Where's the stimulus?

[BLAZER PROPHET]

80% of all what monies? 80% of their revenue? profits? 80% of the money spent on R&D? I'm not following here. Contribute in what sense?

There are federal reports that I've seen our VP reads and the stats are overwhelming. About 80% of monies used in research and development of new technology comes from insurance companies.

I'm a little unclear on this too. Are you saying that insurance companies funded the research the led to these machines? Or that insurance payouts allowed hospitals to buy the machines?

Both. I know our parent company gives a ton of money to various research places as well as helps various medical entities purchase them- Shriners, free health care clinics...

So if you worked for the government, you wouldn't be willing to volunteer your time anymore? Why is that?

When I worked for the feds (for 3 years) it was very few times we could do so. We also gave on charity drives, but since we made less money, less was given. Also, the feds contributes very little as a "company" to charities.

barfo

Ya know, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that you'd take pot shots at companies that do a hell of a lot of good for underprivilaged... all for the sake of defending a defenseless liberal position. That's why I'm happy mto be a moderate independent- I'm not obligated to support my party's point of view when it's clearly wrong. In fact, that's probably the worst thing about liberals and conservatives- they have to be sheep and go with their party platform no matter what.

 

[barfo]

There are federal reports that I've seen our VP reads and the stats are overwhelming. About 80% of monies used in research and development of new technology comes from insurance companies.

I'd be interested to see those statistics. It sounds quite implausible unless it just means that since essentially all health care costs flow through insurance companies, the money that hospitals spend on research can be said to come from the insurance companies.

But even so, I'm skeptical. Seems to me a great deal of medical research is federally funded.

But I'd be happy to look at the data. I'd have a much higher opinion of insurance companies if this is correct.

Ya know, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that you'd take pot shots at companies that do a hell of a lot of good for underprivilaged... all for the sake of defending a defenseless liberal position. That's why I'm happy mto be a moderate independent- I'm not obligated to support my party's point of view when it's clearly wrong. In fact, that's probably the worst thing about liberals and conservatives- they have to be sheep and go with their party platform no matter what.

Whatever you say, man. I think most people don't have a very high opinion of insurance companies, whether they be conservative or liberal. You rank right up there with politicians and lawyers and Lakers.

Let me add that while the above line is indeed a potshot, I don't think there were any potshots in my initial response. I asked for clarification, and I asked why you wouldn't volunteer if you were a federal employee. None of that qualifies as a potshot, much less for your anti-liberal rant.

barfo

 

[Colonel Ronan]

Amazing, I was about to type those exact same words. You beat me to it, evil twin.

Maybe we're soulmates!

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I think most people don't have a very high opinion of insurance companies,barfo

That's right. The libs have painted insurance companies so black that the biggoted resentment is like tar. It's false and a fraud. And so are the people who promulgate such things. But I'm never going to argue that insurance companies are perfect- or any other business.

Do you own a house? Did you pay cash for it? Or, did you have sufficient collateral to fully cover the loan? So how did you get the house? One reason only. An insurance company was willing, for a nominal fee, to guarantee payment in the event of most disasters that could befall you. No insurance, no home loan. I's the same for cars. Most people don't or can't pay cash. Without an insurance company guarenteeing payment in the event of most incidents, no loan. Period. Health technology is vastly due to insurance monies. Literally millions of people woud not have lived with a host of maladies witrhout the inovations funded so heavily by insurance dollars- children who would have no parents, parents who would no longer have children, husbands & wives who wouldn't have each other were it not for those monies to tehnology. But I guess they just don't mattrer as all insurance companies are pure evil. But all we get from liberals is how dark & evil they are. Over and over and over and over and over... while the unions they sleep with continuously steal money and drive business from our soil. Compare the amount of insurance people in prison with union reps. It's probably 1000 to 1 in favor of the insurance execs- and yet it's the unions that are are pure as newly fallen snow. It's a skewed world you live in barfo. One where we are supposed to applaud a doctor when they deliver a live baby up to it's shoulders and then drill holes in it's skull until the baby dies (I think the term is abortion) and yet if I kick a dog I go to jail. This is what your world is like. It's a type of hell. I choose a much better and humane path in life. It's also honest.

 

[bodyman5001]

. It's a skewed world you live in barfo. One where we are supposed to applaud a doctor when they deliver a live baby up to it's shoulders and then drill holes in it's skull until the baby dies and yet if I kick a dog I go to jail. This is what your world is like. It's a type of hell. I choose a much better and humane path in life. It's also honest.

That is so fucked up yet it really makes it clear how hypocritical this world is.

 

[barfo]

That's right. The libs have painted insurance companies so black that the biggoted resentment is like tar. It's false and a fraud. And so are the people who promulgate such things. But I'm never going to argue that insurance companies are perfect- or any other business.

Do you own a house? Did you pay cash for it? Or, did you have sufficient collateral to fully cover the loan? So how did you get the house? One reason only. An insurance company was willing, for a nominal fee, to guarantee payment in the event of most disasters that could befall you. No insurance, no home loan. I's the same for cars. Most people don't or can't pay cash. Without an insurance company guarenteeing payment in the event of most incidents, no loan. Period. Health technology is vastly due to insurance monies. Literally millions of people woud not have lived with a host of maladies witrhout the inovations funded so heavily by insurance dollars- children who would have no parents, parents who would no longer have children, husbands & wives who wouldn't have each other were it not for those monies to tehnology. But I guess they just don't mattrer as all insurance companies are pure evil. But all we get from liberals is how dark & evil they are. Over and over and over and over and over... while the unions they sleep with continuously steal money and drive business from our soil. Compare the amount of insurance people in prison with union reps. It's probably 1000 to 1 in favor of the insurance execs- and yet it's the unions that are are pure as newly fallen snow. It's a skewed world you live in barfo. One where we are supposed to applaud a doctor when they deliver a live baby up to it's shoulders and then drill holes in it's skull until the baby dies (I think the term is abortion) and yet if I kick a dog I go to jail. This is what your world is like. It's a type of hell. I choose a much better and humane path in life. It's also honest.

Why do you want to kick dogs?

barfo

 

[Shooter]

In my pants.

I have no idea what that means. Care to explain?

 

[barfo]

I have no idea what that means. Care to explain?

I think you'll need to go over to his house so he can show you.

barfo

 

[Shooter]

Why do you want to kick dogs?

You're a funny guy, barfo, but your shtick gets a little old. Your favorite mode of response seems to be to find something in a post that you can poke fun at, and use to make the poster look silly, while ignoring the real point he was trying to make.

 

[barfo]

You're a funny guy, barfo, but your shtick gets a little old. Your favorite mode of response seems to be to find something in a post that you can poke fun at, and use to make the poster look silly, while ignoring the real point he was trying to make.

Well, you can ignore me if you are bored with me. We've been together for quite a few years now, it's not surprising that the honeymoon is over. I know about you and Roger, by the way. And if you want a divorce it is going to cost you. Big time.

barfo

 

[Minstrel]

Well, you can ignore me if you are bored with me. We've been together for quite a few years now, it's not surprising that the honeymoon is over. I know about you and Roger, by the way. And if you want a divorce it is going to cost you. Big time.

You just did it again. You found something in the post that you could poke fun at, and used it to make the poster look silly, while ignoring the real point he was trying to make.

Do you even realize you're doing it anymore?

 

[barfo]

You just did it again. You found something in the post that you could poke fun at, and used it to make the poster look silly, while ignoring the real point he was trying to make.

Do you even realize you're doing it anymore?

No...(sob)... I can't help it. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to be... I wanted... I wanted to be a Roller Derby Queen. It was all so exciting. But I let it slip away. I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't fast enough. Gosh darn it, I wasn't good enough. And I had no hips.

Now my broken dreams and I live quietly beneath the skating rink, staring up through the hole in the floorboards at the young gir... I mean, putting my affairs in order and preparing for an early death.

barfo

 

[yakbladder]

There are federal reports that I've seen our VP reads and the stats are overwhelming. About 80% of monies used in research and development of new technology comes from insurance companies.

I used to work for a health research organization for several years and I can tell you that unless you mean the tax revenue from insurance companies is funding 80% of the research you are 100% wrong.

Almost all of the money we utilized for research (and here's a nice bit of info - we were "sponsored" by a national insurance provider who was our namesake) came from federal grants. When Bush got elected and decided to cut all of the health funding out the wazoo naturally our research also declined and led to massive layoffs. Never mind that we specialized in preventative research - the kind that actually saves a ton of money in the long run.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

I have no idea what that means. Care to explain?

I'm going to assume that you're a visual learner. Lets arrange a time to meet-up and all your questions shall be answered.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

P.S. It's called comic relief. Even Shakespeare did it!

P.S.S. Leave barfo alone, he's still hurt.

 

[Idog1976]

I used to work for a health research organization for several years and I can tell you that unless you mean the tax revenue from insurance companies is funding 80% of the research you are 100% wrong.

Almost all of the money we utilized for research (and here's a nice bit of info - we were "sponsored" by a national insurance provider who was our namesake) came from federal grants. When Bush got elected and decided to cut all of the health funding out the wazoo naturally our research also declined and led to massive layoffs. Never mind that we specialized in preventative research - the kind that actually saves a ton of money in the long run.

Great post and I think you're totally spot on.

My understanding is that most research for corporations occurs at universities both public and private or in federally funded labs.

Insurance companies are middle men and don't actually produce anything except profits. Sorry it's true. I won't say what it is but my job is the same way Blazerprophet, but I wouldn't defend it if someone had a better system. There's the rub though because Obama's plan is just setting up the glorious private/public partnership where some political buddies get protected hunting grounds for insurance. If Obama was talking single payer I would be all for it.

P.S. They have good health care in Europe both public (for the poor and middle class) and private (for the rich) this is true in virtually all non-Communist countries.

 

[BrianFromWA]

I can't speak for insurance/health issues, but I am a New Product Development project manager and our R&D is tied to a percentage of our profit. There are of course government opportunities (whether SBIR, BAA's, funding from the military research organizations, etc) but most of the R&D done on our products is done with internal R&D funding.

 

[ABM]

No...(sob)... I can't help it. I wanted to be someone. I wanted to be... I wanted... I wanted to be a Roller Derby Queen. It was all so exciting. But I let it slip away. I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't fast enough. Gosh darn it, I wasn't good enough. And I had no hips.

Now my broken dreams and I live quietly beneath the skating rink, staring up through the hole in the floorboards at the young gir... I mean, putting my affairs in order and preparing for an early death.

barfo

Ew? For whatever reason, that sounds so, so.....MIXUMish.

For the record, though, you are someone, barfo. You really are. No need/time for desperate measures.

 

[maxiep]

My wife's company is being given nine figures this week by the Federal Government. It's her job to spend it. When she told the Office of Head Start they were already at funding capacity and was trying to return money to them she was told to find a way to spend it, because if she didn't, their contract wouldn't be renewed. See, the OHS knows that if they don't find a way to spend all this money, they can't lock in that amount for next year's budget.

So, the management of my wife's company has spent the past two weeks trying to figure out ways to pad the budget of all the Head Start programs they run instead of actually running them.

Your tax dollars at work.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

When I worked for the feds the first thing that jumped at you was how many billions of dollars are flat out wasted for programs that did, literally, nothing for people. This was during the Clinton administration and he propsed a very good program consolidating many services and really making help for people easier, more direct & purposful and eliminating a lot of wasteful duplication. We were pretty jazzed for it as we knew the democratic congress would pass it thru. Wrong. Instead, after congress had pork-bellied it, it just made matters worse. And congress knew it. That's when I lost a lot of faith in congress and their desire to really help people.

 

[Sug]

My wife's company is being given nine figures this week by the Federal Government. It's her job to spend it. When she told the Office of Head Start they were already at funding capacity and was trying to return money to them she was told to find a way to spend it, because if she didn't, their contract wouldn't be renewed. See, the OHS knows that if they don't find a way to spend all this money, they can't lock in that amount for next year's budget.

So, the management of my wife's company has spent the past two weeks trying to figure out ways to pad the budget of all the Head Start programs they run instead of actually running them.

Your tax dollars at work.

Tell her to hire some people, that is the whole point. You can lead a horse to water...and no I am not calling your wife a horse

 

[Idog1976]

My wife's company is being given nine figures this week by the Federal Government. It's her job to spend it. When she told the Office of Head Start they were already at funding capacity and was trying to return money to them she was told to find a way to spend it, because if she didn't, their contract wouldn't be renewed. See, the OHS knows that if they don't find a way to spend all this money, they can't lock in that amount for next year's budget.

So, the management of my wife's company has spent the past two weeks trying to figure out ways to pad the budget of all the Head Start programs they run instead of actually running them.

Your tax dollars at work.

This is typical and in similar with alot of private/public partnerships which are the KING of over spending. We have got to do away with the idea that you cut programs unless they are slightly failing in which case we give them MORE money. It's ridiculous how we find ways to spend money in government just so we can say we are failing, because if someone says our spending is perfect, we are succeeding and it's tight as a drum legislature says "Oh that means we can cut your budget." It's horrible but we reinforce poor budget allocation by cutting when people succeed and giving more budget to those that fail. Then you get a glut of middle management and expensive technology and less line staff in whatever government service.

America has a culture of failure and now we are sending it from government DEEP into the corporate world (bailouts).

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Tell her to hire some people, that is the whole point. You can lead a horse to water...and no I am not calling your wife a horse

Mark this date in history. The first time Sug has posted and not insulted someone. Truly, this is a time of personal growth.