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Yesterday, we reviewed six major promises that Presdent Obama made prior coming into office. Part of that review included the fact that he has failed miserably in attaining and executing any of those promises. From not closing Gitmo to wasting over $800 billion on a failed stimulus program to failed economic polices to very little government transparency, this administration has been just one failure after another.
Today, we will look at the other four failed promises, as outlined in a fine report by the Independent Journal Review and expanded with my comments and observations. Tomorrow, we will finish up this failed promises discussion with other major screwups that the Independent Journal Report work did not cover.
7. Line by Line to Cut Waste
"Every dollar I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut that it matches. To give an example, we spend $15 billion a year on subsidies to insurance companies. It doesn’t help seniors get better. It’s a giveaway. I want to go through the federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."
And yet President Obama complained about the mere $85 billion he proposed in annual cuts, out of the $3.75 trillion in government spending (just over a measly 2% of total spending), like it's the end of the world.
And he obviously did not go through the Federal budget line by line, matching new spending with comparable spending cuts. We know that deficit spending has exploded to over a TRILLION dollars every year he has been in office and if he had gone through the Federal budget line by line, there is no way he, as a rational person, could have justified just this small sample of wasteful spending:
- A USAID development program in Morocco included pottery classes that was funded using American taxpayer wealth.
- Despite skyrocketing national debt, the Federal government is spending $947,000 via NASA to study what food astronauts could eat on Mars, by simulating a Mars outpost at a barren location in Hawaii. When and if this research might be needed is far, far off in the future if ever.
- A $325,000 government grant was used to create a robot squirrel to study how squirrels and rattlesnakes interact. What makes this expenditure doubly bad is that apparently the American taxpayer has already funded a similar program in the past, making this study doubly unnecessary and wasteful.
- The USDA gave a $300,000 grant to a caviar producer in Idaho for marketing purposes. How big of a market there is for caviar in Idaho, both from a production and consumption perspective?
- The American taxpayer paid out $3.3 million to bail out a local Arkansas tourist boat company that was going out of business.
- The Department of Transportation gave an Alaskan tribe millions to start a ferry business that competes with existing private ferry services. Apparently, these other private businesses, who never asked for or received a government handout, are now struggling to survive in the face of this government subsidized ferry service.
- The Federal government wastes almost $2 billion annually in maintenance fees for grant accounts that are either expired or empty of funds, all because the Department never got around to closing out the unneeded accounts.
- State officials used a Federal stimulus grant to purchase massive, overpowered routers that are too big and unnecessary for rural schools, libraries, and government offices, wasting $24 million in the process.
- The National Science Foundation spent $516,000 on a research program that created a computer game simulating a high school “Prom Night” and the week leading up to the prom night.
This is just an extremely small sample of the tens of thousands of ways the Federal government wastefully and frivolously spend taxpayer money. Many other examples can be found at the following links:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/10/wastebook-2012-wasteful-federal.html
You will never get spending under control when you are paying for prom night game development and robotic squirrels and after more than four years in office, there is little chance this administration will “go through the Federal budget line by line, programs that don’t work, we cut."
8. Cut the Deficit in Half
"And that's why today I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. This will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay -- and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control."
$6 trillion in total deficits later from the Obama administration makes this statement seem pretty ludicrous. Consider the annual Federal government deficits over the past decade or so, as documented on the White House’s own budget website (double click for a larger view):
As you can see from the White House numbers, annual Federal government deficits were actually decreasing during the second half of the Bush administration. They skyrocketed once the Democrats and Obama took office. In fact, during the Obama administration some MONTHLY Federal government budget deficits were larger than some of Bush’s ANNUAL budget deficits.
Thus, this promise of cutting deficit spending in half by Obama is a travesty and his outrageous spending will likely “leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay.”
9. Pledge Not To Raise Taxes on Middle Class
"And I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase – not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital-gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Another promise severely missed.
Obama raised payroll taxes under the fiscal cliff deal, Obama Care will become the biggest middle class tax increase in decades in many ways, this administration raised cigarette taxes which likely affected the less wealthy in this country since they are more likely to smoke, and the hidden tax of exponentially expanding overregulation in this country is making businesses pass on the cost of regulation to consumers, the most of which are in the middle class.
10. Obama Care Would Lower Healthcare Costs, Reduce Premiums, Keep Your Doctor, etc., etc. This promise is so unfilled it is tough to find a place to start:
- Obama Care is already costing more than two times original estimates that were put forth by Democrats when the legislation was approved.
- Obama Care will add trillions of dollars to our national debt, requiring higher taxes on everyone to pay for it.
- Obama Care is increasing health insurance premiums an average of 30% this year alone.
- Obama Care is causing six in ten doctors to say they will retire early rather than deal with the hassle of the legislation.
- Obama Care is not creating a wealth of new jobs as promised. If anything, Obama Care is suppressing hiring of new employees, suppressing business expansion, and suppressing the hours current employees work each week.
- Obama Care will get result in universal health care coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, that estimated upwards of ten million citizens will still not have health care coverage ten years from now.
- Obama Care will cause about seven million Americans to lose their current health care insurance coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This kills another promise of the President who boldly stated that if you like your current health care insurance, you can keep it. Seven million Americans will shortly find out the fallacy of that promise.
- Recently even Congressional supporters of the legislation have openly admitted that Obama Care will be an operational and financial “train wreck” and that a lot more money is needed if it is ever to get off the ground, far more taxpayer wealth than originally hyped and planned for.
Missing on all cylinders, this mess called Obama Care.
Obscene deficit spending, obscene wasteful spending, obscene taxation oppression, and the disaster that is Obama Care, horrific performance by this administration. Shaping up as one of the worst Presidential administrations ever, with the remaining broken promises being covered 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:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
Today's post is another in a long line of wasteful government spending reviews that continually prove that no American, rich or poor, should pay another penny in taxes until Washington gets these types of idiotic spending misadventures under control. Not when current tax wealth is wasted of the likes of the 25 government programs listed below.
The Democrats in the Senate, who have controlled the Senate for four years, recently came up with their first real budget since April, 2009. Rather than cleaning up the Washington wasteful spending addiction, they want to feed the addiction by taxing Americans and America to the tune of an incremental one TRILLION dollars over the next ten years.
Rather than stopping the skyrocketing national debt and the wasteful spending that causes future generations of Americans to be burdened with high debt levels, they want to spend an incremental one TRILLION dollars over the next ten years.
Disgraceful insanity, wasteful spending, despicable leadership. The following 25 wasteful spending examples were compiled at the following website of the Independent Journal Review, a website that can be accessed directly in order to find the sources of these examples of waste:
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/03/44144-countdown-to-bankruptcy-25-most-insane-stories-on-wasteful-spending/25/
While we cannot vouch for the integrity of all 25 examples, we have previously discussed a number of them. At those times, we had verified that they were actual, if stupid, government programs and associated stupid spending. Given that the website cites and links to all their sources, I would assume that most, if not all of them, are real.
Now, eliminating these 25 examples of waste would not give Americans tax relief, curb our national debt, or balance the budget. But remember that these types of expense are repeated thousands of times over every day, week, month, and year within the Federal government. These millions of dollars listed below in this very small sample of government gone wild probably represents billions and billions of dollars that the total Federal bureaucracy wastes every month.
Thus, I present another 25 idiotic wastes of your tax payments. After the list, we provide some simple advice on how to get the under budget idiocy in Washington under control before it overwhelms our wealth, our democracy, and our freedom.
25. Pet Shampoo - $505,000 Sergeant's Pet Care Products received half a million dollars in Community Development Block Grants provided by HUD. [Fiscal Times]
24. Snowmobile Competition - $45,900 Grant is allotted for an annual snowmobile competition in Michigan. [Fox]
23. Elvis Cruises - $308,000 Estimated price for an Elvis music boat funded by federal government. [Examiner]
22. Puppet Choreography - $1.18 million Taxpayer money for puppets discovered at USA.GOV. [Breitbart.com]
21. Star Trek Training Video for IRS - $60,000 Along with a Gilligan's Island version, almost totals four weeks of White House tours. [AP]
20. Sports Diplomacy - $5 Million U.S State Department spends $5 million a year on the PR program. [US Public Diplomacy]
19. Shrimp Treadmill - $515,468 A National Science Foundation-funded study examines how shrimp scamper. [Fox]
18. Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshop - Part of $8.1 Million Grant Heritage Areas receives an $8.1 million grant and partly funds the Ukrainian egg crafts workshop. [Daily Caller]
17. Circus Training - $20,000 National Endowment of the Arts has spent $84,000 over last four years funding the Circus Day Foundation. [Fiscal Times]
16. Eat More Caviar - $30,000 PR program pushes Americans to eat more fancy fish eggs. [Fiscal Times]
15. Robotic Bees - Harvard has received over $9.3 million from the Feds since 2010 to fund robotic insects. [Fox]
14. Meditation for Math & Science Students - $349,862 Money doled out so students can zone out. [Fox]
13. Tribal Casinos - Hundreds of Thousands FBI is investigating how much of $4.5 million given to Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation went to Foxwoods casino. [AP]
12. Smuttynose Brewery - $750,970 Taxpayer money doled out to brewer. [Fiscal Times]
11. Wineries and Vineyards - $1.5 Million Just cutting this one subsidy alone would fund White House tours for a year. [Wastebook 2012]
10. Cowboy Poetry - $50,000 The Cowboy Poetry festival to be held in April 2013 would receive taxpayer money, according to Senator Pat Toomey. [Daily Caller]
9. Beef Jerky - $639,884 Pentagon spends this on developing rolled-up beef jerky that is already on the market. [Fiscal Times]
8. Faith-based Gardens - $389,319 CNS News reported today that low-income families get money to plant gardens.
7. Moroccan Pottery - $27 Million Moroccan pottery is a "key" part of a USAID program to improve Morocco's economic competitiveness. [Fiscal Times]
6. Martian Pizza - $947,000 NASA spends about $1 million annually “researching and building the Mars menu.” Last year, it was vegan pizza - for astronauts on low-protein diets. [Hawaii Free Press]
5. Criminals Petting Wild Horses - $2 Million Bureau of Land Management set aside as much as $2 million so convicted criminals can teach wild horses and burros to be gentle. [CNS]
4. Snail Sex - $880,000 "The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails." [CNS]
3. Prom Video Game - $500,000 "$500,000 government video game about high school proms is used to teach social skills." [The Hill]
2. Robo-Squirrel - $325,000 "Researchers at San Diego State University used funds from a $325,000 grant provided by the government-bankrolled NSF to invent a robotic squirrel." Robo-squirrel is still fighting rattlesnakes. [Fox]
1. Joe Biden's Expenses - Millions and counting... Vice President Biden’s trip to a Parisian Five-Star Hotel in February cost $585,000. Biden's stay in London with an entourage cost $459,338. His limo service cost $321,665. He often flies home to Delaware from Washington at a trip cost of $8,800 an hour.
Two simple ways to get this under control:
1) Step 44 in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would prevent the Federal government from spending any Federal tax dollars any program or project that does not significantly impact a substantial number of citizens in at least five states. If this principle was applied to the above 25 expenditures, none of them would survive since the increased knowledge in New Zealand snail sex or shrimp jogging would not impact a substantial amount of citizens in at least five states.
2) The second step to curbing this nonsense would be to implement that National Bounty System that we proposed in the following post:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/05/national-bounty-system-fixing.html
This process would "deputize" citizens and Federal government workers, the quest to stamp out waste, providing financial incentives and rewards for doing so. Senator Rand Paul has recently proposed such a process for Federal employees. I believe that if much of this wasteful spending had to stand up to the light of public disclosure and discussion it would wilt away.
These types of actions would help clean up the "one time" idiotic spending of Washington, waste similar to the above 25 examples.
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
