No more free rides for the slugs

[Rideback]

Jingles, you might want to revisit your elementary school grammar books.

[Jingles]

I noticed you capitalized ICE but failed to capitalize fake. Probably should of made that distinction as it is quite the difference.

[mister_coffee]

...
If the migrant workers that are here legally on a work visa shouldn't have anything to worry about it's those that came across the border illegally that should be sweating. The system is in place for legal employment of migrants and maybe they should Crack down on the employers as well, say a 100k fine for each illegal.

Well, it doesn't seem that ICE is particularly interested in those distinctions when it rounds people up to meet its daily quota. And it is well-documented that fake ICE officers are terrorizing people out there based on how they look.

Yes, there is a system in place for legal immigration but it is broken and dysfunctional and neither political party has been willing to get off its well-padded asses and do the work of fixing it. In the meantime crops need to be harvested. Right now it is estimated that forty percent of agricultural workers are undocumented. Many of them have been in the United States for decades and just been doing their jobs. But it is hard to see how you take away forty percent of the workforce and don't end up with either massive price increases or a lot less food available in stores.

I want to ask the people who argue for mass deportations: who is going to do that work?

There are dark rumors that the Administration and its immigration terror troops are considering putting the people they snatch up for forced labor on farms. I'm sure that will work just fine...

https://www.thepacker.com/70-farmworker ... -ice-raids

[Jingles]

.
It’s started already. NPR national story this morning…from Wenatchee, about the cherry harvest.
.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/06/nx-s1-54 ... -crackdown
.

If the migrant workers that are here legally on a work visa shouldn't have anything to worry about it's those that came across the border illegally that should be sweating. The system is in place for legal employment of migrants and maybe they should Crack down on the employers as well, say a 100k fine for each illegal.

[mister_coffee]

EMTALA sets pretty rigorous and strict requirements for what constitutes emergency care. And also rigorous requirements on when an emergency department can discharge a patient.

The problem is that a lot of people who don't have access to normal health care are forced into the emergency care system which is much more expensive for the rest of us.

[dorankj]

You're in the ballpark Jingles. People won't go to a regular physician because they're so booked up (because everyone gets some sort of 'free' Healthcare al la Obomacare) but when they do use it they WON'T DO what they are told e.g. lose weight, quit smoking stop using illicit drugs so things keep getting worse so they call the magic 911 who ONLY have 1 option........ER! (most expensive) But of course if we don't provide the magic ER we are refusing 'necessary ' emergency care for the least of us! It's a infuriating circle jerk for those of us in emergency medicine! The cause of the patients malady is their very own life choices and lack of effort but we must somehow provide a magic fix at the ER.

[Jingles]

Why this is absolute crap.

Under the 1986 EMTALA law ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency ... _Labor_Act ), nearly all hospitals are required to treat patients requiring emergency care regardless of their ability to pay. If you think about it for more than ten seconds that actually makes sense -- if you are in the midst of a medical emergency you might not be able to fill out a pile of insurance forms when the ambulance hauls you to the hospital.

So what we are doing with these cuts is moving people from a plausibly less expensive part of the health care system to the absolutely most expensive part. Folks will get health care, one way or the other, but all of the rest of us who can afford insurance will inevitably pay higher rates and higher costs at hospitals to pay for this.

I'd also point out that a significant portion of medicaid funds for adults is for addiction treatment. Now I have my own strong opinions about drug addicts but I don't see how it makes our communities or our personal hides better off to not treat those people. Whether they are employed or not. Drug addicts who aren't employed will usually resort to crime to get the money to feed their addiction. So now you'll be spending much more money on law enforcement and the criminal justice system than you would have to treat them (and yes, drug treatment programs that work are insanely expensive) in the first place.

So I can't see how this whole medicaid cut thing is anything but a way to screw over our communities and take money out of our pockets. We are paying for this one way or the other and we should be realistic about that and work out what the least expensive option would be. I doubt anyone here has done that.

Oh, yeah, EMTALA also requires Emergency Rooms to treat patients regardless of immigration status or citizenship as well. Which again makes sense because if I have a heart attack I'm not likely to remember to bring my documents to the ER with me when I go there for treatment.

Part of this problem with having to wait extended periods for "EMERGENCY" service is the rooms are filled with not real emergencies because the ER's can't turn patients away while urgent, same day care services can, so the ER's get flooded with patients unable to tell the difference or feel anything that causes them discomfort is an emergency.

People need to start asking themselves these questions before going to ER
Is it broke?
Is it pumping blood?
Am I not able to breathe?
Is the pain totally unbearable?
If the answer to those is no then it isn't a real emergency.
People have gotten so soft it's a wonder they don't walk around wrapped in bubble wrap

[just-jim]

.
It’s started already. NPR national story this morning…from Wenatchee, about the cherry harvest.
.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/06/nx-s1-54 ... -crackdown
.

[mister_coffee]

So, at the same time we are cutting food aid to the poor we are also using ICE to terrorize agricultural workers into not showing up for work. What could possibly go wrong?

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/ ... d-pickers/

[PAL]

Hungry people get desperate and/or angry. The richest country in the world, won't help feed it's people. This is by design according Curtis Yarvin.

[Rideback]

Food banks are not prepared
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/0 ... =flipboard

[mister_coffee]

The brain of an ideologue is cognitively different from that of a normal human.

1. They tend to think in binary terms. This is shown the most clearly in cognitive tests where an ideologue will insist that different shades of a color are the same color.
2. They are likely to either underreact or overreact to new information.
3. They are more likely to interpret any action by others as hostile.
4. They are often unable to understand the long-term consequences of their actions.

These behaviors seem to be caused by low dopamine levels in the brain. Low dopamine levels can be caused by poor nutrition, anxiety, stress, lack of sleep, substance abuse, or mental health issues.

Y'all are arguing with chemicals here.

[Rideback]

Ken why is it you stick to attacking the messengers here?
The posts I put up are links to articles from non partisan resources that are sounding alarms about our Country and yet you ignore the analysis and facts they present in favor of attacking the messengers here in really pretty nasty ways. Makes me think you don't have anything to counter with and you want so badly for these resources to be wrong that all that is left is for you to make a whole lot of noise about the messengers.
Every time I see a post of yours where you call me a liar or unpatriotic it proves my point. We messengers aren't the liars or the ones who are unpatriotic, it's the people who can't bring themselves to stand strong for a better Country that are the problem.

[dorankj]

Maybe just you Jim! Amen

[just-jim]

.

.

[dorankj]

You all here have ZERO problem 'de-humanizing' people, just never criminals, illegals, rapists, murderers, thieves. No , your hatred is for politics, white people (with incorrect politics (isn't THAT racist?)) anyone who doesn't believe like you do, calling them ignorant, backwoods, really every STEREOTYPE that you've demonized because you've decided it's all 'their' fault. Really EVERY poor behavior and demeaning accusations you say you hate but you'll never evaluate your own behavior actions and words. You're the perfect characiture of what really everyone hates but you refuse to see what you're doing and change your hateful, regressive dumb ideas. You just get furious with everyone else who are no longer 'tolerating' your stupid ideas and rants.

[pasayten]

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1NGwcaeUvw/

[dorankj]

You guys are FOS and have zero idea what you're talking about. Nothing close to your hyperbolic fear mongering is going to happen and you're just apoplectic that the orange monster is kicking butt and doing exactly what he was elected to do! I'll make a deal with you, IF I ever start picking up dead bodies in the streets from lack of health care access I'll come here and admit you were right. Now, start screaming for everyone to take personnel responsibility for there health, eat better, lose weight, exercise, manage your diabetes, quit smoking, stop doing drugs (yes, cannabis too!) And stop demanding doctors fix your bad choices and lazy behavior and stop demanding everyone else PAY for all your crap! My job will become actual emergency medicine, fire and car accidents again!

[just-jim]

.
Yes, it will be so much more humane to let them die in the gutters. More efficient to pick up too.

And certainly the more Christian thing to do.
.

[Rideback]

Thank you Ken for reminding me how Trump promised for over eight years that he would fix our healthcare system, all without one Bill, one EO, one budget that fulfilled any fixes he promised. And now, his ultimate fix is the admission that he and Reps believe that the best fix is just to defund healthcare, close hospitals and clinics,

[dorankj]

This system HAS NOT made our health care better! I've watched and worked in this for decades and NOW our ERs are overrun with hours of wait times even for 'emergency' personal who can't even leave their supposed emergency patients until staff can take them in the crazy system. When people can DEMAND service because they won't take the advice of those they've used for help and now simply HAVE to go to the ER with zero consequence (cost) it overwhelms the system. 'Socialized' healthcare is crap healthcare for everyone!

[mister_coffee]

Why this is absolute crap.

Under the 1986 EMTALA law ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency ... _Labor_Act ), nearly all hospitals are required to treat patients requiring emergency care regardless of their ability to pay. If you think about it for more than ten seconds that actually makes sense -- if you are in the midst of a medical emergency you might not be able to fill out a pile of insurance forms when the ambulance hauls you to the hospital.

So what we are doing with these cuts is moving people from a plausibly less expensive part of the health care system to the absolutely most expensive part. Folks will get health care, one way or the other, but all of the rest of us who can afford insurance will inevitably pay higher rates and higher costs at hospitals to pay for this.

I'd also point out that a significant portion of medicaid funds for adults is for addiction treatment. Now I have my own strong opinions about drug addicts but I don't see how it makes our communities or our personal hides better off to not treat those people. Whether they are employed or not. Drug addicts who aren't employed will usually resort to crime to get the money to feed their addiction. So now you'll be spending much more money on law enforcement and the criminal justice system than you would have to treat them (and yes, drug treatment programs that work are insanely expensive) in the first place.

So I can't see how this whole medicaid cut thing is anything but a way to screw over our communities and take money out of our pockets. We are paying for this one way or the other and we should be realistic about that and work out what the least expensive option would be. I doubt anyone here has done that.

Oh, yeah, EMTALA also requires Emergency Rooms to treat patients regardless of immigration status or citizenship as well. Which again makes sense because if I have a heart attack I'm not likely to remember to bring my documents to the ER with me when I go there for treatment.

[Rideback]

Washington State Hospital Association weighs in with a statement
https://www.wsha.org/press-releases/was ... -bill-act/

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act as passed by the Senate today is a disaster for Washington State’s hospitals and the patients we serve. There is no way we can absorb this level of cuts in the Medicaid program without massive impacts to all Washingtonians’ access to care.

The biggest risks: Hundreds of thousands of people will lose health insurance, and payments to hospitals for providing services to Medicaid enrollees will be slashed. These provisions jeopardize the health care system for everyone. Important hospital services will disappear, nurses and doctors will be laid off, and several Washington State hospitals are at risk of full closure.

We applaud our two Senators for their staunch opposition to the bill. We are frustrated that Senators from Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Wyoming, who rely on Washington’s specialty care, voted for the bill. We urge our own House delegation and House members from surrounding states whose residents count on our health care system to reject the bill and preserve access to vital health care services.

Impacts will be severe for both rural and urban hospitals. To address concerns about rural hospital impacts, the Senate added a “rural health transformation fund” and claims this will protect rural hospitals from the cuts in the bill. The rural fund is wholly inadequate: It adds bureaucracy and administrative hurdles to accessing funds and does not even come close to making up for payment cuts. Offering this as a solution is like punching someone in the face and then offering them a Bandaid.

-Cassie Sauer, WSHA President & CEO

[Rideback]

I would agree with Jingles' premise if it had any basis in fact. When corps like Walmart designed their employee compensation so that the employees didn't get health insurance and their only option was Medicaid it pretty much let the cat out of the bag. Those Walmart employees aren't the problem it's the system that allows for corps to dig into the system's loopholes and the taxpayers are funding, in that instance, what should be the responsibility of the employers. Tag onto that that minimum wage should be raised.

If one wants to gripe about abuses of taxpayer money, look at the billions that Elon Musk has been able to tap into. There's not enough people fraudulently using Medicaid to even touch that abuse. Then you can look at the Congressfolk who have been misusing their insider information to trade stocks. And of course there's always the subsidies to the Fossil Fuel gang that get their subsidies even while posting record profits.

So yeah, I don't like to see fraud and abuse anywhere, but it looks more like the fraudsters and abusers are running the ship these days.

[PAL]

Yes, able bodied people should work. Do the people in charge sort that out at all? Crooks and Liars is a good link to start as posted.
Man, Ken, you really think we/I am motivated by hate. Just watch Trump's speech saying he hates the Democrats. I respect law abiding citizens, but not Trump who is not law abiding as has been proven many times.
Yep and I don't think foreigners who are criminals should be let free to go roam about our country. But due process has to happen. Innocents are taken away. And I don't approve of ICE agents or whoever they are wearing masks. Cowards.