Foreign Policy Shifts?

[Spekkio]

How do you figure that? All health care spending, including Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA account for a little over $2 trillion of the total US budget of $7.4 trillion. How is the ACA account for over half of that via 'corporate welfare tax credits'?

Uhhh, arithmetic? Medicare spending in 2025 was $988 billion (we'll round to $1T), so the ACA is making up the rest of it.

Because the ACA obligates the federal government to pay half of corporate healthcare plan costs, which themselves are about half of the total cost of health 'insurance.' That $2,000 / mo plan for a family of 4 obligates Uncle Sam to $1,000 / mo in subsidies to the company. It's estimated that some unknown number between 20 and 50% of that (because private entities don't need to be constantly audited by federal agencies) is passed onto the consumer.

Which means for every dollar a health insurance raises premiums, companies pay $0.25.

There are 134 million full-time working Americans. Fortunately for the US government, not all of them work at large companies and not all of them insure a family of 4.

 

[Flash]

Uhhh, arithmetic? Medicare spending in 2025 was $988 billion (we'll round to $1T), so the ACA is making up the rest of it.

While eligibility for it was expanded under the ACA, Medicaid ≠ ACA and it accounted for about $625 billion from the federal last year.

 

[Spekkio]

While eligibility for it was expanded under the ACA, Medicaid ≠ ACA and it accounted for about $625 billion from the federal last year.

The medicaid expansion is part of the ACA, which sends federal dollars to each state that raised its qualification threshold to 138% Federal Poverty level. The federal government pays 90% of the difference.

41 states and DC have adopted it.

 

[Flash]

The medicaid expansion is part of the ACA, which sends federal dollars to each state that raised its qualification threshold to 138% Federal Poverty level. The federal government pays 90% of the difference.

And how much of Medicaid budget do the beneficiaries covered under the expanded criteria account for? You are arguing that it is 100%, for a program that preceded the ACA by over 40 years.

 

[taxi1]

I agree, 100%.

Maybe we could start here:

1. A public education system that actually focuses on reading, writing, and STEM subjects, not padding the retirement portfolios of people like Randy Weingarden.

2. Figuring out what cultural and educational influences created a leader like Elon Musk.

3. Term limits for all members of the House and Senate.

4. A complete and total focus on the nuclear family.

5. Reminding people, every, single, day about the horrors of communism, facism, and socialism.

6. Mandating 2 years of community service for every citizen between the ages of 18 and 25. Military, EMS, Public Health, LE, Public Education.

7. Providing special tax incentives for people that choose to follow a career in #6 above.

8. Allow people to live, tax free in their homes once their mortgage is paid off.

9. Stop borrowing against the the SS trust fund. Maybe provide an alternative to families that have the means to fund their own retirement.

10. Make the tax code clean and easy to comprehend.

Some comments/questions, having not read the rest of the thread:

4. Why the complete and total focus on the nuclear family? And what does that mean anyway? Both of my parents came from broken families, and could have used some help, and kind of got it. My dad joined the Navy for "3 squares and a rack".

5. Can we broaden the horrors to any kind of authoritarianism? Like the kind being promulgated by the current admin?

6. I'm down with that. Volunteerism in general.

8. That makes zero sense. The people in those homes use huge amounts of infrastructure and services no different than the ones paying mortgages. Roads, telecom, fire, police, satellite services, schools to raise kids so they can pay taxes and fight wars, etc. It's like water to fish, it is everywhere and goes unnoticed, you just assume it is there.

10. Amen. Put HR Block out of business.

 

[number9]

10. Amen. Put HR Block out of business.

The federal government had a great plan (really) to do this, it worked well, and then tax prep companies lobbied against it, and so Republicans killed it.