The Quickly Approaching Collapse Of Social Security

Having turned 62 last year and now a monthly Social Security check recipient, I am especially interested in protecting that revenue stream that flows into my bank account. Since I paid into the Social Security fund for almost 50 years, I would like to get a lot of that forced payment back as soon as possible. But I have had concerns about the fiscal health of the Social Security process for a number of years, actually proposing three fixes to the whole Social Security Ponzi scheme in my book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government.”

Why my concern? Two reasons: first, it is no surprise that tens of millions of Americans will soon be entering their golden retirement years and will be pulling down monthly Social Security payments which will put unprecedented financial pressure on the Social Security revenue stream and solvency. 

Second, politicians keep assuring us that the fictional Social Security Trust Fund will not run out of money until the 2030s. Not only do I not trust American politicians when they tell me anything but it is obvious to anyone who knows what the Trust Fund actually is knows that it is already bankrupt and empty, the 2030s claim notwithstanding. 

The Social Security process has been in a negative cash flow a situation for a number of years now, i.e. it has been paying out more than what it is taking in via Social Security taxes. And as the number of Social Security recipients increases over the next few years and the number of people paying Social Security taxes decreases, that cash flow deficit will only grow going forward.

This would be the time when the Trust Fund should kick in. But it has not kicked in since it has nothing in it and the cash flow deficit is being funded with general Federal government tax funds. Back in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson and the rest of the political class decided that it would raid the Social Security funds being set aside for future Social Security recipients to use for Johnson’s “Great Society” and the Vietnam War. Thus, they took the wealth and left future Social Security recipients with worthless IOUs from the Treasury Department.

How bad is the financial status of the Social Security process and the lies that the political class and government bureaucrats are telling us? David Stockman, who was the top economic advisor to the Reagan Presidency, recently analyzed the current fiscal situation of Social Security and his findings were not good, as he pointed out that reality in his article: “Funny Money Accounting—-Why Social Security Will Be Bankrupt In 10 Years.” The entire article from Stockman can be accessed at:

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/funny-money-accounting-why-social-security-will-be-bankrupt-in-10-years/

But can Stockman be correct? Wouldn’t the Washington politicians tell us what was going on and working on solutions? Ten years is not a long time as millions and millions of Americans enter their retirement years over those ten years. There can only be three reasons for their inactions:

1. Stockman is wrong and there is no need to get upset and issue a call to action to save Social Security.
2. The politicians do not understand the dire straits of the situation and/or are too inept to put together a solution.
3. The politicians are too busy worrying about their careers, self enrichment, and greed and could care less of fixing what is an economic lifeline for millions of Americans.

Let’s review Stockman’s analysis and research to see if we see which of these three options are most likely:

• The Social Security Trustees recently published their latest view of the whole system and said the trust fund now had life until 2034, a year later than they predicted last time around.
• Which is really nothing more than fancy accounting since the Social Security OASDI funds (retirement and disability) spent $859 billion in 2014 but only took in via Social Security taxes $786 billion, a negative cash flow of $73 billion.
• This was almost 10% of the revenue stream.
• From 2015 through 2026 even the Trustees predict that the OASDI funding mechanisms will run a total $1.6 trillion deficit.
• Since the Trust fund does not exist, this $1.6 trillion shortfall will have to be paid off by today’s kids and grandkids out of their future job wages and income.
• These same kids and grandkids will also be paying off the current $20 trillion in Federal government debt that the political class has accumulated for them, doubling that debt load in just the past eight years of the Obama administration.
• Stockman does a best case scenario where he deliberately and falsely assumes that the Trust fund does have real wealth in it but even with that assumption he forecasts that the trust fund goes dry in 2026, not 2034, an event that would theoretically require an immediate 33% cut in all Social Security payments to align revenues coming in with checks going out.
• According to Stockman: “In short, the latest untrustworthies report amounts to an accounting and forecasting house of cards that is camouflaging an impending social, political and economic crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression or even the Civil War.”

Nasty business here, financial hardship for those depending on Social Security in retirement and financial hardship for those still in the workforce who have to pay more and more of their hard earned dollars to support the negative cash flow of the system. This is money that will not be spent on vacations, retail purchases, movies, business start ups, etc., money that is not available to grow a robust economy. Just a massive redistribution of wealth from the young to the old.

But is Stockman right, are things really this bad? He proves his point by looking at the numbers and showing that the Washington bureaucracy is making such outlandish assumptions in their cover up of Social Security’s ailing ways as to be almost criminal:

• Stockman does agree with the Trustees’ estimate on how much the Federal government will have to pay out for the Social Security system in the next 12 years to cover payments and administrative costs.
• This outgo is expected to be $15.5 trillion and is needed to cover the number of Social Security beneficiaries that will grow from 59 million to 79 million over the next 12 years.
• He even agrees with the Trustees inflation assumption of between 2-3% a year which has been the historical run rate since the year 2000.
• However, his first major disconnect is with the Trustees’ assumption that there is currently $2.790 trillion sitting in this hypothetical trust fund, money that he calls pure “confetti:” "In truth, there is nothing there except government accounting confetti. This figure allegedly represents the accumulated excess of trust fund income over outgo historically, but every dime of that was spent long ago on aircraft carriers, cotton subsidies, green energy boondoggles, prison facilities for pot smokers, education grants, NSA’s cellphone snoops, space launches and the rest of Washington’s general government spending machine.”
• But now the math gets really crazy. Given there is nothing in the trust fund of value, the Trustees assumed that this nothing will earn $1.2 trillion in interest income over the next 12 years.
• Let’s get crazier. This $1.2 trillion in interest computes out to an interest rate of 3.5% a year, a number that no one in the world is earning on interest income. For example, even a 10 year Treasury bond is paying out at a rate of only 1.4% today, far less than half of the interest rate that the Trustees assumed they would get and they do not even have a an asset to gain interest on.
• But the most crazy assumption relative to all of the Trustees’ assumptions is yet to come. They assume that the national economy, the GDP, will grow at an annual rate of 5.1% every year for the next 12 years.
• Given that the long term annual national growth rate is just over 3%, and only 2.8% since 2008, there is likely to be at least one recession in the next 12 years, and the attainment of 5% annual growth in a single year rarely happens, this assumption is laughable, it is what Stockman calls the “skunk in the woodpile.”
• But they have to make this wild assumption in order to grow the economy and thus the Social Security revenue stream to meet their phantom 2034 goal for the non-existent trust fund.
• Stockman’s following chart shows that the Trustees are assuming that for the next twelve years we will have the longest non-recessionary period in the history of the country, 207 months, i.e. not going to happen:

• Stockman goes on to point out that there is likely severe deflationary pressure building through the world’s economy that will reduce, not grow nations’ GDPs in the future, putting more pressure on the Social Security revenue stream.
• By using the 5.1% vs. the more realistic but probably too high 2.8%, the Trustees end up adding an incremental $7 trillion to the U.S. annual economy which mathematically solves a lot of shortfall problems but is totally unrealistic.
• This is what Stockman calls "goal forecasting" where you start with an answer you need and work backwards to adjust the math assumptions to get you to that desired end answer, even if the resulting assumptions are ridiculous.

You get the idea, please go to the link above for a more in depth look at Stockman’s logical and sane analysis. But his analysis, simply using the Trustees numbers proves that no matter how you cut the data, no matter how you squeeze the assumptions, the government lied when it claimed to keep calm, everything is cool until at least 2034. 

The system is hurtling towards insolvency, it is now and will be forever more in a negative cash flow situation, the Trust Fund does not exist but is earning non-existent revenue on a non-asset, and the economic growth rates needed to keep thing in somewhat of a balance are ludicrous. 

As a result of this gross fiscal mismanagement going back to the 1960s and the Johnson administration, retirees are likely to get shorted what they were promised from the Social Security retirement fund that they diligently and legally paid into for decades. And that shortfall will either have to be made up by new, onerous taxes on our kids and grandkids or those in retirement are looking at a hefty monthly payment reduction.

And nobody, absolutely no one in Washington today or on the campaign trail has a plan. Or the attention span, to start addressing this dire problem. Which leads us to conclude that our third assumption above, “The politicians are too busy worrying about their careers, self enrichment, and greed and could care less of fixing what is an economic lifeline for millions of Americans,” is the reality of today.

To see our proposed changes to save Social Security, please go to www.loathemygovernment.com where you can pruchase our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government: Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class.”

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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

The Sordid, Criminal, Sleazy, Lying, and Ineffective History of Hillary Clinton - Part 2

I have not written a lot about the current Presidential campaign on purpose, both candidates are seriously flawed in so many different ways that it would take a dedicated blog just to cover the daily inane comments, lack of maturity, name calling, and in the case of Hillary Clinton, the many criminal acts and outright lies that have been done over the years, up to and including today. 

I am sorry if you are offended by my bitter disgust with Ms. Clinton. I find her a pathological liar, vain, self centered, ineffective in any job she has held including Senator and Secretary of State, greedy and again, criminal. If any other American had been so careless and haphazard with secret government documents like she was, they would be in jail. Only a secret deal done under the cover of night on a Phoenix airport runway between her husband and the attorney General, Loretta Lynch, saved her from going to jail. 

From a humanity perspective, she and Obama oversaw the premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in order to make a political point despite the advice of all of their expert advisors. She and Obama oversaw the illegal and un-Constitutional intrusion into the Libyan civil war and their actions resulted in the destruction of an entire society and nation, turning it into a terrorist haven, and resulting in the deaths, wounding, and refugee crisis involving millions of Libyans. She and Obama oversaw the meddling in the Syrian civil war which led to the arming of terrorists, the Benghazi massacre, and the further creation of millions of dead, wounded, and refugees.

As a result of these attacks on humanity, U.S. troops are back in Iraq, U.S. armed forces are actively engaged in combat in Libya, and the Clinton/Obama meddling in Syria has created the worst terrorist organization ever, ISIS. I will not even go into her other current scandals and criminal acts that include money laundering via the Clinton Foundation, sabotaging the Sanders campaign, the long line of dead people that have been left in the Clintons’ path, etc. 

The original post I wrote which went through some of the past scandals of Hillary and Bill Clinton can be accessed at:

The Sordid, Criminal, Sleazy, Lying, and Ineffective History of Hillary Clinton Vs. Gary Johnson:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-sordid-criminal-sleazy-lying-and.html

That post reviewed those past scandals and crimes but focused more on the reasons for voting for Libertarian Gary Johnson vs. details on the Clintons. 

Today, however, I want to focus on the historical nature of what I call the Clinton Crime Syndicate in much more detail than the above post. People forget, but Hillary and Bill Clinton have been breaking laws, lying, trading government power for personal gain, and acting unethically for decades. A review of their criminal and slimy actions over the years makes one realize how corrupt and perverted we have allowed our political processes to become if we allowed this type of behavior to go forth. Consider just a handful of the Clinton scandals (the basis of this scandal list originally came from an article on the MRCTV website):

Chinagate: During the 1996 Presidential campaign, charges and accusations arose that the Clinton/Gore ticket was illegally taking massive bribes from Chinese banks and the Chinese government. The funds were allegedly laundered through the Chinese embassy in DC and forwarded to the Democratic National Committee. Allegedly, Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and Hillary reportedly sold seats on U.S. trade missions to China.

The investigation died in Congress when Republicans backed off since they were likely also taking in illegal Chinese donations and then Monica Lewinsky showed up and adulterous sex in the Oval Office took over everyone’s attention. By the way, Ron Brown became one of the Clintons’ long list of dead associates and friends when he died in a plane crash, just saying.

Travelgate: Catherine Cornelius, a 25-year-old cousin of Bill Clinton was allegedly promised the position of director of the White House travel office. Hillary Clinton allegedly got involved and fired seven seasoned, veteran employees from the travel office for no performance reason, replacing them with cronies from Arkansas. Office records mysteriously disappeared in the aftermath of the firings. 

Hillary then had the FBI investigate Billy Dale, the original head of the travel office, ruining his career even though the FBI investigation found no wrongdoing on Dale’s part. The Clintons also sicced the IRS on Dale and audited him a few years later.

Even the liberal New York Times called out Hillary back then: “A memorandum by a former Presidential aide depicts Hillary Rodham Clinton as the central figure in the 1993 travel office dismissals, a politically damaging episode that the aide said had resulted from a climate of fear in which officials did not dare question Mrs. Clinton's wishes."A climate of fear, not the kind of trait you want in a President.

Whitewater - Hillary and her husband were partners in a shady real estate development firm called Whitewater Development Corp in Arkansas. Wrong doing accusations included illegal campaign contributions, the granting of political and financial favors, and other misdeeds. Others involved in the deal, including Clinton long time friends James and Susan McDougal ended up in jail, Bill Clinton’s successor as governor, Jim Tucker, ended up in jail for fraud and municipal judges David Hale and Eugene Fitzough, associates of James McDougal, also served jail time. 

The Clintons served no jail time either because they did nothing wrong or did not get caught like their associates. In either case, not a good group of friends to be hanging out with if they all end up in jail

Vince Foster Suicide (or murder) - Vince Foster was a friend and co-worker of Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law firm back in Arkansas. He came with the Clintons to Washington to serve on Hillary’s staff and he had in depth knowledge of Whitewater goings on and Travelgate. When word got out that he had committed suicide, Clinton staffers immediaely stripped his office of records and documents that were never found, implying that he had information that would be damaging to the Clintons. 

Disconnects about the murder scene and autopsy suggest to some that he was murdered because he knew too much about the shady dealings of the Clintons.

Filegate - Craig Livingstone was the director of the White House Office of Personnel Security. He was caught getting improper access to the government records of several hundred American citizens, all of whom or most of whom just happened to be Republicans. Hillary Clinton personally hired Livingstone and is alleged to have examined those files after requesting that Livingstone obtain them. Obviously, this is a gross government violation of the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of American citizens, who just happened to be from the opposing political party.

In her tradition of giving weak, lame, and inane excuses for her behavior, she claimed that all of this was a “completely honest bureaucratic snafu.” Maybe after a handful of names this is an honest snafu but not after hundreds of files are accessed of mostly political enemies. This is like claiming in court that it was an accident that a criminal stabbed a victim….dozens of times.

Cattle-Futures Miracle - Hillary once turned a $12,000 cattle futures investment, of which she only needed to put down $1,000, into $6,300 literally overnight, quite the investment return. She then rode that $6.300 windfall into $100,000 over the next ten months with the help from a guy named James B. Blair.

The Washington Post reported at that time: “Blair, who at the time was outside counsel to Tyson Foods Inc., Arkansas' largest employer, says he was advising Clinton out of friendship, not to seek political gain. . ." Yeah, right. No insider trading or other shenanigans to see here, just move along.

But wait. At that time, Robert L. Bone operated the Springdale, Arkansas financial services company, REFCO, which executed the trades. After an investigation, Mr. Bone ended up paying the largest fine at the time in the cattle exchange’s history and was suspended for three years from trading. 

But Hillary was still innocent since she claimed she was able to make the successful trading because she read the Wall Street Journal for research. Millions of other people read the Wall Street Journal for research but somehow, someway, she was smarter than all of them and was able to parlay $1,000 into a 100 fold increase despite not having any formal training or experience in trading futures or Wall Street operations, etc. 

Unbelievable that she was that good at investing, believable that she was part of either an inside trading scheme or sold government favors and access for fake investment returns. She did not read the Wall Street Journal and then get those returns.

Lootergate - Bill and Hillary started to ship White House furniture to their personal home in Chappaqua, N.Y. as Bill’s Presidency wound down, a most audacious move if there ever was one. But it turned out that most, if not all of the furniture, was donated to stay in the White House, they were not donated to the Clintons for their personal use. They ended up returning the furniture after the manufacturers and donors of the furniture were contacted.

Drug Dealer Donor Scandal - Convicted drug trafficker Jorge Cabrera made such a big donation to the Clinton’s campaign that he was invited to the White house without Secret Service present.

Ponzi Scheme and Political Favor Scandal - Norman Yung Yuen Hsu was a convicted pyramid investment promoter, and major Democratic donor. He contributed an undisclosed amount to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. Hsu was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail in 2009 by a judge that stated Hsu had funded his fraud by “manipulating the political process that strikes at the very core of our democracy.”

Benghazi - Too much lying and coverup to list in a single post. 

The original article and associated links to back up data sources can be accessed at:

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/10-scandals-involving-hillary-clinton-you-may-have-forgotten

So just on this list of scandals, which is not complete, we now know that Hillary Clinton, candidate for President, is allegedly cattle rustler/insider trader, abandoner of Americans who are under a terror attack, recipient of illegal donations from drug dealers and Chinese sources, robber of furniture, Fourth Amendment violator, pathological liar, and who knows what else.

But if you still do not believe me, consider a New York Times article from 1996 that basically came to the same conclusions, with “liar” emphasis added by me:

Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital LIAR.

Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.

1. Remember the story she told about studying The Wall Street Journal to explain her 10,000 percent profit in 1979 commodity trading? We now know that was a LIE told to turn aside accusations that as the Governor's wife she profited corruptly, her account being run by a lawyer for state poultry interests through a disreputable broker.

She LIED for good reason: To admit otherwise would be to confess taking, and paying taxes on, what some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe.

2. The abuse of Presidential power known as Travelgate elicited another series of lies. She induced a White House lawyer to assert flatly to investigators that Mrs. Clinton did not order the firing of White House travel aides, who were then harassed by the F.B.I. and Justice Department to justify patronage replacement by Mrs. Clinton's cronies.

Now we know, from a memo long concealed from investigators, that there would be "hell to pay" if the furious First Lady's desires were scorned. The career of the lawyer who transmitted Hillary's LIE to authorities is now in jeopardy. Again, she LIED with good reason: to avoid being identified as a vindictive political power player who used the F.B.I. to ruin the lives of people standing in the way of juicy patronage.

3. In the aftermath of the apparent suicide of her former partner and closest confidant, White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, she ordered the overturn of an agreement to allow the Justice Department to examine the files in the dead man's office. Her closest friends and aides, under oath, have been blatantly disremembering this likely obstruction of justice, and may have to pay for supporting Hillary's LIE with jail terms.

Again, the LYING was not irrational. Investigators believe that damning records from the Rose Law Firm, wrongfully kept in Vincent Foster's White House office, were spirited out in the dead of night and hidden from the law for two years -- in Hillary's closet, in Web Hubbell's basement before his felony conviction, in the President's secretary's personal files -- before some were forced out last week.

Why the White House concealment? For good reason: The records show Hillary Clinton was LYING when she denied actively representing a criminal enterprise known as the Madison S.& L., and indicate she may have conspired with Web Hubbell's father-in-law to make a sham land deal that cost taxpayers $3 million.

Why the belated release of some of the incriminating evidence? Not because it mysteriously turned up in offices previously searched. Certainly not because Hillary Clinton and her new hang-tough White House counsel want to respond fully to lawful subpoenas.

One reason for the Friday-night dribble of evidence from the White House is the discovery by the F.B.I. of copies of some of those records elsewhere. When Clinton witnesses are asked about specific items in "lost" records -- which investigators have -- the White House "finds" its copy and releases it. By concealing the Madison billing records two days beyond the statute of limitations, Hillary evaded a civil suit by bamboozled bank regulators.

Another reason for recent revelations is the imminent turning of former aides and partners of Hillary against her; they were willing to cover her LYING when it advanced their careers, but are inclined to listen to their own lawyers when faced with perjury indictments.

Therefore, ask not "Why didn't she just come clean at the beginning?" She had good reasons to LIE; she is in the longtime habit of LYING; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning LYING in her aides and friends.

No wonder the President is fearful of holding a prime-time press conference. Having been separately deposed by the independent counsel at least twice, the President and First Lady would be well advised to retain separate defense counsel.

The original article can be accessed at:

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/opinion/essay-blizzard-of-lies.html?_r=0

Two arguments why Hillary Clinton is a classic and one of the most crooked and best lying politicians of all time. Remember, you cannot spell H.I.L.L.A.R.Y without L.I.A.R. And this personality trait alone should make her ineligible for the Presidency, before even considering the Clinton Foundation’s money laundering and self enrichment schemes and the misuse and abuse of government secret documents and records via her illegal computer server. 

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


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

August, 2016, By The Numbers: Low Taxes Mean More Fiscally Sound States, Better Economic Conditions, and More Individual Freedom

Back in July, 2016, we ran two consecutive posts that proved by the numbers that if you live in a state with low taxes, not only do you have more individual freedom, liberty, and rights, but the fiscal condition of your state’s financial picture is much more solvent and viable. One would think that a state that collects more taxes for the state government functions that they would not be in dire economic straits. But the reality of the numbers proved just the opposite: the more that a state government’s politicians tax its citizens the more likely they are to over spend and put their state government into financial stress. Those posts are listed below:

July, 2016, Part 1 and Part 2, By The Numbers: Low Taxes Mean More Fiscally Sound States and More Individual Freedom:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-2016-part-1-by-numbers-low-taxes.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-2016-part-2-by-numbers-less-taxes.html

We will continue this analysis today with another set of data to see if we can again prove, with real world data, that low taxes results in better lives, more freedom, and more economic growth.

Let’ start with a recent analysis from the Cato Institute and their latest analysis of how freedom varies across every state in the union. Cato looked at and analyzed dozens and dozens of factors including taxation, regulations, crime rates, and many, many other state level factors to determine a rank ordering of states from most free to least free. Based on their in-depth analysis they found that the citizens living in the following ten states had the most individual freedom:

1 - New Hampshire
2 - Alaska
3 - Oklahoma
4 - Indiana
5 - South Dakota
6 - Tennessee
7 - Idaho
8 - Florida 
9 - Iowa
10 - Arizona

The states with the least amount of freedom for its citizens turned out to be:

41 - Kentucky
42 - Maine
43 - Rhode Island
44 - Illinois
45 - Connecticut
46 - Maryland
47 - New Jersey
48 - Hawaii
49 - California
50 - New York

We will use these ranking orderings of ten most free and ten least free states for the basis of our analysis.

1) Let’s start with data from the Wallet Hub website. This website analyzes the tax burden by state and rank orders the results by least taxed states to most taxed states. If we take the Wallet Hub tax rankings of the most free states above we get an average rank of 13.2. 

If we take the Wallet Hub tax rankings of the least free states above we get an average rank of 42.5. Thus, very clearly we see that the most free states strongly correlate with low taxes by a factor of three to one if we look at average rankings vs. the least free states that have much higher taxes.

2) Let’s move to the fiscal condition of health and condition of each state government. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University does a regular study that analyzes the fiscal condition of every state government and then rank orders its findings from states in the best fiscal condition to states in the worst fiscal condition.

If we take the Mercatus rankings of the fiscal condition of the most free states above we get an average rank of 13.4. If we take the Mercatus rankings of the fiscal condition of the least free states above we get an average rank of 44.3. Thus, very clearly we see that the most free states correlate with those states having state government that are in the best fiscal condition and the least free states tend tobe in the worst fiscal condition.

3) Let’s move to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) results that estimate the unemployment rate on a state by state basis. If we take the BLS rankings of the unemployment rate of the most free states above we get an average rank of 20.9. If we take the BLS rankings of the unemployment rate of the least free states above we get an average rank of 28.2. 

Thus, very clearly we see that the most free states correlate with those states having the lowest unemployment rates and the least free states correlate with those states that have the higher unemployment rates.

4) Let’s move to the economic growth rates at the state level as analyzed by the Business Insider website. The Business Insider does a regular study that analyzes the annual economic growth of every state and then rank orderings its findings from states with the highest economic growth rates to states with the worst economic growth rates.

If we take the 2015 Business Insider rankings of state level economic growth of the most free states above we get an average rank of 24.0. If we take the Business Insider rankings of the state level economic growth of the least free states above we get an average rank of 30.4. Thus, very clearly we see that the most free states correlate with those states having the higher economic growth rates and the least free states correlate with those states having lower economic growth.

We also looked at longer economic growth rates vs. just the 2015 growth rates that the Business Insider website came up with. The results were essentially the same if we look at the state level economic growth over several years leading up to 2015 where the most free states above had an average economic growth rank of 23.7 while the least free states above had an average economic growth rank of 36.1, the same conclusion that we came to with the Business Insider data: the freer the state the higher the economic growth and the less free the state the lower the economic growth on average.

5) Finally, let’s move to the best places to retire. To be honest, I cannot find the source I used for the best places to retire in rank order by state but let’s go with it anyway! It was a valid site and when I find the source I will put it in here.

If we take the rank ordering of the best to worst retirement states of the most free states above we get an average rank of 21.2. If we take the rank ordering of the best to worst retirement states of the least free states above we get an average rank of 35.6. Thus, very clearly we see that the most free states correlate with those states that are the best options for retirement while the least free states correlate with those states that are the worst options for retirement.

In conclusion, on average states with the most freedom also correlate with the best states to retire to, they are the best states for economic growth and opportunity, they have the lower unemployment rates, they have lower tax rates, and they have state governments that are in the best fiscal condition. On average, states with the least freedom also are the worst states to retire to, they are the worst states for economic growth and opportunity, they have higher unemployment rates, they have higher tax rates, and they have state governments that are in the worst fiscal condition.

Now, strong correlations are not necessarily strong causations. For example, just because a state has a high freedom rating does not necessarily mean that higher freedom causes lower unemployment rates. However, given the overwhelmingly strong correlation between freedom and low government interference in citizens lives, I would much rather live in a state like Florida which has an average rank of 16.1 across the six factors we reviewed above vs. a state like New Jersey which has an average rank of 40.1. That strong of a correlation is mighty powerful from a causation perspective.

When will the American political class figure this out: lower taxes, more freedom likely gives us higher economic growth, lower unemployment, a more fiscally sound government, and generally better lives. The numbers do not lie.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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

August, 2016, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science: Growing Ice Caps, Losing the First Amendment, and More Failed Global Warming Forecasts

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.”This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page.

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims:

1) If manmade global warming was a reality then one would not expect the ice sheets at the North and South poles to be expanding. In fact, Al Gore predicted about a decade ago that there was a more than even chance that by 2015 the Arctic ice sheet would be completely melted due to manmade global warming. Scary stuff.

But in reality, the poles’ ice has not completely melted. It has actually been growing despite mankind pumping more and more carbon into the atmosphere over time:

• Earlier this year, real scientists reported that the Arctic ice cap was actually expanding by one million square miles of ice.
• Now NASA has reported that the Antarctic ice sheet is also getting larger and larger over time.
• More snow and ice is being added than the amount of volume being lost by the Antarctic glaciers.
• The NASA satellite data showed that the Antarctic ice sheet has grown by more than 112 billion tons of ice a YEAR from 1992 to 2001 when the annual net gain slowed to only 82 billion tons of ice every year from 2003 to 2008. 
• At this rate of slowing, ice would continue to be added to the South Pole ice sheet for another thirty years or so.

Thus, another example where global warming advocates’ forecast models prove to be totally ineffective and inacccurate. No notable global warming model predicted that the amount of snow and ice at the poles would be INCREASING over time which is what actually happened. Thus, maybe we should all take a deep breath and now have an adult conversation on the climate? Because continuing to yell that the “science is settled” is no longer a valid claim.

2) We have previously reported that many state attorney generals, all Democrats, are actually pressing to prosecute any American citizen who dares to be a global warming doubter. Given that we have proven dozens and dozens of times that there are significant and valid reasons to be a global warming doubter using ALL of the available science, research, and statistics available, this overstepping of by these attorney generals is nothing more than the destruction of the First Amendment.

And most Americans agree with this position that prosecuting anyone who has a different opinion than a politician is not a good thing. According to a recent article on the Fix The Nation website, “According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, 69% of likely U.S. voters reject the idea of letting the government investigate and prosecute companies or individuals that question the consensus view of climate change. Only 15% of those surveyed said they would support such investigations.

Interestingly, this idea does not even have widespread support among registered Democrats. The poll shows that only 21% of Democratic voters support prosecuting climate change “deniers.” In fact, the poll reveals that only 28% of Democrats believe that the scientific debate about climate change is settled.”

Just like just about every other issue facing Americans today, from gun control to individual freedom to race relations to immigration to energy strategies, the American political class is out of step with the rest of the country. This is what happens when greedy, ego driven, and small minded people get elected, they think they know what is best when they do not even know reality.

3) Above we discussed the reality that the South Pole ice sheets continue to grow at a steady pass even though mankind continues to use carbon based fuel sources. But things are not much different at the North Pole. A recent expedition to the North Pole to measure the impacts of global warming had to be stopped when the ship transporting the scientists was stopped by ice packs near Murmansk, Russia.

The expedition was named the Polar Ocean Challenge and it was trying to do a two month trip to prove: “that the Arctic sea ice coverage shrinks back so far now in the summer months that sea that was permanently locked up now can allow passage through.” 

Apparently that objective failed when there was so much ice that the ship could not get through, likely due to lower than expected temperatures.

4) Let's finish off today’s global warming doubter post with a retro look back. Back in 2008, ABC News warned that New York City would be under water by 2015 due to manmade global warming. They also had a bunch of forecasts that did not quite work out: 

• New York City would be under water.
• Gas would cost over $9 a gallon.
• A carton of milk would cost almost $13.

This was supposed to be life by June 12, 2015. More global warming forecasts that were completely wrong. To see the original ABC News report, go to:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/06/flashback-abc-news-warns-nyc-will-be-under-water-by-2015-due-to-global-warming-and-polar-bears-will-fall-from-sky/

Growing ice at both poles, Americans not wanting to lose their First Amendment rights to overreaching politicians, and more failed global warming forecasts. Why being a global warming doubter and a believer in science is still a rational decision and position to take when you look at ALL of the available realities.

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

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Please visit the following sites for freedom:

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