This Is Why We're In The Mess We're In

Harper had an interesting post today about a bill that - surprise - hasn't been covered by the lamestream media.

New York Representative Anne Marie Buerkle (R) is a woman after my heart.  She has introduced a bill that would stop federal funding for the House and Senate budget committees as well as for the leadership offices in any year they failed to pass a budget.

For those not keeping track, the last time the Senate passed a budget resolution was in April of 2009.

. . .

I have said it, and many of you have said it.  No private sector (non-union) employee could perform this poorly in their job and not get fired.  Not only are we allowing them to keep their jobs; they get raises, increased benefits, expense accounts and the adoration of the MSM.

Rep. Buerkle points out that even the Libyan government managed to pass a budget earlier this month, in the midst of a civil war.

Is anyone really surprised that the politicians in DC can't do one of the few things they are constitutionally required to do? Don't just GTFO 2012, get all those worthless assholes the hell outta there.

As if more evidence of their incompetnece was needed, here's two more examples.

In the basement of a Baltimore vault the size of a soccer field, 1 billion dollar coins are just sitting there. Thanks, Congress.

Each coin costs the government 30 cents to make, so the piles in those vaults have cost the government $300 million so far...

The whole thing started in 2005, when the Presidential $1 Coin Act was written into law. While the legislation seemed to have good intentions, when the U.S. Mint started producing the coins a couple years later, the demand just wasn’t there. I mean, had you even heard of the presidential $1 coins, let alone seen one?

The pile of idle coins, which so far cost $300 million to manufacture, could double by the time the program ends in 2016, the Federal Reserve told Congress last year.

Millions of dollars worth of $1 coins languish in a vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's Baltimore branch.

... the coins are the wasteful byproducts of a third, failed congressional effort to get Americans to use one-dollar coins in everyday commerce.

In 2005, Congress decided that a new series of dollar coins should be minted to engage the public. These coins would bear the likeness of every former president, starting with George Washington. There would be a new one every quarter. So, far, the Mint has produced coins through the 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.

But as the new presidential dollar coins rolled out, the greenback lost none of its dominance in Americans' hearts and wallets.

If the mandate to make presidential coins wasn't enough to generate a growing heap of unwanted coins, a political deal ensured that even more unwanted coins would be produced.

It was easier for the bill's sponsor, then-Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), to move the presidential coin bill forward if it didn't displace other dollar coins honoring Sacagawea, the teenage Native American guide to Lewis and Clark.

The deal: The mint would be required to make a quota of Sacagawea coins. Currently, the law says 20 percent of dollar coins made must have Sacagawea on them.

So, there are now about 1.2 billion dollar-coin "assets" chilling in Federal Reserve vaults, unloved and bearing no interest. By the time the presidential coin series finishes, and there are coins honoring all past presidents, there could be 2 billion.

Several congressional leaders ... declined to comment for this story.

Leaders?!? Oh my aching butt. If they were really leaders they'd be all over this working on ending this fiasco.

Both the Mint and the Federal Reserve provided information for this story, but neither agency would agree to an on-the-record interview.

Gee, there's a surprise. Going on the record means accepting some sort of responsibility or accountability, something that spineless politicians and bureaucrats are loathe to do. 

The finances of all of this? You could say the government has wasted money to make money.

Finally, and perhaps most worrying, is this report from Peter about the EPA requiring refiners to add a product to their gasoline that does not exist!

No companies have to this date been able to produce cellulosic ethanol that qualifies by EPA’s definition. Yet, presumably to save face, the EPA has not lowered the cellulosic ethanol “mandate” to zero gallons.

Now, what the mandate actually means is that companies will be heavily fined if they do not blend sufficient quantities of ethanol into the fuel supply — each gallon of ethanol having its own identification number, which is generated when the ethanol is created (of course, companies have to devote significant resources to navigating this regulatory-maze). Being that this ethanol does not exist, rather than facing fines for not being able to buy it, refiners are required to purchase “credits” from the EPA. Essentially, the EPA is requiring them to send them money in lieu of meeting the cellulosic ethanol mandate. The product they are required to use does not exist, and rather than giving them a pass, the EPA requires that they pay for phantom credits, despite not getting anything out of it. (source)

We are paying those assholes in congress six-figure salaries, giving them extravagant health and retirement benefits, and exempting them from the very laws they pass that govern us. And in return we get ... what .. crap like this?!?

Fire 'em all. Kick their worthless butts out of those featherbeds they've built for themselves and get some people in there who are more concerned with solving problems than with getting reelected.

Otherwise, God help us all...