YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

An article by Gregory Korte, in USA TODAY, covers money unaccounted for in the Stimulus package.  Korte credits Recovery.gov website as the source of his information.

According to the article, there are 352 recipients of our tax dollars who show so little respect for rules and American public that the federal agencies have not reported how and where they have used the money.  There is no mention of discipline for not reporting the use or misuse of $162.8 million.  Some offenders have not reported for two quarterly periods, and a few for three now, which should cause even the average high school graduate to question why.

The biggest offenders are the Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration.  Recovery.gov makes light of the fact that the unaccounted funds make up less than 1% of the overall stimulus distribution to date.  They acknowledge that only one of the thirty-two repeat offenders has been suspended from further grants.

Perhaps $162.8 million is a small sum proportionate to the overall size of the stimulus package, but to most of us, it is substantial.  Since the federal government has grown by over a hundred thousand employees in the past two years, I would expect that there would be more people to oversee and put pressure on the offenders.  After all, there are now 2,000 additional IRS auditors ready to pounce on Joe Sixpack for not reporting $800 in income on his form 1040.

I understand that with government there will always be unseen pocket stuffing and shuffling of citizens’ money.  I just think there should be greater concern on behalf of those we entrust with it.  The missing money from this one bill is just a small piece of the overall government pie.  It amounts to about a mere $.50 in tax money for every individual (legal and illegal, man, woman, child, infant and possibly fetus as well) in the United States presently.

Where is the outrage?  I should think that working people would be upset about paying fifty-cents here, a dollar or five there in taxes to be misspent.  A dollar or a few from every paycheck that is appropriated and misused by the government could well go to making that mortgage payment or rent payment or utility payment if it was left in the hands of those who earned it.  Even Welfare recipients might feel ravished.  That’s money taken from others that would be going to them.

Apparently, no one is watching and very few people care even when they are told.  A dollar here, a freedom there and we blindly accept it.  The elite take large bites of the pie macerate what they want and leave the crumbs and morsels falling from their lips for the serfs.  “Ah, who cares?  Others live under socialist, Marxist and communist dictatorships”.

YOUR TAXES DID NOT GO UP!

Your taxes did not go up!  In a back yard rally in Des Moines, Iowa recently, President Barack Obama took his cue from one of the now famous lines of the Clinton handbook.  Obama looked straight at his audience and said, “Your taxes haven’t gone up in this administration.  Your taxes have gone down in this administration.  There’s a notion that, well, he’s a Democrat so your taxes must have gone up.  That’s just not true.”

His statement is not unlike Clinton’s finger-pointing lie to the American public, “I…did…not…have…sex…with…that…woman…Ms. Lewinski.”

I’m certain the small business owner to whom he was responding was caught off guard by the bold faced reversal of truth.  Otherwise, he might have come back with something like, “If that’s the case, why does everything—everything cost more now.  Why does gasoline, propane, electricity, telephone service, beer, liquor, cigarettes, fast food, candy bars and soda cost more in this time of recession?  Why do tires, vacuum cleaners, computers, Internet connections take more money out of consumers’ pockets in spite of the fact that retailers and other vendors are reducing their profit margin just to remain in business?”

You might ask yourself if your money is going as far as it did just a couple of years ago.  Once you have that answer, question why it doesn’t.  Rich or poor, if you live in America, your money is being taken for redistribution to others.  The taking is not always as obvious as fewer spendable dollars on your paycheck (if you still get one).  The theft of your income may begin as soon as you spend some of the post-tax remainder of that paycheck.  Even those on Welfare, disability, Social Security, unemployment and other government dole programs will have proportionately less because of the increased behind-the-scenes governmental appropriation.

Help reduce government spending, growth and retake your lost freedoms by voting every incumbent, (Republican, Democrat, Independent), out of office next month.  Then, every election cycle be aware of the truth surrounding your elected officials.  Don’t accept what they say, verify it.  If they cannot tell the truth about what they’ve accomplished; if they are unwilling to do what they promise, that should be reason enough to replace them.  Remember that your taxes haven’t gone up in this administration when it come time to vote in 2012.

ANOTHER BANK BAILOUT

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not too bright.  Therefore, I would like someone to explain to me, in the simplest terms possible, why President Hamid Karzi of Afghanistan is asking the U.S. to shore up Kabul Bank.  He is using the voice of his brother Mahmoud Karzai on behalf of brother Farnood.

From what I understand, his other brother, Farnood, is the largest share-holder with a 7% stake in the bank.  That might be a reason for seeking help.  But other than that, in the President’s own words, “If Kabul Bank collapses, it will be a disaster”.  It’s as if he’s reading the Obama play book.  Call it a crisis and throw American money at it.  Because he phrased it in language that Obama understands, the U.S. taxpayers will undoubtedly make up the shortage.

Why, this is almost like American politics.  Here, brothers, sisters and cousins receive no-bid government contracts for millions of dollars to do “research” for non-existent projects.  Isn’t it enough that community service organizations and presidential or congressional relatives receive unpublished grants with no RFP (Request for Proposal)?  Is it really necessary for Americans to distribute our wealth to other presidents’ brothers?

As I see it:

1.  We’re paying for their Afghan war against Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists with American dollars and lives.

2.  We’re allowing our service personnel to be killed in order to minimize Afghan civilian collateral damage.

3.  We’re sending tens of billions of dollars to create and sustain the corrupt Karzi government.

4.  Billions of U.S. dollars, meant to benefit the poor Afghan country men, have gone missing from Afghanistan since the beginning of the war.  Without question, our leaders continue to re-supply that government with cash to misappropriate.

5.  President Karzi is suspected of channeling a significant portion of our monetary support to the Taliban and Al Qaeda for personal protection and the opportunity to remain in power.  The various terror groups use that money to buy weaponry and supplies and make IEDs that kill American service members.  Can I be the only person questioning the logic here?

6.  We are now expected to feed more American taxpayer money to shore up a bank and make sure that Farnood Karzi continues to live a luxurious lifestyle on the Dubai shore.

President Karzi must think he’s on Obama’s list of Welfare recipients.  The consolation prize for asking may be a substantial reward of which a generous portion can be redirected into the DNC or the Obama re-election fund or perhaps even directly into Obama’s back pocket.  Hmmm, maybe I’m not the stupid one!