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have agreed to pay $2.3 billion, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the Department of Justice, to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products, the Justice Department announced today.\hhs security
Paid to do nothing
11,000-plus postal workers idle at any given time
By GREGG CARLSTROM
September 07, 2009
The U.S. Postal Service, struggling with a massive deficit caused by plummeting mail volume, spends more than a million dollars each week to pay thousands of employees to sit in empty rooms and do nothing.
It’s a practice called “standby time,” and it has existed for years — but postal employees say it was rarely used until this year. Now, postal officials say, the agency is averaging about 45,000 hours of standby time every week — the equivalent of having 1,125 full-time employees sitting idle, at a cost of more than $50 million per year.
<snip>
The Postal Service’s collective bargaining agreement with APWU includes a no-layoff clause for employees with more than six years on the job. It also includes a guarantee of eight hours’ pay for eight hours’ work.
<snip>
So they sit — some for a few hours, others for entire shifts. Postal union officials estimate some 15,000 employees have spent time on standby this year.
I can't even count the number of times I have asked the question... "Name something the government has run well." and the standard answer is the postal service.....Well.....
A Postal Service bailout? - David Rogers - POLITICO.com
The Least, First
Monte Asburys blog
9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?
The Least, First
Monte Asburys blog
9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?
The postal service will come to my house in NJ pick up a letter then deliver that letter within a week to my brothers house in California for a total of 44 cents
I would not deliver a letter to the other side of town for44 cents
I can't even count the number of times I have asked the question... "Name something the government has run well." and the standard answer is the postal service.....Well.....
A Postal Service bailout? - David Rogers - POLITICO.com
State and local. In many areas some are being closed due to lack of funding.The Least, First
Monte Asburys blog
Other than the military, can you name 10 things that the government has done really well, better than the private sector?
Its an important question, for skepticism toward all government (rather than reform of bad government) is not only common, but at the root of a couple of major political outlooks. And because its important, it seemed worth a post of its own.
Heres my quick response. Maybe you can do better:
1. The FAA. Crashes are a rarity here, thanks to equipment safety tests and massively successful air flight controlling.
Not a massive social program (which is what most are talking about within context of gov=bad). Also done in conjuction with massive private sector help.
2. Medicaid: private sector insurance companies make money by ditching their customers when they get very sick. Medicaid picks up the castoffs.
Rife with fraud and mismanagement, great example.
3. Social Security: What if Mr. Bush had succeeded in privatizing SS before the markets crashed? Can you imagine how many old people would be working at WalMart, since their SS would have been cut in half? And did you know that before SS, thousands of older Americans simply starved to death?
Going broke, anoughther great example.
4. SCHIP: Healthcare insurance for children who would not otherwise have it enormously preventive of school absence, long-term illness, loss of physical and mental development.
Limited, again not a massive endeavor.
5. The CDC: How do we know that the virulence of H1N1 is less than expected? Who is telling the world that US pork is safe to eat? How do we know whether an illness is H1N1 or not? Its all the CDC.
Government/private sector collaboration.
6. School hot lunch programs: For many children, their only serious nutrition all day every day. What industry would do it?
Once again, relatively small program and many private sector companies donate or provide these services in one form or another. Lets not forget the secular and religious charities the generally do a much better job of providing food for hungry people
7. The Soil Conservation Service: though bureaucratic, there is no private industry comparable. How vastly different would America be without the wetlands your dad and a thousand like him have created.
Again, government/private sector.
8. Head Start: kids from homes that have seriously dysfunctional emotional and learning environments have benefited enormously.
Small program
9. The Department of Motor Vehicles: how many mistakes have you had on your car registrations or titles?
State, not federal and just recently I renewed my registration online, Aug 14th, still haven't recieved it. They are resending again.
10. E911 commissions: how long does it take an ambulance or fire truck to reach you if a child who can call 911 cant tell the operator an address?
In DC, 20 to 40 minutes and the station is two blocks from your house.
11. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics known around the world for ground-breaking medical research.
Universities are now federal government entities??
12. Open meetings laws for city, county, and state government office nothing like it at all in the private sector. But if public officials make decisions without notifying us, they can get in big trouble.
Why would the private sector tell their competitors what they are doing before they do it?
13. Free public libraries which most nations simply dont have
So much for that!
Going Broke= means absolutely nothing. Programs are not making a profit and it's not really important.They are treasured by the American people. if they don'y make money, so what!
Most of the thievery in Social Security and Medicare are Private Companies raping the system.
You've got to be kidding me! Are you truly that obtuse?
Try mailing a first class letter usig FEDEX and get back to me with what it costs, would ja?
The postal service will come to my house in NJ pick up a letter then deliver that letter within a week to my brothers house in California for a total of 44 cents
I would not deliver a letter to the other side of town for44 cents
