April, 2017, Part 9, Political Class Insanity: Corruption and Economic Ignorance

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us. 

Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) We have often pointed out how politicians are usually idiots when it comes to economic affairs. Their economic policies are usually useless, dangerous, and/or ignorant of economic theory and common sense. Such is the case in the state of New York that recently celebrated the raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

But like every other location that raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the politicians involved never anticipated the consequences of their actions. If you raise a company’s wage expense budget line, then that company has to find other ways to compensate by lowering expenses and costs in other parts of their operations since they usually cannot make up the difference in expenses by increasing their revenues. The increasing of the minimum wage does nothing to increase demand and revenue.

And for most companies, the easiest place to reduce costs to offset increased wage rates is in the personnel area of their budget, i.e. fire workers. In this case, the good news is that if you had a job you would be making at least $15 an hour. The bad news, and reality, is that because the political class raised the minimum wage, you do not have any job at $15 an hour.

Such was the case in a recent NBC News report which reported on a New York college cafeteria operation that fired ALL of its employees because of the increase in the minimum wage. Instead, the cafeteria has installed “food-dispensing” machines that will take the place of the entire cafeteria staff at that college. Great, a raise in the minimum wage caused unemployment to go up, go figure.

Well, we have figured that any number of times in this blog. From Los Angeles to parts of the state of Washington, the raising of the minimum wage always results in higher unemployment as businesses, trying to stay profitable and in business, end up investing in technology that does not have to be paid a higher minimum wage. Always happens, but politicians are always too stupid to understand this basic economic principle. As a result, more people are now paid $0 an hour since they have been fired because of a higher minimum wage. Insane.

2) But it is not just in New York state where there is this economic insanity as it relates to the minimum wage. According to a recent article by Breitbart:

• An analysis of the San Diego restaurant industry has shown that just in that one California city, restaurant jobs have gone down by a whopping 4,000 position in the just the past year since the city raised the minimum wage.
• And San Diego raised the minimum to only $11.50 an hour, not the $15 an hour that other places have done, e.g. New York state.
• As always, raise the minimum wage and you end up raising the unemployment rate at the same time.
• “If job growth in the restaurant sector had just kept pace with the state’s performance … the industry could have created 5,200 jobs instead of the 1,300 that took place,” Lynn Reaser, chief economist of the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University.
• Forbes Tim Worstall’s article about what happened in Seattle was referenced in the Breitbart article, where that city also raised the minimum wage which also resulted in lost jobs, jobs that would have normally been staffed by less wealthy citizens, giving them no job and no wages at all.

When will politicians learn to stay out of economic affairs and let the market handle everything? Whenever politicians think they are economic geniuses they hurt the most vulnerable in the world, denying them jobs when their ill fated policies restrict economic growth. Idiots.

3) Alright, let’s get out of the economic realm and get back into just plain old political corruption. Consider some ethics and corruption problems that the American Outlook website reported on relative to a sitting Congressman:

• Congressmen Luis Gutierrez from Illinois is an open advocate of illegal immigration into America and it appears that there might be other illegal acts that he is into.
• According to a recent report from the Washington Free Beacon, Gutierrez paid both his wife and daughters hundreds of thousands of dollars from his election campaign funds over the past five or six years.
• While this is not strictly illegal, it is illegal for the candidate to personally gain from funds raised for an election campaign, meaning if not illegal, it is certainly unethical.
• His wife pulled down over $44,000 in his 2010 campaign, making her the top recipient of cash from that campaign, and then duplicated that feat in the 2012 campaign when she pocketed $93,000.
• Her $93,000 was a full 25% of what his campaign committee disbursed for the whole campaign.
• In his next two campaigns his wife pocketed $175,000.
• His daughters also got paid during these campaigns.

Must be nice to take money from people under one pretense and then give it out to family members. Outside of Congress I believe this is a felony. Must be good to be a member of the protected political class.

4) But Gutierrez is not the only unethical person in Congress. According to reporting by the Constitution website:

• Congressman Alcee Hasting recently got exposed when it came to light that he had given his long time girlfriend over $2.5 million over the past 20 years, keeping her on his payroll as his highest paid employee even though she was not anywhere close to being his most important staffer.
• But he and Gutierrez are not alone in this type of unethical behavior since the Washington Free Beacon recently reported that Congresswoman Maxine Walters has paid her daughter over $600,000 since 2006 from campaign funds.
• Her daughter served as employee on her mother’s campaign committees.
• But this is not the first time she has dabbled in unethical and/or illegal activities since in 2010 Waters was brought up on three separate charges by her peers in the House, even after Congressman Barney Frank told her not to get involved in advocating for a bank in which she had financial interest, breaking an important ethics rule that requires Congressional “members to behave in a way that reflects creditably on the chamber.”
• The bank she advocated for, OneUnited, was in financial trouble and Walters' husband owned a sizable amount of OneUnited stock that would have been worthless if the bank went bankrupt.
• Waters also violated a House rule prohibiting lawmakers from using their positions for financial gain, as well as a government ethics statute banning the dispensing of “special favors.”
• But again, we should not be surprised since various government watchdog groups have often cited her as one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington.

Just another set of examples where the concept of term limits becomes more and more attractive every day and with every unethical and corrupt act of the American political class.

That will do it for today’s and this month’s political class insanity review. Today we see that existing members of the political class in Washington know nothing about economic and everything about enriching themselves. Insanity. More of the same next month, guaranteed.

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

April, 2017, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: Idiocy In Germany, MIscounting In California, Corruption In Maryland, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy."

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistle blowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) California is probably the most socialistic state in the union. They have the most generous welfare programs and have no qualms about giving taxpayer wealth to illegal immigrants. But they are starting to run into the insight of Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money to spend.”

This is especially true when a state’s accounting processes are so fouled up that they find out after the fact that they spend almost $2 billion more than they thought they had spent:

• The Associated Press recently reported that California had miscalculated the expenses of their Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, by $1.9 billion last year.
• This more than doubled the original estimated 2016 budget deficit of $1.6 billion.
• The state spokesman claimed that this was an “accounting error,” obviously a really BIG accounting error.
• The original deficit of $1.6 billion was driven by a shortfall in tax revenue which has now been exploded even bigger by this “accounting” screw up, a screw up that surprised state politicians: “It makes you wonder what else is not right. … When something like this happens, the trust factor gets eroded, and you lose confidence in what’s being provided to you,” said Sen. John Moorlach, a Republican from Costa Mesa who serves on the Senate budget committee.

This example and the article shows how expensive Medicaid has gotten over time. Not only did the program spend almost $2 billion more than it thought it had, overall it spends a whopping $100 billion a YEAR on total Medicaid expenses, expenses that cover a whopping one third of all Californians. Obviously, operating a program that spends $100 billion a year leaves a lot less for other state government programs such as infrastructure, education, etc.

Oh, by the way, the state government also screwed up the accounting for another medical program, the Coordinated Care Initiative. In that case, they double counted some of the savings which created another budget deficit, this valued at $913 million. This is what kills the credibility of any politician, when major accounting errors lose billions of dollars. Insane.

2) Let’ stay out on the west coast. While California politicians were losing billions of dollars, the Seattle mayor was allegedly doing something even more despicable. According to the Seattle Times:

• A 46 year old Washington citizen has sued Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, accusing the mayor of raping and molesting him over several years beginning back in 1986.
• The accuser was 15 years old at the time.
• The lawsuit says Murray abused the teen on numerous occasions for payments of $10 to $20.
• NBC News reported that this is not the first time that Murray has been accused of abusing youths, that the abuse had happened in at least two other instances.

Obviously, the good mayor is assumed innocent until proven otherwise.

3) Let’s jump to the east coast for the next piece of insanity, proving that political class insanity infects the entire country. According to a recent Justice Department arrest warrant, Maryland State Senator Nathaniel Thomas Oaks of Baltimore, Maryland was charged with wire fraud for allegedly accepting illegal payments in exchange for using his official position to benefit an individual on business-related matters.

I will not go through the details of the scam and the FBI investigation but given that the Justice Department saw fit to arrest the good senator, it does not look good for him. If convicted, he faces upwards of 20 years in prison. Another hit against the integrity and credibility of the American political class.

4) But it is not just state government operations that are screwed up. The latest Federal government screw up comes to us courtesy of the Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency:

• The inspector general for HUD did a multi year audit of HUD and their findings were not good.
• Their report found “pervasive material errors” in HUD’s 2015 and 2016 financial statements.
• The total errors in the statements totalled a whopping $516.4 billion that were miscounted.
• But these were not the only problems since the audit by the inspector general found a number of “unresolved audit matters” including the auditors’ inability to “obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to express an opinion.”
• In addition, “this audit report contains 11 material weaknesses, 7 significant deficiencies, and 5 instances of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.”

What a mess. A organization that has been around for decades and it still cannot count accurately, massively failing an audit of its books. And if you cannot balance books in a sufficient way to pass the auditors’ review, who knows how many billions of other dollars are being lost from criminal fraud and inefficiencies? Insane.

5) But political class insanity is not restricted to America. Let’s go overseas for this piece of political class insanity:

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been a big advocate of allowing millions of Muslim refugees and immigrants to come into Germany.
• However, she recently admitted that by allowing so many refugees and immigrants into the country that German may have also admitted dedicated terrorists: “There is no doubt that among the so many people who have sought shelter in our country were also persons who have become the focus of the security authorities.”
• Great, realizing your mistake after an untold number of terrorists have entered your country does not provide a sense of relief.
• But then Merkel tries to lamely justify her grave mistake on immigration by asserting that: “We should not forget that our country was already in the sights of Islamic terrorism before the many refugees came to us.”
• In other words, “Hey, it’s okay I let terrorists in without thinking, we were already one of their enemies.”

Unfortunately, Germany has been the victim of some of the people that Merkel’s administration allowed into the country so it is little solace to the families of those that have been killed by terror attacks that Merkel now realizes the error of her ways.

That will do it for today’s political class insanity from across the world, from self inflicted terrorism in German to corruption in Maryland to potential perversion in Seattle to miscounting in California. Never underestimate politicians in their ability to surprise us with their idiocy, greed, and other forms of insanity.

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

April, 2017, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: Banning Cookies In Wisconsin and Idiocy In Washington

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy."

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1)One of the most important, and few justifiable jobs of government, is to protect the citizenry from either criminals or foreign entities that would do us harm. So it is pretty depressing when a sitting member of Congress does not even recognize that basic responsibility of government.

Such was the case when a current member of the U.S. Senate from California, Kamala Harris stated that she was upset that illegal immigrant criminals were being deported because they were criminals. Huh? Specifically, here comment was: “It’s outrageous the [Trump] administration is saying anyone who might have committed a crime qualifies for deportations.” Would she rather we give them a medal for committing a crime while here illegally? How does one argue with stupid logic like this?

She doubled down on her stupidity with this follow up comment: “They’re [the Trump administration] lowering the bar and in suggesting that anything, even that someone may have committed a crime might qualify for deportation, that’s just extreme and outrageous.” Why wouldn’t any illegal immigrant who committed a crime be the FIRST type of illegal immigrant be deported? Do you want those that have not committed a crime to be the FIRST considered for deportation? Sure, let’s keep the rapists, murderers, and drug runners safe and sound in this country just because they are illegal immigrants.You cannot make this stuff up, simply illogical and out of touch with reality.

2) In this country, there is a Federal/national level of government and state and local levels of government. It is understood that state and local levels of government will comply with Federal Laws unless courts overturn those Federal laws. It is a pretty simple and straightforward process.

But now comes the issue of so-called “sanctuary cities,” cities that have told the Federal government that they have decided not to comply with existing Federal laws when it comes to identifying, detaining, and help deporting illegal immigrants including those that have committed crimes. They seem to think that they have the authority to pick and choose what Federal laws they want to abide by.

Which is not how our republic is supposed to work from a rule of law perspective. If these cities and local citizens do not like an immigration law, then the proper way to deal with it is to repeal the laws that they disagree with via Congress and the President. Otherwise, we end up with anarchy with everyone deciding what laws they like and obey and which ones the do not like and can disobey without consequences.

Which makes this story all that more depressing in that 33 state governments are in the process of passing laws to outlaw “sanctuary cities” within their borders. Yes, we have had to go to the extreme of passing state laws that force local government to comply with Federal laws. Seems like a waste of time and energy given so many other important issues that continue to go unresolved but once the rule of law becomes optional, additional rules and laws are necessary and we end up chasing our tails.

And it's not like the vast majority of Americans support sanctuary cities, reputable national polls show that most Americans recognize the rule of law and the need to orderly change laws to conform to national interests and desires. These polls have consistently shown that in general, around 80% of Americans are against sanctuary cities, illiustrating that they recognize the danger and illegality of such cities. It is just a small minority of local mayors and town councils that think they are above the law which results in more laws and which gets the whole situation more and more insane.

3)What’s a daily update on the latest political insanity without a quote from the most insane politician of all, Nancy Pelosi? Before we get to her latest inane quote, let’s put her career in perspective:

• She has been in Congress for a very long time.
• During that time, the national debt has ballooned out to an unfathomable $20 TRILLION.
• Tax levels have risen.
• Economic growth has been anemic at best.
• The labor participation rate has hit bad levels not seen since the Carter administration.
• The growth in household wages and income has been more or less stagnant.

Thus, she has been at least partly responsible for the lousy economic growth and prospects for working Americans over the past few decades, decades that saw her wealthy skyrocket while the wealth of most American families and workers lag far behind.

Given that context, the following tweet she recently sent out would be hilarious if it was not so ironic and out of touch with reality: “President Trump can’t hide from the fact that his administration has done nothing to help hard-working Americans.” Again, huh?

Trump has been in office less than 100 days. During that time, the stock market has gone way up, unemployment levels have improved, many companies have announced billions of dollars that will be invested in domestic factories and facilities, etc. Trump, who I am not a great fan of, has probably done more good for the American family and worker in less than three months than the carnage that Pelosi oversaw during her tenure in Washington.

This forces us to ask the question of Ms. Pelosi that we have asked many times in this blog: what is the color of the sky in her world since it is obvious she is not living in our world or our reality.

4) As we stated above, one of the few legitimate functions of government is to protect the health and well being of the citizenry from criminals and nasty foreign elements. A function of any level of government in this country should not be to protect us from home baked cookies.

But according to a recent CBS News report, that is exactly what the state of Wisconsin thinks is important:

• In the state of Wisconsin and New Jersey, it is illegal for someone to bake cookies in their own home and then sell them to others.  
• The CBS story focused on a lady in Wisconsin who operates a farm and bed and breakfast.
• The problem arises because she not only offers lodging to travelers in her bed and breakfast but she also bakes cookies to sell to those visitors if they want them.
• Which makes her a criminal in the eyes of Wisconsin law and she could face up to six months in jail.
• “Wisconsin is one of only two states (New Jersey being the other one) that ban the sale for profit of home-baked goods,” according to the news report.
• As one would expect, political money and influence are at play here since while the Wisconsin Senate has twice passed bills that would legalize the sale of home baked products, the state Assembly has never voted on those two bills, having been blocked by assembly speaker Robin Vos, who, surprise, surprise, has ties to the Wisconsin Grocers Association, an association that would likely suffer some losses if people could legally sell their own baked goods.
• While Vos would not speak directly to the CBS News reporter, the Wisconsin Grocers Association did speak up, lamely claiming that the law was necessary for public health, “we don’t want to have anybody get sick,” even though the Wisconsin Senate and forty eight other states do not see home baked goods as a vital health issue.

Yes, the state should protect its citizens from grave dangers, e.g. murderers, rapists, robbers, foreign armies. But really, do we really think that state government resources should be expended in enforcing a home baked cookie ban? Let’s give individuals a little respect in their ability to make a decision for themselves, I am pretty sure that most people know the risks from buying home baked goods and should be able to make that decision on their own without a government bureaucracy doing it for them.

Take the money that is being wasted on this law and hire some more teachers, fix some crumbling road and bridges etc., issues that are far more important and dangerous to Wisconsin citizens than whether or not a cookie is healthy. Insanity.

That will do it for today’s insanity, craziness from bed and breakfasts in Wisconsin to idiocy and out of touch politicians in Washington. More to follow.

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

April, 2017, Part 6, Political Class Insanity: The $20 TRILLION Debt Bomb and False Congressional Priorities

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us. 

Today and for all of the insanity posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) As we continue to rush to a whopping and destructive $20 TRILLION in Federal government debt, I thought it would be interesting to see where all of that Federal spending is currently going to. Because until you know what the problem is, where the out of control spending by the Federal government is, you cannot resolve the problem of out of control spending. The Fix The Debt website recently compiled such an analysis, in which they showed where a typical $100 worth of Federal government spending goes:

A few pieces of insanity as you review the above chart:

• Almost $50 out of every $100 spent by the Federal government, $49.87, is nothing more than a massive redistribution of wealth process where the Federal government collects hundreds of billions of dollars every year in the form of Social Security, Medicare, and other taxes from some citizens and immediately turns it around and gives it back to other citizens in the form of Medicare cost coverage and Social Security income, after taking a healthy chunk off the top for itself and the government bureaucrats that operate the process.
• Thus, half of what the government spends goes to very few programs but these are the same programs that Washington politicians do not even want to hint that they need to be changed, which means that it will be nearly impossible to get out of control spending under control if you do not dare fix half of the budget being spent.
• And as more and more Baby Boomers retire, this $49.87 per hundred dollars spent is likely to go much higher, leaving fewer and fewer dollars for the other budget lines listed above.
• Defense spending is already almost $20 out of every $100 spent and Trump wants to increase this budget item, making the trend go in the wrong direction for getting this line item under control, leaving less and less money for other budget needs.
• While interest payments on the debt is only about $6.25 for every $100 spent, that is only because the Federal Reserve has kept the interest rates at historically low rates. As the Fed now starts to raise interest rates, that $6.25 spent could easily double or triple if interest rates ever get closer to historical norms.

Thus, the top four budget items in the Federal budget have incredible pressure on them to grow due to Baby Boomers aging, the ever growing military/industrial complex in this country, and rising interest rates. Unless things change radically and quickly, pretty soon the only four budget items left will be the top four listed above, everything else will be crowded out. That is not to say that things cannot be fixed:

1. Obama’s ill fated budget reduction commission found ways to cut defense spending by about 15% without harming national security but Obama and every other Washington politician showed a total lack of courage and ignored the commission’s findings.
2. Our book, “Love Our Country, Loathe My Government,” provided multiple ways to get Social Security spending under control including making it a means based testing for Social Security benefits, e.g. people like Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, etc, would not receive Social Security benefits, allowing other, far less wealthier people to receive their full benefits.
3. Every month we discuss ways to get medical costs like Medicare under control via our continuing series of posts under the theme, “The Unfolding Disasters Of Obama Care.”
4. It is no secret that government programs like Medicare, Social Security, and others are so inept and inefficient that they lose upwards of $200 billion a year to criminal activities, a tragedy that should be immediately addressed with stepped up law enforcement and prosecution.
5. Other, less prevalent budget line items should also be cut to just essential government services, just because a government expense is small is no reason to continue it.

The impending disaster that the Fix The Debt analysis shows can be fixed with some courage and leadership out of Washington. Which means, based on the historical lack of courage and leadership in Washington, that we should all be very, very scared.

2) But the Fix The Debt folks are not the only people that are alarmed about the $20 TRILLION in debt. According to a recent Heritage Foundation article by Justin Bogie on March 31, 2017, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is also alarmed by the out of control Federal spending:

• The CBO recently released its “2017 Long Term Budget Outlook” analysis which lays out Federal budget budget and economic projections for the next 30 years.
• Their analysis concludes that “time to fix the nation’s skyrocketing debt levels is running out and Congress must take immediate action to avert a future fiscal disaster.”
• Failure to act will not only be economically disastrous but will also endanger our safety and national security.
• The CBO concluded that unless spending changes are made, the public part of the national debt will rise from 77% of GDP today to an unsustainable 150% of GDP by 2047.
• Compare this 150% to the historical norm of around 40%, with the ratio being as low as 35% as late as 2007.
• The annual Federal government deficits would rise from the historically high levels of 2.9% today to a whopping 9.8% in 30 years.
• As we pointed out above, interest payments are now about 1.4% of GDP today but would go as high as 6.2%, almost four times as high, by 2047 unless spending changes are made.
• And within ten years, interest payments would consume more of the Federal budget than defense spending will.
• Things are so bad that higher taxes will not be able to resolve the impending debt disaster according to the CBO analysis. Taxes will reach 20% of GDP by 2047, severely reducing Americans’ economic freedom and still not denting the ever increasing debt level.
• In other words, Americans are not taxed enough, and cannot be taxed enough to fix the debt problem, only drastic and quick reductions in government spending will fix the debt problem.

Unfortunately, the Congressional Budget Office recognizes these massive problems with out of control debt but Congressional members do not.

3) To put the previous two debt discussion in perspective and show you how doomed we are, consider what has gotten several members of Congress really excited over the past few days. Apparently, there was a nasty customer incident on a United Airlines flight earlier this week where a passenger refused to deplane because United Airlines personnel wanted to give his seat to a United Airlines employee for a flight. His refusal got him forcibly removed from the plane, a removal process that physically injured him pretty badly.

For good reason, United Airlines is getting hammered in the news, on social media, and economically for such a brutal and idiotic customer service experience. I am sure that the injured customer will sue the airlines, rightfully so, for physical and mental duress, in a customer service breakdown. 

But what is so stupid is that all of a sudden Congressional members have come alive with outrage and indignation about this solitary if unfortunate event. They are calling for Congressional hearings, they are asking all types of questions, after the fact, about Federal Department of Transportation policies, they are showing up on news broadcasts to portray their outrage, etc. 

But this is classic “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” behavior. The country is about to go bankrupt with an ever growing debt load, and these same people are nowhere to be found. No emotion, outrage, etc. But a single, high visibility incident involving a single person gets their attention, are you kidding me?! Lord help us!

More insanity tomorrow and beyond.

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