Free Market Failures

[dblack]

Your stupidity is only matched by the mindlessness of your avatar.

Nothing stings like the truth, eh?

You are boring, but then again, Libertarians usually are.

Agreed. The fantastic delusions of statists are far more entertaining.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Just as a heads up it is because the VA has to have documentation that records are retrievable. You can't lead, you can't follow, get the fuck out of the way:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/s-1982-summary?inline=file

Just for the record, the VA shredded files that made them look bad.

VA hospital officials shredded documents to hide existence of secret waiting lists that killed U.S. veterans - NaturalNews.com

Keep pointing to the VA as an example of how good the government is, it makes my day.

Here let me jog your memory:

George W. Bush Reaches a New Low in Support of the Nation's Veterans
By Dave Curry, Joe Miller and Barry Romo

[Printer-Friendly Version]

George Bush is not a veteran, and he is not concerned about our needs. When he's not pretending to be a jet pilot, Bush pretends to be just another veteran. At the American Legion National Convention, before he began his speech, Bush called attention to a veteran from "his old legion post." The message was a reach for solidarity. "We're all vets here."

In the speech that followed, Bush laid claim to "the largest discretionary increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs ever requested by a president." Bush also claimed that under his leadership the VA has made "major progress in reducing the backlog of veterans' disability claims and the number of veterans waiting for health care. And (we will) continue to work to make sure those backlogs are eliminated."

Maybe this is an outright lie or maybe reducing "backlogs" and "lists" is simply a matter of reducing benefits, facilities, and eligibility. No benefits, no facilities, no eligibility, therefore no lists, no backlogs. And of course there must be administrative costs associated with all this streamlining.

Under current leadership, the administration intends to drop more than half a million veterans from medical eligibility by 2005. At the same time, House Republicans have passed a White House proposal to charge veterans enrollment fees of $250 a year and double the amount they now pay for prescription drugs. This is at a time when it already takes an average of six months to get an appointment at a VA medical center.

VA secretary Anthony Principi has said: "This is not about closing hospitals. This is about transforming the VA health care system into a patient-focused health care system that adapts to medicine in the 21st century. ... Sometimes, leaders have to make difficult decisions."

The mechanism for reducing veterans' benefits and services has an ironic name: Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, or CARES. Under the CARES plan, an unspecified number of VA hospitals will be closed or transformed into outpatient clinics. The VA plans to provide the specific list of hospitals for closing in December 2003.

According to the New York Daily News, closing one hospital in Manhattan will deny access to VA medical care for thousands of veterans with no other options. The VA is not the only federal agency wielding the budget ax on veterans' health benefits. Earlier this year, Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Roswell released a list of 18 VA hospitals to be converted from 24-hour medical facilities to 8-hour-a-day outpatient clinics.

A meeting of representatives of traditional veterans' organizations at the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars concluded that "the praise for troops by the president, other top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders is 'ringing hollow' because they have broken promises to veterans and active-duty soldiers about benefits and services." The Army Times has labeled Bush administration praise and promises for veterans and active duty troops "nothing but lip service." "We strongly believe that Congress and the administration have to do better by veterans," said Dennis M. Cullinan, legislative director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Republicans have proposed new legislation that will limit what constitutes a service-connected health problem. Representative Lane Evans of Illinois, the ranking democrat on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, has pointed out that the new legislation would have denied benefits to the atomic veterans and the victims of Agent Orange. In reaction to the proposed legislation, the Disabled American Veterans in a press release have accused Congress of "declaring war against disabled veterans" and showing "callous contempt for the sacrifices of America's defenders."

The American Gulf War Veterans Association doesn't want the public to lose sight of the fact that nearly half of the 697,000 Gulf War I veterans are now ill. While over 200,000 of those serving in the first Gulf War have requested disability for "mysterious illnesses," they have received no adequate diagnosis or treatment from either the Department of Defense (DOD) or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). For the Association, "repeated lack of diagnosis unfortunately translates into lack of treatment, and lack of compensation for the veteran."

Treatment of veterans of the current Gulf War has bordered on the macabre. Warnings from military experts about the dangers to health of depleted uranium armor-piercing ordnance are getting attention in the press but not at the VA or DOD. There is no shortage of new mysterious illnesses similar to those found among Gulf War I vets turning up among those who are serving in Gulf War II. Several cases have figured prominently in the media. Army Sgt. Vanessa Turner barely escaped death from a "mysterious" ailment only to have to fight for medical treatment from the VA. "It's easier to stay a soldier and be in harm's way than to come home and get care," said Turner, a six-year army veteran. In September, she was still waiting for an appointment to see a doctor at a Boston VA hospital in mid-October. According to his parents, Josh Neusche became ill with a mystery illness on 6/26/03, entered a coma on 7/01/03, and was "medically retired" from the Army that day. The retirement classification allowed the DOD to deny any obligation for assisting his family to see him before he died on 7/12/03.

Through their foreign policy, the Bush administration has made all of these new veterans. Will they treat these new veterans with the same disdain they have demonstrated toward the rest of us veterans since taking office? How can we expect anything else?

Vietnam Veterans Against the War: THE VETERAN: George W. Bush Reaches a New Low in Support of the Nation's Veterans

This is what makes you look altogether silly. You're a neoliberal that sides with a bunch of gangbangers that shuts down clinics, denies health care and in general weasels through AND then when you screwed it to the point that it lurches instead of running in the manner that it should..........you sit there like you have rocks in your head.

Fund it.

Let me guess, you think I am a idiot with the same need to defend Bush that you have to defend Obama.

Wrong, I oppose the government no matter who is in charge.

But at least you admitted that the VA is a failure, got any other government agency that you think is a success?

 

[Indeependent]

Nothing stings like the truth, eh?

You are boring, but then again, Libertarians usually are.

Agreed. The fantastic delusions of statists are far more entertaining.

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

 

[bripat9643]

You are boring, but then again, Libertarians usually are.

Agreed. The fantastic delusions of statists are far more entertaining.

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

Sure it can.

 

[dblack]

You are boring, but then again, Libertarians usually are.

Agreed. The fantastic delusions of statists are far more entertaining.

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

Ok

 

[Indeependent]

Agreed. The fantastic delusions of statists are far more entertaining.

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

Sure it can.

The impossible task...Supply me with an example.
You can't because no Libertarian nation has ever existed.

 

[hipeter924]

Just watching neo-liberals destroy themselves, as they build and promote their pseudo-free market and anti-regulatory fanaticism. They idealize Ayn Rands, Rothbards, and Reagans, whilst dismissing all the problems in the economy as a result of 'socialists', truth is that they have had complete control since the mid to late 70s, and made a pigs breakfast of the global economy.

Neo-Liberal 'free markets' are just crony capitalist markets where corporations lobby governments to pass regulations that suit their interests, and fund 'tea parties' and politicians to de-regulate areas that suit their interests.

Going to take a few decades for people to wake up to it. Neo-liberals forget Ayn Rand's warning about how their antics would destroy capitalism (she hated Reagan and his ilk), whilst they pick and choose from her beliefs. Neo-Liberals should keep doing what they are doing, we just need another recession, and good bye 'free market capitalism' as there is no money left to shore up or bailout corporations.

But that said, I don't bother to debate with neo-liberals seriously, as their own policies are their worst enemies.

 

[HelenaHandbag]

It is happening right now in America.

I am sorry that you are too ignorant and blindly partisan to recognize the fact, yet there it is.

No, the one that is ignorant here is you. You are merely parroting right wing talking points. That has become painfully obvious.

The act of you calling others ignorant and merely parroting talking points is both ironically funny and tedious at the same time.

You can't manage to defend your arguments because you don't have one.

Tedious irony within tedious irony. At least you are good at that.

 

[bripat9643]

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

Sure it can.

The impossible task...Supply me with an example.
You can't because no Libertarian nation has ever existed.

Railroads in this country were largely built with private money.

The bottom line is that the closer a nation gets to laizzes faire capitalism, the better it does. The more if follows the policies you endorse, the worse it does.

 

[bripat9643]

Just watching neo-liberals destroy themselves, as they build and promote their pseudo-free market and anti-regulatory fanaticism. They idealize Ayn Rands, Rothbards, and Reagans, whilst dismissing all the problems in the economy as a result of 'socialists', truth is that they have had complete control since the mid to late 70s, and made a pigs breakfast of the global economy.

Neo-Liberal 'free markets' are just crony capitalist markets where corporations lobby governments to pass regulations that suit their interests, and fund 'tea parties' and politicians to de-regulate areas that suit their interests.

Those aren't free markets, asshole. You don't get to change the definition of words so you can score points for your moron agenda.

 

[bripat9643]

Your stupidity is only matched by the mindlessness of your avatar.

Nothing stings like the truth, eh?

You are boring, but then again, Libertarians usually are.

"Boring" is the libturd euphemism meaning "ouch!"

 

[Disir]

Just for the record, the VA shredded files that made them look bad.

VA hospital officials shredded documents to hide existence of secret waiting lists that killed U.S. veterans - NaturalNews.com

Keep pointing to the VA as an example of how good the government is, it makes my day.

Here let me jog your memory:

George W. Bush Reaches a New Low in Support of the Nation's Veterans
By Dave Curry, Joe Miller and Barry Romo

[Printer-Friendly Version]

George Bush is not a veteran, and he is not concerned about our needs. When he's not pretending to be a jet pilot, Bush pretends to be just another veteran. At the American Legion National Convention, before he began his speech, Bush called attention to a veteran from "his old legion post." The message was a reach for solidarity. "We're all vets here."

In the speech that followed, Bush laid claim to "the largest discretionary increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs ever requested by a president." Bush also claimed that under his leadership the VA has made "major progress in reducing the backlog of veterans' disability claims and the number of veterans waiting for health care. And (we will) continue to work to make sure those backlogs are eliminated."

Maybe this is an outright lie or maybe reducing "backlogs" and "lists" is simply a matter of reducing benefits, facilities, and eligibility. No benefits, no facilities, no eligibility, therefore no lists, no backlogs. And of course there must be administrative costs associated with all this streamlining.

Under current leadership, the administration intends to drop more than half a million veterans from medical eligibility by 2005. At the same time, House Republicans have passed a White House proposal to charge veterans enrollment fees of $250 a year and double the amount they now pay for prescription drugs. This is at a time when it already takes an average of six months to get an appointment at a VA medical center.

VA secretary Anthony Principi has said: "This is not about closing hospitals. This is about transforming the VA health care system into a patient-focused health care system that adapts to medicine in the 21st century. ... Sometimes, leaders have to make difficult decisions."

The mechanism for reducing veterans' benefits and services has an ironic name: Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, or CARES. Under the CARES plan, an unspecified number of VA hospitals will be closed or transformed into outpatient clinics. The VA plans to provide the specific list of hospitals for closing in December 2003.

According to the New York Daily News, closing one hospital in Manhattan will deny access to VA medical care for thousands of veterans with no other options. The VA is not the only federal agency wielding the budget ax on veterans' health benefits. Earlier this year, Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Roswell released a list of 18 VA hospitals to be converted from 24-hour medical facilities to 8-hour-a-day outpatient clinics.

A meeting of representatives of traditional veterans' organizations at the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars concluded that "the praise for troops by the president, other top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders is 'ringing hollow' because they have broken promises to veterans and active-duty soldiers about benefits and services." The Army Times has labeled Bush administration praise and promises for veterans and active duty troops "nothing but lip service." "We strongly believe that Congress and the administration have to do better by veterans," said Dennis M. Cullinan, legislative director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Republicans have proposed new legislation that will limit what constitutes a service-connected health problem. Representative Lane Evans of Illinois, the ranking democrat on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, has pointed out that the new legislation would have denied benefits to the atomic veterans and the victims of Agent Orange. In reaction to the proposed legislation, the Disabled American Veterans in a press release have accused Congress of "declaring war against disabled veterans" and showing "callous contempt for the sacrifices of America's defenders."

The American Gulf War Veterans Association doesn't want the public to lose sight of the fact that nearly half of the 697,000 Gulf War I veterans are now ill. While over 200,000 of those serving in the first Gulf War have requested disability for "mysterious illnesses," they have received no adequate diagnosis or treatment from either the Department of Defense (DOD) or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). For the Association, "repeated lack of diagnosis unfortunately translates into lack of treatment, and lack of compensation for the veteran."

Treatment of veterans of the current Gulf War has bordered on the macabre. Warnings from military experts about the dangers to health of depleted uranium armor-piercing ordnance are getting attention in the press but not at the VA or DOD. There is no shortage of new mysterious illnesses similar to those found among Gulf War I vets turning up among those who are serving in Gulf War II. Several cases have figured prominently in the media. Army Sgt. Vanessa Turner barely escaped death from a "mysterious" ailment only to have to fight for medical treatment from the VA. "It's easier to stay a soldier and be in harm's way than to come home and get care," said Turner, a six-year army veteran. In September, she was still waiting for an appointment to see a doctor at a Boston VA hospital in mid-October. According to his parents, Josh Neusche became ill with a mystery illness on 6/26/03, entered a coma on 7/01/03, and was "medically retired" from the Army that day. The retirement classification allowed the DOD to deny any obligation for assisting his family to see him before he died on 7/12/03.

Through their foreign policy, the Bush administration has made all of these new veterans. Will they treat these new veterans with the same disdain they have demonstrated toward the rest of us veterans since taking office? How can we expect anything else?

Vietnam Veterans Against the War: THE VETERAN: George W. Bush Reaches a New Low in Support of the Nation's Veterans

This is what makes you look altogether silly. You're a neoliberal that sides with a bunch of gangbangers that shuts down clinics, denies health care and in general weasels through AND then when you screwed it to the point that it lurches instead of running in the manner that it should..........you sit there like you have rocks in your head.

Fund it.

Let me guess, you think I am a idiot with the same need to defend Bush that you have to defend Obama.

Wrong, I oppose the government no matter who is in charge.

But at least you admitted that the VA is a failure, got any other government agency that -you think is a success?

Absolutely not. I think you're an idiot for saying that because no one has ever called you a neoliberal the term is not in use and nothing says stupidity like nobody-ever-called-me-neoliberal-therefore-it-doesn't-exist.

I don't defend Obama. His policies are neoliberal.

I'm telling you point blank that the problems that the VA has are due to cuts that were made. I'm also telling you that you sitting on the sideline and thinking that you get a good guffaw while doing whatever you can to defund it makes you a chump.

 

[Disir]

It is happening right now in America.

I am sorry that you are too ignorant and blindly partisan to recognize the fact, yet there it is.

No, the one that is ignorant here is you. You are merely parroting right wing talking points. That has become painfully obvious.

The act of you calling others ignorant and merely parroting talking points is both ironically funny and tedious at the same time.

You can't manage to defend your arguments because you don't have one.

Tedious irony within tedious irony. At least you are good at that.

So...........you still got nothing.

 

[Crystalclear]

Just watching neo-liberals destroy themselves, as they build and promote their pseudo-free market and anti-regulatory fanaticism. They idealize Ayn Rands, Rothbards, and Reagans, whilst dismissing all the problems in the economy as a result of 'socialists', truth is that they have had complete control since the mid to late 70s, and made a pigs breakfast of the global economy.

Neo-Liberal 'free markets' are just crony capitalist markets where corporations lobby governments to pass regulations that suit their interests, and fund 'tea parties' and politicians to de-regulate areas that suit their interests.

Going to take a few decades for people to wake up to it. Neo-liberals forget Ayn Rand's warning about how their antics would destroy capitalism (she hated Reagan and his ilk), whilst they pick and choose from her beliefs. Neo-Liberals should keep doing what they are doing, we just need another recession, and good bye 'free market capitalism' as there is no money left to shore up or bailout corporations.

But that said, I don't bother to debate with neo-liberals seriously, as their own policies are their worst enemies.

That's big business and goverment market, not a free one.

 

[bedowin62]

IT'S COMICAL watching left-wing nutjobs whine about the failures of others while they call the RECORD WELFARE AND FOOD STAMPS on the Progressive watch "forward progress"

 

[Crystalclear]

Uncompromising liberty cannot result in such a magnificent infrastructure such as that possessed by the US.

Sure it can.

The impossible task...Supply me with an example.
You can't because no Libertarian nation has ever existed.

The US has very long been close to a libertarian nation. That was the time when the foundations of the US were made. For example, the western US became rich and civilized without big government.

 

[hipeter924]

Just watching neo-liberals destroy themselves, as they build and promote their pseudo-free market and anti-regulatory fanaticism. They idealize Ayn Rands, Rothbards, and Reagans, whilst dismissing all the problems in the economy as a result of 'socialists', truth is that they have had complete control since the mid to late 70s, and made a pigs breakfast of the global economy.

Neo-Liberal 'free markets' are just crony capitalist markets where corporations lobby governments to pass regulations that suit their interests, and fund 'tea parties' and politicians to de-regulate areas that suit their interests.

Those aren't free markets, asshole. You don't get to change the definition of words so you can score points for your moron agenda.

Then stop supporting false ones, where corporations and governments exist in the market. Keep swearing to hide your own hypocrisy.

 

[hipeter924]

Just watching neo-liberals destroy themselves, as they build and promote their pseudo-free market and anti-regulatory fanaticism. They idealize Ayn Rands, Rothbards, and Reagans, whilst dismissing all the problems in the economy as a result of 'socialists', truth is that they have had complete control since the mid to late 70s, and made a pigs breakfast of the global economy.

Neo-Liberal 'free markets' are just crony capitalist markets where corporations lobby governments to pass regulations that suit their interests, and fund 'tea parties' and politicians to de-regulate areas that suit their interests.

Going to take a few decades for people to wake up to it. Neo-liberals forget Ayn Rand's warning about how their antics would destroy capitalism (she hated Reagan and his ilk), whilst they pick and choose from her beliefs. Neo-Liberals should keep doing what they are doing, we just need another recession, and good bye 'free market capitalism' as there is no money left to shore up or bailout corporations.

But that said, I don't bother to debate with neo-liberals seriously, as their own policies are their worst enemies.

That's big business and goverment market, not a free one.

Can you even read, or were inverted commas left out of your education, alongside the word pseudo? So ditto, I said in the post that what are pushed as 'free markets' are not.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Yeah, those danged State run "free" market failures.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Here let me jog your memory:
Vietnam Veterans Against the War: THE VETERAN: George W. Bush Reaches a New Low in Support of the Nation's Veterans

This is what makes you look altogether silly. You're a neoliberal that sides with a bunch of gangbangers that shuts down clinics, denies health care and in general weasels through AND then when you screwed it to the point that it lurches instead of running in the manner that it should..........you sit there like you have rocks in your head.

Fund it.

Let me guess, you think I am a idiot with the same need to defend Bush that you have to defend Obama.

Wrong, I oppose the government no matter who is in charge.

But at least you admitted that the VA is a failure, got any other government agency that -you think is a success?

Absolutely not. I think you're an idiot for saying that because no one has ever called you a neoliberal the term is not in use and nothing says stupidity like nobody-ever-called-me-neoliberal-therefore-it-doesn't-exist.

I don't defend Obama. His policies are neoliberal.

I'm telling you point blank that the problems that the VA has are due to cuts that were made. I'm also telling you that you sitting on the sideline and thinking that you get a good guffaw while doing whatever you can to defund it makes you a chump.

You think I am an idiot because I said something I never said? How does that work, exactly?

You are the guy that pointed to the VA as a successful government agency when I asked for an example, now you are claiming that the fact that it isn't a success is because it didn't have enough money. You can't have it both ways, either it is successful, or it isn't. Since it, obviously, isn't, you were wrong to point to it as an example of success. Making excuses for your failure just makes you look pathetic.