September, 2016, Part 6, Political Class Insanity: Funding A Billionaire's Dream, Joe Biden Misspeaks Again, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of days needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson.Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) The Freedom Daily website recently discussed a story on a CBS TV Baltimore affiliate story that found 14 people had been arrested for defrauding the Federal government of $16 million in a welfare scam, specifically food stamp/food assistance fraud. 

More than a dozen retail locations were involved in the fraud in the greater Baltimore area. The retailers allegedly received more than $16 million in Federal government payments for ghost transactions in which they did not provide any food. 

Since the American taxpayer pays out more than $74 billion a year on this food assistance program for 45 million Americans who still receive food assistance every month despite Obama’s economic “recovery,” even a small percentage of fraud quickly adds up to billions and billions of dollars across the country. This criminal fraud robs the taxpayers and prevents much support to go to Americans who are truly in need vs. criminal elements who are ripping off the system.

But this crime operation had an additional twist that is unexpected. Scan the names of those arrested and see if you can spot a trend:

• Walayat Khan, 36, of Reisterstown
• Shaheen Tasewar Hussain, 60, of Ellicott City
• Mulazam Hussain, 54, of Windsor Mill
• Mahmood Hussain Shah, 57, of Catonsville
• Muhammad Rafiq, 58, of Reisterstown
• Mohammad Shafiq, 50, of Gwynn Oak, Maryland; and his daughter,
• Alia Shaheen, 24, of Baltimore
• Mohammad Irfan, 59, of Nottingham
• Muhammad Sarmad, 40, of Nottingham
• Kassem Mohammad Hafeed, a/k/a Kassam Mohammad Hafeed, 51, of Baltimore

Is it just me or do the vast majority of these alleged criminals have Muslim names? Are they purely criminals, in it for their own greed, or is some of this money being sent to more nefarious/terrorist elements around the world? In either case, this is not a good situation for taxpayers wallets or possibly their safety.

And by the way, before anyone starts, that Muslim comment above is not racist, it is purely an observation. A criminal and terrorist is a criminal or terrorist, regardless what their name appears to be.

2) Hillary Clinton claimed that she turned over all of her emails to the government but it turns out she did not. 

Hillary Clinton claimed that the 30,000 emails that were erased were private communications between her and her family friends but we now know that they were not. 

Hillary Clinton claimed that she used only one device for emails while Secretary of State but we now know she may have used up to thirteen different devices. 

Hillary Clinton claimed that the Benghazi attack was the result of a YouTube video but we now know she lied about that cause. 

HIllary Clinton claims she had nothing to hide relative to her email history but she used a very sophisticated software program to destroy them and make them untraceable. 

Hillary Clinton had a private email server installed in her home but never told anyone she was using it.

Surely a track record of cover ups and suspicions. And yet, there are still people inside and outside of the political class that claim she is pure as the driven snow when it comes to transparency and honesty. 

The latest person to try this nonsense, according to a Washington Free Beacon article, is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel who recently called hillary Clinton on of the “most transparent” Presidential candidates in history. Emanuel was considered one of the main architects of the Obama Care legislation: “It’s always crazy in this campaign where Donald Trump asks Hillary Clinton to release more information and she’s been one of the most transparent candidates in history, including on the medical history, and you do have to wonder a little bit about what Donald Trump, why he won’t get the same kind of letter and if there’s anything we need to be concerned about.” 

Seriously? Most transparent in history? Has he not been reading the news? But again, maybe he should be excused since in cahoots with MIT economist, Jonathan Gruber, who said that Obama Care was written in the most confusing way possible to ensure that it passed without proper vetting, I would say that Mr. Emanuel has a warped definition of what transparency is. Remember, Nancy Pelosi’s famous Obama Care quote where she said we have to pass the legislation to see what is in it. That is a lack of transparency that did not bother Mr. Emanuel back a few years ago. Insanity.

3) One of famous idiotic quote machines in the political class has always been Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has given us a bunch of head slaps over the years:

• “President Obama's top priority right now is a 3 letter word...JOBS.” 
• "His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's- wait- your mom's still- your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul.'' 
• "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, Look, here's what happened.'' Note: the stock market crashed before FDR became President and there was no TV back then.
• "In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian-Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking.” Now, tell me that wasn’t a racist comment.

Biden was up to his old tricks again recently during a speech he was given at a Hillary Clinton rally. While speaking at the rally, he turned around and pointed to a Secret Service agent standing behind him and stated that the agent held the nuclear weapon launch codes for the country: “There’s a guy that follows me — right back here — has the nuclear codes [as he’s pointing to the man], so God forbid anything happened to the president and I had to make a decision, the codes are with me…he [Trump] is not qualified to know the codes!”

So many things insane here:

• Why would you publicly tell the world and our enemies which guy in his security detail had the nuclear launch codes?
• How is this not a national security screw up or even a treasonous act to tell the world exactly where our nuclear launch codes are?
• Wouldn’t that stupid assertion in public put that agent’s life and his family’s lives in mortal danger from a murder and blackmail perspective?
• Is Biden actually saying that a single agent is walking around in public with the launch codes on him?
• If this agent has the launch codes on his physical body, how is he being protected, he is much more vital and important to the country at that moment than a lame duck Vice President?

Very scary to me to think that we are one heartbeat away from Biden being President of the United States. Very scary.

4) The October, 2016 issue of Reason magazine reminded us that wasteful spending and bad politicians’ priorities are not restricted to Washington. Back 2008, residents of Cobb County, Georgia overwhelming approved the funding of a $40 million bond issue that was to be used to build public parks. Nice idea, properly voted on and approved by the taxpayers who would have to eventually pay off the bond. No problem so far.

But Cobb County is in the greater Atlanta area, home of Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves team. The team plays at Turner field, a stadium that is only twenty years old and against most measures is a perfectly fine and modern facility. 

However, billionaire owner, John Malone, wanted a new, cooler stadium. Rather than paying it for himself or raise the funds himself for the stadium, county politicians decided that they would fund the stadium’s construction with taxpayer funds. They made this decision without allowing citizens to vote on it.

The cost of the this decision is a whopping $400 million in public taxpayer funding. Adding insult to injury, one county politician claimed that spending $300,000 to allow democracy to work and see if the county's citizens wanted to fund a billionaire’s new stadium via an election was too expensive. But when the county’s citizens wanted to fund some parks, the county politicians went ahead with a “too expensive” election. 

And now county residents will have to pay more in taxes since the money that would have been used to fund those parks has been depleted by being spent general tax funds on a private enterprise, the Atlanta Braves and their billionaire owner’s new stadium.

Thus, as often happens when politicians act, the middle class and poor in this country ended up getting screwed while the politicians take care of their rich, crony friends. The Atlanta Braves’ new stadium will serve as an ugly symbol of that reality.

Another day, another creative set of political class insanity. Paying the bills and dreams of billionaires, Joe Biden saying more nonsense that endangers national security, a gross misunderstanding of the word “transparency,” and more welfare fraud that continues to cost taxpayers untold billions of dollars every year. More insanity 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.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

August 2016, Will The Center Hold? Is It Time To Start Ignoring Washington?

On a semi-regular basis, we run a discussion on whether or not “the center will hold?” In other words, what happens if and when Washington issues a law or a decree and the rest of the country simply ignores it, will the center hold? Never in my life have I seen the country so divided and struggling to push back on the over reaching politicians in Washington.

From gun control to school lunches to warrantless spying on citizens to Common Core education standards to health care to many other issues, states and individual citizens are more and more taking formal and informal action and telling Washington types to butt out of our lives, our wallets, and our freedoms. We have gotten to the point where state legislatures are actually passing legislation saying that they will not abide by certain Federal decrees and laws and making such compliance a crime within their state borders.

To review the many previous posts we have done on this question, enter “will the center hold” in the search box above to see the widespread resistance that is building up across the country. For the latest push backs against Washington, continue reading below and you decide: will the center hold?

1) The Obama administration made it very easy for Americans to get Federal government food assistance during the Great Recession which was probably a humane thing to go since so many Americans had lost their jobs. However, after the recession ended, one would have thought that the food stamp/assistance rolls would have declined since Obama bragged that he had saved the U.S. economy from destruction. 

However, from 30 million Americans getting food assistance at the start of the recession, the Federal taxpayer currently still provides over 45 million Americans with food assistance every month. Which means that the economy is not healthy, Obama’s bragging notwithstanding, or there is massive fraud going on that the Obama is doing nothing to stop.

But as we have found out in this series on “will the center hold,” often individual Americans and politicians below the Federal level are actually doing the right thing when it comes to common sense and taxpayer wealth. Nathan Mateer and Rachel Sheffield, writing for the Heritage Foundation, pointed out some of those instances of sanity:

• Seven states decided to reinstate work requirements in order to receive food assistance, a requirement that the Obama administration suspended at the onset of the Great Recession.
• One of those states, Maine, saw its food assistance rolls drop by a whopping 80% within just a few months after re-establishing its work requirements.
• Another of the seven, Kansas, saw its food assistance enrollment go down another whopping 75%.
• A study by Foundation for Government Accountability found that 60% of the Kansas residents who dropped out found employment within twelve months and that “their incomes rose by an average of 127 percent per year.”
• Within six months of putting its work requirements back in effect, Indiana saw its food assistance rolls drop by 68%.
• Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration found that: “Nearly 5,000 Hoosiers who were receiving benefits in July are no longer receiving assistance because they obtained gainful employment and now have an income that exceeds eligibility standards.”

Another example where some state politicians are telling the Federal politicians and Washington bureaucrats to go pound sand and do the right thing, rather than the political thing, saving the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars without putting undue hardship on citizens. 

2) The American News website has our second example of the country telling the Federal government to get away. President Obama has often acted like a five year old when he did not get his way, that others in the world actually had a difference of opinion with him. Unfortunately, rather than act as a leader, Obama often has a temper tantrum and issues an executive order, under cutting the Constitution and our democracy.

Lately, Obama has discussed the distinct possibility that he might issue another executive order to place carbon limits on the country’s use of fossil fuels. But rather than rollover and just accept this tyranny, five state governors immediately spoke up and stated they will oppose any such order. The states pushing back include Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Oklahoma.

Which gets us to the same question we continue to ask in this series of posts: what if Washington issued an edict, passed a law, or signed an executive order and the rest of the country ignored it? Would the center hold?

3) A recent article on the Fix This Nation website gets us back to food assistance and how the states are pushing back on Washington. Back on January 1, 2016, the state of Alabama had 49,000 of its residents signed up for Federal food assistance. Half a year later, after the state politicians reinstated a work requirement in most counties, that 49,000 number has plummeted to only 15,375 still on the program. This action has saved the taxpayers over $6 million.

Thus, we have another state that is bucking the trend of the Federal government by making common sense changes to its food assistance programs and seeing dramatic results without the backlash of people starving in the streets. Makes you wonder why Obama and the rest of the Washington political class are not doing the same thing if they had protecting taxpayer wealth as a priority, which they obviously do not.

4) Several months ago, the Obama administration put out a directive to all public schools in the country, strongly suggesting that all public schools in America allow transgender students access to the bathroom or locker room matching their gender identity on any particular day. This edict would allow teenage boys to declare that they are females anytime they wanted and gain access to girls' school restrooms, locker rooms, and teams.

This is obviously a huge social and moral issue, which was not an issue until the Obama administration decided to make it one. An issue this big should be part of a national discussion and the creation of appropriate laws on the issue once it is discussed and debated. That is how it is supposed to work in a free country. 

But apparently not on Obama's watch. As he is prone to do, if he does not get his way, he pouts, blames others for his lack of leadership, and tries to get around rules and laws with executive orders and these types of edicts. Well, as with other issues that states and individuals are pushing back on from an overreaching Federal government, many states and their governors are not going to go along with such dictatorial approaches to life and bathroom usage.

As of a couple of months ago, 11 states had already banned together to defy the Obama transgender bathroom “suggestion” in a joint lawsuit. Those states include:

• Texas
• Alabama
• Wisconsin
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• Oklahoma
• Louisiana
• Utah
• Georgia
• Maine Governor Paul LePage
• Arizona Department of Education

A sample of the reasons for the pushback and lawsuit include the following:

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the Obama administration of “creating new law outside the bounds of the Constitution.”
• Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, wrote in an open letter: “The letter and its demands are an unconstitutional abuse of authority by your executive branch. It is a blatant attempt to change established law, which is a function reserved for the legislative branch by the Constitution. By threatening local school districts with the loss of federal funding, your administration is seizing local control from public schools while threatening the privacy rights of Missouri students. Further, the demands set forth in the letter directly violate the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which states that those powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people.”

As you can see, it appears that many local politicians and other Americans outside of the Washington area have a far better grasp of the Constitution than Obama and the other political cronies inside the Beltway. Just another example where this administration wastes its time on unnecessary and probably un-Constitutional activities where other major important issues of our times go unaddressed and are allowed to fester or grow worse.

That will do it for this round of “will the center hold.” State governments pushing back on Federal intrusions into their business and the freedom and liberty of its citizens, from bathroom policy to food stamp fraud and waste to the environment. We have a system of government that was established by the Constitution. But the Washington political class, and this administration in particular, seem to think that they can do whatever they want whenever they want in whatever aspect of their lives they so deem. 

But as we have pointed out dozens of times, the rest of the country is starting to resist this overreach. Which always brings us back to our central question: what if Washington issued a law, edict, or executive order and the rest of the country simply ignored it? That day seems to be coming closer and closer.

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

March, 2016, Part 2, By The Numbers: Bad Economic Management, Bad Immigration Management, and More

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American political 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) Although Obama might claim he did a great job managing the economy, Stephen Rowe, writing for the website www.hypeline.org, throws a lot of cold water on that false claim:

• Americans receiving food assistance every month from the Federal government have exceeded 45 million for 56 straight months.
• The latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 45,188,655 Americans were receiving food assistance in December, 2015, down from 265,216 in November, 2015.
• When food assistance tracking began in 1969, the average number of Americans in the program was just under 2.9 million. 
• That 2.9 million has grown 1,470% since then even though the U.S. population since that time has grown nowhere near that fast.
• Today, the food assistance Federal program costs American taxpayers $5.73 billion a month.

Either the food assistance program run by the Obama administration is the most corrupt and inefficient program ever or the economy still really stinks, the numbers show that something is foul in the food assistance program.

2) Obama also claims that his administration has done a great job in enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. This is an almost laughable claim, at least according to the numbers of illegal immigrants currently in the country. Paul Bedard, writing for the Washington Examiner on March 7, 2016, quantified the problem with his claim:

• There is a record 61 million immigrants living in the U.S. today.
• A whopping 25% of them, 15.7 million, are here illegally.
• The 15.7 million estimate, this one from the Center For Immigration Studies, is one of the highest estimates ever.
• Their analysis was based on researching the latest 2015 Census information.
• Immigrants are now 18.9% of the nation’s total population, up from 6.6% in 1970.
• Steven Camarota, the Center For immigration Studies, raises a very valid question and issue based on the latest immigration numbers: "These numbers raise profound questions that are seldom even asked: What number of immigrants can be assimilated? What is the absorption capacity of our schools, health care system, infrastructure, and labor market? What is the effect on the environment and quality of life from significantly increasing the nation's population density? "With 45 million legal immigrants and their young children already here, does it make sense to continue admitting more than one million new legal permanent immigrants every year?" 
• In 1970, there was one immigrant for every 15 native Americans.
• In 2015, there was one immigrant for every five native Americans.

This is what the immigration debate should be based on, 1) the number of illegal immigrants in the country and how to handle them and 2) is there a functional limit on how many more immigrants, legal and illegal, the country handle? 

3) Obama also likes to claim that he “saved” the country’s economy. He seems to forget or ignore a few basic numbers:

• Over 14 million Americans who want full time work still cannot find it, settling for part time work or not able to find any work.
• The labor participation rate has been lingering at 40 year lows, not good news.
• Over 90 million adults are no longer in the labor force, record highs.
• Household wages and income has been stagnant despite being years removed from the recession.
• The unemployment rate of minorities and younger Americans continue to significantly exceed the unemployment rate of whites.
• Annual national economic growth during the Obama recovery has not come close to the long term historical annual growth rates.

Now, his supporters often claim that the Obama and administration has created a lot of new jobs since the recession ended. But the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly results, for February, 2016, show how weak these created jobs are. The latest job creation numbers include the following results:

• Mining -18,000
• Manufacturing -16,000
• Trucking -5,000
• Finance +6,000
• Leisure and hospitality +48,000
• Retail trade +55,000
• Education and health +86,000

Thus, higher paying jobs, e.g. mining, manufacturing, trucking, and even finance, show minimal or negative job growth in February. Lower paying jobs and industries, e.g. retail and leisure, saw much higher job growth. So even when Obama has good economic news it is bad economic news, according to the job numbers.

4) The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently put forth its latest view of the Federal government’s budgeting and debt performance and as always, it is not good as the Washington political and the Obama administration continue to spend like drunken sailors, adding trillions of dollars to the country’s debt burden:

• The rate and cost of government spending, if not changed, will grow much faster than the overall economy, putting even more financial pressure on an ever growing national debt.
• For example, Federal government spending will grow by 6% this year, almost three times faster than the overall economy.
• A huge portion of this growth is solely due to Social Security payment increases as Baby Boomers retire.
• Social Security is now on sixth of the entire Federal government’s mandatory spending budget, a massive wealth redistribution scheme from the young to the old.
• The 2016 Federal budget is about $3.9 TRILLION, an incredible $11 billion a DAY!
• The Federal deficit for 2016 is projected to be a whopping $544 billion. That is nearly 3 percent of GDP, making this the first time since 2009 that the deficit has risen in relation to the size of the economy.
• Much like during the Obama administration, unless Washington changes the growth in spending trend, upwards of $10 TRILLION more dollars will be added to the national debt in the next ten years, assuming that the country does not go bankrupt long before then, a large probability.
• This increase in annual deficits and national debt will drive the amount of debt held by the public to 86% of GDP within 10 years, the highest level since World War II:

• Note how the debt percentage has skyrocketed since Obama came into office and proceeded to run up trillion dollar deficits for four years in a row.

Despite the government spending more and more every year, way beyond its means and revenue stream, the economy has staggered, food assistance levels are up to over 45 million a month, wages and household incomes have flatlined and job growth has been tepid and in the wrong kind of industries, the kind that do not provide solid middle class life styles.So as we have always said, we continue to add trillions of dollars to our national debt and have nothing to show for it in return except the every growing possibility of insolvency and financial collapse, the CBO numbers do not lie.Bad economic management,bad immigration management, and bad food assistance management. Bad, bad, bad, the numbers prove the point over and over. More numbers next month.

The States Are Succeeding Where Washington Continues to Fail Miserably, Part 2

We are always pointing out the the overwhelming and wasteful spending of the Federal government and the Washington political class have us on a debt trajectory that will likely crash the financial stability of the Federal government, our economy and our freedoms in a relatively short time frame unless government spending and waste can be brought under control very soon. Just in the seven plus years of the Obama administration, the national debt has grown about $8 TRILLION and 80%. By the time Obama leaves office, his administration will likely have incurred debt levels equal to ALL previous Presidential administrations COMBINED.

This debt accumulation cannot go on forever. The best illustration of how bad it will become and how soon it will happen is shown by the following chart from the Cato organization. Keep in mind that according to the White House budget website and spreadsheet, Federal government tax revenues in 2017 from all sources is expected to be just under $3.755 TRILLION:



A few observations:

• According to chart, by 2017 the Federal government will spend just over $2 TRILLION just on these three government programs. 
• This is a whopping 55% of the entire Federal tax stream.
• This leaves only 45% of the tax stream to pay for the rest of the current Federal government’s activities including military, transportation, housing, food stamps/assistance, education, border patrol, etc.
• But it gets worse. If we assume that the Federal government’s tax stream grows 3% a year, the long term growth in GDP, then by 2025 the Federal tax stream would be about $4.757 TRILLION. 
• Cato estimates that by 2025 these three programs will pay out $3.337 TRILLION which will eat up a whopping 70% of the Federal government revenue stream. 
• And this is probably a low ball estimate since the Washington political class has not shown the ability to grow the economy by at least three percent for at least the length of the Obama administration.

Despite this reality, there has been no trace of the ability or willingness to do something about the situation from Washington politicians. No discussion, no debate, no policy proposals, nothing. Nothing on how to change what is being done now, nothing on how to cleanup the massive amount of fraud and inefficiencies in these programs, etc. 

Of course, Washington will likely at some point say that higher taxes, rather than reduced spending and the eliminating of criminal fraud and waste, will resolve all of the problems illustrated above. The problem with that approach is two fold:

• The more Americans are taxed, the less they have to spend and grow the economy. As economic growth slows down as the tax burden increases, the Federal government tax stream starts to slow down or actually decrease, leaving us exactly where we were to start with.
• Second, increasing the tax burden decreases the amount of freedom that Americans deserve and desire. You cannot have political and real freedom without financial freedom and as the tax freedom day gets further and further out each year, that restriction on the amount of our earnings and wages we can keep further restricts the amount of everyday freedom we can enjoy.

If all of this sounds pessimistic and fatalistic to you, than you are getting it. Obviously Washington politicians are not getting it even when such harrowing numbers and realities are right in front of their face.

But let’s try to stay optimistic today and tomorrow. Believe it or not, there actually are politicians in this country that are trying to get out of control government spending and entitlements under control. Unfortunately, none of them are in Washington. They are scattered across the country in state government positions who realize that the spending and gouging of taxpayers has to be brought under control soon or the entire economy, financial stability, and freedoms of the country will implode.

Yesterday we started to salute their brave efforts in this area and hope that somehow their efforts eventually take hold in Washington, an effort we continue today.

1) Yesterday, we reviewed how Georgia and Michigan were making great strides in getting welfare fraud and crimes under control to the benefit of taxpayers and those that truly need society’s help and compassion. 

Let’s kickoff today’s salute with a review of what is going on in Wisconsin. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker recently signed an administrative rule that will require drug testing for welfare recipients. According to an article by the Western Journalism website: “The rule was written by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and requires testing for "certsain able-bodied adults" receiving welfare benefits — such as food stamps, unemployment insurance, or job training — to pass a drug test, according to The Capital Times."

At the same time, the state put in place drug treatment opportunities for those state citizens that need help kicking the habit. But the message is clear in Wisconsin: welfare is not a career and free ride, there is a degree of responsibility involved in order to take taxpayer wealth. The hope as that by limiting the free ride of welfare and getting people off of drugs, they will be able to pass drug tests that prevent them from filling available employment opportunities within the state. 

Thus, everyone wins when government acts rationally: taxpayers save money, people get off drugs and get healthy, and the economy now has additional workers to fill existing job openings. At least 13 states are following this logical and sound approach to governing in this area: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Eighteen other states have similar efforts and legislation pending.

Despite how simple and elegant this solution is, believe it or not, Federal government officials are trying to block the Wisconsin effort in Federal court. Guess they think it is best for people to stay drug addicted, unemployed and welfare dependent.

2) Missouri politicians are attacking food stamp/assistance waste by trying to prevent food stamp recipients from using taxpayer wealth via the food assistance program from buying lobster and sushi with their food stamps. A proposed piece of legislation would prevent the purchase with food stamps of "cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood or steak."

Rick Brattin, a state politician who is sponsoring the legislation says that, "The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original intent, which is nutrition assistance." His intent is to ban the buying of luxury foods with food stamps that are financed by taxpayers who themselves might not be able to afford luxury food items. 

Banning the purchasing of junk food like cookies, soda, and chips is also consistent with Michelle Obama’s attempt to have Americans eat healthier, something that does not include cookies, soda, and chips.

Again welfare, including food assistance, should not be a lifestyle choice, it should be a support mechanism to help people facing a rough patch in their lives. Crab legs, lobster, sushi, and junk food should not be part of a diet that is supported by taxpayer money. 

3) Pennsylvania politicians are also getting involved in the whole food assistance program review and tightening. Their recent efforts include the following aspects:

• The state government is about to start enforcing existing regulations that require food stamp beneficiaries to work if they are able bodied to do so in order to stay in the program.
• This could affect upwards of 30,000 state residents who currently are able to work but don’t and still get food assistance every month.
• The work requirements were suspended as a result of the Great Recession but since Obama and other liberals state the economy is in fine shape, Pennsylvania is now starting to re-enforce the existing work requirements.
• These requirements mean that certain individuals will again be subject to a three-month limit on food assistance, after which they would be required to work, volunteer or attend a work-training program for a minimum 20 hours a week in order to maintain benefits.
• The requirements exclude anyone who is over age 50, who are disabled, or caring for minor children.
• The action will not be enforced evenly across the state since it will be more lenient in geographic areas that still struggling with higher unemployment.
• North Carolina is doing the same thing, starting in 2016, and is also being sensitive to high unemployment areas.
• In North Carolina, upwards of half of the state's food assistance recipients could be affected.

Again, two examples of state politicians stepping up and trying to get out of control government welfare spending under control by enforcing existing laws to get able bodied people to take control of their lives and start contributing to society rather than living off of society. These efforts are being done with a degree of compassion, considering geographic realities and family and age realities.

4) And finally, conisder what a local politician in Maine is trying to doing relative to welfare recipients. Mayor Robert Macdonald of Lewiston, Maine says that the taxpayer public has a right to know who is living of off taxpayer wealth via welfare programs and how much they are making in welfare payments. Besides putting a 60 month lifetime cap on welfare recipients, he wants to publicly publish what those welfare recipients are receiving.

His reasoning is logical and actually quite elegant. Given that the information of everyone in the state of Maine who receives a state pension has that income information published in the public domain, his reasoning is why should welfare recipients not face the same scrutiny? Why should their welfare income information be protected and kept secret while the income information of state pensioners be public information? 

He put forth his reasoning as follows: “Yes, I am referring to those known as welfare recipients. Why are they treated differently than pensioners? Our liberal, progressive legislators and their social-service allies have made them a victimized, protected class. It’s none of your business how much of your money they get and spend. Who are you to question it? Just shut up and pay! Well, the days of being quiet are gone, After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent.”

He wants a state law passed that would create a website listing every recipient’s name, address, time on assistance and amount received. His reasoning is that making this information public would also help identify and crackdown on welfare program abuse. He feels that it is a government transparency issue, a view that is certainly consistent with Obama’s promise to operate the most transparent Presidential administration ever.

That will do it for now. Two days of actual state and local politicians actually trying to do the right thing: protect taxpayer wealth, aid people who are down on their luck while encouraging them in various ways to become contributing members of society again vs. continuing dependents of society. They are doing it in stern but fair and compassionate ways. 

If only Washington politicians had the moxy and guts to do the same on the massive Federal government welfare programs that are about to implode our democracy and financial way of life, sooner rather than later, while creating a permanent dependent class of citizens and unfortunately, voters.

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

November, 2015, Part 2, By The Numbers: The Ecoomy Stinks and These Federal Reserve Charts Prove It

This is the second post among a few days worth of discussion of “by the numbers.” We do this theme occasionally where we look at the reality of the numbers in the world and not the lies, deceptions, and spin of the American political class. I used to work for a boss whose favorite quote was: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.”By looking at the statistics, trends, and numbers in our world we can cut through the politicians’ smoke screen to truly understand what is going on and hopefully, remedy the issues of the day.The numbers we will look at this week will often have a common thread running almost through all of them: the views, positions, and opinions of the majority of Americans are often the exact opposite of the views and related actions that our politicians own. Since we are supposed to be living in a representative government system one would hope that the laws, rules, and government functions that our politicians oversee reflect the thinking, hopes, and views of the American citizenry.As the numbers will usually show, that is nowhere close to reality, which I think reflects two underlying negative trends:

• American politicians vote and act for their own personal interests first, Americans’ interests and well being being of secondary consideration. If a politician’s actions can get them more votes or more campaign cash for their perpetual reelection campaigns, than that is their priority, usually not the priorities of their constituents.
• Second, I personally believe that today’s American politicians take care of their special interest friends and financiers first and foremost, and the interests of those special interest friends (e.g.unions, corporations, lobbyists, etc.) are usually not in alignment with what the majority of Americans have as their priorities.

Keep these two possibilities in mind as we go “by the numbers” for the next few days and try to show the major disconnect between what Americans want and what politicians are doing:Yesterday, we reviewed the latest monthly economic statistics from the Federal government. Although there were a few glimmers of economic hope, for the most part those glimmers are still being overwhelmed by the overall economic situation:

• The labor participation rate is still bouncing around at the same low levels not seen for the past four decades. 
• Almost 14 million Americans are either unemployed or are working at part time jobs even though they would prefer full time jobs. 
• Minority unemployment rates are still much higher than the total national unemployment rate. 
• Over 45 million Americans are still receiving Federal food assistance every month.

These are the short term economic results and numbers. They are not good. But the Daily Caller recently published some long term trend data from the Federal Reserve Board and guess what: the long term economic results and numbers are just as bad. Let’s see what they are telling us:1) We have already pointed out that the Obama administration’s mishandling of the Federal government’s budget has already increased the national debt level by about 80% and will likely at least double it by the time Obama leaves office. In other words, Obama will add more to the national debt than ALL previous Presidencies combined.And not only is the total debt increasing, but the debt load as a percentage of annual GDP has also skyrocketed, according to the Federal Reserve. The sad news is that not only did it jump during the recession, but it kept going up once the recession ended (click on the graph for a larger view):2) The Federal Reserve pumped fake, printed money into the economy to try and get the recovery underway. Unfortunately they kept pumping money into the economy even when the recession ended, increasing the money in the economy by ten fold. At some point, that much paper money will come back on an inflation tear:

3) Somehow, and this is probably not easy, the Obama administration’s economic policies have somehow managed to reduce the median weekly earnings of average Americans AFTER the recession ended, dropping so far down that today’s median average wages are about where they were thirteen years ago in 2002.

4) As we discussed yesterday, the Civilian Labor Force Participation Rate is at levels not since the dark economic days of the Carter administration. And even worse, the Obama administration’s economic policies have accelerated the drop in the participation rate AFTER the recession ended.

5) Although workers’ portion of the economy has been slowly declining over time, that trend accelerated during the Bush administration, paused during the recession, and then plunged again during the Obama administration AFTER the recession ended.



That will do it for today. We will finish the remaining Fed trend charts tomorrow. But the results and conclusions from those charts will not reach a different conclusion than this: the Obama administration, the current Congressional members, and Federal bureaucrats have saddled us with tremendous amounts of debt, stagnant wages, and tepid job creation. Seems you could not do a worse job managing the economy if you were trying to scew things up.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.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

November, 2015, Part 1, By The Numbers: Economic Numbers Still Reek

This is the first post this month as we continue our periodic discussion of “by the numbers.” We do this theme occasionally where we look at the reality of the numbers in the world and not the lies, deceptions, and spin of the American political class. I used to work for a boss whose favorite quote was: “There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.” By looking at the statistics, trends, and numbers in our world we can cut through the politicians’ smoke screen to truly understand what is going on and hopefully, remedy the issues of the day.

The numbers we will look at this week will often have a common thread running almost through all of them: the views, positions, and opinions of the majority of Americans are often the exact opposite of the views and related actions that our politicians own. Since we are supposed to be living in a representative government system one would hope that the laws, rules, and government functions that our politicians oversee reflect the thinking, hopes, and views of the American citizenry.

The latest monthly economic results are out and for the most part they still stink, a reality that seems to occur to the Obama economic realities every month. And while some people might try real hard to find some good news in the latest monthly statistics and numbers, the overall picture continues to be gloomy for the national economy and Americans, as we continue to suffer through the worst economic recovery for a very long time:

• The good news, if there is any, is that the Feds estimate that nonfarm employment increased by 271,000 in October, more than what was expected, higher than the past several months and higher than the 12 month average of 230,000.
• The other bit of faux good news is that the “official” unemployment rate is still at around 5.0%. However, as we will see shortly, this “official” unemployment rate is becoming more and more obsolete as more and more Americans become too discouraged to even look for a job and drop out of the workforce, skewing the official unemployment rate lower than it has been historically, as measured by the labor force participation rate.
• The official number of unemployed Americans was unchanged at a whopping 7.9 million people. This does not include those folks that have left the workforce because of discouragement in looking for a job.
• The number of long term (out of a job for more than 27 weeks) unemployed Americans was unchanged at 2.1 million.
• The critical measurement of labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.4% as it continues to bump along at depressing low levels not seen since the Carter Presidency years almost 40 years ago.
• The employment-population ratio was stuck at depressing low level of 59.3%, basically unchanged over the past year according to the government analysis and write up.
• The number of people employed part time for “economic reasons,” i.e. involuntary part time workers who would like a fulltime job but cannot find one, dropped a little to finish at 5.8 million Americans in October. 
• Over the past year this category of has decreased by 1.2 million people which is good news if they got full time jobs or bad news if they got so discouraged that they completely dropped out of the workforce.
• Thus, between the totally unemployed and the involuntary part time employed, there are almost 14 million (13.7) Americans who cannot find a full time job they want. This does NOT include the millions that have dropped out of the workforce altogether.
• The overall African-American unemployment rate was 9.2% in October, almost double the total unemployment rate of 5.0% and definitely more than double the rate of white unemployment rate of 4.4%.
• The unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans was about 25% higher than the total unemployment rate, 6.3%.

Here’s the thing about the supposedly good monthly job numbers over the past year. If the average number of new jobs created per month was 230,000, than over the past year the Obama economic policies generated about 2.76 million nonfarm jobs. However, over the past five years or so, the U.S. adult population has grown about by about 2.5 million adults every year. 

So at best, at a run rate of 230,000 jobs a month, the number of new jobs barely beat out the number of incremental adults in the population by about 300,000. At this rate, it would take about 46 years to get those 13.7 million unemployed or involuntary part time employed to find a full time job, assuming no currently employed people lost their jobs and we do not get hit with a recession in those 46 years. (13.7 million divided by the incremental 300,000 jobs created per year beyond the growth in adults in the country is 46 years).

I know that that the previous calculation is little nonsensical but it does illustrate how sluggish and anemic the Obama economy is and has been. And if the above government results and my calculations do not convince you, consider that there are STILL over 45 million Americans receiving Federal government food assistance every month. Nothing says a bad economy like having about 14% of your population in danger of having a food shortage every month.

That’s enough numbers for today. While the numbers are a little better this month from an economic perspective, they still stink overall as we continue to suffer from economic ignorance and idiocy from the Washington political class. More numbers to follow 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:

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