March, 2015, Part 2, Political Class Insanity: When NASCAR and Pigs Are More Important Than Citizens, Getting Drunk at the State Of The Union, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time once again to review the latest insanity and ineptness from the American political class. We do this review every month to prove our hypothesis that we are currently being served by the worst set of politicians in the history of our country. 

They waste hundreds of billions of dollars of our wealth every year, they never resolve any of the major issues facing Americans today, they continually put their foot in their mouth with their idiotic statements and positions, and they operate government functions that are bloated and ineffective in delivering quality service to taxpayers. And worse of all, they have rigged the country’s elections processes so that their election and subsequent re-elections are almost guaranteed to ensure their mediocrity continues. 

To review the past examples of political class insanity just type in “political class insanity” in the search box above.

So lets get started on what is likely a multi-day review of their latest incompetence and insanity, with the first post in this series appearing yesterday:

1) It is no secret that the Obama administration has added more to the national debt than every other Presidential administration that came before it. Of the more than $18 TRILLION in debt that the country now owes, $8 TRILLION of that came just from the Obama administration. This $8 TRILLION comes out to about $67,000 for every American family in the country.

The Obama administration and the current Washington political class has added so much debt that the Obama White House now estimates that by 2021, the country will be spending more on interest from the national debt than on the entire Defense Department budget. Given that the current annual Defense Department budget is about half a TRILLION dollars a year, by 2021, on average, every American family will be spending over $4,000 a year in taxes just on interest payments alone. Insanity.

2) According to an article in the December 12, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently vetoed a piece of legislation that would have banned the use of restrictive gestation crates for breeding pigs that affect about 9,000 pigs in the state. As a former resident of New Jersey I do not have a position on whether this is a humane thing to do or not.

But as a former resident of New Jersey, I know there are far bigger issues that state politicians should be worried about and focused on than the comfort of 9,000 pigs:

• The state’s unemployment level continues to run higher than the rest of the country.
• The state’s long term unemployment rate continues to be one of the worst in the country.
• The state’s cost of living and tax burden continues to be one of the highest in the country.
• The state spends more and gets relatively less bang for its investment in education relative to many other states in the country.

But why focus your legislative efforts on issues that affect most of the state’s residents when you can develop and pass legislation that focuses on 9,000 pigs. Horrible, horrible political priorities.

3) But New Jersey is not alone in state politicians that are focusing on the wrong priorities. The city of Charlotte, North Carolina invested over a $100 million of taxpayer funds to help build the NASCAR Hall of Fame in the city. Unfortunately, this investment is not paying off since only 400,000 people are visiting the Hall Of Fame each year while the city planners expected over 800,000 to show up annually. 

This 50% attendance shortfall has resulted in the city having to put up another $5 million of taxpayer funds to pay off some of the debts that the Hall Of Fame has incurred in addition to the $137 million in debt it incurred to build the Hall. Additionally, banks who invested in the project will get back about a third of which they invested and royalties to NASCAR have been suspended for the near future.

As with New Jersey, I am sure there are far better needs and issues that city lawmakers and politicians should have been spending their time on than building a white elephant of a hall of fame. Bad priorities.

4) According to a recent article written by Tyler Durden that appeared on the www.zerohedge.com website, the United States and the inferior lawmaking ability of the nation's politicians have resulting in two depressing facts:

• The United States has the highest prison and jail incarceration rate of any country in the world.
• This high incarceration rate has greatly diminished the punitive and preventive effective of crime and criminals.

Just another example of politicians coming up with a solution that makes the original problem even worse. Details of these conclusions include the following facts and realities:

• There are about 2.3 million Americans in prison or jail. 15 states have total populations less than 2.3 million.
• There are more Americans in prison than the combined populations of Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.
• The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population by 25% of its prisoners.
• One out of every three black men will spend time in prison or jail.
• 2.7 million kids across the country have a parent who is jail or prison.
• The U.S. imprisonment rate has grown by 400% since 1970.

Despite the every increasing incarceration rate, a recent study and research effort from the Brennan Center For Justice at the NYU School of law found that this increased incarceration rate has had a limited effect on crime rates over the past two and a half decades. One reason driving this diminished effect on crime is that a lot of those currently wasting away in prisons and jails are there for non-violent and victimless crimes such as illegal drug use. 

Author Durden writes: “America’s incarceration rate has become so saturated that it has absolutely no meaningful impact in lowering crimes rates anyway. The time for prison reform and the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences is long overdue.”

Thus, politicians’ efforts to make us safer are not having any real effect any longer while costing billions of dollars in taxpayer wealth to make us the most imprisoned planet in the world. Something is worn here, something is insane here.

U.S. imprisonment rate per 100,000 people since 1880:



5) It is not uncommon in life for a person to turn to alcohol when they are really depressed or really bored. Not sure what the reasons were for Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg getting a little unsober at the recent Obama state of the union speech but who can blame her? She had to sit still for a long time while listening to empty promises and arrogance from the President of the U.S.Justice Ginsburg had drunk so much pre-speech wine that she actually nodded off in the middle of the state of the union proceeding. She apparently was unaware that she passed out during the speech until she returned home and got a call from her granddaughter saying, “Bubbe, you were sleeping at the State of the Union.”But the Justice had enough integrity to admit she was not sleeping: “The audience — for the most part — is awake because they’re bobbing up and down all the time and we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. At least I wasn’t 100 percent sober because before we went to the State of the Union we had dinner. Justice Kennedy brought in … it was an Opus something or other, very fine California wine that Justice Kennedy brought, and I vowed this year just sparkling water, stay away from the wine. But in the end, the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine to accompany it.”Again, who can blame her? This President has made more promises that never got fulfilled, has spent more tax money that has resulted in minimal improvement in Americans’ lives, has violated more laws and Constitutional tenets than any other President, and continues to shower himself and his family with golf rounds, international vacations, and privileges of royalty to the extent that no other President would have dared to do. At least viewers at home could turn off the President and go to another TV channel. Justice Ginsburg had no other option than to overdrink and pass out to escape the depression and boredom that is the Washington political class on display at the state of the union message. So what did we learn to today from the political class insanity we reviewed:

• Obama’s budgets will eventually crush the country and its economy.
• New Jersey politicians worry more about pigs than citizens.
• North Carolina city politicians worry more about NASCAR than citizens.
• We are the kings of incarceration relative to the rest of the world.
• Even Supreme Court Justices are being driven to drink by the Washington political class.

More reasons to drink due to politicians’ ineptness 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

Help Wanted, Lawyers and Legal Resources, To Fight The Invisible Empire, Part 2: The Havoc That Washington Has Wrought

Yesterday we reviewed how incompetently the Washington political class has been doing their jobs, neglecting their duties as demanded by the Constitution and current laws and statutes. It was the second in a four part series, which concludes on Friday, of what we called “suing the government to make the government accountable” week.

This series started with a Monday post which reviewed a massive, $43 TRILLION law suit that has been filed in the Brooklyn Federal court by the Spire Law group. The suit contends that entities and people within the Federal government and large banks conspired together for the benefit of both the banks and certain political elements.

Today we will review what major problems and challenges this invisible empire and lack of execution of basic government obligations has heaped upon the American public and our democracy. The basis of the following realities is from a Heritage Foundation analysis from January, 2012. Where appropriate, we have updated the information, based on how life has unfolded since that time:

- As of January 24. 2012, the U.S. Senate had gone exactly 1,000 days since it had lasted passed a formal, Constitutionally required national budget.

- Since no Senate budget has been passed since that date, we are now well beyond 1,250 days a real budget has been passed.

- The Heritage Foundation called this inaction “an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch.”

- By enacting continuing resolution upon continuing resolution (short-term measures to keep the government running, spending money at the current rate), the Senate has taken a pass on leading the nation to some sort of fiscal sanity, which the Heritage Foundation claims is all to the detriment of the poor and middle class.

- The budget process is supposed to force Congress to set priorities to protect the people’s money and wealth and put it to its appropriate, optimal use.

- Instead, according to the Hertigage Foundation's conclusions and probably the conclusions of most rather human beings, “the Democrat-controlled Senate has abdicated its responsibility.”

- As a result of this abdication, the deficit is soaring, causing a looming tax burden and injecting uncertainty into the economy, leaving jobs and economic growth on the table.

- As the 1,000th day neared, here were some facts about America’s budget and why the Senate must take action to be stewards of the people’s money as the Constitution requires:

• The last time the Senate passed a formal, detailed budget was on April 29, 2009.
• Since that date, the Federal government has spent $9.4 trillion, adding $4.1 trillion in debt.
• As of January 20, 2012, the outstanding public debt stands at $15,240,174,635,409. That number is now well over $16.2 TRILLION less than one year later.
• Interest payments on the debt are now more than $200 billion per year and growing.
• President Obama proposed a fiscal year 2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0.
• Which may have actually been a good thing since that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would have doubled the national debt in 10 years, and would have seen just annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.
• $1 TRILLION in interest payments a year works out to about $8,700 per family per year, just to pay the Federal govenrment's interest.
• In fiscal year 2011, the Obama administration and the Federal government in Washington spent $3.6 trillion. Compare that to the last time the budget was balanced in 2001, when Washington spent $1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion when you adjust for inflation). Thus, in ten short years, the Federal government has almost doubled in size without anywhere close to the doubling of benefits for the citizens of this country. In fact, it acutally seems like we get less positive impacts in a less efficient manner than ever before despite the high costs.
• Entitlement spending will more than double by 2050 if nothing is done. That includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security. Total spending on Federal health care programs will triple.
• If this does not change, by 2050, the national debt is set to hit an unsustainable 344% of GDP.
• Taxes per household have risen dramatically, hitting about $18,400 in 2010 (compared with $11,295 in 1965).
• If the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and more middle-class Americans are required to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxes will reach unprecedented levels.
• Federal spending per household is skyrocketing. Since 1965, Federal spending per household has skyrocketed by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, it is projected to rise to $35,773, a 22 percent increase.

- Despite all of these distressing trends and out of control growth and spending, the Senate has utterly failed to execute the most basic, fundamental function of governance at the worst possible time, passing a government budget as mandated by the Constitution —when the country’s fiscal house is in disarray, the U.S. credit rating is in continual jeopardy, entitlement spending is ballooning, economic growth is historically low, high unemployment and under employment is stubbornly high, our ability to compete in the global economy is falling, etc.

The Heritage Foundation concludes:

“One thousand days without a budget is an embarrassing number, but the level of spending, deficits, and taxation that results from the Senate’s failure to exact even a modicum of fiscal discipline is terrifying. Senator Reid has said it would be “foolish” to pass a budget, but failing to pass it is proving to be beyond irresponsible. The middle class will be left holding the bag, paying for the Senate’s reckless negligence with soaring deficits, higher taxes, and a weak economy as far as the eye can see.”

Certainly discouraging news:

1. Monday’s post: politicians and government officials conspire with high ranking bankers (“banksters”) to satisfy each other’s political needs and enrichment needs to the detriment of the average American taxpayer who is not a member of the "invisible empire.”
2. Tuesday’s post: not only have Congress and the political class not meet their legal and Constitutional requirements in putting together the plans for leading the country, they rarely even do their day-to-day jobs with committee meetings, output, and legislative efforts minimal and in some cases, close to non-existent.
3. Today’s post - the Senate’s inability or unwillingness to do one of its basic jobs, develop and pass a comprehensive, detailed budget, has been going on for over 1,250 days, a timeframe in which Federal government spending, national debt, and despair over the future has grown exponentially out of control.

Disgraceful performance by probably the most disgraceful set of politicians in the history of this country. Low productivity, high debt, low accountability, high wasteful spending levels, low approval ratings, high probability for financial disaster. That is why we were so encouraged by the Federal lawsuit we reviewed in the Monday post, at least some U.S. citizens are usings one of the last avenues available to constraining political class insanity, the judicial system. Lord know that the concept of reprehensive government is not working.

But that lawsuit attacked only the crony capitalism and banker incest that has wasted TRILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer wealth. On Friday we will ask for your help in attacking the fiscal irresponsibility of the entire Federal government bureaucracy using the judicial system. I agree that our proposal might be a little whimsical, it may have little or no chance of success. However, I am reminded of a quote by Dante that fits our dire situation:

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”

The financial collapse of our economy and democracy, the burdening of our children’s and grandchildren’s generations with unsustainable debt and taxation levels to me is a great moral conflict. This conflict will happen unless we step out of neutral and hold those in Washington accountable as if THEY were in the hottest place in hell.

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