What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Is the VA punishing employees who speak out?
Of course they are, and they have been for years.
From TheNYTimes “Staff members at dozens of Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country have objected for years to falsified patient appointment schedules and other improper practices, only to be rebuffed, disciplined or even fired after speaking up, according to interviews with current and former staff members and internal documents.
The growing V.A. scandal over long patient wait times and fake scheduling books is emboldening hundreds of employees to go to federal watchdogs, unions, lawmakers and outside whistle-blower groups to report continuing problems, officials for those various groups said.
In interviews with The New York Times, a half-dozen current and former staff members — four doctors, a nurse and an office manager in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Alaska — said they faced retaliation for reporting systemic problems. Their accounts, some corroborated by internal documents, portray a culture of silence and intimidation within the department and echo experiences detailed by other V.A. personnel in court filings, government investigations and congressional testimony, much of it largely unnoticed until now.
The federal Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistle-blower complaints, is examining 37 claims of retaliation by V.A. employees in 19 states, and recently persuaded the V.A. to drop the disciplining of three staff members who had spoken out. Together with reports to other watchdog agencies and the Times interviews, the accounts by V.A. whistle-blowers cover several dozen hospitals, with complaints dating back seven years or longer.”
I’m sure the President will be shocked when he reads about this. 🙄
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2. We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.
From CNSNews “Federal tax revenues continue to run at a record pace (in inflation-adjusted dollars) in fiscal 2014, as the federal government’s total receipts for the fiscal year closed May at an unprecedented $1,934,919,000,000, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
Despite record revenue, the federal government still ran a deficit of $436.382 billion in the first eight months of the fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2013 and will end on Sept. 30, 2014.
In the month of May alone, the federal government ran a deficit of $129.971 billion–bringing in $199.889 billion in revenue while spending $329.860 billion.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has estimated that in the full fiscal 2014, the federal government will collect $3.001721 trillion in taxes, spend $3.650526 trillion, running a deficit of $648.805 billion.”
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3. The White House story on the immigration surge is falling apart.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “But whether or not many people noticed, this was the week in which the Obama administration’s attempts to deflect blame for the border crisis fell apart.
Most of the illegal immigrants are what Border Patrol officials call OTMs. That is, while they are crossing into the United States from Mexico, they are actually from other countries — in this case, mostly Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — and are classified as Other Than Mexican immigrants.
Top administration officials have tried to attribute the surge in crossings to violence and poverty in those countries. “The situation is motivated primarily by the conditions in the countries that they’re leaving — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,” said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. “Violence, poverty — I believe that is principally what is motivating the situation.”
“As it turns out, the Republican explanation does withstand a whole lot of scrutiny. Recent days have been filled with anecdotal reports, from local news outlets in Central America to major American newspapers, citing immigrants who say they came because they believe U.S. law has been changed to allow them to stay. And now comes word that Border Patrol agents in the most heavily-trafficked area of the surge, the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, recently questioned 230 illegal immigrants about why they came. The results showed overwhelmingly that the immigrants, including those classified as UACs, or unaccompanied children, were motivated by the belief that they would be allowed to stay in the United States — and not by conditions in their homelands. From a report written by the agents, quoting from the interviews:”
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4. Lies my President told me. There’s a lot.
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5. Speaking of lies……
Even CNN isn’t buying the White House story on Lois Lerner’s lost emails.
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Wandering Views 
The lost e-mails is obviously a lie.
They knew they couldn’t get away with it, but they had to do it anyhow. That means:
There is something seriously bad in those e-mails.
The next administration, whoever it is, will “move on”.
We may never know what those e-mails contain. But I can assure you that they originated in the White House.
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275 Marines aren’t going to be enough to protect the US embassy from this group.
They could have saved Benghazi, but unless they have close air support, this isn’t going to work. And the rebels have stingers. Our stingers.
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But 275 is enough to make some people conclude that we’re “going back into Iraq.” Either way, it’s probably a lost cause at this point. Just praying for the innocents, the many Christians and others, who will be targeted & killed in the process. 😦
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And isn’t this interesting?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-17/wealthy-clintons-use-trusts-to-limit-estate-tax-they-back.html
“Bill and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the U.S. from being dominated by inherited wealth. That doesn’t mean they want to pay it.”
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There is an easy way to solve our tax problems. Every year our US government raises how much we spend by about 10%. If we would just stop raising how much we spend it wouldn’t be too many years before we catch up. I am sure that the US can live on $3 trillion dollars in taxes. Just stop spending more and more.
TEA Party means Taxed Enough Already Party!
How can this be evil?
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Just think of all the time Congress can save by not being in session. And money (far less per diem). And no more new fool laws to try and follow.
“Dreamer, you’re nothing but a dreamer…”
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Bob,
Neither party seems to want to do anything about our ever-expanding govt, or taxes. Only in LaLa Land (DC) can you lower a budget increase and call it a cut. That’s how both sides play it. R’s give a less than asked for but still an increase raise, call it a cut and say they’re doing what their voters want, unlike those irresponsible D’s. The D’s get their budget increase, although a little lower than what they wanted, but still an increase, and then say they’re providing services and benefits to their voters, unlike those mean R’s. Meanwhile, the deficit expands, and so do taxes and increases.
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Baseline Budgeting, it’s called.
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