November, 2020, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" In California, A New Hampshire Voting Official Votes Twice, and Maxine Walters Still Rants

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) We have often discussed the reality that during the covid pandemic, American politicians put forth draconian restrictions on the activities of Americans while they decided that they did not have to abide by their own rules:

• The mayor of Chicago forced her favorite hair salon to open to cut her hair even though she forced all other hair salons to stay closed and not serve residents of Chicago.
• The mayor of Beaumont, Texas forced her favorite hair salon to open to do her nails even though she forced all other nail salons to stay closed and not serve the residents of Beaumont, Texas.
• The mayor of New York City forced his gym to open up so that he could exercise even though he forced all other gyms to stay closed and deny the ability of regular New Yorkers to exercise in their gyms. 
• The New York City mayor also went for a walk in a city park even though he prevented all other New Yorkers from doing the same since he had closed the parks.
• The governor of Michigan shut down all recreational boating activity in the state even though her husband tried to get his boat out for a Memorial Day boat trip.

You get the idea, those in charge of various government entities saw themselves above the very restrictions and bans that they subjected their own constituents to, the ever popular “do as I say, not as I do.”

And that maxim was recently on parade in the state of California:

• California governor, Gavin Newsom, has been one of the more dictatorial governors when it comes to onerous shutdowns of businesses and other functions.
• In Sacramento County in California, and other counties, where he lives he has forced the area public schools to stay closed because of the virus, making remote education and family life very difficult, especially for families with working parents.
• But he recently announced that his kids will be returning to their school for in-person learning at their fancy, high end private school.
• According to Politico: “Newsom’s children attend a private school in Sacramento County that has a hybrid schedule that alternates remote and in-person education before it will return full-time next month, according to a source.”
• That same schedule and superior learning experience will NOT be available to kids attending public school in the county where the Newson kids’ school is located.
• When questioned about the ability of rich parents and politicians to send their kids to in school education and the inability of regular citizens to do the same, he did not say that the fancy school was better prepared to prevent the spread of the virus, he just punted and dodged the question saying that it was up to the local school boards to decide.
• But Politico, for once, disagreed with a liberal politician: “Pradheep Shanker, a radiologist and public health policy expert, said on Twitter that the “rich and elite will have children that will advance far more than those in public schools…and years from now, we will wonder with great concern about why we have a massive income gap…””

As always, do as I say, not as I do.

2) As we have often said, it would be wonderful if politicians of all parties and all stripes tried to unite the country and help us all reach an adult consensus and resolution to the problems we all face. But that “wonderful” word does not exist because current American politicians don't want to reach consensus, have an adult conversation or respect the opinions and rights of others.

One of the most despicable culprits in this shortcoming has always been Congresswoman Maxine Walters. During the Obama administration she actually said she hoped that Tea Party Americans would just die and go to hell because they dared to have a different opinion than hers when it came to Obama’s outlandish and dangerous annual trillion dollar deficits.

Apparently, Ms. Walters has not grown up with regard to respecting Americans rights to their opinions:

• Keep in mind that Maxine Walters has somehow turned her Congressional job into multi millions of dollars of personal wealth.
• Also keep in mind that under Trump, the unemployment rate for black Americans got close to or attained an all time low.
• And on a recent radio interview Ms. Walters had the nerve to insult fellow black citizens, saying that, “Black voters intending to cast ballots for President Donald Trump are “shameful.””
• Also: “I don’t even know where any Blacks would be coming from that would be voting for Trump. It just hurts me so bad to see Blacks talking about supporting Trump. I don’t know why they would be doing it. I don’t know why it is on their minds. But if we don’t turn out this vote and turn it our huge, this man could end up winning again. This country would go backward. The divisiveness that this deplorable human being has caused, the confrontation, the dog-whistling to the right-wing, the white supremacists, the KKK, and they are coming alive. They are emboldened because they have a leader.”

Oh, by the way, Trump’s approval rating among black Americans is at a very high level, another fact that Ms. Walters seems to ignore. So sad that politicians have to inject racism into everything in order to divide the country, that there is no respect for the opinions of others, even those of the same race.

3) But of course, she could not stop at insulting the opinions of other black people. She went on another rant of how much of a racist Trump is with no mention of the decades long racism of Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat: 

• Joe Biden recently made the racist comment that the reason we were able to survive the pandemic shutdown was because of that black woman stocking shelves, “Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
• Joe Biden made the racist comment that "Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point."
• Joe Biden made the racist statement that if you are African-American and you vote for the other guy “you ain’t black.”
• Joe Biden made the racist comment that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
• Joe Biden made the racist comment, mimicking an Indian accent, that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
• Joe Biden made the following incredibly racist comment: "And by the way, what you all know, but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
• Joe Biden made the statement supporting his opposition to school busing desegregation, boasting that "we [Delawareans] were on the South's side in the Civil War."
• Joe Biden authored and ramrodded through Clinton’s infamous crime bill which resulted in minorities being unfairly and overly represented in jails and prisons across the United States?

Sounds like Joe Biden has been a pretty racist dude for a long time, a reality that Walters denies. The hypocrisy of politicians is unfathomable.

4) The right to vote in this country should be sacred. Every citizen should be comfortable in the knowledge that their vote has the same weight and importance as every other citizen’s vote. But apparently that principle did not sit well with a New Hampshire government employee involved in the voting process:

• Law enforcement in New Hampshire recently arrested a man for voting twice in a November, 2016 elections.
• That in itself should be a disgusting abuse of our freedom to choose our leaders.
• But it gets worse since the man arrested was, get this, an election inspector.
• He was charged with a class B felony for violating state election law RSA 659:34.1, voting more than once in an election, once as himself and once as a fake woman, a woman who he applied for and got a ballot for.

Tough to believe voting is a fair and unbiased effort when a voting inspector is actually one of the people committing the voting fraud.

That will do it for today: a corrupt voting inspector, Maxine Walters still spewing hate at those with a different opinion, and the California governor enacts the “do as I say, not as I do” political mantra.

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

Which City and Which State Will Go Bankrupt In The Very Near Future? Hint: Both Are In The Upper Midwest

 We have done a few recent posts where we laid out the numbers showing that any issue that Aericans are worried about in this election season really do not matter. The only thing that matters is that the American political class has run up a total government debt level of about $125,000,000,000,000, a debt bubble that is going to pop sooner rather than later.

When that debt bubble pops, abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, foreign policy, and other issues that you may think are important today, will be swept away in a sea of red ink. The numbers are undeniable and when that happens, a number of very bad situations will take place:

• Social Security and Medicare benefits will decrease significantly as taxes to pay for them go up while medical quality goes down.

• Government pensions and benefit payouts to government employee retirees will be slashed.

• Government functions will be cut back dramatically so there will be fewer police, teachers, and firefighters, there will be fewer and lower quality government services such as welfare, road repairs, etc.

• And taxes across the board will go up as politicians fight a losing battle to erase the wave of red ink and insolvencies at all levels of government.

It is also our view that this tidal wave of debt disasters has already begun at the city and state levels as we have already proven. Chicago and New York City are in a race to unseat the city of Detroit as the largest American city to go bankrupt. Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and California are the leaders in becoming the first state government to go bankrupt. These realities and the numbers supporting the realities were laid out in the following three posts:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2020/10/there-is-only-one-issue-that-matters-in.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2020/10/october-2020-by-numbers-why-there-is.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2020/10/october-2020-by-numbers-high-tax-states.html

Today’s post does a deeper dive into the cities and states most likely to go bankrupt first. It comes from different source of data that may differ in details from other sources we have cited but the conclusion is still the same regardless of what measurement process is used: U.S. cities and states have rung up so much debt and unfunded liabilities that there really is no way for them to avoid going belly up financially. 

As these states and cities incur more and more debt, rather than cut government spending, the respective politicians are raising taxes. But raising taxes causes city and state residents to move elsewhere to seek more freedom and tax relief so that even raising tax rates results in lower revenue streams to these cities and states. As a result, the politicians raise the tax rates again, resulting in more out-migration and the financial death spiral is underway.

To prove our point, consider the excellent, detailed analysis that was recently completed by the Policy Education organization, www.policyed.org. They went through the financial books of every state and many major cities, took the cities’ and states’ estimates of their future unfunded liabilities, adjusted those official government numbers to be realistic, and not the pipe dreams of politicians, and then divided the adjusted unfunded liabilities by the number of residents in that city or state to get the unfunded liabilities tax burden person.

Side note: I believe they adjusted the official unfunded liabilities numbers because of unrealistic investment returns that city and state government pension funds are expecting and planning for. Pension funds are invested in the stock market and investment returns from those stock market investments help fund city and state pensions and retirement benefits for retired government workers. 

But some of those pension funds are planning for unattainable stock market returns which underestimates the future unfunded liabilities estimate. The Policy Education analysis tries to estimate unfunded liabilities for a city or state using more realistic and attainable investment returns.

Okay, let’s get started at the city level:

Chicago - According to the official city unfunded liabilities estimate, the city is going to be short about $42 billion when it tries to pay off future debt.

But the adjusted number based on realistic investment returns is a whopping $765 billion. This comes out to every man, woman and child in Chicago writing a check for $28,160 to pay off just the unfunded future liabilities, not the current budget deficits and challenges. Thus, a family of four in Chicago would theoretically have to write a check for over $100,000 to help pay off their fair share of the city's debt hole, not going to happen.

San Francisco - The official city unfunded liability estimate is $2.3 billion but the Policy Education realistic estimate is $141 billion, meaning that every resident of San Francisco is on the hook for $16,266.

New York City - The official unfunded liability estimate is $43 billion while the adjusted, more realistic estimate is $122 billion. Thus, each resident of the city is on the hook for $13,050.

Los Angeles - the official unfunded liability number is $8.4 billion but the more realistic number is $38.7 billion of $9,667 per resident.

Now, keep in mind these are the unfunded liabilities are just the respective cities, there are unfunded liabilities at the state and national level that the residents of these cities  states will also be on the hook for!

The first obvious question is are these cites more mismanaged than other cities or do other cities have similar levels of unfunded liabilities? Consider a random sampling of the per person liabilities from a random set of cities across the country:

• Detroit - $6,630 per resident.

• Miami - $5,347 per resident

• Dallas - $4,076 per resident

• Phoenix - $2,284 per resident

• Charlotte - $501 per resident.

Thus, while it looks like most American city governments have some level of unfunded future financial liabilities, it is only the big four we discussed above that are really in big trouble. Other cities have far smaller and more manageable financial shortfalls.

Which leads us to the question: which American city will be the next major city to go bankrupt, possibly unseating Detroit as the largest American city to go bankrupt:

• Chicago’s bond rating is just a hair above junk bond status which will make it impossible or very, very expensive to sell city bonds to fund its operations, never mind paying down its unfunded liabilities.

• The city has high taxes and an ever escalating violent crime rate which has caused businesses and residents to flee both the taxes and crime.

• This out migration has reduced the tax base and tax revenue which puts additional strain on the city financials.

• Things in Chicago have gotten so bad that the inept mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has had to grovel at the feet of businesses to not abandon the city, taking jobs and tax revenue with them.

• Bill de Blasio, the inept mayor of New York City, is not in much better shape, having no clue how to fix what he has broken in the city from a high tax and increasing crime rate.

• Moving companies have complained that they do not have enough moving vans available to satisfy the demand for NYC residents moving out, taking their tax revenue with them.

• With the pandemic, the city’s financial and business districts have become ghost towns as businesses do in New York City what they did in Chicago: move their employees out, taking jobs and tax revenue with them.

• De Blasio has stated that unless the Federal taxpayer bails him out, the city will see significant cuts in social and protection services.

San Francisco and Los Angeles face many of the same problems: higher crime, lower quality of life,  and higher taxes which results in the out-migration of residents and businesses which reduces the tax revenue stream which results in higher taxes which accelerates the out-migration and the financial death spiral is underway. 

However, my bet is that Chicago will beat them all to the steps of bankruptcy court, given the violence, the low credit rating on its bonds, and the complete lack of leadership and solutions from the mayor and the other  city politicians. This would, at least for a while, make Chicago the largest American city to go bankrupt, relieving Detroit of that title.

Let’s jump to the state level:

Illinois - according to the official unfunded liabilities estimate of the state, the state has $195.4 billions in unfunded liabilities. But the more realistic, adjusted estimate is $327 billion, which calculates out to a per resident share of $25,571. Thus, a family of four in Illinois would have to write a check for over $100,000 to pay for their fair share of the state’s unfunded liability burden. This is in addition to the over $100,000 check Chicago residents would have to write for the city’s unfunded liability debt hole, bringing the total state and city share to well over $200,000 per family of four.

California - the official unfunded liability estimate is $309.4 billion but the adjusted, more realistic number is a whopping $990.7 billion, almost a TRILLION dollars! This computes out to a per resident share of $25,146 per resident, over $100,000 for a family of four. This would be in addition to the unfunded city liabilities the California residents of Los Angeles and San Francisco would have to pay.

Connecticut - the official estimate is only $37.8 billion but the more realistic estimate is a whopping $686 billion or $19,188 per resident and almost $80,000 for a family of four.

New Jersey - the official estimate is $142.3 billion but the more realistic estimate is a little higher at $163.1 billion, indicating that New Jersey has a little better feel and handle on what is realistic when it comes to its true unfunded liabilities. But it still comes out to about $18,351 per resident, almost $80,000 for a family of four.

New York - the official estimate is $77 billion but, unlike New Jersey, it looks like New York has no clue on what its true unfunded liability is since the adjusted estimate comes in at $303.8 billion. This computes out to about $15,508 per resident.

Which leads us to the question: which American state will be the first state to go bankrupt:

• Most of these states face the same out-migration crisis that the distressed cities discussed above face.

• New York, New Jersey, California, and Illinois usually lead the country when any measure of outward migration is discussed.

• United Van Lines, a major moving company, issues an annual report where it tracks the number of moves into and out of each state it does in a year.

• In 2019, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois were the leading states that had far more moves out of the state than into the state, which over time reduces the tax base and tax revenue stream which causes state politicians to raise tax rates to make up for the shortfall which causes even move out-migration and the financial death spiral is underway.

• In the latest United Van Lines analysis, New Jersey experienced two moves out of the state for every move into the state, not a good trend.

• Illinois and New York were not too far behind with this out to in ratio, ranking 3rd and 2nd respectively and California wasn't too far behind at the seventh worst migration ratio.

• And yet state opticians continue to raise taxes with New Jersey having not just raised taxes but instituted a whole slew of new taxes and Illinois is considering raising its top state income tax rate as is California, financial suicide.

• California is considering raising its top marginal state income tax rate from about 13% to over 16% which has caused the famous (major podcaster Joe Rogan and conservative pundit, Ben Shapiro) and not so famous people to move out of California to avoid this dreadfully onus of state tax rates.

• At least the governor of New York realizes what is happening, having recently pleaded with the wealthy New Yorkers moving out of New York City and often out of the state to come back, that he even offered to have them over to his house for drinks and a barbeque.

But are other states unjust as bad financial shape? What Are the real unfunded liabilities of other large states:

• Texas - $7,528 per resident.

• Florida - $6,776 per resident.

• North Carolina - $6,037 per resident.

• Tennessee - $5,577 per resident.

So yes, other states have their own unfunded liabilities problems. However, they are a fraction of the problem that Illinois, New York, et al have, as discussed above.

So the answer to the question, what state goes bankrupt first, is, in my opinion, Illinois.  The unfunded liabilities at the state and city level, the out-migration of residents and business looking for a better and less expensive quality of life, the low bond ratings that will make it near impossible to pay off the unfunded liabilities with more borrowing, yes I put my chips on Illinois and Chicago to be the first state and next big city to go bankrupt.

So, relax, any issues that you are fretting about as it relates to this election cycle are going to be rendered mute pretty quickly across the country. As states and cities realize they cannot fund their current budget and their future unfunded liabilities, government services will be cut, government pensions and benefits will be cut, taxes will be raised which will just make the situation worse and to say that chaos will ensue is an understatement.

These cities, Chicago, New York, etc. and states, Illinois, New York, etc. are really just canaries in the coal mine of financial distress. They will be precursors to when the Federal government also finds itself with the inability to pay for everything that the American class has promised and the downside ramifications will roar across the country as the Federal debt balloon/bubble bursts. For what that debt implosion looks like at the Federal level I refer you to the first two posts listed above.

 Have a great day!

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

There Is Only One Issue That Matters In This Presidential Campaign and No One Is Talking About It

With the election coming up I wanted to put forth a theory of what is going to happen after the election results are and and totaled. It is my humble opinion, an opinion based on facts and trends, that it really doesn't matter who wins the election. 

I say that because I do not believe that the issues everyone is talking about, abortion rights, gun rights, foreign affairs, economic policy, etc. are really incidental issues vs. the only issue that matters and the it is the only issue no one is worried about in the political class, be they Republican or Democrat. And that issue is a simple four letter word: debt. 

The political class has rung up so much debt at every level of government in this country that it is a balloon that is going to pop, and pop pretty soon. And when it does pop, the other issues above are all going to fade away as the entire financial and economic structure in this country goes into a very dark space. And it is a dark space that will affect every American. Let me explain, with both existing debt numbers and then with the trends that are already in palace for going to this dark space.

Let's start with the national debt:

• The Federal government national debt level is just over $27 TRILLION, $27,000,000,000,000, growing every second of every day.

• I could be wrong but I do not believe that the $3 TRILLION that the Federal government spent in the first pandemic economic stimulus program is baked into the $27 TRILLION number.

• A second pandemic economic stimulus looks like it will come in at about $2 TRILLION, plus or minus a few hundred billion or so.

• So the running rate national debt and the economic stimulus spending will very shortly bring that national debt level to about $32,000,000,000,000.

• Let’s stop here and do a couple of calculations.

• There are about 129 million households in the country so if every household was asked to equally pay off the national debt it would mean every household, rich or poor, would have to write a check for just under a quarter million dollars which is obviously not possible.

• The total wealth of the vast majority of American households is not a quarter million dollars so they are not writing a check for that amount.

• But what about taxing the rich to pay off the debt as many liberal would propose?

• Not possible: consider that the richest person in the country is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with about $175 billion of net worth.

• Let’s get crazy and assume that we would not tax him more but just take his ENTIRE wealth, liquidate it, and put the cash we got to paying off the $32 TRILLION.

• If we did that, taking everything he owned, we would pay off a measly .5% of the $32 TRILLION, not  5%, .5%.

• If you took the entire wealth of the 400 wealthiest Americans, somehow sold it off and used the proceeds to pay off the national debt you would end up paying off 10% of the national debt, leaving 90% still to be paid.

• But these are silly hypothetical examples, you are not going to confiscate everything that these people own, which means even raising tax rates on these folks will pay off only a tiny fraction of the national debt.

• But the problem is much worse than this since according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal government is going to have about $82 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities in the next 30 years or so, i.e. the Federal government has promised Americans about $82 TRILLION more in benefits than it will have in the Treasury under current financial policies.

• So that $32 TRILLION has to be added to the $82 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities of the Federal government bringing the Federal debt balloon to about $114,000,000,000,000.

• Oh, and by the way, a few years ago the American Legislative Exchange Council estimated that state governments had, at that time, about $6 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities.

• But that was a couple of years ago and before the states had to increase spending to combat the covid crisis. 

• So let’s assume that the Federal government’s national debt and unfunded future liabilities along with the state governments’ unfunded liabilities is currently about $125,000,000,000,000, a nice round number.

• If every American household was asked to pay off that debt load, every household would have to write a check for about $970,000 just under a million dollars per household.

• Repeating the above scenario, confiscating all of Jeff Bezos wealth to pay off part of the $125 TRILLION would end up paying off .14% of the debt, not 14%, not 1.4%, .14%.

• Confiscating the wealth of the richest 400 Americans would pay off only 2.6%.

• In other words, taxing the rich will NOT get us close to paying off the massive debt hole that the American political class has dug for us.

What happens next - city level:

• At some point, the debt load will start to crush the ability of politicians and government to pay for it.

• In fact, that process has already started, there are some “canaries in the coal mines” that are already choking for air at the local and state government levels.

• At the local level, watch for Chicago or New York City to soon unseat the city of Detroit from being the largest American city to declare bankruptcy.

• The Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has presided over a city that is now the murder captial of the country, has city bond ratings that are just the teeniest step away form being considered junk bonds, has large budget deficits and unfunded liabilities and recently had to plead with businesses not to leave the city, businesses that feared not only for their businesses but for the safety of their employees’ lives. 

• Residents and businesses leaving the city, reducing the tax base, the inability to get good interest rates on municipal bonds and rampant crime, Chicago is ripe for going bankrupt very, very shortly.

• The situation is not much better in New York City, where some of the same issues, rising crime rates, the exiting of businesses from the city and a mayor who is clueless will give Chicago a strong race to the bankruptcy courts.

• JP Morgan, a financial giant, now has more employees working in Texas than NYC, a situation that was once unthinkable.

• Moving companies in NYC have been complaining for months that they cannot serve the demand for residents wanting to move out of the city.

• As people leave New York and Chicago, the tax base shrinks, which likely means either cuts in city government services and cuts to retired city employees’ benefits and/or raising of taxes to serve the budget and debt needs of the city government, actions which will cause more people to leave and the financial death spiral is in full swing.

What happen next - state level

• The same problems happening in Chicago and New York City have already started at the state level, especially in Illinois, California, New York and New Jersey.

• All four of these states have huge budget shortfalls short term and even larger, unfunded liabilities debt long term.

• These states have led the country in the number of people leaving those states vs. those moving to those states so that their tax base has been shrinking as residents and businesses move which required them to raise tax rates which caused more residents and businesses to leave which shrunk the tax base, and their death spiral has started.

• In a recent United Van Lines study, Illinois, New York and New Jersey were the three states that had the worst ratios of United Van Lines moving people into those states divided by the number of people United Van Lines is moving out of those states.

• For example, for every move into New Jersey, United Van Lines registered two moves out of New Jersey, not a good trend for the tax base.

• In California, famous podcaster, Joe Rogan, moved his operation out of Los Angeles to Texas and immediately saved himself about $130 million in California state income taxes and he likely will not be the last millionaire to do the same, further reducing California’s tax base.

• At least the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, is starting to see the trends, having recently begged rich New Yorkers to return to the state (and bring their taxable assets with them) promising these ex-New Yorkers that he would have them over for a barbecue and drinks.

• He also showed that he has no clue how to handle the New York debt balloon, publicly lamenting that he needs the Federal government, and taxpayers across the country, to bailout his budget hole.

• As the tax base shrinks, the state budget deficits grow, and the unfunded liabilities get larger and larger, residents left behind in those states will see a huge reduction in government services (e.g. police force, firefighters, teachers, road crews, etc.), retired state workers will see their pensions and medical benefits slashed, and the political class probably continue to raise taxes.

Thus we have at least six coal mines where the canaries are dying a slow but steady financial death spiral: Chicago, New York City, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and California:

But what's next for the Federal Government:

• The same early warning signals we see above will soon start to appear at the Federal government level.

• The Medicare Part A trust fund will run out of money in about five years.

• The Social Security trust fund will run out of money in about ten years with both of these programs already theoretically bankrupt in that they pay out far more than they take in in taxes.

• But won’t the Washington politicians pass laws to make sure that these programs stay solvent?

• But to do that they will have to raise taxes to pay for these programs, incurring more debt.

• At some point, there is too much debt to be serviced by selling more debt which means that services will be cut, benefits will be cut, and other Federal government programs will get cut.

• In an effort to save all of these programs, Washington will likely raise taxes, much like the local and state governments discussed above are doing, but raising and raising taxes will sap economic growth which will result in lower tax revenues despite higher tax rates.

• At that point, as a past gasp, the Federal Reserve may be pressured to step in and start printing money as the debt balloon gets larger and larger, leading to hyperinflation and before you know it, we are Venezuela, a once rich prosperous country whose politicians drove it into bankruptcy and dictatorship.

Lower pension and Social Security payments, more expensive and lower quality Medicare programs, fewer and worse government services, and hyperinflation which eventually crushes not only the economy but our democracy. It happened in Weimar German and it happened Venezuela. 

You see, there are only three ways to get rid of government debt: raise taxes, fund more debt, or print money. (I left off the obvious other way which is to strategically and smartly reduce government spending over time but Americans politicians have been shown incapable of doing that.)

And at some point you cannot raise taxes fast enough without snuffing out economic growth and activity which actually reduces your tax stream. At some point you cannot issue more debt because on one believes you have the ability to repay that debt, as the Chicago coal mine canary has learned, once you are almost junk rated bond wise, forget about borrowing more.

So if you are worried about anything but the government debt level in this country, relax. All of that is not going to matter in a short couple of years as the debt balloon pops and the chaos that we see already starting around the country envelopes the whole country: higher and higher taxes, lower pension payouts, lower Social Security Payouts, lower Medicare care, fewer and worse government services and eventually hyperinflation. Have a great day!

PS. It is my prediction that Chicago will beat New York City to bankruptcy court and that Illinois will be the first state to go bankrupt. Any other views?

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

October, 2020, Part 9, Political Class Insanity: Congresswoman Omar's Alleged Self Enrichment Actions, LA Crime Grows and Grows, and How California Became a North Korea With A Tech Industry.

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time again to review the latest political class insanity from the American political class. Each month it takes us multiple posts to cover the wasteful spending, incompetent government organizations and employees, government programs that usually make a problem worse than resolving it, inane and idiotic politician comments, etc.

To review past posts on this insanity and idiocy, just click on the first few posts in each month listed to the right of this page. After reviewing just a handful of these insanity posts we think you will agree that we are currently being served by the worst set of American politicians ever to hold office in our entire history.

1) In the previous post we discussed two examples of how low American politics has sunk. On a local politician level, we have a New York politician arrested for trying to trade opioid drugs he had for sex behind a Goodwill store, hardly the type of distinguished behavior one would like from a community leader. We also discussed the many recent indictments of people that were illegally funneling foreign money into Democrats’ election campaigns including, but not limited to, the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker, and other Democrats.

We continue that discussion today with the following discussion of malfeasance by a Congresswoman:

• Ilhan Omar is a first term Congresswoman from Minnesota.
• Recall that we have talked about her potential misbehaving before including the alleged act of marrying her brother to get him into the country and having an affair with a consultant to her Congressional campaign that eventually led to the consultant and her both getting a divorce after the affair and marrying each other.
• During that time she was alleged to illegally use campaign funds to pay for travel expenses for the consultant to travel around the country with her to continue their alleged affair on the road.
• For the second quarter in a row, Omar’s campaign has been found to have funneled around 70% of all of her campaign funds to her current husband’s consulting firm, The E Street Group.
• The consulting company has received $1.1 million from Omar’s campaign between July 23 and September 30 of this year.
• This is out of the $1.6 million the campaign received from donors in total.
• In the first three weeks of July, her husband’s company got $787,000 of her campaign funds, 77% of the total the campaign received during that time, $806,000.
• Of course, the Congresswoman claims that these are legitimate expenses spent in support of her reelection campaign.
• But 79% of a campaign’s money going to a single company is not common and the fact that her husband is getting the money is even more suspicious.

Sometimes the perception of conflict of interest is as bad as a conflict of interest. In this case, we may have both, the perception and reality of conflict of interest. Funneling campaign money to your husband’s company at such large levels should be totally banned from politics. I'm sure there are other consulting firms that can do the same job that the E Street is doing without having a Congresswoman scam campaign donations for family purposes. Despicable.

2) We have often and recently discussed the insanity that is called “defund the police.” Local politicians have decided that the reason their cities are so screwed up in so many ways is not because of their failings as politicians but because of their local police forces.

The cities that have embarked on this defund the police insanity without having a replacement plan to control crime and protect law abiding citizens’ lives and property include Minneapolis and New York City, situations that we have previously discussed on how the defunding and disrespecting of police by local politicians has resulting in skyrocketing crime levels.

Los Angeles is not in any better shape as they continue to defund their police department, the LAPD, recently lopping off another $14 million from its budget and transferring the money to support illegal immigrants in the LA area.

But like elsewhere, defunding and demanding the police in the LA area has gotten the same bad crime results as elsewhere:

• In a recent stretch of just a few days in LA, over 50 people were shot despite some of the stiffest gun control laws in the country.
• Of those 50+ who were shot, over a dozen died from their wounds.
• According to Assistant Police Chief Robert Arcos: “We haven’t seen that type of week in over 10 years,”

Nice going LA politicians. Like your peers in Minneapolis and NYC, as you continue to defund and disrespect your own police forces, your ability to provide the very basic government services of protecting lives and property goes down the drain.

3) This inability to protect lives and property in California cities like LA has resulted in Californians leaving the state like never before. But this inability is not the only reason why state residents are getting out of Dodge, as a recent analysis and article by the Mises Institute points out in their article, “The Great California Exodus:”

• People were leaving California at a greater rate than people were moving into the state even before the latest political class insanity and the pandemic.
• Two recent studies show that it is not only the rich and wealthy that are leaving California, with higher and higher state taxes driving that wealthy exit, but also lower and middle class income families leaving also.
• Probably one of the reasons the wealthier are leaving is because the already high taxes are likely to get higher with state politicians proposing that the already sky high marginal state income tax rate of 13% be raised to a whopping 16.8% and making it retroactive to the beginning of the year.
• The governor recently signed an executive order that will ban the sales of new gas powered cars in the state\ of 2035, forcing people to buy electric cars and putting even more strain on a state power grid that cannot supply enough electricity today, never mind what happens when millions and millions of cars plug into that faulty grid for power.
• That same governor also wants to get rid of fracking in the state, an action that could cost the jobs of upwards of 360,000 Californians who work in that industry.
• Getting back to the lack of enough electricity, the state now has a formal plan of rolling blackouts that block homes and businesses from getting electricity on demand, a characteristic of many third world nations.
• State government and political mismanagement of state forests has resulted in millions of acres of wildfires throughout the state due to bad forest management policies.
• The state is also facing water shortages in addition to electricity shortages due to the short sighted and faulty environmentalist policies.
• The ridiculously stupid and recently enacted state law AB15 is likely to cost the state’s gig economy hundreds of thousands of jobs if fully implemented, upsetting the lives and financial stability of thousands of families and individuals who were perfectly happy working in a gig economy job.
• Despite a huge current budget deficit and an even bigger lump of unfunded debt shortages the state is weighing the possibility of paying out slavery reparations.

The state could not be any worse shape even if the state politicians tried to screw it up. Higher and higher taxes, not enough electricity, not enough water, ever rising crime rates, etc. Somehow California politicians took an utopia of weather and countryside and turned it into a version of North Korea with a tech industry. Take Silicon Valley out of the state and you have a bigger version of North Korea. 

That is enough insanity for now: California heading down the drain, LA short changing its police force with the resulting higher and higher crime rate, and Ihlan Omar allegedly enriches herself and her family using campaign donations.

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