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Why Are States So Strapped for Cash? There Are Two Big Reasons
WSJ | 28Mar18 | Cezary Podkul & Heather Gillers

Posted on 03/29/2018 12:37:10 AM PDT by qaz123

The only speaker standing between state budget officers and the opening cocktail hour at a Washington conference was the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. What he said left no one in a celebratory mood.

Medicaid costs, said then-Secretary Michael Leavitt, were projected to grow so fast that within 10 years they would “crowd out virtually every other category of spending.” State spending on higher education, infrastructure and safety, he predicted, would all get squeezed.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: debts; medicaid; pensions; salaries; spending
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No denying that pension costs are a significant expenditure due to the bloat in so many government agencies.

It'd be nice if someone could do the research and offer a rebuttal to the information in the article and see how much money would be saved if the taxpayer wasn't paying for all the illegals, their spawn, refugees and fraud in the numerous 'entitlement programs'. I'm thinking there's lots of money to be saved.

1 posted on 03/29/2018 12:37:10 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: qaz123

Freakin nOOb.../

link?


2 posted on 03/29/2018 12:44:07 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Vendome

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-are-states-so-strapped-for-cash-there-are-two-big-reasons-1522255521


3 posted on 03/29/2018 12:56:35 AM PDT by narses ( For the Son of man shall come ... and then will he render to every man according to his works.)
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To: qaz123

This was one of the things I learned when I got seriously involved in state level politics - the feds direct more and more of the states’ spending every year. This pressures states into tax hikes they wouldn’t otherwise put in place.


4 posted on 03/29/2018 1:03:14 AM PDT by thoughtomator (Number of arrested coup conspirators to date: 0)
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To: narses

Fascinating...


5 posted on 03/29/2018 1:21:17 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: qaz123

Eliminate all future pensions and offer 401’s or other savings plans ... Public service was never supposed to be so lucrative in a monetary sense. The percentage of private jobs that offer big pensions or a pension at all is about extinct...used to be not so long ago that a town or city employee would take a low paying position to obtain the good insurance while the other bread winner would go for the dollar without any bennies.


6 posted on 03/29/2018 1:27:04 AM PDT by mythenjoseph
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To: qaz123

Sate cop in La. earned 250,000 last year....seriously , 18 Ma. state cops got busted for filing for OT when they weren’t there....9 retired and the others are having their status reviewed....public pay scales are way out of line cut from the top down on cash and jail medical fraudsters and most importantly TORT REFORM...they are the real reason.


7 posted on 03/29/2018 1:32:12 AM PDT by mythenjoseph
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To: qaz123

Salaries and benefits are extremely high, especially in public education and administrations in many offices. The debts of most states have been skyrocketing for a long time. And as for medicaid, medical racket and insurance salaries and benefits have also skyrocketed for a long time.


8 posted on 03/29/2018 1:44:31 AM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." --Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: qaz123

...and drug companies.


9 posted on 03/29/2018 1:44:51 AM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." --Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: Vendome

Wow, a 2006 youngster calling a 2009 kiddo a n00b :)


10 posted on 03/29/2018 2:10:06 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: qaz123
...”No denying that pension costs are a significant expenditure due to the bloat in so many government agencies.”...

Teachers pensions with the cost of living increases over the years are a big problem. Sad situation since our public education is in such a crisis in so many places. Sometimes I wonder whether this whole government system, which is now out of the hands of the people into the hands of the rich lobbyists can even stand much longer. It truly is a swamp, born of a lack of statesmen/women with the courage to do something about our problems. We have Trump if we can keep him. The Swamp Dwellers are viciously trying to destroy him in order keep their dictatorial power. Interestingly they have stooped to using children and prostitutes to shore up their power. Can they do that or is war in our future? Maybe Roseanne will save us. God works in mysterious ways.

11 posted on 03/29/2018 2:11:04 AM PDT by jazzlite (i)
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To: qaz123

I agree that this is. Something that impacts the costs. But the reality is that the net savings from that would be minimal. After subtracting the costs to get rid of them, the net gain in the first few years is not that much.

We should do it, but we are also going to have to cut everything. And this means EVERYTHING.

It’s funny—we talk about cutting, but no one wants to cut any benefits THEY are getting.


12 posted on 03/29/2018 2:40:30 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Burn. It. Down.)
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To: mythenjoseph

Someone should figure out a way to bring a lawsuit to the Supreme Court and get them to declare that all forms of defined benefit pension plans are illegal, including Social Security. Force them all to unwind and privatize.

That would solve a lot of fiscal problems pronto.


13 posted on 03/29/2018 2:48:47 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: All
CALI FIREMAN POCKETS ANNUAL MILLION DOLLAR PENSION
A Los Angeles fireman retired in his 50s with a pension of over 1 million dollars per year with lifetime medical benefits.

Job Title: Assistant Chief---Retired 2010---Years service 32

Rec'd from L/A Fire and Police Employees’ Pension Fund 2015: $1,164,022.65 annual

Lifetime Health Benefits $17,286.69 annual (Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

14 posted on 03/29/2018 3:19:24 AM PDT by Liz ((Our side has 8 trillion bullets;the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.))
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To: qaz123

1) Public pensions.

2) Medicaid.


15 posted on 03/29/2018 3:29:50 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: qaz123

There’s a lot, but not enough. Illegals are less of a problem than public employees.


16 posted on 03/29/2018 3:30:42 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: jazzlite

“God works in mysterious ways.”
___________________________

Amen! to that statement.
HE wrote this story in its entirety some time ago; creating the characters and the situation. The finale should prove to be spectacular.


17 posted on 03/29/2018 3:50:12 AM PDT by V K Lee (Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken. - Donald J. Trump)
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To: Liz

Extraordinary. How can any community afford that?


18 posted on 03/29/2018 4:02:23 AM PDT by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: qaz123

There’s only one reason.. Liberals.


19 posted on 03/29/2018 4:45:03 AM PDT by maddog55
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To: qaz123

LBJ is laughing from his grave.

He offed his predecessor to get the job, and then set in motion forces that would turn the country into a third world basket case.


20 posted on 03/29/2018 4:50:40 AM PDT by cgbg (Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
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