Senator Thom Tillis: The Big Beautiful Bill breaks Trump's Promise

wing2000 · Thursday at 3:15 PM

SimplyMe said:
It is worth pointing out that Space Center Houston already has a shuttle, the Independence, though it is a version built in 1993 built for being put on display at the Kennedy Space Center (so doesn't have the electronics, etc.). What makes it interesting is that it sits on top of one of the 747s, NASA 905, that used to transport the shuttle around the country (largely used to transport the shuttle after landing in California to Florida for launch).

Well, maybe Trump can loan his Qatari 747 for the job.

The reality is, there is no aircraft available today to transport it. That's going to be one wide load on the road to Houston.

wing2000 · Thursday at 3:17 PM

So the House of ______ rubber stamped the Senate bill today. I suppose the House members opposed to the huge dificits once again folded....overnight.

RACO anyone?

Postvieww · Thursday at 5:34 PM

Pommer said:
“Waste“ is in the eye of the beholder

$26,300,000 (USAID) – Supporting higher education in Egypt You are right if someone in Egypt wants a college education on our tax dime, they would not consider it waste. BUT that is not the point ! It is not the responsibility of US taxpayers to pay for it . Typical liberal mentality to try to be all things to all people.

SimplyMe · Thursday at 7:29 PM

Postvieww said:
Government Waste Tracker:

$22,600,000,000 (HHS) – Aiding illegal migrants through resettlementprograms, home and car purchases, and loans

$7,500,000,000 (DOT) – Funding a few dozen electric vehicle stationsacross the nation

$7,000,000,000 (EPA) – Funding green energy projects that reduce greenhouse gases and promoting the adoption of green alternatives nationwide

$5,000,000,000 (EPA) - Funding green energy projects that reduce gas emissions and supporting green banks

$2,000,000,000 (EPA) – Funding projects to decarbonize American housing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

$382,000,000 (DOL) – Issuing fraudulent unemployment payments to tens of thousands of individuals, including those with birthdates in the future, infants, and people listed as 115 years old

(clipped due to length)

The second item on the list is false, which makes me question the rest of the list. $7.5 billion was not spent on "a few dozen electric vehicle stations." Instead, $7.5 billion was budgeted under the law and the money has been slowly spent -- only a few million went to funding those charging stations. From what I can tell, the "Big Beautiful Bill" has not cancelled those programs so the $7.5 billion is still on track to be spent. It is expected that it will build as many as 7,500 charging stations with at least four spots to charge vehicles in each station (though many stations have as many as 20 or 30).

As the article you posted mentioned, it was not expected this money would be spent quickly and that a lot of states did not have experience in building charging stations. Of course, with the lack of charging stations across the US prior to this bill passing (most done by either Tesla or Volkswagen (under its Electrify America brand that is part of the Dieselgate settlement), almost no one outside of EA and Tesla had experience; part of why it was expected that the money would be spent slowly.

The next two below that had descriptions that looked to be almost meaningless, without even enough information to identify what programs they are. The $2 billion project, from what I can appear to find, will improve projects in primarily poorer neighborhoods -- and it is a combination of public and private money, where through private money about $100 billion will be spent total. I'm sorry, if the government spending $2 billion creates $100 billion in money spent, that doesn't sound very wasteful to me. This is particularly since it appears the goal is to make these houses of poor people more energy efficient, reduce their CO2 output, improving the finances of those in the neighborhoods.

It appears something similar is going on with the $5 billion project, where it isn't quite as much private money but it is at least matching the money spent by the government. It does not appear to be "waste," other than maybe because it is against the agenda of oil companies.

I get the feeling that in 4 years we'll see a similar list of all the things the Trump administration "wasted" money on; despite many of the items being a list of differences in political priorities. Though, some will be legitimate, such as Trump selling thousands of government owned EVs and charging stations, to replace them with gasoline vehicles that are more expensive to run, estimated to cost the government $1 billion. And that is before the requirement for USPS to sell it's EV delivery vehicles, which is likely to cost another billion dollars.

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 11:16 AM

wing2000 said:
The Medicaid cuts will impact rural America....

Nearly 1 in 4 People in Rural Areas Have Medicaid Coverage
Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in rural areas and one-fifth of inpatient discharges in rural hospitals. Studies have shown that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion is associated with improved hospital financial performance and lower likelihood of hospital closure, particularly for rural hospitals; significant increases in the number of visits to providers for services such as mammograms and substance use disorders in rural areas; and higher staffing levels in rural community health centers.

Trump’s Medicaid cuts are coming for rural Americans: ‘It’s going to have to hit them first’

Experts worry the tax-and-spending bill will gut healthcare and hospitals, especially in states like North Carolina

“It’s going to have to hit them first,” said Laurie Stradley, CEO of Impact Health in Asheville, a Medicaid-funded non-profit providing social services to some people still digging out from the flood [from Helene].

When Trump’s sprawling tax-and-spending bill passed on Thursday, it heralded more than $1tn in federal cuts to Medicaid, which experts worry will push Republican-led states to abandon parts of the program and leave people without access to timely healthcare.

North Carolina will lose $32bn in the next decade

The Medicaid cuts in the bill could have particularly acute consequences in North Carolina, a politically competitive state, where experts said the bill could trigger a “kill switch” to end Medicaid expansion.

“If the state spends any state dollars to implement the expansion population or expansion coverage, it triggers an automatic ending to Medicaid expansion,” said Kody Kinsley, North Carolina’s former secretary of health and an architect of the state’s Medicaid expansion.

[Several other states also have such an automatic mechanism. This is not about rooting out fraud; it's eliminating the program entirely in these states.]

essentialsaltes said:
Here are states that have automatic triggers to drop the expansion. [those with * start a review process rather than automatic cuts]

Obviously others that don't have triggers might still reconsider if the rate changes.

‘Hospitals will be forced to restrict services, or close’

Rural states such as Kentucky are expected to be disproportionately hard-hit as well. Thirty-five of the rural hospitals at risk of closure – about 10% – are in Kentucky, even though Kentucky’s 4.5 million residents comprise about 1.3% of the US’s population. About a third of Kentucky residents are on Medicaid, according to figures from Kentucky’s cabinet for health and family services. The program benefits about 478,900 adults.

Another issue is the potential for Republicans’ cuts to drive up the cost of healthcare for Americans who are privately insured, including through employers. As hospitals fight to survive, they will try to extract as much money as possible from other sources of funding – namely, commercial insurance.

[They can't turn people away from the emergency room, so they either close or make up for their losses somewhere else.]

Postvieww · Saturday at 11:52 AM

essentialsaltes said:
[They can't turn people away from the emergency room, so they either close or make up for their losses somewhere else.]

Maybe we just deport those illegals coming in the emergency room with no insurance, rather than expect the Federal government to take up the slack.

Desk trauma · Saturday at 11:53 AM

essentialsaltes said:
Trump’s Medicaid cuts are coming for rural Americans: ‘It’s going to have to hit them first’
Experts worry the tax-and-spending bill will gut healthcare and hospitals, especially in states like North Carolina

“It’s going to have to hit them first,” said Laurie Stradley, CEO of Impact Health in Asheville, a Medicaid-funded non-profit providing social services to some people still digging out from the flood [from Helene].

When Trump’s sprawling tax-and-spending bill passed on Thursday, it heralded more than $1tn in federal cuts to Medicaid, which experts worry will push Republican-led states to abandon parts of the program and leave people without access to timely healthcare.

North Carolina will lose $32bn in the next decade
The Medicaid cuts in the bill could have particularly acute consequences in North Carolina, a politically competitive state, where experts said the bill could trigger a “kill switch” to end Medicaid expansion.

“If the state spends any state dollars to implement the expansion population or expansion coverage, it triggers an automatic ending to Medicaid expansion,” said Kody Kinsley, North Carolina’s former secretary of health and an architect of the state’s Medicaid expansion.

[Several other states also have such an automatic mechanism. This is not about rooting out fraud; it's eliminating the program entirely in these states.]

‘Hospitals will be forced to restrict services, or close’
Rural states such as Kentucky are expected to be disproportionately hard-hit as well. Thirty-five of the rural hospitals at risk of closure – about 10% – are in Kentucky, even though Kentucky’s 4.5 million residents comprise about 1.3% of the US’s population. About a third of Kentucky residents are on Medicaid, according to figures from Kentucky’s cabinet for health and family services. The program benefits about 478,900 adults.

Another issue is the potential for Republicans’ cuts to drive up the cost of healthcare for Americans who are privately insured, including through employers. As hospitals fight to survive, they will try to extract as much money as possible from other sources of funding – namely, commercial insurance.

[They can't turn people away from the emergency room, so they either close or make up for their losses somewhere else.]

Good.

comana · Saturday at 11:56 AM

Postvieww said:
Maybe we just deport those illegals coming in the emergency room with no insurance, rather than expect the Federal government to take up the slack.

How many illegals do you think will show up at rural Kentucky hospital ERs?

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 1:16 PM

Postvieww said:
Maybe we just deport those illegals coming in the emergency room with no insurance, rather than expect the Federal government to take up the slack.

That's about a fair trade. There are a similar number of noncitizens here illegally as people who will lose Medicaid benefits.

Maybe we can make a law: For every person deported, you can kick one person off Medicaid.

Postvieww · Saturday at 1:36 PM

essentialsaltes said:
That's about a fair trade. There are a similar number of noncitizens here illegally as people who will lose Medicaid benefits.

Maybe we can make a law: For every person deported, you can kick one person off Medicaid.

No one legally on Medicaide will be kicked off. Just another liberal lie repeated over and over by liberal scare mongering politicians.

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 1:54 PM

Postvieww said:
No one legally on Medicaide will be kicked off.

This canard is feeble. Bending over backwards to give you the benefit of the doubt, one can say the legal requirements change and when people who are meeting the requirements now are no longer able to meet the new requirements, they will no longer be legally on Medicaid. The legal requirements are more stringent, so fewer people will qualify.

But this issue with state reimbursement much more clearly shows how this GOP talking point is a lie. The law changes the reimbursement rate for states. Some states will automatically drop out of the [Medicaid] expansion due to the shifting of burden onto the states. 3-4 million people will lose their healthcare when the states drop out. If the healthcare plan you are on no longer exists, you are being kicked off by the actions of this law.

Pommer · Saturday at 4:57 PM

Postvieww said:
No one legally on Medicaide will be kicked off. Just another liberal lie repeated over and over by liberal scare mongering politicians.

How is “money saved” then?

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 6:34 PM

Pommer said:
Doth thou mean “Medicaid”?

I dost. Thank'ee

Postvieww · Saturday at 6:35 PM

Pommer said:
How is “money saved” then?

By dumping the ones that are not entitled to be on it. By rooting out fraud and waste. There was a recent arrest of 324 people committing fraud against our medical system. Some of those were foreign owed medical companies in the US.

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 6:43 PM

Postvieww said:
There was a recent arrest of 324 people committing fraud against our medical system.

That does not appear to match up with the 600,000 in North Carolina or the millions of others who will lose Medicaid benefits.

Postvieww · Saturday at 6:48 PM

essentialsaltes said:
That does not appear to match up with the 600,000 in North Carolina or the millions of others who will lose Medicaid benefits.

Source?

essentialsaltes · Saturday at 7:03 PM

Postvieww said:
Source?

Perhaps only a half million. But still 3-4 million Americans.

Senator Thom Tillis: The Big Beautiful Bill breaks Trump's Promise

E pluribus unum

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Nearly 1 in 4 People in Rural Areas Have Medicaid Coverage​

Trump’s Medicaid cuts are coming for rural Americans: ‘It’s going to have to hit them first’​

North Carolina will lose $32bn in the next decade​

‘Hospitals will be forced to restrict services, or close’​

Believer

The pickles are up to something

Trump’s Medicaid cuts are coming for rural Americans: ‘It’s going to have to hit them first’​

North Carolina will lose $32bn in the next decade​

‘Hospitals will be forced to restrict services, or close’​

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Fact-Based Lifeform

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