The Abysmal Fiscal and Financial Skills Of American Politicians

We have often discussed how absolutely horrid the American political class has been in managing the fiscal affairs at all levels of government in this country:

• The Washington political class has run up a whopping $20 TRILLION in national debt, doubling the debt in just the eight years of the Obama administration.
• The per person Federal debt comes out to roughly a $61,000 debt burden for every man, woman, and child in this country, or almost a quarter of million dollars for a family of four.
• Just the three state governments of Illinois, New Jersey, and California have hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities coming due in the coming years.
• The state government of Illinois is so dysfunctional that they have not been able to pay out state lottery winners due to their budget crisis even though they continue to sell state lottery tickets, a bait and switch strategy that would get everyone else thrown in jail for running such a fraudulent scam.
• Local governments across the country like Detroit, Michigan and Stockton, California have filed for bankruptcy protection since they already could not meet their fiscal obligations and promises.
• And Puerto Rico was a financial and economic basket case before it was devastated by Hurricane Marie.

What often happens is that these politicians at each level of government get themselves and their constituents into a death spiral: they need more tax revenue to fund the financial promises they made which depresses economic growth which reduces tax revenue which results in higher tax rates which depresses economic growth more, etc., etc.

We recently came across a useful analysis from the League Of Power website by Mark Patricks which offered the following question and then proceeded to try and answer that question: “Which American Cities and States Will File Bankruptcy Next?” His analysis updated many of the discussion we have had and have listed above on how the political class are pretty inane and useless when it comes to fiscal sanity:

• The state of Illinois recently raised its state income tax 32% as it has entered into the fiscal death spiral.
• The unfunded government liabilities, outside of the Federal $20 TRILLION national debt, is between $5 and $8 TRILLION, a hole that even massive tax increases may not resolve.
• Political promises are so bad in Chicago that over 60% of the city’s tax revenues goes solely to supporting the pension requirements of retired city workers and the city’s massive debt load, leaving less than 40% of the tax revenue to be used for schools, roads, etc.
• According to the article, “Lubbock, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Honolulu, Hawaii; Dallas, Texas; Oakland, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles also have huge liabilities that are just under the range of Chicago's.”
• In each of these cities, at least 50% of their tax revenue is used to fund their city’s past promises on pensions and for debt payment.
• JP MorganChase says that any city with a figure of more than 30% of their tax revenue being used for pensions and debt management will find it difficult to invest in infrastructure, bond repayment, pensions, non-pension spending, and other expenses.
• JP MorganChase estimates that the city of Honolulu could only fix its budget problems with at least a 30% hike in taxes or a 76,000% increase in worker pension contributions, either of which will likely never happen in time to avoid an eventual fiscal implosion.
• City government pensions in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh are considered by JP MorganChase to be in “crisis” mode since their future pension payouts are funded at 55% or less with Chicago’s funded pension payouts are only at 23%, a level that will drop to a mere 15% in 10 years if nothing is changed.
• A study by the moving company, United Van Lines, found that the top six states with the highest out migration rates have an average taxpayer burden that is five times higher than the nine states with the highest in migration rates, which is part of the death spiral discussed above: the higher the taxes the more likely citizens will move to more tax-friendly states which leaves their past states with a smaller tax base which requires higher tax rates which drives up more out migration and the death spiral is in place.
• Chicago was found to have the highest out migration rate, not surprising given its putrid fiscal situation and high tax rates.
• Not only is Chicago in an out migration and economic death spiral, but the whole state of Illinois is in the same condition, having led the country in the out migration rate for three years in a row.
• But this situation in Illinois is not surprising since Forbes ranked Illinois as having the 46th worst tax burden in the country BEFORE the state raised income tax rates 32%.
• In lower taxed northwestern Indiana, on the Illinois border, home construction was up 19% in 2016 while in Cook County, Illinois, home of Chicago, home construction is down 6%.
• As people have migrated out of Chicago, home values have dropped leaving the city with one of the highest rates in the country for mortgages being “under water,” i.e. the amount of mortgage owed is more than the value of the homes.

Economic death spirals all over the country as people decide how best to keep their hard earned money away from politicians that have over promised goodies to their voting blocs over the years without regard to the fiscal consequences. And people will do what is best for themselves and their families and move to situations where they get to keep more of what they earned.

The really sad part of the whole fiscal insanity of American politicians is that while we have these mountains of debt we have nothing to show for it. Our roads, bridges, and dams are falling apart across the country. Our public schools still under educate our kids. Our electric grid is outdated and subject to attack and disruption. Our social welfare programs, Social Security, Obama Care, Medicare, and Medicaid, are rushing quickly into insolvency. We have no national energy strategy or plan to make us energy independent. We have not cured the major diseases of our times including cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia illnesses, Parkinson’s disease, etc. We have nothing despite the tens of trillions of dollars in debt.

So don’t worry about Trump and the Russians. Don’t worry about Hillary and the Russians. Don’t worry about any other issue at the state, local, or Federal levels. Because unless we fix our debt problem very soon, that dam is going to break and the red ink that it is holding it back will wipe out every other paltry political issue that exists today.

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

The Political Climate of Hate and Hostility that Obama, Not Trump, Created in America

At end of December, 2015, we did four posts in which I discussed the very bad memories I will have from the first seven years of Obama’s Presidency. They ranged from failed programs to out of control spending to outright lawbreaking. The first of those four posts can be seen at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-obama-era-part-1-memories-from.html

But two months later I realized that those four posts came up short. I needed another two posts to cover all of the bad memories and failings of what I consider the worst Presidency of my lifetime. The first of those two posts can be seen at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-obama-era-part-5-memories-from.html

But recent events lead me to do another post on this theme, the bad memories of a bad Presidency. Last week Donald Trump had to cancel a campaign rally in Chicago because people opposed to his Presidential run threatened violence and disturbances. Trump heeded the advice of law enforcement and cancelled the rally. 

This led Obama to criticize Trump and his rhetoric and accuse Trumpo of causing the unrest, which of course is totally false. The unrest was caused by professional civil disturbers and unpatriotic Americans who wanted to disrupt and prevent the expression of First Amendment rights of people who had a different opinion than theirs.

But I found it so ironic and ignorant of this President accusing someone else of having hateful rhetoric. This President, numerous times, as you will see below, has been either a major instigator of violent rhetoric or stood by and gave his tacit and implicit approval of violent political rhetoric directed at ordinary Americans who had a difference of opinion relative to his policies. Him accusing Trump of violent rhetoric is so hypocritical as to be pathetic.

So let’s see what this “non-violent” President has said or implicitly approved of in the past when it comes to violent oratory:

1) Politico reported during Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign against McCain that Obama said the following during a campaign event in Philadelphia: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.” So, don’t like someone else’s position on an issue? Make sure that you get into a brawl with that person and make sure you are more heavily armed. A little violent Mr. President? Guns, knives, brawls?

The fact that Black Panthers patrolled outside of polling stations in Philadelphia during Presidential voting in 2008 may have been a result of Obama’s inciting a brawl to his supporters in Philly.

2) In another campaign stop in 2008, Obama incited his followers with following obnoxious and aggressive rhetoric: “I need you to go out and talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors...I want you to argue with them, get in their faces...you guys are the ones who can make the change." “Get in their faces,” sounds a lot aggressive and violent to me. 

3) Remember when Obama told his supporters that “we need to punish our enemies”: "If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies, and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us' -- if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election -- then I think it's going to be harder. And that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2nd….“Those aren’t the kinds of folks who represent our core American values.” 

Let me interpret:

• Political enemies need to be destroyed.
• We will reign supreme and take care of those that helped vanquish our enemies.
• Those that disagree with us do not matter, they do not represent American values, they are superfluous and need to be wiped out.

That is basically what he was saying, wipe them out, they are not like us, punish them for simply having a difference of opinion.

4) For those of you who do not understand what and who created the conditions for the Great Recession, I refer you to a comprehensive history of how the Democrats created the conditions for the Great Recession:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/who-really-caused-great-recession-part.html

And whatever you think of Bush, understand that his administration saw the impending recession coming long before it hit, but Democrats in Congress constantly blocked many Bush attempts to fix the housing bubble that eventually imploded the entire economy:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2009/08/blame-game-part-2.html

Combine these discussion with the reality that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress leading up to the Great Recession, trying to put the entire responsibility for the Great Recession on Republicans is pretty weak and illogical. Which is exactly what Obama teried to do when he basically told Republicans to get the f out of the way as he swoops in to fix what he and the Democrats had a big hand in breaking: “But I don't want the folks [Republicans] who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking.” In other words, shut up and get out of my way. Somewhat violent, aggressive, and condescending, don’t you think?

5) But it was not just Republicans who felt the wrath of Obama’s violent rhetoric and the consequences when his supporters followed up with violence and aggression of their own. Consider some instances of Obama supporter violence examples from an American Thinker website article back in the 2008 Presidential campaign that was directed both at Republicans and Democrats: 

• Dr. Lynette Long, a one time Hillary Clinton supporter, compiled video testimonials of how Obama supporters had abused and aggressively acted against Clinton supporters.
• Her video contained dozens of instances where mostly middle women were accosted and yelled at obscenely by Obama supporters in state caucuses back in 2008.
• Female Clinton supporters claim that there were called c***s, and other sexual names, that they were spit on by Obama supporters, physically threatened with violence amidst an overall environment of open hostility.
• The article also discusses the incident when women supporting McCain were accosted on the street during a peaceful demonstration in support of McCain where Obama supporters came by, calling the women c***s, white whores, and stupid bitches. 
• Besides the verbal abuse, the article claims and witnesses to the harassment claim that the young Obama supporters also shoved them physically.
• Nowhere in the article or anywhere online coudl I find where Obama or any of his handlers came out and demanded this thuggery stop and that the behavior of his supporters be much less aggressive and violent and abusive.

That will do it for today but as you can see, Obama helped create the environment that he now lectures Trump on. Calling women c***s, whores, telling Americans to get out of the way, telling Americans you they need to be punished, telling Americans that they are the enemy, telling his supporters to bring guns and knives to a brawl, telling his supporters to get in others faces. That is the hateful environment that Obama created, lecturing others is so hypocritical and such an absence of leadership.

Unfortunately we will need to do another post tomorrow since we are not yet done on the hateful rhetoric and hateful quotes that this President has encouraged, spoken, and allowed.

Note: to see the video clips where the President actually puts forth this violent rhetoric in his own words go to:

http://constitution.com/remembering-the-five-times-obama-incited-violence-against-republicans/

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

Part 3, The Lamest Washington Politicians Of All Time: In Their Own Words

We have spent the past two days reviewing some of the funnier, sadder, and more insane political quotes from our current set of politicians. This review has been keeping with our theory that we are currently being served by the lamest set of politicians in Washington in the history of our country. They somehow keep drawing high salaries and high benefits without ever resolving a single major issue facing the country.

Their ineptness is easily illustrated by their own words. Politicians that have no concept of simple math, e.g. you cannot have more people losing their jobs every week than which live in the country (Nancy Pelosi). 

Politicians that would rather see American citizens who differing views from them on a issues “go to hell” rather than have a civilized, adult conversation about those issues (Maxine Walters). 

Politicians that have no accurate concept of American history, e.g. Joe Biden who thinks that FDR went on television when the Great Depression hit, not knowing that the Great Depression hit before he was in office and before TV was more than a lab experiment.

Nowhere have we been able to find a recent politician’s quote that offered hope, change, insight, and solutions to our problems. All great American political quotes are attributable to politicians/leaders that lived long ago, e.g. Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Kennedy, etc. It could be that great leaders have greats words to say and great quotes and that is why we cannot find any form the current set of politicians running the country.

Unfortunately, we could not get all of the inane and stupid quotes into only two posts and need today to finish the job…for now. I am sure more evidence of the ineptness of the current political class will come forth, to be reviewed here, in the coming months.

One disclaimer before we finish up with up. I am sure that my liberal friends and family members will eventually tell me that I am biased in that I did not include George Bus quotes, Sarah Palin quotes, Mitt Romney quotes, etc. And they would be correct, I purposely omitted their quotes but for good reason.  Bush, Palin, Romney, etc. are no longer in office and are unlikely to be in public/political office anytime soon. 

They have really no impact on my life, my family, and my freedoms. Thus, I do not worry about what they say or think. I only worry about the knuckleheads that are in office today because every day, they negatively impact my life, my family, and my freedom at an alarming rate. Their incompetence deserves to be called out, using their own words. For all to see how poorly they are serving every one in this country.

Okay, let’s finish up the latest uncovered insanity quotes from the current political class.

1) ''I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.'' Former U.S. Senator and current Secretary of State John Kerry, on voting against a military funding bill for U.S. troops in Iraq, March 19, 2004. I guess he has all the bases covered and thus, cannot be wrong.

2) ''Our economy, I think, is still -- the fundamentals of our economy are strong.'' Senator John McCain on September 15, 2008. Shortly thereafter, major Wall Street banks collapsed, the economy imploded and the Great Recession started, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Kind of missed the boat on that prediction, Senator. 

3) "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." Vice President Joe Biden. I am still trying to figure out how Paula Deen got so lambasted and screwed for something she said decades ago while this politician can get away with this kind of racist statement.

4) "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Former Senator and Vice President and current global warming maniac Al Gore. Sorry Mr. Gore, but…no…you did not create the Internet. Smart scientists and engineers created the Internet, not some Washington politician.

5) "We're seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point - they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn't ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there's a lot of tundra that's being held down by that ice cap." Congressman Henry Waxman. Thanks for the info, Congressman, I always wondered what was holding down the tundra and now I know. 

6) "If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate." Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, DC. Yeah, that’s a shame that you cannot take out the murders, that really would have improved your crime results. But you cannot take them out. [I included Mr. Barry’s quotes since even though he is not currently in office, he has been known to reappear many times over in public life.]

7) "We'd like to avoid problems, because when we have problems, we can have troubles." Wesley Bolin, former governor of Arizona. It is amazing how many times troubles and problems spring up at exactly the same time. Uncanny coincidences. 

8) "I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less." Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, DC. It’s called term limits, Mr. Barry, term limits.

9) "A zebra does not change its spots." Al Gore. Huh?

10) "Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.''  Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. I would bet that there are, indeed, at least a few studies that show carbon dioxide is harmful.

11) "We have a lot of work to do. It's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border." John McCain. What makes it extra hard is that Iraq and Pakistan do not share a common border.

12) "Can I explain to you what happened? First of all it happened during a period after she was in remission from cancer." Former Sen. John Edwards, on cheating on his wife. Well, that makes the adultery okay, she was in cancer remission when you had the affair, how very decent of you. Thanks for the explanation.

13) “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” Hillary Clinton. Spoken on her visit to Bosnia in 1996, contradicting every other account that said there was no threat or actual of gunfire. Clinton later said she "misspoke." How can you mispeak about people shooting guns at you? It either happened or it did not happen.

14) "I'm just not giving it up for f***in' nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there." ... "Give this motherf****r Obama his senator? F**k him. For nothing. F**k him.'" Former Illinois Governor, and current state penitentiary convict,  Rod Blagojevich. Nice language, true leadership in those words.

15) “There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.” Barack Obama. This quote I find particularly disgusting and disgraceful, he has obviously not operated a small business of any kind and does not recognize the major sacrifices small businesses and their owners own make. To assert they did not build their businesses is the utmost Washington condescension of all time.

16) “No, no. I have been practicing... I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." Barack Obama. Paula Deen syndrome again, how does he not got skewered for a heartless statement like this?

18) “Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable.” Hillary Clinton, shortly before the country exploded and its long time dictator was toppled. Must come from the John McCain school of forecasting (see McCain quote above.)

19) “I had the great honor in seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person I was able to award the Medal Of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it  posthumously.” Barack Obama. But Monti died in 2006 and received the medal in 2009, the true definition of posthumously. 

20) “Well, the good news is that emissions are down because of the economy.” Senator Claire McCaskill. Great news, Senator. If we can another ten or twenty million  more Americans to lose their jobs then the air would be really clean.

21) “We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We are the country that built  the Intercontinental Railroad.” Barack  Obama. Sorry, Transcontinental railroad, no such thing as the Intercontinental Railroad. Are you sure you were born here, given such a bad grasp of U.S. history?

I am going to finish this series with seven quotes from Hillary Clinton. I include them since up until recently she was a top member of Obama’s Cabinet, serving as secretary of state. She is highly likely to be a Presidential candidate in 2016. Thus, she will likely be in our lives at least for a little while longer.

Before we review her quotes, let me share an old saying that has guided me through the years: “The reason a person curses and swears is that they are not creative enough or intelligent enough at that moment not to curse or swear.” 

Now, ask yourself, given the following Hillary quotes and my quote, do we really think that she is creative enough and intelligent enough to lead or become President when this is how she behaves around other human beings and how she treats other human beings? I cannot imagine other great leaders from our past behaving as she reportedly does.

All of these quotes are cited with the sources they come from, they are no made up on my part, I am just reporting them from other sources, none of whom to my knowledge have been sued by her for false representation of facts.

#1 “Where is the G*damn f**king flag! I want the G*damn f**king flag up every morning at f**king sunrise.” Inside the White House by Ronald Kessler, p.244- Hillary to staff at the Arkansas Governor’s mansion on Labor Day 1991.

#2 “F**k off! It’s enough I have to see you shit-kickers every day, I’m not going to talk to you too!! Just do your G*damn job and keep your mouth shut.” America Evita by Christopher Anderson, p.90-Hillary to her State Trooper body guards after one of them greeted her with “Good Morning.”

#3 “If you want to remain on this detail, get your f**king ass over here and grab those bags!” The First Partner p.259- Hillary to a Secret Service Agent who was reluctant to carry her luggage because he wanted to keep his hands free in case of an incident. 

#4 “Stay the f**k back, stay the f**k back away from me! Don’t come within ten yards of me, or else! Just f**king do as I say, Okay!!?” Unlimited Access by Clinton FBI Agent in Charge, Gary Aldrige, p.139- Hillary screaming at her Secret Service detail. 

#5 “Where’s the miserable c**k sucker!” The Truth About Hillary by Edward Klein, p.5- Hillary shouting at a Secret Service officer. 

#6 “You f**king idiot” Crossfire p.84-Hillary to a State Trooper who was driving her to an event. 

#7 “Put this on the ground! I left my sunglasses in the limo. I need those sunglasses. We need to go back!” Dereliction of Duty p.71-72– Hillary to Marine One helicopter pilot to turn back while en route to Air Force One.

There you have it. Politicians that curse and swear like drunken sailors and are about as effective in getting things accomplished as drunken sailors. 

Politicians that do not know American history. 

Politicians that are lousy forecasters which makes them lousy legislators who cannot anticipate the future to any degree at all.

Politicians that insult those that work for them, Special Olympic participants, and Indians.

What a disgrace. Time to dump them all out of office and start again, because really, how much worse could it get:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

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