The Early Bird Gets the Turd
Terri Whitehouse February 7th, 2008
Sometimes, I wonder why I don’t just stick cotton in my ears every morning:
The Army blocked help for wounded vets and then lied about it.
Sen. Mitch McConnell and his ilk stopped legislation that would actually help people in this dear-God-whatever-you-do-don’t-call-it-a-recession.
We’re paying more and getting less for our national defense.
- Economy , Government Inefficency , Military Service , Mitch McConnell , Money-Grubbing , Obstructionism , Pork Spending , Recession 2008 , Senate Minority Leader , U.S. Senate , Veterans
- Comments(13)
Marion Ill. Va. hospital under investigation
http://obama.senate.gov/press/060125-veterans_admini/
http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=db3636ac-53f4-4012-808a-ce175d36df5f
Report Critical Of Operations at Marion VA - NewsChannel 6 WPSD
After a review of a total of 29 deaths among veterans who underwent surgery at the Marion hospital in 2007, the report concluded that there were problems …
wpsdtv.com/mostpopular/
http://www.wpsdtv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=28731e30-687d-4e5f-8ff0-3ed3daec397d
VA’s need to be improved.
But a quick correction. We’re not in a recession. By defenition a recession is 3 consecutive quarters of negative gdp growth. We have yet to have one quarter of negative gdp growth.
SDH,
Uh-huh. You say the VA needs to be improved, but, yet, you don’t offer any solutions. Pretty atypical response from someone who probably hasn’t spent one day in the military.
I have a whole LIST of idea’s.
Oh, and the whole bit on the “recession”……..I have to ask, are you a economist or is it just more “smoke & mirror’s” from the idiot Repukelicans?!
Actually, a degree in economics and a minor in geology with a MBA. And yes, by definition a recession is 3 consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. We are in a slow down, but yet to have one quarter of negative growth.
One way to improve the VA’s would be to find a way to attract better MD’s. Va’s seem to be despised by MD’s who work in the private world. A possible solution would be to privatize the VA’s and allow private companies to come in a run them providing top notch care to those who need it most.
I took my grandfater to a va in Nashville MANY times from the time I was 16 until his death. Quality seemed to be pretty good there, but there are obviously some VA’s that are TERRIBLE.
Lastly, I signed up for OCS after I finished undergrad but was rejected due to back surgery I had during high school.
My brother proudly serves as a Marine Aviator and has done two tours in Iraq.
I’m not a republican who rubber stamps every decesion our republican leaders make. In fact, I voted for Beshear but have been GROSSLY disapointed in him so far with his constant lying since he took office.
I differ with my party on social issues often times. I tend to be somewhat Libertarian on some issues.
A significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting longer than a few months. It is visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade. The technical indicator of a recession is three consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country’s GDP.
Looking at this def. that is widely accepted by economists, we actually haven’t seen a decline in income or industrial production. We did see our first month of employment decline but look for that number to be closer to zero when they do their revision next month.
We are surely in a slow down, but it looks like with the lower interest rates and mortgages becoming more affordable we could come out of it with either no quarters with Negative GDP growth or only 1.
If you look at the recession during bush 1 you see a lot of white collar layoffs spurned by new technology. This significantly lowered the money that was flowing through the economy because so many were layed off.
We actually came out of the recession just before clinton beat Bush 1…
This SLOW down is being spurned not by employment problems, but by people’s mortgages being doubled in a matter of months and their money being tightened. Further, the constant talk of recession is causing consumers to save more and spend less. Not totally a bad thing, but it’s pretty irresponsible by the media to put fear in so many people’s hearts.
look for the lower interest rates to really help things out.
We could just lie about it.
SDH - I’d crack open those books again. IIRC, a recession is at least TWO consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. And you seem to be making a logical error: a recession is at least two quarters, but it’s possible to declare on is ongoing, just like you can tell a baseball game being played is going to be official before the 6th inning is over if the weather holds (there may be an earthquake or act of God that prevents it from meeting its threshhold, but when the sky is clear and you’re not on a fault line, a reasonable forecast is permissible). Hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes foresight is pretty good, too. You can argue that we don’t have a clear enough picture of the next quarter to declare that we’re in a recession, but you can’t claim that it’s impossible to say we are IN a recession until AFTER the recession is over–that’s a big-time fallacy.
Well, we are in a slowdown. We are NOT in a recession because last quarter showed growth, slow growth, but growth none the less. Some say 2 quarters, and I can buy that, others say 3 quarters.
I think the action to lower interest rates will help avoid recession. Time will tell.
Good discussion though JR. Good to see somebody who can take emotion out of a discussion.
LOL! I have yet to hear of anyone being denied going to OCS because of “back sugery”, but, as usual, it’s more than likely the same old song and dance routine that many military age college youth come up with and the interesting thing about it is that it’s usually Republicans!
But, hey, from what I experienced in the US Navy and being “hacked on” 3 different times and left in worse shape than I orginally was, but, yet, I was told that the US Navy wanted to “retain me”?! I find the issue of “back surgery” and Officer Candidate School denial an excuse. Just because your “brother” did, still doesn’t make up for the fact you didn’t.
And from what I learned in Economics, it doesn’t take much to cause a recession and it doesn’t have to be 3 consectutive quarters. All one has to do is look what happened after 9/11 and quite frankly, all the Republican “spin” can’t make up for the “false economy” we’ve had since then. As with Reagan, Bush’s numbers are as false as his was. But, we will continue to hear the excuses for Bush’s failed economic policy for many years after he’s left office.
All in all, tax cuts aren’t going to do much good when the cost of living is so outrageously high. Face it, Bush, along with the Republican Senate & Congress could have thwarted the rising energy cost’s, but, did they do it - no! I’m willing to bet, once a Democratic president is elected; you can almost bank on the fact that gas prices will drop like a lead weight.
How the economy does, has a lot to do with how the elections come out. Generally, a poor economy results in a “throw the bums out” mood among the voters. I had an economics minor as an undergraduate.
Yes, I had back surgery my senior year of high school. Graduated from college, was initially accepted into OCS but was then denied when my back surgery was researched by the MD’s.
Hack.