By The Numbers - Washington Wastes $59 Billion While Americans Suffer The Implications of the Pandemic

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. This is where 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.

Today we are going to focus on the massive amount of wasteful spending that the Washington political class continues to commit. The main source of these wasteful numbers today comes from two sources:

1. Rand Paul’s annual publication of his wasteful government spending report which annually highlights the stupid, wasteful, and insane programs and projects that Washington wastes our tax dollars on.
2. The second source comes from the recent Congressional omnibus spending plans for 2021 that contains some very distressing spending on countries around the world.

Politicians should NEVER waste taxpayer money and wealth. But the wasteful spending is especially sensitive this year, given the suffering and challenges that the COVID pandemic has imposed on all Americans:

• Many Americans became unemployed or had their work hours reduced because of the pandemic and are suffering financially.
• Over 100,000 restaurants have gone out of business and many thousands more are in dire financial shape, causing millions of restaurant workers to lose their jobs or working hours.
• Airlines and other travel related industries are desperate for customers and revenue and their employees have already been fired, furloughed, or are in danger of losing their jobs.
• Food banks are struggling to keep up with the high food demand that the pandemic has caused.

Americans and American businesses are suffering and yet this is some of the nonsense the Washington political continues to waste money on, according to Rand Paul’s research, in the face of Americans’ suffering:

• Rand Paul’s annual report found that the government wasted at least $54,746,525,000 in taxpayer wealth in 2020.
• $25 million was spent to teach English to rural, unemployed Romanians.
• $1.5 million was spent to get Eastern Mediterranean kids to stop smoking hookah. 
• The National Institutes of Health is spending $1,039,544.00 over five years to try to help people get over their fears of going to the dentist.
• U.S. Agency for International Development is spending $10,000,000.00 and five years to attempt to improve Zimbabwe’s political process. 
• The Pentagon lost nearly $200 million in drone equipment just in Afghanistan alone. 
• The Pentagon spent $23 billion to develop a better version of the M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a project that failed.
• The Federal government spent $20 million for an airplane landing strip on Nantucket Island.
• Another $10 million was wasted on an order of COVID test tubes that never materialized..
• While thousands and thousands of theater employees lost their jobs because of covid lock downs, the Kennedy Center D.C. received $25 million for salaries. 
• Congress reimbursed some agencies for money they had spent on COVID in late 2019 and early 2020, before COVID hit, on efforts unrelated to COVID.
• $36 million was spent on studying why stress makes hair turn gray. 
• More than $1 million was spent studying whether people will eat ground-up bugs.
• More than $3 million was spent interviewing San Franciscans about their edible cannabis use.
• $8.62 billion was spent in Afghanistan on counter narcotics efforts, 
• More than $37 million was spent helping deal with truant Filipino youth
• More than $3 million was spent on sending Russians to American community colleges for a “gap year.”
• Among funds spent on the environment, energy, and scientific research, more than $1 million was spent walking lizards on a treadmill.
• Nearly $200,000 was spent studying how people cooperate while playing e-sport video games, and 
• More than $2 million was spent on developing a wearable headset to track eating behaviors.
• More than $715 million worth of military equipment, designated for Syrians fighting ISIS, was lost.
• More than $4 million was spent on spraying alcoholic rats with bobcat urine, 
• More than $10 million was spent on would-be coronavirus test tubes that turned up as used soda bottles. 
• Nearly $6 million was spent building three bicycle storage facilities at Washington, D.C. Metro stations.

Unbelievable. As Americans suffer, losing their jobs, their careers, their businesses, and facing food deficits, Washington politicians tried to get lizards in good cardio shape, helped out with Filipino kids, support Russian college students, etc.

And we know that they did not grow a heart or increase their compassion for suffering Americans since in their recent omnibus spending bills for 2021, they earmarked over $4.7 billion to go to far flung, non-strategic countries like Nepal, Cambodia, Burma, Egypt, and other places that I bet most people in Congress could not find on a map.

So between actual 2020 wasteful spending and billions being shipped overseas to billions being shipped out to far away countries in 2021, the Washington political class easily will waste $59 billion of taxpayer wealth. Think about what could be done for $59 billion:

• We have previously discussed the fact that, on average, a homeless American can be fed a decent meal for about $2.94 by food banks and charity groups across the country.
• That means that the wasted $59 billion could have provided three meals a day for every one of the 550,000 or so homeless Americans for about 33 years!
• We have previously discussed the fact that, on average, it takes $6,522 a year to treat an American with a drug addiction.
• That means that the wasted $59 billion could have provided drug addiction treatment to just over 9 million addicted Americans for a year.
• That $59 billion could have put up every homeless American in a $200 a night hotel room for a year and a half.

You get the idea, we could go on and on with the numbers. Just this amount of wasteful spending, and I am sure that there is plenty more, could bring so much relief to those in need in this country and yet, Washington politicians would rather waste our wealth on stupid pseudo-science and research projects, not hold anyone accountable for lost assets or misspent budgets, and send money around the world to help others but no our own.

The question that should be asked is why do they do it? It has always been my assumption that the reason they would rather help some kid in the Philippines rather than some American kid living in a car with their homeless parents is that there is something in it for them. Remember a few years ago when John Kerry’s daughter got a no bid contract worth millions of taxpayer dollars for an overseas project:

https://dailycaller.com/2016/10/18/exclusive-special-treatment-gave-john-kerrys-daughter-9-million-in-govt-contracts/

I would bet we would find similar actions underway in the wasteful spending above. Which member of Congress pushed to have funding for treadmill lizards and did they or their family in any way get any benefit? Who thought it was a good idea to send taxpayer money to Sudan and did they or their family benefit from that expenditure? 

It would sure be nice to have a budget process where every budget line item had a list of those in Congress who supported it. If someone actually had to fess up to supporting the need to find out why stress causes gray hair I would think and hope a lot of this budget nonsense would disappear.

This country is wealthy enough to feed its hungry, treat its addicted, and shelter its homeless. Unfortunately Washington would rather spend those resources elsewhere to the detriment and health of needy Americans. So very, very sad what their priorities are.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=loce+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&ref=nb_sb_noss

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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

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

This week we are going through a number of posts under the theme of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” stealing a title from an old Clint Eastwood movie. Yesterday, we looked at some of the good things going on in the country. 

When you write a blog like this, it can get kind of depressing as we watch our political class operate government in such a way that incompetence is rampant and rewarded, taxpayer wealth is abused and wasted, and the politicians in office have neither the will or the ability to truly resolve the major issues facing Americans. They are more intent on personal self-enrichment and staying in office.

Thus, it was good yesterday to get away from the disaster that is the American political class and talk about some good things going on in the country ("The Good"), all being executed and put forth for the betterment of Americans by private citizens doing the right thing. This is opposed to waiting for the politicians to do the wrong thing or do nothing but costing us a lot for their non-productive efforts.

However, today and probably tomorrow, we have to dive into the “The Bad” part of our theme. “The Bad” items discussed below are mostly concerned on how Americans feel about the state of the country, the state of their lives, and their attitudes towards the people causing most of the problems in this country, namely the current set of politicians. Never has a set of politicians been so ineffective or so demoralizing to the citizens of Americas, as we review “The Bad” conditions and feelings prevalent in America today:

1) According to a recent survey by Pew Research:

• The opinion that the United States is No. 1 in the world has dropped significantly in just the last three years.
• Pew found that only 28% believe that the U.S. “stands above all other countries in the world.” 
• 58% say it is “one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others.” 
• 12% said that there are other countries “that are better.”
• Just three years ago, well within the current Presidential administration and current members of Congress, 38% said the U.S. was No. 1 compared to only 28% today, a whopping 26% decrease.
• 52% of Republicans said America stood above the others but that feeling has decreased has dropped to only 37%, a decrease of 28% in just three years.
• In 2011, 33% of Democrats said America “stands above” others while today only 25% believe that, a decrease of about 24%.
• And most depressing for the future of this country, Americans ages 18-29, are at the bottom of those who view the nation as standing alone in greatness with only 15% of those under 30 express that view today, down from 27% three years ago, a whopping decrease of 44%.
• Even senior citizens, the most optimistic about America, have seen a 20% decline in three years in their attitudes, shrinking their optimism about the country to 40%, down from 50% in 2011.

Thus, we seem to be a nation suffering a crisis of confidence, and nothing that I have seen from the current set of American politicians give me any indication or hope that these negatively trending attitudes and emotions will get reversed any time soon. 

2) Maybe one reason we are feeling so bad about our current environment is that a recent opinion poll from Gallup found that from a freedom perspective, we see ourselves as no better than 33rd in the world vs. other countries. Yes, we are no longer number one, we are number 33! This is out of 135 countries that were polled.

Other findings from this poll include:

• Only 79% of Americans say they’re satisfied with their freedom to choose what to do with their lives, down from 87% in 2008. 
• The top five nations where people feel most satisfied with their freedoms are New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. 
• At No. 33, the United States is shamefully stuck between Bahrain and Cameroon, from a perception of freedom perspective.
• And not only are we an embarrassing number 33, stuck between two countries that most Americans could not find on a map, we are trending lower over time, of the 100 countries where Gallup measured changes in freedom during the past five years, 75 of those coountries registered an improvement in freedom, 21 registered a decline in freedom, and four stayed the same. 
• Besides the United States, consider some of the other nations within the group of 21 who also suffered declines in freedom, just like us: Syria and Afghanistan are in the midst of wide spread armed conflicts, Tajikistan and Thailand are suffering through major political turmoil, and Luxembourg, the most prosperous of the decliners, has become a target of U.S. and European authorities going after tax evaders with foreign accounts. Nice company to be with.

The historic feeling and pride of living in “the land of the free” seems to have taken a beating relative to most of the rest of the world, a world that seems to be gaining freedom while we continue to lose ours.

But this should not be a surprise since the Washington political class, and especially this Presidential administration, has crushed freedom in so many ways including:

• Assassinating American citizens without due process of laws and trials.
• We have a Presidential administration that views the IRS as a political tool and oppressor rather than a tax collection agency.
• Spying on just about every American’s private electronic communications under the false premise of “national security.”
• Passing such onerous laws including the Patriot Act and the NDAA legislation that allows our government to hold citizens without trial or due process in jail or prison for an indefinite amount of time.
• Piling on so many tax burdens that freedom of choice is significantly curtailed when we have to spend about half of working lives just to pay for all of the taxes at every level of government in this country.

I am not surprised that we think our freedom is declining when we look at what the political class is doing to our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom, our lives, and our wealth.

3) But bad things are not just happening to our freedoms and confidence. Consider some bad economic trends that are probably also hammering at and causing our declining attitudes:

• Median household wealth is still substantially lower than it was before the Great Recession. 
• While there has been recent small improvements in the jobs data, many of the new jobs for American workers come with pay that is lower than it used to be, assuming they can find a job at all. 
• Lower pay impacts economic freedom which has probably leaked into the feeling of declining political freedom that Gallup measured above. A loss of economic freedom impacts our realm and spectrum of life choices in other areas of our lives.
• A recent article by USA Today found that the American Dream, loosely defined, costs a typical family of four roughly $130,000 per year. 
• Given that the median US household income is only about $50,000, and declining, at least 50% of American households are probably making less than half of the income needed to live the “American Dream,” according to USA Today. 
• Living the “American Dream” used to be attainable by just about anyone in the country with the will to work hard to attain it. Maybe not so much any more. 
• The supposed economic recovery that followed the Great Recession and began in 2009 has been the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression years of the 1930s and history tells us how depressing and bad those economic times were.

4) A recent article in the Against Crony Capitalism website, written by Nick Sorrentino reported on recent government data that found the weak and badly limping economy has resulted in only 47.7% of adult Americans working full time. Mr. Sorrentino put forth the following opinions and data:

• Loads of Americans people are just barely getting by economically.
• Americans are going into debt to buy food with more than 46 million Americans relying on government food assistance or ripping off the program. 
• With such a bad job situation, many Americans have tried to make a living off of government disability programs, with those programs seeing record applications.
• Workers’ overall wages have been declining in a serious way since 2008 when they are adjusted for inflation. 
• The average American household brings in 7% less in real terms than it did 6 years ago. 
• Many recent college graduates still can’t find jobs and those who do find jobs are often underemployed from either the number of working hours or working in jobs that do not require their college education.

As the number of people working at jobs they like and at wages they can live comfortably with continue to decline, at what point does the economy and society collapse? Since we have already crossed over the 50% threshold, i.e. there are more people not working than who are working, we may be closer to that default and collapse than we think. 

Things are bad and getting worse so ask yourself: do you really think that the fools in Washington, the very same people that got us into this fix with faulty economic policies and economic ignorance, have any chance of somehow miraculously getting smart and wise in our lifetimes? 

More "Bad" tomorrow followed by two days of "Ugly" so hold on.

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