The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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New York NY, for years, the sacred ground of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum has been the site of a different kind of struggle—a quiet battle for control and transparency. But now, many families of those lost on that tragic day are seeing a glimmer of hope. With President Donald Trump exploring a federal takeover of the site, they feel their voices are finally being heard.
Continue reading Why 9/11 Families are Backing a Federal Takeover of the Ground Zero Memorial
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River Vale NJ, State Senator Holly Schepisi posted an explanation of the difference between a NJ State Senator and US Senator :
by the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, As part of the Paycheck Protection Program, the federal government has provided hundreds of billions in financial support to banks to make low-interest loans to companies and nonprofit organizations in response to the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading Coronavirus bailout recipients in Ridgewood
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WASHINGTON DC, President Donald Trump looking to follow hiring practices of the private sector signed an executive order on Friday that will overhaul the government’s hiring practices to prioritize a job applicant’s skills over a college degree. The federal government is the nation’s largest employer with 2.1 million civilian workers, excluding postal service employees.
Continue reading President Trump Changes federal hiring to focus on skills over degrees
December 31,2017
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Ridgewood NJ, The Valley Hospital is proud to announce that it has a received a four-star rating from Hospital Compare, a program run by the federal government designed to provide consumers with information regarding the quality of care provided at hospitals throughout the United States.
In this latest release, as a result of its commitment to quality and patient safety, Valley moved from a three-star to a four-star hospital.
The hospital ratings, which were released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today, range from one to five stars. The most common overall rating is three stars, according to the CMS. Valley was one of only 16 hospitals in New Jersey to achieve a four- or five-star rating.
The star ratings combine performance on more than 50 measures of hospital quality into a single rating of one to five stars (with five stars being the best). Quality measures that factor into the star ratings include those related to safety, readmission, patient experience and mortality. The overall rating shows how well each hospital performed, on average, compared to other hospitals in the U.S.
“We understand that patients today have options when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider and it is our goal to be the hospital of choice for the communities we serve,” said Audrey Meyers, President and CEO of The Valley Hospital and Valley Health System. “This recognition of quality excellence is a wonderful reflection of the standard of care we provide to all our patients and a testament to the priority Valley staff and physicians place on quality and patients safety, while delivering the most compassionate care.”
The new hospital ratings, which range from one to five stars, can be found on the CMS hospital comparison site: www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare.
Americans hate the federal government now more than ever
By Catey Hill
Published: Jan 27, 2015 6:49 a.m. ET
If you have to deal with the federal government — be it the seemingly innocuous Social Security Administration or the eternally-despised Treasury Department, home to the IRS — prepare to be even more annoyed than in the past.
According to a report released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index https://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/customer-satisfaction-reports/reports-2014/acsi-federal-government-report-2014, our satisfaction with the federal government has hit an all-time low (at least since the company began collecting data for this index in 2007). The federal government now scores a 64.4 out of 100 in terms of satisfaction (the average across all industries is 75 out 100). This is the lowest score across the 40 different industries – including industries like airlines, cable companies and others — that the ACSI measures, with the exception of Internet service providers.
“Overall, the services of the federal government continue to deliver a level of customer satisfaction below the private sector,” the report — in which ACSI interviewed 1,772 randomly selected people — concludes.
When asked what they specifically didn’t like about the government, some Americans cited issues with the staff and customer service. Indeed, Americans are more annoyed with the government’s customer service (specifically how courteous, helpful and professional the government staff are) than they were in 2013: customer service rankings for the government plummeted 6% from a year ago — from a score of 80 to a score of 75. While this sounds bad, ACSI Director David VanAmburg says that some of it has to do to with the fact that some agencies have fewer staff members now than in the past, which makes consumers more frustrated when trying to get something accomplished in a timely manner.
Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey: 37% of Voters Fear the Federal Government
Friday, April 18, 2014
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters now fear the federal government, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Forty-seven percent (47%) do not, but another 17% are not sure.
Perhaps in part that’s because 54% consider the federal government today a threat to individual liberty rather than a protector. Just 22% see the government as a protector of individual rights, and that’s down from 30% last November. Slightly more (24%) are now undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
As recently as December 2012, voters were evenly divided on this question: 45% said the federal government was a protector of individual rights, while 46% described it as a threat to those rights.
Two-out-of-three voters (67%) view the federal government today as a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Just 17% disagree, while 15% are undecided.
Only 19% now trust the federal government to do the right thing most or nearly all the time, down from 24% in June of last year. Eighty percent (80%) disagree, with 44% who trust the government to do the right thing only some of the time and 36% who say it rarely or never does the right thing.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters believe that if America’s Founding Fathers came back today, they would regard the federal government as too big. Just three percent (3%) think the nation’s founders would consider the government too small, while 21% say they would view the size of the federal government as about right.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 15-16, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Just 19% of voters believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.
Men and those 40 and over are more likely to fear the federal government than women and younger voters.
Democrats, as they do in most instances, have a less critical view of the federal government than Republicans and voters not affiliated with either of the major parties. Most GOP voters (53%) and 43% of unaffiliateds fear the federal government. Just 18% of voters in President Obama’s party agree.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans and 59% of unaffiliated voters view the government as a threat to individual liberty, a view shared by only 34% of Democrats. GOP and unaffiliated voters are twice as likely as Democrats to believe that the federal government rarely or never does the right thing.
Majorities of all three groups, however, agree that the government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests.
Forty-two percent (42%) of voters with a gun in their household fear the federal government, compared to 30% of those who do not have a gun in their home. Fifty-two percent (52%) of union members share that fear versus 35% of those who are not unionized.
Sixty percent (60%) of all voters favor a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes over a more active government with more services and higher taxes.
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2014/37_of_voters_fear_the_federal_government
