When the ACA included the option for states to expand Medicaid, most states gladly accepted as the feds were covering 90%. That was a huge return on money spent for most states.
Now that the GOP is putting that 90% match rate on the table for budget cuts, we’ll hear some pitches on alternatives. The Georgia model will probably get pitched. GA declined the expansion and did their own “expansion”.
Very few additional people enrolled (6800) in GA. 75% of the money was spent on consultants, not healthcare. Get ready for health insurance for the poor to get canceled, and money sent to connected consultants instead while touting smaller government.
Was recently reading an NYT article, ”Adults should not succumb to infantile entertainment”. An example was an 8 year old Tik Tok sensation called the Rizzler who has an adult following. The Rizzler is good friends with The Costco Guys, a father and son duo who say BOOM a lot.
The article mentioned their performance on Jimmy Fallon (link below). Depressing, if this is where comedy is heading in America. Not surprised that Trump got elected given these guys are popular.
Since Congress and DOGE are looking at cutting IRS resources again, here is your friendly reminder that cutting the IRS is not a spending reduction but rather a revenue reduction:
The IRS in the fall of 2023 launched a new initiative using Inflation Reduction Act funding to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay recognized tax debt, with dozens of senior employees assigned to these cases. This work is concentrated on taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. The IRS was previously unable to collect from these individuals due to a lack of resources. After successfully collecting $38 million from more than 175 high-income, high-wealth individuals last year, the IRS expanded this effort last fall to around 1,600 additional high-income, high-wealth individuals. Nearly 80% of these 1,600 millionaires with delinquent tax debt have now made a payment, leading to over $1.1 billion recovered. This is an additional $100 million just since July, when Treasury and IRS announced reaching the $1 billion milestone.
Per the average IRS agent salary of $61,639, we will be saving just under $370M by firing 6,000 citizens, whereas solely this expanded initiative recovered over $1.3B in unpaid tax by the rich, or about 350% of the savings represented by 6,000 firings.
Man I don’t get why the administration has such a hard on for Russia. If we’re just talking about economic opportunity, western Europe has so much more to offer, Russia is well…kinda poor.
