Growls

On Friday, former Inspector General (Corporation for National and Community Service) Gerald Walpin raises the issue in a National Review Online article of whether federal inspectors general are being intimidated by the Obama administration. He raises the question this way:

"Among all the unanswered questions about the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative organizations, one is most crucial: Who ordered this extreme scrutiny?

"Amazingly, IRS inspector general J. Russell George, responsible for the investigation asking those questions about the IRS, has testified that he did not obtain that information.

"Details of that testimony are interesting . . . ."

After further explanation, Walpin concludes:

"Similar questions have been raised about other IGs who somehow have been discarded. Amtrak IG Fred Weiderhold, Treasury special IG Neil Barofsky, and International Trade Commission IG Judith Gwynn all left their positions after disputes that weren’t appreciated by the administration, giving more reason for others to go easy with the administration. Further, the president has significantly failed to fill IG vacancies in important agencies (State, Interior, Labor, Homeland Security, and USAID) – well-documented by former IG Joseph Schmitz — demeaning the importance of the IG position.

"This administration’s treatment of IGs is not conducive to active, independent, and objective inspectors general, and explains at least in part why key questions about the IRS still have not been asked or investigated."

Growls' readers are encouraged to read Mr. Walpin's entire article because it contains the full explanation behind his charge.

There's more, however. Also last Friday, Newsmax's Paul Scicchitano reports on an interview with former DoD inspector general Joseph Schmitz. Here is how Scicchitano begins:

"A former Defense Department inspector general is calling on Congress to step in and fill the void left by President Barack Obama's failure to appoint watchdogs over key agencies, saying the president has gutted the "heart and soul" of a longstanding law mandating the appointments.

"In an exclusive interview with Newsmax after he addressed Capitol Hill aides on Friday, Joseph Schmitz described the president's failure to appoint Senate-confirmed inspectors general in six of the largest federal agencies responsible for billions of dollars in taxpayer money as a "scandalous" attempt to "flout" congressional oversight.

"Schmitz is calling on one of two congressional committees with responsibility for the Inspector General Act of 1978 -- either the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, or the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee -- to appoint someone in each agency on a temporary basis where the president failed to nominate a Senate-confirmed inspector general.

"You have six major federal agencies, four in the national security space, that simply have not had any confirmed IG for years," said Schmitz, a Newsmax contributor. "And there don't seem to be any prospects for this president even nominating anybody for these positions."

"The State Department, for example, has not had a Senate-confirmed inspector general since Jan. 16, 2008, according to Schmitz."

An article posted at U.S. News & World Report by David Brodwin reports on why truly independent inspectors general are needed at every government agency. Here's the background to Brodwin's reporting:

"Last week, a newly-released government report revealed widespread dysfunction and special dealing in the energy market. The study, completed by the Inspector General's Office, examined how the Bureau of Land Management negotiates leases of federal lands containing coal deposits. This study plus earlier investigations found that the Bureau fails to collect the fair market value of the coal extracted. We, the taxpayers, own these public lands and the coal on them. We are being shortchanged.

"The practices uncovered in the report are an affront to anyone who believes in a market economy. Vigorous competition is essential for a robust economy. It promotes innovation and brings discipline to inefficient producers. Unfortunately, the market for coal lands is not competitive; it has been deliberately distorted to protect and subsidize incumbents. Ironically, the business interests that take greatest advantage of federal favors are often the ones that protest most strongly against government investment in alternative energy."

And finally, Brodwin explains just "how bad a deal" the "current arrangement" really is:

"By law, leases for coal on federal land are supposed to reflect the fair market value of the coal on hand. But, according to a report last year by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the leases have fallen short of market value by $29 billion over a 30 year period, or roughly $1 billion per year.

"This underpricing is massive relative to the size of the deals. It amounts to a 30 percent to 50 percent discount below a fair and reasonable price. The lost value is enough to hire more than 20,000 elementary school teachers. (Most recent media coverage focused on the wrong number: a figure of $62 million, which represents just a small part of the problem of undervalued leases.)"

Kudos to former IG Walpin for raising an important question in regards to the current IRS scandal.

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 11:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In wrapping-up a highly informative, but relatively short, history of the federal bureaucracy, Jay Cost writes at The Weekly Standard website:

"The Declaration of Independence vested all sovereign power in the people alone, while the Constitution established a government to manage that power in a republican fashion. While the people still swear fealty to the founding ideals, they have not put much thought recently into the problems the Founders tackled. As society has become more complex, the government has, too; Americans have not reexamined the structure of government, in an age in which it accounts for more than 20 percent of the national economy, to ensure it still reflects the republican spirit. In fact, there has not been a serious public discussion about the organization of the bureaucracy since the 1880s, even as it has doubled in size many times over. And so today, it is a vast enterprise of millions of workers, with precious little oversight from the people’s elected representatives.

"It’s no wonder that some agency somewhere in the bureaucracy could have worked so perniciously for so long against the people’s interests. Perhaps the only surprise is that we ever noticed the malfeasance at the IRS at all. Were it not for the over-the-top questioning from the IRS—asking one group to pledge not to protest abortion clinics, another to reveal what books their members were reading, another to say what they’re praying about—all this might still be hidden in the shadows, unbeknownst to an overburdened Congress and an incurious media. And it remains to be seen what will be done about it, whether the bureaucracy, now under attack, has the resources and wherewithal to block oversight and prevent reform."

Read the entire article if you have the time. Kudos to Jay Cost.

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 10:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"Today, Congress exercises police powers never granted by the Constitution. Conservatives who favor federal “wars” on drugs, gambling and other behaviors should understand the damage they have done to the constitutional underpinnings of limited government."

~ George Will

HT Conclusion of his June 16, 2013 Column in The Washington Post

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 10:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Arlington County Board made "energy" a part of the county's comprehensive plan at its monthly board meeting today (item 27 of the June 15, 2013 Board agenda; note there is a Manager's supplemental report, too). Below are the comments made to the Board by Tim Wise, president of the Arlington County Taxpayers Association:

"Good morning, Board members. My name is Timothy Wise, and I am president of the Arlington County Taxpayers Association --- www.acta.us.

"The Community Energy Plan (CEP) -- this Board’s latest contribution to America’s stock pile of New York City Mayor NannyBloomberg Awards.

"The task force that developed the plan was given the long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals of reducing greenhouse gases, which means their charge was primarily environmental religion. In case you are not aware, there has been virtually no global warming going on 17 years now, and the computer models which predict global warming are being proved wrong almost daily.

"The Manager’s report mentions a desire to “achieve ambitious economic competitiveness” and “energy security.” But what is in the news? The county just lost the National Science Foundation because your policies made this county economically uncompetitive.  And Thursday’s news is the county is bracing for loss of the Fish and Wildlife agency, apparently because their space is too expensive.

"So while your policies add to the cost of commercial real estate, your neighbors are outcompeting you economically. Instead, you implement high-cost vanity projects such as the Columbia Pike trolley and a $100 million swimming pool in a largely unaccessible location.

"Finally, a few words about energy security. In an op-ed yesterday, Senator Tom Coburn pointed out that except for the obstruction by environmental ideologues, America’s energy potential “could turn North America into another Middle East in the next two decades.”

"So while the five of you pretend to be “forward-thinking” and play your environmental ideology games, economic competitiveness marches forward. Unfortunately, Arlington taxpayers will pay the price."

The county government has been working on the CEP for more than three years, according to the press release, which probably means that taxpayers are already on the hook for over a million dollars since the effort involved consultants.

Note that testimony is time-limited.

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 05:05 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."

~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kerchival, 1816

HT Patriot Post

This day in history, according to FactMonster.com:

In 1775, the United States Army was founded, and in 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the U.S. And, thanks to Patrioticon.org for the use of the following graphic:

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 10:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

At the San Antonio Express-News, a Social Security Administration public affairs specialist, Oscar Garcia, explains the annual report about the Social Security trust funds this way:

"Every year, the government-appointed board of trustees releases a report on the financial outlook for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The 2013 trustees report was released on May 31.

"In the 2013 annual report to Congress, the trustees announced the combined trust fund reserves are still growing and will continue to do so through 2020. Beginning with 2021, the cost of the program is projected to exceed income."

He notes that you can find the complete report at the Social Security website.

Senior research fellow, Veronique de Rugy, at George Mason University's Mercatus Center in Arlington, Virginia writes that the latest reports "prompt a reexamination of the current and projected financial status of the trust funds," and includes updated charts to present "the costs, balances, and prospective program insolvency dates for Medicare and Social Security programs."

The chart below shows "the trust funds annual annual cash flows." According to Dr. de Rugy, "Since 2010, the Social Security program has been running a permanent cash-flow deficit. This means that the taxes collected for the program aren’t enough to cover the benefits paid out to retirees." Here's the chart:

Dr. de Rugy also writes:

"The dwindling trust fund determines the spending authority of the program. Without a positive balance in the trust fund, the program won’t have the authority to pay out full benefits and will be limited to what the program collects in taxes — which today means a 23 percent cut in benefits across the board.

"There was no change in the combined (retirement and disability) exhaustion dates for the Social Security trust funds when compared to the 2012 Trustees Report. The combined trust fund is projected to exhaust its reserves in 2033, but this projected year of insolvency is 20 years sooner than the date projected in 1990."

Take a minute or two, and study the other three charts in Dr. de Rugy's short report.

Finally, we learn the number of Medicare enrollees is expected to increase from 50.7 million in 2012 to 88.9 million in 2040 while the cost per enrollee is expected to climb from $11,294 in 2011 to $20,000 in 2040.

Makes you wonder what the Speaker of the House was thinking when he recently said his top priority is getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed instead of working to solve the nation's entitlement programs. Especially considering the size of the "entitlement problem," which according to numbers put together by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), and reported by National Review Online range between $72 trillion and $120 trillion. Jonathan Strong, reporting for National Review Online, writes (HT Mark Levin Show):

"But according to GOP deficit projections subsequently prepared by Johnson and obtained by National Review Online, the true size of the problem is staggering, and surprised even many of the seasoned budget negotiators involved.

" . . . Try $106 trillion, the medium estimate. That’s $106,954,000,000,000. Even the lowest, extremely conservative estimate comes in at $72 trillion; the highest is over $120 trillion."

Makes you wonder just who members of Congress are working for. Themselves or the future of America.

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 11:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In an intriguing essay, written just days before last November's election in the free market Manhattan Institute's City Journal, Jay Hallen provides a short history of Argentina, and wonders if America is making the same economic mistakes as Argentina did under Peron. For readers unable to partake of the entire essay, which is less than three pages in length, here are the introductory, a middle, and the concluding paragraphs:

"The opening decade of the twenty-first century has seen a slow but distinct decline in American capitalism. Economic policy has become increasingly overrun by central planning, redistribution, and government picking of industrial winners and losers. Beginning about half a century ago, those elements helped sink another free-market powerhouse—Argentina. While Barack Obama is no Juan Perón, the president’s misguided policies threaten to squander our economic advantages, just as Perón’s did in Argentina.

< . . . >

"Argentina’s fall from grace remains unprecedented in modern history. It was driven by the hubris of a government that took its country’s affluence for granted and thought it could manage the economy better than the private sector could. And it shows what America could look like in 30 years. The size of the U.S. government has accelerated measurably under the Bush and Obama administrations. From 1980 to 2000, government spending held steady between 30 percent and 35 percent of GDP, but it jumped to 37 percent after Bush’s second term and is now at 41 percent as Obama’s current term comes to a close. As government grows, so do annual budget deficits, themselves a brash assumption that economic growth will continue indefinitely. Interest rates today are at rock bottom, penalizing those who would save or invest conservatively. The Fed’s current expansionary policies may devalue the dollar by as much as 33 percent over the next 20 years.

< . . .>

"The Argentine case study shows that even wealthy New World countries, blessed with natural resources and a diligent immigrant workforce, can bring ruin on themselves through economic mismanagement. To restore growth and escape economic stagnation, the United States must return to its free-market roots, rather than travel farther down the path of intervention, dependency, and decline."

Sure makes you want to read the entire essay, doesn't it. And then makes you wonder just where America is headed.

HT Potemkin.

Posted by ElGrowlerGrande at 09:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)