By The Numbers - Washington Wastes $59 Billion While Americans Suffer The Implications of the Pandemic

On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American politician 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 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.

Today we are going to focus on the massive amount of wasteful spending that the Washington political class continues to commit. The main source of these wasteful numbers today comes from two sources:

1. Rand Paul’s annual publication of his wasteful government spending report which annually highlights the stupid, wasteful, and insane programs and projects that Washington wastes our tax dollars on.
2. The second source comes from the recent Congressional omnibus spending plans for 2021 that contains some very distressing spending on countries around the world.

Politicians should NEVER waste taxpayer money and wealth. But the wasteful spending is especially sensitive this year, given the suffering and challenges that the COVID pandemic has imposed on all Americans:

• Many Americans became unemployed or had their work hours reduced because of the pandemic and are suffering financially.
• Over 100,000 restaurants have gone out of business and many thousands more are in dire financial shape, causing millions of restaurant workers to lose their jobs or working hours.
• Airlines and other travel related industries are desperate for customers and revenue and their employees have already been fired, furloughed, or are in danger of losing their jobs.
• Food banks are struggling to keep up with the high food demand that the pandemic has caused.

Americans and American businesses are suffering and yet this is some of the nonsense the Washington political continues to waste money on, according to Rand Paul’s research, in the face of Americans’ suffering:

• Rand Paul’s annual report found that the government wasted at least $54,746,525,000 in taxpayer wealth in 2020.
• $25 million was spent to teach English to rural, unemployed Romanians.
• $1.5 million was spent to get Eastern Mediterranean kids to stop smoking hookah. 
• The National Institutes of Health is spending $1,039,544.00 over five years to try to help people get over their fears of going to the dentist.
• U.S. Agency for International Development is spending $10,000,000.00 and five years to attempt to improve Zimbabwe’s political process. 
• The Pentagon lost nearly $200 million in drone equipment just in Afghanistan alone. 
• The Pentagon spent $23 billion to develop a better version of the M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a project that failed.
• The Federal government spent $20 million for an airplane landing strip on Nantucket Island.
• Another $10 million was wasted on an order of COVID test tubes that never materialized..
• While thousands and thousands of theater employees lost their jobs because of covid lock downs, the Kennedy Center D.C. received $25 million for salaries. 
• Congress reimbursed some agencies for money they had spent on COVID in late 2019 and early 2020, before COVID hit, on efforts unrelated to COVID.
• $36 million was spent on studying why stress makes hair turn gray. 
• More than $1 million was spent studying whether people will eat ground-up bugs.
• More than $3 million was spent interviewing San Franciscans about their edible cannabis use.
• $8.62 billion was spent in Afghanistan on counter narcotics efforts, 
• More than $37 million was spent helping deal with truant Filipino youth
• More than $3 million was spent on sending Russians to American community colleges for a “gap year.”
• Among funds spent on the environment, energy, and scientific research, more than $1 million was spent walking lizards on a treadmill.
• Nearly $200,000 was spent studying how people cooperate while playing e-sport video games, and 
• More than $2 million was spent on developing a wearable headset to track eating behaviors.
• More than $715 million worth of military equipment, designated for Syrians fighting ISIS, was lost.
• More than $4 million was spent on spraying alcoholic rats with bobcat urine, 
• More than $10 million was spent on would-be coronavirus test tubes that turned up as used soda bottles. 
• Nearly $6 million was spent building three bicycle storage facilities at Washington, D.C. Metro stations.

Unbelievable. As Americans suffer, losing their jobs, their careers, their businesses, and facing food deficits, Washington politicians tried to get lizards in good cardio shape, helped out with Filipino kids, support Russian college students, etc.

And we know that they did not grow a heart or increase their compassion for suffering Americans since in their recent omnibus spending bills for 2021, they earmarked over $4.7 billion to go to far flung, non-strategic countries like Nepal, Cambodia, Burma, Egypt, and other places that I bet most people in Congress could not find on a map.

So between actual 2020 wasteful spending and billions being shipped overseas to billions being shipped out to far away countries in 2021, the Washington political class easily will waste $59 billion of taxpayer wealth. Think about what could be done for $59 billion:

• We have previously discussed the fact that, on average, a homeless American can be fed a decent meal for about $2.94 by food banks and charity groups across the country.
• That means that the wasted $59 billion could have provided three meals a day for every one of the 550,000 or so homeless Americans for about 33 years!
• We have previously discussed the fact that, on average, it takes $6,522 a year to treat an American with a drug addiction.
• That means that the wasted $59 billion could have provided drug addiction treatment to just over 9 million addicted Americans for a year.
• That $59 billion could have put up every homeless American in a $200 a night hotel room for a year and a half.

You get the idea, we could go on and on with the numbers. Just this amount of wasteful spending, and I am sure that there is plenty more, could bring so much relief to those in need in this country and yet, Washington politicians would rather waste our wealth on stupid pseudo-science and research projects, not hold anyone accountable for lost assets or misspent budgets, and send money around the world to help others but no our own.

The question that should be asked is why do they do it? It has always been my assumption that the reason they would rather help some kid in the Philippines rather than some American kid living in a car with their homeless parents is that there is something in it for them. Remember a few years ago when John Kerry’s daughter got a no bid contract worth millions of taxpayer dollars for an overseas project:

https://dailycaller.com/2016/10/18/exclusive-special-treatment-gave-john-kerrys-daughter-9-million-in-govt-contracts/

I would bet we would find similar actions underway in the wasteful spending above. Which member of Congress pushed to have funding for treadmill lizards and did they or their family in any way get any benefit? Who thought it was a good idea to send taxpayer money to Sudan and did they or their family benefit from that expenditure? 

It would sure be nice to have a budget process where every budget line item had a list of those in Congress who supported it. If someone actually had to fess up to supporting the need to find out why stress causes gray hair I would think and hope a lot of this budget nonsense would disappear.

This country is wealthy enough to feed its hungry, treat its addicted, and shelter its homeless. Unfortunately Washington would rather spend those resources elsewhere to the detriment and health of needy Americans. So very, very sad what their priorities are.

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:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=loce+my+country%2C+loathe+my+government&ref=nb_sb_noss

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

Politicians Say The Darnest, And Most Idiotic Things, Part 1: Hillary's Gaffe Fest and Barack Lives In A Different, Less Violent World Than Us

We have spent the past few days destroying political class myths that our politicians try to pawn off on us everyday. They do so for two reasons:

• First, they want to avoid addressing and resolving the major issues of our times either because they do not want to resolve those issues, do not have the will to resolve those issues, or they do not have the intelligence to resolve those issues
• Second, by keeping false issues and myths alive, they can leverage those myths for their own political good, energizing their supporters behind these false issues and demonizing their political opponents for their own self-enrichment and perpetual reelection to office.

Whatever their intentions, they spend more time perpetuating false realities to their own benefit without ever helping Americans overcome major issues facing them and their families. The first post in this myth destruction series can be accessed at:

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We will continue to analyze and dissect this myth issue this week but from a slightly different perspective. We will look at and examine some recent inane, idiotic, out of touch, and abominable quotes from current politicians. After reviewing them, it will become clear why no major issues ever get resolved in this country while the political myths continue to grow. 

You will see that we may have allowed our election processes to become so perverted that we end up with people in Washington that are so out of touch with reality, so wrapped up in their own myths, or so short of brain power that nothing constructive ever gets done. These conclusions are not based on our analysis but simply by reviewing these politicians own words and how stupid they really are.

We have done this exercise a number of times before. Some of these previous posts include:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2010/10/politicians-say-darndest-things.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-book-love-my-country-loathe-my.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2011/10/politicians-say-darndest-things.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/03/poiticians-say-darnedest-thingsand-that.html

In our past posts, you will find a Congressman who was concerned that the island of Guam would physically tip over in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, You will find a Texas Congresswoman who asked out loud whether the Mars rover explorer vehicle would be visiting the site on the moon where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed. You will find a California Congresswoman who stated those citizens opposed to certain Presidential policies should go straight to hell. 

The following paragraphs follow up these past inane quotes with the latest from the American political class. The myths they focus on may not be real but their inability to comprehend reality and resolve issues is not a myth, it is the reality of their incompetence.

1) Quote: “The World Is Less Violent Than It Has Ever Been” Barack Obama

Comment: This has to fall into the myth category vs. reality category. As always, the President provided no proof of this assertion, assuming that we should just believe what he says. But given that he was more or less crowned as the top political liar in 2013 by the Washington Post, that is not an option. Maybe he did not consider the following and current sites of violence or does not recognize them in his reality:

• Iraq is imploding in a violent civil war.
• Syria is imploding in a violent civil war.
• Libya is imploding in a violent civil war.
• The Sudan has already imploded in a violent civil war.
• China is battling a violent Islamic insurgence.
• Russia is battling a violent Islamic insurgence.
• Nigeria is battling a violent Islamic insurgence.
• Somalia pirates are running rampant both on land and at sea.
• The Ukraine and Russia are waging war over parts of Ukrainian territory.
• Central and South American governments are battling violent drug and criminal gangs and cartels.

Doubtful Mr. President, mythical Mr. President, as far as your assertion that the world is less violent than ever.

2) Quote: “Whoever [women politician] runs has to recognize that the American political system is probably the most difficult, even brutal, in the world.” Hillary Clinton

Comments: There is little doubt that Hillary Clinton is trying to position herself for a White House run in 2016. One myth that she is trying to build up is that the mean cruel world is against her because she is a women, not because of her inability to actually get anything positive accomplished. 

This myth building was on view this past weekend during her endless tour of news shows. She maintained that running for office in the United States is not easy and that in fact: “Politics is so unpredictable. Whoever runs has to recognize that the American political system is probably the most difficult, even brutal, in the world.”

Huh? The American political system is the most brutal in the world, especially as it pertains to women?

Let’s review some realities:

• In some countries around the world, girls are not allowed to be educated, making it brutally hard to run for political office if you do not know how to read
• In some countries around the world, women are not allowed out in public unless they are with their husbands or a male member of their family, making it pretty brutal to run for office if you can only go outside when your husband allows it.
• An article from the Independent Journal Reviews correctly pointed out that some women politicians around the world, e.g., Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Malala Yousafzai of Afghanistan, and others have either been assassinated, imprisoned, or who have survived assassination attempts all because they were running for political office, promoting women’s rights, human rights, or simply for being a female political figure.

Sorry, Hillary, compared to the rest of the world, all you have to do is answer some reporters’ questions without fear of your husband’s wrath, assassination, imprisonment, etc. That is not brutal, that is what happens to politicians in a democracy, citizens deserve to ask questions and receive honest answers. To suggest that you are somehow brutalized by that process is just a myth being created to build sympathy for yourself.

3) Quote: “You have no reason to remember, but we came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources…” Hillary Clinton

Comments: Another fictional myth to enhance her aura. Tough to believe they were broke considering:

• Her husband was eligible for an annual government pension many times larger than what the average American household earns. 
• He had just gotten done earning well over a million dollars while in office for eight years, eight years in which your family did not have to pay for room or board.
• He would have untold numbers of speaking engagements opportunities after he left office.
• It was no secret he would make millions writing his memoirs.
• She had book royalties coming in from a previous book she published.
• She would be in line for massive speaking fees also.
• She made it clear in this interview where this quote came from that the Clintons had MULTIPLE houses that they needed to afford and maintain. Many Americans have trouble affording one house and if things were so bad for the Clintons, why not sell a house or two?
• And finally, shortly after her husband left office, they spent anywhere from an estimated $3 to $5 MILLION on their daughter’s wedding. I am sorry, you do not go from flat broke to wasting possibly $5 million on one wedding in such a short time.

Still, no sympathy here either Hillary. Your claim of being flat broke is a myth as large as they come, you cannot claim that you rose from poverty to become the first female American President.

4) Quote: “These 5 guys are not a threat to the United States.” Hillary Clinton

Comments: Today somehow turned into a Hillary Clinton myth and quote fest but we will get to other inane political quotes in the next few days. This quote is in reference to the five top terror leaders that President Obama recently released for a captured American soldier, a soldier who is highly likely also a deserter. Most knowledgeable intelligence and terrorism experts, both inside and outside of the Obama administration, would disagree with Ms. Clinton on this quote. 

How she thinks that these people will not return to their evil ways against their own people and the rest of the world, without providing any proof whatsoever, is beyond comprehension. We have had them locked up for over a decade. Do we really think that they are not going to be out for vengence at their first opportunity? Remember that Bin Laden planned the entire 9-11 operation from a cave in the Taliban controlled mountains of Afghanistan. 

Thinking that the island of Guam is going to tip over is ludicrous and embarrassing but not going to result in the deaths of many Americans. Trying to mythically wish these evil men out of reality is ludicrous, embarrassing, and extremely dangerous to Americans.

That will do it for today but more quotes and more political class mythical thinking and idiocy in 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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

April, 2014 Poltiical Class Insanity, Part 6: A Foreign Policy Failure, A Photo Op Disaster, A Unite Nations Disaster and more

This post starts the second week of posts this month that covers the never ending political class insanity, idiocy, and wasteful spending of our politicians. Their insanity has been dramatically increasing over the past year or so, an increase that will probably result in a record number of posts this month to cover just the past thirty days or so of their antics.

This post starts the second week of posts this month that covers the never ending political class insanity, idiocy, and wasteful spending of our politicians. Their insanity has been dramatically increasing over the past year or so, an increase that will probably result in a record number of posts this month to cover just the past thirty days or so of their antics.

As you go through their actions that waste our wealth and reduce our freedoms you will probably come to the same conclusion that I have: we are currently governed by the most corrupt and inept set of politicians in the history of our country.

1) In previous posts we have frequently reviewed how Obama’s promise to have the most transparent administration of all time has become a joke. He has tried to prosecute more government whistleblowers than all previous President’s combined, he has delayed or ignored Congressional requests for documents and information, he has delayed or ignored citizens requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act, he holds fewer open ended press conferences than just about every previous President, etc.

An Associated Press analysis put them figures to verify that this is truly a very non-transparent administration, despite Obama’s promise:

• In 2013, the Obama administration denied 6,689 out of 7,818 requests for so-called expedited information requests processing, a process that moves an urgent request for newsworthy records to the front of the line for a speedy answer, or about 86%.
• For comparison purposes, the Bush administration denied only 53% of such requests in 2008.
• Obama’s EPA denied 458 out of 468 expediting requests, a whopping 98%.
• The State Department under Hillary Clinton was not much better, denying 332 of 344 such requests or more than 96%.
• The Homeland Security Department denied 94% of expediting requests.
• The Justice Department, which denied AP’s request for video its investigators obtained days after the Navy Yard shooting, denied 900 out of 1,017 such requests.
• The AP analysis showed that the delay time in fulfilling request for information was getting worse over time, not better.
• In addition to denying the request for expedited requests and denying regular requests for government information, the Obama administration and the Federal government it operates, has many times also simply claimed that they couldn’t find any records or documents being requested.

You cannot claim to be running a transparent administration when the levels of delaying, denying, and claiming ignorance when it comes to Freedom Of Information Act requests is so high. Another Obama deception and/or Obama administration incompetence. In either case, pathetic leadership and dishonesty to the max.

2) I have often made the observation that this President seems more in love with athletic team photo ops than any other President. Over the years, Obama has had White House photo ops with every possible professional baseball, football, hockey, and basketball championship team along with numerous photo ops with college championship teams including a college shooting team. Oh, and let’s not forget Olympic teams and who knows what other kinds of athletic teams and competitors he has taken time to have a photo op with.

This fact was driven home when he recently had another athletic photo op, this one with the reigning Major League baseball champs, the Boston Red Sox. Which raises a good question: how come this President always seems to have enough spare time to meet and greet with these athletic teams but never seems to have the time, or the will, to meet with our wounded soldiers in hospitals?

How come he never seems to have the time, or the will, to meet with the parents and families of those he left for dead at our consulate at Benghazi to update them on his promise to track down those responsible for the murders of their family members?

How come he never seems to have the time, or the will, to visit a food bank or a homeless shelter to see how millions of Americans are still suffering as a result of his failing economic policies long after the recession ended?

How come he never has the time, or the will, to host a White House photo op with an outstanding teacher, a heroic fireman or policeman, or an ordinary citizen that is giving back to their community?

How come?

3) A recent national poll shows that even Americans have doubt about the foreign policy strategies and abilities of this current Presidential administration. A new Quinnipiac University national poll shows that the American public is divided whether President Barack Obama or Russian president Vladimir Putin is the stronger leader: “It’s a tossup on who is a tougher leader, President Barack Obama or President Vladimir Putin, as Americans weigh the heavyweight standoff over Ukraine,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll that conducts research in several states, in a release.

The poll of 1,578 registered U.S. voters nationwide between March 26 to 31 found that:

• Americans give Obama low marks for his handling of foreign policy issues.
• 55% say they disapprove and 39% say they approve of his foreign policy actions.
• Regarding the situation in the Ukraine, 47% of those polled disapproved of Obama’s actions while 41% supported him.
• Approximately 80 percent of those surveyed in the new Quinnipiac poll said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” that the Ukraine situation could lead to a larger crisis that would require U.S. military action.
• In a related foreign affairs poll, an Economist/YouGov poll in March of 1,000 adults found three out of four Americans viewed Russia’s Putin as a strong leader while less than half regarded Obama as a strong leader.

Thus, not only is the current President seeing his overall approval ratings slipping, these two polls show that he is also showing consider inability to put together and execute a sound foreign policy, especially if Americans view Putin more favorably than Obama and the vast majority of Americans have concerns about the Ukraine situation getting further out of control. More political class ineptness, this time a perceived ineptness and weakness on the global stage.

4) Sometimes you have to wonder how the political class thinks since logically, many of their actions and policies have no basis in the realities of the real world. Consider the United Nations. According to a recent article by Tom Rogan writing for the national Review, in the relatively recent past, the United Nations:

• Had no ability to punish or sanction the Russia invasion and land grabbing of Crimea.
• It had no impact on the genocide in Rwanda
• It was incapable of stopping the genocide and mass murders in Bosnia.
• The article correctly concludes that the United Nations now exists only to “promote empty handshakes, photo opportunities, and polite conversation.”

Not mentioned in the article is the additional failures of the United Nations:

• It failed to end the mass starvation in the Sudan over the past decade or so.
• It failed to curtail the growing nuclear weapons threats of North Korea and Iran.
• After sixty years it has failed to bring peace to the Israeli and Palestinian situation.
• It has failed to end the piracy issues of Somali pirates.

Truly a dysfunctional organization, similar to the American political class and its similar ability to only succeed in empty handshakes and photo opportunities. However, given this reality of incompetence, the Obama administration is proposing a thirty percent increase in American taxpayer wealth being sent to the United Nations and other failing international groups. Talk about throwing good money after bad money.

After almost seventy years of United Nations bungling, the American political class should either be demanding massive changes to the United Nations operations to make it more effective or just quick the organization and save the taxpayer money that has been aimlessly and uselessly send to it over the decades. Sending the United Nations more money before fixing is dysfunctional is just pure insanity.

So let’s review: the Obama administration has not found time to fulfill legal and necessary Freedom of Information Act requests but the President has more than enough time to get his photo taken with rich athletes, the majority of Americans view this President as weak and his foreign policies as ineffective, and the political class wants to give even more taxpayer wealth to an ineffective and corrupt United Nations. Insane.

And more insanity 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.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w