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Friday, Oct. 5, 2012 | 2 a.m.
The presidential debate Wednesday night had a segment on the role of government. Government employees are absolutely necessary and they do a lot of good. But let’s start with simple, undisputable arithmetic. Government employees usually pay taxes. And some people on welfare or food stamps pay some taxes. But nobody is in a tax bracket greater than 100 percent; therefore, each government employee or recipient is a net drain on government spending. They take out more than they put in. Also, essentially no government employee creates anything that we can sell overseas. The government employee has produced nothing that can ...
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The single purpose of Obama is to REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH.
It take a lot of time and energy and resources and yes government people to move trillion of dollars from some fools who keep working in the private sector to the selected voter blocks of identiy politics to sustain over 50% of the people voting Democrats.
Here is what Obama said
"I think the TRICK is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution -- because I ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN REDISTRIBUTION
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"We must balance how much government we want with what we can afford."
As the most prosperous country on the planet, we can afford a lot. It's more accurate to say we must balance how much we want from government with how much we are willing to pay.
In reply to Mr. Charles Gould; great work, a superb letter written to the editor. You couldn't be more right in your commentary.
PART ONE
In working for the state prison system for over twenty-years, the waste of taxpayer dollars was nothing short of huge and outrageous.
The negligence and incompetence of some prison staff and most management teams at this particular institution never ceased to amaze me. But, what really stunned me was, for many years, management got away with at taxpayer expense in doing nothing to effectuate change.
The state institution that I worked for had power bills that far exceeded by as high as six times the amount of institutions that was of three to four times larger than ours. In the general population inmate housing units, there were thirty-two cells on each wing, with three wings and an overflow section. In all, the cell block had a capacity of well over two-hundred inmates. Most cells had two inmate owned portable televisions, and reading lamps. During daylight hours, inmates acted in an unauthorized manner covering their cell windows blocking out the sunlight. During the evening hours, the majority of televisions stayed on all night long. I began confiscating lamps and televisions where cells had their windows covered during daylight hours, and confiscated the same that were left on past 10PM on weeknights, and midnight on weekends. The grievances and lawsuits began piling up. Management sided with the inmates, stating that I was denying the incarcerated their basic human rights. In turn, I purposely disconnected to my cellblock, the unit's cable television line. In retaliation, most inmates began leaving their cell lights on past the designated "taps" timetable that I had established. I then activated the "shunt trip", which is an emergency procedure that shuts down the power and the water to the entire cell block. Note: It is a quite difficult process for maintenance to reestablish power and water to the unit. This time, I was faced with formal charges. However, the state hearing officer found in my favor.
Walking the prison yard during the evening hours, after normal working hours, on occasion, I found that large vacant departments within the institution such as the gymnasium, prison industries, visitation sections, etc. were, in fact, leaving lights and their heating and cooling systems running all night long. In reporting this, management ignored these serious violations of energy conservation. In turn, I disabled temporarily, all their main power systems. Once again, I was brought up on formal charges. And, once again, not surprisingly, the adjudicating officer for the state found in my favor.
PART TWO
The final straw was, when I was brought to an inmate conservation camp to manage the culinary. Way over budget, riddled with staff corruption and inmate theft, this culinary facility was facing being shut down by the state health department.
The theft was stopped. The culinary was brought to meet the highest standards of the health department. The budget was not only brought under control, but after three months was now operating thousands of dollars under budget, as food portions and productivity was increased drastically from previous levels. What did I get for all this? I was relieved of duty as manager and force transferred to another facility and position under investigation. I would have to assume management was not too excited with me when I caught another officer stealing from my culinary and I slapped my handcuffs on him making a public spectacle of him in front of many inmates.
As I was nearing retirement, thankfully, management began to change. I don't need to name you guys, who know who you are. Thank you for a job well done!!! Now, as a civilian, I can honestly say, the taxpayers need you, our society and country needs you. Without honest, reliable, effective and efficient government, we are doomed.
Letter writer is correct. Smart government is good, big government is dangerous. Not to mention expensive.
CarmineD
We need all the government employees to run ESSENTIAL programs. The way to cut back is to ELIMINATE unnecessary programs. Social welfare should be a local issue, not administered and adding costs at the federal level--we'd save the costs of all those federal employees and many of the local government employees that monitor programs to comply with federal requirements. And we need to eliminate federal mandates that states, cities, counties, school districts provide endless services for illegal invaders and their kids.
We have a problem with obese government but it is also full of incompetence. Since Mr. Chapline likes to provide us with his anecdotal information (always a good read) let me provide you one of mine:
As many of you may know I am a patient in the VA health system. A few years ago I had a heart attack and had a triple bypass done. When I awoke in the recovery room I was told I had to return to surgery because I was leaking! I had to return to the hospital 2 subsequent times immediately after my surgery because of incompetence that cause life threatening conditions. One of which was NO blood pressure!
I survived. As a result of my surgery I have a hernia in the center of my chest and constant pain. The VA sent me to a surgeon at the military hospital. It took 3 months for me to get an appointment because the clinic kept forgetting to put in the order for the surgeon.
He suggested a mesh be installed to help the hernia and perhaps the pain. I still have the hernia and the pain.
I returned to the VA clinic and asked about some sort of pain maintenance and they sent me back to the surgeon. He tried cortizone injections but they failed to help long term. He said that they only way he could relieve the pain permanently would require him to crack my chest open again. I said no. He put me on a non-narcotic pain med. This make my discomfort "tolerable". He wrote me a prescription for two months and sent me back to the clinic for them to continue my meds.
It took me a month to get an appointment to talk to my doctor. I told her that I had specifically made this appointment to add the pain meds to my monthly requirement. She asked me how many I had and I told her how many along with the dosage which was 6/per day. She wrote that I should return in 6 months. I waited for my meds to arrive and they didn't. I finally went to the VA pharmacy and they told me that they had not order for my pain meds. I had to write a letter to the doctor! I finally received a four month supply but the dosage was 4/per day.
I could go on but I think you see a pattern here. I am in constant pain and have difficulty getting what I would call basic physician service.
These are the people that manage our Post Office. These are the people that manage our Amtrak service (where they sell a cheeseburger that cost them $16 for $9.50 and have been investigating their losses for years but are "honing" in on the problems)!!!
It is an environment of mediocrity!
Yikes.
It's out of balance?
Here's the hard truth the right doesn't want you to know. As a share of the population, the federal workforce is near a modern low.
Just take a look at actual data:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-kl...
The data proves that, as a share of the population, we're at a smaller federal workforce than the workforce under the Reagan administration.
We should be looking at data and facts, not reading tired, misleading rhetoric.
Mr. Gould,
Your letter is absolute nonsense. Economic output consists of both goods and services. My urologist doesn't produce anything that we can sell overseas. I still need him because my prostate is the size of a hand grenade. Economies get rid of things that aren't needed very quickly. Just because a teacher is not producing something that is sold doesn't mean people shouldn't be taught how to read and write.
When government workers and private workers get paid they turn around and either spend or invest the money they get. If you buy a car or government worker buys a car the automobile industry gets a benefit. When a soldier goes to war in most cases he's not producing anything but the country in theory should be getting some kind of benefit otherwise why have the war.
In addition governments are very large employers. I believe the Chinese and American military are the two largest employers in the world. Governments tend to employ people when economic conditions are weak which helps keep unemployment from shooting through the roof. This is one of the first recessions in American history were government employment has dropped at the same time the private sector was reducing employment. This has caused unemployment to remain above trend for years. This phenomenon will continue for many years to come. The Fed estimates at least 12 years to get the unemployment rate back down to 5%.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal...
To add a little to Mr. Sandoval's above post federal employment hasn't gone up since Harry Truman was in office. Even though the population has almost doubled. The federal government is spending massive amounts of money trying to pay their share of the nation's hyperinflated medical costs. They have no money left over to hire anyone. It would be great if they could hire a few hundred thousand people to get the unemployment rate down.
Mr. Hageman perhaps you should read this report about government employment.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/unemploy...
In reply to Kevin Sandoval; are you insinuating that the commentaries of both me and John Thompson are, "tired and misleading rhetoric?"
Really??? I don't care whether differing sectors of government is Republican or Democrat. John Thompson said it right when he wrote, "We have a problem with obese government but it is also full of incompetence", and "Government is an environment of mediocrity."
You don't think the stories we write are real, Mr. Sandoval?
I have to assume you are calling me a liar when I've written about a near thirty-year battle with the government to finally make them realize I was overseas serving my country in the Marines when my first wife was having multiple babies back in the states claiming I was the biological father? How stupid is that when I had certified documents all a long proving my whereabouts?
I have to assume you are calling me a liar when I've written about volunteering to work the streets to bring Vietnam Vets into our Help Center for assistance only to be sideswiped by the Veterans Administration in not following through on their obligations to our former soldiers? The true stories of government ineptness can go on and on, as John Thompson stated.
I'm going to make this real clear to you Mr. Sandoval; I have my disagreements with John Thompson. However, he is a man of honor and great character and doesn't have it in him to be a liar and or misleading. Mr. Thompson's words are not rhetoric. You can call me what you like Mr. Sandoval, but leave John Thompson alone. You'll never know the pain of what it's like to sacrifice and walk in the shoes of a John Thompson.
Your most recent posts have proved you to be heartless and uncaring; just like the majority of extreme Republicans. In my eyes, your future posts have absolutely no credibility or value whatsoever. Good day to you, Sir!!!
Mr. Chapline thank you. I know that we disagree but I can assure anyone reading that I have NO REASON to lie and I assume that Mr. Chapline does not as well.
Another small anecdote: When I first moved to Southern Nevada in 1977 I worked for the State. I was employed with a very small agency that handled the power and water contracts from the Colorado River. We were responsible for Nevada's water allotments. We generated our own income through these contracts. We were also responsible for all of the power billing in Nevada from Hoover. We hated dealing with "other" state agencies because the incompetence was mind numbing. We had to deal with other agencies in purchasing but we did not use state personnel as we hired and fired our own. I left in 1985. I loved the Commission that I worked for because we were a small competent organization.
Mr. Sandoval I bring these experiences to this forum in an effort to highlight that we should expect more from our government services. However, should one get upset you are told to calm down or you will not be given service. Our government agencies, many times, treat us, the customer, like WE are the problem. If we would just go away, all would be well.
Imagine, if you will, a private business operating similar to our experiences with our government. Imagine.
jrtsr: You needed cardiac surgery and you gripe about the quality of care? We patients need to remember that we are the guinea pigs as each doctor perfects (learns, trains) his/her "practice". My stance is, if you want to stay healthy stay away from doctors whenever you can. Sounds like you can't unless you do the medical m thing. Don't know how much your doctors explained before surgery. And let's think a moment, if someone makes it thru medical school and residency, there appears to be no supervision--unless and until he/she kills off lots of patients and the medical board has to look into it.
Government jobs mean less unemployed. Do the math. Greece has about 25% of the workforce on government jobs and they seem to be doing OK...except for that ongoing public protest and bankruptcy thing.
Ms. Anderson yes I do expect competence!
In reply to John Thompson; really, what else did you expect coming from Roberta Anderson? She claims to have been an Air Traffic Controller. Now there is a group of government employee misfits who believe it is okay to watch movies on duty during the nighttime hours. They claim it assists them in staying awake on duty. How's that for a new discipline? If this isn't malpractice and a breach of passenger safety, I don't know what else is.
However, I must give the ATC's credit. They are much better than our prison guards. I remember turning in to the institutional warden a majority of officers on the night shift sleeping on duty and not even conducting scheduled inmate counts during their shift. What happened after I reported this to the Warden? I was transferred off shift for not being a team player. How shocking, yes, less than a month later back to back inmate escapes occurred within a two week period off the main prison yard. This resulted in several families in Las Vegas being attacked and robbed by these escaped felons.
The Department decided to have an internal investigation of our institution conducted by other Wardens of institutions within the state. What were their findings? Fasten your seat belt for this. "There was no officer morale. The institution was not clean and therefore, this was the primary cause for lack of officer attention to duty."
Come on John, can't you understand? We need to at least sustain and or add more government just like this. How dare we expect competence from our tax dollars!!!
And surely John; don't you understand that we need more government administrators even when it comes to foreign affairs. Consider these facts:
DIPLOMATS VS U.S. MARINES; WHAT CONSTITUTES AN UNLAWFUL ORDER?
Should the operational control of security in our embassies reside in the hands of diplomats? This is a major mistake!
Why? We already know that the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya had no Marine guards at the time of the attack.
US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson did not permit US Marine guards to carry live ammunition, much less act in accordance to President Obama's publicly made order, "To do whatever it takes to protect our embassies, and secure the safety of personnel." Marines were forced to watch as Islamic mobs tore down the American flag, replacing it with a black inscribed pennant similar to that of the "Muslim Brotherhood.
Embassy diplomats are in effect emasculating U.S. Marines in regards to the performance of the duties of their sworn oaths, and in the fulfillment of their missions as embassy security guards.
Even to the point of rebellion, Marines must rise up against unlawful orders in direction to fulfill their oaths and obligations to the United States of America. They must not be stripped of the ability to provide the protections that are the ultimatum of their mandated purpose in being stationed at United States embassies and consulates.
Now John, shouldn't you by now be in favor of more government? Doesn't it appear to be quite effective that government employees / administrators have jurisdictional control even over our armed forces? Nothing like these incompetent fools coming to intercede between the chain of command of soldier and commander-in-chief is there?
gerry hageman,
Excellent clarification!
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John Thompson,
Do you to have pay any portion of your care under the VA?
In the past, VA doctors who had battlefield experience were excellent. They gained alot of experience that translated into private/public practice. And VA training was high quality as well.
Open chest or heart surgery can have complication that don't necessarily reflect on the competency of the physicians, including the health state of bones and muscles, and sometimes patient precipitated complications.
Hernia's occur in many different surgeries, and may be recurrent. There are many factors related to cause, so incompetency is not always the case.
I don't know your case, and only you know some things, but no matter what was done by whom or how it occurred, it is now you who must take the responsibility to follow up on your services, and preferably in a polite but persistent way.
I hope you can do what is necessary to receive the care you are entitled to with as little stress as possible. Be persistent, polite, and timely.
Another tip: Right or wrong, the non-professionals are gatekeepers with keys. Managing them is important. You can get them to work for you or against you.
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Attitudes can make a difference the quality of services one receives in many areas of private and public entities.
I stopped going to any private business giving me terrible service including bad attitudes of employees and sometimes owner's. There are plenty. I approach all with a good attitude, and if they don't respond. I just never go back.
I don't really see many difference in service quality received in private/public entities anymore.
I think is it a sign of the effect of a growing arrogance and disrespect across the board in our society, although I recognize that it may vary in different locals. It may even have a generational component in any direction.
In healthcare, it isn't always possible to go elsewhere, but attitude still makes a significant difference. I have to do that for my own care, which is private rather than public.
I am NOT saying YOU don't have a good attitude, I am writing this in general, because health is not like buying a stamp or obtaining a driver's license.
We maintain more power by controlling our attitudes. There is almost always a way to address grievances. We can make use of them and perhaps changes can occur. However, complaints require documentation of events be accurate. Cool attitudes enable accurate details.
Yes, I happen to also believe that the number of government workers in this country from a percentage stand point is less than it was during the Reagan years...
The thing that I continue to get a kick out of is the myth that's out there that claims that Reagan was a fiscal conservative who decreased the size of government while president...
The exact opposite is true. Reagan NEVER produced a balanced budget in 8 years & he used Social Security money to increase the size of the military.
Reagan also did nothing about cutting back the size of government.....government actually grew on his watch!
Mr Gould, the letter writer, made a point to talk about how this country is currently the largest "debtor nation" on earth & he is correct with that statement but that situation actually started during the Reagan years.
After leaving office Reagan said that one of the things that he regretted most was the fact that he took this country from the world's largest "lending nation" to the world's largest "borrowing nation."
The nation debt more than doubled under the "gipper."
People, unfortunately, believe what ever they're told. There's millions & millions of voters out there who actually believe that Ronald Reagan was a big time conservative...
Of course, most of those people weren't old enough to vote when the "gipper" was around...
They just listen to FOX NEWS and swallow the bait.....hook, line & sinker!
Am I missing something?
Americans are the most generous and civic minded people in the world..
When they have the money they fund everything through taxes and private donations..
If I heard anything at the debate..I heard that Americans are out of work, on food stamps and therefore..No Tax Revenue
Now..Romney said..Jobs, Jobs, Jobs..so people can pay taxes and fund the pensions..fund the programs..This fear and pennypinching attitude I hear everywhere is not telling me we created all those jobs the labor department claims..
If so, where is the government revenue?
Heck..Big Bird has a job..Big Bird is a billionaire..We should privatize Big Bird and tax BB's income to pay for the Post Office..
That is the sad fact..No one wants to cut social security..no one wants to gripe about government workers pensions..but that is the the State of the Union..no matter what spin Obama puts on it..
xtra.....
You mean no matter what spin romney and
republicans put on it.
The Obama economy is getting better everyday.
7.8% UNEMPLOYMENT!!!
It was anti-government, anti-union republicans
who made the mess that PRESIDENT OBAMA fixed.
The republican mind is what is out of balance.
Mr. Chapline my youngest son left the Air Force in 1995 after 10 years service because he said the military became to politicized. Knowing what happened in Benghazi, the fact the the Ambassador requested security, the fact that it was known ahead of time that trouble was due on Sept. 11th, the fact that it appears that our citizens where put in harms way FOR NO REASON, the fact that our President went to bed while the Consulate was under attack, the fact that our President came here for a stump speech immediately following the death of four Americans in Libya. In my mind the phone call came at 3 am and the phone was off of the hook and a "Do Not Disturb" sign was on the door.
Had the President announced that he was suspending all campaigning until the issue was resolved would have shown him to be a stand up gentleman. I would really have respected him for that. Instead he sent the Ambassador to the UN to tell everyone that it was the result of a movie by an Egyptian and a spontaneous protest that "got out of hand".
My son-in-law is an E-9 in the Air Force with multiple tours of Iraq. I ask myself: Is this the man I want in charge of his life? He is the father of my grand daughter. Or should we, perhaps put someone else in charge?
Peacelilly, no I do not pay for my healthcare with the VA. I agree that battlefield surgeons and doctors are quite good. That is not what we have in the VA health system. Active military doctors and VA doctors are cut from a different cloth. I have been in the system for 5 years. I have had 7 different doctors and the last one I could not understand because of language problems. She was "let go" for too many "questionable" practices. I am not sure if it is the pay grade or what but I know they do have trouble filling those positions. I will say that the nursing staff both at the VA clinic and in the VA portion of the hospital at Nellis are excellent in my opinion. I also really like the last surgeon that I saw at Nellis. I just did not want to have my chest cracked open again. I am sure you can understand why.
teamster...
Great post! Of course, you're attempting to do the impossible when trying to educate those who sleep over on the right.
A large majority of that group belongs to the "don't confuse me with the facts....I've made up my mind" group.
Those are the same one's who voted for George W Bush not once, but twice.
That's the same group who still believe that Saddam had WMD's and was harboring terrorists!
That's the same group who actually believe that Romney is going to look out for their best interests.
That's the same group that believes all that nonsense about Social Security and Medicare that Romney's side-kick, Paul Ryan, tells them...
Hmmmmm.....It appears that xtra believes that Big Bird is a billionaire? Is that a case of Republican fuzzy math being used?
Yep, let's do away with PBS. It helps no one & is a waste of tax payers dollars....
After all, we could probably balance the federal budget if we "fired" Big Bird, Bert & Ernie & the "cookie monster."
We then could give America's rich another tax break..... After all, look at all the jobs that the rich created from 2002 to 2012....
El_Lobo....Thank you.
The Obama economy is booming and republicans can't
face the facts and can't stop crying.
After republican incompetence and greed destroyed
our middle class and handed PRESIDENT OBAMA the
WORST economy in our lifetime, these fools keep
trying to lie their way back to the WhiteHouse.
Do they think that Americans really forgot that
the bush/cheney/republicans left a flaming turd
on the steps of the White House when they left?
AND it looks like romney/ryan are WORSE than bush
with their new HORRIBLE PLANS!
NO THANKS!
WE'RE KEEPING PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!
AND romney/ryan want more tax cuts for themselves
and their rich friends while killing Medicare,
Medicade, Planned Parenthood and BIG BIRD.