Obama Care - Still Constitutional And Still A Major Disaster: Part 2 - IRS Misadventures, Unemployment Impacts and More

Yesterday we reviewed some major and distressing new news about Obama Care. The latest unbiased and nonpartisan experts, including the Congressional Budget Office, Medicare's head actuary, etc., continue to prove our theory that Obama Care is an unfolding disaster for the nation. It will not solve the underlying causes of our high health care costs, it will gut Medicare funding and support over the next ten years, it will leave tens of millions of Americans without health care insurance coverage, and it will add to our skyrocketing national debt.

Unfortunately, we could not fit the latest bad news into one post and needed today's space to continue:

- A New York Times article that was summarized in the August 10, 2012 issue of The Week magazine stated that, partly as a result of Obama Care, the U.S. will be over 60,000 doctors short of what it will need by 2015 as a result of  millions of more Americans receiving health care insurance under the legislation. The shortfall will be more than twice as big by 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Now, to be clear, I would never want to deny health care to another human being. However, this is obviously another big shortcoming of Obama Care. Somehow, the writers of the legislation never understood that if more and more people can get easier access to health care, they will exercise that option.

Thus, the Obama Care writers never made any contingency plans on how to handle increased demand with no increase in suppliers. Simple supply and demand economic theory that is lost on on our politicians, a theory that will lead to increase costs and lower care (more demand, no increase in supply, has to lead to higher prices and costs: Economics 101).

- A CNNMoney.com article that was summarized in the July 27, 2012 issue of The Week magazine confirmed our assumption yesterday that companies will hire fewer workers and change full time workers to part time workers. They cannot afford the increased Obama Care costs and taxes that will be imposed on companies with more than 50 full time employees who do not provide full health care insurance.

It cites small business owner David Barr who successfully owns and operates two dozen fast food franchises: "[Barr] says he'd rather do that [change his full time workers to part time workers] than pay the $546,000 he says it will cost him to cover all 425 of his current employees."

Why would he downgrade over 400 employees to part time?  According to the article, "His business model isn't meant to support these costs." 

Consider the decisions of business owner Randall Tabor, who owns two Quiznos sandwich restaurants with 36 workers in Virginia Beach, Va., in a Wall Street Journal interview that was cited in the August 2, 2012 issue of Moneynews. He has rolled back earlier plans he had to triple the number of his outlets since Obamacare was passed in 2010.


Horrid legislation, make hundreds of Americans just in these two examples take a downgrade in employment or not get hired at all. As this is repeated thousands and thousands of times across the country, disposable income will also drop as will economic growth, all for a government program that will never work.

- One of the biggest issues of Obama Care is that it forces Americans to buy a service, in this case, health insurance. That was the main reason behind the Supreme Court challenge that the Court somehow viewed as legal. Obviously, many Americans found this government imposition of forcing a purchase in a supposedly free country as counter liberty.

However, according to an article in the July 20, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, despite Obama Care, the government cannot actually force a citizen to buy health insurance, contrary to what most people think. The article lays out the situation:

• The Obama Care health care purchase mandate/tax cannot truly compel an American to buy health insurance. While it levies a tax on those who do not buy insurance, unbelievably, there is no legal mechanism to enforce the mandate.
• The article supposes that millions of people may decide to forego paying for health insurance and save paying the health care premiums since the Federal government cannot not affect them except under one specific condition.
• That condition is that, if in the future, the IRS owes a non-purchaser a tax refund, it can withhold the tax refund to pay the penalty for not buying health care insurance.
• The CBO estimates that 4 million Americans will bypass the mandate to purchase insurance and save the monthly premiums because of this lack of enforcement.
• One reason for bypassing is that even with an Obama Care subsidy, as an example, a family of four earning about $45,000 a year will find it cheaper to pay the Obama Care penalty, IF and WHEN it should ever happen, than purchasing the cheapest insurance option offered in the Obama Care insurance exchanges.
• This will put more people back into emergency rooms for sickness and illness treatment, the exact opposite of what Obama Care is supposed to do.
• The article illustrates this likelihood by quoting the opinions of a Texas mother who stated in the article that she would rather risk a low, potential $250 government fine sometime in the future than pay $1,800 a year for insurance today: "I could much more easily afford a dadgum penalty than be saddled month after month after month than be saddled with this kind of premium." She stated she will continue to take her family illnesses and sicknesses to an emergency room. And there is virtually nothing Obama Care can do about her attitude and actions.
• Despite not being able to collect mandated penalties, the Obama administration recently allocated about half a billion dollars to the IRS for enforcement of this mandate that it cannot enforce. Insanity.
• As we have observed previously, wouldn't these government resources be better spent on reducing the over $100 billion that the Federal government loses every year to criminal fraud, waste, and inefficiencies in existing Medicare and Medicaid programs? Wouldn't  that be a better option than wasting time hassling honest American citizens who are just trying to optimize their lives vs. organized crime and other criminal elements who are only trying to rob the American taxpayer?

- Lets go to an article from the July 9, 2012 issue of Business Week. The article reviews many of the same facts that were covered in The Week article cited above, including the fact that Congress prohibited the IRS from placing liens on property and assets or garnishing wages for those that do not purchase health care insurance.

However, it adds two additional pieces of information. First, the IRS will somehow have to enforce 47 additional tax provisions as a result of Obama Care. As the article points out, and we have pointed out numerous times, the IRS cannot currently collect about $385 billion that is owed to the Federal government from tax evaders every year. If it cannot enforce the current tax laws, it is difficult to believe it will
be able to efficiently and effectively enforce 47 more tax requirements.   

Second, while the IRS commissioner needs an 11% increase in the IRS budget to handle Obama Care, it has seen Congress reduce its budget in each of the past two years, shrinking its enforcement staff by 3,000. It is highly unlikely Congress will restore those cuts AND increase the IRS budget in the future, meaning that the IRS component of Obama Care is also going to be a failure and disaster.

Failure and disaster, hassling of honest Ameircans while dishonest theives steal from Medicare and Mediciad, more and more Americans lsing their current health insurance plans, doctor shortages, less employment, reduction in disposable income. Yes, Obama Care is Constitutional. However, that still does not make it a good idea.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Obama Care: Still Constitutional and Still A Major Disaster: Part 1 - Root Causes Of High Health Care Costs and The Gutting Of Medicare

We have not talked about Obama Care for a while, our review of the latest slime, sleaze, morality, and corruption of American political class taking up five of our recent posts. However, that does not mean the bad news of Obama Care has not continued to come to the surface. While it may be Constitutional, it is still a disaster along every dimension imaginable: costs, problem solutions, freedom, and fiscal irresponsibility.

But before reviewing the latest, let's review the basic problems we have discussed way too many times in this blog:

1) Obama Care never identified or addressed the primary root causes of our nation's escalating health care costs:

• Americans eat too much and Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food - These two interrelated causes have many underlying drivers, not the least of which is Federal government farm subsidies. These subsidies have incented American farmers to grow way too much corn, corn that ends up as cheap but unhealthy corn fructose which ends up in just about everything Americans eat.
• Americans smoke too much - This problem is exacerbated by the Federal government, with the American taxpayer paying and incenting tobacco farmers over $190 million a year in Federal subsidies to grow more tobacco which ends up killing more Americans.
• Americans do not get enough exercise - Americans exercise so little that a recent article in the August 17, 2012 issue of The Week magazine discussed a global study which found that Americans "ranked among the most physically lazy countries in the world," with 40% of American adults rarely engaging in any physical activity or exercise.
• Americans are getting older - Rather than mobilizing resources to aggressively go after new cures and treatments for aging diseases, e.g. cancer, dementia, etc., Obama Care instead just introduces a massive new Federal bureaucracy and taxation system without a focus on disease eradication.
• The legislation contains none of the previously successful medical tort reform that some states have already shown to reduce health care costs, an omission due to the fabulous lobbying efforts of the ABA.
• The legislation does nothing to break down the state line barriers that inhibit insurance company competition across state lines.
• The legislation never "followed the money." In other words, when we go into for a simple medical test that takes only a handful of minutes to perform, e.g. a blood test, but end up paying hundreds of dollars for the simple test, Obama Care never took the time to understand where these outrageous amounts of money flow, who benefits from the outrageous fees, understand how much of these fees are reasonable and unreasonable, and how to control the flow.

2) The legislation does little to curtail current wasteful spending of existing massive Federal government health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which easily lose well over $100 billion a year to waste, inefficiencies, and outright criminal fraud.

3) The legislation will not contain health care costs, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the gross cost of the legislation is almost double what was estimated just a few years ago, the head actuary of Medicare and Medicaid recently estimating that Obama Care will add more than $300 billion to the national debt in the first ten years, and the one sub-program that was supposed to be a positive contributor to the legislation's financials, the CLASS program, has already been shut down for being ineffective.

4) The legislation is written so poorly that companies have already set plans in motion to curtail hiring, change full time employees to part time employees, and cancel existing company health care plans in order to dodge the taxes, regulations, and burdens imposed on them by the legislation. This legislation and the ensuing actions by companies are likely a primary driver to our continuing high unemployment rate.

We could go on with other examples of idiocy and fiscal dangers that we have already discussed in this blog but you get the idea. When you do not address the root causes of any problem, your chance of actually resolving the problem is almost nil. This is the case with Obama Care.

This is a horrible piece of legislation. And the depths of the dangers just keep bubbling to the surface.

- One of the supposed selling points of Obama Care and the main reason we were supposed to pass it was that the legislation would provide for health care insurance for EVERY American once it was fully implemented. However, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report says that under the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, 30 million non-elderly Americans will remain without health insurance in 2022, ten years from now.

Thus, if the CBO is to be believed, and Obama, Pelosi, et al relied on the original CBO analysis to force through Obama Care, then a primary tenet and objective of Obama Care, all Americans will be covered by health care insurance, will go largely unfilled. The CBO's analysis estimated that there are currently 53 million Americans without health care insurance. By leaving 30 million people uninsured when the legislation is fully rolled out, the legislation will have missed this target by over 50%. Pitiful.

And it probably will not even hit this low coverage result. As we have reported many times in this blog, American companies have publicly announced that they will seriously consider dropping their existing health care insurance policies they currently fund for their employees and retirees under Obama Care. Why? Obama Care makes it a better business decision and financial decision to pay a smaller Obama Care fine for not having employee health insurance coverage than to continue their existing programs, an action that will likely result in millions and millions of more Americans not having health care insurance.

- Not only is Obama Care likely to screw up the health care coverage that tens of millions of Americans get from their employers, but it is also likely to really devastate Medicare. The Wall Street Journal reported on this gutting of Medicare under the Obama Care legislation two years ago:

 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437311393854940.html

Their article focused on the findings of Richard Foster who was the head actuary of Medicare at that time, a person who probably knew more about the numbers driving Medicare than anyone else anywhere. Mr. Foster's findings and analyses led to the following conclusions:

• Medicare payment rates for doctors and hospitals serving elderly Americans will be cut by 30% over the next three years under Obama Care
• By 2019 Medicare, payment rates will be lower than under Medicaid. 
• At the end of the 75-year forecast window for the Medicare, Medicare payment rates will be one-third of what will be paid by private insurance, and only half of what is paid by Medicaid.
• Obama Care chops $818 billion out of  Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) over the next ten years.
• Combining these cuts with cuts to Medicare Part B brings the total cuts to $1.05 trillion over the first 10 years and $4.95 trillion over the first 20 years.
• Mr. Foster's analysis also concludes that 50% of senior Americans with Medicare Advantage will lose their plan because of these cuts.
• These cuts do not include unforeseen cuts that Obama Care's 15 member "death panel"of unelected bureaucrats might impose in the future to keep costs under control

No one argues that Medicare and Medicaid costs need to be gotten under control. But funding Obama Care with arbitrary cuts to Medicare does not eliminate the cost issue, it just moves the costs elsewhere within the Federal bureaucracy. All it does it make medical care for America's elderly more difficult to provide and find without solving any of the underlying root causes of the problem to begin with.

- While the Wall Street Journal article is a little dated, a new CBO analysis and report from late July is not. It reinforces these findings from the Journal article, updating them for current estimates but reaching the same conclusions, namely that Obama Care arbitrarily guts Medicare funding according to the following budget cuts:

•A $260 billion payment cut for hospital services.

•A $39 billion payment cut for skilled nursing services.

•A $17 billion payment cut for hospice services.

•A $66 billion payment cut for home health services.

•A $33 billion payment cut for all other services.

•A $156 billion cut in payment rates in Medicare Advantage.

•$56 billion in cuts for disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments.

•$114 billion in other provisions pertaining to Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.

Note: CBO report details are available at:

http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43471-hr6079.pdf


Different year, different analysis, same conclusion. The Heritage Foundation, pulling information from the 2012 Medicare Trustees report concluded: "The impact of these cuts will be detrimental to seniors’ access to care. The Medicare trustees 2012 report concludes that these lower Medicare payment rates will cause an estimated 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies to operate at a loss by 2019, 25 percent to operate at a loss in 2030, and 40 percent by 2050. Operating at a loss means these facilities are likely to cut back their services to Medicare patients or close their doors, making it more difficult for seniors to access these services."

Boy, it just keeps getting worse. Didn't anybody in Congress or the White House consult with the Medicare and Medicaid experts to find out ahead of time what Obama Care would do the the health care of senior Americans from the experts who would know best? Obviously not.

Yes, Obama Care is Constitutional. But it is also a disaster that does not address the root causes of our escalating health care costs, will leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured, will add to our skyrocketing national debt, and will likely deprive funding to existing health care programs that serve our senior citizens. And worst of all, we have more bad news to report int tomorrow's post, the nightmare continues.

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Why Language Matters In Our Political Dialog: Why I Am Not Unpatriotic, A Racist Or A Terrrorist

Last week we discussed the many instances where people on the left of the political spectrum had been playing fast and loose with derogatory words when addressing American citizens who happened to have a different opinion than them. When ordinary Americans came to the rational opinion that Obama Care was not going to be an effective program, a fact that we will prove with several posts later this week, Democrat Nancy Pelosi questioned our patriotism for daring to use our brains and our freedom of speech. The leader of her political party, President Obama, remained silent in the face of this abusive language.

When many Americans became justifiably upset and worried about annual TRILLION dollar deficits and unbridled and wasteful government spending, that could bring down our democracy, but were labeled terrorists by the Vice President and other Democratic Congressmen, President Obama remained silent in the face of this horrendous language.

When those same Americans were labeled as racists by a NYC Democratic Congressman for honestly opposing Obama Care, President Obama remained silent in the face of this inflammatory language.

When those same Americans were labeled as having once belonged to the Ku Klux Klan for honestly opposing Obama Care by a Texas Democratic Congresswoman, President Obama remained silent in the face of this hideous language.

When Republican women politicians and other Republican women public figures were labeled as whores, sluts, and other terms too graphic to print here and were designated for hate rape and other gruesome deeds by Democratic allies, President Obama remained silent in the face of such oppressive language. 

The bottom line is that language matters. Language has meaning, language stokes emotions. And thus, language has to be used carefully. When Pelosi questions patriotism of the nonviolent, logical conclusions of citizens she crosses the line of civility in a democracy. Her language insults the millions of citizen soldiers who fought, were wounded, and died protecting that freedom. Throwing that freedom of speech aside because of a difference of opinion is a disgrace.

When the Vice President and Democrats in Congress lump American citizens with a different opinion into the same category of people that murder, torture, propagate terrorism, and deny freedom to human beings all over the world, they cross the line of civility in a democracy. Their language insults those citizens who NEVER wished death, torture, terrorism, or denial of freedom  on any human being. Throwing that freedom of speech aside because of a difference of opinion is a disgrace.

When Democrats in Congress lump today's citizens with a different opinion into the same category of people from the past who spit on, set dogs on, discriminated against, denied voting rights, lynched, and abused people of color simply because of their skin color, they cross the line of civility in a democracy. Their language insults those who NEVER spit, attacked, discriminated against, lynched or abused people of color. Throwing that freedom of speech aside because of a difference of opinion is a disgrace.

When Democratic allies belittle, slander, and insult women just because they are supporters or members of the Republican party or philosophy, they cross the line. Their language insults those American women who are simply exercising their rights as Americans and their right to free speech. Throwing that freedom of speech aside in such a sexist and offensive manner is exactly that, offensive.

Which gets us to today's main focus. Apparently, some talking head on MSNBC recently accused the Romney campaign of "niggerization." I have no idea what that means. Maybe that makes me a racist although I highly doubt it. I have seen no indication that the Romney campaign is anything close to the negative aspects of what might be considered niggerization.

But I do know that language matters and since the talking head did not explain what he meant, I have to assume the comment and fabricated word was for ratings and attention, not a viable and civil political dialog. And much like questioning someone's patriotism for no good reason, or calling them a terrorist for no good reason, or calling them racists for no good reason, it is unacceptable, it truly belittles and mutes the true evil in the world. If everyone is unpatriotic just for having a difference opinion, if everyone is a terrorist just for having a different opinion, if everyone is a racist just for having a difference of opinion, than the evil and atrocities of true false patriots, true terrorists, and true racists become more acceptable.

When language is used to shock and draw selfish attention to one's self rather than used a tool for discussion, exploration, constructive communication, and understanding, problems never get resolved and the trenches of differences are dug deeper. And rather than filling in those trenches, it is the institutions in this country, the disgraceful press like MSNBC and most of our political leadership, that are providing the shovels.

But there is hope. Consider the following letter that a young African-American woman sent to the talking head at MSNBC. She brings into focus what it means to actually confront real hate in life when the work nigger is thrown around vs. using that same word for TV ratings, political sensationalism, and personal gratification. She is wise beyond her years, and certainly wiser than myself, the political hacks at MSNBC and in Washington.

*********************************
Dear Toure [the MSNBC talking head]:

I’d like to tell you a story.

I was six years old the first time I heard the word ‘nigger’. Jamie Haney called me that on the first day of school, matter-of-factly. He wasn’t being mean. He was just expressing his amazement at the fact that he was actually looking at a black person, and he thought that’s what we were called. Jamie and I came up through school together as friends, but unfortunately he wasn’t even close to the last person to use that word in reference to me.

I grew up in a place where there were no black people. In the ’80′s. I was different. An anomaly. And kids are cruel. And some adults too. I was called a nigger nearly every school day of my life until I was 16 years old. Once, my best friends and I were handing out church flyers at a local diner. An older gentleman (well, maybe 30 but that was OLD to me at the time) who was clearly intoxicated took the flyer from my hand, looked up at me and suddenly shouted “Holy Shit! What are you doing here? I thought your kind was supposed to be out picking cotton or something!” and then proceeded to crack up at his own hilarity.

My friends and I clearly had no clue how to handle this (we were maybe 14 at the time); and no one came to my defense or rescue. People stared, but most just looked away in embarrassment and continued with their meals. My friends and I left. We looked at each other, wide-eyed. We were scared, but none of us said a thing. What could we say? They didn’t understand the depth of my pain and I didn’t understand their confusion or helplessness. So we went on with our day, on with our lives.

And that was pretty much every day of my life in Prince Edward Island, Canada. I faced names and beat-downs each day. Sometimes I took it. Sometimes I fought back. In a school system that had no experience with minorities in the 1980′s, there was no help to be found. Teacher after teacher and principle after principle said the same thing….if it happens away from the watchful eyes of staff, there is nothing we can do. I had no choice. I endured, until I was old enough to leave; and then I left. I now live in California. Pretty much as far away as you can get from P.E.I. without leaving the comfort of the United States/Canada.

I tell you all this not to illicit sympathy. I don’t need that. It’s been a long time since I was that scared but tough little girl. I’ve been blessed many times over since then, and I’ve learned the power of forgiveness. No, I tell you this because I read your comments about Mitt Romney today and they made me sick to my stomach, and very angry. You accuse Romney of “niggerizing” Obama. There is so much wrong with that statement, I hardly know where to begin.

You see, that word…nigger….it means something. It means something very real to people like me who actually have intimate, firsthand knowledge of how it can be applied. I resent that you would use that so easily (though you claim it wasn’t ‘easy’, I don’t believe you). You used that term to get some press. Great. Mission accomplished. But in the process you have watered down a term of hate with deep historical significance by applying it where it most certainly does not fit.

Toure, I’ve seen hate up close. I know what it looks like. I’ve felt it’s hands on my skin, seen the look in its eyes, felt the burn of its words. It is deliberate and it is real. Racism is not disliking our black President because of his socialist leanings. Racism is the scar I carried near my lip for decades after one particularly harsh punch in the mouth from a kid screaming “NIGGER!” at me while swinging away.

Racism is that guy in the diner, the hoses and dogs turned on folks from my grandparent’s generation just looking to drink at a decent water fountain. When you accuse a person of racism, THAT is the legacy of hate you are laying at their feet. It’s every bit as heinous as accusing someone of being a child molester arbitrarily. When you accuse Mitt Romney and other conservatives like me of being racist based on no other proof besides the fact that we vehemently disagree with this President and his policies, you dilute the history and experiences of people like me.

You cheapen that word – nigger. You rob it of it’s true horror – a horror we should never forget or take for granted. Not only that, Toure; but you cheapen yourself. You make it clear to blacks like me that you, indeed have no clue in hell what real racism is or where it can be found.

Accusing Mitt Romney of the “niggerization” of Obama is ugly, base, cheap and just plain wrong. You owe him and people like him an apology. You seem like an intelligent guy. If you disagree with Mitt Romney and me, do so on the merits of the issues at hand. Don’t prostitute yourself on a network that is more way more white (percentage-wise) than the Republican party.

It’s a song and dance eerily similar the minstrel shows of the past. You and I know full well the execs at MSNBC laugh and applaud and sign your paycheck every time you put on your tap shoes. Don’t like that reference? Hey, as you said so yourself, I'm just using the same old race-baiting playbook you and the Democrats have been using for decades.

You should be embarrassed.

Kira Davis

**********************************************************
Much better said than I could ever say it. Language matters. Leadership matters. Silence is not golden when the language inhibits the dialog and appreciation of diversity that is needed if we are ever to resolve the major issues facing Americans today.

In this area, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Joe Biden and the numerous Democrats in Congress, that have remained silent while Americans were verbally abused for being Americans, and not racists, terrorists, etc., should be ashamed of themselves. They should also not be allowed into a kind of leadership position.


Note: I may have come off as not a big fan of MSNBC above and that would be a true conclusion. One of the main reasons why I consider MSNBC more of an entertainment option, and not a good one at that, rather than a serious news and journalistic organization. Please click through to a previous, hate-filled post from our blog:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/06/hated-and-vile-polticial-dialog.html


Please visit our Presidential website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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 http://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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Political Class Insanity - Mid Month Special Edition: The Insanity Cannot Wait!

Usually we do a review of the past month's political class insanity at the beginning of every month. However, we needed this post in the middle of the month to cover the insanity before it built up and blew a gasket. It is amazing how wasteful, stupid, ineffective, and inefficient our political class and the government entities it operates can be. It seems like they have no clue to what they are doing even though they have been doing it in Washington for over two hundred years. Obviously, not a lot of lessons regarding good governance have been learned.

If we did not have to pay so much in taxes to cover up their incompetence it would be pretty funny. I swear, the Three Stooges could do a better job running our government operations than the political clowns we have doing the job today. For example:

- According to an August 15, 2012 Associated Press report, Army general William Ward, who was the first head of the new U.S. Africa Command, is under investigation for allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars improperly on lavish travel, hotels and other items. He has been under investigation for almost a year and a half so the charges to not appear to be of a frivolous nature if it is taking so long to render a verdict on his actions and his punishment, if any.

The numerous allegations allege that he spent hundreds of thousands dollars allowing friends and family members to fly on government planes, and that he spent spent excessive amounts of money on hotel rooms, transportation and other expenses when he traveled as head of Africa Command. The article estimates that the wasteful spending could be in the neighborhood of the $823,000 that GSA employees wasted on themselves when they threw themselves a lavish Las Vegas party and trip, courtesy of taxpayer money.

General Ward apparently got caught but how many other generals, colonels, majors, admirals, etc. are doing the same amount of wasteful spending but have not been caught yet?  Given this instance of waste and many other instances of wasteful military spending, please do not tell them there are not considerable budget cuts that can be made to our military budget without affecting national defense.

- The Orange County Register newspaper out of southern California, in its August 10, 2012 edition, reported on one of the many reasons while California is likely to become the first state in the union to declare state wide bankruptcy. This story comes on the heels of the news we have previously covered in this blog of how major cities in California, e.g. San Bernadino and Stockton, have already filed for bankruptcy.

The Register reported, that according to government documents coming out of Hermosa Beach, California, some "meter maids" in that city are earning nearly $100,000 a year in salary. This is about 60% more than what the average American HOUSEHOLD makes every year. Get this: this small town has ten meter maids on staff to cover the town's only 1.3 square miles, with two of the staff being supervisory personnel who earn the almost $100,000 a year. The other eight earn from between $67,000 or so up to about $84,000, both numbers well above the national household income average.

As expected, the article points out that you do not have to have special skills or training or knowledge or experience to earn these seemingly high salaries:

1. You have to be able to drive a standard transmission.
2. You have to able to handle large animals.
3. You have to read and interpret statutes and regulations.
4. You have a high school diploma or equivalent.

Certainly not rocket science.

Let's do some simple math. Let's assume that the average salary of the ten employees is $75,000 a year. Thus, the city is paying out about $750,000 a year just in salary, benefits would be extra. If the city gets $25 for each parking violation, then these ten people in total would have to be writing 30,000 parking meter citations a year, more than 80 tickets every day, 365 days a year,  just to cover their salaries. Even if they got $50 for each citation, they would still have to be writing more than 40 tickets a day to cover salaries. Highly unlikely since 1) the city is only 1.3 square miles and 2) there are only 20,000 people in the town. 30,000 citations means that every citizen, on average would be getting 1.5 tickets a year, adults and children alike.

Again, these numbers to not include covering the current benefits these ten city employees receive or their retirement salaries and benefits that the mayor of Hermosa beach says could be about $3 million. Plus, according to the city's treasurer, David Cohn, the town's parking meter operations have been mismanaged, resulting in broken parking meters, a large backlog in disputed parking tickets, and revenue accounting problems.  Insanity: high costs, an unprofitable operation enterprise, and a dysfunctional organization. No wonder local California governments are going bankrupt.

The article points out that it does not have to be that way. It reviewed what happened in another southern California town that outsourced its parking meter functions. When Newport Beach outsourced it parking meter functions, it saw a 24% increase in parking citation revenues and salary savings of about half a million dollars a year.

The article cites other cities that are trimming government waste and excess costs by doing the same thing, using a quote from Indianapolis City Councilman Ben Hunter: "The privatization of the parking meter system in Indianapolis allowed for an immediate upgrade of a poor system."

If done right, the taxpayer can win and government can focus on far fewer and far more important issues, with the hope that they may actually be able resolve a few issues along the way.

- A new report from the Agriculture Department's Inspector General revealed some more government bungling and wasteful spending (http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/88401-0001-12.pdf):

• The Department's (USDA) may have mismanaged up to $63 million in taxpayer wealth in the area of technology security.
• The USDA spent more than $2 million on an internship program that only hired one full-time intern.
• $3 million was spent on technology hardware that was never used.
• $235,000 was spent on a project that was later canceled due to redundancy, a discovery that was made AFTER the $235,000 had been spent.
• The Inspector General found that the USDA’s chief information officer, “had not established internal control procedures, such as monitoring and oversight, for project management, and did not adequately plan its projects or how it would utilize resources.”

Oh well, what can you do, it is only taxpayer money. Is there any Federal department or agency that has not foolhardily wasted taxpayer wealth?

- The Cato Institute always does a great job of investigating waste and stupidity in government and showing how these actions reduce our freedom and liberty. They have issued a new analysis report which focuses on the $100 billion a year in taxpayer wealth that our politicians give away as corporate welfare. This welfare is usually payment for financial support for these politicians' reelection efforts.

Their latest wasteful findings can be found at the following link:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA703.pdf

Just a small sample of their findings over the years include the following atrocities:

• A craft brewery in Michigan recently received $220,000 from the Federal government. Why Federal taxpayer money should be used for a single brewery is beyond me. Plus, consider the feelings of other craft breweries around the country: their taxes are being used to support one of their competitors, talk about unfair market practices.
• Remember Enron? The poster child for criminal accounting practices? According to the Cato report, over the years Enron had received about $3.7 billion in Federal corporate welfare money from a variety of Federal agencies including the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the U.S. Maritime Administration, and other agencies. As you recall, the American taxpayer never received any real value from anything Enron ever did including getting a return on its $3.7 billion. Also, isn't amazing how many different Federal entities can give away taxpayer wealth?
• The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) pays out about $16 billion a year to cover the losses that mortgage lenders and banks incur as a result of issuing mortgages that go bad. Cato obviously makes the case of why should private companies, mortgage brokers, be paid to cover their mistakes to the tune of billions of dollars a year from taxpayers.
• We have talked about Solyndra many times in this blog, how the Obama administration used and lost over half a billion dollars with an ill-advised loan to Solyndra that was done more for political gain by Obama than advances in green energy. But Solyndra is not alone in cronyism and wasteful spending since according to Cato: "The Washington Post found that “$3.9 billion in Federal grants and financing from the Department of Energy flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.”" Disgraceful.

- Just in case you were wondering, the government bailout of General Motors is not likely to offset these other wastes of taxpayer wealth. According to an article in the August 13, 2012 issue of the Detroit News, the U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that the Federal government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15% higher than its previous forecast.

Why is this loss getting larger? Since the Federal government still owns over 500 million shares of GM stock and that stock price continues to decrease, the value of the government stake continues to decrease also. The latest calculation was done when the stock price had dropped down to about $22 a share. The stock price would have to be about $53 a share for the Feds to recover all of the taxpayer waste that was given away to GM and its unions.

As reference, understand that the stock price has never gotten within $12 of that $53 target.

Just when you think you have seen the lowest behavior you can imagine from the political class, they exceed our lowest expectation and go even lower.  Taxpayer wealth wasted on breweries and bad energy ventures, government workers that are grossly overpaid for the simple jobs they do poorly, an intern program that cost millions of dollars to hire one intern, etc. And worst of all, as this need for a mid month insanity post has illustrated, it just keeps getting worse and worse. As laid out in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government," term limits cannot be imposed on these people fast enough.

Keep an eye out for our regular monthly political insanity review in two weeks. Can hardly wait.

Please visit our Presidential website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

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 http://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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/