Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[Professor Tiger]

40 vets died because the VA failed to treat them. Then the VA cooked the books to cover it up. There's probably more of this going on.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/14/us/va-sca ... -reaction/

Circle all that apply

a. It was caused by an Anti-Islamic video.
b. It has been over a week since this scandal broke, and it was still caused by an Anti-Islamic video.
c. This is a phony scandal.
d. It's the Koch brothers' fault
e. It's the result of climate change
f. If the dead vets liked their health plan, they got to keep it
g. This was a "red line." If it ever happens again, there will be serious consequences.
h. Visit #treatourvets and show your support

i. It's all Bush's fault (JD)
j. It's all the vets' fault (Crash)

[hedge]

k. it's all your fault...

[Toemeesleather]

I know about a health care system that has been highly successful in containing costs, yet provides excellent care. And the story of this system's success provides a helpful corrective to anti-government ideology. For the government doesn't just pay the bills in this system--it runs the hospitals and clinics.

No, I'm not talking about some faraway country. The system in question is our very own Veterans Health Administration, whose success story is one of the best-kept secrets in the American policy debate.


Paul Krugman - 2006
Statist
NYT Editorial Genius (Nobel Prize Economics)

[Toemeesleather]

[bluetick]

Cincinnati IRS office. Phoenix VA. Who knows where the next biggest scandal of alltime is going to pop up.

[Professor Tiger]

Good point. All those vets died because of a few local rogue officials in Phoenix. Calling Jay Carney...

[hedge]

Everybody's got to die sometime...

[Jungle Rat]

May yours happen soon.

[bluetick]

Dubya inherited an unemployment rate of 4.7% from Bill Clinton. When W left office it had climbed to 7.8. 'Presidents don't create jobs, job creators do' got tossed around back then.

Currently the number is 6.3.

[Professor Tiger]

Dubya cannot be blamed for his economic numbers. They are all Carter's fault.

[hedge]

I blame Lincoln. Warmonger, suspended habeas corpus, known racist, Republican...

[Toemeesleather]

The unemployment rate tumbled in April not because of all the new jobs created last month but rather because more than 800,000 people either stopped looking for a job or left the job market for other reasons (retirement, for example).

When people stop looking for a job they are no longer counted by the government as part of the workforce, which means they aren’t included by the Labor Department as part of the survey used to determine the unemployment rate.

The result is that many thousands of unemployed Americans aren’t counted as such, which helps push the unemployment rate lower but masks the fact that all those people are still out of work.

This dynamic has been a primary factor in driving the unemployment rate lower since the last recession ended more than five years ago.

Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate, a key gauge of the percentage of working-age Americans currently employed or actively seeking a job, fell to 62.8%, matching lows hit in December and October, which had not been seen since March 1978.

[bluetick]

The unemployment rate tumbled in April not because of all the new jobs created last month but rather because more than 800,000 people either stopped looking for a job or left the job market for other reasons (retirement, for example).

Article came out this week in Money that said the 5-yr bull market has led to hundreds of thousands of people retiring earlier than planned due to their financial windfall.

Of course, you had to have enough confidence in the direction of the country in order to stay the course investment-wise. Could be that many on the right bailed out and missed the bull market...maybe even some here....and that served to ratchet up the rancor against the administration all the more.

[crashcourse]

"5-yr bull market has led to hundreds of thousands of people retiring earlier than planned due to their financial windfall."

Youd think I'd have known at least one of those hundreds of thousands of people who are retiring earlier than planned due to a financial windfall. Anybody know anybody like that?

[Toemeesleather]

Yeah, all those lies we were told by the MSM on how folks lost their jobs, homes, equity, savings, 401Ks, turns out to be a windfall......Jeez, pls inform us oh great one.

[bluetick]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-2 ... force.html

Clinching the decision [to retire] was profit earned on stock investments during a five-year bull market that has restored $14 trillion to U.S. equity values. Dix is among millions of baby boomers whose retirement has helped push the participation rate of working Americans to lows not seen since the 1970s.

It basically says the same thing as what toe posted...participation rates down (retirement as the example given). But I back toe up and then he gets all pissy about it. What's up with that?

Well, I'm headed to the club as the holiday weekend officially starts with a 2:12 tee time.

[Toemeesleather]

Hit'em good.

[Professor Tiger]

Well, I'm headed to the club as the holiday weekend officially starts with a 2:12 tee time.

Club? Golf? Sounds pretty Republican to me.

[10ac]

[url]Dhttp://washingtonexaminer.com/nancy-pelosi-blames-george-w.-bush-for-veterans-affairs-scandal/article/2548784[/url]

[10ac]

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/pat ... -ever-been