Will Rogers once opined, “If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.” Paraphrasing this sage remark, it would be a good idea if our President, riding at the head of our country, would take a look at the real ‘state of the union’ once in a while.
Some examples of how we are doing are the USPS that lost a record $15.9 billion for the 2012 fiscal year. In addition, the Postal Service has reached its borrowing limit from the U.S. Treasury.
Amtrak is reported to have lost more than $800 million over the past 10 years due to waste and employee theft. Despite the record ridership of 31.2 million passengers during fiscal 2012, the enterprise lost $316 million ($10 per ticket sold), the best results since 1975. Losses have accumulated for 38 consecutive years at Amtrak.
In March 2010, the President nationalized the student loan program, presenting this change as a cost-saver (for student borrowers). It was recently reported that 35% of borrowers under age 30 were over 90 days past due on their payments. With student loan debt at nearly a trillion-dollars, taxpayers may be on the hook for delinquencies exceeding $350 Billion.
In his ‘State of the Union’ address, the President said that plans were being considered for federal funding of pre-school programs. This ‘investment’ could cost from $5 to $10 Billion with only anecdotal evidence as justification.
Although housing starts for January 2013 were down by 8.5% from December 2012, the outlook for 2013 is highly positive with a forecast of 23.6% over 2012. That is good news but the engine providing the torque for housing is the availability of mortgages. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to underwrite risky mortgages with bailout assurances, the mortgage mess of 2008 could be reproduced. Fannie and Freddie devoured $180 Billion of taxpayer funds over the past four years.
The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) recently announced that liabilities exceeded assets by $16.3 Billion. Losses could reach more than $90 Billion over the longer term. Industry growth could be impaired as HUD introduces ’disparate impact’ a social engineering scheme using statistical analysis to determine racial violations of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
The auto union subsidy, erroneously called the ‘auto’ bailout cost taxpayers $80 Billion with GM and Chrysler slated to repay the funds as their profits soared. The U.S. Treasury Department has announced the loss to taxpayers will be in the range of $25.1 Billion dollars.
Our federal government has been in the insurance business since 1968, as in NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program). With standards established by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), the NFIP has a debt (shortage) of $27 Billion. On January 7 of this year, the President signed a bill that provided $9.7 to Superstorm Sandy victims to avoid adding to the NFIP deficit.
The PBGC (Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation) reports a record $34 Billion deficit for FY2012. This is a government agency that pays out pension benefits for private companies that have defaulted on their pensions. Premiums are set by Congress that taxpayers will ultimately be obligated to pay.
The U.S.A. has become a ‘Bailout Bureaucracy’ with bloated government infested with crony capitalism. Our political leaders believe they have the wisdom to select those who need government guarantees and those who should shell out the funds to pay the guarantees.
The raging flood waters of spending, teeming with the debris of duplication, fraud, waste and a colossal bureaucracy could easily transform the greatest economic engine in the world to a woebegone wasteland of serfs in just a few years.
