September, 2016, Political Class Insanity, Part 3: Wishing Terrorism Away, Too Much Cheese, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of days needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) Two days ago we discussed the reality that politicians basically have no intelligence when it comes to economic principles and strategies. Specifically, we discussed what happens when politicians impose a very high minimum wage on businesses and the market: some employees get pay raises but a lot of employees get laid off because the businesses and industries affected by a sudden increase in their wage expenses have to make business cuts, including reducing the number of employees, to remain viable.

Specifically, we discussed what happened to American Apparel in Los Angeles, a thriving apparel business, when the state government of California made the minimum wage $15 an hour. Almost immediately, 500 LA American Apparel workers were laid off and their work sent to other, more profitable manufacturing options.

This insanity is repeating itself in the Washington DC area according to a recent Washington Free Beacon article by Bill McMorris on August 24, 2016. In DC, restaurants are going through the worst hiring period in the past 15 years. There were 1,400 fewer restaurants jobs in the city in the first six months of 2016, a rate of about 8 lost jobs every day in the first six months of 2016. This is a 3% overall decrease and the worst loss of jobs since the 2001 recession. This analysis comes to us courtesy of Mr. Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute.

Conversely, restaurants in the DC suburbs added almost 3,000 restaurant employees during the same period. Could it be that the wages mandated under minimum wage laws in DC, which are usually about 30% higher than minimum wage levels in the suburbs, have anything to do with this difference? According to Perry: “The preliminary evidence so far suggests that DC’s minimum wage law is having a negative effect on staffing levels at the city’s restaurants. If the DC restaurant industry can’t easily absorb an $11.50 an hour minimum wage without experiencing the greatest job losses over the last six-months than in any comparable period in 15 years, just imagine the troubles adjusting to further labor cost increases of more than 30% (and $3.50 an hour) for minimum wage workers in the coming years to the full $15 an hour.”

And things might soon be getting even rougher for DC restaurant employees as the DC government recently decided to adopt a $15 minimum wage level which would put DC’s minimum wage differential even higher vs. the suburbs. Imagine the job losses under this new working requirement. Again, same old economic insanity: the good news is that you now have to be paid at least $15 an hour. The bad news is you longer have a job. Economic insanity courtesy of your economically illiterate political class.

2) We have often pointed out that the Social Security Administration is often one of the worst run, most wasteful Federal government entities in existence. A recent Washington Free Beacon article by Elizabeth Harrington lends credence to this observation. 

The Social Security’s inspector general recently completed an audit which found that the Social Security Administration had paid dead Federal workers $1.7 million over the past several years despite the fact that they were DEAD. These dead people received SSA benefit for an average of seven years after they passed away.

And this $1.7 million was paid out to only 35 people, 35 dead people. The SSA so far has only been able to recover $112,557 out of the $1,720,464 that they mistakenly paid out. This is a recovery rate of less than 7%.

The SSA tried to downplay the lost $1.7 million by claiming that this amount is an “extremely small number.” Two things wrong with this type of attitude. First, if the inspector general did an audit, he or she likely took a sample, they probably did not have the time or resources to look at every SSA recipient. 

So that $1.7 million may ro not be a small number relative to the sample that was taken. For example, if the sample size of the audit was 70, then if 35 of the 70 were getting improper payments it is a big number since 50% of everyone in the SSA population could be assumed to be getting paid unnecessary funds, based on the percentage from the audit.

Second, $1.7 million is a large number. Imagine how veterans could get the medical care they are not getting today for that $1.7 million. Imagine how many meals that $1.7 million could buy for hungry Americans. Imagine how many drug addicts could be treated for that $1.7 million. How much shelter could be provided to our homeless for that $1.7 million. To slough off that $1.7 million as an extremely small number ignores the fact that this extremely small number could bring a lot of relieve and aid to a lot of hurting Americans.

3) Although we have quoted a lot of inane politicians in this blog making a lot of inane comments, there are several that constantly stick out as being the most inane. People like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Secretary of State John Kerry provide a steady stream of insanity to this blog.

John Kerry continued to cement his place on this list with the recent comment on terrorism and the media: “Remember this: No country is immune from terrorism. It’s easy to terrorize. Government and law enforcement have to be correct 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. But if you decide one day you’re going to be a terrorist and you’re willing to kill yourself, you can go out and kill some people. You can make some noise. Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn’t cover it quite as much. People wouldn’t know what’s going on.” 

“People wouldn’t know what’s going on.” Huh? Is he saying it is better to be ignorant of the threats around us so that we do not know what danger we could be in? Is he saying that if we ignore terrorists they will somehow magically disappear? Is he saying that if a potential terrorist will not get his name in the appear he will not commit an act of terror? Is he saying that I have no idea what I am talking about?

In order to best resolve a problem, you need to have the best and most accurate view of reality in front of you to make the optimal decision. Ignoring fatds or keeping people ignorant and oblivious of reality is no way to resolve problems, particularly a problem as bad as terrorism. This has to go down as one of his most stupid comments ever.

4) One last piece of insanity for today. Venessa Wong, recently writing for Buzzfeed, reported how there is a massive surplus of cheese in this country. Yes, we have too much cheese sitting in cold storage around the country. This is the biggest cheese surplus in 30 years. On a side note, can you believe that someone in the Federal government, someone being paid with taxpayer wealth, actually knows that there is more cheese in the country today than 30 years ago? What a waste of money.

Apparently, the dairy industry screwed up a few years ago when dairy farmers increased the size of their herds to take advantage of high milk prices at that time. However, since then the price of milk dropped substantially and the dollar's strength vs. other currencies depressed dairy exports to other countries. As a result, we have lots of good yet unused cheese stocks piling up.

But do not fear, the Federal government, using taxpayer money, is essentially doing a bailout of the dairy industry by buying a lot of the cheese, which will then be distributed to food banks. Which causes me two problems:

1. Why should the American taxpayer bailout an industry that made a bad business decision? Much like the taxpayers should not have bailed out the auto and banking industries in 2008 and 2009, there should not be a bailout of dairy farmers who made bad business decisions. Live with it and if you want to off load some cheese, donate it to your local food bank without taxpayer subsidies.
2. Second problem: according to the article, the U.S.government is going to waste $20 million taxpayer dollars to purchase 11 million pounds of cheese. But the surplus is 1.25 BILLION pounds of cheese. Thus, the government purchase is less than a measly .8% of the surplus. Not 8%, .8%.

So, the Feds are spending $20 million to relieve less than 1% of the surplus. No way this makes any difference in the bloated inventories of the dairy industry, it only wastes $20 million for virtually no market or economic impact. This is doing something just for the sake of doing something, no matter how dumb it is.

Now, you might say that the 11 million pounds will help feed the needy, which is correct. But let the dairy industry donate that 11 million pounds and get a tax write-off for far less than $20 million. The taxpayers should not be bailing out an industry, especially a bailout that is too small to make any difference. 

Day three of this month’s insanity is in the books. Another bailout, trying to wish terrorism away, more Socka Security incompetence, and killing jobs while granting wage hikes. Just another day of how many different ways politicians can find to screw things up. More 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

September, 2016, Political Class Insanity, Part 2: The Looming Debt Disaster.Pentagon Credit Card For Strip Joints,and MOre

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of days that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson.Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then bursts out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) Yesterday, we discussed the scandal where the Pentagon had lost over $6.0 TRILLION over the years, trillions that could not be properly accounted for by the auditors. Today we get an idea where a little of that money may have ended up. According to a recent Washington Free Beacon article by Morgan Chalfont, a recent analysis of government issued credit cards to Pentagon employees found that those cards were often used for personal expenses at casinos and stip clubs.

Details of the misuse of the credit cards included the following:

• A sampling of credit card usage found that almost two dozen Pentagon employees charged $8,544 to their government credit cards for personal use, of which some of those dollars were obtained by using ATMs at casinos.
• This came out in a follow up audit from 2015 where the inspector general found that over $1 million had been improperly charged to government credit cards by Pentagon employees.
• The latest inspector general probe confirmed that Pentagon management had not taken enough appropriate action after the first audit found the misspending.
• One Navy civilian employee was found to have misspent almost $30,000 of taxpayer wealth at casinos and other locations even though that employee had been explicitly identified in the first audit.
• In addition, the latest audit found that of the 29 employees reviewed, 22 were improperly reimbursed for 131 vouchers totaling $8,544 during the review period. Thus, over 70% of those audited had misused their government credit cards.
• The original audit found that 4,427 improper credit card transactions totalling $952,258 were done at casinos and 900 transactions were done at “adult entertainment establishments” between July 2013 and June 2014.

Now we at least know where some of the lost $6.0 TRILLION ended up. The frustrating thing is that the Pentagon management was told what was going on as a result of that first audit and the second audit found virtually no improvements in behavior had occurred. Insane.

2) Let’s stay in the defense area for this next piece of insanity. According to a recent article on the Freedom Post website, written by Tim Brown on August 23, 2016, a Federal judge recently sentenced Wenxia Man, a California citizen and a naturalized citizen, to jail for trying to illegally export military equipment to a foreign nation.

But she was not trying to export a few rifles or grenades. Federal prosecutors presented evidence that she was trying to send F-135, F-22 and F-16 engines from Air Force fighter jets to China as well an MQ-9 Reaper drone aircraft, worth = $50 million. She was caught in a Federal law enforcement undercover operation before she could ship any military hardware to a “technology spy” in China.

The pure insanity of this situation is that despite trying to ship major military equipment and military secrets to a foreign, semi-hostile power, she was given only four years in prison. Are you kidding me? People selling marijuana get more jail time and in no way do they endanger our national security like this woman tried to do. Talk about bad law enforcement and judicial priorities and penalties. Insane.

3) We recently did a dedicated post that showed how bad the Obama administration and the Washington political class had handled our country’s economic affairs over the past eight years or so:

XXXXX

Despite the favorable tailwinds of a massive economic stimulus program, low energy costs, and trillions of dollars pumped into the economy by the Federal Reserve, the resulting economic results were historically anemic and pathetic. Low overall economic growth, stagnant wage growth, doubling of the national debt, various unemployment problems, etc. were the result of their ineptness.

And those results are not getting any better, as outlined in a recent Washington Free Beacon article by Ali Meyer on August 26, 2016. That article reported that the U.S. economy expanded at a pathetic rate of 1.1% in the second quarter of 2016, a downward revision from the original estimate. This second quarter, 2016 growth in the GDP was much lower than the same period in 2015 when the quarterly growth was a more respectable 3.7%.

Thus, the worst economic recovery in the possibly the past 80 years continues with the Washington political class having no idea how to bust out to a more robust economic environment.

4) It is no secret that the Obama administration and its economic mismanagement has resulted in:

• The doubling of the national debt in eight years.
• Four consecutive years of having an annual Federal budget deficit of over a trillion dollars.
• So far, incurring the seven highest annual Federal budget deficits in the history of the country.
• Raising the national debt to annual total GDP ratio to over 100% from only 60% when Obama took office.
• Horrific budget management that will burden future generations of Americans with really heavy debt loads and interest payments.

And according to a recent Heritage Foundation article by Michael Sargent on August 24, 2016, this situation is not about to change any time soon:

• The budget deficit in 2016 is likely to rise again after falling for a few years down, from the whopping trillion dollar deficits earlier in the Obama Presidency.
• Not only are the budget deficits likely to start rising again but a recent analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that this year’s budget deficit will be $50 billion higher than they last estimated.
• This year’s budget deficit is now estimated at $590 billion, a deficit that would require every U.S.household to pay an additional $5,000 or so in incremental income taxes to cover.
• This is a 35% deficit increase in just one year from 2015 to 2016.
• The CBO expects trillion dollar deficits to return by as soon as 2024 unless Washington gets its act together.
• Within ten years, at the current spending rate, the national debt load will be up to $28 TRILLION, almost triple what it was when Obama took office.
• If interest rates jump up unexpectedly, then the debt increase would be even more dramatic.
• And no amount of tax increases will overcome the anticipated spending increases of the Federal government.
• Only four spending categories, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the debt will eat up the majority of Federal government spending, going from 69% of the Federal budget today to 77% in ten years.
• Think about that last number: three out of every four dollars spent in ten years will be on these programs with far less left for the military, infrastructure improvements, welfare assistance, education, and other functions.
• Annual interest on the national debt by itself will triple over the next ten years. 

The good news, which is really bad news, is that we are likely to see the collapse of the economy and the country long before we reach these horrid milestones. 

Thus, what Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Mussolini, and many others could not do to us, we are likely to do to ourselves because no one in Washington or on the campaign trail wants to talk honestly about what needs to be done to prevent this fiscal meltdown. Not Trump, not Hillary, not any Democrat or Republican Congressional person running for office. 

The insanity is that problem is right there in black and white numbers and no one in the political class has the nerve, the courage, the smarts, or the will to fix what is the biggest issue facing the country today: runaway government spending and waste. So sad.

Two days into the insanity and we already see the highly probable end of the republic. Imagine what the rest of the insanity that still needs to be covered in the coming 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:


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

September, 2016, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Pentagon Loses $6 TRILLION, Lies About Syrian Refugees, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

The current monthly record for the number of posts that were needed to cover one month's worth of insanity is ten. We almost equaled that record last month when we needed nine days to cover one month’s worth of political class insanity. There is a very good chance that the ten day record could fall this month since as we get closer and closer to the election, the volume of ineptness grows almost exponentially. 

But today and for all of the posts this month, let’s start off with a welcome piece of honest political dialog. It comes from a State Department spokesperson. Mark Toner, who is about to start the daily State Department press briefing. In a joking matter, he makes the following quote: "Welcome to the State Department. I think we have some interns in the back. Welcome. Good to see you in this exercise in transparency and democracy." 

He then burst out laughing at his own quote, indicating he also knew what a joke the Obama administration has been, especially Mr. Toner’s State Department, when it comes to cover ups, lack of transparency, denial of Freedom of Information Act requests, the prosecution of whistleblowers, etc. But at least it was a little refreshing to finally hear some actual honesty out of Washington as we see from the actual clip of the news conference:

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2016/08/when-even-the-state-department-spokesperson-cant-keep-a-straight-face-about-things-anymore-video/

With that context of honesty, let’s see what other insanity has been going down:

1) We have often reported on how inept and messy the accounting processes are at the Pentagon. They are so messed up that professional auditors have thrown up their hands when trying to make sense of the financial chaos at the Defense Department. That impression continues to be the reality, at least according to a recent article on the World News Daily website written by Bob Unruh on August 17, 2016:

• An audit report from the inspector general of the Pentagon found that the Pentagon cannot account for a whopping $6.5 TRILLION.
• That is not a typo, it is $6.5 TRILLION or over $50,000 for every U.S. household.
• This has been going on for a long time since former Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted $2.3 TRILLION was missing shortly after the 9-11 attacks. 
• This $2.3 TRILLION has almost tripled to $6.5 TRILLION.
• Specifically, the inspector general reported declared that “the office of the assistant secretary of the army (Financial Management & Comptroller) (OASA[FM&C]) and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis (DFAS Indianapolis) did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter journal voucher (JV) adjustments and $6.5 trillion in year end JV adjustments occurred because OASA(FM&C) and DFAS Indianapolis did not prioritize correcting the system deficiencies that caused errors resulting in JV adjustments, and did not provide sufficient guidance for supporting system-generated adjustments.”
• Suspiciously, the inspector general could not find out why 16,513 financial records had been removed from the Pentagon budget system in the third quarter of 2015.

The article referenced an organization called Armstrong Economics, that had also analyzed the inspector general report, and Armstrong did a simple, yet elegant, summary of what is going on with this financial incompetence: “Let[‘s] face the truth. Government is incapable of managing even a bubblegum machine. They are completely hopeless. This money is lining the pockets of unknown people and it is funding unknown military operations.” Brilliant insight, and I dare anyone to come up with a better explanation of these disgusting misuses of taxpayer wealth.

2) The next piece of insanity again tests the age old question whether politicians really do not know when they are telling a lie or think we are to stupid to check out what they say against facts and realities. Kathryn Blackhurst, writing for the Lifezette website on August 28, 2016, brings us the latest politician who apparently is living in a different reality.

Tammy Duckworth is running for the Senate in Illinois. She recently and publicly claimed that the United States and the Obama administration are only accepting refugees from the Middle East that are not military aged men. This is obviously a ploy to reassure Americans that we have nothing to fear from the refugees coming into this country since no men of military age are being admitted.

She actually doubled down on this assertion by going on to say all of the men in the families being admitted into the country are all dead: “To come to the U.S., the UN High Commission for Refugees actually selects largely families with no men of military age, and there are no men of military age in these families because the men are dead.” And furthermore, the people coming into the country as refugees, ‘They’re widows and orphans.”

Unfortunately, she did not tell the State Department about this reality because recent data out of the State Department shows that:

• More Syrian refugees being brought to this country have been men than women so far in 2016, 4,646 males vs. 4,333 women.
• 363 of the males coming in were aged between 21 and 30, prime military ages.
• 738 of the males coming in were aged between 31 and 409 years old, still of military age. 

Thus, the State Department says over 20% of the male Syrian refugees were males that could be considered of military age while Duckworth says 0% of the Syrian refugees were males that could be considered of military age, quite a reality disconnect. Was Duckworth that plain ignorant of reality or flat out lying, thinking no one would fact check her? So typical of the political class in this country today.

And also consider that a Middle East female immigrant of military age helped execute the San Bernardino terrorist attack and massacre and that the terrorist who shot up the night club in Orlando likely had help from his wife setting that attack up. So it is not just MEN of military age that we need to worry about, it can also be WOMEN of military age that we need to worry about. But that reality apparently is too tough for this politician to grasp.

3) If we have proven anything over the years, it is that politicians should not do much of anything when it comes to the economy since they usually and royally screw it up. Our most recent discussion on how badly Washington and the Obama administration have messed up the economy and economic growth can be accessed at the following link:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-badly-did-washingtonobama-butcher.html

Politicians’ latest economic insanity is this push to move the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. We have shown many times in this blog what happens when the minimum wage is jacked up so high so quickly: some employees get more money and a load of employees get fired because the economic model of the businesses and industries they are working in cannot afford much higher wages expenses. Thus, the good news is you can now earn $15 an hour, the bad news is because you can earn $15 an hour, your job has been eliminated.

Businesses use a number of tactics to survive when their wage expense explodes because of this nonsense. In the fast food industry, we now see the wider and wider use of self serve kiosks that allow customers to order their food without the need of a employee. Some industries move their businesses to other, lower cost locations, either across the county line or across the world to survive and avoid devastating wage increase expenses. Some businesses will take away other perks of the job to counterbalance the increased wage expenses such as free meals, free parking, healthcare support, etc. And some businesses just go out of business. 

Chriss Street writing for the Breitbart website back in April, 2016, illustrated this type of situation out in California:

• American Apparel, until recently, provided 10% of all the apparel manufacturing jobs in the city of Los Angeles.
• However, in just a two week period back in the spring, the company terminated 500 of its employees.
• Chief Executive Paula Schneider was quoted in the Los Angeles Times that “manufacturing of more complicated pieces, such as jeans, could soon be outsourced to a third-party company.”
• However, not said was the reality that two weeks before the layoffs, the state of California had raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
• Lloyd Greif, CEO of Los Angeles investment banking firm Greif & Co., summed up what was happening when he told the LA Times: “They’re headed out of Dodge. They are going to outsource all garments. It’s only a matter of time.”
• Although the LA apparel business had taken huge hits over the past twenty years because of cheaper goods being imported from the Far East, the domestic apparel industry in LA had been undergoing a revival as the imports got more expensive, making the domestic production more attractive.

But now, because of politicians meddling in the market and the relationship between business owners and business employees, which all had benefited from good trends in their industry is going to be lost. It looks like those trends will likely self destruct because of the political class pushing through a higher than doable minimum wage law. Insanity.

But even more insane is what Jerry Brown, the California governor said when he signed the law: “Economically, minimum wages may not make sense.” And yet, even though these laws do not make sense, he signed the law anyway, likely killing whatever competitive edge the LA apparel trade and industry had and killing a load of jobs with it.

He continued on with his completely false logic by stating: “But morally and socially and politically they make every sense, because it binds the community together and makes sure that parents can take care of their kids in a much more satisfactory way.” So the increase in the minimum wage does not make economic sense but we are going to do it anyway because it helps parents take better care of their kids. Huh? I bet that the 500 people already laid off as a result of this political class insanity do not feel this way since I would assume that by losing their jobs, they will NOT be able to take better care of their kids.

That will do it for today’s insanity, we are just getting warmed up. A governor who recognizes a piece of economic legislation makes no economic sense but he signs it anyway, a Senate candidate that is either a liar or just plain out of touch when it comes to Middle East refugees, and a Pentagon that has LOST over $6 TRILLION. More insanity for days and days to come.

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

The Department of Veterans Affairs - Why The Government Should Never Be In Control Of Our Health Care, Part 2

Many times in this blog we have tried to determine what is the most inept and most wasteful Federal government agency or organization. Which agency is the most inefficient, sucking up the most resources while falling far short of fulfilling even their basic job functions. Leading candidates usually include the TSA, the IRS, the Defense Department, and the Social Security Administration.

But yesterday’s and today’s focus is on another of the usual suspects, the Veterans Affairs (VA) organization. Many, many times we have reviewed how the VA is not fulfilling even its basic role of providing medical care to our veterans, wasting millions of dollars in many different, inane ways while the VA executives get large pay bonuses and salary increases. 

And while Obama has claimed from the very beginning of his Presidency to fix the VA, his efforts have been little more than empty rhetoric as almost eight years later, veterans are still not getting the medical care they have been promised and deserve.

So let’s check in on the latest embarrassments from the VA and see if they still deserve to be classified as one of the worst functioning government organizations ever:

1) One of the excuses the VA administrators has put forth on why veterans are dying from not getting the medical care they should be receiving is that the VA does not have enough money or resources. But according to a Daily Caller article written by Luke Rosiak, while the VA claims it is under funded, it currently has 167 interior designers on its staff. So rather than putting dozens of more doctors on its staff to serve the veterans in need of medical care, the VA leadership has decided that 167 interior designers and the budget they burn up are more important to their mission.

Details of this disgrace include the following atrocities:

• Part of the interior decorators’ jobs includes buying artwork for VA facilities and they have spent a whopping $16 million on this art since Obama took office.
• Even more amazing and gross is the reality that at least 12 of these pieces of art cost more than a quarter million dollars each with nearly $700,000 of taxpayer wealth spent on just two sculptures that were displayed at a VA location that served blind veterans.
• Besides the artwork, the American taxpayer has likely spent over $136 million on salaries and benefits for these 167 interior designers since Obama took office.
• How many veterans could have been served with that $136 million rather than wasting it on interior designers?
• The article claims that just about every VA facility actually has an interior designer on its staff with some facilities employing more than on designer.
• The Cleveland VA location has FIVE designers on its staff, which is pure insanity.
• Adam Andrzejewski, the head of the government spending watchdog organization OpenTheBooks.com, stated that: “The VA needs more doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals and fewer public relations officers, lawyers and interior decorators and designers.” 
• Additionally, Mr. Andrzejewski pointed out the following low cost alternative to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single piece of art: “Veterans have their own art museum. Why is the VA spending millions on lavish art when veterans are already producing great art? Veterans themselves should benefit from art displays, not vendors who sell the VA pricey art.” 
• A recent government want ad for an interior designer said the potential hire would be in charge of “accoutrements” like “window treatments” and that any job candidates with a Ph.D. in interior design was preferred, i.e. the VA was not hiring cheap labor for its interior designer positions.
• This wasteful spending and cries of poverty continues to go on even though Congress increased the 2016 VA budget by 7.5% over the 2015 level.

Veterans are not getting the treatment they need, they are being put on multi-month waiting lists where many of them die before getting in to see a doctor, and the top officials at the VA continue to waste millions of its budget dollars on interior designers that have no relationship to the mission of the VA, serving the medical needs of our vets. Pathetic and often fatal priorities.

2) But the VA does not just waste taxpayer wealth on artwork and interior designers. According to an August 9, 2016 Washington Times article by Dave Boyer, the VA inspector general has found that the VA has wasted millions of dollars on its solar energy project.

Details of this atrocity include the following details:

• The VA has spent over $408 million on solar panels over the past five years but the use of them has been delayed and much of that investment is still not operational.
• 11 of the 15 VA solar projects that were awarded between 2010 and 2013 are still not completed.
• Only 2 of the 15 have been completed and are actually creating solar energy.
• Two other projects have been completed but are not yet generating power.
• This dismal performance, according to the inspector general, is because: “This occurred because of planning errors, design changes, a lengthy interconnection process, and contractor delays. As a result, VA did not increase renewable energy for those solar projects in the time frame planned and incurred additional costs through needed contract modifications.”
• At the Little Rock, Arkansas VA facility, solar panels were installed but before they could generate any power, they had to be removed, at a cost of more than $1 million, to make room for the building of a parking garage. 
• If it cost an insane $1 million to remove the panels, imagine how much it cost to install them for nothing in return from an energy perspective.
• The total project of solar panel installation at the Little Rock location will likely run $1.5 million over budget and be four years behind schedule.
• Investigations of the VA’s solar panel effort found that while all of the projects were initially expected to take 7 to 12 months to complete, in reality, they are likely going to take 42 months to complete on average, just another example of terrible and inept VA management and personnel.

The VA objected to the inspector general’s findings, claiming that its solar panel projects are providing $10 million in savings per year, savings that allows it “to redirect those recurring funds to provide care and services to veterans.”

But at $408 million, that means that the break even point for the solar panels is just currently just under 41 years (which assumes that the panels last that long and do not require repair or replacement, activities that would push the break even point out way beyond 41 years). In 41 years, today’s veterans would be long dead, many of them dying prematurely because they could not get the proper medical care TODAY, not 41 years from today. 

Look, I am all for saving energy costs and saving the planet and using solar energy. But there is a crisis today when it comes to the medical needs of our vets. That $408 million could have been used to save lives today, not four decades or more from today. 

Once the VA was a well functioning and efficient operation, then the diversion of some budget dollars to solar energy would be appropriate. But the VA is no well functioning and certainly not efficient and as a result, people are dying. Another set of very, very bad government and Washington politician priorities.

Going by today’s and yesterday’s list of embarrassments and waste, it is quite clear to any open minded person why the government should never be in charge of any American’s health and medical needs. Between the unfolding disasters of Obama Care and the joke that the VA has become, we have shown hundreds examples of wasteful spending, incompetent management, greedy employees, a general ineptness that results in the deaths of Americans and not the saving of lives and easing of pain. Thus, the VA continues to be on the short list of most incompetent Federal entities ever.