There are Monsters Everywhere

It’s getting close to Halloween so I thought it would be a good time for a monster column. I just got back from a week in Washington DC (now that’s a scary thought). I started thinking while I was there about all the Big Monsters we hear about.

The first one I thought about was “Big Oil”. You may remember a year or so ago, when prices at the pump went over three bucks. The politicians cried “Foul, big oil is reaping massive profits on the backs of the little people.” However, I wasn’t satisfied with just a comment from some politician so I did a little investigation. The government was continuing to spend taxpayer money to buy oil to place in the strategic reserves, which added to the global demand. In addition, China and India were continuing to increase imports of oil. Finally, every request for drilling for oil in the United States was turned down by our Government. In addition, the House of Representatives, earlier this year, passed a “Cap and Trade” bill, which would increase the cost of “carbon” energy to such a point that most citizens will see a 30-60 percent increase in their electricity, gas, oil, and fuel bills.

Next, “Big Wall Street”. The politicians cried “Wall Street is getting rich by taking granny’s savings”, but the first thing they did when they heard that Wall Street was in trouble was to bail them out with “Big Money”. Wall Street has contributed massive amounts of cash to politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Next, “Big Banks and Mortgage Lenders”. Poor management by the banks has caused this problem and we have to bail them out now. Well, how did this happen? Mainly banks were forced to provide risky loans to people that were not qualified. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (quasi-government organizations) lied about their financial position so that the executives could receive Big Bonuses. Both were products of the Congress who supposedly has oversight. What surprises me is that both Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are allowed to make contributions to Congressmen/women and Senators, and they have. In addition several politicians have gotten VIP treatment in new mortgages.

Next, “Big Car Makers”. GM, Ford, and Chrysler all went to Capital Hill to ask for loan guarantees. We were told that if Congress didn’t bail them out, jobs would be lost and they would all have to declare bankruptcy. Well, Congress bailed GM and Chrysler out and what happened? Both laid off significant numbers of workers and they both declared bankruptcy anyway. Now, both are continuing to lose money and the likelihood that the money loaned to them will be repaid is near zero.

Now, it’s “Big Health Insurance”. They say “it’s about competition and choice” but if that is true, the answer would be to allow purchase of health insurance across state lines (currently against the law). This would increase competition and allow choices from over 1,000 insurance companies. Second, insurance companies are protected by The McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed by Congress in 1945. The Act provides that federal anti-trust laws will not apply to the "business of insurance" as long as the state regulates in that area. This Act should be repealed. Last, under existing laws, organizations cannot act as a group to purchase health insurance and therefore do not have the advantage of size when dealing with the insurance companies. What type of deal do you think an organization like the Lions Club, Rotary International, Real Estate Brokers of America, Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, National Rifle Association, or any other large group would get? Talk about choice! There would be so many different choices that you would hardly be able to keep up with them.

So, are these the “Big Monsters” we should all be afraid of? Let’s look at a couple of Big Monsters you may not have thought about.

Big Monster Number One: The State Department.
The Department of State operates with a budget of over $35 billion dollars, has over 30,000 employees, and is responsible for developing and implementing U.S. Foreign policy. It has been responsible for overseeing reconstruction funding in Iraq and Afghanistan. It just completed building the largest Embassy in the world in Iraq at a cost to US taxpayers of over $2 billion dollars. The scary part is that the State Department, charged with monitoring expenditures in Iraq has been unable to account for several billion dollars.

Big Monster Number Two: The Department of Education.
The Department of Education operates with a budget of over $60 billion dollars, has over 5,000 employees, and is responsible for creating programs to generate funds for education and enforcement of privacy and civil rights laws. The scary part of this Department is that since its establishment under then President Jimmy Carter in 1979, costs for public education have skyrocketed and the quality of education as determined by testing scores has consistently decreased. It is also interesting to note that the Stimulus bill allocated an additional $90 billion to this Department.

Big Monster Number Three: The Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Health and Human Services operates with a budget of over $800 billion dollars, has over 67,000 employees, and is responsible for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Fraud, waste, and abuse account for roughly 5% of their budget or $40 billion dollars each year. As large as they are, they can’t seem to negotiate cost reductions in health care costs. The scary thing is that they might be in charge of parts or all of the proposed Health Care legislation.


Big Monster Number Four: The Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy operates with a budget of over $22 billion dollars, has over 116,000 employees, and is responsible for the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. The scary thing about this Department is that they have routinely denied any requests for new Nuclear Power Plants, new domestic drilling for oil, and have actually spent more for energy each year, while advocating conservation of energy.

Happy Halloween!