Posted on 12/24/2013 8:23:47 AM PST by Kaslin
Last year, while writing about the sleazy and self-serving behavior at the IRS, I came up with a Theorem that explains day-to-day behavior in Washington.
It might not be as pithy as Mitchell’s Law, and it doesn’t contain an important policy prescription like Mitchell’s Golden Rule, but it could be the motto of the federal government.
Simply stated, government is a racket that benefits the DC political elite by taking money from average people in America
I realize this is an unhappy topic to be discussing during the Christmas season, but the American people need to realize that they are being raped and pillaged by the corrupt insiders that control Washington and live fat and easy lives at our expense.
If you don’t believe me, check out this mapshowing that 10 of the 15 richest counties in America are the ones surrounding our nation’s imperial capital.
Who would have guessed that the wages of sin are so high?
But even though the District of Columbia isn’t on the list, that doesn’t mean the people actually living in the capital are suffering.
Here are some interesting nuggets from a report in the Washington Business Journal.
D.C. residents are enjoying a personal income boom. The District’s total personal income in 2012 was $47.28 billion, or $74,733 for each of its 632,323 residents, according to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s Economic and Revenue Trends report for November. The U.S. average per capita personal income was $43,725.
Why is income so much higher? Well, the lobbyists, politicians, bureaucrats, interest groups, contractors, and other insiders who dominate DC get much higher wages than people elsewhere in the country.
And they get far higher fringe benefits.
In terms of pure wages, D.C., on a per capita basis, was 79 percent higher than the national average in 2012 — $36,974 to $20,656. …Employee benefits were 102 percent higher in D.C. than the U.S. average in 2012, $7,514 to $3,710. Proprietor’s income, 137 percent higher — $9,275 to $3,906. …The numbers suggest D.C. residents are living the high life.
Now let’s share a chart from Zero Hedge. It uses median household income rather than total personal income, so the numbers don’t match up, but what’s noteworthy is how DC income grew faster than the rest of the nation during the Bush years and then even more dramatically diverged from the rest of the country during the Obama years.
In other words, policies like TARP, the fake stimulus, and Obamacare have been very good for Washington’s ruling class.
Want some other concrete examples of profitable Washington sleaze? Well, here are some excerpts from Rich Tucker’s column for Real Clear Policy.
The real place to park your money is in Washington, D.C. That’s because the way to get ahead isn’t to work hard or make things; it’s to lobby Washington for special privileges. Look no further than the sweet deal the sugar industry gets. It’s spent about $50 million on federal campaign donations over the last five years. So that would average out to $10 million per year. Last year alone, the federal government spent $278 million on direct expenditures to sugar companies. That’s a great return on investment.
Big Corn may get an even better deal than Big Sugar.
Then there’s ethanol policy. Until 2012, the federal government provided generous tax credits to refiners that blended ethanol into gasoline. In 2011 alone, Washington spent $6 billion on this credit. The federal government also maintains tariffs (54 cents per gallon) to keep out foreign ethanol,and it mandates that tens of billions of gallons of ethanol be blended into the American gasoline supply. Nothing like a federal mandate to create demand for your product. How much would you pay for billions of dollars worth of largesse? Well, the ethanol industry got a steep discount. In 2012, opensecrets.org says, the American Coalition for Ethanol spent $212,216 on lobbying.
Rich warns that the United States is sliding in the wrong direction.
What makes Washington especially profitable is that its only products are the laws, rules, and regulations that it has the power to force everyone else to follow. …we seem to be sliding toward what the authors term “extractive” institutions. That means government using its power to benefit a handful of influential individuals at the expense of everyone else.
And let’s not forget that some people are getting very rich from Obamacarewhile the rest of us lose our insurance or pay higher prices.
This Reason TV interview with Andrew Ferguson explains that there is a huge shadow workforce of contractors, consultants, and lobbyists who have their snouts buried deeply in the public trough.
Washington's Parasitic Economy with The Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson
I particularly like his common sense explanation that Washington’s wealth comes at the expense of everyone else. The politicians seize our money at the point of a gun (or simply print more of it) to finance an opulent imperial city.
So if you’re having a hard time making ends meet, remember that you should blame the parasite class in Washington.
P.S. The insider corruption of Washington is a bipartisan problem. Indeed, some of the sleaziest people in DC are Republicans.
P.P.S. Though scandals such as Solyndra show that Obama certainly knows how to play the game.
P.P.P.S. Making government smaller is the only way to reduce the Washington problem of corrupt fat cats.
...and Bonehead’s oversight committee sits around with their thumbs up their **** and complains but does nothing....
Bookmarked, thanks for your post :-)
Another well written and researched, yet disappointing column that describes a well known problem without offering a path to the solution.
District of Corruption ping
New Air Jordans are out. Only $185 a pair. Your tax dollars at work. Making Michael Jordan richer.
All propped up by a corrupt media.
Still paying that cable bill?
Thanks Danny. Your theorem is similar to my own. The primary beneficiaries of a socialist program are the politicians who make the policy and bureaucrats that enforce it.
Social Security was a slush fund for Congress, period-that people received a supplemental retirement checks was camouflage.
Metro DC is really a place of economic plenty.
Between the fed employees and the govt contractors, the rest of us are funding a lot of excellent jobs.
In 2012 I advised two fresh college grads to head there and they are both living the good life already.
Another well written and researched, yet disappointing column that describes a well known problem without offering a path to the solution.
Yep. It's another "Isn't that just terrible?" article. They're even more numerous than Whig party so-called "investigations" that make no difference whatever in the real world.
Poor people give rich people money.
Not by coercion, at least not all the time. The poor WILLINGLY agree that certain other individuals DESERVE all their adulation and praise, and scramble madly for the opportunity to show their love by extreme personal sacrifice, mortgaging their future and their children’s future so demonstrate their devotion.
Until suddenly, the notion dawns upon them that the object of their adoration is in fact a fraud and con artist, and they want their down payment on eternal salvation returned, or at least to get out of the contract.
Then the spurned one, who was also the one once anointed, turns to coercion in enforcement of that contract, insisting it was unbreakable and “the law of the land”.
Somebody finds out really fast what is unbreakable and what is breakable. And also the consequences of not knowing the difference.
bkmk
This is why the Washington Redskins should change their name to the Washington Tapeworms.
Air Force One ($181,757 per hour), executive chef ($100,000 per year), three full-time White House calligraphers ($277,050 per year for the trio), chief of staff to the president’s dog ($102,000 per year), Ohaha's royal motorcade ($2.2 million). $100 million alone for the African apology tour.
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$1.4 BILLION is the current annual cost of the White House — just in household expenses, not including US policy operations for which the WH exists-- administered by some 900 parasites--- policy staff recruited by Ohaha.
There's the $100 million trip to Africa not including the foreign aid billions he handed out to these oil-rich satraps. Serial Ohaha vacations cost taxpayers millions---- (the low estimate for Ohaha's last Hawaii vacay was $4 million, but the true cost is probably five times that); Mrs o spent $3900 PER NIGHT in the Grace Kelly suite in Ireland PLUS 30 more rooms for her entourage.
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AND GET THIS---TAXPAYERS SUFFERED CANCELLATIONS--BUT THEY PAY $7 MILLION FOR THE OBAMAS HEALTHCARE---NRO found the first family’s yearly health-care costs Americans $7 million; the reason why Boobamba himself was enrolled --and not his family.
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More than $6 million is spent on the White House grounds each year. Transportation costs were a staggering $346 million last year.
The O' kids were flying around to the Bahamas and Sun Valley.....while US kids were shut out of the WH supposedly due to sequestration Secret Service cutbacks. The O's galivanting teen daughter was spotted in NYC---with girlfriends---dining at the pricey Buddakan, scoffing up rock shrimp, edamame dumplings, short ribs, lobster fried rice........replete w/ five Secret Service guards dining nearby, while students her age were denied access to the people's house.
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Mrs O wore her pricey diamond bangles (bought on a govt salary?) at a DNC fund-raiser, attended by "tolerant and compassionate" Dems....raised big bucks to keep Mr O in office so he could work for "the poor." Her diamond Gothic cuff priced at $15,350 set with 2.17 carats in diamonds and the Quatrefoil bracelet at $11,800 set with 1.73 carats in diamonds. (Excerpt) Read more at houston.culturemap.com.
Mrs O wowed all the "tolerant and compassionate" Dems who hate the rich and support endless tax-paid programs "for the poor."
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Mrs O has 24 assistants at her beck and call.
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DOG AND PONY SHOW---OBAMA's AIDE ENROLLED OBAMA AND NOT THE OBAMA FAMILY B/C TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING BIG BUCKS FOR THEIR INSURANCE.
Obama himself did not sign up for healthcare---his staff went to the D.C. exchange in person to sign up Obama.
Seems Obama's personal information is not readily available in the variety of government databases HealthCare.gov uses to verify identities.........
(NOTE---enrolling Obama w/ fraudulent documents, using several identities, stolen SS nos, and falsifying govt documents is a felony--should be investigated ASAP).
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Billy Boy Clinton was grinning like a simpering fool at the annual meeting of the "Clinton Global Initiative Foundation"....even Boobomba was there hugging Billy like they were old pals.....all in the wake of the bombshell news that:
<><> the tax-exempt Clinton Global Initiative Foundation uses shady financing;
<><> the tax-exempt "Clinton Global Initiative" had employed an active Muslim Brotherhood terrorist (now in an Egyptian jail).
Gehad el-Haddad
(The stupid Clintons did not know Gehad was Farsi for "jihad")
Gehad also knows how the Muslim Brotherhood launders money to finance terrorism, using "tax-exempt foundations."
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THE CLINTON FOUNDATIONS / MUSLIM TERRORISM CONNECTION --- The recent story that a Muslim terrorist was working at the Clinton Foundation AND conducting terrorist activities at the same time, explains why the Clintons just remade themselves into the hallowed "Clinton Family Foundation."
The "Holy Family."
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The Clintons' shady proclivities are unveiled in the recent NYT expose ..... including orruption, greed, entitlement, nepotism, cronyism. The Clintons didn't have a pot to *** in in Arkansas---never even had a home to call their own. Now they're multi millionaires.......the connivers have perfected the scam WRT gaming the govt system for themselves.
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There needs to be a thorough going-over of the three Clinton Foundations. We need to know who pays/funds the Clinton's lifestyle/political ambitions---- especially b/c Hillary is running for prez. It is important to know to whom the Clinton's are truly indebted.
NY POST EXCERPT ----The Bill Clinton Foundation has spent more than $50 million on travel expenses — Bill Clinton’s foundation has spent more than $50 million on travel expenses since 2003, an analysis of the nonprofit’s tax forms reveal.....includes $4.2 million in 2011 for the William J. Clinton Foundation (to which Hillary and Chelsea are attached); $730,000 for the Clinton Global Health Initiative; and $7.2 million for the Clinton Health Action Initiative (CHAI).
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How many ways can the conniving Clintons use their name to launder money?
<><> The William J. Clinton Family Foundation......
<><> the Clinton Global Health Initiative......
<><> the Clinton Health Action Initiative (CHAI).
More importantly, what is the connection between Corzine's MF Global, Teneo (which paid Bill Clinton $50,000 per month), The Clintons multiple tax-exempt foundations, and Muslim money-Laundering?
RE: “Simply stated, government is a racket that benefits the DC political elite by taking money from average people in America.”
Actually, quite a few “average” Americans make out reasonably well, too.
Forbes Magazine published a study last month that concluded that 47% of working age Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in taxes.
bookmark
problem of corrupt fat cats.
Another well written and researched, yet disappointing column that describes a well known problem without offering a path to the solution.
We all know the only solution, but no one is willing to step up to the plate and lead. Until that happens, all the talk, all the elections mean nothing. A Constitutional Convention for term limits would be a start.
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