The Washington DC Metropolitan Area - Why The Political Class Is So Out Of Touch

While the country suffers through a two year old financial downturn with official unemployment lingering around 10% and the unofficial rate about 70% higher, the elitist political class in Washington DC are pretty well isolated from the agony of the current economic downturn. Members of Congress still get paid at about three times the national household income level. Members of Congress automatically get hefty raises every year regardless of how poorly they perform. Members of Congress get substantial benefits beyond these high salaries including the best medical care, lucrative retirement packages, and assorted other in office and out of office perks. For Federal employees, we have already discussed a report from USA Today whose analysis showed that when there is a comparable job within both the private sector and the Federal government, 80% of the time the government positions pay higher wages on average with about four times as much value in the Federal benefits than the private sector.

How insulated are they from the rest of the country? Just consider some recent economic facts:

• According to the Census Department, eleven of the twenty five wealthiest counties in the country are located in the Washington metro area with six of the top ten wealthiest counties also in the Washington metro area.
• Unemployment figures from April showed a national unemployment rate of just under 10% but a Washington unemployment rate about 40% lower at only 5.9%.
• According to a CNN.money.com report that was reported in the June 11, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, Washington DC is the easiest city to get a job in. On average, an advertised job in the Washington metro area gets 1.9 applicants while the worst metro area, Detroit, gets 20 applicants per advertised job.
• According to the July issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, Washington DC proper gained more new residents between mid 2008 and mid 2009 than in any other one year period since World War II.
• Also in the Kiplinger article was the fact that DC proper now has a population of about 600,000, while Detroit has gone from a population of about 2 million residents down to a DC-like 800,000 (and still declining) despite covering a much wider physical area.

Life is pretty good in the DC area. Low unemployment, good pay and benefits, currently in growth mode. Is it any wonder that the political class cannot solve any problems facing typical Americans? Could it be that they do not see the urgency or the depth of the problems? This is consistent with the theory hypothesized in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government": we have allowed a separate, powerful, and unequal class of people to arise in this country called the American political class. They have convinced themselves that they are better, smarter and more deserving than the rest of America, a behavior that manifests itself in outsized pay, benefits, and perks, much like imperial ruling classes throughout the world.

While the only thing they are good at is getting and staying elected, they have convinced themselves that they can solve our problems if only we paid a little more in taxes (even though many of them do not think they should pay so much in taxes: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, New Mexico Governor Richardson, Congressman Charles Rangel, and others), sacrificed a little more blood on ill conceived military adventures, sacrificed a little more personal freedom on their social program misadventures, etc.

All of which brings us back to yesterday's blog where we questioned whether the center of the country would hold. Could it be that the phenomenon of states ignoring Federal edicts and legislation and individual citizens defying Federal laws (e.g. smoking medical marijuana in California, ignoring the latest health care reform bill that requires the purchase of health insurance) is a reaction to the elitist, condescending attitude of the Federal ruling political class? As states and individuals see more and more of their wealth and lives wasted by the American political class and getting nothing in return, it should not come as a surprise that the center is starting to crumble, even slightly. Consider:

• Nixon declared War On Drugs in the late 1960s but the drug problem is bigger and worse than ever.
• Carter muddled through the energy crises through the mid 1970s but we are not closer to an effective energy policy now than as we were then.
• Reagan identified the problem with our public schools in the 1982 report, "A Nation At Risk," but twenty eight years later the public schools throughout the country are still failing to educate.
• Clinton ruled through several terrorist attacks in the 1990s (first World Trade Center bombing, African embassy bombings, USS Cole attack) but did not put in place the national safeguards to protect America, leading to the death of 3,000 Americans on 9-11. Given the recent Times Square bomber and the Christmas Day underwear bomber, the political class still has not made us safe.

Over forty years of promises but no solutions to the major issues facing Americans. We are less free, less wealthy and still have to face these problems today. It appears that the only growth area in the country has been in DC, both financially, power wise, and employment wise. Will the center (DC) hold while the rest of the country suffers? I doubt it.


Our new 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.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/

"The Not So United" States of America - Will The Center Hold?

We have briefly touched on this topic before but I wanted to update it with additional information. There could have been several alternative titles including - "Guess Who's (Not) Coming To Dinner," a spoof on an old movie title or it could have been "What If The Federal Government Passed A Law And Nobody Cared?" I never thought this country could get to this point but consider the following "not so united" instances from just the recent past:

• The Montana state legislature passed a law last year that exempts Montana citizens from Federal gun purchase laws as long as the guns and related ammunition were made, purchased, and used in the state of Montana. Their reasoning is straight out of the U.S. Constitution which gives the Federal government the right to regulate interstate transportation but it gives it no right to regulate intrastate commerce. Act of defiance #1.
• According to an online article from the Salt Lake Tribune from November 13, 2010, the state of Utah is considering passing the same type of law as it applies to guns and ammunition purchased in the state of Utah. Act of defiance #2.
• The state of Arizona recently passed and will soon institute a controversial immigration law that allows a member of a police force to ask for proof of citizenship while in the midst of investigating a potential crime. This was done since the state legislature and the majority of Arizona citizens got tired of waiting for the Federal government to solve the illegal immigrant and illegal drug flow into Arizona from Mexico. The Federal government, through Obama's public posturing and attorney general Eric Holder's threat to bring a lawsuit against the Arizona law (even though at the time he threatened the lawsuit he had not read the law), are certainly not happy with Arizona. Act of defiance #3.
• Less well know but equally defiant is the fact that Arizona is not along in its defiance of the Federal government's inaction with regard to illegal immigration. According to a recent Eric Effron article in The Week magazine, in the first quarter alone of 2010, state and local governments have enacted their own version of immigration laws, over 100 in total. The state of Florida is just one of several other states that are thinking of following Arizona's lead in this area in defiance of Obama and Holder. Act of defiance #4.
• For years it was legal to sell medical marijuana in California through specially designated outlets as long as a legitimate doctor prescribed marijuana for pain relieve. This was and is in direct conflict with Federal anti-drug laws that prohibits the sale of marijuana for any purpose. Thus, marijuana purveyors face the dilemma of being in compliance with state laws and defying Federal laws. Act of defiance #5.
• After the 9-11 attacks, it seemed obvious to many politicians that it was much too easy to get fake government identification papers. The fear was that the ease of obtaining these ids would make it easier for terrorists to gain access to the country to carry out additional attacks. The Federal government passed the real ID act shortly after 9-11, with the intent to tighten up and standardizing the processes for obtaining any state or Federal level identification cards and papers. The states had until mid-2010 to comply with the law. As that date approaches, the reality is that most states have more or less ignored the Real ID mandate and have not complied. Act of defiance #6.
• Since the Obama administration forced its version of health care reform through the back door of the Senate rule book and made it law, dozens of states have started the process to exclude themselves and/or their citizens from certain parts of the law. These exclusions include avoiding collecting and paying out additional Medicare taxes and excluding their state's citizens from the requirement that they have to purchase health care insurance. Act of defiance #7.
• A letter in the Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine from a few months ago illustrated the fact that many young people will not purchase health care insurance as mandated under the recently passed health care reform bill. They would rather take the chance that they are never caught, and if they are caught, they will pay a fine of several hundred dollars versus the economic decision of paying several thousand dollars a year in health care insurance that they probably will not need in their immediate future. Act of defiance #8.
• Several days ago, the Destin area in Okaloosa Country, Florida got tired of waiting for the Federal government to help them deal with the catastrophic BP oil spill as it hit their beaches. Thus, earlier this week, the country commission voted to give county authorities power to act in saving the local environment even if it meant breaking Federal laws and statutes. "We made the decision legislatively to break the laws. If necessary, we will do whatever it takes to protect our county's waterways and we're prepared to go to jail to do it," said County Commission Chairman Wayne Harris. Act of defiance #9.
• In general, for the first time in a long time, possibly the Civil War or the Revolutionary War, we hear the term "we need take back our country" thrown around many, many times a week. People are frustrated and angry about how the country is being directed by a government that is run by the American political class. Congressional approval ratings of less than 25% in all unbiased opinion polls bear out this anger and frustration. When you constantly hear the fighting words, take back our country, and when a new political movement such as the Tea Party rises to prominence in such a short time, you know citizens and local governments are getting very restless. Act of defiance #10.

I cannot remember any time during my lifetime where there was so much resistance to the ways and will of the Federal government. Sure, many citizens protested against the war in Vietnam but there was virtually no state or local governments rebelling over the issue. Back in the Jim Crow days, many southern states resisted the onset of the civil rights movement but that was one singular issue across only several states. Now, we have not only citizens deciding whether or not they will comply with a Federal law (e.g. medical marijuana and mandatory health care purchase) but many state and local government bodies deciding which Federal laws to obey or disobey on a full range of issues (gun control, medical marijuana, personal identification processes, health care mandates, environment laws, etc.)

All of this defiance raises some very interesting, and perhaps, horrifying possibilities:

• What does the Federal government do if it passes a law that no citizens and no state governments obey?
• Does the Federal government take the state government(s) in question to court?
• What if the states lose in Federal court and the states still disobey?
• Do you send in the 101st Airborne Division to arrest state government leaders? What if the state's citizens resist, do you have mass arrests or worse (i.e. pull a Kent State on them)?
• How many states would the Federal government be willing to take to court and on what issues? Between over 100 illegal immigration laws, mass defiance of the Real ID act, dozens of states willing to void, at least in their minds, the health care reform bill, at least two states messing with Federal gun control statutes, other states looking at legalizing marijuana to help cover budget shortfalls, etc., the courts could become very crowded.
• If the Federal government does not take the disobeying states and citizens to court and allows the disobedience to go on unabated, what power is left to the Federal government? Similar to that old joke where some drivers consider the yellow traffic light more of a suggestion than a rule, do the Federal government's laws eventually become merely suggestions and not the rule of the land?
• How does everyone and every level of government reconcile these acts of defiance with the foll0wing words from our Declaration Of Independence:

"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends, it is the right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new guards for their future security."

When do acts of defiance rise to these principles in the Declaration of Independence? Is it a single act of defiance that rises to these principles or is it a long train of lesser infractions whose sum totals fits into this description? Fascinating times and questions.

However, the Federal wing of the American political class have no one to blame but themselves. With their increasing isolation from the core of America, the showering of themselves with perks, pay, and life long benefits, their rigging of the election processes (favorable campaign finance laws and Congressional district gerrymandering), their incompetence with dealing with any major issues such as hurricanes, oil spills, and other disasters, their inability to solve any major issue facing Americans (e.g. failing public schools, continuing drug trafficking problems, failed government regulations and regulators, insecure borders, skyrocketing deficits and debt, lack of a national energy strategy and plan), the reduction in freedom for individual Americans as the freedom, scope and wealth of the politicians expand, and their condescending attitudes to Americans (remember Harry Reid's comments that American tourists (visiting a taxpayer funded DC visitors' center) physically smelled or Nancy Pelosi's observations that if you disagree with President Obama health care reform plan you must be un-American), there should be no surprise that acts of defiance are increasing.

Somebody needs to step up and find a way to put "United" back in our nation's title. Otherwise, we will go from a nation of laws to a nation of suggestions and I am not sure anyone wins under that scenario.

Our new 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.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

This line is from a classic Who song, "We Won't Get Fooled Again." Unfortunately, it looks like we did get fooled again, electing a new President in 2008 that has turned out to be not much different than the previous one or the one before that or the one before that, etc. Let's take a look at the first year and a half of the Obama Presidency and see how he is so similar to his predecessor, George W. Bush, and others before Bush:

• Obama campaigned heavily in promising to get our military forces out of Iraq. That promise is still unfulfilled, and will not be fulfilled for at least a long while since Obama has publicly stated that 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq for an indeterminate amount of time. Sounds a lot like a continuation of the Bush interventionist military policy.
• Obama campaigned heavily in promising to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists, probably correct in his assumption that it became a terrorist recruiting tool. That promise is still unfulfilled and it does not look like it will be closed any time soon. Sounds a lot like a continuation of the Bush terrorist detention policy.
• Obama campaigned heavily in promising that the number of budget earmarks, Federal taxpayer gifts from sitting politicians to campaign donors and other local interests, would recede to the pre-Bush levels of under 2,000 per year. The number of earmarks in Obama's 2010 budget is over 11,000, comparable to or a little higher than the highest Bush era earmark volumes.
• Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder have publicly stated that some prisoners in Guantanamo will never be released even if proven not guilty at trial since they are too dangerous. Sounds a lot like a continuation of the Bush policy of denying due process to other human beings.
• As of late May 2010, according to the a HuffingtonPost.com article by David Bromwich, as published in the May 28, 3020 issue of The Week magazine, Mr. Bromwich illustrated how he thought "How Obama Is Just Like Reagan." His reasoning was that, like Reagan, Obama seldom conducts the time honored tradition of Presidential news conferences, with his last formal one being last July. His style is to stick to only tightly scripted news bites and events that he and his handlers can control. According to the article, Obama's administration has been dominated "by simple messages and a flattering emphasis on the personality of the leader and a distinct aversion to pointed questions." Thus, while not quite as bad as Bush, Obama does compare unfavorably to Reagan in this respect.
• The Obama administration renewed the freedom restricting Patriot Act virtually untouched from the Bush original.
• The Obama administration has exceeded the extremely high Bush administration budget deficits, and his administration is on target to have a spending deficit total higher than the total of all previous budget deficits of all previous Presidencies.
• The Obama administration issued it's own education reform guidelines that were basically the failed Bush "No Child Left Behind" program except for a few small changes.
• According to an ABC News/ Washington Post survey, as published in the June 18, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, 69% of the respondents gave the Federal government (Obama administration) a negative rating in the handling of the BP oil spill while 62% of the respondents to a similar survey in 2005 gave the Federal government (the Bush administration) a similar negative rating in the handling of the Katrina disaster.
• The Obama administration and the Pentagon barred four reporters from covering the military terrorist hearings at Guantanamo because they revealed the name of a witness, even though the name had been disclosed in previous news reports. Sounds awfully similar to the Bush/Cheney secretive approach regarding the handling of terrorist suspects.
• President Obama has been the recipient of more campaign donations from BP than any other politician over the past twenty years, obviously meaning he accepted more BP money than Bush.
• Neither the Bush or the Obama administration passed any legislation that would effective reform the country's health care system. Both passed legislation (Bush - Medicare Prescription Program, Obama - Obamacare) which did not attack the core problem of high medical costs and both of which will increase the Federal budget deficit by billions and billions of dollars.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to get the North Korean and Iranian situations under control, with North Korea probably having recently committed an act of war in sinking a South Korean destroyer in non-North Korean waters and Iran is now a year and a half closer to having enough fissionable material to start making nuclear weapons.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to make any progress in solving the Israeli/Palestinian quagmire.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to find a way to effectively stem the tide of illegal aliens and illegal drugs flowing across the Mexican/U.S. border.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to find a way to make government regulation work with failures at the SEC resulting in a disastrous financial crash, failures at Federal consumer protection agencies resulting in lead and cadmium laced toys being sold to American children, failures at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac resulting in a real estate market meltdown, failures at the Interior department's Minerals Management Services resulting in faulty and lax oversight of Gulf drilling and the resultant BP oil spill, and failures at the Federal auto safety agencies resulting in defective Toyota products which have led to the death of at least 89 Americans.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to develop any kind of comprehensive energy strategy that would wean the country off of oil, positively impact the environment, and not cost the economy American jobs and economic growth. Note: the currently proposed cap and trade legislation does none of this.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able to do anything substantial in reducing government wasteful spending, with current estimates from the Obama administration estimating that the political class wastes upwards of $100 billion of taxpayer money every year.
• Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration were able (so far) to change the anti-gay American military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a wuss of a program that was implemented by Democratic President Bill Clinton.
• And worse of all, neither Bush or Obama were able to unite the country, with Americans allowing politicians to divide them more than ever. Red state vs. blue state, pro-life vs. pro-choice, gay and anti-gay, poor vs. rich, etc. Bush made those opposed to his Iraq invasion to be categorized as unpatriotic. Obama has remained silent and allowed other Democrats to call and categorize Americans honestly opposed to some of Obama policies as racists, Neanderthals, un-American, terrorists, a**h***s, and more.

thus, Bush and Obama have proven to be not significantly different from each other or their predecessors. Unfortunately, we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked every four years by the promise of a new boss and that this time we will not get fooled again. Shortly thereafter, we realize that this new boss is no different from the old boss, he or she is just another politician with minimal leadership skills and minimal administration skills. Looks like the Who got it right again.

The above list will hopefully provide some food for thought and reinforce the hypothesis in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" that while we have two political parties, we really have only one political class whose only priority is its own welfare and wealth. As Karl Marx once said as a precursor to the Who: "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them."

Our new 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.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/

One Last Look At Our Crippling National Deficit - For At Least One Week

I know we have been pounding the whole Federal debt and deficit spending problem for a while but it is so important. As we illustrated with a recent post, "Snoopy, The Peanuts Comic Strip and $13 TRILLION," if we as a nation do not solve this problem and get government spending under control, nothing else matters. A bankrupt nation's freedoms and other priorities take a back seat to getting out of the fiscal morass that the political class is us driving towards.

Thus, one more post on the Federal deficit and I will take a rest from the topic for at least one week, I promise. It does get so depressing but it is critical that this topic be kept front and center. The following quantifications of the Federal debt comes from Michael Tanner of the NY Post in an article that was summarized in the June 18, 2010 edition of The Week magazine:

• As we have pointed out previously, Mr. Tanner also mentions that the Federal deficit now exceeds $13 TRILLION.
• According to Mr. Tanner, if you spent a dollar a second, 24 hours a day, it would take you 416,000 YEARS to spend $13 TRILLION.
• The $13 TRILLION does not include unfunded liabilities of almost $16 TRILLION for Social Security.
• The $13 TRILLION does not include unfunded liabilities of at least $50 TRILLION for Medicare.
• Just to pay off the $13 TRILLION with no increases in the current Federal government spending levels would require "raising the tax rate on the rich to 88% and on the middle class to 63%."
• Mr. Tanner concludes that you cannot pay off the current government spending with tax increases, there has to be drastic, unprecedented cuts in government spending. If that is not done, he predicts that we will follow Greece down the rat hole to insolvency.

There is no reason to suspect that Mr. Tanner is not right in his math since we have already confirmed the $13 TRILLION from other sources and it is generally acknowledged that both Social Security and Medicare will be a tremendous drain on the government's financials once the baby boomers mature, with Social Security being the less onerous problem. If his numbers are right, then the total Federal government debt is not the current $13 TRILLION but $13 TRILLION plus the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, bringing the total Federal debt to a whopping $79 TRILLION. Just for illustration, consider the following:

• With about 117 million US households today, each U.S. household would be responsible for about $675,000 worth of Federal debt.
• With population of about 310 million people, each U.S. citizen is responsible for about $254,000 worth of Federal debt.
• If you lined up 79 TRILLION one dollar bills end-to-end, they would circle the earth almost 300,000 times.

These are deficit numbers that cannot be solved by raising the highest tax rate. and undoing the "Bush tax cuts", from 35% to 39%. But this is the big step that Obama and the Democrats want to take to address the budget issue. However, to quote an old saying, this is about as effective as a fart in a hurricane. It will do nothing.

Why there is no sense of urgency in Washington is baffling. The numbers do not lie, these are government calculated, official numbers. In "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," we quoted an ex-comptroller of the United States, David Walker, who estimated in a speech in 2008 that the total financial liabilities of the country were about $53 TRILLION. This was not from a Republican, a Tea Partier or Fox News. This was a seriously trained accounting professional who saw first hand in his powerful government position how bad our fiscal status was and is. the only problem is that it has gotten worse in the two years since he issued the $53 TRILLION estimate. We are seeing what inaction in this area will result in from viewing the Greece situation: riots and deaths in the street, a collapsing economy, and asking for handouts from the rest of Europe and the IMF.

That is a preview of where we are heading and nobody in Washington is doing anything about it. This means that 1) they are ignorant of this reality, 2) don't care about this reality and see it as an opportunity to continue to reduce our freedom and increase their power, 3) they do not know how to fix the problem or 4) they are too gutless to fix the problem, thinking that courage and doing the right, but painful things, will not help them get re-elected. Whatever the reason, that is why all of them need to be defeated the next time they come up for re-elections. Doing nothing is not an option but it appears it is the only option these hurricane watchers are doing.

Our new 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.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/