Sunday Morning Food for Thought

Gubmint and How de Gubmint Works


Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people, one to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, an Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year, and we are $918,000 over budget. We must cut back." So they laid off the night watchman..

NOW slowly, let that sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY..... during the Carter Administration?

No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line: We've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency...the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready?? It was very simple . . . and, at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND, NOW, IT'S 2011 -- 34 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES, AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?"

A little over 34 years ago, 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- the good old Federal bureaucracy!!

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY OVER TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello-o-o-o-o!! Anybody Home?

Baby Jessica turns 25, gains access to trust fund

The toddler who tumbled down an abandoned water well and got trapped more than two decades ago turns 25 on Saturday, a milestone that gives her access to a trust fund of up to $800,000 donated by thousands of sympathetic strangers who spent 2 1/2 days glued to the television until she was free.

Jessica McClure Morales is now a contented stay-at-home mother of two, and her youngest is 18 months old -- the same age she was when her accident drew the eyes of the world to this oil-patch city. She lives less than two miles from the site of the 1987 rescue.

"That's all Jessica has ever wanted was to be a mom and have a family," said her father, Lewis "Chip" McClure. "She's a good mom and keeps her eyes on her kids. She's certainly a doting mother."

McClure Morales has no memory of being wedged in the pipe or of the 15 operations that followed her ordeal, according to her father. A scar from her hairline to the bridge of her nose is still visible where her head rubbed against the wall of the well. She also lost a toe to gangrene because one leg was pinned above her head in the underground shaft.

I'm doing what the President requested .............

We are cutting out spending. Biting the bullet - cutting expenses. OK, Mr. President, we will do our share...................

I HOPE YOU WILL PARTICIPATE AND DO YOUR PART

The President ordered the cabinet to cut $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget.

I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that we have decided to do the same thing with our personal budget. We spend about $2000 a month on groceries, household expenses, medicine, rent, utilities, etc, but it's time to get out the budget cutting axe, go through our expenses, and cut back.

We are going to cut our spending at exactly the same ratio, 1/35,000 of our total budget.

After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2000 a month, we are going to have to cut that number by six cents.

Yes, we are going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about. We'll  just have to do without some things, that are, frankly, luxuries. We have agreed to DO WITHOUT penny candy, which is pretty hard to find, anyway.

Food for thought for a nice weekend .........

Something for YOU to think about. I try to stay down the middle as much as possible, but there comes a time when "the truth will win out" and I think this information is valid and something to be considered. While the President is concerning himself with the NCAA tournament, both Mens and Womens, I hope someone is concerned with unemployment, Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, Gaddafui, and a few other "messes"on the table. Just read this and think about it.


The Washington Post babbled again about Obama inheriting a huge deficit from Bush. Amazingly enough, a lot of people swallow this nonsense. So once more, a short civics lesson.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009 as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For FY 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period.

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the FY 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.

There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless YOU forward this blog on. This is your chance to make a difference.

Stay Focused, Connected, Informed & Inspired... Also don't forget to forward this blog to everyone you know...

Doctors And Pharmacists Try Partnering

by Michelle Andrews

If you think the only place pharmacists fill prescriptions is at your neighborhood CVS or Walgreens, think again. More and more pharmacists are popping up at doctors' offices and clinics, working side-by-side with physicians as they treat patients.

At the Goodrich Pharmacy in Anoka, Minn., pharmacists are happy to serve customers who happen to wander in, but the bulk of business is with a primary care clinic nearby, says Steve Simenson, president and managing partner of Goodrich, which operates five pharmacies around the Twin Cities.

The primary care clinic contracts with Goodrich pharmacists to visit patients there and to do follow-up work, including patient education and monitoring of chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma.

Goodrich pharmacists have access to clinic patients' electronic medical records, so they can view doctors' treatment goals, lab results and other information.

Like many states, Minnesota allows "collaborative practice agreements" between pharmacists and physicians that permit pharmacists to take over medication-related care for a patient as long as changes are communicated to the physician. "The future of independent pharmacists is in direct patient care," says Simenson.