No worker's right, no bargaining power, no increase in wages, and no government stabilizers to keep you from falling into the abyss. If these protections are taken away, you have to take whatever they choose to give you, which makes you and others even more desperate, and makes the destructive "race to the bottom" cycle continue.
Keep this in mind when you read today's Journal-Sentinel article that shows Gov Walker has already thrown away hundreds of millions of dollars by failing to accept the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare. In fact, the price tag that Wisconsin taxpayers are paying for that idiotic pose has now gone up even more than we previously knew.
Wisconsin taxpayers would have saved $206 million over two years — 73% more than previously estimated — if officials had fully expanded its main health care program for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act, a new nonpartisan report shows.And this fiscally reckless move isn't being done not just doing it to gain points with idiot TeaBaggers at the expense of the other 80% of people in this state. Robert Reich notes that Scott Walker may also be choosing to do it to make sure a large number of us don't have the strength to challenge the other thefts that his corporatist, pro-oligarch policies are hoisting on the working people of the state.
If officials decide to change course and expand the program in the next state budget, state taxpayers would save another $261 million to $315 million through June 2017, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The bureau serves the Legislature and is widely respected by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
In all, the state could have saved more than $500 million over 3 1/2 years, the report shows. That would have allowed Gov. Scott Walker and legislators to put more money toward schools or roads or cut taxes more deeply than they did over the last year.
Disgusting on every level.
Here is the Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo on Medicaid expansion.
ReplyDeleteFor the 18 months of expansion that could have happened in the 2013-15 budget, the General Fund would have been $206m better off and those with incomes from 100-133% of the Federal Poverty Level would have enjoyed a further $355m of insurance on top of that.
For the 24 months of expansion that can still happen for the 2015-17 budget, the General Fund would have been from $261m to $315m better off and those with incomes from 100-133% of the Federal Poverty Level would have enjoyed a further $283m to $397m of insurance on top of that (the 6 extra months of funding being partly offset by the drop of federal funding from 100% to 95% in the first 6 months of calendar 2017).