associated Press article, four law enforcement officers in Texas were arrested and charged with taking bribes worth thousands of dollars to protect shipments of cocaine through their law enforcement areas.

We have predicted this type of behavior many times before. Our idiotic lost war on drugs has enriched the Mexican drug cartels and corrupted much of the Mexican government structure, from judges down to local police. This corruption has now jumped the border, if these charges should prove to be true.

4) Speaking of bribes, a Business Week article educated me on how many of our most important ambassadorships are assigned. Ambassadorships are very important posts since they are our official Federal government liaison to other governments and other countries.

Thus, one would think that these important State Department posts are staffed and managed by some of the brightest people in the State Department, people with a long history of international and government affairs. You could think that and you would be wrong.

According to an article in the December 17, 2012 issue of Business Week, some of the most important and most visible ambassador posts are given to political allies who raised the most money for the politicians currently in power. Case in point: President Obama is considering naming Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to be the next U.S. ambassador to England.

What is the number one reason for this potential appointment? Ms. Wintour raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s Presidential run and inspired the “Runway To Win," a fashion line that brought upwards of $40 million to his campaign. Yes, the editor of a fashion magazine is in line to become one of the most important ambassadors in the world. Ludicrous.

Wintour’s competition for the London post is Obama’s national election finance chairman, Matthew Barzun. The article states that Wintour may also be in line for the French ambassadorship but would have to beat out Marc Lasry who raised over $200,000 for Obama’s campaign.

Money talks regardless of who is in power in the White House and Congress, almost always to the detriment of well run, efficient, and effective government operations.

By the way, whoever does become the next ambassador to England will live on a 12 acre estate called Winfield House, a building with dozens and dozens of rooms with private gardens that “are exceeded only by those of Buckingham Palace.” Now, aren’t you sorry you did not raise a lot of money for the campaign?

Three days of insanity: wasteful government spending, tax evading Democrats, armored cars for pumpkin festivals, and more. And just think, in just thirty days we will have to do this all again, with the latest idiocy from our political class.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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