Category Archives: Corruption

Sanity Prevails (for once) – Crazy Airline Subsidy Ends

Posted on by Standard 2

airplane dropping moneyLast December you witnessed my rant about the ridiculous airline subsidies for “Essential Air Service” for small Montana cities.  I facetiously thanked you taxpayers for chipping in $3,652 for my (and every) 120-mile flight from Lewistown to Billings.

Apparently ridership increased from 1 passenger per day to 1.5, so the annual subsidy turned out to be just over $2,000 per passenger.  But here’s the good news:   Today the Associated Press reported that the Essential Air Service subsidies for Lewistown and Miles City are no more.  Unfortunately, the subsidies for the other Montana small cities were left in place.

Hooray!  Chalk up one small victory for the taxpayers!

Now, how many other wasteful, fraudulent, unproductive, and obsolete federal government programs are out there?  Hey, I know . . . let’s look first over at the IRS, who spent $4 million on a conference for 2,600 government workers, but can’t seem to figure out how to collect over $1 billion in past due taxes from federal govt. employees (did ya ever hear of payroll deduction?)

Maybe we should look into the estimated $2.5 billion in food stamp fraud, or the $1.5 billion spent for ObamaPhones.  Senator Coburn found $18 billion totally wasted in 2012 without breaking a sweat.  And then there’s ObamaCare.

I have applied for one of those government grants so I can do a study:  “Why does the federal government waste our taxpayer dollars?”  The report would be pretty short, so I only asked for a million dollar grant.  But just in case my grant request doesn’t come through, I’ll give you a sneak preview of my findings.  The federal government wastes your money because: it isn’t their money.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

That ain’t workin’.  That’s the way you do it.
Let me tell ya, them guys ain’t dumb.

Get money for nothin’, and chicks for free.

Money for Nothing – Dire Straits

Classic rock by an all-star cast – Mark Knopfler, Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton.  Notice they left out all the politically-incorrect words.  Wimps!

Livin’ In a Land Down Under

Posted on by Standard 2

kangaroosI spent a day with some friends from Australia last weekend.  It’s sad to say, but they were more engaged in and knowledgeable about American politics and economics than most fellow Yankees I meet.

We had riveting discussions comparing the political and economic situations of our two countries.  One thing became obvious right away – wage rates “down under” far exceed ours.  While the Aussie dollar and the American dollar are near parity, Australian laborers earn $25 or more per hour, while the norm in my American city seems to be about $12 per hour.  Australian professionals appear to earn considerably more than Americans do as well, but taxes take a pretty healthy bite, and prices are high on some items.

Our three guests were all government employees, yet they were very fiscally conservative.  One was a nurse who works for a government-owned and operated health care system.  She explained that citizens who purchase private health insurance can choose their own (presumably superior) doctors and care facilities.  No one is refused care at the public hospitals.

I was surprised to learn that the unions and government are combatants in Australia.  And my friends were shocked to hear about the circle of corruption in the US, where government employees’ unions get politicians elected in exchange for favors and more government jobs.  They wondered why they had not heard about some of the issues I presented, and I explained that for many years our news media have been bedfellows with the democrats, and their reporting is rigidly slanted in that direction (with the exception of Fox News, for whom my guests had no respect).  The Aussies are not impressed with the dearth of real news here, lamenting that they never hear their nation even mentioned in the media.

When we expressed our concerns about vote fraud in recent elections, especially in Montana, they described how their election system requires each citizen to vote – and failure to do so results in a hefty fine.  “We don’t use voting machines, it’s all done manually under great scrutiny,” we were told.

They weren’t pleased that their current prime minister, Julia Gillard of the Labor Party, was not elected by the people.  She assumed office in 2010 when her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, was ousted as the Labor Party leader.  “And she won’t be elected this September, either!”  they announced with firm resolve.  It bothered me greatly that until our visit I didn’t even know who the leader of Australia is.

We shared common concerns about the leftward (and downward) drift in education, and the over-reaching environmental movement.  They understood our worries about illegal immigration: “You mean your immigrants don’t have national identification cards?” they asked.  Of course their border is protected by a rather large ocean.

The big eye-opener for the Aussies was our commitment to the second amendment.  At age 30, one of our guests had never seen or touched a gun.  I showed her mine, and it was as if all the oxygen was sucked out of the room.  My wife and I explained concealed carry permits, and our belief in the fundamental right to protect ourselves, our families, and our property.  They insisted that the bad guys in Australia don’t have guns, so the good guys don’t need them either.  I hope they are right about that.  In our case, unilateral disarmament would be suicidal.

Our friends are well aware of the United States’ tenuous economic condition and our stifling $16 trillion dollar debt.  We pondered where is the “best place” to be, economically and politically, in a world where trouble lurks in every corner.

“We think we have it pretty straight,” they said.  I couldn’t disagree.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Livin’ in a land down under,
Where women glow and men plunder,
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover!

Land Down Under – Men at Work

HEADLINES: 4/28/2018

Posted on by Standard Reply

Headlines from Al Jazeera BigSky –
Montana’s Number One News Source –
April 28, 2018:

    • PRESIDENT CLINTON DEFENDS “AMCARE” – President Hillary Clinton, speaking at the annual BFD (Brotherhood of Federal Doctors) union convention, defended “AmCare”, the one-year old nationalized health care system.  Fending off complaints about the elimination of heart surgery units and cancer clinics, President Clinton said, “If we had not cut off services for citizens over the age of 60, we would not be able to provide care for our 180 million underprivileged and unemployed new immigrants.”  Clinton won a landslide victory in November 2016, with 99.6% support from minority and immigrant voters, who swelled the polls after the Supreme Court ruled that requiring voters to register is unconstitutional.


    • BIKE LANES TO REPLACE MOST HIGHWAYS BY JULY –  Transportation Reduction Czar Al Gore announced yesterday the Dept. of Transportation Reduction will seize control of all U.S. bike manufacturing companies this summer, and will begin providing free bicycles for public use at all AmTrak locations.  Since fossil fuel use was banned, concerns have mounted that only the wealthiest Americans and government employees will be able to travel more than a mile from their homes.  The planned expansion of AmTrak electric train service has been stalled due to the inability to get repair parts transported to the many windmills which have become inoperative.  Gore, in a bold move, plans to convert unused highways across the country for bicycle use.  “In fulfillment of our United Nations Agenda 21 commitment to  ICLEI years ago, we will soon be a totally carbon-free nation,”  Gore said.

 

    • BRAZIL PLEDGES FOOD AID TO U.S. –  With 73% of Americans receiving food vouchers from the federal government, and farm production cut by two-thirds due to the fossil fuel ban, the food shortage in the United States has reached crisis pitch.  A coalition of South American nations, basking in their newfound wealth from development of liquefied natural gas and off-shore oil drilling, have offered to subsidize President Hillary Clinton’s AmFood program on humanitarian grounds, but only if austerity measures are put in place.  Vice-president Brian Schweitzer has been charged with heading up a task force to determine how food resources can be fairly distributed, and will provide his findings to the Food Utilization (FU) board this fall.

 

    • EDUCATION CZAR ACCUSED OF HUNTING – Al Franken, director of AmTeach, the federal education system, is under investigation by the DUH (Dept. of Urban Helplessness) after it was revealed that Franken owns a cabin hidden deep in the mountains of Montana.  Accused of possessing a gun and shooting wild game for food during the 8-month government holiday recess, Franken said, “I was just doing research.”

 

    • BLOGGER DEFIES MANDATORY RETIREMENT – Blogger Tom Balek, a long-time critic of the expansion of government and defender of the Constitution, vowed to continue his work, despite having long passed the mandatory bloggers’ retirement age of 50.  “People ask me why, at age 64, I’m still blogging,” Balek said in a recent interview.  “It’s the money, man.  I just can’t resist making all that money.”

 



Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
Will you still need me?
Will you still feed me?
When I’m sixty-four?

When I’m Sixty-Four – the Beatles

Watch my favorite guitar player – Tommy Emmanuel from Australia – AMAZING!

If I Had a Million Dollars, I’d Live Like a Retired Govt. Worker

Posted on by Standard 9

Richie_Rich_comic_No_1As a kid I thought it must really be something to be a millionaire.  We read “Richie Rich” comic books and imagined how cool it would be to live in a mansion, with servants and cooks and an indoor swimming pool.

Of course, it was the impossible dream.  Only a rare few Americans could ever be that rich, and they were born to wealthy families.  Still, back then, life was good for most Americans.  Dads went to work, paid the bills, bought modest homes and Chevies, and took the family on a summer road trip to Mount Rushmore.  Moms stayed home, raised the 2.1 kids, attended PTA meetings, and always had a hot, healthy meal ready when Dad came home from work.

What happened?

A million bucks sure isn’t what it used to be.  With CDs paying maybe 1% interest at best, those who worked hard and saved a million dollars can now look forward to a retirement income of – wow – $10,000 a year.  Add that to social security income, of course, but still.   No indoor swimming pool.  No servants.

And it’s not like there are other investment opportunities for retirees.   The only guys making money in the stock market are the hedge fund operators and the machine traders buying and selling at the speed of light.  Municipal bonds pay a couple percent and are tax free – oh that’s right, most city and county governments are bankrupt.

There is one group of really wealthy American retirees.   Retired unionized government workers get guaranteed pensions.  Most receive over $60,000 per year.  There are many government employees who toiled for 25 or 30 hard years, sometimes even working over 35 hours per week behind a hard, cold desk with only 7 weeks of vacation and 15 holidays off each year.  Poor souls, at retirement they must make do with $100k per year plus full medical benefits.

Do the math.  In order to pay a retired teacher $60k per year, we American taxpayers are putting up $6 million at 1% interest.  The retired county engineer who receives a $100k pension requires a taxpayer investment of $10 million to fund his checks.

In an economy where many moms and dads both work long hours and are barely able to feed their families, let alone save anything for retirement, it’s hard to feel sorry for government employees who will retire with multi-million dollar nest eggs.

When I see a headline like this:

Obama Sequester Speech: Republicans Are Putting Economy At Risk To Help The Wealthy

I shake my head in amazement at the level of deceit our President and his followers continue to get away with.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to walk to the store
If I had a million dollars
We’d take a limousine cause it costs more
If I had a million dollars
We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner

If I Had A Million Dollars – Barenaked Ladies

How Do You Do It, Max Baucus?

Posted on by Standard 5

baucusMax Baucus has represented Montana in the U.S. Senate since 1978, and has been re-elected six times.  He plans to run again next year.

Baucus has overcome a slew of criticisms to maintain his grip on the biggest pot of money on planet Earth.  Critics say Baucus has lost touch with Montana, doesn’t live there, and rarely visits the state he represents.   I believe voters cut him some slack on that one.  His work is in the nation’s capital, and it makes sense that he should have a home there.  Still, many Montanans are concerned that 91% of his previous campaign funds came from out-of-state sources.

Max’s personal morals have also been called into question, including lurid stories in the national press of divorces and infidelity, jobs for girlfriends, and crony capitalism.  The video of Baucus’ apparently-inebriated speech on the Senate floor has 2 million YouTube hits.  Defenders say he was just “tired” – watch the video and judge for yourself.  But Bill Clinton lowered the threshold of voter pain on skanky behavior, and Barack Obama has established crony paybacks as an acceptable primary fundraising strategy in the expensive world of national politics.  The “Foster Brooks” impersonation was avoided by the mainstream media.  Montanans might believe lapses in personal ethics can be overlooked if their congressman votes right.

Montanans should be alarmed, however, when Baucus’ votes and considerable influence run counter to their principles.  Responses from the last five years of Montana Chamber of Commerce surveys indicate:

    • 64% (5-yr. avg.) of Montana voters say our national economy is on the ‘wrong track’, versus 23% ‘right track’, with chronic unemployment, anemic GDP growth, and irreparable debt and deficits.  All that time Senator Baucus has been at the helm of Senate committees including Finance, Taxation, IRS Oversight, Long-term Growth,  Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth, and Deficit Reduction.  The Senate has not passed a budget for four years, and looks as if they never will.


    • While Montanans’ top financial concern continues to be health care costs,  Senator Baucus led the charge for ObamaCare, despite knowing it would raise taxes on Americans, damage Medicare, and add to the national debt and deficits.  He has always been tight with “Big-Pharma” lobbyists, and remains one of the leading recipients of political contributions from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies.


    • A solid majority of Montanans have unfavorable opinions of environmental groups, labor unions, and trial lawyers.  Baucus supported unpopular global warming legislation, the unions salivate over the millions of new members they will gain thanks to his health care reform plans, and trial lawyers shovel endless money to Baucus campaigns in exchange for avoiding tort reform in Max’s health care bills.

With all of this baggage, and Baucus’ apparent disdain for Montana voters, how does he keep getting re-elected?

Is it the huge sums of money required for an opponent to even consider going toe-to-toe with the well-connected incumbent Senator? (He has already amassed a $3 million war chest for the the next go-around.)

Is it the decades of pork he has funneled to his state? (Montana receives $1.47 back from the federal government for every dollar it pays in taxes.)

Is it his personal charm and boyish good looks? (Women do tend to vote for Democrats.)

It’s time for good conservatives (some of whom are Republicans) to start a serious search for a Senate contender who does not have personal baggage, who can win the hearts and minds of those with financial means, and who is serious about a calling higher than re-election.

Can anybody displace Max Baucus?  It just doesn’t seem like it should be that hard.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

How do you do what you do to me?
I’m feeling blue.
Wish I knew how you do it to me,
But I haven’t a clue.

How Do You Do It? – Gerry and the Pacemakers
(also recorded by the Beatles)
Here’s a great video of one of the most under-rated musicians (Gerry Marsden) and bands (the Pacemakers) of the sixties and the British Invasion. Enjoy!

Do Our Leaders Really Care?

Posted on by Standard 3

men_confusedobama_confused2reid_confused



Listening to the media and to our political leaders one would think it is impossible to straighten out our nation’s fiscal mess, and that we, our children, and our grandchildren are doomed to mediocrity for decades to come.   Oh, they want to help us, they “feel our pain”, but the task is just too difficult.

Hogwash.

If our federal government really wanted to cut spending and reduce the debt and deficits, they would immediately:

  • Sell all of the excess, obsolete and unused federal property, including land, buildings, military bases and equipment.  Where does our constitution authorize the federal government to buy up all this private land, anyway?
  • Compensate federal employees similarly to comparable private sector employees – reasonable pay rates, raise the retirement age,  replace defined benefit pensions with 401(k) plans, require full forty-hour weeks, and implement the same social security and health care treatment as taxpayers have.  Government-sector unions must be eliminated because the pay-for-play election scam is irretrievably corrupt and imperils democracy.
  • Pay senators and representatives each $1 million per year, and make them responsible for all of their own costs – staffing, transportation, office expenses, mailing, etc.  If they want to take a “fact-finding” junket to Tahiti, have a girlfriend in Brazil, or travel home every weekend, they can pay for it themselves.  Term limits might not hurt either.
  • Outsource most of the costs of government to co-ops made up of top private companies.  Social security and welfare fraud would be zero if administered by IBM and Visa.  Defense contractors have proved they work better together than they do in competition.  With co-ops, the winning private companies will regulate each other.
  • Establish a real, non-partisan budget and cost management department, led by private-sector experts and technicians instead of political lackeys and cronies.  Pay commissions to those who find corruption, and prosecute the offenders.
  • Implement zero-based or priority-based budgeting.  Start every department and program at zero and require true cost justification for all expenditures every annual or bi-annual cycle.  Same process for entitlements – disability and unemployment must be verified.  Eliminate unnecessary, duplicative and obsolete departments.
  • Replace unemployment compensation and most direct welfare payments with honest work projects.  No work, no money.
  • Tie all foreign aid and investment to our own national interests.  Not one dollar to nations or despots whose actions are damaging to the US.  That includes the United Nations.
  • Simplify the tax code and work with businesses instead of against them.
  • Eliminate the EPA and make the United States the energy provider to the world – aggressively develop natural gas and liquefied natural gas as an alternative to oil.  Abandon the infaturation with ridiculously inefficient wind and solar energy and pour our efforts and investments into the efficient use of proven energy sources.

I could go on.  Maybe some of these ideas have holes, or need development.  Surely there are many more opportunities – bigger and better ones.  But if you and I can discuss many methods of improving our government’s performance, why can’t our leaders talk about it?

Do they really want to solve the problem?  Are they actually interested in reducing the drag of bloated government on our economy?  Obviously, no.  Otherwise they would be doing it.

So the only remaining solution is to replace all the self-serving charlatans with motivated leaders who ARE interested.  And the only way that will happen is if we can educate and win the majority of Americans who currently don’t get it or don’t care – our neighbors, our friends, and any stranger on the street whom we can engage.

Time is of the essence.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Whatever happened
To all the good times we used to have
The times we cried and laughed
I wanna know, I wanna know

Don’t You Care? – the Buckinhams

Corruption In Big Sky Country – the COPP

Posted on by Aside 4

COPPOnly in Montana could the incumbent ruling party be judge, jury and executioner of any candidate from the other side who dares to run against them.

The Montana Commission of Political Practices – COPP (or as I call them, the Corrupt Office of Partisan Politics) must be blown up and redesigned.  The first step is to approve House Bill HJ1, which calls for “an interim study of the structure and duties of the office of the Commission Of Political Practices.”  Failing a reorganization, the legislature must refuse to re-confirm political hack Jim Murry as commissioner.

The COPP is charged with administering Montana’s laws and regulations pertaining to ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.   That sounds like a noble and necessary function.  The problem is, the commissioner is appointed by, and serves at the behest of, the incumbent governor.  Current commissioner Jim Murry was appointed by Governor Brian Schweitzer.  Murry, the former head of the Montana AFL/CIO, Schweitzer campaign finance chairman, and a long-time leading Democrat apparatchik, was touted by Schweitzer as having “years of labor management and bipartisan experience”.

AFL/CIO head and Schweitzer money man – that’s about as bipartisan as you can get.  What do you think are the chances any Republican accused of any transgression will get a fair shake before the COPP?

The sponsor of HJ1, JoAnne Blyton (R-HD59), expressed concern that the small COPP staff is overworked, citing the “lengthy backlogs of complaints that don’t get resolved.”

One of those many backlogged complaints was the trumped-up case against Ken Miller, 2012 Republican candidate for governor – a case study of the grotesque and transparently political antics of the COPP.

Miller is a no-nonsense guy who ran a no-frills campaign.  Unlike most candidates for the governor’s chair, Miller did not have deep-pocket political connections, or much in the way of financial support from his party.  He invested his family’s savings and put 100,000 miles on the family sedan, criss-crossing the state, shaking hands, and picking up small contributions from working-class Montanans who shared his conservative values.   His grass-roots message resonated and if he won the nomination, he would have been a serious threat to the Democrats’ gubernatorial hopes.

Early in Miller’s campaign, an ambitious political wannabe, Kelly Bishop, sought to be his running mate.  Unqualified for that position, she accepted a commissioned fund-raising job, but that, too, was beyond her ability, and she was released.  Her parting shot at Miller was a call to the COPP office to see if there was any way she could squeeze some money from the campaign on her way out.  Commissioner Murry smelled blood and invited Bishop to “file a complaint”, even though she had no specific allegations.

Murry then launched his attack on Miller, alleging violations that were all either disproved or corrected.  All were inconsequential and would serve no purpose to Miller, even if true.

Four days before the primary election the COPP released its “findings” of unreported contributions to the press only hours after e-mailing them to Miller, who was on the road campaigning.  Before Miller even knew what happened, news outlets all over the state had reported that he was found guilty of a number of violations.

The Miller camp compared their records with the COPP’s and were shocked to find that the “missing” records were clearly displayed on the COPP’s own website.  The charges were blatantly false.

Miller held a press conference at the state Capitol, refuting every charge,and  pointing to the COPP’s own website data as proof that the allegedly missing contributions were clearly reported.  The media was largely disinterested, and only one correspondent mentioned the event.  Murry’s tactic had succeeded – the damage was done.

The next day Murry said that if the Miller campaign could prove their defense, he would retract the charges.  Miller threatened legal action, but nothing could restore the voters’ confidence only one day before the primary.  It was the old “October surprise” trick.

In the aftermath, Murry retracted all of his first findings, and issued a new set of allegations, equally untrue and/or insignificant.  He did not question or sanction any other candidates, although their reports contained errors and violations, according to the COPP’s website.   Murry made a half-hearted offer of settlement, but the amount of the fine was so unaffordable, and the stench of the corruption so pungent, that Miller found no alternative to filing suit against the COPP and Murry.

41 states currently have political practices commissions which are operated in non-partisan fashion. Let’s hope 2013 is the year that Montana joins them.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Liar, Liar
Pants on fire!
Your nose is longer than
A telephone wire!

Garage band classic – Liar, Liar by the Castaways

Govt. Spending Priority List – It’s Upside Down!

Posted on by Standard Reply

upside-downYou might think our free-spending government does not have a priority list.  From all appearances, once they have spent on an item or a program, they will continue to spend on that item or program forever – adding new items and programs to the list, but never removing any.

If we taxpayers wrote a priority list, at the top would be the things that are most important to us, and at the bottom we would put the porky programs that don’t accomplish anything, are obsolete, are wasteful or are flat-out fraudulent.  If we needed to cut the budget, we would go to the bottom of the list and start whacking away.  The stuff at the top would be protected.

The government priority list is the same as ours, except upside-down.  Whenever taxpayers balk at spending more money, or increasing the debt limit, the government threatens to cut the things that are most important to us:

Cut spending?  Why, we’ll have to get rid of all the teachers and firemen!  No social security, either!  And we’ll have to stop national defense completely!  Why, if we cut taxes, we can’t afford to provide any help to the disabled! 

Of course, we will have to keep funding the Essential Air Service program and subsidizing $3,652 for every airline ticket to Billings – that’s essential!   And how could we cut the subsidies to our campaign contributors in the Green Energy business?  They are broke!  They need our help!  And of course our unionized government employees are entitled to earn double the rate that taxpayers earn, for half the hours of work, and get fat guaranteed pensions at a young age.  How could we cut back there?

no_mosquito_controlWhen I lived in Topeka, KS, we had a mosquito problem every summer.  And the county government milked that baby for all it was worth.  Whenever the county wanted more money for whatever frivolous reason, they would threaten first to stop spraying for mosquitoes.  Worked like a charm.

Oh yes, the government has the same spending priority list we do.   It’s just upside down.



Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Upside down, boy, you turn me
Inside out, and round and round
Upside down, boy, you turn me
Inside out, and round and round

Upside Down – Diana Ross

Didn’t know she could dance!  Watch Diana bust a move with Michael Jackson!

Can We Forget About Electric Cars Now?

Posted on by Standard 5

kid_carWhen I was little, my dream was to have one of those battery-powered kiddie cars that I could sit in and drive around the neighborhood, waving and showing off to my friends.  Whenever we got a new Sears catalog, I would flip right to the kiddie cars.   The brightly-painted toy cars were always on one of the full-color pages,  and looked just like a real car!  I could only imagine what it would be like to be a rich kid.

The electric kiddie cars never did sell very well, because they were expensive and unreliable.  Everyone knew that they would only work for a short while and then break.  With a brand new battery, the toy cars barely had enough power to move a 40 pound kid, and even then only for a few minutes.  But they sure looked cool.

Unfortunately, nothing much has changed.

Back in October of 2009, Vice-President Joe Biden bleated his excitement over the federal subsidies granted to electric-car maker Fisker, who promised 2500 Delaware jobs and the resurrection of a mothballed GM plant:

biden“While some wanted to write off America’s auto industry, we said no.  We knew that we needed to do something different – in Delaware and all across the nation,” said Vice President Biden.  “We understood a new chapter had to be written, a new chapter in which we strengthen American manufacturing by investing in innovation.  Thanks to a real commitment by this Administration, loans from the Department of Energy, the creativity of U.S. companies and the tenacity of great state partners like Delaware – we’re on our way to helping America’s auto industry reclaim its top position in the global market.”

Today it was announced that the state of Delaware stands to lose $21 million it had committed to Fisker, and the Obama administration has been predictably quiet about how much of its $529 million loan is at risk.  It turns out that not only has there never been a car produced, the plant still stands empty, with the State of Delaware paying to keep the electricity turned on.  What a surprise.

Toyota has scrapped plans to release its new mass market e-car, the ‘eQ’.   The Chevy Volt has required massive subsidies and tax incentives to generate unit sales to the public and the government has bought many of those produced.  With cheap and seemingly limitless natural gas available in the US, why should taxpayers be forced to invest in electric-car companies when private investors won’t?  And why should taxpayers pay $7,500 to $10,000 to every buyer of a Volt – especially when the average income of Chevy Volt buyers is $170,000 per year?  Is this the administration’s idea of “fairness”?

The electric-vehicle debacle is only a tiny portion of the Green agenda promoted by the Obama administration, and which continues to be their corruption-vehicle of choice.  A scam was just revealed by the CBC in which a train loaded with bio-fuels toodled around crossing in and out of Canada 24 times and playing Chinese-fire-drill with its cars, without ever unloading a drop of product.  It seems that every time the train crossed the border it was given brownie points under an EPA program, which it can sell for millions of dollars to other carriers.

According to the Washington Post, a US Treasury investigation of the Obama’s clean energy program revealed a cesspool of corruption:

(Townhall.com) After an exhaustive analysis of thousands of memos, company records and internal e-mails about Obama’s green-technology spending program, the Washington Post concluded that it was “infused with politics” at every level of the decision-making process. Political considerations dominated the White House’s deal-making and all too often overruled warnings that billions of tax dollars would be lost on shaky energy projects that should never have been approved.  “Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers,” the newspaper reported at the time.

At a time when it is universally understood that our nation can not survive another four years of drunken-sailor spending, can’t we put this Green Energy nonsense to bed once and for all?  And couldn’t we solve a major portion of our economic woes by eliminating the EPA?

We all know only the rich kids can afford electric cars anyway.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side

Here in my car,
I know I’ve started to think
About leaving tonight,
Although nothing seems right
In cars

Cars – Gary Numan

You Paid $3,652 For My Short Flight. Thanks!

Posted on by Standard 7

Silver Airlines*update 6/13/2013 – common sense prevails as Essential Air Service subsidies for Lewistown and Miles City are finally cancelled! 

 

Thank you, taxpayers!

I just booked a flight from Lewistown to Billings.   I fly frequently out of Billings, and usually I just drive to the airport – it’s only a two-hour trip.  I often stay overnight at a Billings hotel so I can leave my vehicle there until my return, because long-term parking at the airport is pretty expensive.  But last week I read in our local paper that we are only averaging one passenger per day through our Lewistown airport.  That’s one passenger for two flights in and two flights out.  Per day.  Kind of embarrassing.

So I thought I would check it out.  My airfare was only $71!  Heck, I would spend that on gas taking my truck to Billings and back, plus I would have to pay for a hotel or parking.  Why not?

How, you may ask, can air transportation from a little town like Lewistown be such a bargain?  It’s called Essential Air Service.   You wonderful taxpayers subsidize our tiny airline to make sure we don’t have to buy gas from a greedy privately-owned gas station and spend money at some evil, profit-hungry privately-owned hotel.  It’s one of those programs that our federal government says we just can’t live without.   In fact, they absolutely must raise our taxes because programs like this are . . . well, essential.

I am just overwhelmed at your generosity.  I looked up the Essential Air Service subsidy for Lewistown to see how much you are paying for my trip.   Let’s see, the most recent annual contract provides a $1,325,733 subsidy to Silver Airlines for serving Lewistown.  One passenger per day for 365 days, that’s about 365 passengers per year . . .  hmm, according to my simple math, you taxpayers are paying about $3,632 for my short trip to Billings.

Denny Rehberg and Jon Tester and Max Baucus are all big supporters of Essential Air Service.   Some other stingy Congressmen tried to shut down the program, but your Montana buddies don’t have any problem with you guys paying $3,632 for me to fly to Billings.   Oh, plus $3,632 when I return.  I mean after all, heh heh heh . . . it’s not their money!

So thanks again, I’ll be thinking of you as I glide over the Rimrocks into Billings-Logan airport to make my connecting flight.  You know, the Rimrocks sure are pretty, you can look right over the fiscal cliff . . .

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right SideGimme a ticket for an aeroplane
I ain’t got time to take a fast train
Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home
My baby just wrote me a letter!
I don’t care how much money I gotta spend
Got to get back to my baby again
Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home
My baby just wrote me a letter!

The Letter – by the Box Tops