A single graph that depicts a society spiraling into the dustbin of history

Why work when you can just collect disability? After all, last month a record 8.9 million took advantage of impossible-to-verify "ailments" like back pain and mood disorders.

...Today, 6.5 workers are on disability for every 100 who have a job. That's double the ratio from two decades ago. The number of people on disability has climbed almost sixfold since 1970.

That influx has caused SSDI costs to climb faster than its dedicated payroll tax revenues. The program has been running a deficit since 2009, and will be insolvent by 2016, according to the program's administrators...


...Last year, the federal government paid $135 billion in disability benefits, which is more money than it devoted to food stamps and welfare combined.

And because those on disability are eligible for Medicare benefits after two years, the sharp rise in SSDI enrollment has put a huge strain on Medicare's budget, costing the program $80 billion in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In other words, one-sixth of Medicare's budget now goes to pay benefits for working-age disabled.

Record numbers on disability, a large percentage of which are fraudulent. Record numbers on food stamps, many of those fraudulent. Record welfare payments, many of those also fraudulent. Record income tax credit fraud. In fact, government officials have documented hundreds of billions of fraudulent payments each year laced throughout the federal government's massive, unsustainable wealth redistribution programs.

One might call this the Obama-Krugman-Blodget recipe for national suicide.

But I'll be charitable and simply ask: what is this, the fourth annual "Summer of Recovery"?

Politico lets the cat out of the bag: immigration "reform" would give Democrats a permanent majority

Well, anyone with an ounce of sense knew this was the case, but this is the first time I've seen it in black and white. I refer, of course, to the Obama administration's press release blog, otherwise known as Politico:

Immigration reform could be bonanza for Democrats

The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

...Republican Mitt Romney ... would have lost the national popular vote by 7 percentage points, 53 percent to 46 percent, instead of the 4-point margin he lost by in 2012, and would have struggled even to stay competitive in GOP strongholds like Texas, which he won with 57 percent of the vote...

...Texas, where the unauthorized immigrant population is second only to California’s, had an estimated 1.65 million undocumented immigrants in 2010, according to statistics from the Pew Hispanic Center. Romney won the state in 2012 by just under 1.3 million votes...

...In Arizona, Romney won by 212,000 votes — and there are an estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants in the state as of 2010... Even Georgia, which isn’t a border state and doesn’t immediately come to mind when thinking of immigrant-heavy states, would be affected: Georgia had an estimated 425,000 undocumented immigrants in 2010, per Pew Hispanic Center’s estimates, and Romney won there by 308,000 votes...

If all those immigrants had voted in 2012 and President Obama had won 71 percent of them — the percentage he won among Latinos nationally — he would have come in less than 50,000 votes short in Arizona, within about a half-million votes of winning Texas and 125,000 votes shy in Georgia.

Politico quotes the quintessential loser and establishment RINO consultant Steve Schmidt -- you know, the genius behind the McCain 2008 campaign -- who says that Republicans are bound to get some Hispanic votes if they support Amnesty.

Say Steve-o, what's the track record to support this conjecture? Let's look, just for fun.

--1980 Jimmy Carter, 56% Ronald Reagan, 35% +21

--1984 Walter Mondale, 61% Ronald Reagan, 37% +24

--1988 Michael Dukakis, 69% George H.W. Bush, 30% +39

--1992 Bill Clinton, 61% George H.W. Bush, 25% +36

--1996 Bill Clinton, 72% Bob Dole, 21% +51

--2000 Al Gore, 62% George W. Bush, 35% +27

--2004 John Kerry, 58% George W. Bush, 40% +18

--2008 Barack Obama, 67% John McCain, 31% +36

--2012 Barack Obama, 71% Mitt Romney, 27% +44

In other words, over the last 9 election cycles, Democrat presidential candidates won the Hispanic vote by an average of 33 percentage points. But I'm sure the brilliant strategist Steve Schmidt can turn things around, even though a huge chunk of illegals are de facto Democrats, i.e., dependent upon government largess.

If the Gang of Idiots -- which is the phrase they prefer, I hear -- get their way, the entire United States will become a supersized version of California. Only with crappier weather.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

The 20 Most Stunning Poverty Statistics of the Obama Epoch

It's even worse than we thought.

1 - According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty. The number of Americans living in poverty is now at a level not seen since the 1960s.

2 - When you add in the number of low income Americans it is even more sobering. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either “poor” or “low income”.

3 - Today, approximately 20 percent of all children in the United States are living in poverty. Incredibly, a higher percentage of children is living in poverty in America today than was the case back in 1975.


4 - It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are either considered to be either “low income” or impoverished.

5 - Poverty is the worst in our inner cities. At this point, 29.2 percentof all African-American households with children are dealing with food insecurity.

6 - According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

7 - Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, close to one out of every six Americans is on food stamps. Even more shocking is the fact that more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.

8 - For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless. That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.


9 - Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began.

10 - One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.

11 - At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the U.S. lives in a home without a father.

12 - Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

13 - Today, there are approximately 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

14 - About 40 percent of all unemployed workers in America have been out of work for at least half a year.

15 - At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

16 - There has been an explosion in the number of “working poor” Americans in recent years. Today, about one out of every fourworkers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level.

17 - Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government. And that does not even include Social Security or Medicare.

18 - An all-time record 47.79 million Americans are now on food stamps. Back when Barack Obama first took office, that number was only sitting at about 32 million.

19 - The number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of Spain.

20 - According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

In March of 2009 -- yes, a full four years ago -- I warned "Obama's destruction of the economy is intentional."

After 48 months, I see no evidence to the contrary.

His policies represent fiscal suicide. And nothing, not facts, logic, or reason, will dissuade him from his ideology of collectivism that can't work, won't work and has never worked in all of human history.

Dozens of IRS employees claim to be unemployed in order to receive welfare, housing allowances and food stamps

But -- but -- but -- I thought all who work in government are benevolent public servants? That they're better than the rest of us? That they're angels, working for the public good?

Twenty-four current and former Internal Revenue Service employees have been charged with stealing government benefits, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The IRS employees were indicted on charges that they illegally received more than $250,000 in benefits including unemployment insurance payments, food stamps, welfare, and housing vouchers, the U.S. attorney's office in Memphis said in a news release.

Prosecutors say 13 of the IRS employees face federal charges of lying about being unemployed while applying for or recertifying their government benefits...

They each face up to five years in prison if convicted of making false statements to receive the benefits.

Eleven others face state charges of theft of property over $1,000, a felony that can carry a sentence of probation up to 12 years in prison if they are convicted.

Now take this fraud, multiply it by a million dollars or so, and you get your typical Senator.


Hat tips: Patriot Update and BadBlue News.

WHO NEEDS AMNESTY? Millions of Illegal Aliens Ripping Taxpayers Off for $20 Billion a Year in "Tax Credits"

As the White House shuts down tours and air traffic control towers go dark thanks to the budget sequester, millions of illegal aliens will collect as much as $20 billion in cash from the taxpayers thanks to a widespread scam facilitated by the Obama administration. Ed Rubenstein, president of ESR Research and former chief economist for the Grace Commission on Waste in Government, has issued a new report entitled Defrauding the American Taxpayer: The Earned Income and Additional Child Tax Credits [PDF].

Rubenstein states that, "the IRS knowingly allows illegal aliens claiming children to get Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) cash payments of up to $5,891." Furthermore, “the General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that 23 percent to 28 percent of EITC payments that totaled $55.7 billion in 2011 are issued improperly every year. The IRS facilitates this tax rebate fraud by issuing individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) to people who lack valid Social Security numbers because they are not authorized to work in the U.S., and encourages them to file for tax credits.” A 2010 government audit found that 72 percent of tax returns filed by people using ITINs, rather than Social Security numbers, claimed the child tax credit.


That's not all, according to Rubenstein. He says that “the Child Tax Credit (CTC) program pays as much as $1,000 per child to families with children and incomes as low as $3,000. The IRS sends checks to anyone claiming the benefit, whether they have Social Security numbers or not. When a tax filer’s Child Tax Credit payment exceeds their tax liability, the IRS sends the filer an Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) refund check for the difference. Individuals can get an ACTC refund checks even if they had no income tax withheld or paid.”


Rubenstein asserts that the IRS has refused to stop the massive ACTC fraud by illegal aliens, which the Treasury Department says costs taxpayers $4.2 billion in 2010.

Fraudulent claims by illegal aliens cost taxpayers about $20 billion through abuse of the EITC (more than $15 billion by some estimates) and the ACTC (more than $4 billion). Worse still, many of the illegal aliens claiming the credit aren't even in the United States -- and many others may not exist at all.

Read the whole thing [PDF] -- and pass it on.

And every time Democrats whine and cry about higher taxes, tell them you're waiting for the IRS to stop the Illegal Alien Tax Credit scam that costs us $20 billion a year.

ORGANIZED CRIME: Post Office Edition [Quinn]

Guest post by Jim Quinn, The Burning Platform

“One of the things the government can’t do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.” – Lee Iaccoca

You may have heard that the U.S. Post Office lost $16 BILLION last year. You may also have heard that Congress snuck a requirement into a bill that had nothing to do with the Post Office, mandating that they must deliver on Saturdays, even though eliminating Saturday delivery would save the Post Office $2 BILLION per year. Congress evidently can’t read a financial statement or interpret a chart. I’m sure the trends detailed on this chart will reverse themselves shortly.

While reading an editorial today supporting the Post Office in its efforts to save money by eliminating Saturday delivery I saw another MASSIVE LIE perpetuated by the MSM and the government.

Here is the Orwellian statement:

“The U.S. Postal Service is an independent governmental agency that doesn’t take taxpayer funds.”

This is complete and utter bullshit. This statement also described Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until 2008. They were just little old independent government agencies helping out the housing market – until the shit hit the fan!!! Then they became albatrosses around the necks of the American taxpayer. You own them now. They have lost $200 billion of your tax dollars, and will lose billions more before all is said and done.

You can access the U.S. Post Office financial statements online. Here is their December 2012 report:

http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/financial-conditions-results-reports/fy2013-q1.pdf [PDF]

The honesty of the people writing this report is refreshing. They essentially admit they are BANKRUPT and unable to meet their financial obligations. In other words, a truly INDEPENDENT entity admitting they can no longer operate. How is this for honesty:

“The Postal Service continues to suffer from a severe lack of liquidity. The Postal Service held total cash of $2.9 billion and $2.3 billion as of December 31, and September 30, 2012, respectively, and had no remaining borrowing capacity on its $15 billion debt facility (See Note 3, Debt, for additional information). The increase in cash balances for the quarter is largely attributable to the seasonal impact of holiday mailings, along with additional revenue resulting from this year’s political campaign and elections. Cash balances generally decline during the remainder of the fiscal year, as revenue is not as strong in the remaining quarters. By the end of this fiscal year, the Postal Service projects it will have a liquidity balance that will be less than its average weekly expenses of $1.3 billion. This low level of available cash means that the Postal Service will be unable to make the $5.6 billion legally-mandated prefunding of retiree health benefits due by September 30, 2013. Further, this level of cash could be insufficient to support operations in the event of another significant downturn in the U.S. economy.

Through the three months ended December 31, 2012, the Postal Service has suffered 5 quarters of consecutive net losses and net losses in 14 of the last 16 quarters. The net loss of $1.3 billion for the first quarter of the year included $1.4 billion of expense accrued for the legally-mandated prefunding payment for retiree health benefits. The requirement of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Public Law 109-435 (P.L. 109-435) to prefund its retiree health benefit obligations, a requirement not shared by other federal agencies or private sector businesses, plus the precipitous drop in mail volume caused by changes in consumers’ uses of mail, have been the two major factors contributing to Postal Service losses since the recession ended in 2009. Without structural change to the Postal Service’s business model, it will continue to be negatively impacted by these factors and, absent legislative change, it anticipates continuing quarterly losses for the remainder of 2013.”

The politicians that are mismanaging this country use governmental accounting fraud to cover-up the fact that the obligations of this bloated pig of an operation are going to be paid by YOU, the taxpayers of the United States. Today, none of the past, current, or future liabilities of this INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT AGENCY are reflected in the Federal budget projections or the National Debt calculation.

Do YOU want to know how much YOU really owe? Brace yourself.

• In the past six years they have lost $41 BILLION and they have a cumulative deficit of $36 billion. How many INDEPENDENT organizations can run up deficits of $36 billion without going out of business? YOU are on the hook for these accumulated deficits, just like you were on the hook for all of the Fannie and Freddie backed toxic mortgages.
• The Post Office will lose another $10 to $15 billion this fiscal year. You will be on the hook for that too.
• They have $15 billion of debt on their balance sheet, with $9.5 billion payable in the next 9 months. How will this INDEPENDENT government agency that is losing $16 billion per year pay off $9.5 billion? They won’t. The government drones will pass a bill in the middle of the night extending the terms with no cash flow requirements or expectation of repayment. I wonder if I can get a loan like that?
• The really interesting stuff is buried on page 42 of their report. I wonder why it is all the way back there? In addition to their $15 billion of debt, they have another $70.5 BILLION of unfunded future obligations. The two biggest are:
  
  • $33.9 Billion of payments for pension and health benefits for retirees, all due within the next 5 years. It’s not cheap providing gold plated benefits to government workers.
  • $25 billion for workers compensation and sick leave payments. Yikes!!! It must be all that stress, because the mail never stops. It keeps coming and coming. It’s almost enough to make someone go postal, or at least file a stress related workers comp claim.

This really sounds like a promising story. Mail volumes continue to plummet. Someone should tell Congress the internet age has arrived. The Post Office has thousands of money losing, unneeded outlets. It has 637,000 employees when it only needs 300,000. Over 70% of Americans favor ending Saturday delivery, so Congress passes a law making that impossible to implement, ensuring $2 billion more losses per year. That’s par for the course. Over 70% of Americans were against passing TARP too. And according to your leaders in Washington, and parroted by the MSM, you are not on the hook for their losses.

It’s beyond laughable, but so is most of what is going on in this tragedy of a country, disguised as a comedy. The truth is that you are on the hook for the $36 billion of accumulated deficits, the $85 billion of debt and contractual obligations, and the annual $16 billion losses they continue to pile up. But what’s $120 to $150 billion among friends? Bennie can print that out of thin air in a few days. Why run an operation efficiently at a surplus, when you can keep hundreds of thousands of union government drones employed (until they go on workers comp) by sticking it to the working American taxpayer.

I sure hope I don’t get a visit from the Postmaster General because of this article.

 

5 Super Happy Fun Facts for Taxpayers

Culled from The Wall Street Journal:

---

5

More than 2.5 million of the nearly 9 million Americans on disability are in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

4

The U.S. tax code is about 4 million words - 7 times the length of "War and Peace".

3

The tax code is so complex, 60 percent of Americans rely upon tax preparers while 30 percent have to buy software to complete their tax forms.

2

Even with all of the assistance, Americans spent 6.1 billion hours preparing their taxes last year.

1

That amount of time is equivalent to the productivity of 3 million full-time workers... wasted on preparing taxes.

---

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

One thing's for certain: we need a flat tax or the Fair Tax if we really want this economy to grow. Which is why the Democrat Party opposes any attempt at reforming the monstrosity.

Stories of Government: 30 Blocks of Squalor [Quinn]

Guest post by Jim Quinn, The Burning Platform

The joys of West Philly are multi-faceted. I’ve been getting off at the Girard Avenue exit of the Schulkill Expressway for six years on my way to work.

The Philadelphia Zoo parking lots are located directly in front of the exit ramp. I then proceed to 34th street and take my little shortcut through the hood.

About one year ago, a construction project began on the existing parking lot at 35th and Girard Avenue. I had no idea what they were building and why. Before long it became evident they were building a big ass parking garage. I was stumped. The zoo had multiple existing parking lots that were NEVER filled.

As the months went on I realized they were building the Shangri La of parking garages with a majestic glass tower in front. This is the final result.

I began to wonder who came up with the money for this monstrosity, because the Philadelphia Zoo is a money losing non-profit that depends on donations for its continued existence. As I was driving down 36th Street a couple weeks ago I noticed a brand new sign telling me I was entering the Centennial District. That’s funny because I thought I was entering the slums of West Philly where no one works and everyone has an iPhone. This would be a more appropriate sign.

It all began to make sense when they installed the enormous signage naming this parking garage the CENTENNIAL INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION CENTER. Orwell must be so proud. Liberal Democratic politicians now give grand flowing names to parking garages.

Now that I had a name for this unnecessary albatross I was able to do a google search to find out how much this 683 space, union constructed parking palace amidst squalor actually cost. I was flabbergasted to find out it cost $24 million. You can be sure it could have been built for $16 million if it had been built non-union. For some perspective, IKEA builds 300,000 square foot retail stores for $18 million. Now for the best part. YOU paid for 30% of this porkulus project. Your Federal tax dollars funded a major portion of this project. Here is the breakdown:

• Federal Transit Agency/Federal Highway Administration: $7.18 million
• Pennsylvania state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program: $8.25 million
• Philadelphia city capital program: $0.7 million
• PNC Bank loan: $8.25 million

Pennsylvania taxpayers got a double dose of pork fever. Their Federal taxes paid for 30% and their state taxes paid for another 34% of this project. Of course, the rest of the cost was covered by debt. Think about this craziness for just a minute. The zoo had sufficient parking. The Federal government is running deficits in excess of $1 trillion per year. The State of PA is being bankrupted by government employee pension obligations. The City of Phila is a fiscal disaster. Three bankrupt government entities join forces to spend taxpayer money they haven’t collected on a project that isn’t needed. This is Keynesian idiocy at its finest. They should have named it the Krugman/Obama/Nutter Ultra-Liberal Phallic Center for Union Workers. You’ll also be happy to know they have plans to paint a huge mural of black people doing great things on the side of this waste of taxpayer dollars.

Now for the funny part. I stumbled across the architectural rendering of what this albatross would look like. Please note the beautiful foliage, as if this parking garage was in the middle of Valley Forge National Park. Also note the dozens of white people strolling along Girard Avenue. You also see a portion of a modern trolley in the shot. Having passed this location every morning and evening for the last six years, I can assure you there is no beautiful foliage. There are scraggly diseased trees amidst garbage, debris, needles, and dead bodies.

The picture doesn’t do justice to this West Philly oasis of poverty, squalor and crime. The picture is missing the crazy black dude begging at the off-ramp. The actual trolley smells of urine and was built in 1963. The streets are crumbling. Water mains explode frequently. Every building is covered in graffiti. And 90% of the people on the streets are black, and the other 10% are walking really fast.

The Trayvon hoody wearing populace of West Philly aren’t interested in new parking garages or getting a job at the Phila zoo. They prefer EBT cards, armed robbery and drug dealing.

This is the reality of Girard Avenue. Gorgeous architectural renderings and gleaming glass encased parking garages paid for by taxpayers will do absolutely nothing to change the dynamic of West Philly. This is just another mal-investment by liberal do-gooders whose policies have created this shithole over decades.

Speaking of mal-investment, this brings me to an update of Mantua Square. It is located two blocks from the zoo parking garage. I’ve written two previous articles about this monument to government pork, false promises, Keynesian idiocy, and your tax dollars:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=27516

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=18696

Mantua Square continues the legacy of the welfare state begun in the 1960s by LBJ and his Great Society programs. There were thousands of low income high rises built in the 1960s and 1970s to provide subsidized housing for poor people. Mantua Hall was an 18 story taxpayer gift to Philadelphia’s poor.

As with most of these tenements, it quickly became a rat infested, crime ridden, drug paradise where even the Philly police would not approach. It became a dangerous crumbling disgrace. It proved that giving ignorant, lazy scumbags free housing with no strings attached and no requirements to work or keep their homes in any semblance of order leads to really bad consequences. So what did the liberal Democrats that run Philly do? They imploded the 18 story drug house in 2008 and started over.

Obama’s 2009 $800 billion porkulus plan spread your money far and wide to his minions in urban shitholes across the land. The Democrats in Philly were rewarded with millions for Keynesian make work projects for their union brethren. Mayor Nutter and West Philly Congressman Chaka Fattah commandeered $10 million of “stimulus” and another $18 million from HUD to replace Mantua Hall with a 101 luxury townhouse low income housing gated community in the heart of the West Philly slums. These corrupt government politicians never learn, or they don’t want to learn – is more like it. The Feds pay them off and they pay their union cronies off , assuring their re-election. Mantua Square opened in 2011 with balloons, ribbon cutting and promises of community redevelopment and a retail renaissance. I have to admit that it is a beautiful oasis amidst the squalor. Of course, at a cost of over $250,000 per unit to the U.S. taxpayer, it should be beautiful. How many hard working married American couples can’t afford a $250,000 townhome? I’ll go out on a limb and say, most. Why would a resident of a taxpayer funded $250,000 townhouse have any incentive to get educated and obtain a job that would make them ineligible to live in that townhouse?

This gated oasis was built with 8 retail stores totaling 7,400 square feet. The government drones were sure that if they built it they would come. It is now two years after opening and I’m sorry to say – NO ONE CAME. All 8 storefronts are empty. Not one West Philly entrepreneur has stepped forward with a fantastic retail idea. Shocking!!!! Maybe someone should have realized that with a median household income of less than $20,000, Mantua will NEVER sustain a single retail store, let alone 8 stores. You have less chance of opening a successful store in Mantua than finding a female with a wedding ring or a male with a school book in West Philly.

Maybe someone should have checked out the available facts before building these 8 retail stores:

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Mantua-Philadelphia-PA.html

Some interesting tidbits:

• There are 7,854 people living in the area and 90% of them are black
• The median household income is $19,765 versus $50,000 in the U.S. (this means 50% of the households make less than $19,765)
• Only 14% of the households are occupied by married couples versus 48% in the U.S.
• 30% of the households are occupied by single mothers.
• 36% of the residents did not graduate high school, with another 35% not going further than high school.
• The average value of the decaying row houses in the neighborhood is less than $40,000.
• Over 43% of the population is living below the poverty line.
• The crime rate is three times the national average.
• The true unemployment rate is above 60%.

The statistics confirm my observations of squalor. I’ve driven past Mantua Square virtually every day since it opened. I can honestly tell you that the neighborhood has not been redeveloped or revitalized. Mantua Square is still surrounded by dilapidated, boarded up, rat infested hovels. There is no new retail. There is no community revival. A row house one block away simply collapsed during Hurricane Sandy. There are brand new union built wheel chair ramps on every corner of West Philly, paid for with the Obama stimulus funds. Of course, the sidewalks between the wheelchair ramps are crumbling, so someone in a wheelchair could never utilize them. But that’s OK. Wheel chairs are old school. I see many West Philly residents tooling around in the streets in their Hoverounds. Their practically free, don’t you know.

The local bar, next to the middle school, seems to be doing good business as there are usually 10 or 15 twenty something black men milling around outside when I pass by at 5:15 pm on my way home from work. They must accept EBT cards. Do you throw trash, garbage and beer bottles on your front lawn? The people in this neighborhood seem to think this is acceptable behavior. Monday is trash day in West Philly. This week I saw a leather couch that was nicer than my living room couch out by the curb. Last week I saw a big screen TV in the trash. I must really be doing something wrong. The amount of trash outside these low income townhouses is two to three times the amount we generate in a week.

It does appear that Obama’s subprime solution is working its magic in West Philly. How else can you explain the 20 something black man driving an $80,000 BMW 750 I saw yesterday in West Philly? I have seen the power gates of Mantua Square open and BMWs, Jaguars, and Cadillac Escalades departing. How can low income occupants afford such vehicles? The neighborhood around Mantua Square is filled with new model Lexuses, Cadillacs, and a particular favorite – Chrysler 300s. The hovels all have satellite dishes. The unemployed peeps all have cell phones.

Everything I’ve noted could not have been accomplished without the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve. The money printing of the Federal Reserve with no anchor to gold has allowed the welfare state to grow to immense proportions. It has allowed politicians to buy votes by spending taxpayer dollars on multi-million dollar Keynesian zero return albatrosses. It has allowed politicians to enslave black people on a welfare plantation of entitlements. Bernanke and his cronies reward mal-investment through their policies. They reward bad behavior (borrowing & spending), while punishing good behavior (saving and investing). West Philly is a testament to failed economic policies, government waste, lack of personal responsibility, corrupt politicians, excessive union costs, and the delusional belief that government can create economic growth. The 30 Blocks of Squalor is descending further into squalor and it will accelerate as Bernanke’s policies further destroy what remains of capitalism in this country.

 

Yo, Jacques Tous-tight, how's that "Taxing the Rich" strategy working out for you in France?

IceCap Asset Management, via Zero Hedge, relays the economic results of taxing the hell out of the rich (in this case, levying a 75 percent top rate on "the wealthy"):

...in France, the rock-star status enjoyed by the newly elected president Francois Hollande has completely vanished. In fact, over 67% of people disapprove of his handling of the economy, and this just 10 months into office. Considering the French economy is firmly entrenched in recession (see Chart 2...), exactly how Mr.Hollande plans to ignite a turn around remains unknown.

Tell me, Leftists: can you point to a single instance in all of history where raising taxes grew the economy for a substantial period of time (say, even a decade)?

And, no: Bill Clinton's record doesn't cut it. His "surplus" -- it ignored entitlements and other off-the-books spending -- was the product of a Republican House that was willing to shut down the government to stop Clinton's profligate spending. Furthermore, the gap was short-lived.

Clinton left office just as the tech bubble was imploding.

The real story behind the nineties economic boom has as much to do with Bill Clinton's leadership as Al Gore had to do with the invention of the world-wide web. Which is to say: none.

FINALLY: President Obama to decide how much money you need for your retirement

Mark Levin's been warning about this for years, ever since a Marxist crackpot was asked to testify about nationalizing retirement accounts in front of a Congressional committee.

You can think of that as showing some ankle. Now the president has hiked up the entire skirt.

Welcome to the new U.S. Socialism always has the same predictable process. Once the government collectivizes a sector then the politicos and bureaucrats get to work on "improving the system". In a private enterprise, that'd mean offering more to your customers for a cheaper price. In government, it is always the opposite, finding ways to reduce benefits for their "customers".

This is why Obamacare is and will be a disaster to anyone interested in having quality medical care and choice... Once the government uses its force to gain a monopoly on a sector like medical care then all of a sudden it now becomes everyone else's business what you do with your own body. You smoke? You should be stopped! Don't wear a seatbelt? You should be fined. Why? Because we are all paying for each other's medical care and so it now becomes everyone else's business what you do with your health because it could potentially cost them more money.

The same has been happening since the U.S. government has had a multi-decade long monopoly on retirement savings (IRAs). Since they get to make the rules they get to decide just how much is enough for your retirement and that is exactly what will be happening next week when President Obama will be releasing his budget plan which will limit how much a wealthy individual can keep in those tax-reducing IRA plans and other retirement accounts.

According to a senior administration official, wealthy taxpayers can currently “accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving"... What is the "reasonable amount" that he thinks is enough? The numbers being bandied about seem to indicate $3 million. Sounds like quite a bit, right? Well, let's look further at the proposal.

"The budget would limit an individual’s total balance across tax-preferred accounts to an amount sufficient to finance an annuity of not more than $205,000 per year in retirement, or about $3 million in 2013."

[But] if you lived in any number of states where total income taxes are over 50%, very quickly brings that number down to around $100,000... Of course, that is just the beginning of other payments to the state. Your average person with a $3 million IRA probably lives in at least a $1 million house. If that person lived in New Jersey where property tax averages 1.89% of property value, then you can take another $19,000 off of the remaining $100,000 for property tax payments to rent his own home.

Of course, there will be numerous - countless really - other taxes paid over the course of the year... gasoline tax, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes and numerous others. But, even without including those we are already below $7,000/month.

But here is the real kicker. If that person did take the $205,000/year annuity, their retirement funds would only last them fourteen years. Of course, some may state that they could and should be earning a return during that time which will extend it.

...These are the wonders of the American Dream today. It is turning into a nightmare. They have you coming and going from all sides. And then, if you manage to survive all the taxes and inflation, whatever remaining money you have left will be mostly gutted by the death tax. Yes, there is a tax to die in the land of the free. And don't try to commit suicide either. That's illegal.

And, like the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was originally designed to target only "the rich" but trapped everyone, rest assured that all Americans are in the cross-hairs. To deploy another cheesy metaphor, Obama's effort to cap retirement accounts at $3 million is the camel's nose under the tent.

This Marxist class warfare, which is provably destructive of the civil society and free enterprise, must be stopped. And if that means crushing the RINO establishment along the way, so be it.

PHOTO: The Creative Genius of the Dependency State

Spotted at Common Sense Post:


Why expend all of that energy standing in line while waiting to get your government check? Just put your flip-flops in line -- that way you get to continue sitting on your butt and playing games on your free Obamaphone.

Somone pinch me: Juan Williams actually wrote a couple of paragraphs I agree with (and I'm not running a fever)

Actually, two consecutive paragraphs with which I agree:

Almost 50 years ago, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, the national out-of-wedlock birthrate was 7%. Today it is over 40%. According to the CDC, the out-of-wedlock birthrate for white children was just 2% in the 1960s. Today it is 30%. Among black children, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has skyrocketed from 20% in the 1960s to a heartbreaking 72% today. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock rate, which has been measured for a much shorter period, was below 40% in 1990 and stands at more than 50% as of the 2010 census.


When President Obama tried to speak to this crippling dynamic in 2008, he was basically told to shut up by Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Chicago-based activist said: "Barack was talking down to black people," then he added a vulgar threat about what he wanted to do in response. The moment revealed the high cost of speaking honestly about social breakdown in black America.

One of these days, Williams may even admit that we lost the "War on Poverty."

The inevitable result of amoral, secular progressivism: Half of all first children born out of wedlock

This story is flat out shocking.

...for the first time in history the median age of American women having babies is lower than the median age of marriage – 25.7 and 26.5, respectively ... 48 percent of first births are by unwed mothers, and by age 30 two-thirds of American women have had a child, typically out of wedlock.

What legacy media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) won't tell you is this shocking fact: easy access to welfare is helping spur the record number of out-of-wedlock births. The more the welfare state provides, the more kids are born out of wedlock.

There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock births. One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Worse still, children raised in single-parent households are far more likely to commit crimes and end up incarcerated than their peers raised by both a Mother and a Father.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

In 1995, Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers... Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

Obama and his Democrat sycophants are creating a lost generation of children -- heavily tilted toward Black and Hispanic kids -- needlessly condemning them to a culture of dependency, crime and violence.

With Obama in charge, these poor kids never had a chance.


Related: How We Lost the War on Poverty.

Cyprus: The Canary in the Coal Mine?

Henry Blodget, for once in his life, may be on to something here:

...Some of Cyprus's banks, like many banks in Europe, are bankrupt... Cyprus went to the eurozone to get a bailout, the same way Ireland, Greece, and other European countries have.

The eurozone powers-that-be (mainly Germany) gave Cyprus a bailout and insisted that the depositors in Cyprus's banks pay part of the tab — a startling condition that has never before been imposed on any major banking system since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.

The deal did not touch the bondholders. Why the depositors? These are folks who had their money in the banks for safe-keeping.

When Cyprus's banks reopen on Tuesday morning, every depositor will have some of his or her money seized. The current plan is that accounts under 100,000 euros will have 6.75% of the funds seized. Accounts over 100,000 euros will have 9.9% seized. And then the eurozone's emergency lending facility and the International Monetary Fund will inject 10 billion euros into the banks to allow them to keep operating.

...Not surprisingly, news that deposits in Cyprus's banks would be seized triggered an immediate run on the banks... Depositors rushed to ATMs and tried to withdraw their money before it could be seized. But the ATMs weren't working. And the government has now made it impossible to transfer money out of the country.

...ever since the Great Depression wiped out a big percentage of the world's banks, vaporizing the bank depositors' savings in the process, banking system regulators have tried to do everything they can to protect bank depositors... Because the moment depositors think that there is risk to their savings, they rush to banks to yank their money out.

That's called a run on the bank. And since no bank anywhere has enough cash on hand to pay off all its depositors at once, runs on the bank cause banks to go bust.

...now, thanks to the eurozone's bizarre decision in Cyprus, the illusion that depositors don't need to yank their money out of threatened banks because they'll be protected has been shattered... Depositors in Cyprus banks will lose some of their money. They will be furious about this. And they will, rightly, feel that it is grossly unfair — because depositors in the bailed-out banks in Ireland, Greece, etc. didn't lose their money. And they will feel like fools for not having taken their money out.

...Other depositors at weak banks all over Europe, in places like Spain, Italy, and Greece, will rightly wonder whether this is the beginning of a new era of bank bailouts, an era in which bank depositors are going lose some of their money. What do you think those other depositors in Spain, Italy, Greece, etc., are going to feel like doing when they realize that, if their banks ever need a bailout, they might have their deposits seized?

...Well, then, a good portion of Europe might suddenly experience a good old-fashioned bank run. That, to put it mildly, could be a disaster. It could bring the European financial crisis, which has lurched from one flare-up to another for most of the past five years, to a rather sudden head.

Econoblogger Karl Denninger says that Cyprus is a preview of coming attractions for those of us in the United States.

And he asserts that our Cyprus event will occur within two years. Because the laws of mathematics always trump those of politics.


Image hat tips: Zero Hedge (top) and NBC News.

MARK LEVIN TRANSCIPT: What happens when the system collapses?

A caller to Thursday's Mark Levin Show [MP3] had an interesting question regarding the inevitable result of Barack Obama's record-setting deficits.

Curtis: We talk about all of this out-of-control spending, we have the CBO reports, the GAO, the Medicare Trustees, I mean how much time do we really have before...

Levin: Well, the Social Security Trustees report that we have only 11 years, that's all.

Curtis: But the government... the government bubble... the government collapse?

Levin: It's hard to know. Hard to know, but at some point... you can see, Curtis, how they're struggling now. They're having to do these little Continuing Resolutions, they have to lie about how much we're in debt and the yearly deficit.

You can see that they're in full cover-up mode like Ponzi or Madoff. But it's hard to know exactly when [it all comes crumbling down]...

Curtis: What will this collapse look like [when it occurs]? What will we experience?

Levin: I can give some indicators. I don't know exactly what it will look llike. But some indicators will be:

- the seizing of assets... oh, they'll say it's done legally, to get "the rich", to close some "unfair loophole". Including, I believe, and I've talked about this extensively, 401(k) plans and private pensions. There's trillions of dollars sitting there and, in the view of the government, you have that money sitting there because they gave you certain tax advantages that they choose to take away.

- also in terms of programs the government offers, those programs will dry up. You'll start to see that.

- you'll start to see hyper-inflation, where the Fed -- through monetary policy -- will try to keep apace with [Obama's] disastrous fiscal policies.

- you'll see promises that the government made, such as Social Security and Medicare, start to disappear.

What you'll see in a more theoretical sense is a breakdown in the social contract. You'll see that all of these welfare programs were not social service and insurance programs, those were just facades. So all of the false premises and pretexts that were used to develop these massive entitlements, all of the borrowing and printing, will have an enormously devastating effect on our financial system.

And what is our financial system? What is the currency? The currency is not just a means of exchange. It represents the fruits of your labor. It's your paycheck. It's your savings. It's your pension. It's your investment. It's what you use to purchase food and clothing and the basics, energy. The government's in charge of the currency. The government's in charge of valuing it devaluing it.

And so my point is, you will see signs... of more and more aggressive central government... this is one of the reasons you hear me, on and on and on, attack class warfare. Because it's not about class warfare. If they can break down the most successful and productive elements of our society, they're going to break you down.

And when they break you down, you're going to ask for help. From whom? The government. Not all of you, but you get the point. When the thing begins to unravel, it collapses.

I'm not Nostradamus here, but the Constitution was set up the way it was set up to prevent this sort of thing. The people in public office today, the president, almost all of the members of his party in DC, reject limited constitutional government.

The lessons of Argentina are especially relevant.


Thanks to Biff Spackle for the transcript.

What the Democrat Party Told Me

They told me that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons would turn our streets into rivers of blood.

They told me that taking trillions of dollars from the successful and giving it to those "who truly needed it" would cure poverty.

They told me that giving home loans to those who couldn't afford them would make the American dream achievable for all.

They told me that paying into the Social Security "Trust Fund" would guarantee a comfortable retirement for everyone.

They told me that allowing teachers to unionize in public schools would help inner city students reach for the stars.

They told me that the federal government could run a guaranteed, affordable health care program for seniors forever.

They told me that the new employment paradigm consisted of millions of "green jobs".

They told me that their support for immoral and criminal behavior wouldn't result in the breakdown of the two-parent family.

They told me that spending trillions on Stimulus programs would heal a damaged economy.

They told me that raising taxes on corporations and "the rich" would create more jobs.

They told me that our borders were "as secure as they've ever been".

They told me that intentionally restricting access to our own sources of energy would reduce dependence on foreign oil.

They told me that recklessly spreading unemployment benefits and food stamps would jump-start the economy.

They told me that, in spite of the VA and the Indian Health Service, they could successfully run the entire American health care system.

They told me that their record-breaking borrowing could never result in a downgrade of the United States' AAA credit rating.

They told me that "the Constitution doesn't matter".

They told me that the Constitution has to change with the times.

They told me that I exist to serve the government and not the other way around.

They told me that anyone who opposes their unconstitutional, reckless and failed policies are racists.

Well, I'm here to tell you:

Everything they told me was a lie.

Everything they told me was wrong.

Intentionally, diabolically, criminally wrong.

And if we don't begin to turn back the tide of centralized government, if we don't politically obliterate the Democrat Party, this beautiful Republic, this magnificent country, this bastion of free enterprise and private property rights, this shining city on a hill... well, it will be finished.


Related: Don't cry for me, America.

GEE, WHICH ONE WILL SAVE THE COUNTRY FROM FISCAL COLLAPSE? Chart Compares House and Senate Budgets

The Statist kook Patty Murray hardest hit:

This week, the budget committees of both chambers of Congress released their budgets ahead of President Obama’s budget—marking the first time in 92 years that Congress kicked off the budget process instead of the President...


The House budget, under the helm of Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI), delivers a balanced budget in 10 years by slowing the annual growth in federal spending from a projected 5 percent to 3.4 percent...

...The Senate budget, under the helm of Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D–WA), makes no attempt at balancing the budget—ever. Instead, the Senate budget would ramp up spending immediately and raise taxes yet higher while continuing chronic deficits that rise higher in later years. The Senate budget would leave the nation even worse off beyond the 10-year budget window by failing to curb the growth in entitlement spending.

Medicare is the fastest-growing entitlement program, and Obamacare’s newest entitlements—the Medicaid expansion and health care subsidies—dramatically worsen federal health care spending, increasing it by now $1.8 trillion over a decade. And yet the Senate budget does nothing to correct course.

Of course not. The Democrats are like lemmings, following their Pied Piper and marching us off the cliff in lockstep and right into a fiscal abyss.

Their strategy is called "Cloward-Piven Government" and it translates to the economic destruction of America.

The Saddest Chart in America

I forget: is this going to be the third or fourth annual "Summer of Recovery"?

Record Dow Jones, record US debt ($16,701,846,937,879.74), and now, once more, record number of Americans on foodstamps. According to the USDA, an all time high of 47,791,966 Americans closed 2012 in possession of the highly desired Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, managed by who else but JPMorgan. And with a civilian non-institutional population of 244.4 million in December, this means that a record 19.56% of eligible Americans are on Foodstamps.

In December an additional 109,924 Americans became reliant on foodstamps for their poverty-level needs, bringing the total to 47.8 million.

Interesting, as well, that the Chase website has been inaccessible for much of the day, but its EBT (electronic benefits transfer, aka welfare) card portal is working jest fine, thanks.


To recap: the country is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar it spends, it has expanded food-stamp benefits to nearly 1 out of 5 residents (including millions of illegal aliens), and the only things the Obama administration can find to cut are White House tours and national defense.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Seniors who paid into Medicare see benefits slashed to pay for those who haven't contributed a nickel

Conservatives have warned of this scenario since the cluster known as Obamacare was rammed through Congress in 2010. For a demagogue who continually hectors Americans about "fairness", it is indeed ironic that those who paid into Medicare are having their benefits slashed in order to subsidize those who've contributed nothing. We call that unfair.

[It loves to talk about the Sequester, but] the Obama administration doesn’t want to talk about its own devastating cuts in Medicare. On Friday, February 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced $716 billion in cuts over the next ten years. Instead of being put toward the debt, most of the money will go toward a new entitlement: Obamacare’s vast expansion of coverage for the uninsured.

Where Obama is cutting is telling. At least half of the savings will come out of Medicare Advantage, under which a full 28 percent of seniors buy privately managed health insurance that often includes added benefits such as vision and dental care or chronic-illness management. In exchange, patients agree to stay within a medical network, which helps insurance companies manage their costs. The program is most popular with Hispanics and African Americans. A study by CMS found that 38 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of African Americans on Medicare were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, compared with 27 percent of whites...

To add cynicism to injury, the Obama administration postponed the Medicare Advantage cuts until after the 2012 election, using a slush fund to tide the program over and conceal the true costs of Obamacare to seniors.

The cuts are so much larger than expected that health-care stocks tanked across the board after they were announced. Managed-care analyst Carl McDonald told clients in an e-mail that Obamacare’s reducing payments to private-plan providers “would turn almost every plan in the industry unprofitable.” The Congressional Budget Office projects that the payment cuts will result in an enrollment drop of 3 million for Medicare Advantage.

...Obamacare will relentlessly restrict the choices seniors have by forcing them into traditional Medicare with all of its attendant contradictions, restrictions, and waste [and] the media are ignoring the Obama administration’s bigger, more brazen threat to vulnerable American seniors.

Obamacare represents the greatest redistribution of wealth in America since LBJ's colossal failure known as "Great Society".

Obamacare has nothing at all to do with your health. As Landmark Legal Foundation's Amicus Curiae brief in the abysmal Supreme Court decision observed (for which the name John Roberts will live in infamy), this despicable, unconstitutional law "forever changes the relationship between the individual and the government."

Obamacare is about control over the you -- the individual -- and your mental and physical well-being. It is a tool of tyrants.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Democrats Never Leave Home Without It

I refer, of course, to the ubiquitous Obamacard.


It's all in fun, until someone actually has to pay for this mess.


Hat tip: Wanda.