Ten Shut Down Government Functions That Should Stay Shut Down

Over the pasty two days we have been reviewing a lot of the insanity, lunacy, stupidity, and pompousness of the political class relative to the unneeded and embarrassing “government shutdown.” It is unneeded since the Federal government has been putting annual budgets together for over two hundred years, an act that seems beyond the intelligence and ability of the current set of Washington politicians to accomplish.

It is embarrassing since if these people cannot even put together a budget, do we really expect them to have the capacity to solve the war on drugs problem, fix our failing public schools, get our national debt under control, etc.? If this is the best we can do for leadership in Washington, than this is truly an embarrassment for the entire country.

The first look at the Federal government shutdown resulted in the development and proposal of the CABA - The Congressional Adult Behavior Act. This proposal has seven components that tries to put rules and restrictions in place so that Washington politicians start acting liking adults rather than childish, bratty, name calling little kids.

The second look at the shutdown went through the many government agencies and functions that were NOT shutdown, with independent estimates indicating that although the Federal government was supposedly shutdown because it had no budget, about 85% to 90% of the Federal government was still functioning. 

We raised the following issue: since most Americans were unaffected by the 10% to 15% of the government that  was deemed nonessential and was actually shut down, maybe it was time to stop doing those functions altogether and save the taxpayers the expense of paying for some government functions that did not affect them. Doing so would put about $4,000 back into the pockets of EVERY American family EVERY year.

Those two discussions can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/caba-congressional-adult-behavior-act.html

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/10/only-in-washington-shutdown-that-is-not.html

Today we will look at a sample of ten Federal functions that are not operating and you decide whether or not you can live without them. They were found on the Freedom Works website and I have included some of the sarcastic barbs that Freedom Works attached to some of the unneeded functions. 

While reviewing these functions, keep in mind that Nancy Pelosi has recently asserted that there is no unnecessary spending being done by the Federal government, that not a single dollar can be pared from the Federal government’s bloated spending. We think that many, if not all, of these following ten government functions dispel that theory, a theory that we absolutely kill every month when we do our monthly political class insanity posts. The first insanity post from this month can be accessed at:

http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/09/october-2013-part-1-political-class.html

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The Ten Nonessential Government Functions That Maybe We Can ALWAYS Do Without, Courtesy Of Freedom Works

1. The Bureau of Land Management has halted donkey adoptions.

Because, as it turns out, most of that is accomplished online and the website for the Bureau of Land Management is currently down. Though they did put up a website to tell users of their website that they can't access the website. So there.

2. The USDA "Meat and Poultry Hotline" is no longer available to take calls about the safety of that mystery meat that's been sitting in the back of your fridge for a decade.

Now, if you don't know if you might get food poisoning from green chicken, the government is unavailable to help you. And if you have questions about the name of a specific type of bacteria that landed you in the bathroom for 36 hours, you'll just have to use a (privately-funded) resource like WebMD.

3. No one is currently advising the government on matters pertaining to the "fine arts."

And just when it seems that someone might have gotten a photograph of Banksy tagging up an NYC alleyway. Shame.

4. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has been forced to shutter a number of its offices.

Of course, the Broadcasting Board of Governors mostly uses its websites and offices to talk about what people who are not Broadcasting Board of Governors do, but that's beside the point, right?

5. The Post Office is running, but the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee has been temporarily suspended.

That said, you can still vote on which commemorative stamps you'd like the USPS to issue online, so at least the government has learned about citizen empowerment and free opinions.

6. We will be unlikely to hear from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugurations. 

Not that there are any planned until 2016. But in case we need an emergency inauguration (which, frankly, we hope doesn't happen) we're out of luck.

7. The US Board of Geographic Names, which is apparently charged with naming US geographic items, doesn't even have its website running.

America, if you can avoid discovering new geographic items that would require names for at least the foreseeable future, they'd appreciate it.

8. The Clinton Presidential Center has closed some of its permanent exhibits.

We'd call this the "Washington Monument Strategy" but something tells me no one is going to be too hurt at being turned away from seeing a collection of Hillary Clinton's White House-era pantsuits.

9. The University of Hawaii has halted its research into rat lungworm disease.

Unfortunately, it's probably hard to convince private donors that it's necessary to figure out why a type of vermin is falling prey to another type of vermin, so it's the government's responsibility. Except not right now.

10. A full third of the speakers for the Illinois River Coordinating Council were forced to delay their trip to scenic Peoria, Illinois.

I believe that the river coordinators could not coordinate a conference call. Also, who cares if they have to miss a trip to Peoria? There's nothing in Peoria.

Now, of course, there are some things that the government does that are very valuable, but when you would never have noticed a few key very important elements of the government (according to the government) are missing, it sort of makes you think about whether we really need it all, especially when it comes out of our pockets.

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Again, these ten items and the associated sarcasm comes from Freedom Works. But their sarcasm rings true. Do we really need to fund a standing committee on geographic names, can’t  we find a creative sort already employed by the Interior Department to come up with new names when needed? Do we really need a stamp advisory committee, can’t we find someone already employed in the Post Office to do that job as part of their regular job? 

You get the idea, we fund these functions that seem to last forever and get bigger and more expensive over time for reasons that were not important to begin with. As we have proposed many times, the Federal government needs a good spring cleaning where we go through every nook and cranny of all government entities, and throw out those old toys, clothes, and bad birthday gifts that have been taking up space (and taxpayer wealth) for years for no good reason. Households do it, why shouldn’t Washington do it?

And what better time to do it? These functions, and probably hundreds more like them are already shut down and no one cares or notices that they are no functioning. What better time to keep them dormant until we see a reason and a true need to do what they supposedly do. And if such a need does arise, maybe there is a cheaper and less expensive way to do it.

Ashleigh Brilliant once said: “I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.” Same with me. Either pay me the big bucks to serve on the Stamp Advisory Committee or get rid of it since it serves no purpose in my life or the lives of just about every other American.

As an aside, at our website for our book, www.loathemygovernment.com, you can vote on a variety of government functions and expenses from past years to decide whether or not they would have been important in your life. To date, the vast majority of voters have said these government expenditures were not important enough to have taxpayers pay for them, with the majority of expenses receiving 100% thumbs down on whether they were a worthwhile government expense.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Only In Washington: A Shutdown That Is Not Really A Shutdown But Just Bitter, Immature Politics (As Usual)

The headlines scream that the Federal government has been shut down by radical Tea Party politicians, bringing hardship and terror to all of America. Politicians strut and issue pompous, and in many cases, disgusting quotes, to make cheap political points while Americans suffer. THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR!!!

Or is it? When is a government shutdown not really a shutdown? I would contend that we are looking at more of a mole hill than a mountain since:

#1 85% of all government activities are actually being funded during this “government shutdown”.

#2 Approximately 1,350,000 “essential” federal employees will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.

#3 Overall, 63 percent of the federal workforce will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.

#4 The U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver our mail.

#5 U.S. military personnel will remain on duty and will continue to get paid.

#6 Social Security recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#7 Medicare recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#8 Medicaid recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#9 Food stamp recipients will continue to get their benefits.

#10 Those on unemployment will continue to get their benefits.

#11 Federal retirees will continue to get their pensions.

#12 The federal school lunch program has enough money to go through at least the end of this month.

#13 Public schools all over the country will continue to stay open.

#14 Almost all federal law enforcement officials will continue working.

#15 The Federal Reserve will remain “completely functional“.

#16 The Supreme Court will continue to operate normally and federal courts have enough money to keep going for at least two weeks.

#17 TSA employees will continue to molest travelers at our airports.

#18 Air traffic controllers will continue to monitor traffic at our airports.

#19 Hopelessly outmanned border patrol agents will continue to try to stem the tide of illegal immigration.

#20 Visas and passports will continue to be issued by the State Department.

#21 The Veterans Administration will continue to offer substandard medical services, and it will be able to continue processing benefit payments at least for now.

#22 The Obama administration apparently has plenty of money to spend on closing open-air memorials that are usually open to the public 24 hours a day.

#23 The Department of Defense announced the awarding of 94 new contracts worth a combined total of more than 5 billion dollars on September 30th – the day right before the “government shutdown”.

#24 The “government shutdown” has not prevented the new two billion dollar NSA spy center from opening up.

#25 Federal prisons will continue to operate normally.

#26 Amtrak trains will continue to run.

#27 The Patent and Trademark Office will be open.

#28 The Consumer Product Safety Commission will continue to issue product recalls if the products “create an immediate threat to the safety of human life“.

#29 The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns.

#30 If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this “shutdown” will not affect that.

#31 NASA will continue to support the Mars Rover and the two American astronauts up on the International Space Station.

#32 All city employees of the D.C. government have been deemed “essential” and will continue to go to work.

#33 Even though the Obamacare exchanges are not working properly, people will still be able to access them.

#34 The IRS will continue to collect taxes, but it will be suspending punitive audits of conservative organizations.

#35 Barack Obama will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.

#36 The U.S. Congress will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.

#37 And everyone else is on paid leave. They’ll get their back pay when we open back up for business. In fact, according to a Washington Post article from October 6, 2013, the Pentagon has already announced that it would order almost all of its 350,000 furloughed employees due to the “shut down
 back to work this week.

Seems like this is much ado about nothing if more than three dozen heavy duty functions of the U.S. government are continuing to operate in a business as usual mode. As always, the perception of reality in Washington is totally different than the perception of reality outside of the Beltway. Very few Americans are being affected by the shut down and could care less. Just about every politician and member of the main stream media is besides themselves with rage about the shut down. Another glaring disconnect.

But there are some other interesting observations and conclusions that can be drawn as a result of this trivial and juvenile political class behavior:

Observation Number 1 - Should all politicians in Washington be arrested for breaking the law?

Consider this interesting and provocative  question: if the government is actually functioning without a budget, is the entire Federal government bureaucracy operating in an illegal mode at this point in time? If so, shouldn’t everyone responsible for operating the government, from Barack Obama to the last member of Congress, be put under arrest for breaking the law?

You cannot claim the government has been shut down because, by law, it needs a formal budget to operate when, in fact, government checks are being sent out and cashed, mail is being delivered, weather is being tracked, air travelers are being groped, etc. According to a Forbes analysis that was reported on the Against Crony Capitalism website, only about 13% of the Federal government has been shut down. 

So it is not beyond the realm of believability that the political class is acting in a felonious, illegal matter to have so much of the government still functioning without a legally required formal budget. It is also not beyond the realm of believability to say that at least 13% of the Federal budget could be cut without affecting the welfare and lives of the vast majority of Americans. 

Observation Number 2 - Is there at least 13% of the Federal government that can be immediately stripped out  without any consequences for ordinary Americans? 

We are more than a week into this so-called shutdown and virtually no one is missing the 13% of government that is not operating. Doing some rough math on this year’s $3.8 TRILLION budget, we find that trimming 13% out of the budget would reduce Federal government spending by almost half a TRILLION dollars. If these savings were evenly distributed back to every American household, each household in America would be getting about a $4,300 check from the trimmed down Federal government every year. 

Think about what a great boost to the economy that would be if every family had an extra $4,300 in their pocket EVERY YEAR. They could vacation more, buy more stuff for their homes, engage in more leisure activities, maybe send their kids to better schools, start their own business, etc. Since most people are not missing the 13% reduction in Federal spending, wouldn’t this be a much better option for the country than spending money that no one misses by the political class and Federal government?

And the financials of the Federal government would be much better off. In this past fiscal year, the Federal government deficit was about $600 billion. This almost $500 billion in annual savings would wipe out more than 80% of last year’s spending deficit, creating a brighter financial future for the Federal government and all Americans from a debt load perspective.

Observation Number 3 - Some small adjustments to this cost savings/spending reduction model would have to be made to fix some of the soulless, selfish actions of the political class.

For instance, in an act of pure childish petulance, the White House tried to bar World War II veterans from visiting their memorial in Washington even though it is an open air memorial that requires no Federal employees to be available to operate the memorial. The White House under Barck Obama also did the same petty shenanigans with the Vietnam War Memorial, forcing veterans to leave before paying their respects to their fallen comrades despite this memorial also being an open air, public display.

These, and many other acts of vindictiveness from this administration, are meant to infict the most harm and inconvenience on ordinary Americans during the shutdown to solely make make political points. But we should expect nothing better from these people. 

After the sequester, they did the same thing, closing down White House public tours, cutting aid to Native American schools, furloughing air traffic controllers, etc., all meant to sacrifice Americans' needs for their sick political games.

Thus, we would have to make some slight admjustments, and only slight adjustments, to the 13% cut, maybe settling for only a 12% cut in order to allow veterans to still visit their memorials and fallen comrades, allow national parks to stay open, etc. This would prevent politicians like President Obama from playing his political games while still trimming a hefty, and nonessential, part of the government's spending out of the Federal government.

Yes, this has really not been a shutdown, this was a slight inconvenience, made worse by petty poltiicians. But "petty politicians" is probalby redundant. Today in America it seems like these are the only kind of politicians we have.

To help change that situation, please visit our term limits website at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because really, after seeing how these politicians treat our veterans, how much worse could it get if we had a totally different set of politicians in Washington?

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

CABA - The Congressional Adult Behavior Act: Fixing What Washington Has Broken

It has become pretty obvious to a lot of Americans that we are currently suffering through the worst, most inept set of Washington politicians in the history of our nation. Consider what this set of low performing Congressional and Presidential people have done to our economy and our freedom:

• A national debt fast approaching $17 TRILLION, a personal debt load that is more than $54,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country.
• Unemployment that has been above 7% for a record number of consecutive months.
• Over 20 million Americans unemployed or under employed.
• A Federal government that secretly captures just about every form of electronic communications of just about every American without a warrant or just cause.
• A Federal government that is inefficient, ineffective, and whose programs are infested with criminal fraud, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.
• A tax code that is long, confusing, and counterproductive to economic growth, managed by an IRS organization that publicly concedes that it fails to collect over $380 billion a year from tax evaders.
• A military/industrial complex that eats up over $600 billion of taxpayer wealth every year and intrudes into the affairs of nations around the world without ever any positive results.
• A failure to resolve any of the major issues of our times including a lost war on drugs, the continuing under educating of our kids relative to the rest of the world, the continuing lack of a coherent national energy strategy, and the lack of a plan to contain ever rising health care costs (no, Obama Care does nothing of the sort in this area.)

In the face of these massive failures, we are now being treated to the embarrassment of a government shutdown because 535 people in Congress and a few more in the White House cannot even come up with a simple budget, something that the Federal government has done, for better or worse, for over two hundred years. These current Washington clowns cannot even accomplish that basic government task.

Let us not forget that most of these people took a five week vacation in August without passing a budget, waiting until the last moment and then failing to avoid a government shutdown. Let us not forget that most of these people have been in office for decades and are not only part of this embarrassment but also part of the never ending failure to address and resolve the major issues of our time. Let us not forget that the most coherent words out of most of their mouths is nothing more than kindergarten, childhood insults and slurs that accomplish nothing except to divide the nation.

Thus, it is time that we take back the reins of government and enact the “Congressional Adult Behavior Act” or CABA. What we have seen from Washington over the past several years has been nothing close to adult behavior, both in words and actions. It is now time to put some straitjackets on these childish people and hold them accountable by the following tenets in the CABA:

1) CABA Provision Number 1 - For every day that a major Congressional budget deadline date is not met during the fiscal year, every member of Congress will pay a $500 fine each day until they have fulfilled their legally mandated budget requirements and deadlines.

Rationale: One of the few jobs a member of Congress has to do is to participate in developing and executing a budget process for the Federal government. Failure to do so results in sloppy government financial management, uncertainty in the market, and an embarrassment to the country. 

In the real world, there are consequences for not meeting deadlines. There should also be consequences in Congress and the White House for not meeting budget deadlines. A $500 dollar a day fine would probably help these Washington politicians to focus on their legally mandated budget responsibilities.

2) CABA Provision Number 2 - If the government should ever shut down because the Congress and President are not able to close on a budget by the end of a fiscal year, not only will Congress and top members of the executive branch not get paid, they each would be fined $1,000 a day until the government was fully operational again.

Rationale: Same as for CABA Provision Number 1. Members of Congress and the executive branch are paid to keep the government up and running for the benefit of the citizenry. Failure to do so should have consequences.

3) CABA Provision Number 3 - All members of Congress sitting on Congressional committees will be held accountable for the area of government responsibilities of those committees and will be either fined or removed from those committees for dereliction of duty. The fine or removal decision will be based on a survey filed with each taxpayer’s tax return each year.

Rationale: Members of Congress usually serve on Congressional committees for as long as they want, regardless of how poorly those committees perform. Again, we are talking a complete lack of accountability of these politicians. 

For example, if this CABA provision was in place, all of those members sitting on Congressional intelligence committees would have been fined and/or replaced on those committees back in 2001 for not protecting the country from the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The IRS readily admits that it fails to collect over $380 billion a year from tax evaders, causing honest, hard working Americans to pay more in taxes than if the IRS was doing its job. Under this CABA provision, all Congressional members on committees with IRS oversight responsibility would be either fined or removed from those committee posts for dereliction of duty.

Do your job and be rewarded with committee posts and maintain a high salary. Do not do your job and get removed from committee posts and lose money for poor performance. That is how life works outside of the Beltway.

4) CABA Provision Number 4 - This provision would repeal the current practice of automatically granting members of Congress annual pay raises and replace it with a merit based performance review that would also be part of a taxpayer’s annual income tax filing. 

Rationale: Most people in the real world are rewarded, or not rewarded,  based on how well their bosses like the quality and merit of their work. This process should also apply to our political class where every American citizen is the “boss” of elected officials in Washington. 

Each taxpayer would have an opportunity to grade Congress and the executive branch on how well they did their job over the previous year, with cross political party cooperation and respect being a major component, with high grades rewarding sitting politicians with pay raises, bad grades resulting in pay cuts.

5) CABA Provision Number 5 - Prohibit any Senator, President, or Member of the House of Representatives with a net worth over $3 million from drawing a paycheck during their term of office or until their net worth falls below $3 million.

Rationale: Nancy Pelosi is estimated to be worth about $35 million. According to a “Sixty Minutes” report, she was allowed, under current Congressional rules, to participate in about ten IPOs while in office, making hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of this insider stock connection. 

With a $17 TRILLION national debt and a personal wealth of $35 million, Ms. Pelosi and others like her do not need to draw a salary from the American taxpayer. Serving in Congress or the executive branch should be an honor, not a personal self enrichment crusade. If a sitting politician is wealthy beyond an average American’s dream, they would not draw a salary.

6) CABA Provision Number 6 - Childish and profane name calling directed towards a fellow politician, group of politicians, an individual American citizen, or a group of American citizens would be cause for a fine, as determined by an independent, impartial set of adults.

Rationale: Over the past few years, Washington politicians have called their political opponents sluts, whores, terrorists, racists, barbarians, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, a___h___s, and other equally childish, profane things. There is no place for such language in the leadership of America. It creates walls, extinguishes dialog, and inhibits compromise and progress. 

These same Washington politicians have called American citizens terrorists, racists, and wished them a place in hell, all for having honest but opposite points of views on the issues. The fines for these childish and profane slurs and insults, aimed at ordinary American citizens, would be double the fine levels established for politicians calling each other names.

Just like with children, use bad language and be punished. Maybe if these fines can make the political dialog in Washington a little more civil and adult, the political class might actually get around to resolving problems rather than creating hatred and animosity towards each other and ordinary Americans.

7) CABA Provision Number 7 - Given the list of non-accomplishments listed above, the final provision of the CABA would be the establishment of term limits for all Federally elected politicians.

Rationale: Despite major failures across the board of the current Washington political class, they do know how to control the nation’s election processes and their crony capitalism ensures they will get a steady flow of campaign money for their perpetual reelection campaigns. We need a process in place that ensures a constant flow of new people and new ideas into the leadership posts of our government, replacing the childish and immature inhabitants of those posts today.

Seven simple rules that bring accountability and adult behavior  back into our political processes. The time is well past due that we regain control of our country and revive the freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill Of Rights and in the process. We need to make government and the politicians that operate it more focused on resolving issues than on getting reelected. 

The next step in this accountability process is to find Congressional sponsor(s) that are willing to do the right thing and push legislation through that would make the CABA a reality. If you would like to join that effort to make this happen, please sign up at our term limits website:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Mark Twain said it best: “Suppose you are an idiot and a member of Congress… but I repeat myself.” Time to get rid of the idiots and get some real adults into position to fix what the current set of inept, childish politicians have broken.

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2013, Political Class Insanity, Part 6: A Country Founded By Geniuses and Run By Idiots

Please note: Nancy Pelosi recently made the outrageous comment that there was no waste to be cut in the Federal govnerment, i.e. EVERY dollar the Washington political class spends is essential to our country. Keep this insanity in mind as we go through this month's polticial class insanity, you will quickly see that she is very much out of touch with the reality of today's wasteful federal government.

This will be the sixth and final installment in this month’s political class insanity where we review the lunacy that continues to be created by the nation’s political class, the worst set of politicians to ever hold office in the history of this country. I thought we would need more than six posts to cover it all this month but it looks like a lot of the insanity has been related to the impending disaster that is Obama Care and the tired, old calls for shredding the Second Amendment. We will cover them in a separate series of posts on their own special brand of insanity.

1) In early August, 2013, Commissioners in Weld County, Colorado unanimously voted to make 'North Colorado' the 51st US state. The Republican board hopes to secede from the state in protest of laws passed by the Democratically controlled state legislature this year. The initiative will be added to the ballot this November. More than 11,000 people have liked the 51st State Initiative's Facebook page.

The 51st State website claims that their objective is simple. "We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state capitol," read a post on the website: "The concerns of rural Coloradans have been ignored for years," William Garcia, chairman of the Weld County Commissioners, said in a statement. "The last session was the straw that broke the camel's back for many people. They want change. They want to be heard.”

Think people are getting fed up with the American political class? And these are not the only Americans who want out from underneath what the believe is an ever growing government and ever shrinking set of freedoms. According to the Washington Times, at least three other western counties are trying to do the same thing: Cheyenne, Sedgwick and Yuma also plan to place the 51st state referendum on the fall ballot.

Secession drives are underway in northern California and in rural Maryland. Yes, something might be ready to give, it only takes so long until you realize that America’s politicians only care about their own self enrichment, their perpetual reelection campaigns, and have no ability to resolve the major issues of their times. 

Sounds like these folks who want to form their own state have reached the same conclusion that are term limits effort reached: really….how much worse could it get if you had your own state? (www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com)

2) CBS News reported early this month that the Department of Defense was hurriedly  spending taxpayer wealth on televisions, playground equipment, violins, clarinets, a volleyball court, and other non-defense things so that they would not see their budget decreased next year, the infamous “spend it or lose it approach” to budget management. And according to CBS, this insane wasteful spending of taxpayer wealth is not confined to just the Department of Defense, it is rampant across all Federal agencies and entities, the news report just focused on this one department and its idiotic spending spree.

3) The Export-Import Bank is a Federal government entity which is supposed to provide low cost loans to foreign entities who use those loans to buy American made goods. It is a blatant form of political cronyism, using American taxpayer wealth to help out the profits of large American companies.

If a potential foreign buyer needs financing help to buy goods from an American company, than that company and its shareholders should be the ones to provide the financing and assume all of the risks of financing. The American taxpayer should not be the lender of last resort.

But it is actually worse than this. According to an article in the Washington Free Beacon this past summer, a whopping 83% of the bank’s loans in 2012 went to the customers of only one company: Boeing. 83%, tell me that the Boeing airline company is not getting a free ride on the American taxpayers’ dime. The loans go to foreign airlines who get low interest rates to purchase Boeing airplanes.

Besides the blatant cronyism of this swindle, there are two other major problems. First, domestic airlines like Delta and United do not get the same deals from the Export-import Bank. Thus, ironically, their market competitiveness against foreign airlines is diminished by our own Federal government, insanity. Second, would it not be better to invest that money in loans to domestic companies and domestic households rather than foreign companies? Would it not be netter to just return that money to the taxpayers so we could decide how to expand the economy with our own money?

Oh, by the way, according to the Open Secrets website, Boeing ranks 83 out of over 20,000 entities that have made recent contributions to politicians’ election campaigns ($3.5 million) and 12 out of 4,369 companies when it comes to lobbying expense (almost $32 million in lobbying expense in the past two years.) Any doubts why the political class supports the continuation of the Export-Import Bank when over 80% of its budget supports Boeing?

4) So, who is doing good in this lousy economy? Consider some recently releases of U.S. Census data: 

• Between 2000 and 2012 median household incomes for the nation as a whole dropped 6.6% — from $55,030 to $51,371. 
• But wait, the income of the typical D.C. household rose 23.3% between 2000 and 2012 to an inflation-adjusted $66,583, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
• The Washington, D.C. metro area — which includes the surrounding suburbs in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia — has it even better, with a median household income of $88,233 that ranks highest among the U.S.’s 25 most populous metro areas. 
• Tampa, Florida’s median income, by contrast, is under $45,000,almost a whopping 50% less than the D.C. median income.

Thus, if you are a lobbyists, politicians, political crony, or just fortunate enough to live in the D.C. area, this is a great economy. If you are none of these, than not so great. Maybe that is why the Washington political class has not moved to fix what ails the vast majority of the country, they are not feeling the pain of falling incomes, high unemployment, high under employment, etc.

5) We will close this month’s insanity with a set of truisms that popped up in my email. They are attributed to comedian Jeff Foxworthy but I have no idea if that is true. What is true is the frustration and insanity that the following realities are causing to most Americans, realities and insanity that are courtesy of out of touch politicians:

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally…

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion…

If you MUST show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government…

If the government wants to prevent stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt…

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat…

If an 80-year-old woman or a three-year-old girl who is confined to a wheelchair can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched…

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more…

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable…

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion, while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones…

If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to provide incentives for not working, by granting 99 weeks of unemployment checks, without any requirement to prove that gainful employment was diligently sought, but couldn’t be found…

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage…

If being stripped of your Constitutional right to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government… you might just be living in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is beyond doubt run by idiots.

Such is the insanity in America today, brought to you in an ever increasing dosage by the entrenched American political class. If you are just as tired of it as the rest of us, please join the effort to impose term limits on this insane bunch of loons by going to our Term Limits Now website:

www.howmuchwosecoulditget.com

Because really…how much worse could it get?

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

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w