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I purposely did not write this post for a few days in order for all of the dust and idiocy to settle down from the Congressional votes this week on the so-called "fiscal cliff." In my opinion, this deal was the ultimate in political class insanity. It was done at the last minute, even though Washington politicians knew when the deadline was all along and should have and could have gotten a much saner, less idiotic plan done months and months ago.
But rather than rant about the general insanity, let's look at some of the details to truly understand how idiotic and insane this fiscal cliff deal is:
1) The most general question one could ask is how does this deal fix our national debt problem? From a traditional definition of national debt, the country has run up a national debt of over $16.3 TRILLION. This comes out to a debt burden of over $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. It is over $140,000 for every U.S. household.
The following graph contains two bars. The left hand bar is the amount of money that the Federal government overspent its tax stream in 2012, i.e. the spending deficit. It was over $1 TRILLION. The right hand bar is the amount of additional annual tax revenue the Federal government will see by taxing wealthier Americans under the fiscal cliff deal. Thus, just from a graphical perspective, taxing the rich will come nowhere close to overcoming the insane overspending of the Federal government and the Washington political class (double click on the graph for a bigger view):
2) But let’s step deeper into the numbers behind this graph to really understand how this deal solves nothing and makes a bad situation worse:
- Taxing the rich in 2012 under the terms of the fiscal cliff deal would have raised 2012 Federal government revenues by just over $60 billion. This is only 5.69% vs. 2012 deficit, which explains why the left bar above is so much high (almost 20 times higher) than the right bar. Washington has a gross overspending problem, not an under taxation problem.
- If you extrapolate the tax the rich terms of the deal out for ten years AND the current national debt was frozen at the current level, Federal government tax revenue from the deal would account for only 3.8% of the CURRENT national debt load. Again, no matter how much you raise the taxes of the wealthier Americans, it is only a small fraction of the gross overspending habits of Washington.
- But we all know that freezing the debt load at $16.3 TRILLION will never happen with the current set of politicians in Washington. This fiscal cliff deal will add over $3.9 additional dollars of debt to our current level (since reducing spending was never included in the deal) and realistic estimates of the growth in debt under current Washington budget projections will add another $9 TRILLION of debt in the next ten years. $16.3 TRILLION + $3.9 TRILLION + $9 TRILLION = $29.2 TRILLION in national debt by 2023. This fiscal cliff deal will raise enough additional tax revenue to cover only about 2.12% of that load.
The above calculations assume that all of the additional tax revenue from the deal is used to reduce debt. Given the hundreds and hundreds of wasteful spending examples we have covered in this blog, the potential for all of the additional tax revenue to be not wasted is extremely tiny.
By the way, if this realistic estimate of $29.2 TRILLION comes to pass, the individual debt burden on every man, woman, and child in this country would be almost $93,000 a piece.
The other way to look at these depressing numbers is to consider the fact that our economy, and our democracy, will likely crash long before the $29.2 TRILLION level is reached due to our government’s inability to rein in spending and live within the country’s fiscal means.
Devastating numbers, depressing numbers. The reality is staring everyone in the face. Most rational, sane Americans realize that these debt levels are unsustainable and insane. Unfortunately, those that do not recognize these simple facts all seem to have been elected to Federal political offices.
3) But believe it or not, the deal is even worse than the stark realities calculated and graphed above. Why? Because in these dark debt and economic times, our politicians took the time to include even more wasteful spending in the fiscal cliff deal, deepening our debt pit even more (source: January 1, 2013 ABC News report:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-deal-also-doles-out-millions-for-hollywood-railroads-rum-producers/):
• Almost half a billion dollars in tax breaks, $430 million, was included in the deal for Hollywood through “special expensing rules,” tax rules that encourage TV and film production in the United States. Producers can expense up to $15 million of costs for their projects. Funny how these are the same people that overwhelmingly voted for, supported, and raised money for Democrats in the last election.
• $331 million was tucked into the deal for railroad companies which allows short-line and regional railroad operators to claim a tax credit up to 50% of the cost to maintain tracks that they own or lease. Funny how one of the biggest supporters of Obama and Democrats is Warren Buffet whose companies are big players in the railroad business.
•$222 million for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through returned excise taxes collected by the Federal government on rum produced in the islands and imported to the mainland.
•$70 million for NASCAR by extending a “7-year cost recovery period for certain motor sports racing track facilities.” Why should private companies like NASCAR, and railroad companies and movie studios, get free taxpayer wealth when we are in the midst of this national debt crisis? In fact, when should these types of businesses ever get taxpayer wealth?
•The wind production tax credit (PTC) was extended for 1 year, along with several additional targeted tax credits for renewable energy, at a cost of $12 billion.
•$59 million for algae growers through tax credits to encourage production of “cellulosic biofuel” at up to $1.01 per gallon. Funny how when Obama hands out taxpayer money to alternative energy companies (e.g. Solyndra) we later find out that one of his political supporters was the beneficiary. Thus, it would not surprise many of us if that was the case here.
•$4 million for electric motorcycle makers by expanding an existing green-energy tax credit for buyers of plug-in vehicles to include electric motorbikes. What a waste.
Disgusting. We are drowning in debt, the economy is weak, Americans are being taxed more and more heavily, and these people take every opportunity to take care of their political supporters, the health of the country and the economy be damned.
4) Oh, but it gets even worse. According to a report from CNS News and other news sources, multiple Senate contacts have confirmed that our esteemed Senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013, just three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM. This is governing from the Nancy Pelosi school of government, i.e. “we have to pass the bill to see what is in it.”
If this is true, and there are enough news sources out there saying it actually did happen in three minutes, then these people in the Senate need to be removed from office for dereliction of duty. This was not a new Post Office they were naming, this is the future financial and economic health of the country and they failed miserably at their jobs.
5) But I am not alone in disappointment with this process and insanity. Consider the headlines from major news sources, many of which are usually severe Obama supporters:
•The Atlantic: “There Are No Spending Cuts In This Deal.” (Derek Thompson, “Fiscal Cliff Deal FAQ: What Just Happened And What It Means For You,” The Atlantic, 1/2/13)
•The New York Times: “And It Includes Almost No Spending Cuts.” (David Leonhardt, “For Obama, A Victory That Also Holds Risks,” The New York Times, 1/2/13)
•The Associated Press: “[The Fiscal Cliff Deal] Puts Off The Toughest Decisions About Spending Cuts…” (Charles Babington, “Analysis: Cliff Deal Is Another Pain-Free Punt,” The Associated Press, 1/3/13)
•The Washington Post: “[Fiscal Cliff Deal] Will Do Little To Address The Nation’s Long-Term Debt.” (Editorial, “Congress’s feeble finish to the ‘fiscal cliff’ fiasco,” The Washington Post, 1/1/13)
•The Washington Post: “The Deal Will Not Reduce Future Deficits Much…” (Editorial, “Congress’s Feeble Finish To The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Fiasco,” The Washington Post, 1/1/13)
•Reuters: “It ‘Kicked The Can Down The Road’ To A Later Date.” (Kim Dixon, “Analysis: ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Called A Dud On Deficit Front,” Reuters, 1/1/13)
•The Washington Times: “‘Conversation’ On Deficit Falls On Deaf Ears” (David Sherfinski, “Conversation On Deficit Falls On Deaf Ears,” The Washington Times, 12/31/12)
•POLITICO: “But The Measure Took Two Steps Back For Each Step Forward.” (Jonathan Allen, “112th Congress Legacy: Unfinished Business,” POLITICO, 1/2/13)
•Fix The Debt Founders Alan Simpson And Erskine Bowles: “The Deal Approved Today Is Truly A Missed Opportunity To Do Something Big To Reduce Our Long-Term Fiscal Problems…” (Press Release, Statement From The Campaign To Fix The Debt Co-Founders Erskine Bowles And Alan Simpson, 1/1/13)
I have been writing about political class insanity for over three years in this blog. I thought I had seen it all from political corruption to wasteful government spending to idiotic spending to bad priorities, etc. But nowhere before have I seen such a disgraceful piece of governing than this whole fiscal deal fiasco.
It was bad economics, bad governing, class warfare, and insanity at its worst. It will solve nothing, the raising of anyone’s taxes is silly in light of the weak economy and the hundreds of billions of dollars the Federal government currently wastes every year. And worse of all, our national debt keeps growing unabated due solely to government overspending, not under taxation.
Two things to keep in mind. Step 39 from “Love my Country, Loathe My Government” has never been more needed. Step 39 would implement term limits for all Federal politicians. The current set of Washington politicians need to be legally and constitutionally removed from office, the damage they have wrought and their dereliction of duty requires it immediately. We will be announcing such an effort shortly and need everyone’s help who agrees that this fiscal cliff disaster is the last straw in a long line of incompetent governing.
Second, if you do not get involved in any effort to get the political class to do their jobs and curtail runaway government spending, imagine yourself ten years from now. What are you going to say when your kids or grandkids ask you why they have a $90,000 debt burden and associated heavy taxation burden to bear? Will you tell them how you did nothing when the fiscal cliff deal sealed their fate as permanent payers of our runaway, and often wasteful, spending?
********************************
My January 3, 2013 letter to my Florida Senator Bill Nelson:
Senator Nelson:
A few things up front. I am 59 years old and until the November, 2010 elections I had never voted for a Republican for national office in my life. I have never voted for a Republican president. Thus, I am not a conservative, a Republican, or a Tea Party member. I am also not rich so "taxing the rich" does not apply to me.
Nevertheless, in my 59 years, I have never seen such a dysfunctional, greedy, immature, idiotic, and embarrassing set of Washington politicians in my life, especially in light of the fiscal cliff fiasco. I wonder if you realize how much the people outside of the Beltway hold you all in contempt for the shenanigans that go on every day in D.C.
This fiscal cliff business should have been handled at least six months ago. By delaying to the last minute, you make the country and yourselves look like a bunch of dunces.
Are you people really that insane and out of touch with reality to think this fiscal cliff deal will do any good? The money it takes from the rich will just get squandered by the Federal government like every other dollar we send to you. It will take disposable income out of a very weak economy for no reason. And it is a spit in the ocean relative to our $16.3 TRILLION national debt and our long standing $86 TRILLION of unfunded liabilities.
When the country implodes from the debt load that you people never addressed, you and the rest of your peers in Congress will go down in history as the captains of the U.S. Titanic that sunk in a sea of red ink and did nothing to stop it.
For once, I want/demand someone in your office get back to me and explain this dysfunctionality of you and your friends in Congress. You are all a disgrace to our country and our heritage. Call me, email me, send me a letter or I will call your office until I get some answers of why you people are so out of touch, so pathetic when it comes to running the country.
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
Okay, I thought we could get way with only two posts this month to review the insanity and idiocy we were forced to absorb from our political class last month. However, since I finished the first two posts, more insanity arose, requiring this third, and hopefully, final post for this month’s craziness.
1) Senator Rand Paul and other members of Congress held a news conference in the middle of December where they vowed not to raise taxes on any American, given the incredibly wasteful spending of the Federal government. They cited many examples of massive and trivial spending including this gem: the Federal government spent thousands of dollars to send Federal employees to Hawaii to brainstorm on what types of food future astronauts would eat while on Mars.
It was unclear why 1) these employees had to be sent away (especially to far off Hawaii) from their offices to think about this silly subject and 2) more importantly, why they needed to think about something as inane as this for an event that is highly likely to never happen or, best case, will happen many decades in the future. It is no wonder why we have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.
2) An investigative report in the Washington Times in the second week of December found that a West Virginia millionaire Congressman from West Virginia owed back property taxes on his $900,000 Washington, D.C. house.
Apparently, Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall had spent years claiming a homestead exemption on his D.C. home AND another homestead exemption on his other home back in West Virginia. This is a no-no, no one, by law and Congressional rules, including a Congressman, is allowed to claim more than one homestead exemption. The article reports that while he has paid the back taxes owed, he still owes the penalties and fines he incurred.
This insult to taxpayers should not be confused with what happened to Congressman Fortney H. “Pete” Stark (D.-Calif.) in 2009. He was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for his taking a homestead abatement on his $2 million Maryland home, where he lives with his family, while claiming as his residence a home in his district, lived in and owned by his wife’s parents.
The investigation cleared Stark after it determined that his taking the Maryland tax break because it was credited to him, but he had never requested it. While he never asked for the exemption, it does not appear that he refused when it was given to him.
This is not to be confused with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, a former California Democratic Congresswoman. She had her February 2009 Congressional confirmation hearings delayed until her husband paid his back taxes on his auto repair business.
This is not to be confused with U.S. Democratic Senator Sherrod C. Brown was in arrears to the Washington D.C. city government for the taxes on his $222,000 Capitol Hill condominium. This charge of not paying taxes was used against Brown by his 2012 Republican opponent Ohio Joshua A. Mandel, a charge that was validated as true by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s “Truth-O-Meter” column.
Now you begin to see why Democrats in Washington want to raise taxes. Many of them never get around to paying their “fair share” so raising taxes is not a reality in their lives.
3) We usually combine illegal drug-related news and insanity into periodic posts dedicated to our lost war on drugs. However, this news item was worthy of being included in this month’s insanity. According to a December 14, 2012 Associated Press article, four law enforcement officers in Texas were arrested and charged with taking bribes worth thousands of dollars to protect shipments of cocaine through their law enforcement areas.
We have predicted this type of behavior many times before. Our idiotic lost war on drugs has enriched the Mexican drug cartels and corrupted much of the Mexican government structure, from judges down to local police. This corruption has now jumped the border, if these charges should prove to be true.
4) Speaking of bribes, a Business Week article educated me on how many of our most important ambassadorships are assigned. Ambassadorships are very important posts since they are our official Federal government liaison to other governments and other countries.
Thus, one would think that these important State Department posts are staffed and managed by some of the brightest people in the State Department, people with a long history of international and government affairs. You could think that and you would be wrong.
According to an article in the December 17, 2012 issue of Business Week, some of the most important and most visible ambassador posts are given to political allies who raised the most money for the politicians currently in power. Case in point: President Obama is considering naming Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to be the next U.S. ambassador to England.
What is the number one reason for this potential appointment? Ms. Wintour raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s Presidential run and inspired the “Runway To Win," a fashion line that brought upwards of $40 million to his campaign. Yes, the editor of a fashion magazine is in line to become one of the most important ambassadors in the world. Ludicrous.
Wintour’s competition for the London post is Obama’s national election finance chairman, Matthew Barzun. The article states that Wintour may also be in line for the French ambassadorship but would have to beat out Marc Lasry who raised over $200,000 for Obama’s campaign.
Money talks regardless of who is in power in the White House and Congress, almost always to the detriment of well run, efficient, and effective government operations.
By the way, whoever does become the next ambassador to England will live on a 12 acre estate called Winfield House, a building with dozens and dozens of rooms with private gardens that “are exceeded only by those of Buckingham Palace.” Now, aren’t you sorry you did not raise a lot of money for the campaign?
Three days of insanity: wasteful government spending, tax evading Democrats, armored cars for pumpkin festivals, and more. And just think, in just thirty days we will have to do this all again, with the latest idiocy from our political class.
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 is the second in this month’s series on political class insanity in America. As the months go by, we have needed to expand our monthly one day post into multiple posts to cover all of the idiocy, lunacy, and bad priorities of our politicians. This month is no exception. Yesterday we covered the fact that the American political class bought an armored car for a rural town in case they ever have problems at their annual pumpkin festival, the Pentagon spent taxpayer wealth on a string of Star Trek themed meetings that had nothing to do with national defense, and several other total wastes of money.
So what did we not get to yesterday:
1) This piece of insanity and hypocrisy did not occur in the past month but I just found it last week. According to an ABC News report from January 27, 2012:
- At that time, the IRS released its Federal Employee and Retiree Delinquency Inventory.
- That report showed that a whopping 36 of Obama’s White House aides owed a total of $833,970 in back taxes to the IRS.
- And White House personnel were not the only Federal employees not paying their taxes.
- At the Environmental Protection Agency, 413 people owe more than $19 million, at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), 185 employees owe more than $3 million; and five people at the U.S. Tax Court owe $62,508.
- I am assuming these are not the only tax evading Federal employees but they are only the ones cited as examples by the ABC article.
- The ironic thing about the FDIC tax evaders is that the FDIC is supposed to “maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system.” Tough to have confidence in the nation’s financial system when those responsible for that integrity flaunt its requirements.
A few observations:
- The President’s call for some Americans to pay more in taxes rings hypocritical and hollow when he cannot even get his own personnel to comply with existing tax laws.
- No wonder the IRS fails to collect over $380 billion from tax evaders, many of them actually work for the same Federal bureaucracy. If the IRS cannot find the tax evaders within the government, it is doubtful it will find them out in the hinterlands.
- Shouldn’t there be a law that if you are evading taxes, and it is obvious they know who these Federal employees are given the specificity of the numbers, that their Federal pay checks be confiscated until those back taxes are paid?
- Maybe they are just following the example of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and other top ranking political class members who did not pay their “fair” share of taxes in the past.
Why was ABC the only member of the main stream media to carry this story? Isn’t this a major discussion point in the tax debate going on in this country today?
Final question: if you or I evaded over $23,000 in taxes (the average amount the 36 White House aides evaded), wouldn’t we be in jail and if so, why are these White House aides not in jail?
Hypocrisy abounds.
2) Fiscal cliff. $16.3 TRILLION national debt. 23 million Americans either unemployed or under employed. Failing public schools. Leaky borders. High gas prices with no national energy strategy and plan. Escalating health care costs.
Some serious issues facing country and its citizens. So what did a Congressional committee concern itself with recently, according to a December 12, 2012 Associated Press report? Whether or not the National Football League Players Association was trying to get out of its agreement with the NFL to subject its players of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) drug testing:
“Hopefully as we move down the line, players will see how incredibly ridiculous it looks for them not to ... straighten this thing out," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's ranking Democrat. "We're now getting ready to go into a third season, and it does not look very good."
No, Congressman Cummings, this is not ridiculous. What is truly ridiculous is that a Congressional committee and its staff are worried about this insignificant piece of reality when there are so many other real issues facing America today. Pathetic priorities.
3) During this holiday season, from Thanksgiving through Christmas, American families will be eating a lot of turkey. Did you ever wonder how turkey producers measure and document the size of their turkeys? Probably not.
Well, some Federal government bureaucrats sure did. While reading the following LABELING specifications for turkey, consider whether or not our tax dollars need to be spent paying someone in the Federal bureaucracy to come up with such detailed specs for just turkey LABELS:
Federal labeling requirements for turkey include “affixing in conspicuous and easily legible boldface print or type, in distinct contrast to other matter on the container, and on the principal display panel within the bottom 30 percent of the area of the panel, in lines generally parallel to the base: Provided, Not less than one-eighth inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 5 but not more than 25 square inches; Not less than three-sixteenth inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 25 but not more than 100 square inches; Not less than one-quarter inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 100 but not more than 400 square inches; Not less than one-half inch in height on containers, the principal display panel of which has an area of more than 400 square inches. The ratio of height to width of letters and numerals shall not exceed a differential of 3 units to 1 unit (no more than 3 times as high as it is wide). This height standard pertains to upper case or capital letters. When upper and lower case or all lower case letters are used, it is the lower case letter ‘o’ or its equivalent that shall meet the minimum standards. When fractions are used, each component numeral shall meet one-half the height standards.”
Some relatively high paid government employee actually spent time and taxpayer wealth actually writing this down. It probably went through many iterations. It was probably read and modified many times by this employee’s superiors. It requires much unproductive time by turkey producers to comply with such specificity.
And the sad thing about all this waste, I would bet that over 99% of turkey consumers never read the darn label anyway. They buy the turkey because of how it looks and about how big it is. This is just one reason why we have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt.
4) Continuing on this expensive, overregulation theme of turkey labeling, the following overregulation information arose in just one week in November, according to investigations by the Bankrupting America Project:
- RealClearPolicy noted President Obama introduced more regulations in two years than President Bush did in eight and twice as many as President Clinton did in his last three years in office.
- According to the American Action Forum, as of Nov. 2, “At the current pace, the published regulatory burden for 2012 will exceed $273 billion. Since January 1, 2012 the federal government has imposed $231.7 billion in compliance costs and more than 134.9 million annual paperwork burden hours.”
- The American Action Forum also notes there were three Dodd-Frank rules issued in the last two weeks that would “increase regulatory costs by $774 million … with more than 7.4 million associated paperwork hours.”
$273 billion a year in regulations comes out to well over $2,500 a year per average U.S. household. Ask yourself if you are getting your money’s worth for that $2,500 every year. Ask this question in the light of now knowing that one of those many, many regulations concerns itself with the labels on turkeys? I think most Americans would agree that $2,500 is way too much to spend based on what return we get from the federal bureaucracy.
5) Now, the following numbers will not cure our $16.3 TRILLION national debt problem, it will not feed the homeless. But it is symptomatic of how idiotic our Federal government can be when handing our taxpayer wealth in a willy-nilly manner.
The December, 2012 AARP Bulletin covered the findings from a Congressional Research Service which found that almost 2,400 IRS tax filers had annual income over $1 million in 2009 and…. were still able to collect unemployment benefits. This cost the American taxpayer almost $21 million.
Again, $21 million is a spit in the ocean of our national debt. But these kinds of atrocities go on thousands and thousands of times every day. Unemployment benefit programs were implemented to help a struggling citizen get past a rough past in their employment situation. Someone who made over a million dollars in one year do not need an additional handout from the American taxpayer. At one million dollars, these people earned at least twenty times what the average American household earned in 2009. With that kind of income advantage, they do not need a taxpayer payout to get over their rough spot.
Senator Tom Coburn has introduced legislation in the Senate to prohibit anyone earning over a million dollars from collecting unemployment benefits and checks. While I applaud his efforts to erase this disgraceful waste of money, I would make the legislation more stringent:
- I would not put the cutoff at over a $1 million but much lower, say $500,000 which is still more than ten times what the average American household earns in a year.
- I would also put a wealth measurement and requirement in place. It should not be enough to just look at the previous year’s income. In these high national debt times, I see no reason why anyone should be eligible for unemployment benefits who has a net worth, not an annual income, of over a million dollars. A millionaire with millions in his or her bank, mutual funds, bonds, etc. should not need a few hundred dollars a month from Federal unemployment funds.
It is such a shame the Washington political class took so long to recognize this stupidity.
That should do it for today. Tax evading Federal employees and executives, over regulation, stupid regulations, bad priorities and subsidizing millionaire earners. Just another month of political class insanity.
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.co
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
Its that time of month again, the time when we review the latest insanity, idiocy, and wasteful spending of the American political class. Unfortunately, this type of behavior never seems to end. As you begin to understand the insanity, you realize why we as a nation have a $16.3 TRILLION national debt, record high unemployment, etc.
So let’s see what our politicians have dumped on us this month:
1) On December 12, 2012, the Bankrupting America Project reported on its Facebook page that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stepping up its efforts to protect attendees of pumpkin festivals, which apparently can get pretty rowdy. How do they know this? The DHS gave the town of Keene, New Hampshire, $285,933 to buy a BearCat armored vehicle.
Keene is not a major metro area, it is highly unlikely to be terrorist target, Keene has a population of 23,000 and had experienced just one homicide over the two years prior to the purchase. Their grant application listed the 2004 Pumpkin Festival as an example where the armored vehicle would have been useful. The city of Keene told DHS the vehicle would be used to patrol similar events in the future. Must be a heck of a rowdy town and Pumpkin Festival if U.S. taxpayers have to provide armored vehicle support.
Let’s do some simple math. Since there are about 20,000 cities and towns in this country, if the Federal government wanted to fairly protect all citizens to the same degree they are protecting Keene, N.H., they would have to spend about $5.7 billion. This shows what a tremendous waste of money this expenditure was, more than a quarter million dollars to protect a Pumpkin Festival that happens only once a year. Ridiculous.
2) According to a December 10, 2012 Associated Press report, a Federal grand jury is actively investigating a $38 million contract to operate the District of Columbia lottery. Although no one has yet been charged in the lottery probe, law enforcement entities are looking for evidence of crimes including bribery and illegal steering of contracts, with numerous city politicians are under investigation.
Political corruption and criminal activity, what a surprise! Especially in D.C. Unfortunately for local citizens, this is not the only scandal and potential corruption that is underway in D.C.:
- Three staff aides to Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 election campaign have already pleaded guilty to Federal crimes.
- Two town council members have resigned in the past year after pleading guilty to felonies.
- One of council members involved stealing city money earmarked for youth sports.
- And who can forget the antics and convictions of former D.C. mayor Marion Barry.
They make us so proud, don’t they. Corrupt and stealing from kids. Disgraceful.
3) Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) has become one of the few members of Congress that is actually embarrassed by the wasteful spending in Washington. Every year he investigates the most ridiculous Federal spending and documents them in his annual Wastebook publication.
He was recently at it again, identifying some absolutely ludicrous spending by the Department of Defense. Apparently, among other things, the Department of Defense spent taxpayer wealth for a lecture series involving fictional alien species, including a lecture session entitled: “Did Jesus Die for Klingons too?”:
- This Klingon session funded by the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency.
- DARPA paid about $100,000 for a strategy planning workshop on the 100 Year Starship project which included a discussion involving the Klingons, a fictional alien species who were villains and then later allies of humanity in the Star Trek series.
- The session entitled "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?"
- This discussion featured philosophy professor Christian Weidemann from Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum who discussed the theological conflict to Christianity if intelligent life was found on other planets. How this discussion helped in our national defense is completely lost on me.
- At another Department of Defense funded session, topics such as how to make deep space travel most efficient, how scientists would go about creating a “warp bubble,” and whether would need to wear clothing during space travel were discussed.
- This session featured actors from the famous "Star Trek" TV series as special guests. Again, how any of these activities do not totally waste taxpayer wealth and help our national defense is lost on me.
- And the biggest taxpayer insult of all: all of these sessions were in conjunction with the 100 Year Starship project, the objective of which is to "foster a rebirth of a sense of wonder" to "make interstellar space travel practicable and feasible." So far, the 100 Year Project has consumed more than a whopping $1 million.
Total, total waste. I often wonder if the Federal bureaucrats who spend money like this truly understand how idiotic these expenditures are or do they truly think these are valid uses of hard earned citizen wealth. I believe Mark Twain once addressed this same question: “Sometimes I wonder if world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who really mean it.”
I would go with the imbecile answer if I had to bet.
4) On December 7, 2012, the D.C. CBS affiliate reported on some lunacy from Congress. Really, lunacy. According to the CBS report, the House of Representatives actually spent time and effort and voted to eliminate the word “lunatic” from all Federal laws and legislation. The legislation that passed the House by a vote of 398-1. The word lunatic was deemed to be “demeaning.”
Let’s review: the looming fiscal cliff, an ever escalating $16.3 TRILLION national debt. Persistently high unemployment and under employment rates. Record numbers of Americans on food assistance rolls. Leaky borders, A lost war on drugs. Still no national and coherent energy strategy. Burdensome taxation. Failing public schools. All of these major issues to be addressed and Congress decides to tackle an issue that is likely not in the top 500 issues that concern Americans.
Unfortunately, these was only one politician who has the right priorities. The only “no” vote was cast by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who stated in a statement that: “Not only should we not eliminate the word “lunatic” from Federal law when the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington.”
I love his sarcasm, love his proper set of priorities. Too bad he was outnumbered 398 to 1.
That’s the first set of insanity for this month. More tomorrow since even though our politicians are rarely in Washington and rarely at work, they still are able to generate sheer lunacy and idiocy every month.
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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
