Wednesday, June 26, 2024

June, 2024, Part 3, By The Numbers: Failed Homeless Help In Portland, Drug Cartels Laundering Money In LA, $35 TRILLION In Debt and More

 On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of by the numbers. Rather than trust what the American politician 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)One of the least discussed but biggest crises facing the country, a crisis that will crash our economy and squash our freedoms, is the ever growing Federal  government national debt, which is quickly approaching an astonishing $35,000,000,000,000. And things are not getting any better:

  • According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year’s Federal budget deficit is $400 billion higher than it was estimated to be just four months ago in February.

  • That is a 27% increase since February.

  • The national debt is expected to rise from 99% of the country’s GDP to 122% of GDP by 2034, the highest it has ever been in the country’s history.

  • Remember, that the fast approaching $35,000,000,000,000 national  debt means that every man, woman and child would have to write a check for over $100,000 to pay off the debt, an obvious impossibility.

These are the scariest numbers facing the country right now, no debate necessary. And yet, NOBODY in Washington has the guts, the brains, and the nerve to do anything about it.

2)Given the $35 trillion national debt that the Federal  government has dug for itself, consider just one example of how we got to this horrendous number and really have nothing to show for it:

  • In 2021, early in Biden’s term, he and Congress set aside $42,500,000,000 to expand high speed internet access to every American.

  • Sadly and pathetically, three and a half years later the FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, testified to Congress that exactly 0 people have been connected as a result of this program.

  • He also reported that 0 people will likely see the benefit of this program since plans for this effort will not be completed until 2025 at the earliest.

According to the commissioner, money from the program has been spent but not spent on the original intent  of the budget authorization. Out of control spending with  zero tangible benefits after 3 years.

3)One of the more  outstanding features of Biden’s failed  immigration policies is that he has often facetiously been tagged as Mexican Drug Cartels’ Employee of the  month, having allowed the cartels free rein to bring in unprecedented amounts of illegal drugs into the country via our leaky Biden  borders.

Just one  example of this failure was recently reported in Los Angeles:

  • A 5 year investigation by Federal authorities has found a money laundering scheme involving the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel and  Chinese individuals in  the United States.

  • The 10 count indictment charged these two  groups with  money laundering as it related to drug trafficking  sales worth more than $50 million.

  • 24 individuals were named in  the  indictment.

The good news is that a  drug cartel operation is out of business. The bad news  is  who  knows how many similar types of  money laundering and  drug trafficking  operations are still  going  on, littering our streets with  poisonous drugs and  annual  drug overdose deaths  of over 100,000.

4)One very sad and serious problem that the American political class has created  and  which has shown no ability to  fix is the homelessness problem in this country.  We are by far the richest country to ever exist in history and yet on any one day there are probably  about 600,000 Americans living on the streets, hungry and without shelter.

And much like the city of Seattle that we recently discussed relative to homelessness, the city of Portland and it's politicians also have  a pretty poor, but expensive, track record in  fixing their homeless problem:

  • In 2023, the Portland area of Oregon spent over $530,000,000 to address their wide ranging homeless problem.

  • And yet, despite  spending about half  a billion dollars in one year on the problem, a recent analysis and  report found that the number of homeless in the  area increased a whopping 70%.

  • The number itself was shocking,” confessed John Tapogna, a senior policy advisor at ECOnorthwest, which conducted an analysis of these figures.

  • According to the latest counts, it is  estimated that there are about 7,500 homeless  individuals in the Portland  area living either in emergency shelters or on the streets.

  • If somehow that $530 million of taxpayer  money could have magically been given directly to those 7,500  homeless folks, each  one of them would have received about $71,000 EACH, an amount that would have allowed each  one  of those folks an income  that could have  afforded them living space.

  • Instead, 7,500 are still homeless and  that $530,000,000 is nowhere to be  found.

Spending $500,000,000 of  taxpayer wealth and seeing the problem still  grow by 70% is certainly a major failure and  probably means some politically connected  groups and  individuals are getting quite wealthy off the taxpayers without being  effective. The numbers do not  lie.

Enough  numbers today:  failed homeless problem  solving in Portland, drug cartels  alive and well  in Los Angeles, Biden’s high  speed internet program  fails, and $35,000,000,000,000 in national  debt is closing fast.

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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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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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