August, 2015, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: A Citizen Speaks Out, American Kids Living In Poverty, and How To Waste Half A Trillion Dollars On Government Computers

At the beginning of each month we take a week or so to review the latest insanity from the American political class. Insanity from them includes a wide range of very depressing actions which can include wasteful spending, idiotic quotes, an inefficient and ineffective government bureaucracy, failed economic policies, etc. Every month we continue to prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever.

And as you will see, this month’s review and discussions do nothing to prove that this thesis is wrong in any way:

1) Let’s start today with a citizen’s view specifically of President Obama but his comments, as published in an Illinois newspaper, could apply to all Washington politicians. With a failed foreign policy, high taxation, an $18 TRILLION national debt, a dysfunctional Federal government bureaucracy, his words capture the feelings of many Americans and the insanity of the political class we have had to live through:





2) Nothing is more frustrating when a politician, and Obama is one of the top offenders in this area, try to convince us that a bad situation is really good when it is not. It assumes that the American public is generally too stupid to see what is happening in front of their eyes just because a politician tried to tell us reality as it is is not true. Their condescension is insulting.Obama would like us to believe that he has done a great job in bringing the country and economy out of the Great Recession. He says this despite the reality that over 45 million Americans still require government food assistance every month, the national debt will likely double on his watch, the jobs that have been created since the recovery began are generally in low paying, dead end service jobs, the median household income levels have not kept up with inflation, over six million Americans are stuck in part time jobs even though they want full time employment, etc. Well, a new analysis further shows how pathetic the Washington political class has managed the recovery after the recession ended:

• The latest report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that three million more American kids are now living in poverty since Obama came into office despite the fact that we are five years out of the recession.
• This translates into an embarrassing 22% of kids in America are living in poverty in 2013.
• This is up from 18% just five years prior to 2013.
• The percentage of minority kids living in poverty is almost 40% in some cases despite the fact that the first minority President in our history has been in the White House for over six and a half years:

• More than one third of the kids in Mississippi are living in poverty.
• The child poverty rate among African Americans (39 percent) is almost triple the rate for non-Hispanic whites (14 percent) in 2013.
• Three in 10 children (22.8 million) lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment in 2013, up by 2.7 million since 2008.

Thus, despite spending over $800 billion on a failed economic stimulus program, despite living through an energy revolution that reduced gas prices and created many, many high paying jobs, and despite having the Fed circulate trillions of dollars of paper money, this administration and the Washington political class in total made more kids poorer since the recession ended. Insane.3) Paul Bedard, writing for the Washington Examiner, July 24, 2015 came up with really pathetic government insanity. According to the article:

• The Federal government during the Obama administration spent a half a TRILLION to upgrade its data systems operations.
• Despite spending so much taxpayer money, many Federal agencies are still using the antique DOS computer operating system and outdated versions of Windows software.
• The most notable Federal entity still using the antiquated software DOS is the IRS, the agency responsible for tax collection, Obama Care, and other major functions.
• Some of the software being used by the Feds is unsupported by the original creators of the software, that is how old the software is.
• According to Congressman Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee: "Since President Obama has taken office, the federal government has spent in excess of $525 billion dollars on IT. And it doesn't work."
• This incompetence probably goes a long way in explaining why Federal government agencies are constantly being hacked and vital and personal information being stolen, hacks that endanger Americans personal identities, expose spies, and make government officials susceptible to blackmail and bribery.
• According to Chaffetz, this is what half a trillion dollars buys you when the Federal government does the buying: "The IRS still uses the DOS operating system. You have a Patent office that just got Windows 97. They don't even service Windows 97 anymore. And yet they just got it. So the procurement process is really, really broken in this regard." 

“Really, really broken?” Congressman, possibly the understatement of the decade. If you are using DOS and Windows 97 in 2015 something is tragically broken, especially if you spent half a trillion dollars for it. As always, you cannot make up this insanity.

That will do it for today’s insanity. Half a trillion dollars that buys twenty year old software, probably more American kids living in poverty than ever before, and an Illinois citizen saying what we are all thinking, the Washington political class is killing this country, financially, morally, and integrity wise. More insanity tomorrow.

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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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