November, 2016, Part 4, Political Class Insanity: Obama Claims Innocence (Wrongly), Wasting Taxes On Apple Colors, and MOre

The current monthly record for the number of posts that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We equaled that record last month when we needed ten days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially.

But 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) Let’s consider the state of the nation today:

• Our pubic schools continue to under educate our kids.
• Our veterans continue to die unnecessarily because the Federal government cannot fulfill its promise of provide healthcare to our vets.
• There are still way over 40 million Americans that need Federal food assistance every month.
• The real unemployment rate is much closer to 10% vs. what the outdated and current unemployment rate is.
• We still have no overarching strategic energy plan to protect us from the vagaries of the international energy market.
• Our national infrastructure of roads and bridges is falling apart.
• Our military readiness is probably at a decades long low point.
• Drug addiction still kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.
• Our borders still leak, opening us up to terrorist infiltration from outside the country.
• Major government programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, are criminally infested and hurtling towards fiscal insolvency.
• Healthcare costs continue to skyrocket with Obama Care being an epic failure.

And these failures continue to exist even though the Federal government overspent it tax collection amounts by about $10 TRILLION over the past eight years, i.e. we spent a lot and got nothing in return except for an overbearing national debt burden.

So how did we spend so much and get so little even though the Federal government has collected more in taxes over the past eight years than any other government in the history of mankind? Well, a recent Heritage Foundation article by David Rosenthal on October 20, 2016 gives a small set of examples of how trillions of dollars are wasted over the years by the Washington political class:

- Federal government regulations - Cottage Cheese:

• The Food and Drug Administration has Federal regulations on how moist cottage cheese is.
• FYI, the moisture level cannot be greater than 80%.
• If a company makes their cottage cheese with 80.1% moisture than they have misbranded that product and are subject to a Federal crime.

Somewhere in the Federal bureaucracy, someone spent time writing and implementing this cottage cheese regulation using our tax dollars, dollars that could have been better used by saving veterans and drug addicts lives, fixing a broken road or bridge somewhere and potentially saving someone’s life, etc.

- Federal government regulations - The Color Of Apples

• The Federal Department of Agriculture provides official regulations on what are the official color standards for various types of apples.
• For example, McIntosh apples must be at least 50% red to be considered “extra fancy” while Red Delicious apples must be at least 66% red to get the same Extra Fancy status.
• Failure to accurately gauge the color of apples could you thrown into jail for up to five years and face a $1,000 fine.

Yes, Hillary Clinton can mishandle top secret and confidential documents and still be walking around but mislabel the color of an apple and you are in the slammer.

Somewhere in the Federal bureaucracy, someone spent time writing and implementing these apple color regulations using our tax dollars, dollar that could have been better used by saving veterans and drug addicts lives, fixing a broken road or bridge somewhere and potentially saving someone’s life, etc.

- Federal government regulations - Chicken Noodle Soup:

• Government regulators have spent a lot of time actually defining what chicken soup is: “A consumer-packaged noodle soup product containing less than 2 percent chicken meat on a ready-to-serve basis may not be labeled ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ but, when appropriate, could be labeled as ‘Chicken Flavored Noodle Soup.’”
• Failure to obey this regulations gets you jail time and a fine.

Somewhere in the Federal bureaucracy, someone spent time writing and implementing this chicken soup regulation using our tax dollars, dollar that could have been better used by saving veterans and drug addicts lives, fixing a broken road or bridge somewhere and potentially saving someone’s life, etc.

So while veterans die, addicts overdose, roads crumble, our kids are under educated, etc., our tax dollars are going towards massive and inane government regulations that worry about the moisture levels of cottage cheese, the color of apples, and how much chicken is in chicken soup. Such a bad set of priorities of a government bureaucracy that is out of control.

Such over regulation means that businesses have to devote more and more time, resources, and energy to being sure that they are not going to go to jail over the color of an apple. This is time, resources, and energy that cannot be spent on growing the business and the economy, creating job opportunities for those that need a job. 

As we have said many times before, as government gets bigger and bigger but the need for more government does not change, those within the government bureaucracy need to create work and look busy to justify their high government salaries and continued employment, resulting in over 70,000 pages of government regulations that stifle economic development with no societal benefit in return.

2) But it is not just food where the government misspends taxpayer funds. Consider some wasteful spending by the State Department when Hillary Clinton was in charge. According to an article on Breitbart’s website by Amanda House on October 27, 2016:

• While Clinton was in charge of the State Department, the Department spent $5.4 million on crystal stemware via a no bid contract despite her promise, when she was Senator Hillary Clinton, to work to “restore transparency and oversight to the federal contracting process.”
• If the no bid contract for millions of dollars was not bad enough, the bigger question is why does the State Department need $5.4 million worth of crystal stemware anyway?
• Her State Department also spent an amazing $630,00 to increase Facebook likes for the Department.
• And for some god forsaken reason reason spent $79,000 for copies of Obama’s book.

As we said above relative to unnecessary food regulations, how many addicts could have been treated, how many hungry Americans could have been fed, how many potholes could have been filled, etc. if the State Department did not spend $5.4 million on crystal, $630,000 on a useless Facebook project and $79,000 on a book? Insane.

3) According to a recent article on the US Chronicle website, President Obama claimed that he has not contributed to the divisions that have sprung up in the country over the past eight or so years. Really? Wasn’t it Obama who spitefully stated that:

• Rural residing Americans “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
• Americans skeptical of global warming are idiots and that "We don't have time for a meeting of the flat-Earth society."
• All white Americans are racist, "The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person..."

But it is not just what he said that was divisive, it is what he did not say that had even more of an impact in dividing the country, his silence in the face of his Democratic Party political allies saying things that were hateful, bigoted, and divisive was deafening:

• When the campaign manager of Democrat Jerry Brown’s California governor campaign called Republican opponent Meg Whitman a whore, Obama was silent.
• When Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson called all Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals, Obama was silent.
• When Obama administration czar Van Jones called all Republicans assholes, Obama was silent.
• When Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Walters said all citizens that support Tea Party principles should go straight to hell, Obama was silent.
• When Playboy magazine’s online website offered a detailed analysis on why and how each of ten Republican women in politics should be hate raped, Obama was silent
• When Democrat Charles Rangel slandered millions of ordinary Americans who opposed Obama Care by calling them racists for simply having an honest difference of opinion with many politicians in Washington, Obama was silent. 

This is just a small sample of the dozens of times when Obama stood silent and let his Democratic allies do his political mudslinging for him. For examples of dozens of other instances, go to the following link:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

I am not saying that Obama should have responded to all of these insults or even most of them. But he never once voiced his objections to things like this when his side was spouting them off and dividing the country. He refused to set the tone of civility when he never told his political allies to knock it off or tone it down, he just let the venom flow, much like a simple community organizer would do. So please, Mr. President, you did contribute to the deep divisions in this country, in both your own words and your own silence.

That will do it for today’s insanity, more of the same tomorrow.

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