That is why they would rather lie and deceive than tell the truth. But that approach can be destroyed by looking at the hard numbers behind the mess they have created. I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the right number.” And that is what we try to do with this theme, devastate politicians’ opinions by looking at the right numbers.
So let’s take a look at the numbers that have recently cropped up and again prove that the political class in America continues to be one of the worst set of people to ever hold office, given the state of the country, the many ways they screw up our wealth and government functions, and their inability or non-desire to step up and tell the truth.
1) I know we did a lot of numbers about Baltimore yesterday in light of the rioting going on there but one last set of numbers today on the subject. Some politicians, including the President, have made the inane statements that not enough “investment” was being done in cities like Baltimore and the President blamed Republicans in Congress for that.
But it appears a lot of investment has recently been made in Baltimore using Federal taxpayer money. Within the President’s failed Economic Stimulus Program a few years ago, the city of Baltimore received $1,831,768,487 for its use, according to research done by the Washington Beacon newspaper. That’s right, almost $2 billion.
According to the Obama administration’s own reporting via the Recovery.com website, one of Balitmore central zipcodes, 21201, received an amazing $837,955,866. That money was spread out over 276 awards which, according to the Obama administration, through 2013 had created a grand total of …. 290 jobs. Doing some simple division, on average it took about $2.9 million to create single job out of the Economic Stimulus Program. Pathetic waste of money and Obama and other politicians want to spend more money.
Let’s take another approach and set of numbers. There are about 2,700 households in an average zipcode area. If we assume it costs $200,000 to build an average house in Baltimore, than that $837,955,866 could have built 4,200 homes or given a new home to every household in 21201 and had a lot of money left over. This is how inefficient government in general is and the Obama administration in particular.
2) Let’s move out of Baltimore and talk some economic numbers. According to recent analyses by different sources, there are still major small business capital access problems, years after the recession ended. In a Pepperdine University survey, 63% of small businesses say it is still hard to get business loans compared to 36% of large companies.
According to Goldman Sachs, the most likely driver of this loan difficulty is the overwhelming and growing number of regulations that businesses have to deal with, something that large companies can handle better than small businesses. Maybe that is why job creation has been pathetic in this economic recovery, small businesses are usually the primary driver of economic growth and overwhelming bureaucratic Washington is choking off business expansion.
3) Recently we have already reviewed some horrendous customer service numbers of the IRS. The IRS commissioner testified in front of Congress that about 60% or so of calls coming into the IRS customer service help lines were going unanswered. In addition, if you were fortunate enough to get through, the average waiting time was over 30 minutes on hold. Horrendous numbers.
Apparently, according to a recent Washington Examiner article by Ethan Barton, based on a recent IRS internal audit and analysis, it is not just customer service where the IRS numbers are pathetic:
- Despite being told years ago that they were erroneously handing out billions of taxpayer dollars a year relative to a college education tax credit program, the IRS continues to commit the same mistake every year.
- A Treasury inspector general analysis found that the IRS handed out $5.6 billion in bogus education tax credits to 3.6 million taxpayers in 2012.
- In response, the IRS claim that their fraud catching programs are good enough despite the reality that the 3.6 million number is a whopping 1.5 million more than the previous year, 2011.
- If the Inspector General is right, the $5.6 million represents a fraud rate of almost one third since the total amount sent out by the IRS in 2012 was only $19 billion.
- The $5.6 billion in fraudulent payouts is up from $3.2 billion in 2011, a year over year increase about 80%.
- Inspector General J. Russell George said in a statement: "The IRS still does not have effective processes to identify erroneous claims for education credits. Although the IRS has taken steps to address some of our recommendations, many of the deficiencies TIGTA previously identified still exist. As a result, taxpayers continue to receive billions of dollars in potentially erroneous education credits."
- IRS officials, however, argued that the agency can effectively detect erroneous education credit claims. Investigators noted that the agency's processes only caught about half the questionable claims.
- The inspector general also reported in 2011 that 2.1 million taxpayers received $3.2 billion in likely fraudulent education credits.
- In 2012, 2 million taxpayers received $3.2 billion for education credits without providing a required form that proves they paid tuition, another 1.6 million taxpayers received an estimated $2.5 billion in credits for students attending noneligible schools.
- Over $650 million in education credits was given to 420,000 taxpayers who had made claims for more than four years, the time limit for the credit.
- Nearly 430,000 taxpayers received around $662 million in credits for students who attended school less than half-time.
- Almost 40,000 of the total claims worth $61.5 million were for students who were either under 14 years old or over 65 years old.
- 2,100 claims, worth almost $4 million, were handed out for students that were in jail for all of 2012, making it unlikely for them to be full-time students (well, duh!).
- And that's almost 16 times more than the $256,000 in credits for incarcerated students reported in 2011, implying someone found the cookie jar known as the IRS from 2011 to 2012.
So what did the numbers tell us to day:
- For whatever reason, if history is any indicator, the numbers tell us that spending more money in Baltimore without wholesale changes in strategy and oversight is a fool’s errand.
- Small businesses in this country cannot get the loans they need to expand and reduce unemployment.
- The current IRS may be the worst government organization ever, given their abysmal horrendous customer service and auditing results.
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.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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