Manchin and Tea Party Agree: AUDIT THE PENTAGON!

When it comes to talking about Big Government by the republican establishment "defense spending" and the Pentagon have largely gotten a pass.  Neither have the democrats been bold enough to take any serious action despite the enormous and blatant overspending and fiscal mismanagement of one of the largest budget eaters of U.S. taxpayers.   The Pentagon has not passed an audit in over 20 years!  Finally, someone is doing something about it and in a non-partisan fashion.

Think there is any extravagance or waste in this government spending?

Listen to former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld himself and other former Pentagon officials below.

So the first week of August 2012 Senators Coburn (R-OK) and Manchin (D-WV) introduced the AUDIT THE PENTAGON ACT on the Senate floor.  The Gazette had a good article about it.  Here is a snip from the WashingtonExaminer.com:

Why we must audit the Pentagon--Senator Tom Coburn

   "Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and I recently introduced the Audit the Pentagon Act (S. 3487), which creates new incentives and enforcement mechanisms to force the Pentagon to pass an audit. Joining as us original co-sponsors were Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Scott Brown R-Mass., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Auditing the Pentagon is critically important not just because it is the law but also because our ignorance of how we spend defense dollars undermines our national security. When the Pentagon can't tell Congress -- or itself -- how it is spending money, high-priority defense programs face cuts along with low-priority programs...

So this is a bipartisan bill and an issue that constitutional conservatives and the Tea Party movement has been pushing for to drastically reduce the size and scope of Big Government.  The republican establishment traditionally avoids this as politically incorrect and unpatriotic, as if the Pentagon can do no wrong. 

Senator Rand Paul has said he plans to bring this to attention of the GOP Convention Tuesday night during his prime time address.  He says it's time to push AUDIT THE PENTAGON as much as AUDIT THE FED has had attention previously, per this Yahoo news article:

"Because we've talked about audit the Fed so much, we're now talking about audit the Pentagon," Paul told the crowd.  

 "...And one of the messages that I will give to them is that Republicans need to acknowledge that not every dollar is well spent or sacred in the military and we have to look for ways to make every department accountable."

This is great, especially because it's bipartisan!  Big Government must be held accountable and its abuses exposed in order for it to be appropriately and proportionally dismantled and reduced to its Constitutional and simple Federal form, instead of giving it free reign to roam at will and constantly feeding this giant Behemoth of Central government whatever it demands which makes it almost impossible to tame.

Sen. Rand Paul will speak at the convention between 7 and 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to an updated schedule made public Sunday.   You can watch it LIVE on the web through C-SPAN here.

Tell your Congressmen to support the bipartisan AUDIT THE PENTAGON ACT immediately.  And let's see how Rand Paul addresses this (as he has before in the Senate) at the GOP Convention. 

See also:  Rand Paul addresses Senate on Fiscal Crisis, "Out of Control" Spending, Balanced Budget

Romney--Paul Ryan: A Return to Bush's Big Government?

Per former FOX commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano (who can hardly be called a liberal), Tea Party conservatives and Constitutionalists should not be very happy about Paul Ryan as Romney's VP, especially if they look at his Big Government voting record.  Napolitano, like us, is discouraged by the naive enthusiasm and another choice between the "lesser of two evils" for President and Vice President.   It's time to take a closer look.  Ignorance is not bliss.

The neocons and the RINO establishment are trying to hoodwink the Tea Party by painting Ryan in another image and pretending that Romney would even adopt Ryan's fiscal conservatism.  The truth is that Ryan himself has no record of fiscal conservatism or limited government either!  False images must be dashed for the truth to be told.  This is a wake-up call!

Is this the best the Republican Establishment has to offer us?  It is self-evident what the principles of the Republican Establishment then really are.  The Constitution and limited government are clearly not their ideals nor in their RINO game plan.

It is also irrational to sum up America as "an idea", as Paul Ryan attempts.  Nations have histories and power struggles.  The initial American "idea" was overthrown 150 years ago now, when the Federal government in Washington, which originally was very limited by the sovereign states, usurped power and became a Centralized Power and even went to war against the very States who had formed it.  THAT was the end of limited and a Constitutionally restrained Federal government, and under the first radical Republican, Lincoln.  But don't expect any real assessment of American history from any political candidate.  That would be politically incorrect and career suicide.

But don't miss this article by former host of FOX's Freedom Watch, Andrew Napolitano:

Romney and Ryan Would Return Us to the Bush Years

Last week, Gov. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, blasted Obama for borrowing more than one trillion dollars in just the past year. He must have forgotten to look at the voting record of his designated running mate, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.  Ryan voted for nearly every request to raise the debt ceiling during his 14 years in Congress. He voted for TARP, the GM bailout and most of the recent stimulus giveaways. He also voted to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on a credit card, which added another trillion dollars to the government's debt. And he voted to assault the Constitution by supporting the Patriot Act and its extensions, as well as Obama's unconstitutional proposal to use the military to arrest Americans on American soil and detain those arrested indefinitely.

...we have a rough idea of what Romney-Ryan would bring us: more of the Bush-era big government. In other words, Ryan is just another big-government Republican holding himself out as a fiscal conservative.

See also:  Judge Napolitano on ObamaCare and the 2012 Election Choices

2012: The Year Economic Depression Begins in West? Why Gold is Suddenly Falling, Stock Market Next?

 UPDATE (Mar. 23rd):  Note this latest 30-Day Gold Chart (from same source) since we posted the article

 AN ECONOMIC ALERT: GOLD AND STOCKS TO FALL SEVERELY THIS YEAR SAY INVESTMENT EXPERTS

The UK podcast interview referred to below by this summary article will shock most hearers who thought that things were just about to get better economically.  Before you buy gold (edit: for a short term investment) because of its historic performance you should stop and consider this first, since prudence is wise. 

A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; 

But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

Solomon - Prov. 27:12

The consequences of not looking ahead can be disastrous, as Solomon's proverb proves, calling it stupid to ignore an approaching evil.  Even the ants are busy preparing in their harvest for winter, says the preacher of wisdom in Proverbs, and bids us to learn from their example.  An Economic Winter is coming that may be a very long and severe one, even decades in the West.  This is an economic alert based upon some economists expertise that should be heard, especially to those who think they are safe for buying and investing in gold for the short term, which has been promoted much for good reason as governments print money, as a hedge to inflation.  You won't hear this from the "feel good" editors of Network News.  Government Debts and threat of Iran conflict (thanks to Israel and AIPAC's aggressive influence on Congress contrary to American interests) continues to push up oil prices, which will cause massive inflation in all consumer goods (including gas to over $5 per gallon by summer), are among the things that paint a very bad picture for this year as Western economies begin to tumble, right when the U.S. in particular thought things were getting better.  Also looked at is the real reason that Gold fell almost $100 per oz last week from 1790 to 1703, which is what provoked this interview.  As of this morning, and after a slight recovery Friday, Gold is now down to 1680.  Read on.  

Experts say, "It's no longer corporations that are economically crashing, it's governments."  Government debts are being summoned for reckoning.  Greece was only an example of more to come.  Portugal, Spain, and others are on deck.  The UK could be next after them.  The U.S. is actually, despite bailouts and tricks, "in a recession" and has massive debt that it must deal with (as Senator Rubio has foretold "must be" dealt with this year).

Outlook for West:  "Era of De-leveraging" government debt, "depression for 20 to 30 years" to clear massive government debts, Gold to fall to maybe as low as 1200 to 1400 this year, Stockmarket to "fall 30 to 40 %" this year (markets must aborb Greek default, with more coming, and European bailout).  Temporary stronger dollar this year is bad for gold and metals, due to Euro decline because of European debt bailouts (Greece).

These are just a few things mentioned on this reputable UK Gold Investment group interview.  THIS IS A MUST-HEAR PODCAST BELOW.  (You have to respect a Gold investment group that permits such a bearish outlook on gold investing to be aired with their sponsorship!)

The wealth manager in this interview says he is heavy on cash instead of gold this year (until later years) and explains the gloomy state of US and Western European governments and their economies. 

02-Mar-2012
Jonathan Davis and Michael Hampton talk to Dominic Frisby about gold
In this podcast Dominic Frisby, of the GoldMoney Foundation, interviews both Jonathan Davis, economist and wealth manager, as well as Michael Hamp
Podcast Interview and article here

The Cato Institute Fact-Checks, Responds to President Obama’s State-of-the-Union Address

Were you deceived by President Obama's speech? It actually began very well and sounded very good. The war in Iraq over, "all the troops home", the auto industry was saved by the great GM bailout and "millions of jobs were saved".

Listen to Cato's non-partisan analysis (which won't necessarily make war-mongering republicans who are stupidly eager to spark conflict with Iran happy either) and think again:


The Cato Institute Fact-Checks, Responds to President Obama's State-of-the-Union Address

FANATICISM: Sports, Not Religion, Is the Real "Opiate of the People"

Professional sports, which includes College Sports--which is definitely for money and profit in the "Higher Education" world--in truth is a waste of valuable time.  Do people consider that sports coaches of universities are the most highly paid positions in State government?  (Note in the link that West Virginia pays more for sports than others in the Big East, even as a much poorer state!)  Is that not a dangerous fanaticism?  Should that not offend and disturb us as "taxpayers"?  Where is a "tea party" against that abuse of government spending within "higher education"?  Are sports coaches the instruments of justice or legislative representation, or executive authority?  Is it not shameful that they outstrip Governors and Justices in taxpayer renumeration--and without the consent of many outside the institution of "higher learning"?  And those who spend their emotions on sports teams and watch every game proudly call themselves "fanatics".    Now this only proves that it is politically correct and acceptable to be a sports fanatic, while at the same time, if anyone cares "too much" about political issues of government, or religious issues in particular, others hurl the epitaph "fanatic" as a term of derision, from which sports "fans" are immune, despite their candid admission. 

The media in particular is guilty of this irrational value process and for feeding the sports frenzy,  for profit, because sports news "sells newspapers" and boost radio and TV ratings.  That is why Hoppy Kercheval on state-wide talk radio will actually spend more time discussing any changes at WVU, even in the midst of important legislative or serious matters which most of the public is largely, and willingly ignorant of.  Such is the mark of not an intellectual society, but a hedonistic one. (Illegal drug use is in fact the same hedonism principle in its purest form of pleasure vs pain and mental escapism, and modern opiates such as Meth, are another clue this is true of society).  The truth is, if everyone were serious minded and lived in reality, instead of in virtual reality (movies, mass entertainment, fiction or "reality shows" on TV, etc), things could be for the better in government, social and intellectual thinking, and religious morality and rational sober living.

The following video, in an entertaining manner, shows how there is a social consensus which is irrational that permits one kind of fanaticism to drown out really the only important matters in life, where everyone's real problems exist.  Sports is indeed the Opiate pain-killer and distraction, then, which religion has been branded for irrationally.

AMERICAN IDLE: 1/3 of U.S. Wages are for Non-working

clipped from www.cnbc.com

Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages

Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,”

Why Americans Detest Government: 'Putting Government First' - HUMAN EVENTS

Pat Buchanan hits the proverbial nail on the head when it comes to what average Americans think about government, both federal and state, and also why the "tea party" movement has put both political parties in the cross-hairs (including party chairmen, as the recent West Virginia GOP change demonstrated), since neither of them get it:

Putting Government First - HUMAN EVENTS

Hence, we have a situation where private sector workers in Middle America are being taxed, their children being driven ever deeper into debt to China, so government employees who have greater job security than they do, and earn more in pay and benefits than they will ever earn, can stay in Fat City.

And folks wonder why so many Americans detest government....

...Remarkable. U.S. government workers, who enjoy the greatest job security of any Americans, now earn twice as much in pay and benefits as the average American. This is not the D.C. some of us grew up in.

Nor is this all Obama's doing. For most of the fat years of the federal work force came while Washington was being run by a Congress of Big-Government Conservatives and a White House of Bush-Cheney Republicans.

No wonder the tea party is targeting both parties.

Bush's Final Report Card: Biggest Spender Since LBJ

Fair and balanced analysis from Cato Institute. Republicans need to confess this if they expect to have any credibility in criticizing Obama's liberal spending. The American people are sick of bi-partisan lying and hypocritical finger-pointing

Obama's first report card, where all spending is under his watch, will not be available until next year, 2010 (which should be a doozy too).

President George W. Bush’s last year was fiscal 2009. Outlays that year were $3.522 trillion, according to the CBO. However, $108 billion was spending for the 2009 economic stimulus package passed under President Obama.Bush was thus roughly responsible for $3.414 trillion of spending in 2009, which includes outlays for the financial bailouts enacted under his watch.

clipped from www.cato-at-liberty.org George W. Bush: Biggest Spender Since LBJ Figure 1 shows the average increase in total spending under recent presidents. Bush II was the biggest spender since LBJ. His spending increases were far larger than the three prior presidents. Of course, presidents share spending power with Congress and it is easier for presidents to control discretionary spending than entitlement spending. Nonetheless, the results in these charts reflect the general spending approach taken by the presidents quite well. Figure 2 shows total federal spending without interest payments. Presidents have the least discretionary control over interest. The biggest spenders by this measure were again LBJ and Bush II. The Congressional Budget Office has released final budget numbers for fiscal year 2009. The numbers allow us to take a last look at the Bush administration’s record on spending from a statistical point of view. he presided over an 83-percent increase in overall federal spending

House Passes Bill to Audit the Fed

There is a very silver lining in the rather dark cloud of financial reform legislation the U.S. House just passed. This would be a historical first and could bring real change. This is a first step toward Congress finally exercising its Constitutional authority over the PRIVATE Federal Reserve Bank System, which has never before been held accountable for anything. Now if only the Senate does the same.

This is Ron Paul's legislation to Audit the Fed, remember. Yes, the one the neo-republicans tried to excommunicate during the presidential primaries for RINOs like Romney, Huckabee, and McCain instead. Capito signed onto this legislation as a sponsor on April 1st, the same day Thomas Woods was interviewed on WCHS 58Live Talk Radio, which we blogged with a recorded podcast here.

There is enough bipartisan support in the Congress very likely to overcome an Obama Veto (since thus far he has shilled for the Banksters, with the help of former New York Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, Timothy Geithner.)

clipped from georgewashington2.blogspot.com Friday, December 11, 2009 House Passes Bill to Audit the Fed I have just received confirmation from a very credible Congressional source that the bill to audit the Federal Reserve is included in the House financial reform legislation which passed today. My source says: The Fed audit provision which passed the Financial Services Committee a few weeks ago is part of the bill. This is a real milestone, as it means that the full House of Representatives has passed a bill that mandates a complete audit of the Fed. The effort to audit the Fed - supported by 79% of the American people - is gaining traction. My source says that it will take a couple of days for the GAO to assemble all of the amendments into a single text. In the meantime, you can view the version of the bill provided by Congress' Thomas website here or here.

Blame the Fed and Government, not Free Markets: Author of 'Meltdown' Interviewed on 58 Live

Tom Woods does not mince words and puts the blame squarely on the Fed (Bernanke, Greenspan, et al) and the U.S. government (Congress) for the financial meltdown and the economic and banking crisis.

What is ironic is that Congressman Ron Paul's warnings and economic platform, ignored by the heavy-handed republican establishment during the primaries (and which no other republican candidate stood for), is now becoming popular and receiving the attention it deserves. Ron Paul in fact wrote the forward for Dr. Wood's book.

Listen to most of his interview here on this podcast, which took place on 58 Live (WCHS radio Charleston, WV) on April 1st. (Click on the box to begin the player).
[Recording made under FAIR USE rules, intended for educational purposes only].

About Tom Woods

Thomas E. Woods, Jr., is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books. A senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Woods holds a bachelor's degree in history from Harvard and his master's, M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Read more »

Meltdown

A New York Times bestseller!

Click here for a free chapter of Meltdown.

Click here to order from Amazon.
Click here to order from Barnes & Noble.

Click here to order the audiobook.

“A must-read. Writing with remarkable clarity and occasional mordant humor, Thomas Woods makes a compelling argument for a radical turn to the free market as the only way to prevent meltdowns from recurring.”
-Barron’s

From the foreword by Ron Paul:

“We can probably expect an avalanche of books in the coming months that purport to tell us what happened to the economy and what we should do about it. They’ll be dead wrong, and most of the advice they provide will be dreadful. You can count on that.

“That’s why Meltdown is different. This book actually gets things right. It correctly identifies our problems, their causes, and what we should do about them. It treats the architects of this debacle not with the undeserved reverence they receive in Washington and on television, but with the critical eye that is so conspicuously missing from our supposedly independent thinkers in academia and the media.

________TAKE ACTION: Call Rep. Capito or your Representative______

Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 50 co-sponsors, and the numbers keep growing!

If you haven’t done so already, tell everyone you know to call and write their representative and ask that they support the “Federal Reserve Transparency Act H.R. 1207″.

If you called before and if your representative is not listed below, follow up and ask them to take a position either way so we know where they stand on the issue of bringing transparency to the Federal Reserve.

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Here’s a sample letter you can use.

150 Top Economists Say "Hold Off" on Bailout

`The situation may get urgent, but it's not urgent right now. Right now it's a financial sector problem....`It's just nothing like the calamity the administration is making it out to be.''

Everyone should stop the ignorant panic and read this article from the best economists, who like doctors are best apt to understand both the problem and its cure.

Another great interview and source to better information was provided by CATO Institute's daily podcast, a Sept. 25th interview with an expert on mortgage-backed securities.

Hoppy Kerchevel had an excellent interview with a professor of Economics at West Virginia State University which was very similar in perspective to this article here. SO WHY IS NO ONE LISTENING TO THE EXPERTS, INSTEAD OF THE FED'S FRONT MAN TREASURY SECRETARY PAULSON AND A IGNORANTLY-COMPLYING PRESIDENT? Who do you trust more about the economy, ignorant lawmakers or economists?

The media also (including local talk radio) continues to parrot the "crisis", after Bush's Financial WMD Speech Wednesday, where a virtual "mushroom cloud" was imagined over the economy if "Congress does not act now".

It is a gross exaggeration and even outright lie and the bailout would make things worse, according to experts!

clipped from www.bloomberg.com Hundreds of Economists Urge Congress Not to Rush on Rescue Plan Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- More than 150 prominent U.S. economists, including three Nobel Prize winners, urged Congress to hold off on passing a $700 billion financial market rescue plan until it can be studied more closely. In a letter yesterday to congressional leaders, 166 academic economists said they oppose Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan because it's a ``subsidy'' for business, it's ambiguous and it may have adverse market consequences in the long term. They also expressed alarm at the haste of lawmakers and the Bush administration to pass legislation. ``It doesn't seem to me that a lot decisions that we're going to have to live with for a long time have to be made by Friday,'' said Robert Lucas, a University of Chicago economist and 1995 Nobel Prize winner who signed the letter. ``The situation may get urgent, but it's not urgent right now. Right now it's a financial sector problem.''

Financial Crisis and the Fed: How the Fed Obtained Its Power

historical value of dollar (click to enlarge)

In light of the present financial crisis the public needs to know how the Federal Reserve and our present money supply they control came into being. The public should also notice the interesting similarity of circumstances now playing out in which the Fed is seeking even more power under the plea of "necessity". This 8-minute video sheds alot of light on present circumstances.

Ruling Elite vs. Poor: The Economic Gap Between West Virginians and State Government

This Daily Mail article (from the more conservative paper) made Drudge Report on March 30th highlighting that 1 in 6 West Virginians are on food stamps--an incredibly high percentage! This should be an economic wake up call to the ruling elite in State government and citizens alike, especially with a State that is not bashful about imposing taxes and user fees, and where there are many state employees even making six-figure salaries (see WV Auditor report in right margin of blog)!

This is a good opportunity to consider just how big West Virginia government is, how tax burdensome it is comparatively with other states, and the disparity between the government and citizenry economically. Frankly, the media, while always running stories about the publics' general obesity, never reports that it is West Virginia s government that is outrageously FAT.

Consider the following comparison of West Virginia versus the other states in Total Taxes as a Fraction of Personal Income 2005 data, demonstrating the relative disparity in West Virginia from other states in taxation versus the publics' income. Note especially how West Virginia ranks not only high (top four in high taxation relative to income!), but also higher than the peer states surrounding it, which are highlighted:

State Total Taxes as
Fraction of Personal Income (Nominal)
STATE	2005	Rank
Vermont	0.1102	1
Hawaii	0.101	2
Wyoming	0.0917	3
West Virginia	0.0897	4
Arkansas	0.0885	5
New Mexico	0.0832	6
Minnesota	0.0831	7
Delaware	0.083	8
Alaska	0.0788	9
Louisiana	0.0777	10
Kentucky	0.0771	11
Maine	0.0756
Mississippi	0.0746
California	0.0737
Idaho	0.0721
Wisconsin	0.0715
Michigan	0.071
North Dakota	0.0705
Connecticut	0.0698
Rhode Island	0.0693	20
Montana	0.0692
North Carolin	0.0692	22
Utah	0.0689
Washington	0.0665
Indiana	0.0658
Nevada	0.0658
Ohio	0.0657	27
Nebraska	0.0656
New York	0.065
Oklahoma	0.0646	30
Massachusetts	0.0644
United States	0.0634	32
Pennsylvania	0.0629	33
Kansas	0.062
Arizona	0.0616
Iowa	0.0612
South Carolina	0.0609
New Jersey	0.0601
Alabama	0.0579
Maryland	0.0575	40
Illinois	0.0571
Florida	0.0561
Virginia	0.0561	43
Georgia	0.0555
Oregon	0.0555
Tennessee	0.0543	46
Missouri	0.0527
South Dakota	0.044
Texas	0.044
Colorado	0.0437
New Hampshire	0.041

Source: Query for State and Local Government; Tax Policy Center

clipped from www.dailymail.com One in 6 West Virginians is on food stamps About one in every six West Virginians gets food stamps, the highest level of participation in at least 30 years. Amid rising food and fuel costs, the assistance is becoming worth less and less. And supplemental food programs for poor families are struggling to keep up with the added demand as donations are on the decline. Last month, 274,487 state residents received food stamps. That's up from 246,890 just five years ago, according to data from the state Department of Health and Human Resources. A total of 122,877 of the state's estimated 743,064 households currently receive food stamps. That's up from 105,365 households in 2003. Meanwhile, the cost of food is expected to jump by up to 4 percent this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. Nationally, the average cost of a gallon of regular gas today is $3.26, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. A year ago, the average cost was $2.59 a gallon.