As you read about the latest shenanigans and ineptness of the political class, keep in mind what should be their priorities in these difficult times and compare this list to what they are actually working on:
- NBC recently reported that ISIS forces are getting larger and stronger despite the Obama administration spending billions of dollars on a failed air campaign and military strategy.
- The stock market is stalling.
- Job creation is barely keeping up with population growth.
- Wage growth is anemic, growing just .2% in the second quarter, the lowest quarterly growth since 1982.
- The labor participation rate is at the lowest level in decades because the Obama economy cannot generate enough jobs.
- Thousands of veterans are still not getting the medical care they were promised by the Federal government.
- 45 million Americans are still receiving monthly Federal food assistance.
- Our borders still leak and thousands of illegal immigrant criminals continue to walk our streets.
- Major programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are hurtling towards insolvency and lose hundreds of billions of dollars every year to fraud and mismanagement.
- Our kids are still getting lousy public educations at most public schools.
- The IRS and other government functions seem to be getting their computer systems hacked on a regular basis, exposing tens of millions of Americans to identity theft potential.
- Obama Care is a failure along so many dimensions as health care costs continue to soar despite the Obama promise that they would decrease.
- Annual Federal deficits, while down, are still about half a TRILLION a year meaning that even though the Federal government is collecting more in taxes than ever before, it still cannot run a balanced budget.
1) Sometimes, when politicians speak, you just have to scratch your head and think, What in the world are they talking about? This certainly applies to a recent speech that Hillary Clinton gave in Iowa where, speaking of education reform, she said: “Now, I wouldn’t keep any school open that wasn’t doing a better than average job.”
Think about the idiocy of this statement. By the definition of average, that means about half of something is at or below the average and about half or at or above the average. If you shut down all the schools that were below the average, according to Clinton, you would be shutting down about half of the schools. Where would those kids go to school? I am sure those kids from the shut down schools would not all fit into the existing schools so how would those kids be educated if half the schools, those below average, were shut down?
And let’s assume that Clinton did shut down half of the schools performing below average. What would she do next year, shut down half of the remaining schools that were performing below average? At some point we would be down to a single school. Idiocy.
The problem is not that half of the schools perform below the overall average. The problem is that some schools stink and need to be fixed, not shut down. But as always, American politicians do not understand root cause analysis and problem solving. And in Clinton’s case, she obviously does not understand basic math concepts.
2) As listed above, as a nation we currently face many problems. Millions of Americans struggle to eat every month. Thousands of veterans do not get the medical care they were promised. Millions of Americans go homeless at least part of the year every year. Tens of thousands of Americans die from drug overdoses every year without the treatment they need to kick the habit.
Which brings us to the following Twitter post that Susie Morrison, head pastry chef at the White House, recently tweeted: "A lot of love goes into this 500 pound gingerbread house!" Yes, in the face of all of our problems, the White House is bragging how they made a quarter ton worth of gingerbread house, incurring the expense to do so. It might just be me but Marie Antoinette’s famous “let them eat cake” comes to mind. Nothing says we do not care about your food, homelessness, medical care, or drug addiction problems more than flaunting a vain, useless 500 pound gingerbread house in millions of needy American faces.
3) We have often pointed out how tepid and anemic the Obama economic recovery has been despite:
- Spending over $800 billion on a failed economic stimulus program.
- Enjoying a drastic reduction in energy costs that should have pumped untold billions of dollars into the economy.
- Benefiting from the Fed pumping trillions of fake dollars into the economy.
- 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings.
- 21% have no savings at all.
4) At a recent House oversight committee hearing, Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who led the hearings, opened the day with some serious comments regarding terrorist Tashfeen Malik, one of the San Bernardino terrorists, and her terroristic threats and comments on social media: “It is unclear how someone who so openly discussed her hatred of our country and way of life could easily pass three background checks. We need to understand how the breakdown happened with Malik and what we are doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Certainly a worthwhile observation and a lacking need in our immigration and anti-terror processes and procedures. But the really scary finding of the hearing came when the Congressman asked Michele Thoren Bond of the Bureau of Consular Affairs about the Obama administration’s anti-terror and national security strategies. Bond tried to brag that the U.S. has yanked more than 122,000 visas since 2001, nearly 10,000 of which were revoked due to terrorism concerns.
Which sounds like great news until Chaffetz asked Ms. Bond where those thousands of foreigners possibly linked to terrorism were now located. Unfortunately, Bond’ answer was a frightening, “I don’t know.”
Yes, we have identified 10,000 potential terrorists, we have revoked their visas but in reality, we have no idea where they are physically located so that we can deport them. Feeling safe? This insanity is what passes for competence in the the Obama administration and Washington in general these days, from people/government employees that are all probably earning over $100,000 a year but who cannot do their jobs.
5)We have often lamented the reality that the decades long Federal government “war on drugs” has been a dismal failure. It has not attacked the root causes of the illegal drug trade in this country, i.e. addiction, it has failed to stop the international flow of illegal drugs, it has added to local crime rates, cost us untold billions of dollars in law enforcement and prison costs. and it has created some of the most powerful and violent criminal gangs ever, the notorious drug cartels.
And recent news articles out of New York prove again how widespread illegal drug pushing is and how ineffective the political class and government has been in stopping it. New York city police and Federal agents recently intercepted a “staggering” load of cocaine in the Bronx where it had been shipped from Massachusetts. They arrested two men from Puerto Rico alleged to be part of a major drug trafficking network.
The bust accounted for a whopping 136 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $3 million. According to NYC’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan: “The sheer amount of cocaine seized in this case is staggering. This is the largest seizure of cocaine being transported in the region that our office has handled in recent years.” Just two guys caught with $3 million worth of illegal drugs. How many guys did not get caught today that were also transporting millions of dollars worth of drugs?
When it will be time to wake up and find another approach to drug addiction? Einstein once said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Sounds like he was predicting our failed war on drugs.
6) One last piece of insanity for today. Anyone observing world events over the past few years realizes what a joke the United Nations is today:
- Russia invaded and annexed parts of an independent country, the Ukraine, and the United Nations has done nothing.
- The Syrian civil war has killed hundreds of thousands and turned millions into refugees and the United Nations has done nothing.
- Terrorism is rampant across the world and the United Nations has done nothing.
- The Israeli/Palestinian problem is no closer to being resolved and the United Nations has done nothing.
- North Korea and Iran have gotten much closer to becoming nuclear weapons owners and the United Nations has done nothing.
- ISIS is enslaving children and women and killing and butchering untold thousands and the United Naitons has done nothing.
Given that millions of Americans go homeless every year, that millions of Americans struggle to provide enough food for their families every day, and millions of Americans struggle with drug addiction, is annually sending almost $3 billion to a useless international body that accomplishes nothing worthwhile? That is the definition of insanity.
Three billion dollars of taxpayer wealth for nothing in return, a failed war on drugs, 10,000 missing potential terrorists, a lousy economic recovery, a quarter ton White House gingerbread house, and Hillary Clinton’s math failures. You cannot make up this insanity that is the American political class. More insanity tomorrow.
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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