The American Political Class - "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" Today - The Ugly, Part 1

This week we have been using the old Clint Eastwood movie, “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” to describe politics in America today. We started off with “The Good,” a post meant to get us in a better mood before we looked at the Bad and the Ugly. The Good post focused on the good things that individual Americans are doing for the country, other people, and the environment since the American political class and the government it operates are certainly not doing those things. That post of Good can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-american-political-class-good-bad_15.html

Unfortunately, we had to follow up that Good feeling post with two posts that covered The Bad about the politicians in this country. The wasteful spending of taxpayer money with no societal benefit in return, the inefficient and ineffective government programs that often make a problem worse, etc. The first Bad post can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-american-political-class-good-bad_15.html

Today and tomorrow we are going to look at “The Ugly” side of American politicians. This does not mean that what they have done to the country is not ugly:

• Record high unemployment numbers for a record length of time.
• Economic programs that are expensive and useless.
• Government programs that are fraught with fraud and which lose well over $100 billion a year.
• A health care reform piece of legislation that is increasing the cost and decreasing the health insurance coverage of Americans, the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do.
• Downgrading of the country’s credit rating for the first time in our history.
• A Veterans Administration whose incompetence and uncaring attitude has resulted in likely thousands of unnecessary veterans' deaths over the years.
• A tax burden that forces Americans to work over half of the year just to pay for taxes at all levels of government.
• A regulatory burden that stifles the economy and job creation.
• A national debt approaching an unfathomable $18 TRILLION, well above $50,000 for every person in the country including our kids.
• A foreign policy that is in tatters and useless besides endangering the national security of the country.

We could go on and on but you get the idea. Our politicians are bad at problem definition and resolution, they have no idea how to run an efficient and crime free government, and they are killing freedom and liberty in this country. But today will go beyond these dismal results.

Today we look at their attitude and how their selfishness and personal greed are likely major contributing factors to the dismal results they seem to always end up producing. It is their attitude, as much as their non-success in resolving major issues, that cause the majority of us to loathe them so much. 

Remember, recent and credible public opinion surveys put our approval rating of Congress at levels far less than 10%. Obama’s approval rating has been in free fall for a while now with far more Americans disapproving of his performance than those that approve his performance. We despise them and today and tomorrow let’s look at several reasons while that spite goes beyond their inability to effectively govern.

1) Up until last year, it was illegal for any American to profit off of any kind of company insider stock trading information….except for members of Congress and their staffs. They could leverage information about upcoming legislation, insider knowledge of companies’ situations, pending regulations, possible industry bailouts, etc. for their own personal enrichment, something that mere mortals outside of Washington would likely go to jail for.

That sleazy part of their lives was exposed by a “60 Minutes” investigative report that documented how politicians were able to leverage their positions of power and insider knowledge for their own self enrichment. The piece pointed out how Nancy Pelosi, while the Speaker of the House, was able to quickly and easily pocket a couple of hundred thousand dollars when pending legislation to regulate credit card companies was postponed until after a VISA IPO was launched, an IPO that she was granted insider access to. Apparently, this was just one of upwards of nine or so deals that she leveraged without danger of jail time.

As a result of the reporting and uproar over the special treatment politicians had granted only to themselves, a piece of legislation called the STOCK Act was quickly drafted and enacted to curtail, if not eliminate, this type of behavior, putting Congress and Washington elites back into the same treatment mode as the rest of us. The details of the whole sordid situation can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/11/final-proof-of-undeniable-corruption.html

Everyone went away happy that justice and equality had prevailed and the topic faded away. Unfortunately, it faded away so much that in the excitement of other issues and other crises, the Washington political class secretly approved new legislation that essentially gutted the original STOCK Act and allowed the Washington political class to get back to what they seem to do best, trade on insider information for their own financial gain.

They were very sneaky and underhanded how they did it. I guess they figured that if they came right our front and just nullified the original STOCK Act, someone would have found out about it and the whole scandal would have started again. The underhanded way they went about gutting the law included the following details:

• The original STOCK Act required the online, easily accessed posting of the personal financial disclosure statements that lawmakers and Congressional candidates, the President and Vice President, members of the cabinet and high-ranking Congressional and executive branch staff file each year. 
• This information was supposed to be made available in machine readable, electronic format. 
• With no hearings held or no public notices to the public or to most members of the Senate, the Senate voted by unanimous consent to remove both the online disclosure requirement for staff members on the Hill and in executive branch agencies and killed the creation of a public database containing the information within the reports. The new law’s provision barring insider trading by members of Congress was technically left intact.
• Roll Call reported that “neither the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee nor its House counterpart seemed to have specifics on what was in the works,” which is not surprising since everything was done in utmost secrecy lest the shenanigans become public and on the public record.
• The changes that gutted the original legislation were handled solely at the Congressional leadership level. 
• Under the new STOCK Act version, the reports and personal information of lawmakers will still be posted online as they are now. But the information within the reports would continue to be locked up in files that are not easily analyzed, discouraging investigation of insider trading done by politicians, the exact opposite of what the original STOCK Act was supposed to do.
• President Obama was a co-conspirator in this shady effort, signing the gutted STOCK Act revision into law, ironically, on tax day April 15. 

Thus, the more things change, the more they say the same. This is basically lying to the American public by proclaiming they were cleaning up their act in public while secretly undoing what the claimed they had done. Pathetic liars, and selfish [you fill in the blank].

2) President Obama is constantly dividing the country along wealth lines, continually harping on “income inequality” to set up a mythical battle between the wealthy and not wealthy in this country. In this mythical battle, he constantly tries to position himself as helping out the “little guy,” the middle class and lower class in this country, against the big, bad rich people that steal everything for themselves.

I personally find this type of attitude as nasty, divisive, wasteful, lacking in dignity, and not worthy of a President. But if he chooses to act as so, this is his choice. However, what really is loathsome is his actions as they usually pertain to his personal vacations, as the details for the next of his numerous vacations were recently released to the public:

• The Obamas will depart Washington on Saturday, August 9th and head for Martha’s Vineyard where they will vacation for two full weeks.
• They are staying in a $12 million vacation.
• For their family of four, the Obamas will be living in a seven-bedroom, nine-bath, 8,100-square-foot house.
• The house sits on a 10-acre lot and is assessed at more than $12 million. 
• The house has 17 rooms in total, expansive water views of Vineyard Sound, an infinity pool and hot tub, and a dual tennis-basketball court.

I am sorry, I do not think you can claim you understand the plight of the non-wealthy in this country when your family of four is spending two weeks in a house and a setting like this. Hypocritical to the max. 

And this extravagance comes on top of the fact that according to recent financial disclosures, travel costs alone for the Obama family vacations over the past five and a half years has cost the American taxpayer about $44 million, money that could have been much better spent on real Americans in need rather than vacations for the First Family around the country and around the world. Oh, and this total does not include the total cost for the family to vacation in Africa last year, a total cost that has been estimated at about $100 million.

Keep in mind that he is taking this two week, opulent vacation in the midst of a major security and humanitarian crises on our southern border, a hot war involving killing and shooting between the Ukrainians and Russians, a hot war between the Israelis and Palestinians, an imploding Iraq, military veterans that are dying as a result of a dysfunctional Veterans Administration, an economy that is faltering, high unemployment, and a myriad of other crucial and dangerous situations.

I realize that the President is under a lot of stress, like anyone else he deserves a vacation and time with his family. But from a symbolism perspective, maybe idling it back a little would be appropriate. Show some leadership in the midst of a world that is blowing up and a little empathy with the rest of America, many of which are struggling. 

In the face of no leadership and no empathy, then shut up about income inequality. You have no right to discuss income inequality while staying in an 8,000 square foot mansion in Martha’s vineyard.

That concludes the first part have of our “Ugly” discussion of the American political class. A group of people more concerned with their own self enrichment, whether it is cutting back room deals to allow their insider trading to start up again or staying in opulent mansions, mostly at taxpayer expense on vacation.

More loathsome behavior tomorrow.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Political Class Insanity, Part 1, February, 2013: Politicians That Cannot Budget Or Save, Luxurious Government Bathrooms and More

At the beginning of every month we review the insanity, idiocy, and follies that the political class has dumped on us over the previous month of so. Last month seems like the whole month of posts was dedicated to political class insanity as we did extensive reviews of the idiocy of Obama Care and the fumbling, grandstanding, and politicizing of the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

However, today and for a few days after today, we will be reviewing just plain old, simple incompetence of the political class, the never ending stream of insults and wasting of taxpayer wealth that we get hit with every month from our current set of politicians.

1) Our first example this month actually happened in 2007 but has just come to light. ABC News Reported the following story and facts on January 16, 2013:

• In 2007, the personal bathroom used by the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, was remodeled.
• The renovation cost an amazing $222,000. One bathroom, one Cabinet level Secretary. I would bet that the average cost of an American home on the market today costs less than $222,000.
• The renovated bathroom has a $3,500 sub-zero refrigerator. Yes, the need for a high end refrigerator in one’s bathroom cannot be underestimated.
• According to the story, one faucet cost $689, which implies there were more than one faucet and more than one sink in the Secretary’s personal bathroom.
• The toilet paper holder cost “only” $65.
• It took the ABC News affiliate in Atlanta four full years to get the details of a single bathroom remodeling costs under a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request. Four years, one bathroom, talk about government inefficiency or more likely, a cover up due to the embarrassment of spending so much on a single bathroom remodel.
• This disgraceful waste of taxpayer wealth was uncovered by an audit done by the General Accounting Administration who appears to have a gift for the understatement: “A number of the items incorporated into the renovation project call into question the need for luxurious materials.”

You think? $222,000 to remodel a single, personal bathroom with faucets that cost over $600 each and a $65 toilet paper holder? It really is looking like we have an elitist set of people working and living in the D.C. area who think they deserve this kind of special treatment at our expense. A real “let them eat cake” moment from the Washington political class.

2) There are many, many reasons why the nation and its citizens are facing a massive $16.4 TRILLION national debt. Government programs are inefficient, ineffective, redundant, and many infested with massive criminal fraud. Old programs never die, they just get refunded every year even if their purpose for existing is no longer needed. The Democratically controlled Senate has not passed a formal budget since April, 2009, making coherent and rational spending decisions and tradeoffs next to impossible.

To this lurid mix of incompetence we can add in the inability of the Obama administration to hit the legal and required budget deadlines that every President before him has been able to meet:

• Obama’s current budget proposal to Congress might not be passed over to Congress until March, a full month past the legal deadline of the first Monday in February (February 4 this year).
• This extends an abysmal track record of Obama’s fourth late budget submission in five years.
• He is now the first President to present three consecutive late budgets.
• Obama already is the first President to deliver three of his budgets late in just one term and the first to submit budgets late two years in a row.
• He also holds the record for the latest delayed budget submission: 98 days.
• According to the House Budget Committee, since enactment of the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act, which created the formal executive budget process: “All Presidents from Harding to Reagan’s first term met the statutory budget submission deadline in every year.”
• Even during World War II and the Korean war, the President’s budget reached Congress on time.
• With the Obama administration, meeting fiscal deadlines is an anomaly.
• Obama has also never submitted a Mid-Session Review by July 16, as required by law.

When laws get broken by ordinary citizens there are consequences. When laws get broken by Presidential administrations there are no ramifications, except for the fact that without timely and effective budgets, government spending goes wild and current and future generations are faced with incredibly burdensome national debt loads. Dereliction of Presidential duties is too mild a term for this atrocity.

3) CBS News in Detroit reported on November 28, 2013 that a Michigan state senator has proposed that an option for the future of Detroit might be dissolving the city outright and letting neighboring communities pick up parts of the Detroit real estate and govern it as if it was their own. The financial and governing environment has gotten so bad that some people actually think killing off the city is the best solution. And they may be right.

Think about the magnitude of this position, a position that is not so far fetched. Detroit was once one of the largest cities in the U.S. It had a thriving economy and a large middle class population, mostly as a result of the auto industry. It was a major, major manufacturing center for the country.

Now, it is a vast wasteland with abandoned homes, whole neighborhoods that were abandoned and their structures razed to hinder the crime that the empty buildings harbored. There is effectively no middle class left in the city. The city government and the officials/politicians that have operated it either did a bad job, went to jail for crimes committed while in office, or both. And no political person, political party, or political solution has been able to resurrect what was once a thriving metro area.

The only political solution that might make sense is to just dissolve the city and make it go away, as if it never happened. So sad, another disgraceful performance from a political class that can spend and waste but cannot budget and grow the benefits for ordinary citizens.

4) The Americans For Prosperity website had a post on January 9, 2013 that documented just SOME of the special spending tidbits that our gutless political class had embedded in the fiscal cliff deal that was signed on January 2, 2013. This deal increased the tax burden on almost 80% of Americans starting immediately.

Think about that fact when reviewing the additional spending that Washington politicians approved for their crony and political donor friends, at all of our expense:

1. Tax credit for wind farms (Section 407) Cost: $12.2 billion. Description: Extends the wind production tax credit, also offering the credit to those wind farms at the beginning of energy projects instead of at completion.
2. Active financing exception for Wall Street (Section 322) Cost: $9 billion per year. Description: Multinational corporations can use this exception to avoid paying some taxes by creating certain overseas entities, a mechanism known as active financing.
3. New Goldman Sachs offices (Section 328) Cost: $1.5 billion. Description: Initially established to provide tax-exempt financing for rebuilding the World Trade Center area, this provision partially went to fund Goldman Sachs offices. It has been extended.
4. Whirlpool Corporation tax credit (Section 409) Cost: $650 million. Description: For producing energy-efficient appliances, Whirlpool receives an extended $650 million tax credit (not nearly as much as the $1.8 billion extended to financial institutions for investing in “low-income areas”).
5. Extended rum tax (Section 329) Cost: $220 million; $547 million in 2009. Description: Funnels the revenue of the excise tax on rum to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, subsidizing their rum industries.
6. Incentives for taking public transportation to work (Section 203) Cost: $220 million. Description: As part of an incentive to have people take public transportation, benefits have been set to an equal level with those for driving. Now employers can cover the same amount toward commuting expenses tax-free whether workers take public transit or drive.
7. Railroad repair (Section 306) Cost: $165 million per year. Description: Railroads can claim tax credits for performing maintenance.
8. Hollywood subsidies (Section 317) Cost: $75 million per year. Description: Provides producers with deductions of $15-20 million for filming in the United States, especially in low-income areas.
9. Help grow algae (Section 404) Cost: $59 million. Description: Algae growers receive tax credits in their quest to turn algae into a biofuel source.
10. NASCAR racetracks (Section 312) Cost: $43 million over the past two years. Description: Tax benefits for racetracks in order to supposedly even competition with “other amusement parks.”
11. Mine safety (Section 307 and 316) Cost: $14 million. Description: Encourages implementation of common sense safety measures by mining companies.
12. Electric scooters (Section 403) Cost: $4-7 million. Description: Electric vehicle tax credits extended to include electric motorbikes.
13. Indian coal: alternative energy? (Section 406) Cost: $1 million. More specifically, Section 406 subsidizes by $2 per ton coal produced on Indian lands.

Let’s see: raise taxes on almost 80% of all Americans and turn right around and give tax breaks of over $15 billion right back to your political friends. As we have said many times in the past, these people are shameless.

5) The Washington Guardian posted a Pentagon related article on its website on January 10, 2013 that discussed two interesting situations. First, the U.S. Navy had decided to retire seven of its battle cruisers from service. In the opinion of the Navy’s experts, these ships were no longer needed for national defense and to upgrade them would unnecessarily cost billions and billions of dollars.

Wow, a part of the Federal government actually trying to do the right thing and be efficient, saving taxpayer wealth in the process. Certainly something you do not see everyday. But it turned out to be too good to be true.

Congress stepped in and prohibited the Navy from decommissioning the ships that it said were no longer needed. Congressional members quoted in the article said they felt that losing these seven, almost obsolete ships would endanger our national defense.

This might be true but who would you believe first, the professionals in the Navy who felt the ships were not needed and wanted to save some taxpayer wealth ($259 billion over five years) or the politicians in Congress that want to protect jobs back in their states and districts, even if those jobs were useless, or who wanted to keep their defense contractor political backers happy? I would vote for the admirals every time.

The second situation is of a broader scope but reinforces the notion that politicians do not want to get spending under control or do not know how to get spending under control. According to the Guardian: “The Defense Department requested $613.9 billion for fiscal year 2013 - almost $32 billion less than it received last year. Instead, lawmakers sent the Pentagon roughly $633 billion for 2013, still less than the agency received last year but $20 billion above what Pentagon leaders had requested.”

Who does not think that the additional funding set aside for the Defense Department, money it said it did not need, was purely for earmarks for favored political cronies and backers of the Washington politicians?

By the way, in light of the Newtown school shooting, that additional $20 billion that the Defense Department said it does not need or want could staff a trained and armed police officer in every U.S. school for almost three years. You decide what the better priority is, unneeded military expenditures or protecting our kids.

That’s it for now, the insanity out of Washington just keeps on coming. And more will come over the next few days.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Simple Math, Fiscal Cliff, Fiscal Insanity

I purposely did not write this post for a few days in order for all of the dust and idiocy to settle down from the Congressional votes this week on the so-called "fiscal cliff." In my opinion, this deal was the ultimate in political class insanity. It was done at the last minute, even though Washington politicians knew when the deadline was all along and should have and could have gotten a much saner, less idiotic plan done months and months ago.

But rather than rant about the general insanity, let's look at some of the details to truly understand how idiotic and insane this fiscal cliff deal is:

1) The most general question one could ask is how does this deal fix our national debt problem? From a traditional definition of national debt, the country has run up a national debt of over $16.3 TRILLION. This comes out to a debt burden of over $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. It is over $140,000 for every U.S. household.

The following graph contains two bars. The left hand bar is the amount of money that the Federal government overspent its tax stream in 2012, i.e. the spending deficit. It was over $1 TRILLION. The right hand bar is the amount of additional annual tax revenue the Federal government will see by taxing wealthier Americans under the fiscal cliff deal. Thus, just from a graphical perspective, taxing the rich will come nowhere close to overcoming the insane overspending of the Federal government and the Washington political class (double click on the graph for a bigger view):

2) But let’s step deeper into the numbers behind this graph to really understand how this deal solves nothing and makes a bad situation worse:

• Taxing the rich in 2012 under the terms of the fiscal cliff deal would have raised 2012 Federal government revenues by just over $60 billion. This is only 5.69% vs. 2012 deficit, which explains why the left bar above is so much high (almost 20 times higher) than the right bar. Washington has a gross overspending problem, not an under taxation problem.
• If you extrapolate the tax the rich terms of the deal out for ten years AND the current national debt was frozen at the current level, Federal government tax revenue from the deal would account for only 3.8% of the CURRENT national debt load. Again, no matter how much you raise the taxes of the wealthier Americans, it is only a small fraction of the gross overspending habits of Washington.
• But we all know that freezing the debt load at $16.3 TRILLION will never happen with the current set of politicians in Washington. This fiscal cliff deal will add over $3.9 additional dollars of debt to our current level (since reducing spending was never included in the deal) and realistic estimates of the growth in debt under current Washington budget projections will add another $9 TRILLION of debt in the next ten years. $16.3 TRILLION + $3.9 TRILLION + $9 TRILLION = $29.2 TRILLION in national debt by 2023. This fiscal cliff deal will raise enough additional tax revenue to cover only about 2.12% of that load.

The above calculations assume that all of the additional tax revenue from the deal is used to reduce debt. Given the hundreds and hundreds of wasteful spending examples we have covered in this blog, the potential for all of the additional tax revenue to be not wasted is extremely tiny.

By the way, if this realistic estimate of $29.2 TRILLION comes to pass, the individual debt burden on every man, woman, and child in this country would be almost $93,000 a piece.

The other way to look at these depressing numbers is to consider the fact that our economy, and our democracy, will likely crash long before the $29.2 TRILLION level is reached due to our government’s inability to rein in spending and live within the country’s fiscal means.

Devastating numbers, depressing numbers. The reality is staring everyone in the face. Most rational, sane Americans realize that these debt levels are unsustainable and insane. Unfortunately, those that do not recognize these simple facts all seem to have been elected to Federal political offices.

3) But believe it or not, the deal is even worse than the stark realities calculated and graphed above. Why? Because in these dark debt and economic times, our politicians took the time to include even more wasteful spending in the fiscal cliff deal, deepening our debt pit even more (source: January 1, 2013 ABC News report:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-also-doles-out-millions-for-hollywood-railroads-rum-producers/):

• Almost half a billion dollars in tax breaks, $430 million, was included in the deal for Hollywood through “special expensing rules,” tax rules that encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects. Funny how these are the same people that overwhelmingly voted for, supported, and raised money for Democrats in the last election.

• $331 million was tucked into the deal for railroad companies which allows short-line and regional railroad operators to claim a tax credit up to 50% of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease. Funny how one of the biggest supporters of Obama and Democrats is Warren Buffet whose companies are big players in the railroad business.

•$222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the Federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.

•$70 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motor sports racing track facilities.” Why should private companies like NASCAR, and railroad companies and movie studios, get free taxpayer wealth when we are in the midst of this national debt crisis? In fact, when should these types of businesses ever get taxpayer wealth?

•The wind production tax credit (PTC) was extended for 1 year, along with several additional targeted tax credits for renewable energy, at a cost of $12 billion.

•$59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon. Funny how when Obama hands out taxpayer money to alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra) we later find out that one of his political supporters was the beneficiary. Thus, it would not surprise many of us if that was the case here.

•$4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes. What a waste.

Disgusting. We are drowning in debt, the economy is weak, Americans are being taxed more and more heavily, and these people take every opportunity to take care of their political supporters, the health of the country and the economy be damned.

4) Oh, but it gets even worse. According to a report from CNS News and other news sources, multiple Senate contacts have confirmed that our esteemed Senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013, just three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM. This is governing from the Nancy Pelosi school of government, i.e. “we have to pass the bill to see what is in it.”

If this is true, and there are enough news sources out there saying it actually did happen in three minutes, then these people in the Senate need to be removed from office for dereliction of duty. This was not a new Post Office they were naming, this is the future financial and economic health of the country and they failed miserably at their jobs.

5) But I am not alone in disappointment with this process and insanity. Consider the headlines from major news sources, many of which are usually severe Obama supporters:

•The Atlantic: “There Are No Spending Cuts In This Deal.” (Derek Thompson, “Fiscal Cliff Deal FAQ: What Just Happened And What It Means For You,” The Atlantic, 1/2/13)

•The New York Times: “And It Includes Almost No Spending Cuts.” (David Leonhardt, “For Obama, A Victory That Also Holds Risks,” The New York Times, 1/2/13)

•The Associated Press: “[The Fiscal Cliff Deal] Puts Off The Toughest Decisions About Spending Cuts…” (Charles Babington, “Analysis: Cliff Deal Is Another Pain-Free Punt,” The Associated Press, 1/3/13)

•The Washington Post: “[Fiscal Cliff Deal] Will Do Little To Address The Nation’s Long-Term Debt.” (Editorial, “Congress’s feeble finish to the ‘fiscal cliff’ fiasco,” The Washington Post, 1/1/13)

•The Washington Post: “The Deal Will Not Reduce Future Deficits Much…” (Editorial, “Congress’s Feeble Finish To The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Fiasco,” The Washington Post, 1/1/13)

•Reuters: “It ‘Kicked The Can Down The Road’ To A Later Date.” (Kim Dixon, “Analysis: ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Called A Dud On Deficit Front,” Reuters, 1/1/13)

•The Washington Times: “‘Conversation’ On Deficit Falls On Deaf Ears” (David Sherfinski, “Conversation On Deficit Falls On Deaf Ears,” The Washington Times, 12/31/12)

•POLITICO: “But The Measure Took Two Steps Back For Each Step Forward.” (Jonathan Allen, “112th Congress Legacy: Unfinished Business,” POLITICO, 1/2/13)

•Fix The Debt Founders Alan Simpson And Erskine Bowles: “The Deal Approved Today Is Truly A Missed Opportunity To Do Something Big To Reduce Our Long-Term Fiscal Problems…” (Press Release, Statement From The Campaign To Fix The Debt Co-Founders Erskine Bowles And Alan Simpson, 1/1/13)

I have been writing about political class insanity for over three years in this blog. I thought I had seen it all from political corruption to wasteful government spending to idiotic spending to bad priorities, etc. But nowhere before have I seen such a disgraceful piece of governing than this whole fiscal deal fiasco.

It was bad economics, bad governing, class warfare, and insanity at its worst. It will solve nothing, the raising of anyone’s taxes is silly in light of the weak economy and the hundreds of billions of dollars the Federal government currently wastes every year. And worse of all, our national debt keeps growing unabated due solely to government overspending, not under taxation.

Two things to keep in mind. Step 39 from “Love my Country, Loathe My Government” has never been more needed. Step 39 would implement term limits for all Federal politicians. The current set of Washington politicians need to be legally and constitutionally removed from office, the damage they have wrought and their dereliction of duty requires it immediately. We will be announcing such an effort shortly and need everyone’s help who agrees that this fiscal cliff disaster is the last straw in a long line of incompetent governing.

Second, if you do not get involved in any effort to get the political class to do their jobs and curtail runaway government spending, imagine yourself ten years from now. What are you going to say when your kids or grandkids ask you why they have a $90,000 debt burden and associated heavy taxation burden to bear? Will you tell them how you did nothing when the fiscal cliff deal sealed their fate as permanent payers of our runaway, and often wasteful, spending?

********************************
My January 3, 2013 letter to my Florida Senator Bill Nelson:

Senator Nelson:

A few things up front. I am 59 years old and until the November, 2010 elections I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. I have never voted for a Republican president. Thus, I am not a conservative, a Republican, or a Tea Party member. I am also not rich so "taxing the rich" does not apply to me.

Nevertheless, in my 59 years, I have never seen such a dysfunctional, greedy, immature, idiotic, and embarrassing set of Washington politicians in my life, especially in light of the fiscal cliff fiasco. I wonder if you realize how much the people outside of the Beltway hold you all in contempt for the shenanigans that go on every day in D.C.

This fiscal cliff business should have been handled at least six months ago. By delaying to the last minute, you make the country and yourselves look like a bunch of dunces.

Are you people really that insane and out of touch with reality to think this fiscal cliff deal will do any good? The money it takes from the rich will just get squandered by the Federal government like every other dollar we send to you. It will take disposable income out of a very weak economy for no reason. And it is a spit in the ocean relative to our $16.3 TRILLION national debt and our long standing $86 TRILLION of unfunded liabilities.

When the country implodes from the debt load that you people never addressed, you and the rest of your peers in Congress will go down in history as the captains of the U.S. Titanic that sunk in a sea of red ink and did nothing to stop it.

For once, I want/demand someone in your office get back to me and explain this dysfunctionality of you and your friends in Congress. You are all a disgrace to our country and our heritage. Call me, email me, send me a letter or I will call your office until I get some answers of why you people are so out of touch, so pathetic when it comes to running the country.
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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 2: Over regulation, Stupid Regulation, Tax Evading Federal Employees, and More

Today is the second in this month’s series on political class insanity in America. As the months go by, we have needed to expand our monthly one day post into multiple posts to cover all of the idiocy, lunacy, and bad priorities of our politicians. This month is no exception. Yesterday we covered the fact that the American political class bought an armored car for a rural town in case they ever have problems at their annual pumpkin festival, the Pentagon  spent taxpayer wealth on a string of Star Trek themed meetings that had nothing to do with national defense, and several other total wastes of money.


So what did we not get to yesterday:

1) This piece of insanity and hypocrisy did not occur in the past month but I just found it last week. According to an ABC News report from January 27, 2012:

• At that time, the IRS released its Federal Employee and Retiree Delinquency Inventory.
• That report showed that a whopping 36 of Obama’s White House aides owed a total of $833,970 in back taxes to the IRS.
• And White House personnel were not the only Federal employees not paying their taxes.
• At the Environmental Protection Agency, 413 people owe more than $19 million, at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), 185 employees owe more than $3 million; and five people at the U.S. Tax Court owe $62,508.
• I am assuming these are not the only tax evading Federal employees but they are only the ones cited as examples by the ABC article.
• The ironic thing about the FDIC tax evaders is that the FDIC is supposed to “maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system.” Tough to have confidence in the nation’s financial system when those responsible for that integrity flaunt its requirements.

A few observations:

• The President’s call for some Americans to pay more in taxes rings hypocritical and hollow when he cannot even get his own personnel to comply with existing tax laws.
• No wonder the IRS fails to collect over $380 billion from tax evaders, many of them actually work for the same Federal bureaucracy. If the IRS cannot find the tax evaders within the government, it is doubtful it will find them out in the hinterlands.
• Shouldn’t there be a law that if you are evading taxes, and it is obvious they know who these Federal employees are given the specificity of the numbers, that their Federal pay checks be confiscated until those back taxes are paid?
• Maybe they are just following the example of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and other top ranking political class members who did not pay their “fair” share of taxes in the past.

Why was ABC the only member of the main stream media to carry this story? Isn’t this a major discussion point in the tax debate going on in this country today?

Final question: if you or I evaded over $23,000 in taxes (the average amount the 36 White House aides evaded), wouldn’t we be in jail and if so, why are these White House aides not in jail?

Hypocrisy abounds.

2) Fiscal cliff. $16.3 TRILLION national debt. 23 million Americans either unemployed or under employed. Failing public schools. Leaky borders. High gas prices with no national energy strategy and plan. Escalating health care costs.

Some serious issues facing country and its citizens. So what did a Congressional committee concern itself with recently, according to a December 12, 2012 Associated Press report? Whether or not the National Football League Players Association was trying to get out of its agreement with the NFL to subject its players of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) drug testing:

“Hopefully as we move down the line, players will see how incredibly ridiculous it looks for them not to ... straighten this thing out," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's ranking Democrat. "We're now getting ready to go into a third season, and it does not look very good."

No, Congressman Cummings, this is not ridiculous. What is truly ridiculous is that a Congressional committee and its staff are worried about this insignificant piece of reality when there are so many other real issues facing America today. Pathetic priorities.

3) During this holiday season, from Thanksgiving through Christmas, American families will be eating a lot of turkey. Did you ever wonder how turkey producers measure and document the size of their turkeys? Probably not.

Well, some Federal government bureaucrats sure did. While reading the following LABELING specifications for turkey, consider whether or not our tax dollars need to be spent paying someone in the Federal bureaucracy to come up with such detailed specs for just turkey LABELS:

Federal labeling requirements for turkey include “affixing in conspicuous and easily legible boldface print or type, in distinct contrast to other matter on the container, and on the principal display panel within the bottom 30 percent of the area of the panel, in lines generally parallel to the base: Provided, Not less than one-eighth inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 5 but not more than 25 square inches; Not less than three-sixteenth inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 25 but not more than 100 square inches; Not less than one-quarter inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 100 but not more than 400 square inches; Not less than one-half inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 400 square inches. The ratio of height to width of letters and numerals shall not exceed a differential of 3 units to 1 unit (no more than 3 times as high as it is wide). This height standard pertains to upper case or capital letters. When upper and lower case or all lower case letters are used, it is the lower case letter ‘o’ or its equivalent that shall meet the minimum standards. When fractions are used, each component numeral shall meet one-half the height standards.”

Some relatively high paid government employee actually spent time and taxpayer wealth actually writing this down. It probably went through many iterations. It was probably read and modified many times by this employee’s superiors. It requires much unproductive time by turkey producers to comply with such specificity.

And the sad thing about all this waste, I would bet that over 99% of turkey consumers never read the darn label anyway. They buy the turkey because of how it looks and about how big it is. This is just one reason why we have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.

4) Continuing on this expensive, overregulation theme of turkey labeling, the following overregulation information arose in just one week in November, according to investigations by the Bankrupting America Project:

• RealClearPolicy noted President Obama introduced more regulations in two years than President Bush did in eight and twice as many as President Clinton did in his last three years in office.
• According to the American Action Forum, as of Nov. 2, “At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $273 billion. Since January 1, 2012 the federal government has imposed $231.7 billion in compliance costs and more than 134.9 million annual paperwork burden hours.”
• The American Action Forum also notes there were three Dodd-Frank rules issued in the last two weeks that would “increase regulatory costs by $774 million … with more than 7.4 million associated paperwork hours.”

$273 billion a year in regulations comes out to well over $2,500 a year per average U.S. household. Ask yourself if you are getting your money’s worth for that $2,500 every year. Ask this question in the light of now knowing that one of those many, many regulations concerns itself with the labels on turkeys? I think most Americans would agree that $2,500 is way too much to spend based on what return we get from the federal bureaucracy.

5) Now, the following numbers will not cure our $16.3 TRILLION national debt problem, it will not feed the homeless. But it is symptomatic of how idiotic our Federal government can be when handing our taxpayer wealth in a willy-nilly manner.

The December, 2012 AARP Bulletin covered the findings from a Congressional Research Service which found that almost 2,400 IRS tax filers had annual income over $1 million in 2009 and…. were still able to collect unemployment benefits. This cost the American taxpayer almost $21 million.

Again, $21 million is a spit in the ocean of our national debt. But these kinds of atrocities go on thousands and thousands of times every day. Unemployment benefit programs were implemented to help a struggling citizen get past a rough past in their employment situation. Someone who made over a million dollars in one year do not need an additional handout from the American taxpayer. At one million dollars, these people earned at least twenty times what the average American household earned in 2009. With that kind of income advantage, they do not need a taxpayer payout to get over their rough spot.

Senator Tom Coburn has introduced legislation in the Senate to prohibit anyone earning over a million dollars from collecting unemployment benefits and checks. While I applaud his efforts to erase this disgraceful waste of money, I would make the legislation more stringent:

1. I would not put the cutoff at over a $1 million but much lower, say $500,000 which is still more than ten times what the average American household earns in a year.
2. I would also put a wealth measurement and requirement in place. It should not be enough to just look at the previous year’s income. In these high national debt times, I see no reason why anyone should be eligible for unemployment benefits who has a net worth, not an annual income, of over a million dollars. A millionaire with millions in his or her bank, mutual funds, bonds, etc. should not need a few hundred dollars a month from Federal unemployment funds.

It is such a shame the Washington political class took so long to recognize this stupidity.

That should do it for today. Tax evading Federal employees and executives, over regulation, stupid regulations, bad priorities and subsidizing millionaire earners. Just another month of political class insanity.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom

http://www.reason.com/http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.co
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2012, Political Class Insanity, Part 4: Making The Poor Rich, Mad As Hell, Rich People In Congress, Part Time Politicians

I had thought we would be done with the latest monthly political class sanity yesterday after the past three days of reviewing the latest antics, shenanigans, and idiocy from our politicians. However, in the short timeframe of three days, enough craziness has come out of Washington that we actually will set the record this month for the most blog posts related to political class insanity: four.

Hopefully, the following insanity will be the end of this month’s craziness and we can postpone the next wave of idiocy until after the Christmas holidays:

1) The fiscal cliff. 23 million Americans unemployed or under employed. National debt above $16.3 TRILLION. A never ending, no win war in Afghanistan. Personal freedom being stripped away by the Patriot Act, NDAA, surveillance drones overhead, FISA, etc. A never ending, no win “war on drugs.”

Boy, times are tough. The nation is facing some very dire and traumatic issues that effect every American. Thank goodness our politicians are working hard to resolve these issues.

Or maybe not. John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives recently announced that the House will be in session in 2013 on only 13 Fridays. This is actually a 30% reduction in the number of Fridays our House politicians worked in 2011 which was only 21 days. In 2013, Representatives will work only one Friday for nine months out of the year, and two Fridays for the other three months.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) released this not-so-strenuous work schedule last Friday and said part of his goal was to “insure that we never lose touch with the constituents we each represent while completing our work in Washington.”

Now, how many of you actually think our Congressmen and women will actually be spending every one of the other 37 Fridays in 2013 “ensuring they never lose touch with their constituents?” Or “completing their work in Washington? I contend they have not competed any decent work in a few decades.

Please, Mr. Cantor, do not insult our intelligence. You people did not resolve any major issues in 2011 when you worked for 21 Fridays, what makes us think you will do better in 2013 when you work only 15 Fridays?

2) News reports from last month reported on a letter that was obtained by Reuters news service, a letter that was sent from the alternative energy battery company A123 to two U.S. Senators, John Thune and Chuck Grassley. The November 4, 2012 letter from A123 informed the Senators that the company had recently received a check from the Energy Department for $946,830 of taxpayer wealth on October 16, 2012.

This payment was part of another failed Obama administration alternative energy fiasco that resulted in this company, and dozens of others, receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer funding for products and services that were never viable in the marketplace.

Why is the October 16, 2012 date important? Well, it is the exact same day that A123 declared bankruptcy. So on the day that this company decided that it was no longer a viable company and needed to go into court to seek protection from creditors because its business plan never came close to fulfilling its business promises, the Federal government cut it a check for almost a million dollars. Unbelievable incompetence.

3) Roll Call recently competed its annual analysis of who are the richest members of Congress and about how much they are worth. The top two richest members are Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who tops the list with a whopping $300 plus million net worth and Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, who comes in second with $198 plus million.

Let’s do some simple math. If memory serves me right, a U.S. Senator makes about $170,000 a year. If we did divide this number by $300 million and $198 million, we see that their annual Senate salaries is about .06% of McCaul’s wealth and about .09% of Kerry’s wealth.

Given the dire financial situation the country is in now, why are these two elected officials, and dozens of other millionaires in Congress, drawing any salary at all? Wouldn’t it be a nice leadership idea and compassionate notion to have these very rich politicians not draw a salary or donate their salaries to reducing our national debt?

But nobility, leadership, and compassion have never been in overabundance in Washington. That is why very rich people in Congress need to have their salaries curtailed, as proposed in Step 41 of “Love my Country, Loathe My Government’ and why term limits cannot happen soon enough, as purposed in Step 39.

4) In all tests of education attainment levels of U.S. kids vs. kids from other countries, we almost always fall behind the education attainment levels of dozens of other countries. In other words, for the most part, the U.S. public education is badly broken.

And it has been badly broken for decades as the Federal government and Washington politicians have wasted trillions of dollars on educating our kids for severely mediocre results. And it does not appear that it will get much better soon, if Michigan is any indication.

A new teacher evaluation system in the state miraculously found that 97% of the state‘s 96,000 teachers were rated effective or highly effective in the 2011-2012 school year. In other words, only 3% of the Michigan teachers were rated “minimally effective” or “ineffective,” the lowest two categories.

Wow, Michigan must have the best educated kids in the world if 97% of the teachers are that good. Not really. If you do a search on the education attainment of Michigan students, one measurement process indicated that Michigan ranks 23rd out of fifty states when it comes to high school graduation rates, 36th out of fifty states when it comes to undergraduate degrees, and 34th out of fifty states when it comes to graduate degrees.

Makes you wonder how a state’s schools can have such mediocre education attainment levels when its teachers are supposedly so great. Obviously, they did not read Step 27 from “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.” Step 27 is a rational, coherent problem solving approach to fix what is broken in our public education arena, a process does not involve bogus teacher evaluation processes.

5) A November 19, 2012 Wall Street Journal article reported on a new electric car that Chrysler will be selling in the near future. This new model will be its very first battery-powered vehicle, the Fiat 500e.

However, much more interesting than the fact that it’s their first electric battery-powered car is the fact that Chrysler expects to lose between $8,000 and $9,000 for each one it sell. Why would they produce a car that’s sure to lose money? Four words: the California state government.

California is one of the largest car markets in the country, accounting for about one in every cars sold in the country California also has a strict zero-emission requirement law which means that unless Chrysler offers at least one model that meets these increasingly stringent emissions standards, California could bar them from selling cars in the state. Given the size of the market, that is something no car maker would want to do.

The problem is that the vast majority of consumers do not want to buy all electric cars for any number of logical reasons:

• They tend to be smaller and thus, do not fit the needs of larger families.
• They tend to be underpowered relative to a gas powered car and no one wants to be pulling out into heavy traffic in an underpowered car.
• They tend to be much more expensive than a comparable gas powered car and usually do not appear to economically justify the higher cost over the life of the car.

Reminds one of an old saying, supposedly attributable to Abe Lincoln: If you called a tail a leg, how many legs would a dog have? Answer: Four, just because you call it a leg does not make it a leg. Just because you force auto makers to make electric cars does not mean people will buy electric cars.

Thus, manufacturers are forced to divert research, design, testing and manufacturing resources into a near useless set of products that no one wants. This sub-optimizes the capabilities and resources of the economy for no good reason, just to satisfy government politicians and bureaucrats that have nothing better to do and whom have no sense of reality and business.

The really scary part is that California politicians are not alone in their ignorance of how the world works. Ten other states, including New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, have followed California’s lead and have enacted similar zero-emission requirements.

Consider the insights of a car industry expert, Kevin Kinnaw, Toyota‘s U.S. manager of regulatory affairs: “California can make us sell a minimum amount of cars, but unfortunately, they can’t make people buy them, or even get our own dealers to order them from us.” Well said, just because you call it a leg does not mean it is a leg.

6) The fiscal cliff. 23 million Americans unemployed or under employed. National debt above $16.3 TRILLION. A never ending, no win war in Afghanistan. Personal freedom being stripped away by the Patriot Act, NDAA, surveillance drones overhead, FISA, etc. A never ending, no win “war on drugs.” Given how poorly we have been served by the recent collection of politicians, you would have thought that we would have voted these inept people out of office the first chance we got.

Well, that thought would be wrong. According to Jeff Jacoby, writing in the Boston Globe and summarized in the November 30, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, over our recent history, more than 90% of the incumbents in Washington have been reelected. It is so sad that people can perform so poorly in their jobs and still retain them as Washington politicians are able to do.

This 90% number is indictment of our political processes and how much they have been perverted to maintain inept people in office rather than producing the best and brightest people to go to Washington to resolve issues. Numerous steps in “Love my Country, Loathe my Government” address the need to retake control of our political processes with the most important one being Step 39 which would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, “one and done.” If we cannot vote them out of office, we should amend the Constitution to force them out.

7) I wanted to touch on one final piece of political class insanity this month but will follow this point with a more detailed discussion in the near future. Congressman Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s VP running mate, Americans classified as “poor,” it comes out to an equivalent of $20,000 per person.

In other words, if you could cut out all of the criminal fraud, waste, and inefficiencies in our governments’ anti-poverty programs, a typical, four person “poor family” would receive a check for $80,000 a year. This $80,000 a year is 60% more than what a typical U.S. household earns a year.

This gives you some indication of how inept and corrupt our political class has become in the management of the anti-poverty effort in this country. We spend so much money every year, now in excess of $1 TRILLION, enough to make a poor family relatively well off and yet more and more Americans enter the “poor” definition every year.

We would never put up with this kind of corruption, waste, and inefficiency from a real estate agent if we were buying a house. Or from a car dealer if we were buying a new car. Or from a supermarket where we shopped for groceries. It baffles me why we put up such insanity, idiocy, and wealth waste from our political class.

There, that should do it for this week. It was painful in so many ways but it is necessary to find our what insanity is now pervading our political processes, our personal wealth, and our personal freedoms. I hope that at some point in time, we will finally stand up and not take it any more, taking the cue from the newscaster portrayed in the following clip, and finally get “mad as hell.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

Might as well get mad today because if you do not, I will be back next month with more insanity but no problems resolution from the American political class.

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:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2012 Political Class Insanity, Part 3: Chicago and Illinois Get Ready To Financial lyImplode, Prince Obama Goes On Vacation, Condom Negotiation Tactics

This is the third post this week regarding the latest political class insanity and antics from America’s politicians. Unfortunately, the more we do this series every month, it seems we have more and more idiocy to review, growing from one post a month to multiple posts now.

1) The Bankrupting America website, citing a recent Wall Street Journal article, explained the dire financial situation the state of Illinois finds itself in:

• A recent analysis and announcement from the Commercial Club of Chicago concluded that the Illinois’s state pension crisis has grown so severe that it may be “unfixable.”
• The analysis estimated that the state’s nearly $200 billion debt is now threatening health care, education, and other basic public services.
• The problem appears to be getting so bad so quickly that the usual, incremental reforms won’t be enough to keep public pensions from eating up a larger and larger share of state tax revenues.
• Illinois’s state pension liabilities for 2013 are expected to be $5.9 billion, up from $1.6 billion a decade ago.

We have reported on how several large California cities (e.g. Stockton, San Bernadino) are facing bankruptcy via high salaries, pensions, and benefits they pay their civil servants, both active and retired. Looks like the contagion has moved up to the state level, at least in Illinois, a state that is about to burst trying to fulfill too many political class promises that exceed the available tax resources to cover.

2) But the state of Illinois is not the only government entity in Illinois in really sad financial shape. Consider an article by Scott Shacklefor of Reason magazine that was posted on the Reason website in early August:

• Somehow, the Chicago city employee workforce has gotten substantially smaller over the years but the cost of that smaller workforce has gotten higher!
• In 1993, the city had 42,400 full time equivalent positions (FTEs) in 1993 but downsized that number to fewer than 33,800 FTEs in 2012.
• At the same time, the cost per-employee skyrocketed from $58,299 in 2003 to $96,082 in 2011.
• Thus, while the city cut its workforce by about 20 percent, per-employee costs have gone up by better than half.
• Put all these numbers together and you find that labor costs for Chicago as a whole went up by 14%.
• Things are now so bad that by the city’s own estimation, almost three quarters of city expenditures over the last nine years have been eaten up by personnel expenses.
• Such financial costs leave less and less city financial resources available for schools, road, bridges, social programs, etc.
• And not only are current operating costs in such bad shape, but the liabilities and expected costs of promised pension and retirement benefits are even in worse shape: the firefighter and police pensions have only 26% and 33%, respectively, of the assets they should have available to cover future liability costs, the city’s largest pension fund, which covers most city employees (outside of public safety) as well as some non-instructional public school employees, has only about 41% of the assets it will need to be certain of paying benefits on time while other city pension funds are in comparably bad financial shape.
• According to the budget math, the city needs to increase its pension contributions from $476 million this year to $1.2 billion in 2015, leaving even less resources for schools, roads, bridges, social programs etc.

Obviously something has to give. Either Chicago and Illinois make the hard, hard political decisions to get their expense streams in line with rational revenue streams or at some point in time the state government and Chicago city government will become strictly and only a conduit to shuttle money from taxpayers directly into union pension and retirement programs, with nothing left over for any other government function.

3) Still quite unbelievable and insane that any entity can cut its personnel staff by 20% but see its cost for a much smaller personnel staff actually go up in total. But not unheard of. Consider a piece of political class insanity we talked about back in 2010:

According to an October 12, 2010 New York Times article by David Brooks, that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times, the city of Buffalo has as many public government workers today as it had in 1950 even though the city has lost half of its population since then. Combine this ridiculous situation with the fact that computers, cell phones, and other pieces of technology have made working much more efficient and productive since 1950, and you can see that Buffalo has lost far more than 50% in productivity from its government workers in the past 60 years.

4) In the depths of the Great Recession, a week after President Obama was elected in Nov ember, 2009, the Gallup organization surveyed a representative sample of Americans, asking the following question: "Do you think the country will be better off or worse off four years from now?"

In 2009, 72% felt the country would be better off, 20% said it would be worse off, 4% said it would be the same, and 4% said they had no opinion.

Four years later, a week after President Obama was reelected and three years after the recession ended, Gallup asked another sample of American adults the same question. This year’s survey found only 54% of those surveyed feeling the country would be better off in four years, while 41% said they believed it would be worse off, 3% said it would be the same, and 2% said they had no opinion.

Thus, despite being three years away from the end of the recession, the political class and its lack of leadership has caused the pessimism level about the future of America to double in just four years.

5) The fiscal cliff. 23 million Americans unemployed or under employed. National debt above $16.3 TRILLION. A never ending, no win war in Afghanistan. Personal freedom being stripped away by the Patriot Act, NDAA, surveillance drones overhead, FISA, etc. A never ending, no win “war on drugs.” Times are tough but according to a November 30, 2012 Associated Press article, what are many members of Congress worrying about via proposed legislation and the Congressional hearings behind the proposed legislation?

Apparently, in another outrageous example of bad priorities, Congress is working on legislation that would eliminate the paper one dollar bill and replace it with a one dollar coin. Of all the things they could be working on, things that cost the American taxpayer literally of trillions of dollars, some politicians in Washington are actually working on this dollar bill issue (or non-issue). Talk about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, as the country sinks further into the fiscal doom these folks are weighing the pros and cons of the paper one dollar bill. Pathetic.

6) The fiscal cliff. 23 million Americans unemployed or under employed. National debt above $16.2 TRILLION. A never ending, no win war in Afghanistan. Personal freedom being stripped away by the Patriot Act, NDAA, surveillance drones overhead, FISA, etc. A never ending, no win “war on drugs.” Times are tough but according to a recent article in the Hawaii Reporter, President Obama and his family will be in beautiful, sunny Hawaii, taking in a 20-day Christmas holiday vacation.

This Presidential vacation will cost the American taxpayer $4 million. Of particular irony, when the country potentially goes over the fiscal cliff on January 1, 2013, the President will be thousands of miles away from the decision center in Washington D.C., still on vacation.

Details of the excursion include the following:

• The President and his family will be not be staying at any discount accommodations, they will be by the ocean and canal that surrounds multi-million dollar homes at Kailuana Place.
• The $4 million will be spent at a time when the country is wrestling with dire economic deficit spending problems, i.e. the government spends way too much money that it does not have.
• Almost a half-million dollars will be spent on C-17 military aircraft transports for limos, a Navy SEAL mobile security detail, a U.S. Marines helicopter with associated crews and pilots.
• The rental houses for the Presidential family face the ocean in the front and a canal in the back. So, the taxpayers must cover the costs for housing U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Seals in very expensive beach front and canal front homes around where the President stays.
• This is likely to be seven high end homes for three weeks for a total cost, just for security personnel housing, of over $176,000.

As we have said many times before, President Obama acts more like Prince Obama than a President. The country is facing one of its most difficult and dangerous financial viability times in its history. And this President will be far, far away, on vacation no less, when American paychecks get much smaller on January 1, 2013 while government spending and waste continues unabated.

Heartless, insensitive vacation planning, more wasteful spending, and certainly a continued lack of leadership from this President… or Prince.

7) Even when the government has a good idea or intention, they almost always cannot operationalize it to meet the original intent or the original cost. According to a recent Washington Post article that appeared in the November 30, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, there are Federal guidelines that direct certain government contracts to be awarded to small businesses.

However, it appears that these “small business” contracts are ending up being given to large corporations instead. In the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2012, about $4.7 billion of the Federally designated small business funding, out of the total $10 billion budget, was actually given to the country’s major corporations instead. Missed that target by only 47%, which for government work is no all that bad.

8) And for the best example from the past month of “we have fallen down a rabbit hole into another reality” insanity, a Washington Examiner article from November 29, 2012 reported on a total wasting of $100,000 of taxpayer wealth. According to the article, the Obama administration is funding a $100,000 University of Houston study of pregnant and "at-risk" 14-17-year-old girls who are on probation in Houston, Texas. The purpose of the study is to help these girls' "condom negotiation" tactics.

The study will include 30 at-risk girls, ages 14-17 and according to Danielle Parish, the assistant professor at the school's Graduate College of Social Work who is conducting the government funded effort, one of the big problems young girls need to learn is how to talk their boyfriends into using condoms:

“According to the school’s (press) one of the big issues for this population of adolescent girls is condom negotiation. They may have a boyfriend who says it isn't 'cool' to use a condom. To prepare the girls for these types of situations, the counselors and pediatricians will teach them how to negotiate condom use with their partner. The intervention also helps empower and motivate girls to make healthier choices regarding their alcohol use, smoking and prevention of unplanned pregnancy.”

So much wrong with this waste of money:

• First of all, with the country already $16.3 TRILLION in debt, this is not a vital use of limited resources by any stretch of the imagination.
• As a trained statistician with a masters degree in statistics and a long history of statistical analysis, there is no way that a sample size of 30 in a single geographic area has any statistical validity relative to help every at risk teenage girl in the country.
• The only valid conclusions that can be drawn after the $100,000 is spent is relative and valid to only 30 girls in Houston Texas.
• Since the girls are only aged 14-17, maybe a better approach would be to educate the girls that they are being raped, not how to negotiate for condom use.

Granted, $100,000 is miniscule when compared to the TRILLIONs of dollars the political class in Washington spends every year. But this type of idiotic spending is repeated hundreds of thousands of times a year in wasteful, nonessential expenditures. $100,000 quickly becomes millions which quickly becomes billions which quickly becomes a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.

That's it for this month. Three days of political class insanity, idiocy, incompetent fiscal planning and management, and more. Can you say term limits, because it is now so obvious the current set of Washington politicians are the biggest part of the major issues facing the country today. Time to dump them out of office and try a little sanity for a change.

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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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w