Archive for March 1st, 2010

"Paul" scores a direct hit …

March 1, 2010

Ken’s Take: Rep. Paul Ryan (or simply “Paul” in Obama protocol) was the star of the ObamaCare infomercial on Thursday.  His pointed, fact-based questions about the “reduced deficit” accounting” went conspicuously unanswered by the President. 

Obama didn’t score them as “legitimate points” and they weren’t summarily dismissed as mere “talking points” … but Obama did say he didn’t want the discussion to get “bogged down in the numbers”. 

Why waste valuable time on facts when you can be hearing “legitimate points” about wingnuts wearing their sister’s dentures?

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Excerpted from IBD: Rebuttals To Ryan? We’re Still Waiting, 02/26/2010 

It was the Wisconsin congressman who made the most pointed remarks about Obama’s reform proposal. For example:

• “This bill does not control costs (or) reduce deficits. Instead, (it) adds a new health care entitlement when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have.”

• “The bill has 10 years of tax increases, about half a trillion dollars, with 10 years of Medicare cuts, about half a trillion dollars, to pay for six years of spending. The true 10-year cost (is) $2.3 trillion.”

• “The $247 billion Medicare “doctor fix” was outboarded from the plan as an unfunded item.”

• “The bill takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets. But that’s really reserved for Social Security. So either we’re double-counting them or we don’t intend on paying those Social Security benefits.”

• “The bill takes $72 billion from the CLASS Act (long-term care insurance) benefit premiums and claims them as offsets.”

• “The bill treats Medicare like a piggy bank, (raiding) half a trillion dollars not to shore up Medicare solvency, but to spend on this new government program.”

• “The chief actuary of Medicare (says) as much as 20% of Medicare providers will either go out of business or have to stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries.”

• “Millions of seniors who have chosen Medicare Advantage (Medicare through a private insurer) will lose the coverage that they now enjoy.”

Full article:
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522446

 

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »

Stimulus work ? Elvis alive? … It’s close, but more believe the latter !

March 1, 2010

According to a CBS News poll on the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, 7 percent of respondents believed Elvis was still living.

A CBS News/New York Times poll released a few days before the one-year anniversary of the passage of the so-called “stimulus” bill, shows that only 6 percent of respondents believe Keynesian-style spending has “created” jobs.

The Obama Administration’s claims that a depression was averted and promised  that unemployment would remain around 8 percent. Of course, unemployment surpassed 10 percent with stimulus spending.

Taxpayers seem to be looking for more proof.

Source:
http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/5051-poll-6-of-americans-believe-stimulus-created-jobs-7-believe-elvis-is-alive

Posted in Polls & Surveys | Leave a Comment »

Home Depot: Leveraging its “late mover advantage” … huh?

March 1, 2010

Once heralded for its in-store customer service, Home Depot cost-reduced itself into 2nd place in the retailing category it created.

Now, it tries leverage it “late mover advantage”.  Say what ?

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Excerpted from WSJ: Home Depot Undergoes Renovation, Feb. 24, 2010

Home Depot is regaining momentum after belatedly tackling its biggest fix-it task to date: remodeling itself.

The world’s largest home improvement chain  is redesigning the way it ships merchandise to stores, answers customers’ questions, and showcases its wares on the Internet.

The goal is to improve productivity and expand profits by revamping a slew of business practices that never changed during the company’s mushrooming growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and that look primitive compared to current trends in retailing.

The most dramatic change is that Home Depot is phasing out the antiquated practice of having suppliers send dozens of half-empty trucks directly to its more than 2,200 stores.

A network of “rapid deployment” warehouse centers being completed this year will combine shipments, trim costs and cut truck trips to stores by up to 50%. That will let more of Home Depot’s orange-apron-wearing workers shift from shipping docks to store aisles, in hopes of tackling a festering reputation for bad service.

Home Depot is claiming a “late-mover” advantage will allow it to avoid the costly mistakes that other retailers made modernizing operations.

Home Depot executives concede that the company’s supply chain still won’t be state of the art after the upgrade, though it will be a big step forward.

To tackle the perception that Home Depot workers are always too busy to help customers, the company is spending $60 million on hand-held devices that will help workers check on the spot if something is in stock.

Communication was also a problem at Home Depot. Mr. Ellison said he was stunned to discover that store managers were drowning in hundreds of emails from headquarters.

So Mr. Ellison says he cut it to one email a week, on Monday, and set up a hotline for managers to complain if the edict is violated.

In addition to its supply chain fixes, Home Depot is waking up to the Internet after being embarrassed that Amazon.com — which sells more drills online than Home Depot. Now the company is building a site that not only sells what stores do, but features do-it-yourself videos to help customers with projects. “We’re now building a site that fixes people’s problems.”

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704188104575083081020924838.html?mod=WSJ-hps-LEFTWhatsNews

Posted in Logistics, Retailing | Leave a Comment »