“That’s Crazy!!!” – More Chronicles from the VA Chapter 6

I-CareI promised a follow-up article after Chapter 5; it took me the better part of 48 hours to cool down sufficiently to write coherently to effect an update.  On 18 March 2002, I wrote about an appointment with my Primary Care Provider (PCP) being tardy, unprepared, and bureaucratese in supposedly holding a phone appointment with me.  01 April 2022, not an “April Fools Joke,” at 0731 hours, lasting 9 minutes, my PCP called me to get my approval to have me changed from her PACT team to another provider’s team.  Apparently, in the highly red taped world of PCPs at the El Paso VAHCS, there must be an hour-long handoff call when a provider initiates a change of PACT team.  I have my doubts and smell designed incompetence!

Let me pause here for a moment.  I generally need two hours to write an article after conducting research.  18 March 2002, it took a bit longer to draft that one due to the need to blow off steam with some choice words and choke down the urge to beat a few brick walls with my fists.  I am generally a very controlled person, and the fact that this PCP was so stunningly incompetent, rude, and HIPAA clueless, I admit I lost my cherub-like demeanor!  That the patient advocate was able to get my secure message, upload the comments into the electronic medical record, and contact the provider before the provider had even logged the patient notes, speaks volumes about the ineptitude of the PCP.  Worse, in the call on 01 April, the PCP was still on speakerphone, still disregarding HIPAA security, and quoted lines out of context from my message to the patient advocate.  Speaking volumes about the processes and procedures of the patient advocate’s office to investigate patient claims without breaching confidentiality.  Another topic for another day entirely!PACT_model

28 March 2022, I received the following from the patient advocates office, quoted completely:

We have received your secure message addressing your concerns.  I will be sending a Patient Advocate Tracking notification with your concerns to our Primacy Care Service for review.  They will be contacting you via telephone to discuss your concerns.”

I never heard anything from this mysterious “Primary Care Service” group/team.  01 April 2022 was the first response, and that was from the PCP.  Sourcing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), the PCP is the second most important member of the Patient-Aligned Care Teams (PACT) at the VA; the patient is the essential member and an actively engaged and knowledgeable patient is preferred.  I promise the VA-OIG has not even scratched the surface of the problems with recalcitrant, snowflake, and bureaucratic PCPs endangering patient health with the VA.  Not my first run-in with an inept PCP; I sincerely hope it is my last!PACT 3

In returning to the 01 April call, we find another interesting piece of data.  The PCP affirmed that abdominal pain could radiate from, say a hernia, to other parts of the abdomen, but this is for a specialist to diagnose, not a Family Practitioner.  Get that; the PCP is directly reversing all the published documentation by the VA and the VA-OIG by declaring that a specialist is the only person who can adequately decipher and detail why pain is occurring—putting all the PCPs in the VA Health Administration under the bus as merely button pushers and drug dealers.  Then the PCP has the temerity, nay the chutzpah, to suggest a trust deficiency existing between myself and the PCP.  Is it any wonder that people are detested, forlorn, melancholy, madder than a wet chicken with a raging case of hemorrhoids with the care they receive from VA healthcare providers?

Again, I repeat, only for emphasis, when any updates arrive on this issue, I will publish them in their entirety to allow the VA the opportunity to rebut, refute, or explain.  Like the ongoing saga with VISN 22, the Phoenix VAMC, and being arrested and injured three times by the VA Police, I am not holding my breath and awaiting a logical response.  If this were the only problem in the two weeks since the PCP shenanigans, the VA would be in pretty good shape.  Alas, we know, dear readers, that the VA is in dire condition, and the elected leaders need to be scrutinizing the VA a LOT more closely than they are.VA 3

We begin the latest chapter of VA-OIG reports with yet another physician bilking the government:

Robert Clay Smith, a Louisiana physician, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, wire fraud, and illegal remunerations (taking kickbacks).  According to court documents, the scheme, which ran from 2013 until 2017, involved individuals associated with a medical supply and billing company recruiting Smith to dispense pain creams and patches to his workers’ compensation patients by offering him a split of the profits.  The company acted as the billing agent for Smith, handling all the paperwork and submitting the allegedly fraudulent claims to the US Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, and private insurers.  In exchange, the company paid Smith 50 to 55 percent of the profits collected from successfully billing insurers, at markups of 15 to 20 times what the medications cost.”

Plus the following:

Robert Schneiderman of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, admitted to participating in a massive compounded-medication kickback scheme that he and others ran out of a pharmacy in Clifton, New Jersey.  Schneiderman pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute.  From 2014 through 2016, Schneiderman and his coconspirators used Main Avenue Pharmacy, a mail-order pharmacy with a storefront in New Jersey, to run a fraud and kickback scheme involving compounded drugs like scar creams, pain creams, migraine mediation, and vitamins.  Schneiderman was the president of Main Avenue Pharmacy and was a founder and CEO of its corporate parent.  Main Avenue Pharmacy received over $34 million in reimbursements from healthcare benefit programs on compounded medications alone.  Approximately $8 million of that total was paid by federal payers.  Schneiderman himself earned over $400,000 through the course of the scheme.  This case was investigated by the VA OIG, FBI, Department of Defense OIG, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and Department of Health and Human Services OIG.”

Don’t forget this one:

Dr. Harry Doyle, a psychiatrist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and his wife, Sonya Doyle, have agreed to pay $3 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act.  The alleged violations include submitting false billing to the US Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) for psychiatric services that were not provided and upcoding and double-billing patient claims.  The Doyles have also agreed to be voluntarily excluded from federal healthcare programs for 25 years as part of the settlement.  This is the largest recovery against a single psychiatrist in the history of the OWCP.  A multiagency investigation of Dr. Doyle’s practice revealed that from January 2013 through April 2021, the Doyles allegedly billed for services not rendered, some of which occurred when they were not physically present in the United States.  This case was investigated by the VA OIG, the Department of Labor OIG, and the United States Postal Service OIG.”

More is coming on this one:

Ten Texas doctors and a healthcare executive have agreed to pay more than $1.68 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations involving illegal remuneration in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law.  According to a multiagency investigation, from 2015 to 2018, the doctors allegedly received thousands of dollars in illegal remuneration from eight management service organizations (MSOs) in exchange for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital doing business as Little River Healthcare, True Health Diagnostics LLC, and Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation.  Little River funded the illegal remuneration to the doctors in the form of volume-based commissions paid to independent contractor recruiters, who used the MSOs to pay numerous doctors for their referrals.  The MSO payments to the doctors were disguised as investment returns but were based on and offered in exchange for the doctors’ referrals.  As part of their settlements, the defendants have agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigations of other parties involved in the alleged law violations.  To date, 17 doctors and two healthcare executives involved in this scheme have agreed on settlements totaling more than $2.7 million.  The civil settlements resulted from a coordinated effort between the VA OIG, Department of Health and Human Services OIG, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas [emphasis mine].”

Elected officials, the next time you are asked about the incredible amounts of fraud in government-provided healthcare and insurance, do not buy the media talking points that the fraud is minimal, contained, or anything but designed incompetence on the part of the bureaucrats to act as a jobs program for investigators!  The same investigators who are refused sufficient tools to investigate shenanigans by employees in the Federal Government adequately.?u=http2.bp.blogspot.com-fGEUjJsJ2h4VcJgswaisnIAAAAAAAABcsoFqEewPF_E4s1600quote-if-the-freedom-of-speech-is-taken-away-then-dumb-and-silent-we-may-be-led-like-sheep-to-the-george-washington-193690.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Frankly, all of these cases need the government workers to be held accountable, and the myriad of red tape loopholes CLOSED!  I remember an election; I forget who and the exact when, but a significant election plank in the platform was healthcare reform, promising to clean up the swamp and bring accountability to Washington and the government.  The public is still waiting, and I know enough of you have run on this topic from both parties to repaper the walls (inside and outside) of the White House.

Yet, even if only outside providers and executives were scheming, the VA might not be in too bad a condition.  Except for the employees of the VA, VHA, and VBA, which continue to be caught up in ethics violations at a minimum:

The VA-OIG conducted an administrative investigation that included a congressional request to look into allegations that Charmain Bogue, former executive director of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Education Service, committed ethical violations arising from her spouse’s consulting work for Veterans Education Success (VES).  VES is a nonprofit advocacy group that regularly had business before the Education Service.  The allegations also pointed to possible incomplete financial disclosures by Ms. Bogue concerning her spouse’s consulting business.  In their work, investigators uncovered evidence of other potential conflicts of interest and related misconduct by Ms. Bogue [emphasis mine].”

VA-OIG finding:

    1. Bogue participated in Education Service matters involving VES without considering whether it raised an apparent conflict of interest and acted contrary to the ethics guidance she received from her supervisors.
    2. Bogue sought résumé feedback from the president of VES to aid in her search for career advancement without considering whether this raised apparent conflict of interest concerns in subsequent VES matters. VES also endorsed Ms. Bogue for presidential nominee positions.
    3. Bogue provided insufficient detail about her spouse’s business in 2019 and 2020 public financial disclosures; VA ethics attorneys had found them compliant. She remedied the subsequently identified deficiency in her 2021 disclosure.
    4. The OIG found that Ms. Bogue refused to cooperate fully in the OIG’s investigation by refusing to complete her follow-up interview. Her husband and VES president also refused to participate in OIG interviews, and the OIG lacks testimonial subpoena authority over individuals who are not VA employees.   Bogue resigned from VA in January 2022.VA 3

UPDATE: 14 April 2022Sen. Grassley was hoodwinked by the VA on this issue and The Daily Signal (linked) has more of this report.  I covered this before, I repeat only for emphasis, when you are discharged from the VA, you lose your ability to be a “whistle-blower.”  As a point of fact, this is how the VA is able to hide a lot of their shenanigans, get rid of the person rocking the boat, invent the paperwork, cover the whole incident over as a “bad-apple” and keep you collective heads down and mouths shut until the VA-OIG investigation concludes.  The VA’s ability to abuse whistle-blowers is further compounded by Federal Attorneys who cherry-pick the cases they know they can win.  Which further protects the VA’s shenanigans and disheartens and mystifies those who have been wrongly terminated.  The Daily Signal reflects this pattern of corruption perfectly citing the records obtained by Empower Oversight.

Some commentators have claimed that blaming elected officials for not scrutinizing or not providing tools to investigate entirely is unduly unfair to the congressional representatives.  Really?!?!?!  The VA-OIG conducts an investigation, the people being investigated refuse to comply, and the VA-OIG is toothless to enforce a full and complete investigation to initiate Attorney General and FBI investigations and actions to recompense the defrauded taxpayer.  Ms. Bogue and the VES have invalidated any trust the taxpayer should have in their respective activities, but this, like so many other investigations into VA employees, will die of apathy before anyone is held accountable.  Even though a congressional representative demanded an investigation, nobody is being held liable.  Nobody is forced to compensate the defrauded taxpayer, yet the taxpayer is still expected to elect the same old representatives to their jobs.  Blaming the congressional representatives (legislative branch) for not scrutinizing the executive branch, one of only two jobs these people have, is somehow unfair?  NO!Exclamation Mark

Remarkably, between the 18 March disaster with the PCP and 01 April’s compounding idiocy, the VA-OIG published an ironically titled investigation report.

Improved Governance Would Help Patient Advocates Better Manage Veterans’ Healthcare Complaints.”

Imagine that, more designed incompetence negatively impacting the veterans seeking care at a VA medical facility, stating the obvious by the investigators.  Who on earth would be responsible for seeing that regulatory agencies had the tools needed to scrutinize and demand corrective action?  Calling all elected officials, did you notice that one of the prima facia tools a veteran has to report problems, conveniently called “patient advocates,” does not have the sufficient authority, adequate oversight, and tools to execute their jobs?  The VA-OIG reports the following:

The Patient Advocacy Program helps advance the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) efforts to improve customer service, support veterans’ access to quality care, and provide a mechanism to resolve healthcare issues.  Patient advocates document veterans’ concerns, communicate the resolution, provide follow-up and feedback, and identify trends for potential opportunities to improve medical facilities.  In FY 2020, VHA tracked about 162,000 serious complaints in its patient advocate tracking systems.”

Angry Wet ChickenOn a side topic, VA-OIG, how do you define a “significant complaint” and separate it from other types of complaints?  Honest question, the information was, to quote my PCP, “remarkably” missing from your investigation report!  Would the VA-OIG like to know why so many veterans’ complaints have risen to a “serious” level?  You reported the exact problem:

A complaint is considered resolved when the complainant communicates the outcome, and the record is closed in the tracking system.”

Maybe, the VA-OIG merely overlooked the logic problem, but complaints increase when the solution pushed down the throats of the veterans does not fix the actual situation.  Honest question, no sarcasm involved.  Is a “serious” complaint one where significant harm or death to the patient has occurred?  Is a serious complaint one that breaks federal laws, EMTALA, comes readily to mind??u=https3.bp.blogspot.com-fYRTNk48SCwT8ua0IRDWPIAAAAAAAAFZUpexSmJsN2Kos1600overcoming-adversity-help-yourself-believe-cubby-motivational-1289878102.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Having had “solutions” forced down my throat, speaking only for myself, I am thoroughly sick of having the patient advocates bureaucratize my complaint, then fail to act, and then compound the problem by quoting policy to me as a reason to close the complaint, when the VHA never have written policies and procedures!  Maybe, you might want to look into the root causes of some of those “closed” complaints and ask root causation questions!

What did the VA-OIG find when they investigated the patient advocates?

    • VHA lacked adequate governance of the Patient Advocacy Program.
    • VHA did not effectively issue and implement adequate policy, monitor complaint practices, and provide guidance to medical facility directors responsible for local program management.
    • Patient advocates did not always enter complaints into the system.
    • Even though complaint records generally appeared to be closed on time, patient advocates did not always document the communication of the outcomes to the complainants.
    • The VA-OIG substantiated an inadequate program policy to identify clear expectations and responsibilities.
    • The VA-OIG found that they (patient advocates) did not always adhere to the documentation requirements to show full complaint resolution.
    • At the local and VISN levels, responsible personnel did not consistently analyze patient advocate tracking system complaints about trends.

Feel free to read the complete abomination of designed incompetence for yourself.  Essentially the VA-OIG concluded that the VHA has been burning taxpayer money in a patient advocacy program, and the designed incompetence is so apparent it can be tracked from L2, where the James Webb telescope is located!  Worse, you won’t need the James Webb telescope to see the designed incompetence!James Webb Space Telescope

Unfortunately, I could have guessed the first three findings without looking.  Every VA program is designed so ineptly, reprehensibly led, criminally incompetent, and with such dastardly deceptive doings that fiction writers’ storylines have to be written better to sell books.  You cannot make this stupidity up and make a profit.  Hollywood would run screaming into the night if they made a true story about the ineptitude found at the VA!

Knowledge Check!Elected officials, where are you?  The VA-OIG presents copies of their findings to you, and I have yet to witness a single one of you holding the VA Leadership criminally responsible for the failures at the VA.  Even when the VA is killing hundreds of veterans, the US Congress refuses even to act upset, let alone scrutinize for a change!  Remember how many veterans were intentionally killed in Phoenix waiting for treatment?  How many VA employees lost their jobs and pensions or were forced in front of a judge for murder?  It is a fair question, where are the elected officials in the legislative branch working to end the criminal “fraud, waste, abuse,” and designed incompetence in the executive branch?

© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.  Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

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New Year – Same Ol’ Disaster at the VA! – Are You Disgusted yet?

Angry Wet ChickenWords fail to describe how much I detest seeing the same abuses week-after-week, month-after-month, and year-over-year.  To witness the disaster known colloquially as The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), as told from the Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG).  Not merely witnessing but also being abused by the VA leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth.

Matthew C. McPherson of Olathe, Kansas, was sentenced to two years and four months in federal prison without parole for defrauding the government.  From September 2009 to March 2018, McPherson participated in a conspiracy to obtain contracts set aside by the federal government for award to small businesses owned and controlled by veterans, service-disabled veterans, and certified minorities.  McPherson, who is neither a certified minority nor a veteran, owned and operated construction companies that used the veteran or minority status of coconspirators to obtain federal contracts to which the companies would otherwise not be entitled.  The companies received approximately $346 million in federal contracts.  On June 3, 2019, McPherson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud.  In addition to his prison sentence, McPherson has forfeited to the government more than $5.5 million, which represents his share of the fraud proceeds.”

Honest question, how is this fraud any different from an elected official using insider trading to profit off the stock market?  On another note, does this sound like a plea deal?  If so, what was the deal, and who is being targeted?  Plea deals used to be rare; now, they are cropping up anytime the government has a shaky case.  Could Mr. McPherson have beaten the entire crime by using a better lawyer or connecting with a more powerful politician; of course, and that is disgusting!

I have applied for these government contracts, and the paperwork burden is immense, the bureaucrats authoritative and disreputable.  When will the bureaucrats face criminal charges for abuse of power in allowing for the defrauding of government?  Simple question, yet one to which no elected official will address.VA 3

Speaking of fraud and the need for bureaucrats needing to be held accountable:

“Dr. David Bellamah, a vascular surgeon who operates vein and surgery centers in Missoula and Kalispell, Montana, has agreed to pay the federal government $3.7 million to settle alleged False Claims Act violations.  According to the civil complaint, from January 1, 2015, to March 31, 2017, Bellamah performed medically unnecessary surgeries based on improper techniques and submitted fraudulent bills for payment to four federal healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and CHAMPVA.  The settlement agreement between Bellamah and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana, Department of Health and Human Services OIG, Defense Health Agency, VA, and a third party directs Bellamah to pay approximately $1.9 million in restitution and $1.8 million in additional damages.”

The article link is missing from the VA.gov website, reason unknown as of this writing.  I received an email about this story, which is why I know of it, but cannot link someone else to it.  Still, the questions remain, someone in the VA legion of bureaucrats had to have known and contributed to facilitating this fraud, and they are not being held accountable.  Why?

  • Patsy Truglia of Parkland, Florida, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his role in two consecutive conspiracies to commit healthcare fraud.  According to a multiagency investigation, from January 2018 to April 2019, Truglia and his coconspirators generated medically unnecessary physicians’ orders via a telemarketing operation for durable medical equipment (DME).”
  • Ramón Julbe-Rosa pleaded guilty to 12 counts including theft of government property and introducing unapproved new drugs into the United States.  His multiple fraud schemes included defrauding the Social Security Administration and Medicare by receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefit payments while working; fraudulently receiving unemployability benefits from VA; and falsely stating that his primary residence—purported to be in Morovis, Puerto Rico—was damaged by Hurricane Maria, leading to the fraudulent approval of a Small Business Administration Disaster loan.”
  • Wayne Bowen of Jacksonville, Florida, has pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft for using his estranged identical twin brother’s name, Social Security card, and military discharge papers to apply for federally subsidized housing benefits.  Due to his fraudulent use of his twin’s identity.”
  • Matthew Smith of Palm Beach, Florida, has pleaded guilty to his role in a compounding pharmacy scheme that defrauded the Department of Defense’s Tricare and VA’s CHAMPVA benefit programs of approximately $88 million.  Smith admitted to his role in fraudulently billing the two insurance providers for expensive, medically unnecessary compound drugs.  To further the scheme, Smith and his coconspirators paid approximately $40 million in kickbacks to patients, patient recruiters, and doctors in exchange for them ordering expensive pain creams, scar creams, and vitamins without regard to the patients’ medical needs.”
  • Seven Texas doctors have agreed to pay more than $1.1 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations involving illegal remuneration in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark Law.  According to a multiagency investigation, from 2015 to 2018, the doctors allegedly received thousands of dollars in illegal remuneration from eight management service organizations (MSOs) in exchange for ordering laboratory tests from Rockdale Hospital doing business as Little River Healthcare, True Health Diagnostics LLC, and Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation.  Little River funded the illegal remuneration to the doctors in the form of volume-based commissions paid to independent contractor recruiters, who used the MSOs to pay numerous doctors for their referrals.”

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1Take a moment, read the full articles reporting these crimes, and ask yourself, have ALL the guilty parties been held accountable before the law, or are some parties noticeably missing?  If you reach different conclusions, please note this in the comments, and let’s discuss.  Show me your thinking, I want to learn!

Fraud, to succeed, requires willing people in positions of authority not to do their jobs properly.  Yet, for all the rules, mandates, political attention, and legislation, the fraud continues.  Why; because if you are the approving authority and have a plausible excuse, you are never held accountable!  The situation is untenable; the maze of red tape regulations preclude honest people from participating and opens the doors for nefarious actors to swindle, cheat, steal, and profit.  Simple question, when will those legally responsible for not allowing fraudulent activities be held accountable?VA 3

The VA-OIG conducted a Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection (CHIPs) of the Charles George VAMC in Asheville, North Carolina.  Want to understand more about the quagmire of the VA personally?  Read one of these CHIP reports.  Long have I wondered how leadership could be fully measured when the leader of the hospital leadership team has been in their position for two (2) days.  The VA-OIG couches this by claiming the associate director had been in the role for 18-years.  Do you see a problem?VA 3

Where and how are veterans being abused, staff training, and the “Disruptive behavior committee.”  Some might ask, how is staff training an abuse to veterans?  What do you consider “disruptive behavior?”  Did you know if you ask a doctor questions, that doctor can report you as presenting disruptive behavior to the Federal VA Police and get the veteran charged and fined?  If you request to speak to the administrators and they refuse, you can also be charged with presenting disruptive behavior, hindering hospital operations, disturbing patients, being arrested, and fined?  The bureaucrats have designed a self-fulfilling system in the VA that protects wrong-doing and punishes anyone who dares question the status quo, and this is trained into the employees.  Worse, this is about the only training they receive that is competently delivered!

A CHIP was completed at VISN 8, the Sunshine Healthcare Network in St. Petersburg, Florida.  Congratulations are for passing the CHIP with only two recommendations for improvement.  Honestly issued praise.  My concern is the low bar for success that was surpassed, but this is not the fault of VISN 8’s leadership, but the VA leadership in Washington, DC.VA 3

Long have these articles mentioned and decried the designed incompetence found in every single process, procedure, and action taken by the VA.  It is not surprising then that design incompetence is still seen and cost resources.  Nothing new, but you, the taxpayer, need to be aware of this, for the excuses have run so thin you can read contractual mouse print through the excuses!

The history:

“In October 2017, VA entered into an interagency agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to use its Electronic Catalog (ECAT) to order VA medical supplies and equipment not available through existing contracts.  VA created the ECAT Ordering Guide to describe VA policies and procedures for placing orders and outline the ordering officials’ responsibilities.  As of April 1, 2021, VA had spent approximately $592 million on purchases through ECAT.”

The findings:

“The VA-OIG found that the Procurement and Logistics Office (P&LO) did not govern the ECAT program adequately.

    • The ECAT Ordering Guide excludes the requirement for VA ordering officials to consider the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts for sales orders; purchasing through FSS could have saved VA up to $4.4 million.
    • The guide also incorrectly describes how to apply the Rule of Two, potentially excluding veteran-owned businesses from contracting opportunities.
    • Ordering officials did not follow documentation requirements in the ECAT Ordering Guide, and P&LO did not conduct required annual reviews of the interagency agreement.”

Do you see the designed incompetence?  The VA gets green-lighted to consolidate ordering to save time and money, then develops the processes and procedures to open the door for fraud, theft, and abuse, providing excuses for the VA-OIG to accept when responsibility and auditing occurs.  Hence, roadblocks are launched instead of saving money and reducing the government’s costs.  Instead of bringing order out of chaos, more logs of chaos are added to the fire.VA 3

Worst of all, the VA-OIG has to invest money to tell the VA common-sense solutions, couched as recommendations, to fix the problems the VA purposefully designed into the process.  That is your tax dollars at work, your neighbors losing opportunities, and your employers getting the shaft intentionally by the VA.  Again, only for emphasis, I ask, “When will the bureaucrats be held accountable for their malfeasance and culpability in abusing people, committing fraud and theft, and refusing to do their jobs properly?”

When discussing malfeasance and designed incompetence, the following inspection at the Carl T. Hayden VAMC in Phoenix, Arizona, is applicable as an example.  The VA-OIG conducted an inspection to assess allegations concerning sterile processing services.  The list of findings reveals a lot of bureaucratic shenanigans, and with my knowledge of the leadership, I deduce the shenanigans were driven by leadership at the hospital.

  • The VA-OIG found Sterile Processing Services (SPS) staff failed to don personal protective equipment in decontamination areas.
  • The VA-OIG did not substantiate that SPS staff falsified Resi-Tests by documenting the same lot number for endoscopes.
  • The VA-OIG identified missing documentation of Resi-Test results from October through December 2020 but found that the policy was followed. Leading to a question about the effectiveness of the policies and the designed incompetence in those policies and procedures, which the VA-OIG never addressed as this would have been outside the investigatory scope; more designed incompetence?
  • The VA-OIG found no infection concerns associated with inadequate reprocessing of equipment.
  • The VA-OIG did not substantiate that SPS staff failed to follow validation testing requirements for biological indicators and Bowie-Dick tests for sterilizers.
  • The VA-OIG found that SPS staff followed reprocessing steps according to standard operating procedures and instructions for use.
  • The VA-OIG did not substantiate that SPS staff did not have adequate reprocessing supplies.
  • The VA-OIG found that floor-grade instruments received in decontamination areas were discarded and not reprocessed.
  • The VA-OIG found that SPS staff reviewed instructions for loaner trays upon receipt at the facility.
  • The VA-OIG did not substantiate that SPS staff failed to receive documentation for instruments sterilized at another VA facility.
  • The VA-OIG concluded that SPS leaders were knowledgeable of the practice standards.VA 3

Again, a mixed bag of findings.  After a tumultuous year of sterile scandals, it is refreshing (almost) to observe a sterile facility operating at standard.  Draw your own conclusions about the role of the leadership in this inspection.  To me, the most critical part of sterilization of reusable equipment is the proper use of personal protective equipment, but the VA-OIG did not appear to see this as crucial as I do.  From the inspections I have experienced, failing to use personal protective equipment properly is an automatic failing grade, but the VA-OIG only made a single recommendation for improvement.

quote-mans-inhumanity-2While the above are not all the reports from the VA-OIG launching 2022, they present the bulk of the criticisms and reflect the need for greater scrutiny and improved leadership at the VA.  More to the point, these represent the danger the American public is in from a runaway government that keeps biggering (with a nod to The Lorax and Dr. Seuss)!  The VA is abusing your veteran neighbors, and you are paying for it.  Doesn’t this stir in you feelings motivating to action?  If not, please ask yourself why.  Do veterans deserve to be abused relentlessly?  Do you like being complicit in a crime perpetrated by bureaucrats, cheered on by elected officials, and paid for by your tax dollars and the future of your children through forced taxation and out-of-control debt?  The choice is yours, I know my choice, and I WILL continue to resist the government atrocities every step of the way!

© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.  Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Do We Understand – Important Truths From President James Madison

Exclamation MarkSometimes revisiting a topic is required to help promote urgency in learning.  Other times revisiting a subject helps to broaden the mind to more of the problem.  My intent in reviewing the topic of understanding is for both of these reasons.  President Madison provides counsel that every American should be adhering to, regardless of political flavor, as the first policy in being a responsible citizen.

We begin with an absolute from President Madison, stated two different ways, with the same meaning:

      • The trust is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.”
      • All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.”

To those who would like to be female apologists and excuse women just because President Madison used the term “men” here, the President spoke of “men” as in all humankind.  As in, when power is invested in any person, they should be mistrusted.  They should be carefully watched, monitored, and scrutinized.  Not blindly trusted to act and never called out for their actions.  Hence the role of the media, the role of laws, the role of three co-equal branches of government.  Yet, what do we find today?

Honestly, take a look around, and take off the political glasses of partisan politics for a moment.  Can you honestly claim that the media is representing fairly both sides of the partisan political spectrum?  Can you honestly trust the co-equal branches of government not to be intimidated, cajoled, browbeaten, or unduly influenced by another branch?  Is the military following their civilian leaders without political influence and acting in the best interest of all Americans?  Is each of the co-equal branches of the government pulling their weight and acting in accordance with the law?

Now, look closer to home.  How about the school board, the mayor, the governor, the state legislature, the county board, the city council, the town council, and every other bureaucrat vested with public trust.  Are they obeying the duties and honoring the roles of their office and deserving of the public trust?  What about the teachers in classrooms who the school board officials directly supervise? Are your children taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, or are they being taught wokeism, sexism, and being groomed for sexual perverts?

“Public office is a public trust, the authority and opportunities of which must be used as absolutely as the public moneys for the public benefit, and not for the purposes of any individual or party.” ~ Dorman Bridgeman Eaton

Public trust remains the single most important and least discussed aspect of American culture and American politics, mainly because public trust is the most misunderstood concept.  Public trust has been intentionally misunderstood (plasticized), so it can be perverted and challenging to understand.  Yet, public trust comes down to one thing and is revealed through an easy test in its most simple form.  Would you leave your home and children alone, under the supervision of any person holding public office?  If the answer is yes, they hold your public trust.  If the answer is no, why are they in office?

Using President Madison’s quotes above, no one in a position of public trust should be “trusted” without verification, scrutinization, and they should be held accountable for their decisions made while in office.  Missouri is the “Show-Me State!”  I possess a “Missouri Mindset,” show me you have done the job correctly.  Show me; you are transparent in doing the job you were elected to perform.  Show me you can be trusted.  I am willing to give anyone a chance at leadership, but they had better show me they can do the job!Daniel S. Lamont Quote: "Public office is a public trust." (9 wallpapers) - Quotefancy

Under the heading of trust and show me comes an important principle, and President Madison elaborates this principle simply, eloquently, and precisely.

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

Find me that article of the US Constitution.  If you cannot find that, then the Federal, State, and City governments need to get out of taking money through taxes and giving money to people who have not earned it.  Welfare belongs to charity groups and religions, not governments!  Pork barrel spending is anathema to good order and discipline and should be shunned and shamed.  Consider with me the plethora of laws that have been invented to control society just because of the government welfare programs.Soulful Musings: Don't Tell Me, "Show Me"

Food controls, including price controls, control what, when, and how much a farmer can grow, how a farmer can grow, and much more.  These controls include legalized theft of a farmer’s goods which the supreme court has upheld.

Dairy, farm, and rancher controls for grain, meat, and milk.  Then when the government has too much in store, they force price-controls, forcing dairy and ranchers out of business in support of large commercial production facilities at the expense of smaller and medium-sized operations.  Labeling laws that unfairly punish smaller and medium-sized establishments.

Larger governments manage programs through bureaucrats and bureaucratic inertia that are abused at every potential opportunity and are not scrutinized adequately for waste, fraud, and abuse.  Where systems and operations are regularly gamed to keep the benefits rolling in at the expense of society, taxpayers, and those needing assistance cannot receive assistance due to the gamesmanship and fraud of others.Show Don't Tell - Working Writers

I am all for helping people learn how to help themselves, using charity programs and religious outreach.  But, taxpayer dollars should NEVER be spent in helping one person at the cost of another person!

The following has caused many a discussion in my home.  I hope it will cause many a conversation in your homes.  May those discussions be heated, be full of lovely disagreement, and be full of fiery opinions.  For in the spirited debates come ideas and solutions that work.  Invite people who disagree with you to dinner, and may the food and conversation be a delightful experience and a gustatory wonder!

In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

What is the discussion in my home centered upon, “How does a citizen ‘oblige a government to control itself?’”  I will offer a couple of suggestions here.  Feel free to refute my recommendations with your own in the comments below.  Better still, suggest more ideas for topics of discussion.  I am not the only person with ideas, and we need every person to help “oblige” the government to control itself!

      1. Be an informed electorate! – The one thing a politician fears or should fear more than a ballot box is an informed electorate. Do you know why the politicians preferred Dewey’s system of functionally illiterate stooges to the informed electorate of the early 1900s?  They could get away with robbing the citizens blind!  When the citizenry is not informed, they become property, bought and sold as chattel (cows, goats, sheep).  Doesn’t this make you angry that your elected leaders and the unelected Hollywood elite think of you this way?Andragogy - LEARN
      2. Scrutinize government and demand transparency! – It is your government. Tell me something, if your neighbor went across town and graffitied buildings, broke windows, burned property, and defecated on private property, then told the authorities that you had paid him to do these acts, would you be a little concerned?  If your neighbor did these things and used your hard-earned money to pay for these crimes, would you want revenge and a criminal charge levied against your neighbor?  These are the actions of your government; why does the government get a pass?  Your name is on the check, right beside mine, claiming full financial responsibility for the actions of our intermediaries, the government.Quotes On Government Control. QuotesGram
      3. Gather with like-minded people, teach each other, learn from each other, and teach your children WHY! – Every tin-pot dictator in history has captured children, taken them from hearth and home, and “educated” them away from parents to influence the next generation. Today, we call this “education,” “state-run schools,” using “laws,” and obligations as “good parents” to shame and force parents to send their children into re-education camps.  Want to freak out the government; change the next generation!Patriotism

Finally, President Madison provides two pieces of advice for living in the American Society worthy of knowing and on-boarding.

      • Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.”
      • The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.”

Consider a parable.  Give a person a fish, and he eats for a day.  Teach a person to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.  Teach a person to fish and sell his wares, and his children build a prosperous society.  Knowledge will always govern ignorance, but knowledge and confidence build nations!  I do not want to build small communities; I want to rebuild the American Nation, a free nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.  I cannot do this alone; our forefathers did not undertake this task alone.  It took every member of the 13-original colonies to shake off tyranny and oppression and then build America.

Knowledge Check!It will take every single American citizen, and every single person desiring to be an American citizen to rebuild America, after all the damage intentionally done to her by the political leaders, secret societies, and bitter haters who have abused American generosity and then wanted to protect their pile by destroying America.  America has been abused by countries foreign, and enemies domestic, corporations foreign and domestic, and individuals who have paid large sums to watch America burn.  Do you understand better now?  Is the mission clearer in your mind?  Is the task ahead more urgent and more desirable?  What are your next steps?

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Political Dysfunction – The IRS Detailed in Spades!

Exclamation MarkEnlighten me, how is the taxpayer to “understand and meet” “tax obligations” when the agency who collects those tax obligations refuses to answer questions, actively hinders transparency, denies accountability and refuses scrutiny?  Through forced taxation, collected by fear of the stick, America has been abused since the IRS was created out of whole cloth, not from the U.S. Constitution, but the demented minds of a president and complicit Congress.

Under the heading of “Statutory Authority,” we find the following:

The IRS is organized to carry out the responsibilities of the secretary of the Treasury under section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code. The secretary has full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws and has the power to create an agency to enforce these laws. The IRS was created based on this legislative grant.

Section 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the appointment of a commissioner of Internal Revenue to administer and supervise the execution and application of the internal revenue laws.”

Progressive

Progressive and progressivism is a political philosophy that empowers a more extensive and more intrusive government, a government without any shred of decency, and a government as intrusive as possible into your daily life.  Progressivism has been the catchphrase for all sorts of political hooliganism and liberty theft at all levels of government.  These abuses by the government have been made possible because, as everyone knows, progress, the root of progressivism, is a good thing; it is progress, right?  Not quite, according to the politicians and the bureaucrats who think they own you and me.Lemmings 1

Progress is defined as moving forward or onward towards the desired destination.  Also, progress can be advancement or development towards a better, or more complete, “modern condition.”  Archaic definitions sometimes provide critical insight into a word, and in this instance, the archaic meaning of progress was a state journey or official tour, especially by royalty.

Progressive means something relating to or characterized by progress without the political connotations, using new ideas, findings, or opportunities.  In the classroom, progressive relates to an educational theory marked by an emphasis on the individual child, informal class procedures, and encouraging self-expression to the point of sacrificing educational opportunities.  The meaning of progressive also refers to making progress, moving forward or advancing, increasing in severity or extent, expanding the base rate of something, and a few other definitions specific to the sciences of computers and lenses for glasses.Lemmings 4

President Woodrow Wilson (D) was a progressive, and many of his political detractors were regressive.  The distinction was drawn on a political scale to aid in differentiating and scorning political opponents concerned about the spread of government.  We need to be clear that any time anyone talks about progressive taxes, they discuss expanding the base tax rate.  Making tax increases sound more pleasant is a key to twisting the meaning of words and exercising tyranny on a population.

Regressive

As you might have probably guessed, regression is the exact opposite of progression.  Regressive relates to regression production, decreasing the rate as the base increases, and is characterized by simplifying structures in an evolutionary process.  Regression is the act of regressing. Regressing relates to the act of reasoning backward, moving backward to a previous and possibly worse or more primitive state.  It is also a privilege of going or coming back to something.Plato 2

Regressive is most used in refusing to cut taxes, so the opponents to “progressive” taxes are automatically regressive.  In actuality, progressive is all about increasing government size, government taxes, and government bureaucracy; thus, the opponents of progressive taxes should own and explain why being regressive is a good thing.  Yet, they never do, and representative governments across the globe are worse for this plastic language.  The consequences of ever bigger government and taxes, fees, surcharges, fines, etc., dreamed up as “progress.”

Tax Gap

Bait & SwitchDue to proposed legislation, the media has been quick to jump onto the tax bandwagon. The media are trying to drum up a lot of hype for the proposed bill, calling it fairness, catching the tax cheaters, working to bring “fairness” to the tax system, and progressing the tax system to close the loopholes improve tax enforcement.  The “tax gap;” is $600 million in mostly tax errors because the tax system is too complicated.  How do you tell the difference between tax cheaters and honest people trying to obey the tax authorities?  Therein lies the problem, to the IRS, everyone making an error is guilty until proven innocent, and either way, you will pay something to the IRS to get out of trouble.

What is the problem?  The IRS is going to use its newfound enforcement ability from this legislation to punish and abuse.  Congress is always talking about closing loopholes, but what they mean is allow political cronies and connections to keep doing what they are doing and force the rest of America to pay for the privilege of being abused.

Tax Enforcement

QuestionLong have I been concerned that the agencies of the Federal Government have become weapons against the citizenry.  With Lois Lerner and the 501 (C) (3) debacle still ongoing at the IRS, this concern about government weaponizing has only strengthened.  Yet, what do we find from politicians on both sides of the aisle; crickets, platitudes, double-speak, and an attitude of not caring.  What do we see from state and local government officials who are in a position to protect the citizen from run-away government, even less.  With the proposed legislation being kicked around, granting money to a Federal Agency with a history of sleight of hand, deviousness, and abuse of power, seems to be the worst mistake possible.  Why are the legislatures not taking the IRS to task and scrutinizing them more closely, ending the farrago of Lois Lerner and holding real people accountable for real crimes?

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Gasoline Taxes – The Epitome of Forced Taxation and Government’s Broken Promises

Exclamation MarkI do not care that Alaska has not increased its gasoline taxes in 50-years.  Frankly, the fact that the Federal Government has gone 27.4 years without increasing the Federal Fuel Taxes is not a problem.  Nor that the Federal Government has to either get the current taxes renewed, or the Federal Gas Tax goes to $0.042 a gallon is not a tragedy, but a good thing.  Gas taxes are not the problem; the problem is that the fuel taxes, excise taxes, surcharges, and fees built into a gallon of gas that equals more than $1.00 per gallon, are never prioritized to the infrastructure projects the tax was collected initially to pay for!

IronyI find the following ironic; the Federal Gasoline Excise Tax is actually two taxes combined.  $0.01 per gallon is paid as the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) fee.  Why is this ironic; because the government LUSTs after all types of money to misappropriate.  Before creating acronyms, one would think that the government would consider how much of a joke those acronyms will make.  One of the seven deadly sins that are constantly causing scandals for politicians, LUST!  Yes, I find this tax acronym very ironic and applicable to the discussion on why the roads and other infrastructure is rated as a C- and falling.  I find LUST very appropriate to the discussion on the misappropriation of funds and how the government wants to increase taxes to pay for something already well funded but where the money is consistently diverted.

QuestionPlease note that each state will have additional taxes, fees, surcharges, and tax projects built into the cost of a gallon of gas or diesel, aviation, or propane.  Fuel taxes are a tax scheme that seems to always pay for anything but roads, bridges, and infrastructure.  Some basic facts regarding gas taxes:

      1. The average state gas tax is $0.3006 per gallon of gas.
      2. The Federal Government gets $0.184 per gallon of gas.
      3. States have added other fees to a gallon of gas, including:
          • Environmental
          • Underground storage (payable even if the tanks are above ground)
          • Inspection fees
          • Certification and other weights and measurement fees
      4. If your state taxes Ethanol, your gas taxes include the Ethanol tax, as well as a fuel tax.
      5. All fuels are hit with taxes, and some of those taxes are disproportionately assigned to heavier vehicles. For example, diesel has a different formula for taxes due to the trucking industry using roads and bridges more; at least, this is the excuse used to tax diesel differently.

Gas Tax Revenue – Poor Roads and Infrastructure

Since I was a kid in Maine, who closely observed the gas tax debate, I have wondered the same question.  “Why are the roads so poor if the government is collecting all these taxes on gasoline?”  Now, keep in mind the words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. “Taxes are the price of civilization.”  Meaning that to “enjoy” the pleasure of a free society, the government will levy taxes.  But, the money collected does not have to go for what the tax was intended to pay.  Hence the broken promises of gasoline taxes.

Plato 2Fuel taxes are used for a myriad of uses, and the priority is all confused about how to spend fuel taxes:

        1. Schools
        2. Pay down the National Debt
        3. Mass Transit
        4. Cleaning up underground fuel leaks
        5. Law Enforcement
        6. Environmental Protection
        7. Pension Shortfalls
        8. State Debts
        9. Federal Highway Trust Fund Deficits of all types
        10. Enforcement Costs, including weights and measurement certification
        11. Roads
        12. Bridges

Now, do not forget the other obstacle in fixing roads and bridges, the labor costs, especially if the workers are unionized.  The government bidding processes for projects, especially in all forms of construction, are obscenely complicated, which increases costs long before a shovel hits the dirt.  If unions are involved, the time for the project and expenses will, at a minimum, double before the project completes, creating deficit spending.  I am not cynical here; I have witnessed this occur too often not to admit the truth.

Working DollarChris LeDoux sings a song, “Working Man’s Dollar,” which tells the story and details the difference between a working man’s dollar and the dollar in other places.  The fuel tax was first adopted in Oregon, and the proceeds were earmarked only for fixing, maintaining, and building roads, bridges, and other travel infrastructures, like tunnels.  Except, the money never is prioritized to the failing roads, bridges, and infrastructure costs.  The working man’s dollar, collected through forced taxation, is not respected by the government authorized through the ballot box to allocate spending.

I was in Maricopa County when a stadium was pitched to the residents to be located in Scottsdale.  A gas tax hike was proposed as part of an overall tax plan to pay for the stadium.  I asked, “If the stadium was worth the investment, why not just sell bonds?”  I never got an answer.  Not every citizen was interested in the stadium, not all citizens were going to benefit from the stadium, but every citizen was being asked to help pay for a stadium.  The stadium in that election failed, but the ideas did not die; a new location was proposed, and the voters there accepted the stadium’s tax hikes.  Want a surprising non-surprise, the stadium is built, but the taxes have never gone away, including property, sales, and fuel taxes!  Where is that money going?

Bait & SwitchNow, the Federal Government has a bunch of fuel taxes and surcharges (taxes called a fee) about to expire.  The question every voter in America needs to ask themselves is this, “Did the government properly use the funds dedicated to infrastructure?”  If so, then the fuel taxes should continue at the Federal level.  If not, then the fuel taxes should cease, for the government refuses to spend money according to the purpose it was collected.  Every single state in the union should be asking the same question and answering accordingly.

I lived in Albuquerque, NM., for several years.  To get potholes fixed, you had to ruin your car in an accident involving the street, then sue the city, county, state, whatever for the insurance costs.  Only then was that particular patch of road deemed important enough to repair.  There are bone-jarring, teeth-rattling, car-destroying potholes all over Albuquerque.  These never get fixed because the city has been too busy dumping tax money into a rapid transit project that is barely used, overly expensive, and desperately not desired by the taxpaying citizens.  They had “ART” (Albuquerque Rapid Transit) crammed down their throats by a judge.  ART has been a disgrace from Day 1.  Yet, money keeps pouring into ART instead of the many roads, bridges, overpasses, and other infrastructure that desperately needs repair.  A friend of mine hit a pothole, doing 35mph, dented his rim almost 2”, ruined his front alignment, and cost him a considerable sum.  That pothole is still there, still causing dents, still eating tires, and the city cannot fix it, the state will not fix it, the county was supposed to fix it, the Indian reservation owns it, and the federal government makes the pothole worse every day by traffic of federal employees going to work.

Tax BurdenHence the reason why fuel taxes are considered a tax scheme!  If you pass the buck enough, nothing gets done, and the money collected can be used in other projects while responsibility is determined.  Except, there is no money to fix the problem when the responsibility is determined, and the wheel just keeps spinning around.  Are you sick and tired of the games politicians play, yet?  Now, imagine your electric bill going up to pay for the fuel taxes not paid for by electric car owners, and tell me about proper government action and accountability.  My friend could not sue because responsibility cannot be determined; his insurance would not pay for the damages because the road damaged his vehicle; guess who was out almost $10,000.

Tax Scheme 2Some states are changing how the gasoline and other fuel taxes, including electricity due to the rise in electric vehicles on the road, are being priced and collected.  However, the problem is not the tax; it’s the fact that the tax never pays for what it was intended to when collected.  Some states got an increase in fuel taxes through their state legislatures this year.  Other states and the Federal Government are taking fuel taxes up in the coming months or the next legislating session.  But, not a single politician, anywhere in America, has stepped up to state the obvious, the current taxes collected are sufficient to pay for roads and bridges; we have to allocate more of the current money collected to roads and bridges.

Broken Promises – Broken Roads and Bridges

Question 3Is the problem apparent?  How many of your state taxes, lotteries, and other fees are supposed to pay for education?  Yet, education always seems never to have enough money.  How many taxes and fees go into the Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Transportation, all of which are supposed to pay for infrastructure, e.g., roads, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, highways, etc.?  How much is the pension crisis costing your state, driving taxes and fees upwards, but the money never is delivered to pay down and lessen the pension crisis?

I repeat, only for emphasis, “America does NOT have a cash collection problem; it has a spending problem.”  At all levels of government, the elected officials are acting worse than drunken sailors on a seven-day binge, and this behavior needs to cease!  We cannot spend our way out of the hole dug through deficit spending!  The answer is not allowing the government to steal more money from our pockets, but to demand the money taken is used for the purposes intended!

Tax SchemeWe must tie political decisions to misappropriate funds to the legislators and executives making the decisions.  Thus, holding accountable the people who are being poor managers of the people’s money.  More importantly, when re-election decisions are made, the media, the influencers, and the political parties need to report this information.  Being able to hide funding shenanigans and criminal activities should never occur; businesses cannot do this, the government should not be able to do this.  Audits, investigations, and transparency are critical to putting the right people out of office and into prison, and keeping the honest and faithful stewards in office and working.

Knowledge Check!The size of government must shrink to an affordable level, from the city to the Federal; every government body in America, including those non-Government agencies acting like government agencies (USPS), need to be forced onto a diet of less money!  There is no excuse for the government to be the size it has become.  There is no excuse why we, the owners of the government, cannot demand government shrink, become efficient, and keep the promises made regarding money collected, used appropriately, and ended at the time promised.

Angry Wet ChickenAs sure as carts to horses and ducks to water, a Federal tax, fee, or surcharge, will be found shortly on your electric bill to cover the costs of electric vehicles on the roads.  When the Federal government does this, the state, county, and city will jump in with both feet, claiming “fairness” and “equality” so everyone is “paying their fair share” of the costs for infrastructure.  It doesn’t matter that you do not own an electric vehicle; the government will help you finance one through increased taxes and misappropriated fees collected.  Just like the “Obama Phone” scheme being abused by many people and paid for by a small minority.  Broken promises indeed!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

$1.8 Trillion Annual Deficit – The Problems with Biden’s Budget

Angry Grizzly BearWith gratitude to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), their analysis of the proposed budget was broken down, and some sense was made.  Not that the news is logical, acceptable, or palatable, just that the budget documents were broken down, which was helpful.  We start with the most bass-ackwards aspect of the budget by asking one question, “Where is the money supposed to come from?”

The 2022 Budget Proposal left President Biden’s desk requesting Congress to spend $6 Trillion and add $1.8 Trillion in new deficit spending to the bloated debt the government already owes.  “Who is going to buy the bonds and make money on this debt?”  When a person employs a search engine, asking this exact question, many answers come forward, and some do not make any sense.

Peter Schiff stated:

The government doesn’t have money that it doesn’t take. Any dollar that the government spends is a dollar that the private sector can’t spend or can’t invest. The government has to take money out of the economy before it can put it back in. Nobody seems to understand this basic point because they see the Fed creating money, and they think, well, we just print money. They don’t realize that when they print money, they destroy the value of the money that’s already there. So, they’re not adding new purchasing power. They’re just redistributing it” [emphasis mine].

Thus the first problem with America’s debt and proposed budget transparent; there is no money that government can spend unless it first forcefully removes it from the owner.  That is theft, or as we recently discussed, legalized theft.  The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled that legalized plunder, legal theft, or forced taxation are the price we pay for civilization, thus making legal the government’s actions to steal money.Government Largess

Let me be clear; I am not an economist.  I select several very bright and experienced people to help explain things to me.  However, I can help others with less interest in economics understand what is happening in America right now to answer the question put forward, “Who is buying America’s debt instruments?”  The simple answer is that the Federal Treasury is buying the debt instruments, as the whole world sells their bonds and other American debt instruments.  What the Federal Reserve is doing is called “monetizing debt.”

Monetizing Debt

Gravy Train 3The definition of monetized debt is as follows. “Debt monetization or monetary financing is the practice of a government borrowing money from the central bank to finance public spending instead of selling bonds to the private sector or raising taxes. It is often informally and pejoratively called printing money or money creation.”  Money can only be created in two ways: selling products and services and lending money where the borrower pays interest.  While there are many different debt instruments, i.e., credit card, home loan, student loan, bonds, Treasury Notes, etc., the principle remains the same: you either sell goods and services to make money or lend money and make money on the interest.

Why does monetizing debt matter?

Two simple reasons the government allows debt to be monetized.  To hide debt, it doesn’t want the public to know about, and to absorb cash on the market as a tool to fight inflation.  Here’s the problem, there is too much debt on the government’s books to hide it from the public any longer.  Add to that the sheer volumes of cash in the marketplace after handing out money during COVID, and the Federal Reserve will monetize debt.  Even if the chair of the Federal Reserve denies monetizing debt, debt is being monetized.Burning money - THE JOSIAH BARTLETT CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY

In short terms, your pocketbook is going to take another hit on the chin, and possibly two.  First, your interest rate on privately held debt, credit cards, student loans, homes, etc., is going to go up, all while making lenders nervous and refuse to lend money.  Second, inflation is already making the dollars held less valuable.

Inflation first; inflation is the devaluation of dollars.  The government floods the marketplace with cash, and the currency you hold will drop in value.  For example, recently the inflation was reported to have been 4.6% higher year-over-year.  This announcement was made in April 2021, so all the money you earned last year suddenly became 4.6% less valuable this year, all before the interest rate increases affected those dollars.Inflation - 8 Things Everyone Ought To Know.

Case in point, the US Government sent me $1000 in January; I held onto those funds due to a move that was coming and spent the money in June.  However, between January and June, inflation moved up at a steady pace, and when I went to spend that $1000, it was only worth $850.  That is the power of inflation in your pocket.

Have you asked for a credit increase recently and been denied?  What about your credit limits on your credit cards, have they shrunk?  Both are indicators that the lenders refuse to lend due to the tremendous risks caused by fiscal insanity in the Federal Government.  What about home loans, have you had to produce more documentation, prove more income, and work harder to qualify for a loan?  What about student debt?  The government controls the lending of student debt.  Even here, the Federal Government cannot demand a lender loan money to student’s and many students have found their college expenses grow, and their ability to borrow shrunk.Inflation pickpocket | Cayman Compass

In a simple fact of life, every household in America understands perfectly. When your credit scores go down, your ability to borrow reduces, and it becomes harder to meet all your bills every month.  Every city, county, state, and even the Federal Government should know this lesson, but they refuse to believe problems arise when credit scores go down.  All because those elected believe they can tax some more, and the money magically appears.

Does money magically appear in your pocket; of course not!  It must be earned through working, selling goods and services, or trading your time for employment with an employer for a paycheck.  Does the law allow you to write blank checks, kite checks, backdate checks, or simply float a check waiting for a future payday; of course not!  Yet, this is what the government is doing right now with your money.  The government is spending money, promising the lenders that a future payday will be theirs, but the government has to spend money to get money.  Does that excuse work for you when the electric company, gas company, cellphone, and other bills arrive?A Helpful Chart : How Inflation Changes Mortgage Rates

The most heartbreaking statement I have heard in a long time was recently made by a physician’s assistant, who claimed, “Aren’t we all just one paycheck from disaster?”  The simple truth, mostly, yes!  Studies exist that talk about financial resiliency in America.  Financial resiliency is all about being able to weather a patch of trouble without losing your possessions in bankruptcy.  The conclusions were all but unanimous. Along with most industrial nations, America has no financial resiliency due to government fiscal policies that hinder saving money and the need to live on credit cards to keep the basics of life paid for each month.

When inflation is stealing the value of your money, no wage can compete with government theft, all before taxes.  Add in tax laws that are counter-productive, job-killing, and increase the cost of doing business, and the job you have becomes tenuous at best.  Add in the hidden debts the government is trying to hide, and nobody in America is making money.

QuestionWhat about those who consider themselves “Rich?”

The same problems you are having with inflation are the same problems everyone is having with inflation.  Let’s go back to my $1000 that became $850 through six months of inflation.  We all spend the same money, and inflation is killing everyone’s dollar equally!  Hence, I beg you, do not allow the media hype about rich versus poor to derail the point.  Inflation and monetized debt are killing the US Dollar, which is why so many foreign investors have dumped their US Debt instruments for safer financial shores.

While some people have more financial resiliency than others, everyone’s dollar is dropping in value.  Inflation and low financial resiliency mean making budget cuts to charities, hiring someone to maintain a lawn, and a host of other ways and means American’s share our money.  It can mean turning off services, weighing how much fuel can be used, and a host of other belt-tightening decisions.  All things the government should first be doing, and they refuse.24+ Inspirational Quotes For Unemployed - Audi Quote

Yours and my liberty and freedoms depend upon stable economic policy, firm fiscal policies, and elected officials scrutinizing the government for waste, fraud, and abuse.  Yet, what do we regularly find; fraud, waste, and abuse!  The Department of Defense has lost multiple trillions of dollars; not a single politician is asking for an audit and an explanation or is willing to withhold additional appropriations until the lost money is accounted for.  The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to mismanage funds, misappropriate funds, and waste money like overripe fruit; yet, still, we have zero interest from the politicians elected to scrutinize government.

I repeat Peter Schiff, only for emphasis:

The government doesn’t have money that it doesn’t take. Any dollar that the government spends is a dollar that the private sector can’t spend or can’t invest. The government has to take money out of the economy before it can put it back in. Nobody seems to understand this basic point because they see the Fed creating money, and they think, well, we just print money. They don’t realize that when they print money, they destroy the value of the money that’s already there. So, they’re not adding new purchasing power. They’re just redistributing it” [emphasis mine].

Inflation Quotes | Inflation Sayings | Inflation Picture Quotes - Page 2In redistributing your money, the government has proven they are the problem, and the solution begins locally!  Change your mayor, city council, county board, school boards, and every other elected official.  Getting the local governments in fiscal shape allows state governments to begin practicing fiscal health and sanity.  Then, we put people into the Federal Office more interested in scrutinizing the government than in writing endless laws and abdicating their legislative role to the executive bureaucrats and the judicial branch.

Knowledge Check!The budget put forth by President Biden is the height of insane, and I have only covered less than 1/10th of the budget problems in this article.  Granted, I covered the most egregious problem, but the fact that the legislative branch is even negotiating a compromise is beyond insanity and borders on criminal negligence!  We, each citizen of a representative government, must stand and tell our representatives NO MORE!  No more fiscal insanity, borrowing to buy votes, entering into debt obligations that make captives of unborn millions of other people.  No more will we allow them to buy votes to maintain power.  End the financial abuse of the taxpayer; your wallet will thank you!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Did you hear? The IRS Edition

Millstone of Designed IncompetenceFLASH:  20 May 2021, President Biden wants to spend $80 Billion on expanding the workforce of the IRS by 87,000 new employees over 10-years.  Riddle me this, $919,540.23 is the approximate amount per employee; Would someone tell me why the IRS needs to spend so much per employee?  Does this announcement seem particularly worrisome?  If not, please cease reading now, as I will never convince you to be wary of the Department of Internal Revenue Service. However, with its incredible price tag, if this announcement worries you, let’s discuss a few topics an expanded IRS means.

Where is the money to expand the IRS coming from?

Simple question.  I want clear and concise answers.  While President Biden thinks some of those funds will come from “catching tax cheats,” cheating taxes is a game for lawyers, and I want to know what the president means by “Tax Cheats.”  For example, will he further chase the rich people who are not paying their “fair share;” if so, when will Biden and Obama belly up and write a check for all the back taxes they owe?  When will the Clinton Machine be forced to become accountable for all the tax money avoided?  Are “tax cheats” regular people who missed a box, forgot to include some income, or cannot fathom how to fill out their taxes and made honest mistakes?IRS

Until Big-Tech did an excellent job of cleaning OIG reports for the IRS, I used to have an OIG report claiming that the Federal Employees owing the most in back taxes was the IRS.  Are they in the “Tax Cheat” category, or will the IRS employees continue to be exempt from audits and “fair share” taxpaying because the agency is overwhelming voting Democrat in every election?  The more I dig into the IRS; the more questions arise about “fairness,” transparency, accountability, and responsibility.

Politicized or unpoliticized, the IRS is a weapon.

Ziggy - IRS Non SequiturThere is a massive problem in the IRS; the “IRS Targeting Controversy” has never been settled at the IRS.  On 09 Feb 2018, the last non-profit targeting case was settled. The plaintiff sees no remuneration for the legal fees. The government had to admit it was wrong to target non-profits based upon political leanings.  The IRS is hoping lawmakers will see this last settlement and give them a break.  Yet, the core problems of being or not being a political weapon, the core complaint of the scandal, was never addressed!  The leadership in Congress stopped scrutinizing, and the IRS got away with browbeating people based upon political leaning.

Never forget, Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the non-profit targeting scandal, who had contact with the U.S. President (Obama), pled the Fifth Amendment, and none of the elected officials did anything to get to the truth!  I will not allow the elected representatives off the hook to enable the IRS to become a weapon or remain a political animal!  America deserves better and can only obtain better through asking questions and demanding concise and truthful answers after transparent audits and investigations that conclude with punishment for wrongdoing!

Non-Sequitur - GovernmentThis leads to a simple question: Is the IRS a political weapon for Democrats and Liberals, or is it an apolitical unit of the government?  Let us test the current IRS leadership for a potential answer to this question.  17 June 2021, The Daily Signal reports that the IRS denied tax exemption to a Christian Group because the Bible the group adheres to is associated with the GOP (Republicans).  If that decision has you scratching your head, wait until you check out the rest of the story.

From The Daily Signal story, we find the following pretzel logic from the IRS.  The link is live; see the letter for yourself!

In an 18 May denial letter, IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen A. Martin said Christians Engaged is involved in “prohibited political campaign intervention” and “operate[s] for a substantial non-exempt private purpose and for the private interests of the [Republican Party].”

A “legend” at the top of the letter shows nine letters of the alphabet being used as shorthand to represent something. In this letter’s example, oddly, “D” represented “Republican.”

Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental, including the areas of sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations,” Martin wrote. “The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the D party and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRS Section 50I(c)(3).”

Ziggy - IRS AuditTo me, it matters not that the letter D represents republican.  America is a Republic, and any political action taken can be connected to a Republican government.  Not necessarily the “GOP” as the Republican Political Party.  If the IRS official cannot ask questions, the voices inside his head speak louder than his abilities to make logical decisions. In that case, he does NOT deserve his position, having been promoted above his maximum level of incompetence!  In making this decision, the IRS official has declared that the democratic party does not ever use biblical teachings to reach conclusions.  Is Speaker Pelosi and President Biden aware of this fundamental change in political foundations?

Feel free to tell me in the comments section, do you feel the IRS Non-Profit Targeting Scandal of 2010 thru 2013 has been handled effectively and properly closed?  Better still, was it appropriate for Lois Lerner to plead the Fifth Amendment and not have legal actions taken? Finally, do you honestly trust the IRS to be an apolitical, unpoliticized, and neutral agency engaged in honest and forthright government business?

Details about the IRS.

Government Largess 3From irs.gov, we find the following, and it raises more questions than answers.  Under the heading, “The IRS Mission,” we find the following, poor grammar, wrong sentences, and detestable language and all:

Provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.

This mission statement describes our role and the public’s expectation about how we should perform that role.

            • In the United States, the Congress passes tax laws and requires taxpayers to comply.
            • The taxpayer’s role is to understand and meet his or her tax obligations.
            • The IRS role is to help the large majority of compliant taxpayers with the tax law, while ensuring that the minority who are unwilling to comply pay their fair share.”

Would someone at the IRS tell me, how are you “providing top quality service” when you cannot reach the IRS by phone, the office hours are limited, and answers are forced to come from hired third parties?  I have been forced into multiple-day issues with the IRS Website, no answers, no contact information, and no assistance until I hired someone who answered my questions at $100 an hour.  If the IRS reads this article, that is not how you define “top quality service.”

QuestionWhat is “fair share?”  Using this phrase, the IRS declares it is already politicizing the payment of taxes, as the expression “fair share” has been captured for more than a decade by the Democratic Party.  Using this phrase in your mission statement demands a straight and correct answer in the rest of your marketing materials.  Yet, no explanation has ever been found.

Enlighten me, the second bullet point, how is the taxpayer to “understand and meet” “tax obligations” when the agency who collects those tax obligations refuses to answer questions, actively hinders transparency, denies accountability and refuses scrutiny?  What are “compliant taxpayers?”  Through forced taxation, collected by fear of the stick, America has been abused since the IRS was created out of whole cloth, not from the U.S. Constitution, but the demented minds of a president and complicit Congress.

Under the heading of “Statutory Authority,” we find the following:

The IRS is organized to carry out the responsibilities of the secretary of the Treasury under section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code. The secretary has full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws and has the power to create an agency to enforce these laws. The IRS was created based on this legislative grant.

Section 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the appointment of a commissioner of Internal Revenue to administer and supervise the execution and application of the internal revenue laws.”

Gravy TrainAt least the grammar and sentence structure are better. However, having read sections 7801 and 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code, I have serious reservations.  For example, how did the IRS become the sole government agency in charge of defining an employee, controlling the employee/employer relationship, and acting as the force behind employment law?  When did Congress provide you with this authority?

Dont Tread On MeI repeat, only for emphasis, the following:
“The IRS governs every action made in an employment situation, and the IRS has given great latitude to the employer, making you the property of the IRS, with control granted to your employer. As a result, the IRS remains a danger to every American and the globe.  Why is the United States the only industrialized nation to not allow options to the employee/employer relationship, squashing innovation, curtailing small business opportunities, and unequally tipping the scales for large organizations?  Look to the IRS!  Want to point fingers, thank President Woodrow Wilson (D), his complicit Congress, and his executive orders!”

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Division vs. Unity, Labels, and Big Tech

Angry Wet ChickenLast week, while scrubbing my SPAM folder on Gmail, I discovered that Google had arbitrarily been sending several emails containing news of a more conservative slant straight to SPAM.  Why would Google arbitrarily act in a manner to thwart the delivery of email?  A topic for discussion later in this article.

America faces a huge test right now; division is costing us opportunity, liberty, freedom, and potential.  Worse, it will eventually destroy the United States of America, a free Republic (if we can keep it).  What is this nefarious foe; a lack of unity.  The political parties have become so divisive that families are being torn asunder over something as petty as which political party to embrace.  Religion, lifestyle choices, employment opportunities, and so much more are being used to erode America at the family foundation.quote-mans-inhumanity

Socialsolutions.com reports some disturbing statistics from 2018.  However, the COVID-Farrago has seen these numbers only increase, and the numbers for 2020 are still not compiled and updated.  ACLEDdata.com provides some of the statistics from 2020, and the political violence inflicted on families is stunning!  Where does the blame lay for all this violence, property damage, public property destruction, and the host of terrorism committed in George Floyd’s name; the US President, Vice President, Speakers of the House and Senate, the governors, the mayors, and state legislators.

Bait & SwitchI am not excusing individual accountability for specific acts, but every silent politician in America has condoned the divisive behavior.  The corporate media have fed the violence and division, and the press has even been videoed participating in the violence.  My wife stated something, “The problems have become too great for any single individual to make a difference.”  I vociferously disagreed then and state unequivocally now that good is still in the majority of America and Americans and that one individual who declares enough is enough can make a world of difference!

Charmaine Yoest, Jack Spencer, John G. Malcolm, and James Carafano, writing for The Daily Signal, published an article on 11 June 2021 worthy of reading.  The twelve points they outlined are listed below, and additional commentary is mine.

      1. Protect Our Vote – I cannot stress this enough. The November 2020 elections, like all elections since we allowed computers into the mix, were fraught with illegal and illicit behaviors and reflects malfeasance towards the voter. However, that problem is specifically targeted at the local political leaders and judges who refused to allow time for transparent investigations.  President Biden and his administration are definitely not helping the situation.  Getting the Federal Government out of elections is the pre-eminent step we need to return State Rights to State Governments.President Adams
      2. Secure Our Border – America was built on defensible borders, and neglecting those borders is the height of Treason! Webster defines Treason as “The betrayal of allegiance toward one’s own country, especially by committing hostile acts against it or aiding its enemies in committing such acts.”  Hostile acts can be refusing to act when problems arise if the failure to act benefits you personally.  The continued flaunting of National Security on America’s borders (North and South) is treasonous, and those committing these actions of inaction need to be held accountable before the bar of law!photo_slideshow_max
      3. Stop Adding Debt – Of all the points raised in this Daily Signal article, this point is second most important, only behind defensible borders! Inflation must be fought with smarter monetary policies.  Want a good reference for smarter economic policies; Mark Skidmore is a leading economist in the field of government economics and is almost entirely unknown unless you have a hobby in following government monetary policies.  Dr. Skidmore has worked with a highly intelligent team of economists to try and find more than $94 Trillion in lost money in the Federal Government.  Before America spends another dime, a full and transparent audit must be completed, all the books opened, and criminal charges brought!Plato 2
      4. Stand Up To China – One of the things I particularly loved about President Trump, and honestly, there weren’t very many, was his hard stance against China! I applaud President Trump’s efforts at leading America while surrounded by enemies foreign and predominantly domestic!  But to take a hardline stance against China is still desperately needed; yet, what do we see in the capitols of America, kowtowing to China by America’s elected leaders.  ENOUGH!  Stop committing Treason with a dedicated foreign enemy!Apathy
      5. Do NOT Raise Taxes – [Emphasis Mine] You cannot spend yourself out of debt, and you cannot tax your populace for personal benefits to remain elected by buying votes through forced taxation and government largess! America has never had an income problem; we have always had a spending problem!  Debt is captivity, captivity to our enemies is Treason, and those committing Treason need to be held accountable before the law.  From the bureaucrat to the politician, every single one needs to be held responsible for what they have and have not done in properly honoring the funds delivered to the Government through forced taxation!Life Valued
      6. Stop the woke! – From Critical Race Theory to wave upon wave of identity politics, America is being divided so as to be more easily conquered. If you cannot see how dangerous these lines of division are, we need to talk about waking up mentally and recognizing the 800# Gorilla in the room!  You do not need to have special identity laws for every single invented identity, and going down that slippery slope produces nothing but harm, chaos, and destruction.  Ask Caesar from Ancient Rome how identity politics worked in Ancient Rome.  History relates what happens at the end of the identity politics games, and the results are never beneficial!Courage
      7. Cut Red Tape – Another one of those things I applaud President Trump for doing was cutting the Federal Government Red Tape to free the American worker, businesses, and manufacturing. Want a startling statistic; besides inflation, the only other driver of higher costs is government red tape.  I learned this as a kid when I saw the taxes included in a gallon of gas.  I asked if the same was true of all prices and my parents had no idea.  Thus began my hobby of understanding and tracking economics!  But, do not take my word for it; look up the cost of bread from 1940 to today, and look at how much government red tape has influenced just a loaf of bread.  We, the proper owners of the Government in America, must regain the reigns from the asylum patients and cut government red tape!The Duty of Americans
      8. Help Us Sleep Safe at Night – Talk about a conjoined issue with defensible borders! Tell me, why are portions of America’s National Parks just as deadly as Northern Mexico?  I have read first-hand accounts of scouts stumbling upon drug manufacturing facilities, landmines and guerilla war tactics employed to dissuade investigation, and the armed terrorists living in America’s National Parks to produce drugs for the American markets.  Before Big-Tech thought this would blacken certain political parties’ chances at re-election or election, many of those stories were scrubbed from the Internet.  Tell me, do you sleep safer at night right now than you did three years ago?  My home security costs have skyrocketed, 24/7 surveillance makes me feel like a prisoner in my own home.  Yet, the elected officials have blocked all attempts at using the military to root out the terrorists and gangs from America’s National parks and defend the US Borders.Plato 3
      9. Stop Big-Tech! – Have you noticed the censorship occurring across the Internet? How one day you can find stories on a specific topic and the next you cannot locate those same sources?  Perfect example, in February 2020, I could find Dr. Fauci’s research on Coronaviruses and many other research topics.  Now, I can find nothing of those early research projects that proved Dr. Fauci is either lying in his research then or lying to the public now.  I have emails being sent arbitrarily to SPAM if it is content Google opposes politically.  I have witnessed LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media restrict access, shut down accounts, and destroy people’s livelihoods, all because of content the Big-Tech does not find politically palatable.  I am done being censored, censured, and prohibited, all because some tech company does not like the truth!PACT_model
      10. Deliver School Choice – Long have I written that K-12 education is sexually grooming and abusing America’s children instead of teaching them how to read, write, and think logically through arithmetics. K-12 education in America, since the 1860s, has been purposefully designed not to teach students how to read because a literate society knows freedoms and liberties, and an illiterate society can be controlled.  Hence, I disagree with these authors; even school choice cannot save America’s youth from abuse at the hands of teachers and bureaucrats embedded in the education system.  The individual states need to be freed from the Federal Department of Education.  Then, the states need to revamp what education means and begin to throw out the bureaucrats and increase the abilities of teachers to lead and instruct in their classrooms!Patriotism
      11. Empower Patients, NOT Government – [Emphasis Mine] Being a disabled veteran, having my medical care through the VA, I could not agree more that the Government needs to be ripped out of healthcare and the doctor-patient relationship. However, we also need the litigious nature of society to be corrected.  The cost of malpractice insurance is so exceedingly prohibitive that doctors cannot practice independently, and the corporatization of medicine has been growing twice the government intrusion rate!  Thus, the red tape needs to be removed, government intrusion needs to be clipped, and people looking at the judicial branch as a gold mine need to be shunted and stopped!Social Justice Warrior 2
      12. Make Our Streets Safe! – Again, we find an issue with root causes behind defensible borders, military action to fight the drug trade, and the overhaul of the criminal justice system. When the criminal has more rights and protections than the victims, justice is not served!  When sentences do not include community service to repair damage to a society, justice for the community is not served.  When jail has more privileges than not being incarcerated, the criminal justice system is everything but bringing justice to criminals!  We have enough trash, graffiti, weeds, and other community service work needing to be performed for three armies of criminals.  Get them on this service instead of sitting all day.  Worse, all those “peaceful protestors,” a.k.a domestic terrorists, need to be out repairing the damage to the communities they wrought!

Knowledge Check!Unity is a precious resource America has always enjoyed in abundance, and the political enemies of America despise America for the unity that has always been here.  We might fight like brothers amongst ourselves, we might have ancient grudges and family disputes that spill over state lines, but we are inherently a unified people.  Stop allowing the media to preach division, hate, and identity politics.  Stop allowing those elected as representatives to divide you and your family.  America, we have a choice before us, unite and live, or divide and fall.  All of the changes discussed stem from a simple point, will we choose to unite and live or allow division to separate us to be conquered as unpitied sacrifices in a contemptible struggle?

Image - Eagle & FlagJoin me!  Join with your neighbors and family members!  Let us for a community of responsible and intelligent citizens, who are informed, and active in halting the government abuses at every turn!  As a united front, we can win!  Believe that, and we are halfway to restoring America to the ”Shining city on a hill!”

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Highlights (?) of the first 100-Days

Theres moreOn this momentous day, marking 100-days of the fraudulent president, I thought it fitting to mark the occasion by reminding everyone of freedom grabbing runaway government promoted by President Biden.  As CNN so clearly stated, “To date, 10 of President Biden’s actions on immigration have been reversals of President Trump’s policies.”  Begging the question, do you feel safer in your home now, or this time four years ago?  I know my answer, and I am looking forward to your thoughts.

To date, President Biden has made 50-end runs around the US Constitutional process through executive orders.  For the record, you could take President Trump (38) or Obama (34), add them with President Bush II (13), and still not max out President Biden’s lead.  I have written about executive orders and why I detest this singular action made in a free Republic (if we can keep it) by any leading elected official, Mayor, Governor, or President.  The US Constitution does not need more beatings coming from leading executives, but less.  Much, much, less executive actions, executive orders, and singular people acting “for the good of all” without Congressional representation.  Why use CNN; because as the biggest cheerleaders for the fraudulent president, they have the clearest cheering squad.

Detective 2Examining closer the 50-executive orders issued by President Biden, we find the most egregious of these orders, raising the minimum wage of Federal Contract Workers from $10.95 to $15.00 by 2022 and eliminating the tipped minimum wage by 2024.  I am thoroughly unfamiliar with any federally contracted jobs that fall under the tipped minimum wage.  Thus, I can only presume the president is now arbitrarily setting the minimum wage for the country without congressional approval—leaving serious questions behind about the legality of this executive order.  Where is Congress in exerting its power and rights to set minimum wage?

A minimum wage is a serious issue; any time the wage goes up, jobs are lost.  A competent first-year economics major can trace that cause and effect line easily!  There are direct causal relationships between high school kids needing employment and not finding it due to the minimum wage laws.  This group of uneducated workers extends to many low-income families, minorities, and many others trying to find work as laborers and cannot find jobs.  Yet, as a political stunt, the president signs an executive order, betrays the US Constitution, upsets the separate but equal branches of government balance, and somehow this is a “nothing burger.”  I beg to differ, vociferously!

Detective 4Another interesting aspect of the president’s first 100-days is immigration.  The current president’s Trump Derangement Syndrome has him reversing 10 of President Trumps Executive Orders and writing two additional immigration-related orders.  The plasticization of modular language reveals the tyranny of ruling by executive order!  The terms “fair,” “equitable,” “just,” “proper,” etc., all point to the president’s desire to see America devalued by illegal immigrants.  Look at the rhetoric used by the president to “explain” why he has reversed, revoked, and wrecked the legal immigration process, and you will find that through Congressional inaction.  With Congresses’ refusal to exert its rights, the president can do anything he wants on immigration, and Congress’s leadership just cheers!

To the US House and US Senate, I must ask, where are you?  Did you take a taxpayer-paid vacation and stopped caring that you are a co-equal branch of the government?  Do you think the judicial branch will stop the president’s runaway government by executive fiat?  Do you believe that the American people stopped caring that the president is giving away America, one illegal alien at a time, and we would not notice?  Why are you not scrutinizing the executive branch and exerting your rights, standing up for your voice, and making sure you are playing a role in the governance of America?

PatriotismI have been insulted, denigrated, derided, and many other things for my stand that every president should have a contentious Congress!  I firmly believe that when a president has a contentious Congress, the will of America’s people is better respected, observed, and through the process of working together, real compromise occurs.  But, what do we see in the US House of Representatives; we see a Speaker who is also the majority leader and the minority leader abdicating their duties to their caucuses and the US House of Representatives.  We see members of the US House race-baiting, employing every card in the deck of identity politics deck and refusing even to acknowledge the other party.  But, the US Senate, if anything is worse, and the US Senate’s problems can be traced directly to the executive actions of Speaker Harry Reid (D) during President Obama’s tenure.

Millstone of Designed IncompetenceAmerica, we learned a lot about the “families” presenting themselves at the US Southern Border for entry into America.  We learned about child prostitution, children being “attached” to two strange adults and calling it a “family.”  We learned about a lot of schemes to feed the growing human trafficking problem in the United States.  Yet, the media continues to call the separation of “families” unfair, and the president has proved he learned nothing but smoke and mirrors.  At the same time, these children are raped, abused, disappeared, and destroyed, all through executive order instead of legislated demand!  Legitimate families should be kept together, but until documentation can be obtained, separating the families for the safety of the children should be paramount!  Sorting through the MS-13 plants is not uncaring; it protects America’s main streets from terrorists!  But, these immigration policies, designed by President Trump, are hated by the media; so, these policies have to go.  Thus, I ask again, do you feel safer in your home or not?

The Duty of AmericansI was never a President Trump (R) supporter; but, I did, and do, support anyone willing to try new ideas to make America safer.  I am not a supporter of holding children indefinitely in nice hotels when veterans are homeless and fully support an America FIRST agenda.  But, I also firmly believe that the churches and non-profit groups of America can organize to help in a humane way better than runaway government supported by executive fiat!

ApathyAmerica, we need legislation on immigration, NOT executive orders that change as frequently as the president!  I have maintained this stance, publicly, since President Reagan signed the first orders providing paths to citizenship for illegals.  The illegal immigration policies in America can be directly traced to President Roosevelt and WWII executive orders allowing foreign workers access to America’s jobs in agriculture.

Feel free to look this historical tidbit up, and ask yourself, are you safer in your homes and places of business with executive orders or legislation?  Are you feeling more secure in your finances with runaway executive actions or through the “Rule of Law?”  Do you prosper more under one “Rule of Law” or under identity politics where every single identity can request special treatment, special laws, and special rights?

Image - Eagle & FlagIf the fraudulent president has proved anything in his first 100-days, he has proved America is in trouble, DEEP Trouble, due to the executive orders, runs around the constitutional process, and the abdication of Congressional rule (legislative branch) at all levels of government.  Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this president has proved that bigger government is a millstone dragging this Republic down.  Finally, this president has proven you cannot “trust” the government and must watch it like a toddler running with a knife!  So, CNN, and all the other corporate media outlets, you cheer the fraudulent president; but don’t you dare try to claim this is a good thing for America!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Climate Change is GOVERNMENT CONTROL!

Angry Grizzly BearTo some of you, I am preaching to the choir; but sometimes the choir sings better when they have more knowledge.  Please help sing louder.  To others, what I am about to say is so far out of your current understanding that your brains might hurt; I am sorry.  You will never understand snowflakes and trolls, but I am willing to take that chance!

According to the Wall Street Journal, the fraudulent president, President Biden, is taking the same plan President Obama used to restrict America to a Climate Change job-killing pogrom!

Mr. Biden is essentially doing an end-run around the Constitution, which requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate for the President to enter a treaty. The emissions reductions that foreign leaders pledged on Thursday aren’t legally binding, but Mr. Biden intends to use regulation to bind Americans.”

This single statement should scare every American, whether you believe in Climate Change Hype or not.  President Obama and now President Biden refuse to act within the law where climate change is concerned.  This means there are nefarious problems, greedy hands, and legal issues the sitting president is trying to keep hidden from American citizens.  Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of the Climate Change Pogrom Plans that have been made public.Problems

What is a Pogrom?

A pogrom is a violent massacre or destruction by a government entity against its own citizens.  Nazi Germany changed the law, then massacred legally their Jewish, Catholics, Handicaps, mentally handicapped, and other aspects of undesirable citizens.  Stalin and Mao have used pogroms to murder, execute, and destroy their own people, neighbors, and many others.

Why is Climate Change a Pogrom?

From the Wall Street Journal, “Businesses will be conscripted as foot soldiers in the progressive war on fossil fuels.  America’s founders believed that the Constitution’s separation of powers would safeguard individual liberty, but this assumes Congress guards its power” [emphasis mine].  The separation of powers was supposed to stop this madness.  As President Obama demonstrated, there are loads of chicaneries the legislative branch can get away with, and Congress and the Judicial Branch refuse to exert their powers.

Millstone of Designed IncompetenceNow, let’s talk about the 10-year plan, a $2.3 Trillion plan that is a “more-than-infrastructure proposal” but is nothing but the Green New Deal in disguise.  So far, the best record for the details that have been released comes from DailyMail.com.  We need to be clear, not all the details have been released, but those released details should scare every person in America into action against this power seizure!

  1. Biden vowed that America would be “on a path of a zero-emissions economy by no later than 2050.”
      • Where is the US Congress in agreeing to this plan?
      • Where is the complete plan laid out for the American People to review and approve?
      • America is a Republic (if we can keep it), and I do not see anything that reveals this information, neither does DailyMail.com.
  2. From experts, to reach a zero-emissions economy, the following will have to occur within the next 10-years:
      • All meat consumption, especially red meat, will have to drop to less than 4 pounds a month per American, or roughly 90% of today’s consumption rates for red meat and a 50% cut in all animal consumption. Essentially, America would be on a 0.18 ounce of meat per day for protein.
      • Every single American will have to buy an electric car, currently a $55K investment.
      • Electric heat, solar panels, windmills, and more would have to be drastically increased, increasing the cost of electricity to roughly $5700 a month for heating and cooling your home.
      • The costs of the plan, to start, begin at $2.3 Trillion. If ObamaCare is any indicator at how fast cost estimates by the government are surpassed, a closer cost estimate is around $500 Trillion!  Don’t forget the farrago that was the ObamaCare Website!  Including:
          • $85 Billion for infrastructure modernizing public transit.
          • $174 Billion replacing lead pipes and modernizing drinking water and sewer systems.
          • $100 Billion to protect nature-based infrastructure.
          • $40 Billion for housing infrastructure.
              • What does this mean?
          • $100 Billion for upgrades to the electrical grid.
          • $100 Billion for new public schools.
              • Why?
              • Isn’t this a state issue?
              • Aren’t I, and every other American, already paying for school modernization?
          • $10 Billion for upgrading federal buildings.
              • Why isn’t this already occurring?
          • $35 Billion for investing in climate science.
          • $10 Billion for an enforcement arm, called the Civilian Climate Corps.
  1. How many dairy farms, ranches, and other animal husbandry jobs will be lost to reduce protein intake to 0.18 ounces daily?
  2. How many restaurant jobs will be wiped out due to the costs that will disproportionately fall upon the reduced middle-class and lower class of people?
  3. How many American jobs in Natural Gas and Oil fields will be lost to other countries that do not have to follow the same plan to reduce emissions?
  4. How much of the economy will be sacrificed for science projects and liberal pipe dreams?
      • Public transit systems are a colossal waste of tax dollars just for inner-city transit; how about intra-city transit?
      • AMTRAK hasn’t been able to turn a profit on carrying people between cities ever; how does modernizing public transit improves the loss of taxpayer dollars down this well of liberal insanity?

Andragogy - LEARNRemember, our pattern for this insanity is from President Obama, who had a comfortable first two years due to a friendly House and Senate. They could not do these enviro-legislation issues due to US Constitutional problems, so President Obama used executive orders.  Again and again, climate science has proven to be a money-sucking black hole for taxpayers while the limited few buy new jets, new luxury yachts and force restrictions upon everyone else.

ApathyHow many people will die from the cold or the heat due to the cost of electricity, electricity failure, and not having a backup or tertiary source for heat or cooling?  Every year America sees people die from the cold and excessive heat.  Want a pattern for how higher electricity costs and liberal-brain dead solutions work; let’s look at California.  Last year, loss of power killed people on medical equipment, where electrical lines were not properly maintained, sparked fires, and rolling brownouts are common.  Now that you see the middle and lower class sacrifices, ask yourself, did Speaker Pelosi (D) or any of here Hollywood and political buddies suffer any inconveniences from brownouts and loss of electrical power?

LookHey Speaker Pelosi, how big are your freezers and refrigerators again?  How many do you have in your walled mansion?  How much electricity do you consume?  Climate scare is a method for an unconstitutional power grab, plain and simple, and every single American needs to be actively engaged in fighting these restrictions!  The fight for liberty is cloaked in “Climate Science,” and every nation on earth has been infected with this power-grabbing sickness where politicians win and the citizens lose!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
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