Monday, July 2, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, July 2, 2012


Still in a piss poor mood, but...

(*SIGH*)

...let's see if I can find a few newsbites to post within the comments section.

Posted by at

2 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57464549/roberts-switched-views-to-uphold-health-care-law/

Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations.

* WHILE I BELIEVE HER (JAN CRAWFORD, VETERAN CBS NEWS REPORTER), JUSTICE ROBERTS OWES IT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO EITHER CONFIRM OR DENY THIS.

* FRANKLY, THE "SOURCES" SHOULD HAVE HAD THE INTEGRITY TO SPEAK "ON THE RECORD."

The inner-workings of the Supreme Court are almost impossible to penetrate. The court's private conferences, when the justices discuss cases and cast their initial votes, include only the nine members - no law clerks or secretaries are permitted. The justices are notoriously close-lipped, and their law clerks must agree to keep matters completely confidential. But in this closely-watched case, word of Roberts' unusual shift has spread widely within the court, and is known among law clerks, chambers' aides and secretaries.

It is not known why Roberts changed his view on the mandate and decided to uphold the law. At least one conservative justice tried to get him to explain it, but was unsatisfied with the response, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.

* AGAIN... ASSUMING THIS REPORTING IS ACCURATE.. THIS "CONSERVATIVE JUSTICE" NEEDS TO VOLUNTEER THIS INFORMATION TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DIRECTLY SO THAT WE KNOW EXACTLY WHAT SORT OF MAN CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS IS. IF ROBERTS REFUSES TO DEFEND HIS OWN DECISION TO HIS FELLOW JUSTICES, THAT ONLY REINFORCES MY VIEW THAT THE ROBERTS RULING IS INDEFENSIBLE.

July 2, 2012 at 4:00 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/8733461-workers-federal-disability-exceed-population-new-york-city

A record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June 2012, according to the Social Security Administration. That was up from 8,707,185 in May.

* AS USUAL, CNS NEWS PROVIDES THE HYPERLINKS TO THE ACTUAL FEDERAL NUMBERS RIGHT WITHIN ITS STORY. (*SHRUG*)

[This number] exceeds the entire population of New York City, which according to the Census Bureau's latest estimate hit 8,244,910 in July 2011.

(*SNORT*)

There has been a dramatic shrinkage in the United States over the past 20 years in the number of workers actually employed and earning paychecks per worker who is not employed and is taking federal disability insurance payments.

* MEANING FEWER "ABLE" WORKERS ARE PAYING FOR MORE "DISABLED" NON-WORKERS.

* BTW... THERE ARE FEWER WORKERS PERIOD IN TERMS OF THE NUMBER OF ADULT AMERICANS WORKING AS A PERCENTAGE OF OUR ADULT POPULATION.

(*SIGH*)

In June 1992, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 118,419,000 people employed in the United States, and, according to the Social Security Administration, there were 3,334,333 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled about 1 person taking disability payments for each 35.5 people actually working.

When President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, there were 142,187,000 people employed and 7,442,377 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled about 1 person taking disability payments for each 19.1 people actually working.

In May of this year, there were 142,287,000 people employed, and 8,707,185 workers taking federal disability payments. That equaled 1 worker taking disability payments for each 16.3 people working.

* APPLES TO APPLES, FOLKS! (BTW... 1992... PAPPY BUSH WAS PRESIDENT. BUT ANYONE WHO WANTS TO CHECK THE CLINTON YEARS... THE DUBYA YEARS... AGAIN, CNS PROVIDES THE LINK TO THE ACTUAL GOVERNMENT STATS.)

The federal disability payments made to the record 8,733,461 workers in June averaged $1,111.42.

Only 11 states - California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas — have populations in excess of the 8,733,461 workers who took disability payments in June.

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THIS IS NOT GOOD!

In addition to the 8,733,461 workers taking federal disability payments in June, there were also 165,469 spouses of disabled workers getting federal disability payments and 1,899,756 children of disabled workers getting benefits. That brought the total number of beneficiaries receiving disability insurance payment in June to 10,798,686.

* OK. I GET IT. LOTS OF NUMBERS. MIND-NUMBING! SO HERE'S HOW WE'LL END - AND PLEASE... READ THIS LAST PARGRAPH TWICE:

The Social Security System’s Disability Insurance Trust Fund has run deficits in each of the last three fiscal years, meaning the government has needed to borrow money to pay disability benefits to the workers claiming them. In fiscal 2009, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund deficit was $8.5 billion. In fiscal 2010, it was $20.8 billion. And in fiscal 2011, it was $25.3 billion.

(*SHRUG*)

July 2, 2012 at 9:03 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)