VA Scandal – More Evidence that Government is INCAPABLE of Planning
QUESTION: Do you have any insight into the VA Scandal?
ANSWER: Just do the math. After 13 years of war the number of people requiring care increased 50%. We are quick to send people into battle, but there is zero planning for the consequences of those wars. Just more brain-dead planning – or should I say – the lack of planning. Abolish the VA hospital system and give the vets private care. At least there the infrastructure is in place. Even if they figured out this is the real problem, they cannot expand the facilities and hire the staff to relieve the problem. Give the people FULL coverage in the private sector and that just may spark a reality check that these wars are going to COST a lot more money than people thought so perhaps they will not be so eager to wage war on the world.
Return of Corruption – Sorry – Lobbying
Elected officials will do anything to maintain power. The name of the game is to to get re-elected at all costs, which preferably are yours. Running a campaign is expensive, so politicians are dependent upon contributions in return they take care of their friends. The proof is in the numbers. Strategas, a macro-research/brokerage firm formed a lobbying index. The index has out performed the general market for the past 15 years. The Economist reported that“Strategas calculates the return on lobbying expenses was $220 for each $1 spent.”
Thye amount of money given to politicians to buy favors has outperformed the S&P500 by 11% a year since 2002 . There have been bumps along the way that are natural cycles. Nonetheless, the index fell sharply in 2008 and again this summer, when debt-ceiling brinkmanship raised the prospect of government austerity. But at other times, it seems remarkable that companies would do anything but lobby. A particularly vivid example was in 2004, when an aggressive corporate campaign prompted Congress to grant a one-off tax holiday for American companies to repatriate foreign earnings. The outright return on lobbying costs, according to one of the various studies that served as inspiration for the Strategas index, was $220 for each $1 spent. (see also CNBC).
An you wonder WHY I say we FIRST need to get rid of career politicians – one term only. Do that, and most else will start to fall into place.
Glen Downs & Martin Armstrong From Capitol Hill May 21, 2014
Unions Out of Control – the Real Poison Pill
Unions have been the real plague of society. There is not much they have not really destroyed. They wiped out New York City as a port. No ships dock in New York City any more. They serious reduced the American auto industry reducing quality that opened the door for foreign cars. The big three US auto manufactures are General Motors, with 17.9 percent market share, Ford, with 15.9 percent market share, and Chrysler, with 11.5 percent market share. That is just 45.3% with the rest going to foreign. Toyota alone has 14.3 percent market share.
The unions are probably worse in Philadelphia than anywhere. They are driving the city’s Convention Center into the brink of bankruptcy because of their arrogant demands. We had to cancel our conference there because we were not allowed to hire a video company that was not local Philadelphia Union. The German film crew that has been making this move would not be allowed to have their own people. We had to cancel and move. When we called the Marriott with just 1 week to the event, they asked why were we cancelling? The unions?
The Construction Unions are basically criminal organizations. They threaten people who do not use union labor and now a bunch of people are gettingindicted for such violent activity. These unions have been destroying equipment of competing firms that are not union. They have goon squads that intimidate people.
The days when unions were necessary to ensure working conditions are long gone. There are all sorts of laws in place that unions are no longer necessary. Nevertheless, we are looking at a major rise in civil unrest coming primarily from state unions. These are teachers ro bureaucrats all demanding more and refusing to reduce their demands. This system is just unsustainable. They have attack advertisements in Pennsylvania blaming school violent on cutting teachers. Governor Christie cannot fund the pensions of state workers. When he said the unions have to give back, they said no – they want more.
The problem is that the only way to pay these unions is to raise taxes. That reduces the disposable income and robs the citizen of their future to fund state workers. It was the unfunded pensions that caused the collapse of the Roman Empire and it wiped out the city of Detroit. More than 50% of tax revenue went to pensions and that means you cannot fund government without it shrinking.
This is the poison pill that will destroy Western Society. This hunt for taxes will destroy the economy and will not save the day in the end game. Just do the math.
How Bureaucrats Undermine Everything
Bureaucrats are truly the plague of society. These are typically the people afraid to actually get a job in the real world for they would have to be judged upon their skills. They more often than not like the safe steady job where they cannot be fired and do not actually have to perform. I personally witnessed where they ordered a bell cast to honor the dead in 911. They spelled “Our Fallen Heros”on the bell. They must have confused that with the sandwich.
There were the Swiss bureaucrats who agreed that the US government could bring charges against Swiss bankers only back to 2008. They not merely surrendered Swiss sovereignty, they wiped out the entire banking system with that brain-dead idea. They might as well just said the USA can prosecute any Swiss for acts in Switzerland abolishing international law. Under this theory, the Swiss should be able to sue each other in an American court since it is now just an American possession like Puerto Rico. What happened to territorial jurisdiction? I would have taken the USA to international court.
Of course these brilliant American bureaucrats created Obamacare. They declared everyone should be treated fairly and that insurance must include maternity leave for everyone. Suddenly 60 year-old men who were divorced were without health insurance because they did not have maternity leave. Funny what happens when you say everyone!
The French bureaucrats just pulled a real brilliant one. They ordered 2000 new trains and didn’t bother to measure them, Oops! They were too wide and could not run on the tracks.
Guess you can see why these people work for government. Nobody in their right mind would hire such idiots.