On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political class tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.
Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. This is the third and final post this month 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.
1)Hundreds of times in this blog we have discussed the reality that the Federal government has gotten so big and the politicians and bureaucrats that operate so inept that hordes of billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted every year. Medicare and Social Security fraud, out of control Pentagon spending, stupid foreign aid projects, etc The list of wasted dollars seems endless.
And one of the most recent AND most corrupt government programs was the COVID programs the Federal government put in place to help workers and businesses get through the pandemic crisis. But as always, the wasteful spending and fraud in the COVID crisis was monumental:
In the latest investigation of COVID fraud, the Department of Justice has charged 371 people with defrauding the Federal government via its various COVID relief programs.
The dollar value of this fraud is a mind blowing $836 million.
At least 63 of those 371 people being charged were hardcore gang members.
These latest fraud examples and ripoffs are in addition to the 3,000 individuals that have already been investigated by the Department of Justice with it being estimated that these 3,000 people criminally took $1.4 billion in COVID funds.
A previous investigation found that a single COVID relief program, the Paycheck Protection Program, handed out $200 billion in fraudulent payments.
The folks accused of stealing these taxpayer dollars spent their ill gotten gains on luxury cars, private jets, vacation homes, and other high end products.
In one successful conviction, a real estate agent was given a three year prison sentence for stealing $381,000 to buy a Bentley high end car, an apartment and had plastic surgery done.
The only good news is that 119 people have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of their fraud which led to $231 million being recovered.
The good news is some of the criminals have been found guilty and some of the money returned. But most of the money and most of the criminals will probably never be recovered or prosecuted for their stealing. Another out of control government program that not only wasted taxpayer wealth but prevented these taxpayer dollars from actually helping out people in need during the COVID pandemic.
2)According to research and polling done by the Center Square Voters’ Voice poll:
66% of likely voters say that the country is heading in the wrong direction.
A mere 24% say it is heading in the right direction.
57% of those polled disapprove of the job Biden is doing while 43% approve of his performance.
Potential reasons for the pessimistic results of the poll is that the national debt is nearing $34,000,000,000,000 and Biden's border policies have allowed over 10 million illegal immigrants to enter the country.
The amazing number from this poll is that somehow 43% of those polled actually approve of Biden’s performance, given the economic failures, the immigration failures, and the diplomatic failures of this administration. I challenge anyone to point out anything that Biden has done well, one thing.
3)One reason for Biden’s bad approval numbers is that the real life economic numbers are not good:
Latest unemployment numbers show that the unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in the last month.
This was higher than expected.
Employment fell by 348,000 and the number of unemployed increased by 146,000.
The labor participation rate decreased by 201,000.
The average hourly earnings rose less than expected.
Alfredo Ortiz is the CEO of Job Creators Network and he pointed out that inflation is up almost 20% under Biden and gas prices are up over 50%,
Prices are up, unemployment is up and Biden’s approval numbers are down, the numbers do not lie and the numbers are all related.
4)The following numbers have been reviewed far too many times in this blog:
At any one time, there are likely up to 600,000 homeless Americans living on the streets.
Given food inflation, 17 million Americans are frequently facing food availability crises.
Well over 100,000 Americans are likely to die this year because of drug overdoses, driven by Biden’s porous borders and failed immigration policies.
Despite Obama Care, 26 million Americans do not have health insurance coverage.
And yet, given these millions of Americans in need, the following is being debated in Washington: Biden wants Congress to approve giving $100 billion to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Each one of these countries represents a failed diplomatic effort of the Biden administration.
Think about how many needy Americans could be helped with the $100 billion that Biden needs to cover up his diplomatic failures:
That $100 billion could feed the 600,000 homeless Americans three meals a day for just over 5 years.
That $100 billion could give those 17 million hungry Americans $113 a week to help pay for groceries for a year.
That $100 billion could give drug addiction support and help to 16 million Americans.
That $100 billion could give $3700 to each of those 27 million uninsured Americans to help pay for health insurance.
You get the idea, even if the total $100 billion could not all be distributed to those in need, there has to be a better approach to help Americans than shipping hundreds of billions of dollars around the world.
5)Several members of Congress have seemingly forever been harping on the failed concept of “defunding the police.’ They somehow thought that if police forces were decimated from a personnel and budget perspective, that crime would go down and citizens would be safer.
We now know how stupid that concept is: wherever police forces were defunded, crime and violence skyrocketed and citizens were far less safe. These folks are directly responsible for the unnecessary deaths of people who would likely be alive today if the whole defund the police concept had never taken root in some of our crime riddled cities.
But their hypocrisy on this issue was recently uncovered. While these people have opened up their residents to danger, they were certainly making sure that they themselves would not be exposed to their fallout from defunding the police:
Congresswoman Cori Bush used over $730,000 from her campaign budget to hire private security to protect herself.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used over $270,000 from her campaign coffers to protect herself with private security.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar used over $125,000 to protect herself with private security.
Bush actually paid her husband $75,000 from her campaign budget to pay for private security.
Keep in mind that every Congressional member is provided separate security by U.S. Capitol Police so these expenditures were in addition to their government protection.
Just another example that happens so often with American politicians, “do as I say, not as I do.”
That will do it for today’s numbers: Congressional hypocrisy, sending money everywhere but to needy Americans, Biden’s numbers continue to sink in line with the economy’s, and COVID fraud is an embarrassment to government programs.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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