20 Examples of Government Hypocrisy to Make You Angry

Agreement is anathema in Washington except for one thing: the acceptance of government hypocrisy. Bills, policies, programs, and agencies conflict with competing and often pointless goals that cost us money and ensure our taxes go to waste.

Here are 20 examples of government hypocrisy that will help you hate the way Washington does business. Of course, if you are reading this you probably already do.

Government hypocrisy 20 ways:

#1: Both parties agree we are still recovering from one of the worst recessions in decades, our debt is soaring, and we continue to spend billions on people and countries that hate us.

#2: Government spending on the recovery didn’t fix the economy, so Democrats want to spend more.

#3: Obamacare is stalled, but Democrats insist on pushing it forward as written and Republicans want to repeal it without an alternative bill.

#4: Congress throws equality and fairness in our faces at every opportunity while its members anticipate a new Office of Personnel Management rule to give them a pass on participating in Obamacare.

#5: We are about to face a new debt ceiling crisis and the White House will ask for more spending money to fix it.

#6: Our government is supposed to be more transparent than ever (see: The Hoax Behind Our Big, Accountable Government). Transparency shows us just how wasteful and scandal-ridden Washington is.

#7: Homeland Security claims the border is safer than ever, but the focus of bipartisan support for an immigration bill is making the border safe.

#8:  There is bipartisan support for nation-building in the Middle East despite all evidence that Islamic democracy and the Arab spring are Washington pipe dreams.

#9: White House policymakers and the Department of Education are wringing their hands over education costs while they empower unions and argue for raising teacher salaries that make public education costs go up.

#10: Prosperity is a good thing, but Democrats keep promising handouts and government-sponsored financial security that help make Americans lazy and dependent on the government.

#11: America’s credit was downgraded in 2011 not because of the debt, but because our two political parties couldn’t agree on how to spend lots of money and reduce the debt at the same time.

#12: We have bipartisan support for Democrats and Republicans working together. To accomplish that goal both parties indulge in finger-pointing and blame that makes bipartisanship impossible.

#13: Republicans, Democrats, and the White House publicly agreed on the importance of helping the middle class, then raised their taxes in January 2013.

#14: We ascribe characteristics to Muslims in America that we don’t see anywhere else, but we keep calling Islam a great world religion.

#15: Both parties agree that unemployment is a bad thing and the recession makes it difficult to find a job, but every time an extension of unemployment benefits comes up they find excuses to block it (see: Why Do Republicans Want to Be America’s Enemies?).

#16: Democrats and the president blame the wealthy for stealing opportunity from the middle class but most are wealthy in their own right, enjoy excessive perks at taxpayer expense, and helped craft the tax code that they are so eager to blame.

#17: Washington helped taxpayers bail out the banks. The banks are doing better. Taxpayers aren’t doing so well.

#18: The White House admits the jobs numbers could be better, so we pass policies like DACA to create more competition for jobs.

#19: Congress creates problems with no intention of fixing them because members know there is little PR juice to be had from crises that go away.

#20: Big government hypocrisy, conflict, and gridlock keep Washington running. Just think how little government we would need if politicians focused more on getting the job done and less on keeping themselves in the spotlight.

UPDATE April 14, 2017: let’s make it 21

#21: The ultimate hypocrisy: demanding federal money for a problem you created and refuse to fix.

33 House members sent a letter to President Trump asking that funding be restored to programs including the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). They claimed that:

Communities rely on these funding streams to enhance public safety, fund crime victim and witness initiatives, support drug treatment and enforcement, promote economic development and more.¹

They also asked that the president not pull funding from sanctuary cities, which wouldn’t need programs like SCAAP if they didn’t harbor so many illegals.

UPDATE August 18, 2017: why stop now? #22 and counting …

After years of telling us that millionaires and billionaires are the cause of all America’s woes and slamming Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner because of his wealth, Democrats in ruined, violent Cook County chose uber-wealthy J.B. Pritzker as their man for next year’s gubernatorial election. He’s male, white, and rich, traits despised by contemporary Democratic Party values.

UPATE April 30, 2018: #23 asylum seekers take the cake

We have an immigration problem. Year after year we spend too many tax dollars trying to control the consequences, but when a large enough group comes to the border demanding entrance we take their requests for asylum seriously instead of simply telling them to go home.

Am I the only one who thinks this sets a bad precedent?

#24: women only support women with the same political beliefs

Sarah Sanders sat at the Correspondent’s Dinner last Saturday night and took it. I give her credit for that. As the smile froze on her face was she thinking about the hypocrisy of a woman stabbing another successful woman in the back and calling her a liar in a very public forum while the Me Too movement preaches unity and support?

UPDATE November 11, 2018

#25: don’t control illegals, control Americans with guns

Thanks to a new Democratic House gun control will be in when Democrats take over in January 2019. Illegal immigrant control will be out. Murders committed by illegals let loose because of sanctuary policies and lax enforcement will keep happening while Congress ties itself up in knots over a fool’s errand: how do we keep guns out of the hands of U.S. citizens who have the right to own them?

I’ve never owned a gun. Never had a reason or desire to. That doesn’t mean I can’t spot hypocrisy over gun control.

Declined detainer and three more murders

Last week ICE reported three more murders committed in Missouri by an illegal immigrant released in New Jersey because local authorities refused to honor an ICE detainer. This is a completely avoidable crime. The man was in custody. We let him go. Three more people are dead.

When Democrats take over in January gun control will undoubtedly be a priority. Controlling criminal illegal immigrants will not. We should expect the opposite to be true as the left assures us that illegals don’t commit crimes.

This raises a question: are deaths committed by Americans with guns a more serious offense than deaths committed by illegal immigrants?

UPDATE June 11, 2019

#26: Illinois’ special new Green Deal

Sometimes even Democrats realize when their tax and spend obsessions go too far. That’s what happened in Illinois when the rumored new $1,000 registration charge for green, electric vehicles suddenly dropped by $752.00.

That’s a pretty big concession for this state. If we had time to work the numbers it might even be historic.

Green-obsessed drivers can take some comfort in the nearly 50% jump in the registration fee for gas vehicles and the punishing doubling of the gas tax to $0.38/gallon. Still, if I shelled out for a fancy new electric ride because the end of the world is at hand I’d be mighty pissed off at being punished for trying to save the earth.

Don’t Democrats want us to Go Green? Yes they do, but there are limits and they are all about money. It might have been more palatable to environmentally-savvy drivers to slap an “electric responsibility tax” or something equally nonsensical on charging stations so the state gets its cut of what it’s losing on the gasoline levy. They could also take a cue from Governor Pritzker and slap a mileage tax on everyone, but that would be regressive and punish green drivers and polluters alike.

Of course, regressive also has a different meaning for Democrats in Illinois. That’s another hypocrisy this working-class and tax and fee friendly liberal state seems completely oblivious too. At least the electric vehicle hike only whacks those with incomes high enough to make saving the world affordable.

1. “Quigley Leads Democratic Colleagues in Letter Urging Trump Administration to Stop Targeting Sanctuary Cities.” Congressman Mike Quigley. March 15, 2017. https://quigley.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/quigley-leads-democratic-colleagues-letter-urging-trump-administration, retrieved April 14, 2017.