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2010
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September
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- This Newsbite Deserves a Stand-Alone Posting
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 30, 2010
- Car Rental Trivia
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 27, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., September 25 & 26
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September, 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 21, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 20, 2010
- Abbreviated Weekend Newsbites: Sunday, September 1...
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 17, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 16, 2010
- The Coming Republican Revolution
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 13, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., September 11 & 12,...
- September 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 10, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 9, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 7, 2010
- Labor Day Weekend Newsbites 2010
- U-6 Unemployment
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 3, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 2, 2010
- This Newsbite Deserves Its Own Stand-Alone Posting
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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September
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
16 comments:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100930/D9II12900.html
Congress is bolting for the campaign trail without finishing its most basic job - approving a budget for the government year that begins on Friday.
* DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED CONGRESS... (FUNNY HOW THEY LEFT THAT OUT...)
Lawmakers also are postponing a major fight over taxes, two embarrassing ethics cases and other political hot potatoes until angry and frustrated voters render their verdict in the Nov. 2 elections.
* UMM... ONCE AGAIN... THE DEMOCRAT MAJORITY JAMMED THROUGH THE "POSTPONEMENT" OVER THE OBJECTION OF HOUSE REPUBLICANS. (THAT'S JUST A FACT...)
Democratic leaders called off votes and even debates on all controversial matters. ... One foot out the door, the House and Senate convened just long enough to vote on a "continuing resolution," a stopgap measure to keep the government in operating funds for the next two months...
(*SMIRK*)
A motion to adjourn upon completing routine business passed by a single vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's, after 39 Democrats joined Republicans in protest.
"If Democratic leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Republicans also denounced Democrats for delaying the ethics trials of Reps. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., until after the elections. Both lawmakers had said they wanted trials as soon as possible.
(*SMIRK*)
* PLEASE REFER TO TODAY'S NEWSBITES THEME SONG...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/world/asia/01peshawar.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Pakistan closed the most important border crossing for trucks supplying NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan on Thursday in apparent retaliation for an attack by coalition helicopters on a Pakistani security post hours earlier.
* JUST WONDERING: WHEN DID WE DECLARE WAR ON PAKISTAN...???
* IN OTHER WORDS, FOLKS, IT'S ONE THING FOR OUR FORCES TO BE IN PAKISTAN WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT; WITHOUT SUCH PERMISSION THE PHRASE IS "ACT OF WAR."
A closure of the crossing through which NATO and American troops receive most of their non-lethal equipment is rare, and signaled a worsening in the military relationship between Pakistan and the United States...
* YA THINK...?!?!
The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik indicated that NATO strikes in Pakistan were being taken extremely seriously. “We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies,” he said Thursday.
A NATO helicopter attacked a border post at Mandati Kandaw, a town close to the capital of Parachinar in the Kurram area of Pakistan’s tribal region, at 5 a.m. on Thursday, the official said. Three paramilitary soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed, and three others injured, he said. Another border post at Kharlachi in the Kurram region was struck a few hours later, the official added.
* CUTE. A "NATO" HELICOPTER... (*SMIRK*)
The helicopter attacks into Pakistani territory Thursday came after American military helicopters launched three airstrikes last weekend killing more than 50 people suspected of being members of the Haqqani network of militants.
* AFGHANISTAN... PAKISTAN... YEMEN... EXACTLY HOW MANY COUNTRIES DOES OBAMA VIEW US AS BEING AT WAR WITH...???
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.
The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.
* WAY TO GO, OBAMA!
(*SMIRK*) (*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Last week, a senior McDonald's official informed the Department of Health and Human Services that the restaurant chain's insurer won't meet a 2011 requirement to spend at least 80% to 85% of its premium revenue on medical care. McDonald's and trade groups say the percentage, called a medical loss ratio, is unrealistic for mini-med plans because of high administrative costs owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims.
While many restaurants don't offer health coverage, McDonald's provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.
McDonald's move is the latest indication of possible unintended consequences from the health overhaul. Dozens of companies have taken charges against earnings - totaling more than $1 billion - over a tax change in prescription-drug benefits for retirees. More recently, insurers have proposed a round of double-digit premium increases and said new coverage mandates in the law are partly to blame.
"Having to drop our current mini-med offering would represent a huge disruption to our 29,500 participants," said McDonald's memo, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "It would deny our people this current benefit that positively impacts their lives and protects their health - and would leave many without an affordable, comparably designed alternative until 2014."
The issue of limited-benefit plans has also hit colleges, which face the same 80%-to-85% requirement beginning next year.
(*SIGH*)
Benefit consultants anticipate that, by 2014, most employers will stop offering mini-med plans. Such plans likely wouldn't meet the definition of adequate coverage for full-time workers. Under the law, midsize and large employers that fail to offer such coverage will have to pay a fine.
* WHICH IS BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL. (COM'ON... IF THE GOVERNMENT LACKS CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO FORCE EMPLOYERS TO PROVIDE BENEFITS IN THE FIRST PLACE, THAN SURELY THE GOVERNMENT LACKS THE AUTHORITY TO GO TO THE BACK DOOR AND USE FINES AS A SUBSTITUTION FOR THE POWER ITSELF.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-29/dollar-is-near-five-month-low-versus-euro-on-fed-debt-purchase-speculation.html
The dollar headed for its biggest monthly loss since 2008...
* OH, YEAH... THAT OBAMA RECOVERY IS JUST CHUGGING ALONG...
“America’s economic growth seems to be decelerating,” said Tsutomu Soma, a bond and currency dealer in Tokyo at Okasan Securities Co. “This is a negative factor for the dollar.”
* YA THINK...?!?!
The dollar was at $1.3602 per euro at 1:28 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.3627 in New York yesterday, when it touched $1.3647, the weakest level since April 15. The greenback has fallen 6.7 percent this month versus the euro, the most since December 2008.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The Fed announced following its Sept. 21 meeting that it’s prepared to do more to help the economy...
* "HELP" THE ECONOMY...??? REALLY... (*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
* BEN BERNANKE IS A TOTAL INCOMPETENT...!!!
http://www.ktvb.com/news/Medal-of-Honor-recipients-family-turned-away-at-White-House-104032604.html
Family of Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker was denied access to the White House's West Wing on Saturday, a day after the World War II hero was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Baker's widow, Heidy, and grandson, Vernon Pawlik, 10, were denied entry because the boy was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. His shirt had a picture of his grandfather on it.
A White House Web site doesn't list a dress code, but the family had been invited to tour the West Wing, which houses the president's office and where casual dress is prohibited.
U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick's office says he's contacted the White House to express his disappointment.
Vernon Baker, of St. Maries, Idaho, was the last living black World War II Medal of Honor winner.
The White House didn't return a phone call seeking comment.
* SCUMBAGS.
* PLEASE SEE: http://usalyright.blogspot.com/2010/08/vernon-baker.html (8/12/2010)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/americas/30cuba.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Under longstanding federal law, drilling is...banned near the coast of Florida.
Five months after the BP oil spill, a federal moratorium still prohibits new deepwater drilling in the American waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
[N]ext year, a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys - in Cuba’s sovereign waters.
(*SNORT*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704523604575512060220672440.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
The Obama administration has promised that the Federal Reserve's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be independent from politics, a model of regulatory expertise grounded in sound data and economics.
Naming Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren as de facto agency head undermines both goals.
By appointing another White House "czar" to avoid Senate confirmation, the administration politicized the powerful new bureaucracy from its birth.
And by appointing an individual with a track record of using questionable research to advance policy ends, it has jeopardized the second goal as well.
* YOU FOLKS SHOULD READ THE FULL PIECE IN ORDER TO EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE BACKING UP THE AUTHOR'S CONTENTIONS.
The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most powerful bureaucratic positions ever created in the American political system. It can regulate or ban almost every consumer credit product in the country, yet it is beyond Congress's power of the purse because its budget is guaranteed as a percentage of the Fed's annual revenues.
* FRANKLY, I CAN'T IMAGINE THIS NEW BUREAU WILL EVEN BE ABLE TO PASS CONSTITUTIONAL MUSTER.
Under normal circumstances, the Senate would have the opportunity to ask Ms. Warren to explain the way in which she has sometimes interpreted data in her research before entrusting her with control of the agency. By doing an end-run around the confirmation process, the Obama administration has eliminated our opportunity to find out. And by installing the head of the agency as an assistant to the president inside the White House, it has insulated her from meaningful congressional oversight.
* AGAIN... PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THE PRESIDENT DOES...
* BARAK H. OBAMA MAKES GEORGE W. BUSH LOOK LIKE A CONSTITUTIONALIST IN RETROSPECT AND BY COMPARISON!
http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/09/29/boxer-campaigners-hire-day-laborers-to-protest-fiorina/
* SO FAR NOTHING IN THE MSM EITHER VERIFYING OR DENYING THIS STORY. WE'LL SEE...
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/248116/robbing-working-class-michelle-malkin
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) plans to send 25,000 rank-and-file workers on 500 buses to Washington this weekend to protest the tea-party movement, Republicans, and Fox News.
The co-organizer of the so-called “One Nation” protest by a coalition of progressive groups is George Gresham, president of the behemoth SEIU Local 1199, which is based in New York. (This is the same SEIU affiliate that employed current Obama domestic-policy adviser Patrick Gaspard as chief lobbyist for nine years.) Peeved by all the attention that grassroots conservatives and limited-government activists have received over the past year, Gresham spearheaded the rally plans earlier this summer to “counter the Tea Party narrative” and reclaim the voice for “working people.”
Perhaps Gresham should pay more attention to his workers’ pensions...
(*NOD*)
SEIU Local 1199’s Upstate Pension Fund has plunged from 115% funded in 1999 to 75% funded, and its Greater New York Pension Fund was funded at only 58% of its future obligations as of 2007, according to Hudson Institute analyst Diana Furchtgott-Roth.
* 75<100; 58<100. (HEY... JUST LAYING OUT THE MATH!)
[W}hile the pensions of SEIU workers nationwide are in “endangered status,” the pensions of SEIU top brass have been protected and remain fully funded.
* IMAGINE THAT!
The D.C.-based Alliance for Worker Freedom, which monitors labor-union abuses, reported last year that 13 major local SEIU pension funds are in serious financial jeopardy. Indeed, fewer than one in every 160 union-represented workers is covered by a union pension with required assets.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
SEIU leaders have shown a special talent for squandering their workers’ dues. They poured $10 million down the drain in Arkansas on a failed bid to unseat Democratic senator Blanche Lincoln. They spent $10 million on a nasty lawsuit against a competing union in California. They’ve burned through union dues to transport SEIU radicals to bully bank execs and their families at their private homes and to bus workers to Arizona to protest crackdowns on illegal aliens, who depress the wages of law-abiding working-class Americans.
Under former "Purple Army" [SEIU] chief Andy Stern, the union’s liabilities skyrocketed from $7.6 million to nearly $121 million.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Stern protégé and former SEIU national vice president Tyrone Freeman, remains under FBI investigation for siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in dues money for his personal enrichment and pleasure. The Los Angeles Times uncovered schemes that ranged from piping $600,000 in union contracts to his wife’s video-production and entertainment ventures to paying his mother-in-law $8,000 a month to babysit his daughter and other union employees’ children to footing a $13,000 bill for membership at a Beverly Hills cigar club.
Another Stern underling, former SEIU leader Alejandro Stephens, is under FBI investigation, the LA Times reported this week, for $150,000 in "consulting fees" paid “under a confidential agreement” signed by Stern. The feds allege the money funded a no-show job for Stephens. While probing the smelly deal, the feds also stumbled upon a cozy agreement by SEIU executives to shell out $80,000 to promote a book Stern wrote in 2006.
(*SNORT*)
Stern burned through $61 million to put Barack Obama and the Democratic ruling majority in place. And before abruptly stepping down in April, he installed a cadre of labor management stooges embroiled in financial scandals across the country. Now Stern’s profligate successors will steer an estimated $44 million in union-worker dues into Democratic coffers this November - all in the name of defeating "right-wing enemies of the working people."
Perhaps it’s time for rank-and-file workers to stage a tea party of their own.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/29/health-care-overhaul-is-a-lemon/
When will Obama administration officials realize that the more they talk about the health care law, the more people hate it?
The sad tale of health care in Massachusetts - the template for Obamacare - reveals the future of federal reform. More than four years into an insurance overhaul touted by former Gov. Mitt Romney and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber in the Wall Street Journal as a health care solution, costs to businesses are skyrocketing.
One small-business owner summed it up in a word: "insane."
Jobs are being lost as companies downsize, outsource and cut back simply to comply with the mandates placed upon businesses by the law. Premium increases are, in some cases, exceeding 30% just for next year alone, a full three years before the individual mandate kicks in. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama continues to tout great benefits to children even though the availability of health insurance just shrank for tens of thousands of children and families as health insurance companies flee the market.
Because of the "maintenance of effort" requirements in the health care law, state budgets, already in crisis, will see slashed services for Medicaid recipients.
In Arizona, where an attempt to help balance the state budget by making some cutbacks to Medicaid was met with a threat of the loss of $7 billion per year in federal aid (this in spite of an 18% increase in the state's sales tax passed this past spring), Obamacare's October surprise will arrive one week after the law's six-month anniversary. According to the press release on the state's Medicaid website, the following services will be eliminated as of Oct. 1: most dental care, podiatric care, insulin pumps, cochlear implants and certain organ transplants, among other necessary treatments for many people.
In Connecticut, one of the few states where Obamacare has fared comparatively well in the eyes of the public since March, emergency rate increases of up to 20% had to be approved to cover the potential cost of new regulations.
* GOD HELP US ALL... (*SIGH*)
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/million_kuj8X4Z2VolVhXnCymfkvM
Federal copy editors are demanding [NYC] change its 250,900 street signs - such as these for Perry Avenue in The Bronx - from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.
Changing BROADWAY to Broadway will save lives, the Federal Highway Administration contends in its updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, citing improved readability.
At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.
* I KNOW THAT THE FOLLOWING IS A TERRIBLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT QUESTION, BUT... ARE THESE PEOPLE RETARDED...?!?!
"We have already started replacing the signs in The Bronx," city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told The Post. 'We will have 11,000 done by the end of this fiscal year, and the rest finished by 2018."
* AND WHO THE F--K ARE THESE NYC INCOMPETENTS WHO ARE GIVING IN TO THIS INSANE DEMAND...?!?! (JANETTE SADIK-KHAN...???)
* OH... AND APPARENTLY... THIS FEDERAL POLICY DATES BACK TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION...
(*SIGH*)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013032208_murraylobbyists30m.html
When Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) announced earlier this month that she had inserted $57 million in earmarks in the 2011 defense appropriations bill, she touted the two dozen projects as critical jobs-creation spending.
What Murray didn't mention is that at least nine of her defense-bill earmarks - worth $19.5 million - were awarded to clients of her former aides who now work as lobbyists.
At least 17 former Murray staff members have slid over to the lobbying sector, capitalizing on insider knowledge and connections to win favor for their clients, including lucrative earmarks. They include Murray's former chief of staff, Rick Desimone, who landed a $1 million earmark in the defense bill for a Canadian medical company with offices in Kirkland. The bill was an even bigger win for Shay Hancock, Murray's former lead defense staffer, who lobbied for three firms that got $7.5 million in earmarks.
[S]taffers-turned-lobbyists and their clients who got earmarks in the 2011 defense bill have given $80,000 since 2006 to the senator's campaign and to M-PAC, her political-action committee, according to contribution data maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The companies in line for Murray's 2011 defense earmarks often spent $100,000 or more on lobbying fees to the firms of Murray's former staffers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68S01020100930
To the outside world, the Federal Reserve is an impenetrable fortress. But former employees and big investors are privy to some of its secrets - and that access can be lucrative.
* FOLKS... CAN YOU SPELL O*L*I*G*A*R*C*H*Y...???
On August 19, just nine days after the U.S. central bank surprised financial markets by deciding to buy more bonds...former Fed governor Larry Meyer sent a note to clients of his consulting firm with a breakdown of the policy-setting meeting.
* HMM... I WONDER IF MARTHA STEWART GOT A HEAD'S UP?
The minutes from that same gathering of the powerful Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, are made available to the public - but only after a three-week lag.
(*SMIRK*)
Meyer's clients were provided with a glimpse into what the Fed was thinking well ahead of other investors.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*) (APPARENTLY ALL PERFECTLY LEGAL, FOLKS.) (HEY... HOW'S THE HOPE AND CHANGE TREATING YA?)
A respected economist, Meyer charges clients around $75,000 for his product, which includes a popular forecasting service. He frequently shares his research with reporters, though he kept this note out of the public eye. Reuters obtained a copy from a market source. Meyer declined to comment for this story, as did the Federal Reserve.
This selective dissemination of information gives big investors a competitive edge in the market.
* YA THINK...?!?!
No one is accusing Meyer and his firm, Macroeconomic Advisers - or any other purveyors of Fed insights for that matter - of wrongdoing.
* SEE...! I'M TELLING YOU, FOLKS... THERE'S "THEM" AND THERE'S "US" AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS IN WITH THE "THEMS."
They are not prohibited from sharing such information with their hedge fund and money manager clients.
* NO, FOLKS... THIS NOT A SATIRE OUT OF THE ONION - THIS IS REUTERS.
"It's certainly not what Fed officials should be doing," said Alice Rivlin, a former Fed governor and now a fellow at the Brookings Institute think tank. "The rules when I was there were you don't talk to anybody about anything that could be used for commercial purposes."
* I GUESS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA THE RULES ARE A BIT... er... LOOSER.
The precise number of former Federal Reserve employees tapping their network of old colleagues can't be determined, but by most accounts they are a sizable group.
"The revolving door between the Fed and the private financial sector is quite significant," said Timothy Canova, professor of international economic law at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. There is no required registration process for economic and monetary policy consultants, former Fed lawyers say. Some especially high-profile former Fed officials now have their own shops, too: Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's Greenspan Associates offers policy consulting to Pimco, the world's biggest bond fund.
(*SMIRK*)
http://fdic.gov/news/news/press/2010/pr10217.html
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Board of Directors today approved the issuance of a proposed rule to implement provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to provide depositors at all FDIC-insured institutions unlimited deposit insurance coverage on noninterest-bearing transaction accounts beginning December 31, 2010 through December 31, 2012.
* YOU'VE HEARD OF THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND? THIS IS THE BROKE "INSURING" THOSE WHO MAY GO BROKE.
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... THIS IS INSANITY.
* OH... AND BTW... NOTICE THIS IS COURTESY OF THE DODD-FRANK BILL... THE BILL THAT YOU WERE PROMISED BY THE DEMOCRATS WOULD END BAILOUTS...???
* CONTINUE BY READING FROM THE FOLLOWING: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/broke-fdic-expands-checking-account-insurance-250000-infinity
A few days ago, the FDIC, broke as ever, with a Deposit Insurance Fund that was well south of zero at last check, announced, with delightful irony, that it was expanding its insurance on non-interest bearing checking accounts from the current $250,000 to, well, infinity. As in there is no upper limit on how much the FDIC would insure - the fact that it has no money at the FDIC to begin with being completely irrelevant.
(*SNORT*)
That's right, the broke FDIC basically said that it would guarantee up to $480 billion currently sitting in US checking accounts between December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2012. (No discussion on just how the FDIC will insure not just all this capital, but also continue with its $100,000 insurance of traditional interest checking accounts, considering that the FDIC is broke.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-30/wal-mart-s-prices-highest-in-almost-two-years-analyst-says.html
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s prices rose in September to the highest level in at least 21 months, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The cost of a 31-item basket of goods at a Wal-Mart in Virginia was $95.75, a 2.7% increase from August and a 5% gain from the start of 2010, analyst Charles Grom said today in a report. The price is the most since the New York- based analyst began the survey in January 2009.
* AND BEAR IN MIND, FOLKS, THEY'RE NOT TAKING "PAYING MORE FOR LESS" INTO ACCOUNT. TAKE WHAT USED TO BE A 16 OZ. PACKAGE OF "WHATEVER" THAT BECAME A 13 OZ. PACKAGE THAT NOW IS SOLD AS A 10 OZ. PACKAGE - IF THEY'RE USING "UNIT PRICING" THEN AS FAR AS MEASURING INFLATION GOES THE FACT THAT YOU'RE LOSING 6 OZ. OUT OF 16 OZ. WHILE PAYING THE 16 OZ. PRICE SIMPLY DOESN'T REGISTER.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68T67120100930
The U.S. healthcare reform law...
* aka: OBAMACARE
...will worsen a shortage of physicians as millions of newly insured patients seek care, the Association of American Medical Colleges said on Thursday.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The group's Center for Workforce Studies released new estimates that showed shortages would be 50% worse in 2015 than forecast.
"While previous projections showed a baseline shortage of 39,600 doctors in 2015, current estimates bring that number closer to 63,000, with a worsening of shortages through 2025," the group said in a statement.
"The United States already was struggling with a critical physician shortage and the problem will only be exacerbated as 32 million Americans acquire health care coverage, and an additional 36 million people enter Medicare."
* PERHAPS OBAMA AND THE DEMS WILL SIMPLE "DEEM" THERE TO BE MORE DOCTORS... PERHAPS THEY'LL START OFFICIALLY COUNTING UNEMPLOYED PLUMBERS AS "INTERNISTS" AND UNEMPLOYED CARPENTERS AS "SURGEONS."
(*SMIRK*)
The AAMC projected a shortage of 33,100 physicians in specialties such as cardiology, oncology and emergency medicine in 2015.
* SO WHAT DO YOU THINK, FOLKS? DO YOU THINK OBAMA OR A MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY OR A SENIOR MEMBER OF GOVERNMENT OR A DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN OR SENATOR WILL EVER BE DIRECTED EFFECED BY SUCH SHORTAGES? OR... WOULD YOU GUESS THAT AS THE LINE GETS LONGER FOLKS LIKE THAT WILL ALWAYS BE ABLE TO MARCH RIGHT TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE?
Other groups, such as the nonprofit Rand Corporation and the Institute of Medicine, have also projected various physician shortages.
(*SIGH*)
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