Fact
Check: U.S. Taxpayers Pay $18.5B a Year for Healthcare for Illegal Aliens
AFP/Getty
Images
27 Jun 20193,321
3:05
As 2020 Democrat presidential primary candidates advocate having
American taxpayers provide free health care for illegal aliens, U.S. citizens
are already paying billions every year for the expenditure.
During
the second night of debates for the 2020 Democrat presidential primary
candidates, every
Democrat — including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and
Pete Buttigieg — said they supported having American taxpayers pay for free
health care for all 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the country.
The latest research by Chris Conover
from the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke University
reveals that every year, American taxpayers pay nearly $20 billion for
healthcare for illegal aliens.
Current
federal policy is to prohibit federal tax funding of health care to
unauthorized immigrants through either Medicaid or Obamacare.
Nevertheless, rough estimates suggest that the nation’s 3.9 million
uninsured immigrants who are unauthorized likely receive about $4.6 billion in
health services paid for by federal taxes, $2.8 billion in health services
financed by state and local taxpayers, another $3.0 bankrolled through
“cost-shifting” i.e., higher payments by insured patients to cover hospital
uncompensated care losses, and roughly $1.5 billion in physician charity care .
[Emphasis added]
In
addition to these amounts, unauthorized immigrants likely benefit from
at least $0.9 billion in implicit federal subsidies due to the tax exemption
for nonprofit hospitals and another $5.7 billion in tax expenditures from
the employer tax exclusion. [Emphasis added]
All
told, Americans cross-subsidize health care for unauthorized immigrants
to the tune of $18.5 billion a year . Of this total, federal taxpayers
provided $11.2 billion in subsidized care to unauthorized immigrants in 2016.
[Emphasis added]
Analysis conducted by the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds that American taxpayers are forced to federally
subsidize about $17.14 billion every year in free medical coverage for illegal
aliens and about $12.17 billion in state medical costs for illegal aliens.
On the federal level, Americans pay
about $1.2 billion for illegal alien births through Medicaid, about $3.4
billion for annual Medicaid fraud by illegal aliens, and about $4.2 billion for
Medicaid births by the U.S-born children of illegal aliens.
Every
year, Americans are forced to pay about $116 billion in
total expenses for the millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S.
John
Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Republican Lawmakers React
to $100 Million Budget Towards Medi-Cal for Illegal Aliens
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s first budget, estimated at $213 billion,
has set aside nearly $100 million for illegal immigrants residing in the state,
ages 19-25, to receive Medi-Cal coverage.
The Medi-Cal extension will make California
the first state to provide health insurance for illegal aliens .
Supporters of the move, such as president
and CEO of the non-profit organization California Health Care Foundation,
Sandra R. Hernandez, MD, said it was only one small step in a vast progressive
movement to provide health care to all Californians.
“While today is surely a moment worth
celebrating, we must also acknowledge the work ahead,” said
Hernandez in a statement. “We must find a way
to cover all Californians, including the low-income undocumented adults and
seniors who remain ineligible for Medi-Cal.”
Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake), California
Assemblyman for the 33rd District and vice chair of the Budget Committee told
The Epoch Times that he’s not in favor of using Californians’ tax dollars in
this way.
“The big problem with the expansion of
Medi-Cal is that we are already failing in our commitment to the Californians
who are on that program,” he said.
“I represent a fairly rural part of the
state. [Many of] my constituents are unable to access Medi-Cal when they are
ill. So many physicians in my district are unable to accept the low
reimbursement rates that are provided under Medi-Cal. You need a very large
practice as a doctor to accept those reimbursement rates, and I don’t have many
physicians [in my district] that are able to. When my constituents get sick,
even though technically they’re covered, they can’t see a doctor.”
Obernolte argued that the state has an
obligation to fix these problems before addressing healthcare for illegal
aliens.
“We are trying to do what’s best, from a
public policy standpoint for the people who already live here,” he said.
While Obernolte voiced his disagreement
with the legislature’s passage of this provision, he did point out that many
liberal lawmakers did not get everything they wanted.
“They were seeking to expand Medi-Cal
eligibility to senior undocumented immigrants and that is something that the
governor did not agree to,” he said.
When asked how his constituents felt about
the budget allocations, Obernolte said they were overwhelmingly opposed to it.
“People [are] concerned about the overall
costs, and [there are] constituents that are unconvinced that providing
services to people who aren’t here legally is a good use of taxpayer
resources,” he said.
The state budget, which also includes an
individual mandate on health insurance, would obligate residents in the state
to purchase health insurance. This measure was enacted as a means of countering
Congressional Republicans’ removal of the national individual mandate portion
of the Affordable Care Act in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Revenue from this statewide mandate would
be used to fund insurance premium subsidies for middle income people, including
illegal aliens residing in the state.
State Senator John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa)
also weighed in on the controversial budget proposal.
“I am an immigrant,” he told The Epoch
Times. “I came here in 1960 from the Netherlands. I am one of those legislators
that tend to get a little offended when those that have not come through the
front door are receiving benefits from the state.”
Moorlach further weighed in on the costs to
the taxpayer as a result of this provision being enacted.
“The federal government has failed
miserably at controlling our borders and now we have [these individuals] here
and they are in our hospitals, in our emergency rooms. We have an industry that
has been [weighed down] by subsidizing undocumented individuals. I understand
maybe helping out a hospital association, but I think it’s a little offensive
to most citizens that this is the approach that the governor wants to take.”
When asked about whether this allocation of
Medi-Cal would attract more illegal immigration, Moorlach believed it possibly
would.
“The question is Governor Newsom doing this
out of exasperation or is he doing this [to try and] be hospitable to anybody
that walks through the door? I tend to think it’s the latter, and that’s why
it’s frustrating to my constituents. We’ve been getting a lot of calls from
constituents arguing against medical benefits
for undocumented immigrants.”
When asked as to whether this provision
would add to the debt, Senator Moorlach pointed out that Betty Yee, the state’s
Controller, highlighted the significant increase in the state deficit for this
fiscal year.
“In the middle of the budget conference
committee meetings, the State Controller, Betty Yee, released the comprehensive
annual financial report for the year end of June
30th 2018. It was finally completed in the middle of June, a year later. [The
report] will show you that the retiree medical liability for health benefits
for state employees has increased by $44 billion and our unrestricted net deficit
went up from $169.5 billion to $213 billion. The state not only this last week
approved the largest budget in its history, but it’s also been notified that
its unrestricted net deficit is also the largest in its history as well,” he
said.
Moorlach also shed light on the statewide
individual mandate and as to whether the penalty citizens will have to pay for
not being insured will go towards paying for illegal aliens’ insurance.
“Ironically that seems to be the case,” he
responded.
Senator Moorlach suggested that instead of
being obstructive towards D.C., Sacramento should try to find the middle ground
on this issue. “I think what the Governor should really be focused on is not
just being antagonistic to the President, but maybe sending a blue-ribbon committee
to work with D.C. to figure out how to get a pathway to citizenship.”
Governor Newsom’s budget was passed on June
13, sending it to Newsom for his signature. The Senate vote was 29-11, and the
Assembly approved it 60-15, largely along party lines.
Bill
Cassidy Proposes to Prevent Americans from Subsidizing Health Care for Illegal
Aliens
16 Jun 20196,195
4:02
As California remains poised to adopt a bill
that would give full Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants, Sen. Bill Cassidy
(R-LA) and other Senate Republicans proposed legislation to block leftist
states from forcing Americans to subsidize programs that expand benefits to
illegal immigrants.
The
bill would offer illegal aliens full
Medicaid benefits as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to create a universal
healthcare system.
Sens.
Cassidy, John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Cindy Hyde-Smith
(R-MS), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), David Perdue (R-GA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced the Protect Medicaid
Act (S. 131) to ensure that leftist states cannot bilk Medicaid to subsidize
programs that expand Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants.
Federal
law prevents illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid; however, states such
as California exploit a loophole by using
state funds to extend Medicaid benefits to illegal aliens. Newsom’s plan
could allow up to 90,000 illegal immigrants to receive Medicaid coverage.
California plans to use an exploit to offset the new expansion using Medicaid —
roughly $24 million of the
$98 million in the first year will be offset in the first year.
Sen. Cassidy’s Protect
Medicaid Act prohibits states from using federal money to administer state
Medicaid benefits, paid for by Americans citizens, to illegal immigrants. If a
state such as California chooses to give Medicaid benefits to illegal aliens,
the Lousiana senator’s bill stipulates that the state does so on its budget.
Sen Cassidy said in a
statement Sunday:
Governor Newsom’s plan is a
giant magnet for more illegal immigration, and it will hurt California citizens
who depend on Medicaid. Simple math says you can’t add the entire population of
another country to Medicaid and still take care of the American citizens who
need it. In addition, the plan is unfair to vulnerable Americans and it’s not
fair to middle-class families paying taxes—taking care of them should be our
priority. Compassion that cannot be sustained is not compassion.
Sen. Cassidy’s legislation
also requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of
Inspector General (OIG) to review and report on:
How
states that provide Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants keep federal
and state dollars separate.
Whether
states providing health benefits to illegal aliens use budget gimmicks to
bilk the federal government, such as provider taxes and intergovernmental
transfers, to launder federal dollars to offset the cost of providing
benefits to this population.
Whether
illegal immigrants benefit from covered outpatient drugs purchased under
the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and the 340B program, and whether this
impacts the prices American citizens pay.
“Tennesseans and the American
people do not want their tax dollars subsidizing Medicaid for illegal
immigrants,” Sen. Blackburn said. “At a time when Medicaid is being
stretched to the breaking point, the last thing we need are liberal states like
California circumventing federal law to give those dollars to illegals at the
expense of vulnerable American citizens.”
“This is absolutely
outrageous and only underscores the fact that California continues to put
politics over the safety and security of American citizens,” said Sen. Perdue.
“Ultimately, this kind of abuse of entitlement programs contributes to our $21
trillion debt crisis. We will not stand idly by and watch California and other
sanctuary states skirt federal law to dole out taxpayer-funded benefits to
illegal aliens.”
“Medicaid is an important
program for millions of patients,” said Sen. Barrasso. “Congress must
focus on improving care for Americans in need. Taxpayers need to know that
their hard-earned money is not expanding health care for illegal immigrants.”
Sean
Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter
@SeanMoran3.
Gavin
Newsom: GOP Headed ‘Into the Waste Bin of History’
17 Jun 20191,421
2:40
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), one of the most
progressive governors in the country, predicts the Republican Party is headed
“into the waste bin of history.”
In an interview released Monday
with Politico ,
Newsom drew comparisons between the GOP in California during the 1990s and the
national Republican Party today, saying that the latter will soon see its power
evaporate as it did in the Golden State in the last twenty years.
Republicans “are into the politics
of what California was into in the 1990s… and they’ll go the same direction —
into the waste bin of history, the way Republicans of the ’90s have gone.
That’s exactly what will happen to this crop of national Republicans,”
Newsom said .
“America in 2019 is California in
the 1990s,” the governor continued . “The xenophobia,
the nativism, the fear of ‘the other.’ Scapegoating. Talking down or past
people. The hysteria. And so, we’re not going to put up with that. We are going
to push back.”
Newsom reaffirmed his support for
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary, though
when asked if plans to hit the campaign on her behalf, he tersely replied : “I’m
campaigning for her right now, it sounds like.”
According to the California
governor, Harris has “consistently been in the top five, that’s an
extraordinary achievement with eight months to go before the first vote is
cast.’’ Newsome said he believes the senator
“has shown a successful ability to navigate the white waters…and continue to be
part of the conversation against powerhouses — Sanders, Biden, and some of the
most well-known brands in American politics.”
During the course of the interview,
the California Democrat attacked President Donald Trump on multiple occasions,
while dishing out praise for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “What’s so
remarkable about someone with the experience and temperament of Speaker Pelosi
is that she’s seen a lot of movies,’’ said Newsom. “She’s been
there. She’s got a better sense than a lot of folks. So I think we should stay
the course. What we’re doing is working … I think Democrats are winning right
now.”
His
remarks come as California’s Democrat-led legislature voted to
move forward with a $213 billion plan to use taxpayer dollars to fund free
healthcare for illegal aliens. Under the plan, illegals with an annual income
of $17,000 between ages 19 and 25 years are eligible to join the state’s
Medicaid program
Who's coming in and
getting that instant customer service legal immigrants don't get? Well, people
like Mirian Zelaya Gomez, a single mom with two kids and a fondness for
Instagram luxury-life glamour shots who got her
name in the news as "Lady Frijoles," the
Honduran caravan migrant who disdained donated Mexican food in Tijuana,
and who told the press she was migrating to the states to get free medical
care for her kids . She's since been arrested for assaulting a relative
who had given her housing in Dallas. Here she was, being booked:
Where
To Go When Your Local Emergency Room Goes Bankrupt?"
*
During
the past ten years 84 California hospitals have declared bankruptcy and closed
their Emergency Rooms forever.
Financially crippled by legislative and judicial mandates to treat
illegal aliens have bankrupted hospitals!
In 2010, in Los Angeles County alone, over 2 million illegal aliens
recorded visits to county emergency rooms for both routine and emergency care. Per official figures, the cost is $1,000 dollars
for every taxpayer in Los Angeles County.
(LA
RAZA, DEM INVASION)
THE CONSPIRACY TO SABOTAGE HOMELAND SECURITY
The Democrat Party’s
secret agenda for wider open borders, more welfare for invading illegals, more
jobs and free anything they illegally vote for…. All to destroy the two-party
system and build the GLOBALISTS’ DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS TO KEEP
WAGES DEPRESSED.
Demonstrably and
irrefutably the Democrat Party became the party whose principle objective is to
thoroughly transform the nature of the American electorate by means of open
borders and the mass, unchecked importation of illiterate third world peasants
who will vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats and their La Raza welfare
state. FRONTPAGE MAG
3
Key Facts About California’s ‘Medicare for Illegals’ Plan
Justin
Sullivan / Getty
16 Jun 2019218
2:28
The State of California is about to pass a new healthcare plan that
attempts to support and expand Obamacare, partly by providing free health care
to some adult illegal aliens.
The new plan
is covered in a budget passed last week, as Politico
reported Sunday. It has been the top priority of the new government
of Governor Gavin Newson, whose first act as governor was to propose using
Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover “young undocumented adults.”
There are three things to know about the forthcoming plan.
1.
California will become the first state to provide free health care to illegal
alien adults. California
already provides Medi-Cal to the children of illegal aliens up to age 19. The
new plan is estimated to cover 90,000 people
at a cost of $98 million annually. The new benefits create a new incentive for
illegal aliens to come to the country and to California in particular, which
already has nearly
a quarter of
the nation’s illegal alien population (but only 12% of the total
population).
2.
California will restore the individual mandate in Obamacare. Californians will face a
penalty if they fail to purchase health insurance — the same penalty that
President Donald Trump and the GOP eliminated in their tax reform of 2017. As
Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association told Politico, that means
legal residents will be forced to subsidize illegal aliens.
3. Even
California can’t afford “Medicare for All.” The California plan is
ambitious: as Fox News reported , “Families of four earning
as much as $150,500 a year would get help paying monthly health insurance
premiums.” But even far-left California does not go as far as providing
“Medicare for All,” despite the fact that Democrats want such a plan (and
even passed one in the California
State Senate in 2017). The problem: even California cannot figure out how to
pay for the proposal.
Paying for illegals'
'free' health care by fining Californians who can't afford Obamacare
The
leftists running California's one-party state have done it again. They've
rolled out a $312 billion budget that includes $98 million
for free health care for illegal immigrants under the age of 26.
That's a dinner triangle to all able-bodied foreign nationals working
off the books that the free ride is about to arrive.
The
expansion will take effect Jan. 1, 2020 and cost $98 million in the upcoming
fiscal year. It will make California the first state to allow undocumented
adults to sign up for state-funded health coverage.
The budget
includes a fine on people who don’t buy health
insurance known as an individual mandate. The fines were initially implemented
as part of the federal Affordable Care Act law known as Obamacare, but
Republicans acted in 2017 to roll them back. Newsom and legislative leaders say
re-imposing the penalty at the state level will shore up the state’s health
insurance marketplace and keep premiums from rising dramatically.
As
if that $98 million is really going to cover it as migrants from Central
America and beyond surge into the U.S. in record numbers, and five million
from Latin America alone planning to enter the
U.S. with or without papers.
California,
remember, was quite convinced $39 billion would
cover the cost of its famed bullet train up and down the state in 2008. The
price tag now, with just a tiny portion of it out in the Central
Valley to be built? $98 billion .
Given
the incompetence of those numbers, you can bet the surplus that the money
is about to be taken from is ... not going to remain a surplus.
All
this, while the burned-out city of Paradise remains
un-rebuilt due to all the state's environmental concerns. Priorities,
see...
But
it's not just that which makes the measure so objectionable.
The
free health care - and Medi-Cal is very, very, free, with no deductibles for
anything - is going to be paid for out of a new program of fines for California
citizens who don't qualify for free health care, yet can't afford Obamacare -
quite possibly due to the high cost they are paying for keeping a roof over
their heads, for one.
The
Associated Press reports that the few Republican legislators remaining
have tried to make exactly that point in their objections :
Republicans
on the legislative committee negotiating the budget voted against the proposal,
arguing it was not fair to give health benefits to people who are in the
country illegally while taxing people who are here legally for not purchasing
health insurance.
A
subsidy program is going into place, supposedly to "help" them, but
you can bet it won't cover the average Californian who can't afford Obamacare.
As for the illegals, well, when you work off the books, you can pretty well
claim anything as your income, so rest assured that all those who want the free
health care, no matter what they earn, are going to be able to get it.
So
what we are about to see now is the fining of Californians trapped in the high
cost of living brought on by leftist policies, in order to bankroll the state's
abundant illegal immigrant population, which now stands at a quarter of the
nation's count.
And
the little claim at the bottom of that last cited paragraph from the Sacramento
Bee suggests even more trouble on the horizon for Californians who can just
barely pay those gargantuan Obamacare premiums: "keep premiums from rising
dramatically."
What's
the takeaway on that? That bankrolling illegals is going to make premiums
rise on Californians who are stuck in the individual market, but rest assured,
the hikes won't be dramatic.
Sound
like a recipe for flight from the state? You would be insane if you didn't
think so, and the state already is bleeding people. Fifty-three percent of
the state's citizens, according to one poll ,
want to leave, and more than one report shows that the state lost more people
than it gained , even with the border surge bringing new supplicants in.
Voters know their votes don't
count in a state where ballot-harvesting by illegal immigrants is
routinely done now, so any discontent is virtually impossible to telegraph
at the ballot box, and the leftist mafia running the state insists that
this is what Californians want. Color me skeptical on all fronts.
The
one thing worth watching for in this is not the cost overruns, though that should
be an interesting topic. It's whether Californians will finally switch their
voting patterns in sufficient numbers to finally get this crew out. The odds
are against them with ballot-harvesting, yet still, still, one expects
something to eventually blow. Maybe this will be what does it.
CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN
OCCUPATION: Private hospitals are forced to provide more than $1.5 BILLION in
“free” healthcare at emergency rooms. You wondered why you were billed $80
dollars for an aspirin you last hospital visit?
Taxing Americans To Give Illegal Aliens
Subsidized Health Care
California
is likely bringing back a version of the “individual healthcare mandate” in
order to help pay for the healthcare of
low-income illegal aliens who are under 26 years old. Democratic Governor Gavin
Newsom and state Democrats have agreed on a budget that would institute a new tax
on those who do not have health insurance in order to help cover the nearly
$100 million in additional costs. The budget must still be approved by the
state legislature, but it is expected to pass by a wide margin.
The Golden State is home to more
illegal aliens than any other state. It is estimated that 90,000 of the state’s
2.6 million illegal aliens will immediately become eligible to receive
taxpayer-subsidized healthcare once the new budget takes effect. There is
already discussion about expanding the provision in the future.
Illegal
immigrants and their U.S.-born children already cost California taxpayers
more than $23 billion every year. That amounts to approximately $1,800 per
household, annually, or $150 per month. For the average Californian – or anyone
for that matter – losing that much of your monthly budget to help subsidize
public services for illegal aliens is already a major financial setback. These
taxpayers deserve better than to have more piled on to this fiscal burden.
There
is already an alarming crisis at the southern border. Last month, more than
144,000 migrants were apprehended or deemed inadmissible at
the United States’ southwest border with Mexico – a nearly three-fold increase
from last year. Reckless actions by California and other states offering free
or subsidized benefits to illegal aliens are only going to make this crisis
worse.
Spencer joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform
(FAIR) in 2015. He conducts research, and writes content for FAIR’s
publications and website. He brings previous experience in state politics,
gubernatorial and district campaigns, and D.C. political non-profits. Spencer
holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin.
///
POLITICIANS MUST FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR
CRIMES THEY ENABLE
Malfeasant politicians must find no “sanctuary.”
June
12, 2019
Michael
Cutler
The phrase, Failure is Not An
Option served
as the title of the book written by Gene Kranz, Flight Director for NASA who
helped create the U.S. manned space program and was instrumental in
successfully returning the crew of Apollo 13 to the earth after their
spacecraft suffered a catastrophic explosion half-way to the moon.
In most professions,
especially where lives are on the line, failure to do the job is not an option.
This is particularly true where law enforcement and the military are
concerned.
Politicians, not unlike
members of the military and law enforcement officers, take oaths of office
where they swear (affirm) that they will enforce our laws and defend the
Constitution. While law enforcement officers and members of the armed
forces may face dire consequences for violating their oaths of office,
politicians generally do not.
Their oaths of office do
not provide an “escape clause” whereby they may opt to ignore any of the laws
that are not to their liking.
Unlike the entries on the
menu of a restaurant where the patrons order the food that they find palatable
or where they may substitute one item on the menu for another, their oaths of
office demand that those who take that oath agree to enforce all laws
and honor and defend all of the provisions of our
Constitution.
Dereliction of duty is a
serious offense for members of the armed forces and for law enforcement
officers and one that carries significant consequences.
We will not delve in the
specifics of this ongoing case, but it is important to note that the deputy
sheriff in this case has been charged with multiple crimes, some of which are
felonies, all emanating from his alleged failures to act to protect the
children who were killed in that school.
Contrast how that deputy
is being prosecuted for alleged failures to act with the politicians who, with
impunity, demand that law enforcement officers not act to cooperate with
immigration law enforcement personnel - even when those actions result in the
death of innocent victims.
The outrageous
assertions that “Sanctuary” policies protect immigrants from immigration law
enforcement are blatant lies. Law abiding aliens, immigrants and
non-immigrants alike, need no protection from ICE (Immigration and Customs
Enforcement) agents..
Aliens who violate our
immigration laws, however, pose a threat to national security and public
safety. The 9/11 Commission was crystal clear that the terror attacks of
September 11, 2001 and other such attacks conducted by aliens in the United
States were only possible because of multiple failures of the immigration
system.
In fact, I would argue
that violations of our borders and immigration laws must be seen as violations
of our Constitution.
Article IV, Section 4 of
the U.S. Constitution provides:
The United States shall
guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion; and on Application of the
Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened)
against domestic violence.
Invasion is defined, in
part, as an incursion by a large number of people or things into a place or
sphere of activity or an unwelcome intrusion into another's domain.
BALTIMORE – Following
the recent arrest of two unlawfully present teens suspected in the violent
murder of a young girl in Maryland, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Baltimore are again
seeking to take custody of the illegal aliens through the ICE detainer process
following the Prince George’s County Detention Center’s (PGCDC) failure to
cooperate.
Josue Rafael
Fuentes-Ponce and Joel Ernesto Escobar, both Salvadoran nationals, were
previously arrested on May 11, 2018 when they were arrested by Prince George’s
County Police Department (PGCPD) for attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree
murder, participation in gang activity, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted
robbery, and other related charges. ICE officers lodged a detainer with PGCDC,
however both were released on an unknown date and time without notification to
ICE.
On May 16, 2019, PGCPD
arrested the same individuals and charged them with first-degree murder.
That girl who was
killed was stabbed and bludgeoned to death was just 14 years old, roughly the
same age as some of the children who were shot to death at the Parkland school
massacre.
She is no less dead than
are the victims of the school shooting in Florida and her life is no less
valuable.
Had the officials of
Prince George’s County honored the ICE detainer, that young girl would still be
alive today.
Tragically and
infuriatingly, this is not an isolated case. This refusal by “Sanctuary”
jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE occurs across the United States with
sickening regularity and all too frequently with innocent people being killed.
Malfeasance has been defined
as the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified,
harmful, or contrary to law.
It would certainly appear
that the promulgation of “Sanctuary” policies constitutes malfeasance.
Furthermore, when the
political leaders of a jurisdiction order law enforcement officers who are
under their command to ignore immigration laws, they are inducing/coercing
malfeasance by those sworn law enforcement officers.
Our nation’s borders and
our nation’s immigration laws make no distinction about race, religion or
ethnicity. They were enacted to prevent the entry and continued presence
of aliens who pose a threat to public safety, national security and the lives
and livelihoods of Americans.
A review of one of the
sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S. Code
§ 1182 that
enumerates the categories of aliens who are to be excluded from entering the
United States dispels any doubts about the nature of our immigration laws.
Additionally, multiple
failures of the House and Senate to fund a border wall, provide funding for
enhancing the enforcement of our immigration laws from within the interior of,
and provide legal remedies to failure of the immigration laws particularly
where political asylum and the Flores Decision are concerned,
further exacerbates the immigration crisis.
Rather than deter illegal
immigration, these legislative actions incentivize illegal immigration.
A section of the
INA, 8 U.S. Code § 1324 , establishes crimes that
relate to the smuggling of aliens into the United States as well as the
harboring, shielding such aliens from detection.
That section of law also
deems it to be a crime to encourage or induce aliens to enter the United States
illegally or remain in the United States illegally or otherwise aids or abets
these crimes or crimes relating to conspiracies to commit these crimes.
This law seemingly only
applies to “mere” citizens but not to our political elites.
Either through litigation
and/or elections, those politicians who obstruct immigration law enforcement
and thus fail to adhere to their oaths of office and Constitutional
responsibilities, must be made accountable.
///
Kamala Harris: Medicare for All Includes
Illegal Aliens
Harris, a guest on CNN's "State of the Union," said
"I support Medicare for all. It is my preferred policy." She said she
supports the bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Rising US “deaths of despair” driven by health care costs, lack of
access to care
A new report
reveals that most US states are losing ground on key measures related to life
expectancy, which has declined in each of the last three years. The
Commonwealth Fund’s “2019 Scorecard on State Health System Performance” shows
that “deaths of despair”—premature deaths from suicide, alcohol abuse and drug
overdoses—continue to rise in nearly every state. The report further shows that
these deaths are tied to rising healthcare costs that are placing an increasing
financial burden on families across the country.
The Commonwealth
Fund’s Scorecard assessed “deaths of despair” in all 50 states and the District
of Columbia, as well as ranked states on 47 measures of access to health care,
quality of care, health care usage, health outcomes and income-based health
care disparities. The report found that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable
Care Act has been a central factor leading to meaningful gains in access to
health care.
The reasons
behind the decision of a person to take his or her own life, to take drugs
resulting in a fatal overdose, or to drink alcohol in excess leading to health
problems and death, are complex. But this new study shows that one of the major
underlying causes of such tragedies is social inequality, in particular lack of
access to health care and the associated financial struggles.
The opioid crisis,
suicide and alcohol-related deaths
While the study
finds that deaths from suicide and alcohol and drug abuse are a national
crisis, it notes that states and regions are affected in different ways. Opioid
use disorder has fueled a rise in drug overdose deaths with tragic outcomes for
families across the country. The emergence of highly lethal synthetic opioids,
such as fentanyl, in the illicit drug supply has contributed to this national
crisis.
The opioid
epidemic has hit states in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and several
Southeastern states particularly hard. West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the
District of Columbia, Kentucky, Delaware and New Hampshire have the highest
death rates from drug overdoses.
In Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Ohio, death rates from drug overdose were at least five times
higher than from alcohol abuse and about three times higher than suicide rates.
In Montana, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Oregon and Wyoming, death rates from suicide
and alcohol were greater than those from drugs.
Source:
Commonwealth Fund. Data from National Vital Statistics System
West Virginia
has been the state hardest hit by the opioid crisis, with 58.7 deaths per
100,000 residents—a staggering two-and-a-half times the national average. This
was 25 percent more than the state with the next highest rate of opioid deaths,
Ohio, which had 46.3 deaths per 100,000 residents. Opioid-related deaths in
West Virginia increased fivefold in 12 years—rising from
10.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2005 to 57.8 in 2017.
The rate of
death from drug overdose more than doubled across the US between 2005 and 2017.
These deaths surged by 10 percent just between 2016 and 2017.
Suicide rates
nationally have risen by nearly 30 percent since 2005. Parallel to the sharp
rise in the death rate from drug overdose, the national suicide death rate rose
more sharply between 2016 and 2017 than during any other one-year period in
recent history. Similarly, the alcohol-related death rate rose by about 2
percent per year between 2005 and 2012 but increased by about 4 percent per
year between 2013 and 2017.
Health insurance,
access to care, cost
The Commonwealth
Fund notes that the reductions in the uninsured population following the
Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expansion of health coverage in 2014 have now
stalled or even begun to erode in some states.
The ACA,
commonly known as Obamacare, while expanding some access to health care
coverage, has never challenged the domination of the for-profit health care
industry. It required that individuals without insurance from their employer or
a government program purchase insurance from a private insurance company.
Nearly all
states saw substantial reductions in uninsured rates between 2013 and 2017 with
the opening of the ACA’s insurance marketplaces, with fewer people citing cost
as a barrier to receiving health care.
As the ACA was
written, Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor jointly
administered by the federal government and the states, was to be expanded to
cover all US citizens and legal residents with incomes up to 133 percent of the
poverty line. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that it was up to the
states whether or not to expand their Medicaid programs.
Almost all those
states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA saw a reduction in rates of
uninsured through 2015. However, after 2015 any progress in reducing the rates
of uninsured had stalled in most states. From 2016 to 2017, more than half of
states were simply treading water. Sixteen states saw a rise of 1 percent in
the uninsured rate, including both those that did and did not expand Medicaid.
States that
adopted Medicaid expansion have seen lower rates of the uninsured. As of
January 1, 2017, Massachusetts had the lowest rate of uninsured, at 4 percent.
The states with the highest rates of uninsured—Mississippi, Florida, Georgia,
Oklahoma and Texas—were among the 19 states that had not expanded Medicaid as
of January 1, 2017. In Texas, 24 percent—nearly a quarter of all residents—were
uninsured.
Uninsured rates
were particularly high in states with large African-American and Hispanic
populations. In Florida, George and Texas, about 20 percent of black adults
were uninsured in 2017, compared to the US average of about 14 percent. In
Texas, more than a third of Hispanic adults were uninsured in 2017. Undoubtedly
contributing to the uninsured among Hispanics is the denial of Medicaid and
access to the ACA marketplace for undocumented immigrants.
Health care costs
In addition to
the lack of health insurance, the high cost of coverage for those who are
insured is contributing to the crisis in accessing health care. The report
notes that as of the end of 2018, 30 million adults remained uninsured and an
estimated 44 million people had insurance but were considered “underinsured”
due to the high out-of-pocket costs for health care in relation to their
income.
People with
individual-market plans under the ACA were insured at the highest rates.
However, the cost of private, employer-sponsored health care plans is rising,
exposing workers and their families to increasingly higher deductibles and
out-of-pocket costs. In most states, the amount that employees contribute to
their employer coverage is rising faster than median income.
A key
contributing factor to the uninsured and underinsured rates is the overall rate
of growth in US health care costs compared to the slow growth in US median
income. Workers face rising costs as insurers increase deductibles and other
cost-sharing for enrollees. As workers in both ACA and employee plans are
covered by the insurance industry, these private companies raise costs for the
insured to boost their bottom lines.
The Commonwealth
Fund’s report explodes the myth that people’s use of health care services is
the primary driver of cost and premium growth. The report notes that there is
growing evidence that the prices paid by private insurers to health care
providers, particularly hospitals, are responsible for this growth.
The report
notes, according to the Health Care Cost Institute, that “between 2013 and 2017
prices for inpatient services paid by private insurers climbed by 16 percent
while utilization fell by 5 percent. The analysis found similar patterns for
outpatient and professional services as well as prescription drugs.”
In other words,
while workers and their families are struggling to obtain decent health care
and to pay for it, the entire system of health care delivery in America is
geared toward enriching the hospitals, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies.
Those succumbing to “deaths of despair” are the victims of a health care system
and a society that values capitalist profit over the health and very lives of
its citizens.
SUICIDE IN AMERICA
May 29, 2019
The Social Order
Kay Hymowitz joins City Journal editor Brian Anderson to discuss a
challenge facing aging populations in wealthy nations across the world:
loneliness. Her essay in the Spring 2019 issue , “Alone,” will be
released online this Sunday.
“Americans are suffering from a bad case of loneliness,” Hymowitz writes.
“Foundering social trust, collapsing heartland communities, an opioid epidemic,
and rising numbers of ‘deaths of despair’ suggest a profound, collective
discontent.”
Evidence of the loneliness epidemic is dramatic in other
countries, too. Japan, for example, has seen a troubling rise in “lonely
deaths.” The challenge, Hymowitz says, is to teach younger generations the
importance of family and community before they make decisions that will further
isolate them.
Audio Transcript
Brian Anderson: Welcome back to the 10 Blogs podcast. This is
Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. Joining me on the show today is Kay
Hymowitz, the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a longtime
contributing editor at the magazine. Her latest piece in City Journal is called
“Alone: The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness.”
That's the subtitle. It's one of the great pieces she's ever written in City
Journal and I encourage you to find it on our website. Lastly, just one more announcement.
We created a new email address for the show, so if listeners want to get in
touch and drop a comment or share an idea, you can now email us at podcast@city-journal.org . That's podcast@city-journal.org . That's it for the introduction.
We'll take a quick break and we'll be back with Kay Hymowitz.
Brian Anderson: Hello again everyone. This is Brian
Anderson, the editor of City Journal and joining us in the studio now is Kay
Hymowitz. She's a contributing editor at City Journal and a fellow at the
Manhattan Institute. You can follow her on Twitter @KayHymowitz. And she's the
author of many books, most recently the New Brooklyn: What It Takes to
Bring a City Back , which came out in 2017. And prior to that, Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys ,
which came out in 2011. We're here today though to talk about her latest piece
in City Journal called Alone. Kay, thanks very much for joining us.
Kay Hymowitz: I'm happy to be here, Brian.
Brian Anderson: So let's just start off. What made you want
to write about the topic of loneliness, and what is the state of loneliness in
America?
Kay Hymowitz: Well, let me start by saying I didn't
actually set out to write about loneliness. I knew it was a great topic, but I
wasn't exactly sure how to approach it. And I stumbled across an article that
inspired me by two social scientists, I think they're demographers. And they
described something called a rise of kinlessness, that is a rise in the number
of people who have no kin, older people who have no kin. And it was very eye
opening and I began to see that the breakdown of the family that I've been
studying for maybe 15 years now and that I had mostly talked about in relation
to its impact on children was also having quite an impact on older people,
particularly aging adults. And that some of the despair that we were hearing
about, the deaths of despair, the opioid crisis and so on so forth, are
actually disproportionately made up of divorced and single, well, of men, in
particular. So I realized that we're looking at something big here in terms of
the family breakdown and its ultimate impact is something that I hadn't quite
foreseen or thought of.
Brian Anderson: It's probably worth rehearsing some of the
numbers in terms of this breakdown in family. Divorce rates for married
couples, I think, are probably double what they were back in the 50s.
Kay Hymowitz: They are indeed.
Brian Anderson: But in some ways the picture's even darker. You
have a 40% of kids, I think, are born to unmarried mothers now. That's up from
5% in 1960. And strikingly the rate of women who don't give birth at all, I
think, has doubled or is much higher. Yeah. And you could go on and on in this
vein. This is obviously the core of your argument that's having a big impact on
loneliness and kinlessness and this whole phenomenon. So say a bit more about
that and what do you think is driving it?
Kay Hymowitz: Well, I think that a lot of what's
happening is due to a change in our understanding of what the family is, what
its purpose is. I talk a lot in the article about the beginnings of what I see
is the unraveling of the family, or shall we say, a kind of assault on, on the
traditional family. I want to clarify that as we go on. I see the beginnings of
it in something that demographers call the Second Demographic Transition. We
sometimes talk about the, in ordinary parlance, we talk about the 60s or the
Sexual Revolution. But those were actually an American reflection of something
that has, as I said, demographers have been studying. The second demographic
transition they believe is partly the result of affluence as he, as the
societies in the west in particular, but also over time Japan and others, as
they got richer, families were not as essential to mere survival as they had
one been. Now this was intensified this fact by the introduction of the birth
control pill, obviously because you could control sexual reproduction without
worrying about whether you're married or not. And what the theory is that this
would introduce a different set of values, anti-authoritarian, and little bit
of anti-tradition. Individualistic. As people began to see they could be freer
to find other ways of living than to depend entirely on family or depend mostly
on their families. And in fact, following the second demographic transition,
um, there was a huge increase as you, just as you just pointed out in your
numbers in the percentage of divorces, the percentage of non-marital births.
And this by the way, is not just true in the United States, but in other
developed countries. Not all of them, but many. And also of fatherlessness. So
I think that these ideas that emerged with affluence and the second demographic
transition made it possible for people to think very differently about how they
were going to live. And I should say now, because I'll be talking about the
downsides of this, what followed from the second demographic transition. But it
did really give people a lot of freedom. And there's no question that there
were many people for relieved from very miserable and even violent marriages.
As a result of the second demographic transition. There were many different
ways to think about letting the people, it was possible to not be married if
you really didn't want to. Which I think has worked nicely for some
individuals. And of course it opened up the door to gay marriage, for much more
freedom for gays and lesbians. So there is a tremendous upside and I don't want
to discount that. But what I try to do in this article or show that there's
some real downsides that we haven't quite understood.
Brian Anderson: What are some of those downsides? Why is it a
problem for society that people are increasingly alone? And what are some of
the manifestations of that that are negative?
Kay Hymowitz: Right. So one of the things that I try to
do in the article is to remind people that kinship, those close family
relations, blood and marital relations, have been kind of the linchpin of
societies practically since we came out of the caves. It is absolutely
fundamental to every society. The relationship between kin and what it does
is... Those relationships define certain kinds of obligations. We tend to be
more protective of kin and to understand our roles better when in relation to
kin. Everything else, all of our other relationships may be very important to
us, but we're making those up pretty much as we go along. And the kinship... As
we've sort of gotten rid of that basic building block, or we've sort of
undermined it through the divorce revolution, the sexual revolution in the
second demographic transition, we've undermined the way kin work. So one point
I make is that there's been a huge rise in cohabitation and particularly among
less educated and lower income people. Cohabitation has become a kind of
substitute for marriage. And the hope among, social scientists and sociologists
and economists was always that gradually people would realize that you could
cohabit, but you really ought to stay together. That it would be a kind of it,
that it would be a kind of marriage or marriage light. But in fact, that's not
what's happened. What's happened is that the, the norm of cohabitation is much
more transitory, impermanent, fragile, and unpredictable. And those couples who
were cohabitating and do not go onto marry tend to break up much, much more
quickly.
Brian Anderson: This is even true when they have children?
Kay Hymowitz: Oh yes, definitely. The children of
cohabiting couples are having a very, very different upbringing than the
children of married couples. Now, it's true. we do have higher rates of divorce
than we used to, although it's stabilized. And one of the reasons it's
stabilized is that so many people are not getting married anymore, they are
cohabiting. The upshot is that there are an awful lot of children, as I've
pointed out many times before growing up in very unstable environments, but
then an awful lot of parents, particularly men, who are losing direct contact
with their kids. Now most men, after a divorce or after a child out of
marriage, try to maintain some contact. But that tends to, it's not always
true, that tends to fade out over time. Remember a lot of the people who are
cohabiting, having children as their cohabiting are young, and understandably
if that relationship doesn't work out, that go on and seek out another one.
Well, what often happens is that there is a new family that develops out of
that second union and possibly even a third or forth. So the child is faced
with a, and fathers too, are faced with this rolling cast of people, none of
whom have quite the connection of the kin of the old fashioned can
relationships so that those men are frequently on their own as they get older.
And if I could just add a little personal observation here that some people
might not agree with, men just don't make homes or, you know make even make
friends quite the way that women do. And we do have some data on this as well.
Brian Anderson: Looking around the world, and you noted this
earlier, we know that the US isn't the only country facing problems of
loneliness. One of the most striking examples in your story is Japan, which was
seen just an incredible rise in what they call "lonely deaths." Maybe
you could describe a little bit the situation there and how Japan is dealing
with it?
Kay Hymowitz: Japan is an interesting contrast. to the
United States in some ways in other western countries because non marital
childbearing, single motherhood is relatively rare, unlike here. And also
divorce is, relatively rare. It's getting, it's getting more common. What's
happening instead is that an awful lot of people are not having children, so
therefore their fertility rates are very, very low.
Brian Anderson: Well below replacement rate, I believe?
Kay Hymowitz: Well below replacement. Ours are low, but
this is lower. I read one a social Japanese social scientists who said that the
basic concept of the family in Japan is dead. So there's an awful lot of
elderly people on their own, living alone. And by the way, dependent on the
state to support them because they don't have any family to speak of. Or their
family has moved away, or is extremely busy with work. We know that the
Japanese are workaholics. But they started to see this rise in lonely deaths,
which, we're beginning to see here too. And it became such a phenomenon in
Japan that the newspapers started to cover, local newspapers would start to
cover these stories that were happening very frequently. And in addition, this
was the part that kind of, caused me to sit up and wonder. There are businesses
now, there are cleanup companies, to take care of apartments after a lonely
death because what happens is that when somebody dies and they're alone and
nobody's really watching out for them, they often die in their apartment.
Nobody knows they're dead. Nobody finds them until the telltale smell of
decaying body. And it makes a huge mess for building owners or landlords. So
they've started these companies, these cleanup companies. And I believe I
mentioned the name of one of them, which is kind of grim. It's called Next.
Brian Anderson: Yeah.
Kay Hymowitz: But these companies, there are a fair
number of them and they've become an essential, essential part of Japanese
life.
Brian Anderson: It's a very, very grim reality. I've been reading
a book by Cal Newport called Digital Minimalism ,
and it's an argument against being immersed in social media and other forms of
technologically driven distraction. He says, we need to set more time for our
sanity sake to be alone or at least off of the Internet and this constant
bombardment of, of connection with other people. In other words, he's saying
technology is making us constantly exposed to other people in ways that can
harm us. At least if it goes too far. How does social media and the constant
judgment that people sometimes feel themselves under through social media if
they're participating in it, how does that intersect with the argument that
you're making?
Kay Hymowitz: Well social media, I'm thinking of Facebook
in particular was supposed to bring us all together. Right? It was the social
network. We were going to create all these new social networks and you know, I
think some people have been able to use it that way. I have ordered up to make
contact with old high school friends or whatever, but it has also added to a
sense of anxiety as people post pictures of their happy family occasions. They
can look like things are just so wonderful and peachy keen for everybody else
while you're feeling down in the dumps. So what does that expression,
"fomo," fear of missing out? You're missing parties that you might've
been invited to... People are taking wonderful trips that you, you know, don't
have anybody to travel with or whatever. So I think it can exacerbate
loneliness in that way because you're constantly comparing yourself to other
people at their peak moments because that's when people post their pictures.
And there is something about, aside from the fomo, aside from that, the kinds
of connections you make through social media don't seem to be the same as those
should make in real life. I haven't seen wonderful research on this yet, but it
seems to me an area ripe for exploration. It seems so clear somehow that you
can be online, communicating, even playing games with people, from all over the
world, and seemingly making new friends and still feel quite lonely and be
lonely because you turn off the computer or walk into another room and you're
alone.
Brian Anderson: A lot's been written, especially since the
election of Donald Trump, about the state of rust belt communities. The opioid
crisis, which you mentioned earlier. How much in your view is the family
breakdown you're describing having an impact on those communities? And is it part
of what's causing the problem or is it an outgrowth of the breakdown in those
communities? Economic breakdown.
Kay Hymowitz: Yeah, there's no question that family
breakdown exacerbates and intensifies the loss of these communities, or rather
the jobs, the factories that have left. If you lose your job and you lose your
wife or husband because to opioids, or they've just left, then you've got real
trouble. You don't have anybody to support you through difficult times. One of
the things I argue in that piece is that the breakdown in the family has not
affected educated and well off people anywhere near to the extent that it
has... well, blacks, and also now the white working class that came a little
bit later. And I think what we underestimated, we who lived through the second
demographic transition and played a role in pushing it actually because I was
in college in the 1960s when a lot of these ideas were being tested out and
promulgated. If the educated classes, the more well to do classes, were able to
figure out a way to maintain their families, what they didn't anticipate, or
that none of us anticipated, was that it would be much harder for people who
were living more on the edge, who had evictions to worry about or layoffs or a
factory closing. You need, in those cases, a culture that really supports, a
cultural environment, that really supports the idea of the family and of
kinship as people... as people that are there for you in hard times.
Brian Anderson: Providing a network of support...
Kay Hymowitz: That's right. That's right. And in those
communities instead, we saw a more and more of a collapse of the family. Now
was it possible that, we could have, in a different cultural environment, it
could have been different? Maybe, maybe. It's very hard to disentangle the
cause and effect here, but there's no question that they go hand... the loss of
the working class or the manufacturing jobs, has definitely been related to the
breakdown of the family in the working class. Now I should mention that one of the
things that's happened as a result, well, related again to the breakdown of the
family in those communities, is this opioid crisis. Opioids, as you may know,
is now killing more people than traffic accidents, than car accidents. And I
was amazed to see in a recent study that the victims or the people who die of
opioid death are much more likely to be single, unmarried or divorced men. And
that speaks of exactly what I've been trying to describe. I think that women
are better at creating their own social networks. This was something that the
sociologist, Eric Klinenberg, who wrote a book called Going Solo, about people
living alone. It's something he noticed as he started to interview people who
were living alone. Even among the elderly women were more likely to want to
live alone. They didn't want to remarry if there were widowed or divorced. But
who kept fairly rich lives, they were still able to... they volunteered. They
had friends, networks of friends that they could go out with, and that sort of
thing. So, and if there were children, they were closer to the kids than a
single father. So they had all those supports. Men seem to suffer much more
loneliness than women. And you know, we can debate from here to eternity why
that is. But there it is.
Brian Anderson: Well, to ask a final question, and it's how you
conclude your piece: What might be necessary to start re-knitting the social
fabric in a way that might address this problem. You mentioned Tom Wolfe's idea
of a "Great Re-learning." Say a little bit about that?
Kay Hymowitz: Well first, I should say that there are a lot of
government programs for seniors, a lot of, on the federal level and the city
and local level. There are all kinds of ways that civil society jumps in.
Seniors Helping Seniors is one group, Meals on Wheels, organizations like that.
They are absolutely essential and beneficial and I don't want to knock them at
all, but they don't begin to address the loss that a lot of people are feeling,
or the loneliness. So one of the things that struck me in thinking about all
this was how much joy and pleasure so many of my friends, and I should say I'm
70 years old, so many of my friends now with grandchildren, would mostly worry
when their kids were growing up about their careers. They would focus so much
on their education. Starting from early on, we were the beginning of helicopter
parents, not quite as bad as today, but it did begin quite a while ago. But
never talking about this other, what I consider to be the other big goal in
life: to find a spouse, a kind and reliable and giving spouse who will make a
good mother or father for your children. Because most people are going to want
children. And society's depend on them wanting children. Those parents didn't
talk to their kids about these things. And yet here I was going to weddings and
watching these grandchildren being born and the parents were going nuts. I
thought, well, why wouldn't they ever talk about the joy of this stage of life
and of the connection that we now have with our children. And this is one
lovely thing of the that has followed the second demographic transition is, I
think, there's a much, much less of a generation gap between me and my kids
then there was between me and my own parents because,
Brian Anderson: Yeah, I think that's true.
Kay Hymowitz: And there's a kind of companionship and
friendship that I didn't see in my day so much. We have that, and it's a source
of great comfort and pleasure. I think for most of the people that are able to
experience it. So I note all that because I want readers to realize that this
is something we don't talk about to our kids very much. And so we have another
generation, growing up, who have never heard those words or any of those
concepts from their parents or from anybody.
Brian Anderson: Well maybe it's a time for a different kind of
conversation. In any case, don't forget to check out Kay's brilliant essay in
City Journal, it's called Alone. It's in our latest issue you can find it on
our website and we will link to it in the description. You can follow Kay on
Twitter @KayHymowitz. You can also find City Journal on Twitter, @CityJournal
and on Instagram @CityJournal_MI, and always, if you like what you've heard on
the podcast, give us a nice rating on iTunes. Thanks for listening, and thanks,
Kay Hymowitz, for joining us.
"Eligibility
would be determined by the same rules of Medicaid, based on annual income. As
many young illegals are working off the books, for cash, they will have no
official reported income regardless of how much they actually earn, insuring
their eligibility for Medi-Cal." BRIAN C. JOONEPH
California Says: ‘Go West, Young Illegals, Go West’
Doctors and hospitals are in the gunsights of many Democrats who want
Medicare-for-all as a draconian price control scheme by government over all
medical care in the US. Hospitals are told they charge too much and doctors are
vilified for earning too much.
What a relief that a sugar daddy has appeared, a rich boyfriend, a
benefactor with a fat wallet, ready to bestow his financial largess on
financially strapped healthcare providers.
This sugar daddy is named Gavin, tall and handsome with good hair.
I speak of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who finalized a deal with the California legislature, “to provide full health
benefits to low-income illegal immigrants under the age of 26.”
California is the first state to provide such benefits to illegal or undocumented
immigrants, depending on which term you prefer. Specifically, this group of
adults, age 19 to 25 will have access to the state’s Medi-Cal program,
California’s version of Medicaid.
California anticipates providing coverage to 100,000 people. I’m
not sure how they arrived at this number since I’ve always heard that illegal
immigrants “live in the shadows,” meaning we really don’t know how many there
are. And when word gets out to the rest of the country, expect that 100,000
number to grow exponentially just as it would if California announced it was
giving away cars to this same group of people.
BLOG: THE MEXICAN TAX-FREE ECONOMY IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY IS
ESTIMATED TO BE IN EXCESS OF $2 BILLION YEARLY. THIS SAME COUNTY HANDS ILLEGAL
ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS MORE THAN $1 BILLION IN WELFARE!
Eligibility would be determined by the same rules of Medicaid,
based on annual income. As many young illegals are working off the books, for
cash, they will have no official reported income regardless of how much they
actually earn, insuring their eligibility for Medi-Cal.
This scheme is to be funded by taxing those who do not have health insurance. Who might
that be? Not the young illegals who how have free insurance. How about the
small businessman who earns too much to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford
an Obamacare policy with massive premiums, copayments, and deductibles? Or the
struggling wannabe actors and actresses in the same financial boat as the small
businessman? Or the 60-year-old retiree, not yet eligible for Medicare but
unable to afford private insurance given the higher premiums at her age?
How nice of California taxpayers, those American born or here
legally, having their earnings confiscated to pay the medical bills of those
not here legally. Who pays the medical bills of those Americans who can’t
afford their medical care?
Interestingly undocumented elderly are not covered under this new
plan. Sugar Daddy Newsom opposed this, preferring the young over the elderly,
likely due to the much higher medical costs for those over age 65 compared to
those under age 25.
This may have to do with voting preferences. It is unknown how
many illegals vote, but younger voters tend to vote Democrat compared to older
voters who lean Republican. Is this healthcare scheme a form of voter outreach?
Why are doctors and hospitals across America so grateful for their
new sugar daddy?
Americans subsidize health care for illegal immigrants to the tune
of $18.5 billion a year according to Forbes . Imagine being able to now offload some of this care to
California?
Hospitals are required by law to render emergency care to
everyone, regardless of a person’s ability to pay. A pregnant woman illegally
enters the US, and when she goes into labor, the hospital is required to
deliver the baby, caring for both baby and mother, at an average cost of $32,000.
What if the baby is born premature and needs a few weeks in the
neonatal intensive care unit, or is born with a heart or bowel defect,
requiring additional surgery? The costs quickly escalate into 6-figure sums.
Labor and delivery is certainly common in the 19-25 age group. So
are injuries that may require non-emergency treatment, such as a retinal
detachment or a ligament tear in the knee. For the doctor, these patients are
considered self-pay. Despite promises to pay all of their medical bills, some
patients, once reasonably stable after surgery are gone with the wind, with no
way to contact them, and no payment made for rendered services.
What if doctors and hospitals, when discussing costs of medical
treatment, can now give the patient a map? A few hundred years ago, newspaper
editor and author Horace Greeley advised the 19 to 25-year-olds of the day to
“Go west young man”. The same phrase may become popular again, particularly in
states adjacent to or close to California.
When faced with patients with non-emergent medical problems,
direct these patients to the nearest east-west interstate, I-40, I-70, or I-80,
and drive toward the setting sun until seeing the “Welcome to California” sign.
Go west and allow generous California taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Hospitals won’t be stuck with bad debt and physicians won’t be
stiffed after offering their time and expertise without compensation.
Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said this about an open-border immigration policy.
"It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare
state." Which is exactly what California offers, providing free healthcare
to living in the state against the law.
While at the same time, California has an out of control
homelessness problem, many of those homeless being American veterans. They are living legally in their own
country yet living on the streets, in squalor, with rats and other vermin
bringing back historic diseases like typhus and typhoid fever. Where is their
sugar daddy governor? Busy pandering to those here illegally.
Down on their luck Americans are told to pound sand while illegals
are lavished with drivers licenses, welfare benefits, and now healthcare.
California cannot care for its own residents, but is opening its doors to the
world, promising goodies that will do nothing but attract more of the world,
regardless of laws.
When does it end? I’ve suggested that the Trump administration
send refugees and illegals to sanctuary cities, so those cities have the
opportunity to live with the consequences of their virtue signaling. Now
doctors and hospitals can do the same. If California wants to be an open
borders welfare state, it’s the least the rest of the country can do to help
out by sending young undocumented immigrants to the land of milk and honey.
Instead of “the doctor will see you now”, expect to hear, “go west
young man.”
California could use a management change
Over Sunday lunch, a friend was saying
that he just got back from Los Angeles. He added that he had not seen
that much filth in some of the third-world countries that he visits for
business regularly. He looked at me and asked: " How do the voters
put up with that?"
My answer was that voters have been voting
with their feet for years. In other words, they leave the Golden State.
It has the worst ranking for homelessness,
8th worst for roads, and worst for teacher-to-student ratio. Its prisons are so
crowded that the Supreme Court determined them to constitute cruel and unusual
punishment, and it suffered the worst budget crisis of all the states during
the Great Recession.
But residents are so mesmerized by the
amazing weather and beauty of the place that they tend to overlook the quality
of the services. And as a result, management does not change. The state has
been under the same Democratic Party management for years. Their monopoly on
power is so safe that they now hold supermajorities in both houses of the
Legislature despite California’s worsening condition. Management has no
incentive to change when it keeps getting re-elected.
Californians may not be voting out
Democrats at the ballot box, but they have been voting with their feet. While
California’s population has grown from 29 million to 39 million over the past
30 years, in each year during that period the state has seen a net loss in
migration to other states.
So will things change? I don't see
any change for now, although the article points out that Latinos get more conservative
as they get more prosperous.
California will continue until they hit a
financial wall or when the last taxpayer leaves the state. In the
meantime, be careful when you walk the streets of LA, and I'm not talking about
thieves.
California
Lawmakers Plan to Give Health Benefits to Illegal Immigrants
HANNAH BLEAU
Democrat state lawmakers in progressive California have agreed to a
plan that would extend health benefits to qualifying illegal immigrants
residing in the state.
The
legislature has a June 15 deadline and is expected to approve the deal in the coming days. It essentially extends
eligibility to California’s Medicaid program to young low-income illegal
immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25. The move is part of a broader budget
plan, which clocks in around $213 billion.
Expanding
California’s Medicaid program to low-income illegals would cost the state
about $98 million per year. According to the Associated Press, roughly
90,000 will qualify.
“California
believes that health is a fundamental right,” State Sen. Holly Mitchell (D)
said, according to the news outlet.
A number of
Democrat state lawmakers wanted to take it a step further, offering coverage
for all illegals in the state, but Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the
proposal, citing rising costs.
The
agreement also includes assistance for middle-income families. A family of four
making $150,000 could qualify for a $100 a month subsidy from the government to
help cover the cost of their insurance premium.
Democrats
in the state plan to pay for the handouts, in part, by taxing those who do not
have health insurance. This is, in essence, another version of Obamacare’s
individual mandate penalty, which the Supreme Court upheld as a tax in a
critical ruling in 2012. However, it has remained a point of contention in lower
courts. Republicans in Congress worked with President Trump to scrap what they
deemed to be the unconstitutional penalty in 2017.
California
lawmakers say these moves are all part of the state’s wide-ranging effort to
get everyone in the state – including those residing there unlawfully –
covered. This comes at the time of a severe homelessness crisis in the state,
particularly in Los Angeles County.
The
number of homeless individuals on the streets of Los Angeles has skyrocketed
during the last year.
The newly
released data revealed that nearly three-fourths of the homeless population,
which includes 58,936 people, are sleeping in cars, tents, and other make-do
shelters.
Released
by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to the Board of
Supervisors, the data found that the majority of homeless people were residing
in the city of Los Angeles, which saw an increase of 16 percent to 36,300.
About
3,800 are estimated to be veterans.
San
Francisco’s homeless population has also experienced a spike, rising 17 percent in the last two years.
Tomi Lahren:
Health care for illegal immigrants is here in California
California leadership is on the brink of signing a new piece of
legislation that will put taxpayer dollars toward something Tomi has warned us
about time and again: health care for illegal immigrants.
A lot
of stupid legislation has come out of Sacramento, California in the last 10
years but this, THIS is a giant slap in the face to all hardworking
Californians and LEGAL
immigrants busting our butts to live and
work in this state.
Meanwhile, our lawmakers are more concerned with doling out
perks, brownie points, and benefits to people who have NO legal right to be
here.
This is absolutely stomach-churning and yeah, I have some
"First Thoughts."
Almost $100 million a year. That’s how much California
lawmakers have set aside for illegal immigrant health care. If all goes as they
planned, which it will, this will be set in stone come midnight on June 15th,
and it will start January 1st of next year.
Do you want to know how we – the Golden State taxpayers –
are going to pay for it? Partly through additional taxes on individuals who
choose not to have health care.
Wait, I thought President Trump and Republicans reduced the
individual mandate? Think again.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for a state mandate to revive
it.
We have over 130,000 homeless people in this state and yet, our
lawmakers, our DEMOCRATIC lawmakers, have agreed on a plan to cover health
insurance benefits for some 90,000 plus illegal immigrants.
Thanks to the Democrats in this state, illegal
immigrants between the ages of 19-25 will now be eligible for the state’s
Medicaid program.
California ALREADY covers illegals under age 19 and all pregnant
women under Medical-Cal!
And you know what’s worse, some Democrats in the state
legislature are unhappy this plan doesn’t cover ALL illegal immigrants in the
state. That would cost us an estimated $3.4 billion but just you wait, that is
where we are headed.
If you’re not a Californian you might not think this applies to
you but be warned, this isn’t just the platform of the California Democratic
Party, this is the platform of the Democratic Party, at large.
What is happening in California is just a prototype and pipe
dream for the rest of the nation and if a Democrat wins in 2020, this is coming
to you, to all of us, nationwide. Mark my words.
So if you don’t want your hard-earned tax dollars going to
illegal immigrants, if you think incentivizing illegal immigration is downright
un-American, if you believe Americans come first in our own country, get ready
to fight to keep President Trump in office in 2020.
The truth is, he is our only hope. The Democratic Party along
with the Democratic primary race has become little more than a try-out for the
illegal immigrant cheerleading squad.
In recent months, we’ve averaged a little over
100,000 illegals flooding into our nation through our southwest
border.
Sadly, The Republicans in Name Only or "RINOs" sitting
in Congress don’t seem to care, either. If they did they wouldn’t have sat
back for two years when we controlled Congress and did nothing.
No one in the swamp is bold enough to tackle this issue. No one
except the Mr. Rooter of the Swamp, President Donald Trump.
Our elected representatives won't fix the immigration
system and meanwhile, we have governors like Newsom and
their respective Democratic legislatures dangling benefit carrots to
entice even more people across our southern border.
This next election is bigger than 2016. It’s bigger than four
years in the White House. The future of our country is at stake. Get ready to
dig in and fight like you’ve never fought before.
Those are my "First Thoughts." From Los
Angeles, God bless and take care.
///
What's the matter with California?
California wants to
look after its people, so it keeps expanding its social safety net. It also
wants to welcome all comers and so embraces illegal immigrants and protects
them in sanctuary cities.
To see how this is
working out, visit Skid Row in L.A. or neighborhoods in San Francisco or
elsewhere where homeless camps are spreading.
Caring for all
Californians is made harder by the state importing as many non-Americans as
possible.
It's almost incredible,
but also entirely characteristic, that California lawmakers have now decided to
give healthcare free to nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants aged 19 to 25.
California has covered
illegal immigrant children since 2016 under MediCal, the state’s version of
Medicaid, at a cost of some
$360 million . Now Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed with state lawmakers to add
another $98 million to California's spending by expanding coverage to young
adults.
Just as California
lacks enough homes to house its inhabitants, so it also lacks enough doctors to
care for them. The additional budget bloat on healthcare will worsen that
shortage.
The promise of
unlimited free stuff from the government isn't just an unfunded liability. It’s
also a magnet for illegal immigration. California already faces a border catastrophe . In the past year, its
San Diego and El Centro border sectors have seen respective increases of 611%
and 345% in family unit apprehensions. MediCal expansion creates incentives
that will make that problem much worse.
If the damage were
confined to California, one might be tempted to shrug and suggest that
Californians choose themselves a better government. But the problem will spill
over to the rest of the country, and to Americans who did not elect the
irresponsible Sacramento government.
Border enforcement is
mostly a federal responsibility, and we will all have to live with and deal
with the consequences of an influx of illegal immigrants and a further strain
on detention facilities' ability to cope.
When California raises
taxes to pay for foreigners' healthcare, it weighs down on the federal budget
because state and local taxes are partly deductible from federal income taxes.
The rest of the country must subsidize more than $100 billion of spending by
the Utopians in Sacramento.
When the Golden State's
finances deteriorate, watch for Sacramento to beg for a bailout. Even before
then, the rest of America must foot the bill for California’s overstuffed
classrooms, decaying infrastructure, and everything else funded federally.
The California dream of
taking care of everyone's needs is undermined by the California dream of open
borders. State lawmakers were forced to choose between them, and they chose open
borders. One must hope that one day the state's voters choose different
lawmakers.
New York Post Cover on Democrats Promising Illegal Aliens Free Health Care: ‘Who Wants to Lose the Election?’
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
KYLE MORRIS
27 Jun 2019 408
1:27
The Friday cover of the New York Post mocks 2020 Democrat presidential hopefuls who vowed to give free, taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants.
The New York Post cover title, which features five of the presidential hopefuls raising their hands at the second night of the first Democrat presidential debate, reads: “Who wants to lose the election?”
The cover’s subtitle reads, “All major Dem candidates raise hand in favor of free health care for illegal immigs.”
Featured from left to right on the cover are South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
As
reported by Breitbart News’s John Binder, “During the second Democrat presidential primary debate on Thursday, every Democrat candidate said they supported giving American taxpayer-funded health care to all 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States.”
Binder also reported, “Americans pay about $116 billion to subsidize illegal aliens living in the U.S. — providing them with free education, free healthcare, and public benefits.”
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