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No easy answers we're all farked
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9118
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 9:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Highest Consumer Confidence since Feb '08
California a budget surplus? GOV Brown -deficit hawk.
Bay Area home prices +25% yoy
Market en fuego
May- 21 days 25kt +
Still......
not farked.
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pueno



Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 2807

PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

boggsman1 wrote:
Highest Consumer Confidence since Feb '08
California a budget surplus? GOV Brown -deficit hawk.
Bay Area home prices +25% yoy
Market en fuego
May- 21 days 25kt +
Still......
not farked.

Don't confuse 'em with facts.

No doubt, one of the righties will respond that something bad will happen in the future.

- Not sure what
- Not sure when
- Not sure where
- Not sure who
- Not sure why
- Not sure how bad
- Not sure how to fix it

...but DAMNED sure it will be Obama's fault.

(Buy gold now. Right, Glenn, er, Mikey?)
.
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are no easy answers these days about cutting government costs, especially in light of the Sequester's across-the-board approach. The following article in the Washington Post touches on the idea of cutting military commissaries. It is estimated that closing them would save up to 1 billion a year. This is the stuff that drives guys like isobars nuts. Wild about government cuts, until they encroach into their world.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/commissary-plan-backlash-show-difficulty-of-cutting-military-personnel-spending/2013/06/01/15fb6c12-c922-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story_4.html
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mort Zuckerman, chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, in the WSJ: A Jobless Recovery Is a Phony Recovery
More people have left the workforce than got a new job during the recovery—by a factor of nearly three.

Excerpts (full article at http://tinyurl.com/mfp7dvv )

Americans have heard reports out of Washington and in the media that the economy is looking up—that recovery from the Great Recession is gathering steam. If only it were true. The longest and worst recession since the end of World War II has been marked by the weakest recovery from any U.S. recession in that same period.

The jobless nature of the recovery is particularly unsettling. In June, the government's Household Survey reported that since the start of the year, the number of people with jobs increased by 753,000 -- but 557,000 were only part-time. ... full-time jobs declined by 240,000

That's just for starters. The survey includes part-time workers who want full-time work but can't get it, as well as those who want to work but have stopped looking. That puts the real unemployment rate for June at 14.3%, up from 13.8% in May.

The 7.6% unemployment figure so common in headlines these days is utterly misleading. An estimated 22 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed; they are virtually invisible and mostly excluded from unemployment calculations that garner headlines.

At this stage of an expansion you would expect the number of part-time jobs to be declining, as companies would be doing more full-time hiring. Not this time. In the long misery of this post-recession period, we have an extraordinary situation: Americans by the millions are in part-time work because there are no other employment opportunities as businesses increase their reliance on independent contractors and part-time, temporary and seasonal employees.

weakest GDP growth since World War II. Over a similar period in previous recessions, growth averaged 4.1%. During the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, the GDP growth rate dropped below 2%. This anemic growth is all we have to show for the greatest fiscal and monetary stimuli in 75 years, with fiscal deficits of over 10% of GDP for four consecutive years. The misery is not going to end soon.

ObamaCare is partially to blame ... Little wonder that earlier this month the Obama administration announced it is postponing the employer mandate ...
Businesses' hesitation to hire is part of a larger caution among employers unsure about the direction of government policy—and which has helped contribute to chronic long-term unemployment that shows no sign of easing.

a stunning fact about the jobless recovery: The measure of those adults who can work and have jobs, known as the civilian workforce-participation rate, is currently 63.5%—a drop of 2.2% since the recession ended. Such a decline amid a supposedly expanding economy has never happened after previous recessions. Another statistic that underscores why this is such a dysfunctional labor market is that the number of people leaving the workforce during this economic recovery has actually outpaced the number of people finding a new job by a factor of nearly three.
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's telling how cherry picked "excerpts" from an article can alter the overall message.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

All you have to do to get your taxpayer-funded Obamaphones -- several, if you like -- is walk up NEAR any place that dispenses food stamps or any other welfare and answer a few questions -- truthfully -- from the first few people who ask you if you want one. Bingo; they're on their way. Rumor? Nope; it's being done by reporters and investigators. It's tempting to go downtown and get a few just to piss off you lefties who support this kind of program.

http://tinyurl.com/pbbmrx8
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17742
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here it comes, from another of the non-bigots on the forum--the phone program created by Congress under the last president, Bush was his name, is again blamed, falsely, on the black president. Especially when black people get one. Tell me again about the rabbits.
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pueno



Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 2807

PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Fick-shun wrote:
All you have to do to get your taxpayer-funded Obamaphones...

More fabricated horseshit from Mr. Fick-shun.

Pure fiction.

Mikey, how many people have to 'splain to you that the Lifeline program originated under His Holiness Saint Ronald Reagan and was expanded by Herr Professor Doktor Dubya?

AND THAT IT IS PAID FOR BY SUBSCRIBER FEES, NOT TAXPAYER DOLLARS?

This is a total fabrication by the rabid right haters, just like you.

What don't you understand about the obvious?
.
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techno900



Joined: 28 Mar 2001
Posts: 4161

PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Everyone needs to stop making things up. The phone issue is that there is significant abuse of what was and still is a needed and functional program. It doesn't matter who initiated the program, what matters is who will rein in the abuse. It picked up the moniker of "Obama phone" because that's what the abusers call it, plus the timing of the abuse seems to have proliferated during his presidency. And our taxes do support the program via the FCC.

from: http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/62-technology-and-telecom/1629-fcc-to-expand-obama-phones-into-internet-subsidy
Quote:
A big part of the reason Lifeline cell phones are proliferating is because of the incentive structure the FCC uses to promote the program. In order to get the maximum amount of participation – a seeming mantra inside the Obama Administration when it comes to entitlement spending – the FCC gives a $10 bounty to prepaid cell phone companies for every “Obama phone” they distribute.

Each phone is loaded with 250 prepaid minutes that are not charged to the receiver. Moreover, some of the biggest participants in the bounty program, like Miami-based TracFone, do not charge recipients for the phone itself or any activation fees. Thus, the Lifeline phones are “free” thanks to Universal Service Fees paid by non-eligible telephone subscribers. With 3.8 million Lifeline users, TracFone has already netted $38 million in bounties. It also has zero reason to verify eligibility.

I can't find the source, but I recently read that there was going to be a "crack down" on the abuse, but that may only be wishful thinking. I looked on line and can't find any news about it, so time will tell.

All I want is to stop the waste, and it's up to the current administration to do so. We have paid $38 million to TracFone alone, and who know how much to the other phone companies for this program. Any fresh ideas to rein this in, like stop the bounty payments?

It would be refreshing to hear debate on the problem and the solutions, not blame and defamation. Just dreaming I guess.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bush started it, of course, but not at today's level, and that doesn't justify letting it run wild.

From Forbes:
"Carlos Slim has also been criticized recently by Republicans in Congress who want to rein in a $2.2 billion U.S. mobile-phone subsidy for the poor, saying it’s riddled with fraud and benefits the world’s richest man. Slim’s TracFone Wireless Inc. received about a quarter of the funds from the U.S. government’s Lifeline program, according to the latest figures, reported by Bloomberg. In April, a House subcommittee hearing was convened by Republicans to ask why the program, paid for by fees charged to U.S. phone subscribers, tripled in cost since 2008 and why the “biggest beneficiary of this is Carlos Slim, the billionaire owner of TracFone.”

Through America Movil AB (AMX), a company he controls, Slim offers mobile service in 17 Latin American countries and the U.S. Slim’s U.S. TracFone unit is the largest recipient under the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s Lifeline program, taking in $451.7 million, or 28%, of payments in 2011, the last year for which records are available, according to Bloomberg. Slim, who remains the richest person on the planet with a net worth of $73 billion, has four million TracFone customers participating in the government phone assistance Lifeline program . Critics of the program say that Slim has collected $10 per phone he provides to these consumers, totaling a minimum of $38 million in U.S. federal subsidies this year alone."

Besides, why should so many people be given cellphones funded by taxpayers at large? Just because SS is also not in the Constitution doesn't make it right to add free phones to the list of violations. The "general welfare" clause means that everyone, not just the poor or the purple or the rich, must benefit. By the time we weed out those who smoke or wear Nike shoes or consume non-nutritional foods like candy or beer, or could earn more money but refuse, or have a TV worth more than a few bucks, that leaves about 4 people who really deserve even one Obamaphone, let alone several. Tell me any of you lefties believe with a straight face that no Obamaphones are being used by dug dealers.

I use my Mikeyphone for one purpose: wind data. A few times a month, mostly when my Charter landline is dead, I might make a phone call on it. That's it. Otherwise it sits in its charger at home. Yet I could get a handful of Obamaphones just by holding out my hand near a welfare center.

That's not right.

Now, that's the problem. The solution is diverting some of that $2.2B to find those 4 people who truly deserve ONE Obamaphone, find a donor willing to pay for them, and tell the rest to buy their own damned toys.
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