Monday, May 24, 2010

CAFR: UC budget fully funded with one-fifth of one percent of state of CA “investments”

May 24, 7:58 AMLA County Nonpartisan ExaminerCarl HermanPrevious

We hold these Truths as self-evident...The UC system had a budget deficit for this ending school year of $0.65 billion. The policy response was to deny 2,300 students enrollment, lay-off over 2,000 faculty and staff, furlough teaching days and cut 10% salaries, and raise tuition by 32%. For less than one-fifth of one percent of the investment total of California, UC would have been fully-funded and those reductions eliminated.

This was a point in my previous CAFR article; I’m highlighting it here and invite you to fully understand the data. The meaning of the data is that our economic crisis has been intentionally created by our political “leaders” and propagandized by corporate media. Knowledge of the data empowers citizens to end the crisis, fully investigate the criminals who caused it, and implement the obvious economic solutions that unleash trillions of dollars worth of Americans’ productivity every year for our maximum benefit and enjoyment.

Actually, because complicity in corruption is so deep, the probable best policy response is Truth and Reconciliation to exchange full factual disclosure and return of public assets for no prosecution. What isn’t disclosed within a time window is subject to criminal and civil prosecution. The purpose of this strategy is for those willing to have a “Scrooge conversion” to become powerful partners of humanity for cooperation, justice, dignity and freedom for all. Their information is vital to conclusive and rapid end of American criminal political and economic oligarchs.

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. But ours have failed in their primary duty to represent the public good, and will soon have to explain the facts.

“Leadership” claims that this money is necessary to leave alone in order to 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.

My favorite definition of the word, “evil” is “preference for one’s own material gain over the well-being of others.” Our leaders have been evil to steal the public’s money through obfuscating language as “investments” that then serve as 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?

CAFRs reveal a communist-style policy whereby US taxpayers surrender enormous assets to the state, who then “invest” these collective trillions that swell in these accounts. Concurrently, taxpayers are informed of budget deficits to either squeeze more taxes from them and/or cut public services. To add insult to injury, the state lies in omission by never reminding Americans of their hard-earned and withheld trillions of their dollars as they eliminate jobs, reduce education, and attack the quality of Americans’ lives.

The American Constitution is a contract of limited government whereby the public informs and is informed by our representatives. CAFRs are damning public documents that expose “leadership” from Left and Right as exactly what leading economic voices have said: an absolutely corrupt and self-serving oligarchy.

Below is Walter Burien’s 70-minute radio interview with Coast-to-Coast host, George Noory from January 6, 2010. Walter claims that investments are only the most obvious section where CAFRs reveal hidden public money in plain sight; other areas include advanced forward liabilities accounts (overestimates and/or retained money for far-distant projects), states buying their own debt, profits from state-run enterprises (like recycling), and possible other areas requiring full and independent audits to discover.

I conclude with my usual resources for comprehensive understanding and suggestions for action. This has some repetition or the above information along with additional resources:





It’s time for our men and women in the military and government to stand with the American public who declare in a ratio of 9 to 1 that our government no longer represents them under the US Constitution.




Explanation of the rules of lawful war omitted from their military training that proves beyond any doubt that current US wars are unlawful.
Analogies that the rules of war are almost exactly like those for an individual’s use of force on the street.
Proof beyond doubt that the speech of Iranian President Ahmadinejad never threatened Israel.
Documentation that IAEA verifies all of Iran’s nuclear material and has only and always been used for legal and peaceful purposes.
Documentation that US-Iran relations should be viewed from the history that the US unlawfully overthrew Iran's democracy from 1953 to 1979, and then supported an unlawful War of Aggression against them from 1980 to 1988 when they rejected further rule by vicious US-friendly dictatorship. Those two US-caused acts killed up to a million Iranians
As a teacher of government and law, I created an analogy to recognize the lies by imposing the names of “China” for the US, and “US” for Iran to see what it looks like as the target of war lies. I also provide a glimpse into Persian culture to humanize Iran rather than demonize the targets of provable and criminal US war lies. I also remind you of the history lesson that the US fought WW2 against aggressors who masked their invasions as “liberations” for their own peace and freedom.
Explanation of the law of treason: the liars who duped US soldiers to unlawfully invade other countries are the ones who levied war against US soldiers.
Documentation and explanation of official US policy to use nuclear weapons if our “leaders” say (dictate) a nation might someday in the future harm the US or an ally. This policy is obviously Orwellian unlawful.
Documentation of past use of US false flag attacks to kill Americans and blame an “enemy” in order to initiate an offensive war masked as a defensive one.
Proof that corporate media is complicit in lies of commission and omission to propagandize for unlawful US wars (and here).
Explanation of strategy to end the massive criminal acts of US “leaders” for obvious violation of the letter and spirit of US war laws: because these crimes are so broad and so deep, I recommend Truth and Reconciliation (T&R) to exchange full truth and return of stolen US assets for non-prosecution. This is the most expeditious way to understand and end all unlawful and harmful acts. Those who reject T&R are subject to prosecution.
A reminder that you love virtue, American values, and love of your fellow human beings. These war liars “leading” our government who say they want peace while engaging in endless wars won’t create a Department of Peace for professional analysis of peace. These psychopaths (look that word up) spend trillions in long-term costs to lie and kill while reneging on their promise to spend just 0.7% of GNI to end poverty, save a million children's lives every month, and do so while reducing population growth rates.
Documentation with many of the US most prominent economists and experts that these same war liars are transferring trillions of our taxpaying dollars to an oligarchic elite, ignoring the obvious solution of full employment to invest in US infrastructure, keeping a “debt supply” rather than a “money supply” to end the national debt, and keeping a parasitic banking system rather than a non-profit system (think 1-2% mortgages). I also provide documentation that these obvious economic solutions have been advocated by our brightest historical minds for centuries.

Choose well; our collective future, and your future, depend upon it. I appreciate your attention to these facts and encourage your further study and action consistent with your own self-expression.




For Gandhi’s evolved view of British evil in 1922, read this passage from Freedom’s Battle.

Gandhi concluded the effective response from the public was non-violent, non-cooperation with unjust British rule until the British themselves realized their engagement in immoral acts with an educated and non-cooperative public was inconsistent with their own values.

To consider:













Los Angeles County: We’re home to 10 million people and are the media capital of the world. If we are to build a brighter future, the broadest picture must be communicated. Los Angelinos will play leading roles in communicating these issues’ importance to all humanity and in context to the economic and security concerns of local communities and families, as I explain above. These issues are ongoing “current events” of literally trillions of our collective dollars that directly effect billions of human beings, around the world who we touch in L.A.’s media market and where so many of us have family and friends, and locally with the per household tax burden for trillions of our collective dollars. Current US wars cost every L.A. County household ~$30,000 to $50,000 in long-term costs; over $100 billion total. To put this in perspective, California’s state budget deficit is $20 billion; the source of unemployment cutbacks and shortages of services. The most important impact on our local communities are often the broadest topics.

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