Caustic Burno":27uvehrl said:
Medicaid is huge part for non-citizens and folks that never paid a dime to play. Illegal immigration has a tremendous cost. I think we need to get our own house in order before trying to feed the neighbors.
I will probably regret this, but here goes.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid. However, when they have children on US soil, those children are US citizens and become eligible. The cost comes when the undocumented show up at an Emergency Dept. of a hospital and receive emergency treatment, such as delivering a baby. By law, they can't be turned away. Certain costs are reimbursed to the hospitals for those that never pay, both citizens and non-citizens. Those costs, as of 2017, amounted to about 1% of the Medicaid budget.
Programs such as WIC and other nutritional programs are a big cost though because illegal immigrants are entitled those benefits. Also, we do have to pay for their education in the public schools. But we have to also understand that it is the states that bear the biggest burden of illegal immigration through education, not the Federal govt.
The biggest problem with entitlements is that they were intended to be self-sustaining, but Congress started raiding the trust fund back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's (both parties) to make the budget more bearable. Now, with the baby boomer generation in their 60's and 70's the programs are top heavy.
I guess my point is that these are complicated issues and not as black and white as the politicians make them appear on either side. Is illegal immigration a problem, yes. But, is it as big a problem as it used to be, no, because illegal immigration has been falling for over a decade. Just because the politicians choose to make it an issue, does not mean that is the worst problem we have. Neither side wants to talk about our debt and the fact that we may very well be bankrupt in a few years. Nor do they want to address the fact that the U.S. owed China $1.2 trillion as of January 2018. Also, all of the GMO grain we now use, most of those patents are owned by foreign corporations. If they decide that they want to yank those, we will be hard-pressed to find enough seed grain to sustain our needs.
Just as I have discovered with raising cattle (and thank you all for the information and education you provide, I am learning a lot), nothing is as simple as it seems.