On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political class tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.
Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. We look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us.
1)Too many times we have discussed the reality that:
At any time there are about 600,000 homeless Americans living on the streets of America.
Millions of Americans are food stressed given the rapidly rising cost of food in this country.
Millions of Americans have unmet drug addiction and medical needs.
Yes, millions of Americans are suffering. Rather than help these folks, the Biden administration thinks it has a better use for taxpayer wealth:
Biden’s State Department is going to spend $15 million to create “gender scholarship programs” at Egypt and Lebanon universities to promote gender studies.
This money will be spent over a 5 year period.
This is in addition to the $170,221,103 that U.S taxpayers sent to Egypt in 2023 and the $187,797,256 that was sent to Lebanon.
Unbelievable, $15 million for gender studies halfway around the world while Americans go hungry and homeless. That $15 million could provide about 5.1 million meals to America’s homeless population of about 8-9 meals to everyone of those 600,000 homeless Americans. Getting even more atrocious, the $170 million sent to Egypt and the $188 million sent to Lebanon could have:
Provided almost 122 million meals to America’s homeless population or about 202 nutritious meals to every one of America’s homeless population.
That same amount of wealth could have provided a year’s worth of drug addiction treatment to about 55,000 American drug addicts which likely would save thousands of American lives every year.
Just another example where foreign aid and gender studies are more important to Washington politicians than the needs of Americans who are hungry, homeless and addicted. Disgusting priorities.
2)It is not just us who are disgusted and fed up with the horrid priorities of Washington politicians:
According to a recent Gallup poll, 63% of those polled agreed that a credible third political party was desired, given the continued failures of the current two dominant political parties.
This was a whopping 7% jump from the same poll that was conducted a year ago.
75% of independent voters think that a third party is needed.
No doubt that the current two dominant parties have earned this disrespect and the desire to get alternative choices out into the political arena.
3) During the COVID emergency, the country basically shut down. Factories were closed, government offices were shut down, people stayed at home and did their work remotely, both in the private sector and in government organizations. But as always, that did not stop the Federal government from wasting money on stupid expenditures during the shutdown period:
The Centers for Disease Control spent $237,960 to buy 30 solar powered picnic tables even though the vast majority of its workforce were working from home.
The State Department spent $117,250 for 40 high end Ethan Allen leather recliners for its embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, obviously raising the question on why are over three dozen leather recliners required in any embassy during the days of COVID or anytime?
FEMA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency combined spent $497,828 to spruce up empty conference rooms that were not used since most employees were still working at home.
In total, the Federal government spent $3.3 billion on new office furniture during the COVID years even though there were few Federal government employees around to use the new furniture.
The most outrageous expenditure was the $15 million the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. spent on new furniture, about $14,400 for EVERY one of its employees.
At least one member of Congress sees the insanity of this furniture and decorating spending, since House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told The Washington Post: “Excessive spending on luxurious furniture when more than half the federal workforce was teleworking is just symptomatic of a culture of wasteful spending that has plagued Washington, DC, for decades. The ‘use it or lose it’ policy encourages unnecessary spending because agencies are penalized, instead [of] rewarded, for not spending all their end-of-year funds. This is just one of the many perverse incentives that drive irresponsible spending in our nation’s Capital — and it has to stop.”
Every time you turn around, Washington is wasting our tax revenue on something stupid or unneeded and government furniture purchases are consistent with this tradition of waste. $14,400 in furniture expense for EVERY employee?! Give me a break.
4)We have previously discussed the following numbers in other posts but it is worthwhile to do so again:
In the past two years of the Biden Presidency overall inflation is up about 17%.
Grocery inflation is up around 20%.
Gasoline inflation is up about 50%.
And thus, not surprisingly, the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that the poverty rate in this country has jumped to 12.4% in 2022, up from 7.8% in 2021.
This was the first increase in 13 years.
Way to go Joe, making the country poorer and poverty stricken every day.
That will do it for today’s numbers and it is obvious that the numbers under the current Washington politicians are not good: inflation, poverty, wasteful spending, neglecting Americans in need, and the desire for change via a third party political choice, the numbers do not lie…even though politicians do.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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