IS IT TRUE August 3, 2013: Special Saturday Edition

1. “this migration to a part time job society is a direct result of the half witted law formally known as the Affordable Care Act but informally referred to as ObamaCare?”

   Everything wrong in the world today is a direct result of the Affordable Care Act. Just like Social Security and Medicare destroyed everything positive back when they were enacted.

   It has nothing to do with a Party who votes against eliminating tax subsidies for companies moving their operations overseas and votes against rewarding companies with tax incentives for moving their operations back to the good ole part time USA.

   It’s all about ObamaCare. The law that is trying to get these deadbeat non-health care insurance lackeys sitting around in their gold plated wheelchairs in emergency rooms out of there.

   Yeah buddy

2. “[Is it true that] this migration to a part time job society is a direct result of the half witted law formally known as the Affordable Care Act but informally referred to as ObamaCare?”

   Do you have proof or even solid evidence of that declaration? Or is it just another of your unsupported editorial comments? Or maybe rather than engaging in an in-depth analysis of your purported “migration to a part time job society,” you find it easier to repeat pseudo-conservative talking points ad nauseum.

   • The statistics on the 2013 hiring came directly from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The editorial words were collected from various CEO’s who now openly discuss their strategy to maximize part time workers to avoid the costs associated with ACA. The words were actually toned down quite a bit from what the CEO’s have been saying.

     • Corporations have employed part time scheduling and 1099-contractors for many years and long before 2013 to avoid paying health care and other employee benefits. It’s just become “fashionable” to blame everything on Obama and Obamacare. Not that I agree with the Affordable Care Act, etc. As you know, I have long advocated for single payer, universal health care paid for by a fully employed, well paid American workforce.

       • I agree with you Bill. If 3% – 5% would cover this, which it should if hospitals did not look like the Ritz-Carleton and basic maintenance was doled out in a less opulent way it would be a bargain. Heck, it would be a big cut in the overall cost to provide healthcare. We probably should have just hired Canada to do it. It is clear by now that no American congress comprised of any mixture of the two parties we have now will ever take on the healthcare machine to do this in a sane way. As for avoiding coverage by doing part timers and 1099 contractors, sure it has always gone on but not like it is now. Such practices have gone from fattening up the bottom line to survival of the business. I don’t know where Papa John came up with his 7 cents a pizza number but it has to be bullcrap. Even at 7 cents a meal across the board it would be a bargain. Who wouldn’t pay 21 cents a day for healthcare?

         • Forbes: Health insurance cost for Papa John’s, 5 cents per pizza …

           • Yes, I know that John Schnatter said that. I just think he is full of bullcrap. 5 cents a pizza is one half of one percent of revenue. If Papa John is correct we should be able to fund healthcare with a 0.5% sales tax. Sorry Papa but there is no way this is sufficient. By the way if anyone comes forward with a pro-forma to fund universal healthcare with a 0.5% sales tax I think it will pass congress with close to 100% of the vote. Papa John did not think it through any better than Nancy Pelosi did.

         • Cached

         • Can’t get my links to pull up for some reason but probably because I over-in-dulged last night and not yet capable of doing it right.

           Google the Forbes link if interested.

         • Mr. Ed., the blame for a lot of this whole political culture of can’t-get-anything-done can be laid at the feet of the constant drum beaters of negativity and hyper-criticism for the sake of … well, I really can’t put my finger on exactly why the drummers of negativity are so hyper-critical. Maybe you can help me out there. WHY?

           But the effect of it all is gridlock not only at the national level of politics, but now has filtered down to the local level.

           Used to be, at least in Evansville, after an election was over, we all got together and worked to improve our city, our county, to the benefit of our constituencies. Now, no matter who tries what to make Evansville more attractive to business, conventions, entertainers, artists, agro-tourism, whatever, it seems all we hear out of a certain cadre of negativity is more negativity and hyper-criticism.

           Why?

           • On a local level it is because people disagree on what constitutes improvement and what limited resources should or should not be used for. On a national level it is more frustrating. It seems as though since roughly 2001 that it does not matter which party is in control, and both have been, that little gets done. The things that do manage to get done are so poorly implemented that they lose all support before they go into effect. ACA is the current example but there are plenty of others that are less visible. The vision seems to be there but the ability or even patience to design and implement is not.

             Back to the local level. Evansville does not have a clear vision as to what it wants to be and recent administrations are anything but transparent. At any rate, there is a feeling of skepticism and distrust in government coast to coast on a very high level. It is not just an Evansville thing. When government can’t do its jobs the natives get restless. We as a country have been restless since 9/11 and with the exception of the 2008 Obama campaign hope has had no belief supporting it.

             Reagan was elected with a slogan “are you better off than you were 4 years ago”. The reality for a vast majority of Americans is that today’s question would have to be “are you better off than you were 10, 15, or 20 years ago” and often the answer is “no and we never will be”. That my friend is the source of the negativity.

           • Here is a timely article that emphasizes the waste and overcharging in the US. This guy saved over $100,000 by getting a hip replacement in Belgium. The cost including flight was roughly 10% of (of not off) the price here. Same part, same technology, but cheaper by the average price of a house in Evansville.

             http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/health/for-medical-tourists-simple-math.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

   • I know for a fact Bill that companies are doing what the editor states. I also know this is a hard subject to argue because employers never should have been involved in their employees health care insurance to begin with.

     There has been a vote in Congress each year since 2003 to adopt a single payer Medicare for all type system somewhat like Canada has but has been voted down each time by a wide margin, so that is OUT.

     So now we need to decide if forcing Papa John’s pizza to raise its’ price on a pizza by the tune of 7 cents in order to provide its’ employees health insurance is the answer, or is it better for their employees to resort to food stamps (because of part time crap), medical bankruptcies (which we all pay for) and people like myself who pay their own insurance to have to subsidize them paying an extra $600 to $1,000 dollars a year in insurance premiums.

     I’d rather pay the extra 7 cents. The editor probably wouldn’t.

     That’s what makes the world go around.

     • I would gladly pay 7 cents extra per pizza to provide universal healthcare. The trouble is that would not even come close to paying even a single day of coverage. In my case that would cost $3.64 per year.

     • I agree 100% that employers shouldn’t be involved in employees’ health care, except regarding the withholding of about 3 – 5% to pay for universal, single payer Medicare for all working Americans. Maybe then the major corporations and small business could invest in job expansion, thus eventually reducing unemployment to record low levels. And with all or most able bodied Americans under retirement age working for a living, the Medicare withholding would support universal health care.

       As far as Congress failing to come up with a suitable health care act to vote on, who’s surprised about that? This do-nothing Congress is satisfied to sit on their hands, drawing Cadillac health care coverage for themselves at the expense of the People, and sucking up to special interests and major donors, and reducing their sessions to less than part time hours themselves. Congress has set the model for a part time, do nothing, money sucking, lame ass culture. Both parties!

       • I believe I’ve found the answer to our health care problems Bill!

         http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnypictures/ig/Republican-Clowns/Mitch-McConnell–GOP-Clown.htm

         • Short Memory! To imply that Republicans screw-up medical care is ridiculous. You want to thank Obama, Reid and Pelosi for our current mess. I hope she has finally read it to see where Obamacare is taking us—down the tube.

         • OkieDokie, then what has your beloved Republicans done to solve the problem?

         • And buy the way, when it comes to a short memory Wayne, do you remember the year 2000 when they didn’t know what we were going to do with the $5.6 trillion dollar surplus that was on it’s way?

           Short memories seem to represent people in their sexual lives also Wayne.

           You have my sympathy

         • We all disagree and almost hate the people we disagree with on this forum, but the people on this forum, conservative, liberal, libertarian or whatever, are the only people who matter and make the world go around because they are engaged and willing to pay attention to what’s controlling their lives.

           To the people who are dis-engaged, grow up fast before it is TOO late!

3. Thanks for calling out Rangle for being a loud mouthed racist. You ought to bust on Jackson and Sharpton too. Those three race baiting dirt bags make Paula Deen look like an angel of mercy. It is time for this one sided BS to end. Hold racist blacks to the same standards that racist whites are held to. I don’t like being called a cracker any more than they like being called the n word. Can’t we all just shut the hell up with the name calling?

4. Chicago is the next Detroit. Its Moody’s bond rating was dropped 3 points in July and now stands at A3. I doubt that President Obama can print enough money to bail out democrat central of the Midwest.

   There will be a steady succession of major cities, that have spent and hired their way into their current predicaments, following in Detroit’s footsteps.

   Good people, who never had a voice at city hall, will be suffering the loss of all they have.

   Some have said that Affordable Care Act was designed to fail. That it will implode and force congress to accept single payer national health care.

   One shudders to think what is in store for this Country if a succession of major cities go under. Welcome to the Socialist Republic of The United Stated of America.

   Apologizes in advance to Bill Jeffers for letting my mind stray into such a dark scenario.

   __

   • Several major Cities are in financial trouble and not just known poor ones. The Cities cannot print money like the Federal Government does.

     • We, you and I, are the federal government! Those people in Washington are the temporary caretakers. An ill informed electorate is in jeopardy of taking down this rather young experiment in self government.

       I doubt that it will be handed over as easily as some people envision. Those who understand what they have will not go gently into the night.

       __

       • The lack of real involvement of most people–regardless of party affiliation— in the political process to make sure elected officials are looking after the best interest of the people is frightening.

         Wayne Parke
         Chairman VCRP

         • This I absolutely agree with.

           Anyone who isn’t informed about what their local or national government is doing is not a citizen, but more like a possum eating out of a dumpster.

           Their breath and intelligence, AND PATRIOTISM all suck.

     • What is absolutely amazing to me is you can say something like this, with which I wholeheartedly agree, but then I’m reminded you have been instrumental in supporting the spending of our current administration in Evansville at nearly every turn, including cheerleading a $10 MILLION DOG PARK!

       Mr. Parke, I’m having the darndest trouble figuring out whether you’re just hitting the crack pipe especially hard these days or going senile. Your political philosophy is about as consistent as baby poo – that is, consistently runny and smelly.

       • Please get your facts correct regarding my support on the City’s spending. While I agree with most things the Mayor has done–but not all.
         Example: Johnson Control Project.

5. Thanks for the patience editor, but I’ll be moving on.

   You won’t have ReggieRomo to push around anymore.

   Later

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