Oregon legislator reads CAFR, finds billions, ends budget deficit crisis; California can do same
We hold these Truths to be self-evident...
The below 2-minute video shows an Oregon legislator appropriately outraged to discover the Orwellian lie of omission that his state has available assets valued over ten times the budget deficit. These funds are "unreserved, undesignated fund balance," meaning that they have no restrictions for use.
This is true in every state; documented in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). When Democratic and Republican “leadership” states public goods and services MUST be cut because of budget deficits, the lies become ones of commission.
I fully explain this situation in the following from my article, “CAFR: UC budget fully funded with one-fifth of one percent of state of CA “investments”:
California’s political “leadership” of both parties have lied in omission by failing to discuss California’s investments of $367 billion (page 48) as a possible source of funding for the ~$20 billion budget deficit. Ethical politicians would have presented the facts for professional and independent economic cost-benefit analysis to communicate choices to the tax-paying public.
“Leadership” claims that this money is necessary to leave alone in order to pay mainly for public employee retirement benefits. Let’s check that story. California’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) shows current member contribution pays for all retiree benefits except for $1.8 billion (also pages 48 and 49). This means that Republican and Democratic “leaders” say they need to extract and hold over $367 billion from the taxpayers in order to pay for a cost of one-half of one percent of OUR money they took from us.
These “leaders” are lying sacks of spin.
Our leaders have lied in omission and use obfuscating language for our collective money that then become what author Ellen Brown calls, “Stagnant pools of government money.”
I also looked at the CAFRs for Los Angeles County ($52 billion in investments; pages 61-63) and the City of Los Angeles ($36 billion; page 80). Both have drastically cut programs. Both have pension plans underfunded by current members by less than 2% of their investment totals.
California has a budget deficit of ~$20 billion. The combined investments of CAFRs for the state of CA, Los Angeles County, and the City of Los Angeles is over $450 billion; over 22 times the amount of the budget shortfall. If just these three state agencies surrendered their withheld money back to the public instead of lording over it as communists, each Californian would receive ~$15,000. To pay for the $1.8 billion shortfall in the retirement account, each individual could be taxed $50.
But wait. So far, we’re only considering three CAFRs in the state of California. The comprehensive reality is far more dramatic. If you combine all of California’s ~10,000 government agencies’ CAFRs, the combined total according to Walter Burien’s sampling analysis is $8 trillion. Let’s say Walter’s way-off. For argument’s sake, let’s say the total is less than half; only $3.5 trillion. If that was returned to the public, each Californian would receive $100,000.
Walter says he’s confident in his documentation that every state has a similar structure that has overtaxed and seized Americans’ hard-earned money. His solution is to have this invested money actually benefit the public by having dividend returns pay for government budgets. If government agencies divested their investments, the market value of the investments would plummet. He explains his solution in the radio interview below.
Obviously, we need independent auditing of all state CAFRs and independent economic cost-benefit analyses to make our choices clear of how the public benefit is best served. Californians oppressed under a $20 billion dollar budget deficit that cuts essential public services while not considering taxpayers’ trillions “invested” in our names is among the worst choices imaginable.
To put this into an analogy, I’ve modified the one used by Walter:
This is like a juvenile claiming he needs money because his front pants pocket is empty, which he dutifully shows (budget). What he's not telling you is that his back pockets have over 100 times the money he says he "needs" (shown in various places of the CAFRs). Whenever he's asked about the money in his back pockets, which he never volunteers in discussing his empty front pocket and never invites for consideration to move some into the front pocket, he says, "Oh, that money is designated for other uses. I can't touch that." So far, the silence of corporate media and political leadership from Left and Right has brought us to today. Of course, "I can't touch that" is a lie of omission because it can be touched the moment policy changes. So the real issue is the heart of economics: what are the costs and benefits of different choices?
The fact that the public isn’t aware that their tax money is available and corporate media doesn’t report it points to corporate media collusion. Corporate media disinformation for cartels like our banking industry is documented in two resources, academic and a call to citizen action:
Thanks to the Jubilee Report for the heads-up about Oregon! This is not the first time Oregon has been directly advised of this problem and not directed public money for public benefit; see this.
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Our government is paradoxically based on censorship: “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” means any behavior outside constitutional limits is forbidden. This is the paradox of freedom: freedom is only realized within limits.
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Please consider that I’m among hundreds of writers who have documented our own government’s disclosure of propaganda programs to support their wars. My articles are subject to such propagandistic attack from comments that use typical rhetorical fallacies to distract readers from the facts. I invite readers to sharpen their ability to discern such propaganda. They are characterized by a combination of: denying facts without evidence, ignoring key facts in lies of omission, lying about verifiable facts as lies of commission, diverting attention through unsubstantiated belief in an alleged expert, irrelevant data, straw-man attack that distorts the facts, ad hominem attack of insults to the messenger, vile comments to repulse readers, “sock-puppets” of multiple personalities to appear of a bandwagon support, and comments that distract through focus on minutia.
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As a professional educator I’m in agreement with my experience and research: we learn best from multiple perspectives in mutual commitment to understand the facts, see those facts from diverse points-of-view, and consider various policy proposals of what we should do. But professional factual discourse always rejects non-factual propaganda.
A predictable line of propaganda to fallaciously attack my documented facts is to call them “un-American.” This is Orwellian-absurd, as America is literally the support of the ideal of unalienable rights and the US Constitution, which my work proves are disgracefully destroyed by current political and economic US “leadership.” Indeed, the US was founded by our Fathers who took such a stand against their subjugation by the British and passionately wrote for future generations of Americans to defend their rights against such propaganda to surrender their freedom. I will point to readers to consider the advice of our Founding Fathers upon such predictable propaganda of calling a stand for rule under US law and against “emperor has no clothes” violations of US laws as “treason.”
"But now, after having once and for all put to the test the judgments of men, I here again approach these same questions regarding God and the human mind, and at the same time treat the beginnings of the whole of first philosophy, but in such a way that I have no expectation of approval from the vulgar and no wide audience of readers. Rather, I am an author to none who read these things but those who seriously meditate with me, who have the ability and the desire to withdraw their mind from the senses and at the same time from all prejudices. Such people I know all too well to be few and far between. As to those who do not take care to comprehend the order and series of my reasons but eagerly dispute over single conclusions by themselves, as is the custom for many-those, I say, will derive little benefit from a reading of this treatise; and although perhaps they might find an occasion for quibbling in many spots, still it is not an easy matter for them to raise an objection that is either compelling or worthy of response."
- Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641, "Preface to the Reader." This book is usual reading in college philosophy courses today. Descartes is considered the founder of modern philosophy, the founder of analytical geometry (which led to calculus), and a founder of the Scientific Revolution. Descartes was well-known in his age, but highly controversial. His work was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in 1633, and his books put on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1663. The University of Utrecht condemned his work in 1643, where he had previously taught.
For those involved in support of US government-sponsored disinformation in whatever versions of Operation Mockingbird that are active, I invite you to consider the quality of human relationships you wish to create. National security and a brighter future is not a function of fear, manipulation, and control. Our best security follows cooperation, justice under the law, dignity, and freedom. Working for your best imagined self-expression of virtue may include a unique contribution from the inside of your agency. Public attraction to the stories of Star Wars and the Harry Potter books/movies recognize that our society’s jump to civilized relations for all of us might require support from people within the “dark side” acting as covert agents for building a brighter future. Another option is becoming a whistle-blower; Project Camelot is a popular venue for people in sensitive positions. Ultimately, I recommend a Truth and Reconciliation process to exchange full truth for no prosecution, explained in detail at the link. Please consider the wisdom of your own “Scrooge conversion” to act for the benefit of building a brighter future for all humanity rather than propagandizing for your controlling, manipulating, and loveless “masters’” psychopathic policies of violence and suffering.
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”
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