September, 2019, Part 7, Political Class Insanity: A Stupid Choice For The Supreme Court, Stupid Use Of Taxpayer Wealth, and An Out Of Touch Congressional Wife

It is 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.

Let’s get started:

1) It is sad that Joe Biden continues to get more and more play in our political class insanity posts. Sad because he continues to be the leading candidate to be nominated by the Democrats to run for President even though his gaffes, mistakes, and ineptness continue to bubble to the surface.

Consider his latest insanity:

• Barack Obama is no longer a practicing lawyer.
• Barack Obama never served as a judge anywhere, any time.
• According to the LA Times: “Obama arrived in Chicago in 1993 with a degree from Harvard Law School and was hired as a junior lawyer at the firm then known as Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard. He helped represent clients in civil and voting rights matters and wrongful firings, argued a case before a federal appellate court, and took the lead in writing a suit to expand voter registration. But the firm also handled routine legal matters and real estate. Obama spent about 70% of his time on voting rights, civil rights and employment, generally as a junior associate. The rest of his time was spent on matters related to real estate transactions, filing incorporation papers and defending clients against minor lawsuits.”
• At least according to the LA Times Obama’s lawyer track record is quite unremarkable.
• When Barack Obama was President, he trampled on the Bill of Rights, shredded the Constitution, and broke many laws:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

And yet, according to an interview Biden gave to Steven Colbert, he thinks that Obama would make a great Supreme Court justice. Yes, a non-practicing lawyer with only non-distinguished lawyer experience who was never a judge in anyway and who disrespected the rule of law for eight years as President would make a great Supreme Court justice. It does not get much more insane than this.

2) It is no secret that ex-Presidents become fabulously and obscenely rich once they leave office. And yet, the American taxpayer still shells out tens of millions of dollars every year for their protection and comfort despite them being able to easily pick up those expenses themselves. 

Consider these unnecessary taxpayer expenses that are paid each year to former Presidents: 

• According to the New York Post, Obama is the most expensive ex-President today with the American taxpayer shelling out over $1.1 million in 2018 to cover his daily expenses.
• This estimate comes from the Congressional Research Service.
• This taxpayer expense is spent on Obama despite the fact that he just bought a $15 million mansion up at Martha’s Vineyard.
• This $1.1 million is $100,000 more than what Bush will get next year and $200,000 more than what Clinton will get.
• Jimmy Carter will get less than half of what Obama is getting.
• I do not believe that these figures include the cost of their Secret Service protection, that the expenditures are for office space, staff, and other such expenses.
• According to the Post article: “By far the biggest cost for ex-presidents is renting office space. Mr. Obama’s office — 8,198 square feet in D.C. — will cost taxpayers $536,000 next year, the most of any ex-president. Mr. Clinton’s New York office is bigger, at 8,300 square feet, but slightly cheaper at $518,000. The younger Mr. Bush’s office in Dallas is $497,000, while his father’s space in Houston is $286,000. Mr. Carter’s Atlanta office is just $115,000.”

Why does an ex-President need over 8,000 of office space in prime real estate locations, at a cost of a whopping half a million dollars a year each?! 8,000 square feet is four times the size of my house and I rarely use most of that space. If they want that much space than they should put their offices in their massive Presidential libraries and let the American taxpayer keep the taxes spent on their oversized, probably under used stand alone offices.

Look, I understand that in the Federal budget several million dollars is not a big deal. But on the other hand, why spend it if you do not have to spend it, that is how we got to having a national debt of $22 TRILLION. If you do not want to give the money back to the taxpayers, how about redirecting that money to some Americans in need? 

How many meals for the homeless could be bought if Obama did not spend over half a million dollars on an unneeded vanity office in Washington DC? According to the organization Feeding America, it costs homeless shelters an average of $2.94 to feed a homeless American a meal. 

If Obama did not insist on having a $536,000 DC office every year, than that money could, in theory, could fund over 180,000 meals for the homeless. If we did the same thing with the Bush and Clinton office spaces we could annually provide over half a million meals for homeless Americans. This seems like a much better use of our taxpayer dollars, especially when 1) these Presidents are rich beyond most Americans’ dreams and 2) they could easily put their offices in their massive Presidential libraries.

3) Sometimes it is not just politicians who are insane, greedy, and inept, once in a while we find out their a member of their family is just as bad. Consider the recent ravings of a Congressman’s wife, keeping in mind that a member of Congress is paid over $170,000 a year, about three times what the average American household earns:

• According to the Washington Free Beacon, the wife of Congressman Joe Cunningham is upset because taxpayers are not paying for her “mental health therapy sessions.”
• Keep in mind that the American taxpayer foots the bill for about 75% of her family’s health care costs.
• As a Congressional family, Cunningham’s family has an Obama Care Gold Insurance Program from Blue Cross Blue Shield for which the Congressman only has to pay for a quarter of the costs, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
• But this sweet deal is apparently not good enough for the Congressman’s wife, Amanda, who had the nerve to post a rant on Instagram on how her health plan declined to pay for her therapy sessions.
• According to her Instagram rant: “I’m gonna have a little bit of a rant here on social media because I think this is important. I’ve been going over my not-a-bill bill here from Blue Cross Blue Shield, and realizing that once again, all of my mental health therapy sessions are denied, in addition to all of our marriage counseling sessions. It’s just mind-blowing to me that these basic well-known needs, that mental health is health care, are still being denied, that we’re still fighting for these absolutely basic things, it’s unbelievable to me. So I’m reaching out to my congressman—yes, also my husband—but saying, like, hey, what can we do about this? Let’s go to the House floor, let’s write a bill, I don’t know what you do, but let’s do it because this is ridiculous.”

So this Congressional wife is upset because she can't get free mental health counseling even though the American taxpayer is relieving her of 75% of her health insurance premium costs? So she is upset because she cannot get free marriage counseling even though the American taxpayer is relieving of 75% of her health insurance premium costs? So she is upset even though her family’s income,both hers and her husband’s Congressional salary, is three times higher than the average American family?

Does she not know that over 25 million American have NO health insurance at all, never mind subsidized Gold insurance plans? Does she not know that over 25 million Americans have NO health insurance at all and because of that they often cannot take their sick kids to the doctors because they cannot afford the medical costs? Does she not know that over 25 million Americans have NO insurance at all so the concept of free marriage counseling is not even a dream in their world?

Talk about a vain, greedy member of the political class. But just another example of how those in politics feel so entitled that the needs of the vast number of Americans living outside of the Beltway are secondary to their greed and selfishness. Be it wanting free healthcare to wanting lavish useless and expensive office space, it is all part of the same gene of entitlement that pervades Washington DC, at the expense and health of the rest of us.

That will do it for today: wanting a totally unqualified politician to be a Supreme Court justice to greedy ex-Presidents to vain Congressional wives, the insanity never ends.

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:

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