Letter to the Editor

Columnist's 'facts' disputed

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

This is in response to another misleading column written by Dick Trail whose habit is to try to pass off his personal opinions as fact. This time, he's relying on his memory. In the column his memory does not serve him well. It did not serve your readers well, either, because the facts show his recollections are incorrect.

On Sept. 13, Mr. Trail unfairly criticized Sen. Ben Nelson saying, "I fear that our own Senator E. Benjamin Nelson will not be lining up on the side of those intent on cutting government growth."

This despite numerous press releases sent to every media outlet in the state, that show Senator Nelson is an effective leader in the effort to cut federal spending.

Mr. Trail goes on to write, "Memory serves to remind that Gov. Nelson oversaw the largest increase in Nebraska State employees during his terms in office."

Fact Check: Governor Nelson, on March 31, 1993, initiated a cap on the number of employees in each department of the state of Nebraska.

As a result, during the eight years Nelson was Governor, the number of state employees increased less than three quarters of one percent per year, which is less than the administrations immediately before or after his time in office.

These are the facts and I hope readers will store them in their memory, and not the words of Dick Trail.

Jim Fagin

Deputy Director

of Communications

U.S. Senator Ben Nelson

Omaha, Nebraska

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  • *

    My oh My! That Fagin guy and your Senator Nelson must have mighty thin skins and mighty big ears!!

    Kind of reminds me of my avatar!!

    -- Posted by ksfarmer on Tue, Sep 27, 2011, at 9:52 PM
  • I still think its funny that Dick Trail draws the ire of the "mighty" Deputy Director of Communications Jim Fagin...on a blog...on a website...in McCook, NE...summed up by "that's the way I saw it." Need to put a cap on Fagin's free time.

    -- Posted by speak-e-z on Wed, Sep 28, 2011, at 9:53 AM
  • MOREOVER, is not Dick Trail's column specifically located under the "OPINION" tab of this website? Correct me if I am wrong Mr. Deputy Director of Communications Jim Fagin.

    -- Posted by speak-e-z on Wed, Sep 28, 2011, at 9:56 AM
  • Just a thought, an IMO, without a shred of evidence to back me up, but, I find it ironic that Dick is charged with wrong memory, and Jim Fagin espouses 'True facts,' when Dick does not work for our Senator Nelson, and, 'I fear that our' Mr. Fagin does. Does that make your skin itch a twitch?? Just a thought. And thats the way my opinion goes. (Quote borrowed from Dicks article)

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Wed, Sep 28, 2011, at 6:37 PM
  • *

    "This despite numerous press releases sent to every media outlet in the state, that show Senator Nelson is an effective leader in the effort to cut federal spending."

    "Our press releases" Allow me to translate: Our propaganda campaign.

    I remind the readers that, whatever the facts may be about Ben Nelson's tenure as governor of Nebraska, his tenure as U.S. Senator has proven itself a miserable double cross of Nebraskans. Shall we count all the NEW federal positions created by his single vote to pass Obamacare? I suppose that the creation of this massively intrusive and unconstitutional bureaucracy is just an "oversight" by Mr. Fagan? Perhaps we should compare Mr. Fagan's intellectual dishonesty to the material dishonesty of the Fagan character in Oliver Twist. Both men are equally disgusting in their sniveling rationalization of criminality against the common man.

    Ben Nelson deserves only one thing -- a hard boot in the *** come November 2012 ... and he can take Mr. Fagan with him.

    -- Posted by Bruce Desautels on Wed, Sep 28, 2011, at 8:40 PM
  • It appears Mr. Fagin may in fact be correct in his statement about Senator Nelsons claims regarding the employee cap initiated by him in 1993.

    Using Census Bureau data starting in 1993 (the first year of the cap) I made the following comparisons of the State of Nebraska Public Employee numbers during his tenure, as well as for Senator Johanns.

    Senator Nelson (Democrat)

    1992 = 28,746

    1993 = 29,158 employees (begin cap)

    1998 = 29,176 employees (end of cap)

    Resulting in a Net Increase of 18 employees during the cap period

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/92stne.txt

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/93stne.txt

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/98stne.txt

    Senator Johanns (Republican)

    1998 = 29,176

    2004 = 33,662

    Resulting in a Net Increase of 4,486 employees

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/93stne.txt

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/04stne.txt

    As a final comparison here are the numbers for Governor Heineman (Republican)

    2004 = 33,662

    2010 = 32,560

    Resulting in a Net Decrease of 1,102 employees

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/04stne.txt

    http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/10stne.txt

    Senator Nelson did not preside over the largest increase in state employees according to Mr. Trail, Senator Johanns is the proud recipient of that title. Governor Heineman has reduced the increase experienced under Senator Johanns by 1,102 employees but would need to reduce another 3,384 employees or 10.4% of the current state employee workforce to achieve numbers comparable to those under Senator Nelson.

    I hear if you boil that Crow it makes it a little easier to eat.

    -- Posted by Geezer on Thu, Sep 29, 2011, at 11:01 AM
  • Mr. Desautels;

    Your statement:

    Shall we count all the NEW federal positions created by his single vote to pass Obamacare?

    I say yes, why don't you provide us with the data that shows how many "New Federal Positions" were created specifically due to the Affordable Care Act?

    I remember Speaker of the House Boehner making a statement similar to this in mid March of this year. I believe his numbers were 200,000 for new Federal Positions in the past two years. There is a distinct difference between new hires and new Federal Positions. New hires are usually considered individuals used to fill existing slots now vacant from retirees, those that quit, etc. They do not increase the number of overall Federal Employees. New Positions are totally new jobs and add to the overall number of Government Employees. Speaker Boehner conveniently failed to mention that in fiscal 2010, more than 91,000 employees left government service, and another 82,000 did so in fiscal 2009. This leaves a balance of 27,000 Federal Employees over a two year time span which may be considered as new Federal Positions. Keep in mind this is across the full spectrum of the Federal Government and a far less amount than would normally be anticipated due to yearly population growth alone.

    Following is from an August 2010 Politifact article and contains a quote from the Bureau of Labor Statistics concerning overall Federal Employee growth under the Obama Administration at that time.

    Nathan Clausen, a bureau economist, provided a BLS report indicating that 6,000 census workers were employed in February 2009, a number that shot up to 564,000 in May 2010 before decreasing to 339,000 in June 2010, according to the BLS. The increase of 333,000 census workers from February 2009 to June 2010 amounts to 88 percent of the 379,000 overall increase in federal workers.

    Not counting the temporary census workers leaves 46,000 other federal workers added on Obama's watch. Clausen said it's not possible to divine from the bureau's database precisely where those workers were added.

    http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/aug/08/pete-sessions/pete-sessio...

    Your summation of the Affordable Care Act and how Nebraska views its failure or success is not balanced against the realities of a growing portion of our citizens that are indeed benefiting from its implementation already. Putting your Constitutional concerns aside for a moment, let's take a look and see what is happening in Nebraska due to changes administered through the Affordable Care Act.

    1. Nearly all of the 290,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Nebraska can now receive certain preventive services -- like mammograms and colonoscopies -- as well as an annual wellness visit with their doctor without paying coinsurance or deductibles. In fact, 4,818 residents of Nebraska have already received an annual wellness visit this year.

    2. In addition, more than 26,072 Nebraska residents who hit the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the "donut hole" received $250 tax-free rebates in 2010. This year, seniors are receiving a 50% discount on covered brand name prescription drugs in the donut hole, and by 2020 the donut hole will be closed.

    3. Because of the Affordable Care Act, most young adults can stay on their parents' plan until their 26th birthday. An estimated 7,600 young adults in Nebraska will gain coverage this year because of this provision.

    4. Insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage to the 106,000 children in Nebraska with pre-existing conditions. This benefit alone in my opinion will result in many Nebraska families being able to make the difficult climb out of poverty. One in five children are now living in poverty in Nebraska.

    5. 34 employers in Nebraska have enrolled in the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, and Nebraska employers have already received $9.6 million in reimbursement. The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program provides much-needed financial relief to businesses, schools and other educational institutions, unions, State and local governments, and non-profits, in order to help retirees and their families continue to have quality, affordable health coverage.

    6. In 2010, Nebraska received $3.2 million in grants from the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act. This new fund was created to prevent illness and promote health, so that all Americans can lead longer, more productive lives.

    In 2011, the Prevention and Public Health Fund has already provided $690,000 to Nebraska to support the critical work of State and local health departments.

    7. The Affordable Care Act has invested $9 million in new and existing community health centers in Nebraska. The Affordable Care Act creates new health center sites in medically underserved areas, enables health centers to increase the number of patients served, expands preventive and primary health care services, and supports major construction and renovation projects.

    In summary, many of the citizens of Nebraska are now realizing the benefits of the Affordable Care Act -- that is reality. You may want to take that into consideration when making further statements about those Politicians that had the foresight and conviction to make those benefits become a reality. Doing otherwise may require you making a trip to the local Community Health Center to have a boot removed from your own backside.

    Best Regards

    -- Posted by Geezer on Fri, Sep 30, 2011, at 1:08 PM
  • bruce..... are you there? sounds like you're getting it handed to you. doing research i suspect.

    we hope to hear from you soon, its not like you to fold up and walk away from debate. surely you have something more.

    then again, if geezer is getting his information from the internet, regardless who the supposed source was, i would say that it is straight full of holes.

    -- Posted by BTWinecleff on Fri, Sep 30, 2011, at 6:53 PM
  • *

    Geezer asks Bruce to set aside his "constitutional concerns" about Obamacare, so that he can make his point - and that is supposed to be construed as Bruce having his hat handed to him?

    Hardly.

    Obamacare is headed to the SCOTUS having failed to be found Constitutional by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Actually - they didn't fail to find it Constitional, they actually ruled that forcing Americans to buy health care is unconstitutional.

    -- Posted by Mickel on Sat, Oct 1, 2011, at 11:17 AM
  • *

    Jacki - if you don't like it you could always relocate. If you think Nebraska is bad, you should check out Montana.

    -- Posted by Mickel on Sat, Oct 1, 2011, at 11:19 AM
  • Mickel

    I have read many posts here at the Gazette by Bruce. He does present some valid Constitutional concerns with the Affordable Care Act -- but that is not the issue at hand as I see it.

    The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law. The appeals process will now determine if its Constitutionality stands the test of time. Until that process runs it course the Affordable Care Act carries the same weight as any other law passed by Congress.

    The point I was trying to make to Bruce was that not every person in Nebraska sees the Affordable Care Act as an unfavorable intrusion into their life. Many see it as welcome legislation that is long overdue. Just depends on which side of the healthcare fence you are standing on.

    -- Posted by Geezer on Sun, Oct 2, 2011, at 3:50 PM
  • Mr. Desautels;

    I have completed some additional research concerning Federal Employee numbers using the most current data available to the general public. The data sets are by quarters and run from June of 2009 through June of 2011 -- this includes all Federal Employees located anywhere in the world. I would have included data back to the start of President Obamas term in Jan. 2009 but it is not directly available. A proportional rate calculation would have to be made from Sept. 2008 data to June 2009 data and might not reflect true numbers so I left it out of my analysis.

    To see the overall growth of Federal Employees I have created the following table that gives direct Employee numbers for all categories on June 2009 and June 2011. As an additional aid to clarify growth of Federal Employees in the Health and Human Services area, I have also included a table reflecting each sub-category under their jurisdiction -- assuming most of the growth in Federal Employees due to the Affordable Care Act would occur in this sector of the Federal Government.

    Overall Analysis all Categories:

    Category 6-2009 6-2011 + or - %

    Dept. of Agriculture 108841 109302 461 +0.42%

    Dept. of Commerce 46825 45784 -1041 -2.22%

    Dept. of Justice 111031 117003 5972 +5.38%

    Dept. of Labor 15482 16089 607 +3.92%

    Dept. of Energy 16048 16543 495 +3.08%

    Dept. of Education 4218 4643 425 +10.08%

    Dept. of H&HS 79052 85451 6399 +8.09%

    Homeland Sec. 184434 195653 11219 +6.09%

    Housing & Urb. Dev. 9797 9739 -58 -0.59%

    Dept. of Interior 79097 80156 1059 +1.34%

    Dept. of State 11661 12615 954 +8.18%

    Dept. of Trans. 56636 57802 1166 +2.06%

    Treasury Dept. 112495 111534 -961 -0.85%

    Veterans Affair 292898 314802 21904 +7.48%

    Large Ind. Agencies 165683 172836 7153 +4.32%

    Med. Ind. Agencies 10528 11902 1374 +13.05%

    Small Ind. Agnecies 1563 1551 -12 -0.77%

    Army 274063 291370 17307 +6.31%

    Air Force 161593 180817 19224 +11.90%

    Navy 186781 200575 13794 +7.39%

    Dept. of Defense 94910 101327 6417 +5.71%

    Totals: 2,023,636 2,137,494 113,858

    Taking the total of 113,858 New Employees and deducting all the Department of Defense, Military, Veterans, and Homeland Security (89,865 or 78.93%) leaves a total of 23,993 New Employees scattered across the remaining Federal Government spectrum for a two year period - 6,399 of these were allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services.

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    Analysis all Sub-categories in Health and Human Services:

    Sub-category 6-2009 6-2011 + or - %

    OFC Sec. H&HS 13881 16395 2514 +18.11%

    Prog. Support Cntr. 1169 801 -368 -31.48%

    Admin. On Aging 93 123 30 +32.26%

    OFC Assist. Sec. 7 24 17 +242.86%

    Sub. Abu. & Ment. Health 513 579 66 +12.87%

    Agcy. Research & Qual. 303 322 19 +6.27%

    Hlth. Resource & Srvcs. 1479 1914 435 +29.41%

    Toxic Sub. & Disease Reg. 179 174 -5 -2.79%

    Food & Drug 13366 15258 1892 +14.16%

    Indian Hlth. Srvcs. 13888 13651 -237 -1.71%

    Cent. For Disease Cont. 9214 10080 866 +9.40%

    Medicare & Medicaid 4527 5173 646 +14.27%

    Admin. For Chld. & Fam. 1237 1326 89 +7.19%

    Nat. Inst. Of Health 19196 19631 435 +2.27%

    Totals: 79,052 85,451 6,399

    Taking the total of 6,399 New Employees and deducting all the Substance Abuse, Food and Drug Administration, and Center for Disease Control (2,824 or 44.13%) leaves a total of 3,575 New Employees added to the Department of Health and Human Services and a good portion of those are probably due to the Affordable Care Act.

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/cognos/cgi-bin/ppdscgi.exe?DC=Q&E=/FSe%20-%20Status/...

    There will undoubtedly be additional Federal Employees added as various timelines and programs are initiated. This can be expected.

    Currently the preponderance of New Federal Employees is related to the Military, Veterans, and Homeland Security - with the Veterans Administration seeing the most gain. Finally our Veterans will get the support they have needed.

    Best Regards

    -- Posted by Geezer on Sun, Oct 2, 2011, at 3:55 PM
  • QUOTE Geezer: "There will undoubtedly be additional Federal Employees added as various timelines and programs are initiated. This can be expected." UNQUOTE

    Doesn't it totally suck to post all this info, and then hand Bruce the simple fact that Obamacare will hugely increase the number of Federal workers as time goes on?!!! LOL

    -- Posted by MrsSmith on Mon, Oct 3, 2011, at 8:36 AM
  • MrsSmith

    Being honest is a habit I can't seem to rid myself of.

    The data represents that a very small percentage of New Federal Employees are going to the Health and Human Services sectors that would most likely need additional employees for the plan implementation -- 3575 over a two year period. It does not in any way represent that those employees were in fact hired with that specifically in mind. I haven't been able to put my hands on that information, if it exists. They could have also been hired to meet other needs outside the scope of the Affordable Care Act.

    Bruce wanted to count the numbers so I gave it my best shot -- assuming most of the Employees needed to implement the program would eventually fall under the Health and Human Services direction. What percentage that is actually there for that purpose is up for grabs. My estimate is a worse case scenario where all the New Employees are assumed to be there for that purpose.

    Why don't you provide the data to add some validity to your position that this will somehow hugely increase Federal Employee numbers? Currently 78.93% of all new Federal Employees are being absorbed by the Military, Dept. of Defense, Homeland Security, and the Veterans Administration. It is hard for me to visualize how the remaining 21.07% which covers all other aspects of Government - is going to play a huge role in the growth of Federal Employees when the trends indicate otherwise.

    -- Posted by Geezer on Mon, Oct 3, 2011, at 12:06 PM
  • Looks like there some people in southwest Nebraska that have alot time on their hands get to work.

    -- Posted by rifleman on Mon, Oct 3, 2011, at 7:47 PM
  • *

    Practice what you preach rifleman - I appreciate that both Mr. Desautels and Geezer do the research that they do. I don't have time to look into an issue as deep as they do, and I appreciate what they do; although I don't always agree with their results.

    -- Posted by Mickel on Mon, Oct 3, 2011, at 8:03 PM
  • amen Mickel

    -- Posted by doodle bug on Tue, Oct 4, 2011, at 11:54 AM
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