December,2017, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Bribing Hollywood With Taxpayer Dollars, TSA Still Screwing Up and MOre

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

1) Most people know that Washington has been racked with sexual harassment and sexual predator accounts and stories over the past month or so. Congressman John Conyers and Senator Al Franken have already been forced to resign because of their disgusting behavior towards women. In the midst of this uproar, it has come to light that Congress has been managing a slush fund to secretly payoff people who have filed various types of lawsuits against Congressional members and staffs including sexual harassment suits. The whole situation has been despicable.

Now, according to a recent Newsweek article, we find out this little piece of insanity about another Congressman:

• Congressman Bob Brady oversees the settlement process and payments done by Congress to cover sexual discrimination complaints and lawsuits.
• His position on the House committee on administration gives him power over settlement payments with the taxpayer funded slush fund discussed above.
• It turns out that the Congressman is now under investigation by the FBI for making false statements, conspiracy, and campaign fraud.
• Court papers state that Brady paid a former judge $90,000 to drop out of a 2012 primary race.
• That person has already pleaded guilty to falsifying campaign finance records to hide the $90,000 payment.
• Ironically, Brady also sits on a Congressional committee that has responsibility over how campaign contribution money is raised, reported, and used for House of Representatives races.
• According to the FBI, Brady and his associates, “were involved in the commission of several crimes, including conspiracy, false statements, producing false records, false campaign contribution reports, and violating limits on campaign contributions and expenditures. Brady’s email account is likely to contain evidence of these crimes.”
• Some of those Brady associates were indicted last month.

As always, these are allegations that do not mean any laws were broken by Brady. But if true, we have another insane example of how corrupt, greedy, and amoral the politicians in America are today.

2) Let’s get into a recent report on one of favorite and most inept Federal government organizations, the Transportation Security Agency, TSA. We have often pondered which Federal government entity is the most corrupt, useless, and inept, with the Social Security Administration, The Defense Department, and the TSA usually vying for that dubious honor.

The following story of incompetence gives the TSA a boost towards that title:

• An undercover operation by the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the TSA, showed that TSA “screeners, their equipment, or their procedures failed more than half the time.”
• In fact, when ABC News asked their news source if the failure rate was 80% or so, the answer that ABC received was that their estimate was “in the ballpark.”
• During a recent hearing before the House committee on Homeland security, Congressman Mike Rogers told TSA Administrator David Pekoske that, “This agency that you run is broken badly, and it needs your attention.”
• The test apparently found trouble with just about all aspects of the TSA procedures including problems with screeners, screening equipment, and “associated procedures.”

So almost two decades after it was formed, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. And after groping millions of Americans’ bodies, the TSA still fails far more times than it is successful. At least for today, I think you would agree that the TSA is the most inept Federal government entity.

3) Most state governments, especially those that have been dominated by Democrats over time, are not in the greatest economic or financial condition. They have underfunded pension and retirement plans for government employees, they are in deep debt, and have shrinking tax bases. The state of New York is one of those states. Although not in quite in the same dire situation of other blue states like Illinois, New Jersey, and California, I am sure that their physical infrastructure, schools, and debt situations could use every last dollar that is possible.

But according to the New York Post, in a November 9, 2017, the current governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is diverting a lot of those much needed state taxpayer funds to his liberal friends out in Hollywood, trying to entice them to use his state to film their movies there:

• In a recent year, Cuomo arranged for a whopping $420 million of New York taxpayer money to be spent to entice Hollywood to film in the the state of New York.
• That brings the five year total to $1.2 billion.
• This makes the state of New York, and its taxpayers, the second most generous state to Hollywood over the past five years with only Louisiana paying out more than $1.2 billion.

$1.2 billion is a lot of taxpayer money, and to be honest with you, I would bet that there is no financial way in the world that this was a good investment from a financial break even perspective for the taxpayers in New York. Consider some logical numbers:

• $1.2 billion over five years means that Cuomo is giving Hollywood, on average, about $240 million a year of taxpayer wealth.
• This comes out to about $4.6 million a week on average.
• Or breaking it down further, it comes out to about $650,000 every day of the week for 52 weeks.

I would assert that there is no way that the taxpayers in New York are getting back $650,000 a day, $4.6 million a week every day and every week for an entire year in sales taxes, fuel taxes, and income taxes from Hollywood shooting movies in the state. It makes no financial sense. And they would need $650,000 a day just to break even, never mind generating additional funds.

So why does he do it? Very simple, he gives Hollywood state taxpayer wealth and Hollywood gives him back substantial monetary contributions to his election campaigns:

• Recently, Universal pictures Chairman jeff Shell hosted a fundraising event for Cuomo at his California home. 
• Invitees to the affair included Disney CEO Robert Eiger and CBS chief executive Les Moonves.
• Hollywood based folks have previously given his election efforts $860,000 and California studios have chipped in another $400,000.
• Previously, alleged sexual predator Harvey Weinstein had given Cuomo $111,000 in political donations that Cuomo only hesitantly returned after it was disclosed that Weinstein might be a really bad character.

Pretty sweet deal: use taxpayer money to fund your election campaign by first laundering it through Hollywood studios and executives 3,000 miles away. If this was a drug deal, it would be a felony, Since it is a politician’s operation, it is okay.

This is why we put Step 7 in our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” That step would make it illegal for anyone to contribute to a politician’s election campaign unless they lived in that politician’s domain of responsibility. 

In this case, no one in Hollywood could give Cuomo’s election campaign any money unless they lived and voted in New York. If this tenet was in place, I highly doubt that Cuomo would be generously giving out state taxpayer to people so far away from his home state since they would not be able to reply in kind.

Another day, another bunch of scummy political antics, laundering taxpayer money through Hollywood, more TSA’s failures, and another alleged corrupt and low life politician. More insanity to follow.

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