The 2-Party system doesn't work - New England Patriots Forums

Gainzo · 03-25-2011, 03:26 PM

I thought the Republicans were about downsizing government?

Quote:

COLUMBUS: Amid pledges to slash government spending, Ohio’s next governor is preparing to pay some of his top aides significantly more than current Gov. Ted Strickland has paid his.

Gov.-elect John Kasich defended the higher salaries for his chief of staff, communications director, press secretary and others on Thursday after they were made public on the political blog Plunderbund. Preliminary figures were released later Thursday to The Associated Press through a public records request.

Kasich, a Republican, plans to pay chief of staff Beth Hansen just over $170,000 a year. That’s about $47,000 more per year than Strickland chief of staff John Haseley has made, and about what President Barack Obama plans to pay the new White House chief of staff he named Thursday, veteran political manager William Daley.

New communications director Scott Milburn is slated to earn $130,000 a year, compared to $89,000 for Strickland counterpart Keith Dailey. Press secretary Rob Nichols would be paid $90,000, transition documents show — $20,000 a year more than Strickland press secretary Amanda Wurst.

Nichols said the final salary figures were still being worked out. He said Kasich expects to release the final figures Monday, the day he’s inaugurated.

The new governor prides himself on being able to negotiate a balanced federal budget agreement as U.S. House budget chairman in the 1990s and campaigned on a theme of reducing the size of state government.

Ohio faces an historic state budget deficit of $8 billion as Kasich prepares to assume office Monday and he has made clear that painful cuts are ahead.

Kasich said Thursday that he expects total governor’s office spending to be under that of the current administration, despite the higher salaries of some aides.

”We’re fortunate that we’re getting a lot of good people to come in,” he said. ”Salary is an issue.”

Kasich said some job candidates have more attractive offers in the private sector.

”What we’re trying to do is to make sure we pay people based on the position, but just because somebody paid somebody X doesn’t mean we’re going to pay them X,” he said.

New Ohio governor paying more to aides than predecessor

I doubt those stiffs would make anything close to that in the private sector. I'm very happy I live in Massachusetts.....flame away people!

The Democrats and GOP are full of crap.

***IcyPatriot*** · 03-25-2011, 03:32 PM

That's always a tough issue ... on the one hand the need to protect the taxpayers from waste. On the other hand the need to compete for the best people with the private sector. it never looks good when just looking at the salaries ... that's for sure.

Supposedly ... in theory ... citizens should want to work for their government for a bit less ... as a public service. Not sure it ever plays out that way. Our Rhode Island general assembly used to work for token pay ... those days are gone forever.

Gainzo · 03-25-2011, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IcyPatriot

That's always a tough issue ... on the one hand the need to protect the taxpayers from waste. On the other hand the need to compete for the best people with the private sector. it never looks good when just looking at the salaries ... that's for sure.

Supposedly ... in theory ... citizens should want to work for their government for a bit less ... as a public service. Not sure it ever plays out that way. Our Rhode Island general assembly used to work for token pay ... those days are gone forever.

Either way, I never heard anyone *****ing about government employee salaries/benefits when the economy was booming as those workers were making much less than people in the private sector.

The hypocrisy is ridiculous.

***IcyPatriot*** · 03-25-2011, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gainzo

Either way, I never heard anyone *****ing about government employee salaries/benefits when the economy was booming as those workers were making much less than people in the private sector.

The hypocrisy is ridiculous.

Our past Governor Donald Carcieri did this when he won his first term. He did end up running a fairly frugal administration ... except for the high salaries he handed out in his beginning ---- like wtf ... you don't spend to save ... do you?

***patsfan13*** · 03-25-2011, 04:25 PM

Kasich has passed a budget that will help the taxpayers of Ohio and will help job creation in his state. Democrats interested in the status quo will hate him for it.

Ohio?s Jobs Budget - Katrina Trinko - National Review Online

Quote:

The $55.5 billion budget, which covers the next two fiscal years and fills an $8.6 billion shortfall, cuts $1.4 billion from Medicaid funding, sells five prisons to private operators, and slashes the money sent to local governments by 25 percent next year and an additional 25 percent in the following year.

But for Kasich, the fact that 4 percent of Medicaid patients were responsible for 50 percent of the costs meant that a new approach was needed. “A significant percentage of them are people who, if you would give them coordinated care [and] direct them to a setting that is appropriate for their health and that actually works better for them, not the most expensive setting, you would save a lot of money,” he says. “We believe that if a senior citizen qualifies for a nursing home, but they can stay in their own home at a fraction of the price — and be healthier and more independent — we want to make sure the resources are there for them to do it.”

Bravo to Kasich for doing what he said he would do for the taxpayers we need for like him. Let the ankle biters snipe away.

Gainzo · 03-25-2011, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patsfan13

Bravo to Kasich for doing what he said he would do for the taxpayers we need for like him. Let the ankle biters snipe away.

I don't see any new jobs in that bill. All I see is medicaid and local aid being slashed, not to mention privatizing prisons? Wow.

***patsfan13*** · 03-25-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gainzo

I don't see any new jobs in that bill. All I see is medicaid and local aid being slashed, not to mention privatizing prisons? Wow.

The jobs are in the policies that make Ohio a good place to do business and hire people. Dems never understand that the private sector creates jobs/wealth not the government. The government is overhead.

wistahpatsfan · 03-26-2011, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patsfan13

The jobs are in the policies that make Ohio a good place to do business and hire people. Dems never understand that the private sector creates jobs/wealth not the government. The government is overhead.

The private sector "creates" jobs all by themselves? You may claim that they create more jobs than government, but they have never done so on their own or exclusively. The business model you consider unassailable doctrine does not apply to everything and nothing is so black-and-white

Mrs.PatsFanInVa · 03-26-2011, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gainzo

I don't see any new jobs in that bill. All I see is medicaid and local aid being slashed, not to mention privatizing prisons? Wow.

And a probable 6,000 person job loss in the nursing home industry.

I'm wondering what his plan is for "caring for the elderly at home?"

I don't know about anybody else but the Mr and I have been spending lots of time in nursing homes lately and I've really not seen one person there who would be capable of remaining "at home" without a full time care giver around - and many who would need more than one.

Most of "at home" help available to the aged is an hour or two housekeeping help 3 times a week, a visit from a nurse bi-weekly, a nurse's aide for 2 hours a day, 1 to 3 days a week, one hot meal supplied 5 days a week by Meals-on-Wheels and that's about it. And that's only if you qualify and the amount of time you can get it is limited to approximately 8 months a year.

I know these things because I've gotten them for my own mother at one time or another. There was nothing but trouble with all of them. Aides who didn't show up, aides who showed up and brought their families and their friends along, nurses who didn't communicate with the doctor or the family, meals which didn't come on time or at all, etc.

Plus, because my mother lived alone and I was out of state and my sister works full time there was no one around to help her with daily life - and, although she is fully cogent and mentally alert, she is physically unable to get out of bed by herself, to go to the bathroom alone, to bathe, answer the door, make a bowl of cereal, clean the house or take her medicine without assistance.

So, I am wondering, is my mother one of the people that the governor of Ohio would consider "capable of being cared for in the home?" And, if so, how would he expect this care to be provided? Round-the-clock nurse's aides would run somewhere around $1500.00 a week - and they don't cook or clean. You'd have to hire someone else to do those things, too. Or does he expect a relative to give up their life, quit their job, burn through their life savings, destroy their child's college savings, lose their home and their automobile and hope that the elder relative dies before those savings and that person becomes exhausted?

I'm also unsure of what the loss of 6,000 nursing home jobs in one state will do to the quality and quantity of care received in those nursing homes? The average patient in a nursing home receives approximately 2.5 hours of "nursing care" while in a nursing home as it is. Some get less, some, in the really expensive and non-Medicaid subsidized homes, get a little more. The 2.5 hours provided give a nurse about 30 minutes a day to give medications and check vitals and the nurse's aides get to give them a bath, comb their hair, dress them, sit them in a chair and, occasionally during the day, take them to the bathroom or change their diapers.

Cut those available even by 10% and there's going to be a whole lot of grandma's and grandpa's sitting in their own body fluids for hours at a time.

But hey - the governor's staff got raises. That's what's important, right?

Triumph · 03-26-2011, 11:02 AM

A 3rd party cannot win because not enough voters will get on board to run the other two worthless parties out of office.