March, 2019, Part 3,Political Class Insanity: Economic Nonsense In NYC, Political Idiocy in Virginia, And Americans Say Government Is The Biggest Problem

It is 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.

Let’s get started:

1) Probably not a surprise, given the incompetence of those politicians and government bureaucrats that operate the government in this country, a recent Gallup tracking poll found that the top problem facing the country was not gun control, climate change, poverty or education. The biggest, by far, problem in Americans’ minds is “the government/poor leadership.” 

More than a third of those polled, 35%, said that the government and those leading the government were the top problem facing the country today. The second biggest problem as cited by those polled was immigration, a distant second at 19%, almost half of what was perceived as the top problem. A distant third place problem was healthcare at a mere 6%.

The 35% was the highest level ever attained by the government/poor leadership in all of the tracking done by Gallup. In other words, our politicians have been getting worse and more of a problem over time. 

I think that this survey shows that Americans are pretty smart in that they recognize that if our politicians and leaders were better, the other problems might just take care of themselves if good, smart leadership could somehow miraculously arise out of the current of politicians. Get a better, smarter set of politicians into government and the failing public education processes in this country get fixed. Elect some smart people who care more about the country than their own greed, and maybe the poverty/hunger/homelessness problem gets fixed.

A few years ago a famous Brazilian clown ran for public office and actually got elected. His campaign slogan was “how much worse could it get” if a clown got elected. Which reinforces our desire for term limits for our politicians, “one and done.” How much worse could it be, given how badly the current members of the political class have screwed everything up?

2) Sometimes when it comes to American politicians you just have to smack your head and say: “What in the world were they thinking?” Which leads us to our next piece of insanity:

• The media and this blog have extensively covered the major racism scandal surrounding the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam.
• Someone came across the medical school yearbook page of the governor where two very racist items were printed.
• One item was a photo of two young men at a party, one dressed as a KKK member and one dressed in black face makeup, both of which are extremely racist and insensitive.
• The governor first admitted that he was one of the men in the photo and 24 hours later said he was not in the photo which made the scandal even worse by adding a layer of lying to it.
• The second tem was the mention that the governor’s nickname in school was “Coonman,” another racially insensitive situation.

So, two major racially insensitive items to have in your background. There was a groundswell of disgust and calls for him to resign, which so far he has refused to do. But given the scandal and furor, one would have expected him and his wife to be extremely sensitive and careful relative to their actions and words and just go low profile until the current scandal calms down.

But according to the Gateway Pundit website, while low profile may have been the smart thing to do, politicians rarely do the smart thing:

• Jim Holt, writing for the website on February 27, 2019, reported that his wife made a major and again, racially insensitive move, when a bunch of kids were coming through the governor’s mansion on a tour.
• It has been alleged that the wife handed out cotton balls to some African American kids on the tour, obviously invoking the specter of black slavery in the South.
• A state government employee was rightfully upset as a result of her eighth grade daughter being upset after being handed a ball of cotton by the governor’s wife who then asked the kids to imagine being a slave and having to pick cotton.
• The state employee, Leah Dozier Walker, wrote to the governor’s office and state politicians with the following message: “The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions.But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness.” 

My gosh, the stupidity of the political class really knows no limits. After all of the racist blowups over the yearbook stuff, the subsequent calls across the country for the governor to resign, the embarrassment of such racially insensitive behavior, the wife thought handing out cotton balls and invoking the image of slavery to some African American kids was a good idea?! Insane.

3) We have often discussed the reality that one area of life where politicians almost always screw up is in the field of economics. Their economic policies are usually overly expensive, ineffective, and often make the situation worse. Their economic policies have given us a $22 trillion national debt, have put Social Security and Medicare on a road to insolvency, gave us an economic stimulus program after the last recession that wasted over $800 billion without stimulating anything, and have raised the minimum wage level which has resulted in higher unemployment and depressed economic growth.

This latest economic failure of upping the minimum wage was recently discussed on the Godfather Politics website about the situation in New York City:

• According to Warner Todd Huston, with the arrival of the city’s new $15 an hour minimum wage, the city has now lost more jobs now after the minimum wage level went up than the number of jobs lost after the 9-11 attacks, attacks which dealt the city a substantial economic blow.
• A recent research report form the Foundation for Economic Freedom found that since the new $15 wage level took effect, the city has suffered through the steepest decline in restaurant jobs in almost 20 years.
• The report concluded that since the restaurant industry operates on very low profit margins, usually between 2 and 6 percent, a major, 40%, increase in the wage line of this type of business results in a severe profit challenge.
• In order to stay in business, restaurant owners are forced to cut expenses elsewhere which means fewer jobs, reduced hours, and higher prices which in part wipes out the wage gains of some industry workers.
• A NYC Hospitality Alliance survey found the three out of four city restaurants plan on reducing the hours that retained workers will work and nearly half said they will reduce some restaurant jobs in 2019.
• Mark Perry, discussing the report found that: “December 2018 restaurant jobs were down by almost 3,000 (and by 1.64%) from the previous December and the 2.5% annual decline in March 2018 was the worst annual decline since the sharp collapse in restaurant jobs following 9/11 in 2001.”

So whether it is in Seattle, as we have previously discussed, or now in NYC, the following discussion almost always follows when politicians raise the minimum wage arbitrarily: “The good news is that you have a higher hourly wage rate. The bad news is that you no longer have a job...or you will not have as many hours to work since the business needs to cut other expenses to meet your higher wage rate.” 

In either case, a lost job or a fewer hour job, the net change in economic well being is usually worse after the politicians get done tinkering with their economic levers. Let the market decide what the right wage level is, it is much smarter than any American politician.

That will do it for today: economic tomfoolery in NYC, political insensitivity and idiocy in Virginia, and politicians continue to being the biggest problem facing America today. More insanity to follow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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

Term Limits Now! Because Really, How Much Worse Could It Get?

Think about just a fraction of the agony, pain, and frustration the American political class has inflicted on us over the past few decades:

1. A sky high national debt of about $17 TRILLION, a person debt burden of about $54,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country.
2. Annual budget deficits that have been over one TRILLION dollars a year for the past four years.
3. Economic policies that have left over 20 million Americans either unemployed or under employed.
4. Recent college graduates that cannot find a job in their field of interest, relegated to taking jobs that did not require them to rack up record amounts of student debt.
5. A government that uses the IRS, the NSA, and other agencies to harass and hinder political opponents and to spy on every form of electronic communications of every American.
6. Decades worth of government spending worth TRILLIONS of dollars without resolving any of the major issues of our times including our failing public schools, our lack of a national energy policy, leaky borders, skyrocketing health care costs, etc.
7. Politicians that are more focused on their perpetual reelection and personal enrichment than the needs and desires of American citizens.
8. Political processes that have been corrupted to almost always guarantee the incumbent’s reelection.
9. Cronyism and obscene amounts of political money that flow into our political class from PACs, Super PACs, unions, and businesses, money that drowns out the voice of individual Americans.
10. Foreign policies that are stupid, expensive, ineffective, and have turned us into the terrorist target of the world’s radicals and nut jobs.
11. Government processes and programs that are inefficient, ineffective, corrupt, and subject to massive criminal fraud, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year in taxpayer wealth.

I could go on but it is too depressing. At the same time that all of these messes were occurring and all of these issues went unattended, consider the tenure of some of Washington’s current political figures:

• John Dingell - 57 years
• John Conyers - 48 years
• Charles Rangel - 42 years
• Bill Young - 42 years
• Joe Biden - 42 years
• Thad Cochran - 40 years
• Don Young - 40 years
• Patrick Leahy - 38 years
• Max Baucus - 38 years
• Chuck Grassley - 38 years
• Tom Harkin - 38 years
• George Miller - 38 years
• Henry Waxman - 38 years
• Ed Markey - 36 years
• Orrin Hatch - 36 years
• Barbara Mikulski - 36 years
• Nick Rahall - 36 years

Consider some factoids from a January, 2013 Congressional Research Services analysis:

1. The current average service time in Congress of sitting politicians is near an all time high.
2. Congressional tenure as been steadily increasing over time.
3. The percentage of incumbent politicians not seeking reelection has been steadily decreasing over time.
4. The percentage of incumbent politicians winning reelection has been steadily increasing over time.

A number of conclusions are obvious. First, people running for Federal office are staying longer and longer in office to enjoy the perks and benefits of being in those positions, perks and benefits that they determine. Second, they are holding onto to their seats longer despite numerous elections, leveraging their incumbency status and the ability to write and adjust our political processes.

Out of the longest serving Washington politicians in the entire history of our country, a remarkable 17% of them (the list above) are currently still in office. These people have been present and a contributor to the numerous disasters we listed above.

- Present and contributing to a $17 TRILLION deficit.

- Present and contributing to unresolved crises in education, health care, and energy.

- Present and contributing to an inefficient, ineffective, corrupt, and criminally infested government programs.

I maintain that these politicians in the list, and the rest of their long serving peers, are truly part of our problem because they sure are not part of the solution. If they were part of the solution, our taxes would be lower, our degree of liberty and freedom would be higher, and major issues of our times would have been resolved long ago.

So why do they keep getting reelected if they truly are part of the problem? Because they control the political processes, the fund raising rules, the gerrymandering of Congressional districts, etc. that ensure their reelection and the continual flow of incompetence.

That is why we need to take this matter into our own hands and impose term limits on these people if we are to have any chance of fixing what ails our political processes and the nation. That is why we ask three things of you today:

1) Read the following paragraphs from our new, grass roots term limits initiative, paragraphs that come from the first page of our “Term Limits Now!”:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

2) Answer the question posed at the end of that first page relative to your grandchildren and children

3) Join our effort to fix what long serving polticiains have broken.

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Term Limits Now!

"It can't get any worse, vote Tiririca"

Political campaign slogan used by the famous Brazilian clown, Tiririca, a slogan that helped him garner over 1.3 million votes and which propelled him into a seat in the Brazilian Congress.

The mood in America is not good. Economic conditions are bad and trending worse, our national debt is skyrocketing, the country's citizens have never been more divided against each than they are today, our world standing and prestige continue to deteriorate, and the political class in America has not solved a single major issue in the past several decades. Our schools continue to under educate our kids, we have no strategic and effective national energy policy, health care costs continue to escalate, our borders leak, and we have already lost the war on drugs.

Many of these chronic issues have been with us for decades, proving that the Washington political class has been incapable or unwilling to address and resolve these national problems. And most recently, our politicians have again illustrated their impotency and their hand in the destruction of freedom and liberty in the following, unfolding scandals:

1. It has become clear that the Obama administration and the Washington political class used and abused the powers and reach of the IRS to harass and hinder citizens and organizations who held contrary political views to this administration, violating their First Amendment freedom of speech rights.

2. It has become clear that the Obama administration and the Washington political class used and abused the powers and reach of the IRS to harass and hinder religious groups who held contrary political views to this administration, violating their First Amendment freedom of speech rights.

3. It has become clear that the Obama administration and the Washington political class have forced religious entities to break their religious tenets and beliefs to remain lawful under politically motivated legislation such as Obama Care, violating their freedom of religion rights.

4. It has become clear that the Obama administration and the Washington political class are conducting massive data collection, storage, and analysis activities on the just about every form of electronics communications of just about every American, using secret warrants issued by secret judges in secret courts without any due process, violating the Fourth Amendment rights of every American.

5. It has become clear that the Obama administration and the Washington political class have conducted illegal secret searches and confiscations of journalists telephone records and possibly other information, violating the First Amendment's freedom of the press and freedom of speech rights.

These blatant and massive violations of citizens' rights and the Constitution, our economic distress, and divisive politics benefit only one group of Americans in this bitter environment. The career Washington politicians continue to get themselves re-elected over and over again and continue to reward themselves handsomely, not for resolving issues and protecting our freedoms and the Constitution, but for the simple act of being in office. Many of them have been in office for the same decades in which the Federal government has resolved no major issues, lending themselves to the old saying, "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

Their constant need to get re-elected has perverted our democratic institutions and processes so much that political special interests and their overwhelming money power have drowned out the voices of ordinary citizens. Corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, union concessions, wasteful and useless budget earmarks to campaign donators, etc. subvert our democracy and sub-optimize the decisions made in Washington. And this perversion is most evident when incumbent politicians leverage their position and power in office to get themselves reelected.

To remove this perversion and greatly reduce the amount of special interest money that flows into our political processes, the need for term limits has never been more important. Our founding fathers never imagined or wanted a political class to develop in America. They viewed getting elected to political office as a calling and a short term service to the country, not a long term career. Unfortunately, this vision is lost on today's American political class.

Many Americans believe that we need to go back to the idea of short term citizen politicians vs. long term career politicians. We need to greatly reduce the amount of special interest money that almost always ensures that low performing politicians get re-elected, and we need a fresh set of people and ideas in Washington to deal with the crushing, unresolved issues of our times. If you agree, please join us in enacting a Constitutional amendment drive to limit service in the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives to one term and one term only.

Our plan is gather 100,000 signers of this petition as soon as possible. Once we attain 100,000 signers, we will then go into a "crowd sourcing" mode to gather enough volunteer financial resources to take this term limits initiative to all fifty states, according to the Amendment process laid out in the Constitution. We will go the crowd sourcing and volunteer route in order to not be influenced or overcome by corporate, union, think tank, or political interests' money and resources. These entities want the status quo maintained, they will have no influence in our drive for "one and done."

Please fill out the petition form and send it to us by hitting the "submit" button. Please consider helping us further by indicating that you would be able to volunteer your time and talents for this effort. Also, we would appreciate if you would tell similarly minded friends and family to sign our petition and to "Like" us on Facebook where we are looking to get one million "Likes" to further prove our concept to crowd funding sources.

We will keep your information private and on file and will keep you informed of the process and progress we make going forward to make term limit's a reality. To contact us directly, our email address is:

UnitedStatesofPurple@gmail.com

One last thought: imagine yourself ten years down the road from today. Your kids or grandkids ask you why the economy is so sour, why it is so difficult to get a good job, why freedom in America seems like an empty promise, and why their tax burden is so onerous in order to support the ever growing national debt. Do nothing today and you will be able to tell them that when you had a chance to turn out the career politicians that were responsible for their economic distress and replace them with actual problem solvers, you passed on the opportunity.

Get involved with this effort to implement term limits and you may never have to answer their questions.

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If you never want to answer these future, hypothetical, and depressing questions from your kids ands grandkids, consider joining us at:

www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com

Because, really, how much worse could it get it if we swapped out every politician in Washington?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

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

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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