- An article in the March16, 2012 issue of The Week magazine reported that Federal government mortgage giant Fannie Mae is asking the American taxpayer for another $4.6 billion to cover fourth quarter, 2011 financial losses. Including this latest request, the total taxpayer bailout of this dysfunctional entity is now more than $116 billion, less about $20 billion it has paid back in dividends.
Thus, on average, every American household has paid over $800 towards the financial solvency of this mismanaged government organization. This does not include the billions of dollars that have been used to bailout its sister organizations, Freddie Mac and the FHA, and does not include the future taxpayer bailouts that will be needed since the political class has been unable, unwilling, or incapable of finding a way to remedy the ills in all of these government functions.
- From the January 20, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, it was reported that undercover U.S. and Mexican anti-drug agents laundered millions of dollars for a Mexican drug lord after they had infiltrated the drug lord's organization. The money laundering was part of the undercover operation.
Unfortunately, after the agents laundered the money, they lost track of it. Sounds a lot like another sour Federal government drug sting when it allowed thousands of military weapons to illegally walk over the border into Mexico as part of the ill-fated "Fast And Furious" program. Unfortunately, those weapons have been used to kill U.S. Federal agents and innocent Mexican citizens while many of the weapons ended up in a drug cartel's arsenal. Seems like the Keystone Kops could do better undercover work than these Federal agencies.
- The Rose Supper Club in North Montgomery, Alabama is holding a series of Friday night promotions that allow anyone with a Federal food stamp debit card to pay a half price cover charge of $5. This debit card is part of the Federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which was designed to provide food support for Americans living at near-poverty levels.
Which raises the obvious insanity questions: if you are living so close to the poverty line that you require the American taxpayer to feed you, where did you get the money to go out clubbing at the Rose Supper Club? Shouldn't you be using that $5 dollar cover charge to buy some real food for yourself and your family? Wouldn't the money you will be spending for alcohol at the club be put to better use for your own food needs?
And the most important question of all: shouldn't the Federal government have people at the club to see who is actually abusing their food support from the American taxpayer and immediately take steps to 1) strip those people of their free ride and 2) prosecute them to cover past payments made to them?
- According to an April 2, 2012 Washington Post story: "The chief of the General Services Administration resigned, two of her top deputies were fired and four managers were placed on leave Monday amid reports of lavish spending at a conference off the Las Vegas Strip that featured a clown, a mind reader and a $31,208 reception.
The GSA Inspector General also found that:
- Federal conference spending guidelines and rules were substantially violated.
- The total cost of the conference was well over $800,000.
- This $800,000 figure including six "scouting" missions for the conference which ended up at an "opulent" hotel.
- It also included the misspending of $2,000 for a conference party.
Unfortunately, if Mr. Lieberman and Mr. Issa, along with their peers in Congress, had actually been doing their committee jobs and Congressional oversight responsibilities, maybe the wasteful spending would not have happened in the first place.
- And finally, the last bit of insanity this month from the April, 2012 issue of Reason magazine. It seems that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Federal government's audit experts, issue an annual report on the financial status of the Federal government. They issued their latest report in December, 2011 entitled, "Financial Report of the U.S. Government.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the government's financial and audit experts found the following situations present in the Federal government's financial operations:
- The report concluded that it could not render an overall opinion of the government's financial statements due to "widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations."
- The agency cited three overriding problems with the government's financial statements including poorly prepared consolidated financial statements, problems with tracking and accounting for transactions and balances among many Federal entities, and serious financial management problems with the Department of Defense that made its department's financial statements "unauditable."
- The report also concluded that the financial statements and tracking in the Social Security and Medicare organizations were also so bad the audit experts could not even come to a final opinion on the state of these organizations' financial situations.
Let's review. The American taxpayer continues to unnecessarily fund dysfunctional Federal government mortgage and housing agencies and lavish government parties.
The American taxpayer continues to fund food stamp relief for people who have enough money to go nightclubbing, at least in Alabama.
The American taxpayer continues to fund incompetent drug war stings that lose the assets involved in the stings, whether it is weapons or laundered money.
The American taxpayer continues to fund Federal government operations that are an accounting disgrace, and no doubt wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars a year due to inefficiency, waste, and criminal activity. To say that any government organization is "unauditable" is an embarrassment beyond belief.
And the worst insanity and idiocy of all, in the face of all the waste the political class and the government it runs incur on the taxpayers of this country, is President Obama's insistence that taxes go higher for many Americans. Until the government fixes Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA, stops wasting money on employee parties, tightens up the food support program, learns to run a tight sting operation, and actually has an accounting system in place that can accurately account for every single taxpayer budget dollar, no American should allow any politician to have a single additional penny of their hard earned wealth.
To not demand such accountability of the political class is the true insanity of our times and out lives.
"We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment
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