Federal government stupidity

Most folks struggle daily to make ends meet right in the middle of increases by a whopping 20 percent in the cost of living. The pile of increases slams home, quickly derailing what’s left in family pocketbooks while salaries remain the same for over 10 years.

Appalling that it’s business as usual for the “walking dead” on the hill. But then legislators rake in $90,000 annually, thus the obvious grand sense of apathy of what goes on in the villages. Now, let’s switch screens and peep what a certain national columnist calls “Federal Stupidity.”

Appalling, though how the federal government has run amok on matters such as landownership that was never authorized under the U.S. Constitution. Here are some more pointed out by Daniel Mitchell, author and commentator of national issues:

“Doing interviews at a per person cost of $6,000 on erectile dysfunction and stick the tab on us.

“Yearlong sting operations by federal milk police officers.

“Rules harassing coffee shops all over for allowing bikini-clad sales staff.

“OSHA requirements for expensive safety harnesses for people working 11 feet off the ground.

“But we also have really absurd examples of wasteful spending.

“Forcing taxpayers to pay millions of dollars for pro-Obamacare and pro-IRS propaganda.

“Giving disability benefits to a grown man who wants to wear diapers and live as an ‘adult baby.’

“Squandering $400K on experimental underwear, one that detects cigarette smoke.

“Paying 35 times the market price for some Kindles.

“A $100,000 library grant to a city without a library.

“Throwing $100 million in the garbage by subsidizing leftist bureaucracy in Paris that advocates for higher taxes in the United States.

“We even have examples of government stupidity that can be characterized as a combination of wasteful spending and foolish regulation. It deals of government squandering money on research about how to encourage condom use by providing prophylactics of different sizes. The other part of the government has regulations preventing the private sector from providing prophylactics of different sizes.

“These could win a prize for the most profound and disturbing example of government stupidity. It mixes foolish red tape with over-the-top political correctness. The grand stupidity is Obamacare where you’re forced to pay higher premiums than what you had paid under a previous privately run health insurance policy.”

Local version of stupidity

The CNMI isn’t absolved or free from its own version of stupidity repeating the same failed paradigms. Here goes:

• Policymakers approved casino as a grand excuse to cushion the Fund that is basically broke. What is it about the decision of “we the people” who shot down casino twice that you don’t understand? Why do you think “we the people” took it away from your disposition? “We the people” did it for a reason while you settled for sheer oxymoronic stupidity!
• Legislators attended a lofty conference on power generation. They end up attending a gay marriage ceremony. They returned with the resolve to buy their own bread on future junkets south of the equator. But our power bills are still the same, yeah? What brilliance in stupidity!
• Reps. Felicidad Ogumuro, Janet Maratita and Sen. Jovita Taimanao recently all took junkets to the U.S., fully paid for by taxpayers for some disoriented mission only they know about. Junket trips in the middle of a huge bankruptcy? Call it royal stupidity. Eh, we weren’t born yesterday, lai!
• Another junket to Guam by legislators on liquefied natural gas that would cost Guam taxpayers the initial fee of about $800 million. It’s just $200 million less than GovGuam’s current deficit of over a billion dollars. Are we ready to pile more debt on top of our $1.2 billion cumulative deficit? What did we the taxpayers miss in this incongruity and stupidity?
• My kanaka braddah once slammed, “Eh, you think you smart, I smart too braddah!” But do we need to kill casino on Rota and Tinian via our ill-conceived Saipan “Cash-It-Now?”
• We’ve made advances in farming—export of cattle—to Guam. Will this include veggies when Guam has its own farmers who provide real time fresh products?
• Kilili failed the people on two fronts: Woefully expensive health premiums from Obamacare and his pathway to citizenship. One is familial economic annihilation the other eventual political marginalization. Halo? Use of coconuts a must on these issues Kilili, sayu?
• There’s CUC pushing the envelope on solar and geothermal energy. Why push it when it’s clear neither could be hooked to the power grid? Fletcher and disoriented cabal ought to scribble the following on their tombstone: “The surgery is successful but the patient died.” Sus! Dalai `ste!

Call it hopelessness in shallowness using Chamorro logic—where everything is illogical—is a forte and trophy confirming affinity with stupidity!

Critical fiscal issues

Policymakers from both sides of the street must address and resolve funding issues for the “essential departments”—CHC, PSS, and DPS. It’s difficult navigating the balance of $90 million after you set aside $50 million for the settlement fund.

Throw in payment for CUC’s court-ordered fine of $64 million, $13 million to DB members’ interests on their contributions; $700 million in unfunded liability of the Fund; $200 million-plus for the impending bond; and other steep obligations. The most critical question is whether our illustrious and esteemed officials have the coconuts to do the thing right by doing it right.

For those of us outside the square of lunacy, we all know the answer and won’t even blink imposing what must be done right forthwith. Eh, maybe it’s just as good a time to fold our empty rice sacks so we could collect mushy coconuts from the hill.