Thursday, August 21, 2014

$206,000,000

BY Jeff Simpson

$206,000,000 is the amount of money that Scott Walker cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin,when he rejected the Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act!


Wisconsin could have saved $206 million in 2013-2015 if the state had accepted the Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The potential savings is up significantly from the fiscal bureau’s estimate last year of $119 million, largely because more childless adults with incomes below the poverty level have signed up for coverage than expected.
Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature rejected federal funding to fully cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $26,321 for a family of three, through 2016.
The federal government says it would later cover at least 90 percent of the costs, up from its usual share of 60 percent for the state-federal Medicaid program.

Tammy Baldwin is not happy about it!

 "As you are aware, for over a year I have communicated my belief that you have taken our state down a fiscally irresponsible road by pursuing a plan that has not only created a gap in coverage and newly uninsured Wisconsinites, but also covers fewer people at a higher cost to taxpayers," Baldwin wrote in a letter to Walker on Wednesday.
"Wisconsin is paying a steep price for your insistence on putting politics ahead of progress," Baldwin wrote.
Walker's plan was for the 63,000 adults terminated from the state Medicaid program, BadgerCare, to obtain health coverage on the federal health care exchange. But about 38,000 are unaccounted for and may remain uninsured.
"I respectfully request that you take full responsibility for the consequences of your plan and determine how many of the 38,000 individuals remain uninsured, and immediately develop an action plan to guarantee that uninsured, former BadgerCare recipients enroll in marketplace coverage moving forward," Baldwin wrote.

Naturally, Scott Walker lied!


Explaining his rejection of federal money to fully expand Medicaid coverage, Walker said on Fox News Sunday that "federal government reneging" on Medicaid payments to Wisconsin caused more than $200 million in extra costs in the 2013-’15 state budget.
But typical cost-sharing fluctuations, based mainly on a longstanding formula, explain the extra state burden -- not any reversal of course or pulling back on a commitment by Washington.
We rate Walker’s claim False.





False


Scott Walker's blind ambition to be President is very costly to the people of WI!  

 


 

15 comments:

  1. Scott Walker will lie, break laws and run this state into the ground as long as he is Governor. He does this for personal gain. The end justifies the means. Wake up Wisconsin and throw the bum out of office in November.

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  2. Ohhh! Now I get it. "typical cost-sharing fluctuations" are to blame for leaving Wisconsin holding the bag, not reneging on promises. Well, that makes all the fiscal difference in the world — or does it?

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    1. So why is your boy Scotty relying on $1.35 billion of those same federal Medicaid dollars over the next 2 years? Couldn't those be "reneged upon" as well?

      Enlighten us, WHAAAA-ska. What's the difference?

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  3. No I think its a great idea, that we are paying an extre 200 Million dollars so walker can appeal to the far right loons in his never ending quest for more power.

    The fiscal conservatives in WI are breaking us.

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  4. From today's Milw-Journal-Sentinel PolitiFact: "Walker says his "Act 10 reforms" have "saved the taxpayers some $3 billion." [That is Billion with a B] Requiring most state and local government employees to contribute more to their pensions has saved public employers more than $3 billion, including $2.35 billion in pension costs, and there are more savings that haven’t fully been tallied. Those costs haven’t simply been eliminated, however. They’ve been taken on by public employees, who are also taxpayers. We rate the statement Mostly True."

    BTW: The Pew Center for the States finds Wisconsin's public employee health plan to be the 2nd most generous in the nation. That is AFTER Act 10.

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    1. "Those costs haven’t simply been eliminated, however. They’ve been taken on by public employees, who are also taxpayers."

      But guess what! Take away 10% of my income in new ACT 10 pre-tax deductions and who now gets to pay less in WI and Federal income taxes? That's right -- me! The Tea Party and its 1% buddies should be so lucky! I can't believe our beloved Governor and his right wing co-conspirators haven't come out with a commercial touting this great success at lowering my taxes (and sticking it to the Feds in the bargain!) to his math-challenged supporters. Why even do these things if you're not going to toot your horn about it?

      Next topic: Into whose pockets did that 10% of my income go? Hint -- there may be a reason you aren't hearing much so far in this election from the 1% and the non-math challenged portion of Scott Walker's friends, allies, co-conspirators and (most important for last) donors. Money talk$ but so far it ain't $aying much...

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    2. Wait Diva BlasKKKa, I thought (according to your commentary with Cardin last Friday morning) that your expertise was blaming the victims of racial bigotry and socio/economic exclusion, geographic red-lining and just plain old white privilege, for the last 50 years, as the source of their own poverty and lack of over-all better economic success.

      But anyone reading the piece referenced might have expected that our learned Diva would neglect the main caveat/disclaimer to the PollitiFact piece, which amounts to a matter of semantics. The statement might be factual on its face, but the dollars saved are ephemeral and not actual dollar savings as much as a cost shifting from one source to another. Public employers saved money, ?

      Here's the beef and esential fact from that story that you neglected or simply ignored, Diva:

      "That leads to an important point before we close.

      The Act 10 savings aren’t a dollar-for-dollar a tax cut for taxpayers. Rather, they are savings in the context of a budget and what would otherwise be spent for a particular purpose or program. Indeed, Walker himself has often said that easing the employee benefits burden on state and local governments has given them flexibility -- whether that’s using the savings for property tax relief, shifting money to other spending or offsetting cuts in state aid."

      Cutting the budget by didn't save taxpayers one actual penny. Tell me how much your taxes were reduced because of the "savings."



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    3. Blaska, have you ever heard of the Velocity of Money? That is economics that describes how quickly transactions are taking place and money is circulating. The higher the Velocity of Money, the better the economy.

      Act 10 cut the knees out from under the Velocity of Money, especially at the local level in Wisconsin. In other words, $3 billion was not saved, rather $3 billion was taken out of the Wisconsin economy.


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  5. David, you are aday behind, we covered that yesterday!

    http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2014/08/scott-walker-sucked-some-3-billion-from.html

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  6. Can we demand legislation to make wingnut welfare cases like WHAAAA-ska be forced to pay this $206 million, instead of us that make a living outside of bubble-world ?

    And why does WHAAAA-ska always leave out the billions of dollars pulled out of the workers' pockets and the businesses they buy stuff from when he talks about the "cost savings" of Act 10?

    Oh wait, I know why. Because no-talent GOP hacks like WHAAAA-ska didn't get any reductions in their pay. In fact, his wingnut welfare-collecting self GOT A RAISE.

    No wonder Davey fights so hard to peddle his easily-debunked BS. He knows he can't get a real job once the Walker gravy train ends.

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  7. The ultra conservatives will blindly follow Scott Walker wherever he leads them. Case in point, David Blaska in tow like a braying ass. Walker loses the fall election because a majority of Wisconsinites realize he is self serving career politician. Let him run for President...but not on the back of the good people of Wisconsin.

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  8. My little local school district used the tools, now the voters just passed a 3.4 million dollar spending referendum. I get to pay for it with a ten percent pay cut, but shoot truth is I'd spent that money at a local business if I'd have been paid it.

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  9. Blaska as usual is a day late and more than a dollar short. I wonder if his arms get tired from carrying all that water for his lord and master Scott Walker. I wonder if he gets tired of being a tool?

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    1. Nah, WHAAAA-ska lacks the pride to stop being a tool. 30 years of sponging off of wingnut welfare has left him incapable of actually EARNING a job.

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  10. The Walker Administration lives in an alternative universe. Nothing they do is based in reality. It is like watching the Guardians of the Galaxy on stupid pills.

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