Metro Jacksonville

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/article/199012/3/Cuts-to-Program-for-Disabled-Worry-First-Coast-Families

QuoteGovernor Rick Scott approved a 15 percent reduction to the rates on Thursday and they went into effect Friday, leaving many families in a bind.

"There's no way to watch him 24/7," mother Kimberly Farrell said about her autistic son, Jonathan.  "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Both Farrell and Carter receive services from PCA Plus, which is located in Middleburg.

Farrell depends on assistance to run errands and prepare meals, because her husband is serving in Afghanistan. 

Farrell said she is doing her best not to have to put Jonathan in a home.

"We have nowhere to turn," she said. 

The new rates are effective from April 1 through June 30, 2011.

Governor Scott said this week the cuts are necessary.

"We have to make sure we don't waste dollars," Scott explained.   "We have to get great care.

Yes, Yes, Rick Scott: Providing Services to the Disdabled is PURE Waste.


It's so much cheaper to just stick them in an institution. Who needs them anyway.........they are too disabled to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and have no place in the "You're On Your Own" aka YOYO society

Bravo Ricky!!!!

Quote from: Ebenezer Scrooge
I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned - they cost enough:
and those who are badly off must go there.'

'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'

'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. '

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1zpHF0J04&feature=player_embedded#at=59

Did I see Middleburg mentioned in the above news story?  All I can say is that Middleburg is getting what they voted for... 

Rick Scott needs to be removed from office.  He is taking our State backwards. :(

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/february/208947

QuoteST. PETERSBURG --
A local lawmaker wants voters to have the option to recall their state leaders.

State Representative Rick Kriseman (D-St. Petersburg) filed House Joint Resolution 785 in Tallahassee Wednesday.

Cuts in Medicare are coming.  The current growth of the program is not going to go on.  There is simply not enough money.  Cuts is services and cuts in allowable rates are inevitible.  The federal government can not continue to borrow the money to sustain ALL of the federal programs for many more years. 

Hopefully, we can stem the financial bleeding before a crash.  As time passes, it seems that the courage to solve our budget problems can not be found.  And the resulting crash is inevitable. 

Tough days are ahead.

^ Your right NN too bad we don't solve our funding problems more sensibly by closing the loopholes the rich and corporations use and cutting back the needless sprawl of our military.  But again you are correct about what will happen much easier to attack the elderly or infirm.

Quote from: JeffreyS on April 02, 2011, 10:09:56 PM
^ Your right NN too bad we don't solve our funding problems more sensibly by closing the loopholes the rich and corporations use and cutting back the needless sprawl of our military.  But again you are correct about what will happen much easier to attack the elderly or infirm.

Yep...Democrats just proposed Medicare reform that will save $900+ billion over 3 years...wanna bet whether Repubklicans will go along?

Quote from: tufsu1 on April 02, 2011, 10:53:17 PM

Quote from: JeffreyS on April 02, 2011, 10:09:56 PM
^ Your right NN too bad we don't solve our funding problems more sensibly by closing the loopholes the rich and corporations use and cutting back the needless sprawl of our military.  But again you are correct about what will happen much easier to attack the elderly or infirm.

Yep...Democrats just proposed Medicare reform that will save $900+ billion over 3 years...wanna bet whether Repubklicans will go along?

What is the proposal?

I am willing to listen to any taxing/cutting proposals that either of you think will work.  At this point, completely scrapping the Department of Defense would not solve our problem.

I have not heard of this dem proposal either.  Care to elaborate?

Perhaps he speaks of the Health Insurance Reform and 100% Market Share/Profitability Act?

The CBO gave that little gal rave reviews. ::)

From wikipedia on "medicaid":

Unlike Medicare, which is solely a federal program, Medicaid is a joint federal-state program. Each state operates its own Medicaid system, but this system must conform to federal guidelines in order for the state to receive matching funds and grants. The matching rate provided to states is determined using a federal matching formula (called Federal Medical Assistance Percentages), which generates payment rates that vary from state to state, depending on each state's respective per capita income.[23] The wealthiest states only receive a federal match of 50% while poorer states receive a larger match.

Medicaid funding has become a major budgetary issue for many states over the last few years, with states, on average, spending 16.8% of state general funds on the program. If the federal match expenditure is also counted, the program, on average, takes up 22% of each state's budget.[24][25] According to CMS, the Medicaid program provided health care services to more than 46.0 million people in 2001.[26][27] In 2002, Medicaid enrollees numbered 39.9 million Americans, the largest group being children (18.4 million or 46 percent)[citation needed]. Some 43 million Americans were enrolled in 2004 (19.7 million of them children) at a total cost of $295 billion. In 2008, Medicaid provided health coverage and services to approximately 49 million low-income children, pregnant women, elderly people, and disabled people. Federal Medicaid outlays were estimated to be $204 billion in 2008.[28]

Medicaid payments currently assist nearly 60 percent of all nursing home residents and about 37 percent of all childbirths in the United States. The Federal Government pays on average 57 percent of Medicaid expenses.


On March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. The law expanded Medicaid eligibility starting in 2014; people with income up to 133% of the poverty line qualify for coverage, including adults without dependent children.[33][34]

Quote from: tufsu1 on April 02, 2011, 10:53:17 PM

Quote from: JeffreyS on April 02, 2011, 10:09:56 PM
^ Your right NN too bad we don't solve our funding problems more sensibly by closing the loopholes the rich and corporations use and cutting back the needless sprawl of our military.  But again you are correct about what will happen much easier to attack the elderly or infirm.

Yep...Democrats just proposed Medicare reform that will save $900+ billion over 3 years...wanna bet whether Repubklicans will go along?

That sounds impossible, since the annual federal budget for Medicare AND Medicaid is $900 billion. You mean to say they proposed to cut it by 33% every year?

I couldn't find anything of the sort. Please source your statements.

On a positive note:

Quote
Obama administration cracking down on health care fraud
Strike forces rounding up hundreds in targeted cities
BY CHRIS CASTEEL ccasteel@opubco.com Oklahoman     7 Published: March 21, 2011


WASHINGTON â€" The Obama administration has been aggressively cracking down on health care fraud, bringing criminal cases against doctors, nurses, hospitals, equipment suppliers and others in a major effort to curb abuses in huge federal programs that have long been vulnerable to a host of schemes.


Advertisement
Last month, the FBI and Justice Department rounded up and charged 110 people in nine cities for allegedly defrauding Medicare of more than $240 million. The largest federal health care “takedown” ever, it included doctors, nurses, health care company owners and executives.

That bust followed another large one in July that included charges against 94 people in connection with an alleged $251 million in false claims to Medicare.

Building from a strike force effort established in Miami, Fla., and Los Angeles in the last years of the Bush administration, the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services have expanded strike forces to Houston, Detroit, Brooklyn, Tampa, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Chicago.

“We think the strike force efforts are having great success and we'd like to continue those efforts,” U.S. Justice Department official Greg Andres told a Senate committee earlier this month.

The federal government spent close to $900 billion on Medicare and Medicaid last year â€" and the Justice Department recovered about $4 billion for Medicare from its anti-fraud efforts.

“They're doing better,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, said last week.

“When they recover $25 billion, I'll start being happy. When they recover $50 billion, I'll give them an attaboy.”

Coburn authors bill

Coburn has long complained that the government wasn't doing enough to combat waste, fraud and abuse in its massive health care programs, and he authored legislation last year to give the Health and Human Services Department more tools to fight fraud.

That bill didn't pass, but department officials said they're using some of the same proposals advocated by Coburn to detect potential fraud. Rather than chasing after money already paid, they are analyzing suspicious patterns of claims before paying them, screening companies that want to provide Medicare services and even refusing new providers if a certain market has an ample amount.

The health care bill approved last year will make it easier to charge people for health care fraud and increase the prison time for guilty parties. It also increases the amount of money spent to pursue fraud.

“My goal is that anyone who is cheating Medicare ought to be in jail,” Coburn said. “They are stealing from our children and grandchildren.” HELLO: Rick Scott

Coburn said he was impressed with the return on investment the Justice Department is claiming for its health care fraud efforts.

Recovering funds

According to Andres, an acting deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division, the government last year recovered nearly $7 for every $1 spent on investigating fraud.

There is no official government estimate for the amount of money lost each year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and others have cited a figure of $60 billion in Medicare alone, and some attribute the number to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

But the coalition's website attributes the number to a 2008 news story in the Miami Herald.

“Fraud is elusive, fraud is secret, fraud is hidden,” Peter Budetti, an administrator with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a Senate subcommittee this month.

Daniel Levinson, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said there is no precise measure, but that annual fraud totals billions of dollars.

The schemes, he said, commonly include billing for services that weren't provided or weren't necessary; paying or receiving kickbacks; illegally marketing products; and stealing identities and using them to make claims for care or equipment. (In his deposition....... RICK SCOTT: What is the definition of fraud?)

“The perpetrators of these schemes range from street criminals, who believe it is safer and more profitable to steal from Medicare than to traffic in illegal drugs, to Fortune 500 companies that pay kickbacks to physicians in return for referrals,” Levinson said.



Read more: http://newsok.com/obama-administration-cracking-down-on-health-care-fraud/article/3550491#ixzz1ISxunnJp

Ah, but Rick Scott topped them all with his Medicare defrauding!

The KING of CROOKS!!

Quote from: Ocklawaha on April 03, 2011, 10:51:38 AM

(http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/Ocklawaha/CRITICAL%20Special%20Effects%20Images/grapes2-1.jpg)
Rendering of the future prosperity of Florida.

OCKLAWAHA

Thanks Ock. Pictures speak a thousand words!

Here is more depicting Rick Scott and the Republican led War on the Middle Class:

( I used to be a Republican when moderates were still part of that party)


http://www.youtube.com/v/dQlQWgnMSD0

Can we recall this .....(Can't think of a decent word for our esteemed Governor)?

Quote from: Timkin on April 03, 2011, 06:07:36 PM
Can we recall this .....(Can't think of a decent word for our esteemed Governor)?

Please join with almost 15,000 Floridians at:

Floridians against Rick Scott Budget Cuts


http://www.causes.com/causes/576391

Or add your "like" to the almost 5,000 Floridian on the actual Recall Rick Scott page here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Rick-Scott/171429109550308

Unfortunately unlike in Wisconsin, Floridians do not YET have the right to recall their state leaders. Hence unchecked rampant malfeasance in Tallahassee.

Florida is soooo behind on people power......... more than half our states DO allow recall of state elected officials!

Kriseman's bill which would allow Floridians to petition for recall won't even be heard by our Republican legislature.

It's just too easy to hold single moms accountable through drug testing............but no way will we even ALLOW Floridians to hold their state leaders accountable! The blatant hypocrisy knows no end!!!!

QuotePlase join with almost 15,000 Floridians

WOW, 0.083% of Floridians so far...... :D

Question:

If we recall Rick Scott, do we have to take Alex Sink instead?

Quote from: buckethead on April 03, 2011, 08:20:18 PM
Question:

If we recall Rick Scott, do we have to take Alex Sink instead?

No, we will need to have a list of replacement candidates, one of which then can get elected.

Maybe we can get Charlie Crist to run again..........although I'm all for finally having our first female governor in Florida  ;D

Although I want Scott recalled as much as anyone, I would guess Scott will veto the pending legislation, are there enough votes to override? But even if that hurdle is cleared, either the language of the law, or a court challenge (by Scott) will state that it cannot apply to incumbents until after the next election. 

What a line to add to a resumè:

"And after my career as a CEO of the most substandard integrated health system in the US, (which incidentally was found guilty of Medicare Fraud), I undertook the daunting task of making Charlie Crist look like an awesome Governor and prompting Libs to yearn for the Days of Jeb."

FOR REAL !!!

Quote from: Charles Hunter on April 03, 2011, 08:34:08 PM
Although I want Scott recalled as much as anyone, I would guess Scott will veto the pending legislation, are there enough votes to override? But even if that hurdle is cleared, either the language of the law, or a court challenge (by Scott) will state that it cannot apply to incumbents until after the next election. 

So true. We already have seen how Scott is trying to block the people's will on Fair Districting, which we all voted FOR.

But unless we are as courageous as the middle class people in Wisconsin, we will be stuck with this crackpot Governor for four years.

If you support the right to recall elected state officials, please join:

http://www.facebook.com/FloridiansforRecall

Quote from: Charles Hunter on April 03, 2011, 08:34:08 PM
Although I want Scott recalled as much as anyone, I would guess Scott will veto the pending legislation, are there enough votes to override?

heck, there aren't even enough votes for the lesgislation to get to Scott's desk...why would sitting legislators vote to allow recall of state officials (i.e., themselves)?

You want to stop the stupid drug testing bill?  Just put an amendment on it that makes it apply to everyone who gets government payments including Gov. Scott and ALL of the legislators and their staffs.

Out the hypocrites!

Quote from: NotNow on April 02, 2011, 10:02:09 PM
Cuts in Medicare are coming.  The current growth of the program is not going to go on.  There is simply not enough money.  Cuts is services and cuts in allowable rates are inevitible.  The federal government can not continue to borrow the money to sustain ALL of the federal programs for many more years. 

Hopefully, we can stem the financial bleeding before a crash.  As time passes, it seems that the courage to solve our budget problems can not be found.  And the resulting crash is inevitable. 

Tough days are ahead.

So much for taxes. If we go ahead a do away with them altogether we could permantly end this pesky problem of the sick and disabled. We are a very uncivilized culture. Oh did I mentioned let's just do away with taxes altogether?

First, Rick Scott doesn't give a crap about the sick or poor. Second, it just goes to show you how corrupt a human being can become. This is a guy who would probably be flipping burgers in a fast food joint or asking "Bubba," to cut down to just a couple times a week in the state pen, if it were not for compassionate government help. His family HAD to depend on the programs that he so adamantly wants to destroy. They would have been hungry and homeless. I can slightly understand how a privileged and wealthy politician who is completely out of touch could feel  no empathy for the poor and sick, but there is no excuse for someone whose family benefited from the system and who personally robbed that system and became filthy rich. The same goes for Mr Marco Rubio.

I heard something on NPR this morning commenting on a change that Rick Scott is supporting to allow urgent care facilities to receive medicare- because this is SO CLEARLY a conflict of interest since he is part owner of Solantic Urgent Care, he "gave" his rights to the company to his wife, so he no longer has any financial interest in the company.  ::)

So drug testing payday for Scott family check. Medicare payday for Scott family check. How long before state workers are required to use "his wife's" clinic as their primary care.

The conflict of interest in each of his policy initiatives is SO FREAKING TRANSPARENT!

I have defended Floriduh against that very slight for the last time.

Seems like there would be a TRANSPARENT reason to get him out of office.. He is the worst Governor ever

You guys might want to wait say...six months or so before declaring Scott such a disaster.  Generally, we even give politicians a chance.  The big picture will be more focused after he has had the job for a while and there will be plenty of time to vilify him then, but with facts.

Quote from: NotNow on April 04, 2011, 12:22:28 PM
You guys might want to wait say...six months or so before declaring Scott such a disaster.  Generally, we even give politicians a chance.  The big picture will be more focused after he has had the job for a while and there will be plenty of time to vilify him then, but with facts.

perhaps you should just look at his governing style....that alone is a disgrace!

I think we should continue to watch to see if he improves.  That said I think even conservatives are voicing that so far he has @#$! the bed.

he has what the bed ? ;)

Quote from: NotNow on April 04, 2011, 12:22:28 PM
You guys might want to wait say...six months or so before declaring Scott such a disaster.  Generally, we even give politicians a chance.  The big picture will be more focused after he has had the job for a while and there will be plenty of time to vilify him then, but with facts.

Wow, we don't usually give crooks a second chance. Even AFTER they have served their sentence we won't even allow them to vote for 5 years!!!

We usually wait until they are convicted as well.

Quote from: NotNow on April 04, 2011, 04:07:21 PM
We usually wait until they are convicted as well.

Oh really? Well, you don't have to be convicted to be a CROOK. A lot of white collar crime goes unpunished, we are too busy going after the single moms whose abuse of our system is peanuts compared to the damage the likes of Rick Scott inflict: His company received a $1.7 billion fine, the largest in the history of the US for his company's ripping off Medicare for an entire decade while he ran that company.

He won't even deny his company ripped off Medicare by upcoding............but his excuse is "but Mayo did it too, and cleveland clinic too"

As to the charge of buying all the hospitals in one region and shutting them all down except one..........I guess he doesn't so much believe in competition except if it means having the doctors that work for him use cheap gloves that would rip every time they were used. So much for Patient Safety!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/Jy8i8FbVFyU

I'm OK with that as long as I am the one who gets to decide who the crooks are!  :)

Quote from: NotNow on April 04, 2011, 12:22:28 PM
You guys might want to wait say...six months or so before declaring Scott such a disaster.  Generally, we even give politicians a chance.  The big picture will be more focused after he has had the job for a while and there will be plenty of time to vilify him then, but with facts.

He lost his chance the day the company he ran began stealing money from the tax payers, and was cemented the day he accepted the gigantic check from that same company that booted him out an obscenely rich man.

This is the first time I have ever made this comment but anyone who voted for this guy, and I mean anyone, should hide in shame. There is a moral issue with anyone who voted for him. There are no excuses. There is no way you can justify voting for him. And if your excuse is you didn't know about his criminal behavior, you are still a political deviate.

 ::)

I didn't vote for him.

Quote from: avonjax on April 04, 2011, 07:31:45 PM
This is the first time I have ever made this comment but anyone who voted for this guy, and I mean anyone, should hide in shame. There is a moral issue with anyone who voted for him. There are no excuses. There is no way you can justify voting for him. And if your excuse is you didn't know about his criminal behavior, you are still a political deviate.

Thank you avonjax.

Rick Scott has made it so workers at McDonalds get paid more than state reimbursed caregivers for the disabled.

Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

QuoteGov. Scott's cuts drop the torch for the disabledBy Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 7:15 p.m. Thursday, April 7, 2011

Posted: 6:20 p.m. Thursday, April 7, 2011


This week, Gov. Rick Scott took time out from his busy schedule to look at Palm Beach County's ocean beaches and voice his support for sand renourishment.

Uh, oh. This is usually a bad sign. Somebody needs to check and see if the sand's still there.

I mention this because last week Scott took time out from his busy schedule to appear at a Special Olympics event.

And then later that day, he unilaterally decided to slash state funds by as much as 40 percent to community organizations that serve the developmentally disabled.

Gov. Voldemort's bad news surprise, justified as an emergency order that goes into effect immediately and runs through June and possibly beyond, was delivered by e-mail.

"It would be comical, if people's lives weren't in the balance," said Michael Morgenstein, the office manager for A Home Health Care Service in Lake Worth.

Short-changing caregivers

Morgenstein manages about 80 home health care workers employed as independent contractors. These are the people who change diapers, bathe, care for and support developmentally disabled people who are unable to take care of themselves in their own homes.

The state pays for these services through a Medicaid waiver program that's administered by social workers such as Amy Bokelman of Boynton Beach, who also woke up to the bad news last Friday morning.

"I got a monthly cut in pay of $750, which is tough for somebody who lives paycheck to paycheck," she said. "But what really bothers me is that now I don't know if I can take care of my families."

Bokelman's families are the Medicaid recipients who are lucky enough to get beyond the 19,000 others on the waiting list for state-supported services. She has to match the needs of these clients with the service providers in the area.

Here's an example. One of Bokelman's clients is a 65-year-old woman who is mentally disabled and uses wheelchair due to cerebral palsy. She lives alone and needs someone to be constantly with her at home, except for the nine hours each day she spends in a day-care program.

The state rate for round-the-clock in-home support for this woman had been set at $126.20 per day. Scott's emergency order reduced that to $82.81.

So when Bokelman tries to find her client a caregiver and goes to Morgenstein's service, she now has 34 percent less money to offer. That means Morgenstein will end up with less money to offer his independent contractor caregivers.

"I used to be able to pay them $10 an hour," Morgenstein said. "This week, I had to tell them I could only pay them $8 an hour."

These are workers who get no benefits and have to pay for their own transportation. And they care for clients who would otherwise cost the state a fortune if they had to be housed in nursing or institutional facilities.

"I don't blame them if they quit," Morgenstein said. "They can make more money working at McDonald's."

Gretel Lewis employs licensed practical nurses for her business, GEL Home Care, in West Palm Beach. Until last week, the state reimbursement rate for these professionals was $26 an hour, which meant that after Lewis took her management cut, the nurses actually got paid about $19 an hour. But Scott's order reduced the licensed practical nurses rate to $16.28 an hour.

"That means I now have to pay them $12 an hour," Lewis said. "What LPN is going to work for $12 an hour? They're not going to work for it, and I can't make them. I'm just going to have to turn back the cases to the state."

No. 5 for biz and No. 49 for disabled

Scott justified the cuts to the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities by saying he needed to control the $170 million deficit the agency was running.

"That's not taking into account the human factor," Morgenstein said. "These are people who can't take care of themselves. Who is going to take care of them?"

Not Scott. He's got to create some budget daylight for his $458 million corporate tax cut plan. Apparently, we need more corporate tax breaks, because Florida only ranks as the fifth best state according to the Tax Foundation's Business Tax Climate Index.

And the way to improve that is by taking money from the physically and mentally disabled, who are luxuriating in the kind of lavish state spending that puts Florida as 49th in state per-capita spending for the disabled.

Certainly, we can get to 50th with this move.  ::)

In the meantime, I'm guessing the governor's days of carrying the torch at Special Olympics events are over.

By the way, has the beach been privatized yet?

~frank_cerabino@pbpost.com

Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/cerabino-gov-scotts-cuts-drop-the-torch-for-1384039.html

How do you pronounce 'Rick Scott?'  It's easy.  Always remember that the 'P' is silent.

SO ...are we 'ronouncing it .. or is it silent P  Rick Scott? ;)

Quote from: FayeforCure on April 14, 2011, 08:05:55 PM
Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

The same people that harvest our fields, build our houses, rent our apartments, pay for everything in cash, send money to the FICA in the sky without ever expecting to reclaim it, mow our yards, clean our pools, cook our food....   Should I keep going?  

Guess what?  If I wasn't currently employed, I'd have no problems changing someone else's diapers for $8/hr rather than wait on my 40% Unemployment.  I guess I'd have 2 or three jobs changing diapers so I didn't have to suckle on the teat of welfare.  

But that's just me.  ;)

Agree NRW

Hey Tim, Tony.

Sorry I didn't reply, but have this alcoholic dependency issue regarding MJ.  ;)

Don't partake on school-nights!  ;D

LOL ...ahh :)

Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on April 14, 2011, 10:53:04 PM

Quote from: FayeforCure on April 14, 2011, 08:05:55 PM
Who wants to change diapers for $8 per hour? With no job benefits?

The same people that harvest our fields, build our houses, rent our apartments, pay for everything in cash, send money to the FICA in the sky without ever expecting to reclaim it, mow our yards, clean our pools, cook our food....   Should I keep going?  

Guess what?  If I wasn't currently employed, I'd have no problems changing someone else's diapers for $8/hr rather than wait on my 40% Unemployment.  I guess I'd have 2 or three jobs changing diapers so I didn't have to suckle on the teat of welfare.  

But that's just me.  ;)

Funny you say that Non-RedNeck Westsider............ I guess you've never even done it...............change adult diapers that is.

Pretty tough on the senses let me tell you.

This 20 year old kid working at Food Lion thought he'd become a CNA ( 4 week training) to get paid $1-2 an hour more than he was being paid at Food Lion.

So he worked at a nursing home for about a year and came back to Food Lion, and was VERY happy to be back.

I generally have to entice people with $15 per hour before they even consider wiping my son's butt ( he is quadriplegic from a soccer injury)

And no, they are not all lazy, but at $4 a gallon, they woul pretty much be working for free for the two morning hours that I need them.

So please, if you've not been in the situation, you do not know of which you speak.

Now as the economist, I have to tell you that the buzz words "teat of welfare" is a very demeaning way to describe state run unemployment insurance that companies pay into during good times, so that they can provid a modicum of comfort fo those who unexpectedly get laid off.

In other words it's a job benefit that you never hope you need, just like medical insurance is a job benefit you never hope you need.

Quote
In North Carolina, the General Assembly cut the unemployment insurance tax rate a number of times in the mid-1990s, going so far as to exempt companies without a history of laying off workers. Today about 12 percent of all N.C. employers don't pay into the insurance fund.

North Carolina's businesses that did pay the unemployment insurance tax last year paid $281 per employee, far below the national average of $360 per worker, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/28/1086902/shortfall-spurs-rush-to-raise.html#ixzz1JayiKnnX

But you've heard the saying "death by a thousand cuts"?

That's what happens when Republicans see a surplus in an INSURANCE fund during good times..............they decide to cuts those taxes forgetting that it is a INSURANCE fund, that is supposed to show a surplus in good times, so that there is sufficient monies in there for the bad times.

THEN, these states have to be bailed out by the Federal government for their INSURANCE funds to stay aflaot because not enough monies were accumulated during th good  years to INSURE ( through an insurance pool) ourselves for the bad years.

So what it is, is really Republican mismanagement that is aided and abetted by Democrats who buy into reckless cutting of the INSURANCE revenues during good times.

Capice?

Moderator, please don't delete this, but I want to bring a little humor into this thread.

I am going to leave this here...

(http://images1.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/6958874/I-AM-LORD-VOLDEMORT.jpg)

-Josh

Oh I so want the shirt!

I have some T-Shirt transfer sheets and have just copied the image.  Will let you know if the shirt turns out OK.  If so, you've got a deal!

Quote from: Dog Walker on April 15, 2011, 09:55:29 AM
I have some T-Shirt transfer sheets and have just copied the image.  Will let you know if the shirt turns out OK.  If so, you've got a deal!

Add me 2 to that list DW.  :)  I love it !

Quote from: wsansewjs on April 15, 2011, 09:22:56 AM
Moderator, please don't delete this, but I want to bring a little humor into this thread.

I am going to leave this here...

(http://images1.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/6958874/I-AM-LORD-VOLDEMORT.jpg)

-Josh

Looks like someone goosed him in the behind with a cattle prod and he liked it ;)

More fuel for the anti-Rick Scott fire....

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/457554/abel-harding/2011-04-15/florida-morning-rick-scotts-lawyer-admits-he-misled-high

amazing... We could not get lucky enough for his string ball to come unraveled though.. :/

Quote from: Todd_Parker on April 15, 2011, 12:33:42 PM


More fuel for the anti-Rick Scott fire....

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/457554/abel-harding/2011-04-15/florida-morning-rick-scotts-lawyer-admits-he-misled-high

Thanks Todd. Looks like Rick Scott got a lot of flack for his heartless actions toward the disabled..............your link actually has a small section on Rick Scott making an unusual and sudden reversal:

QuoteFUNDS RESTORED TO DISABLED - "Gov. Rick Scott agreed today to lift his emergency order mandating massive reductions in state payments to group homes and other caregivers who tend to thousands of physically and developmentally disabled Floridians." Tallahassee Democrat: http://bit.ly/dPOVY2