Medicaid Fraud, Illegal Immigrants, and Tax Increases! Oh My!

So, I have to say, Sen. Grisanti is starting to disappoint me.  It seems like he is trying to pander to the lowest common denominator in the GOP party, instead of running based on representing his constituents (Which he has done a pretty good job, BTW).

Biometrics on Medicaid cards.  Purported to save tax dollars due to consumer Medicaid fraud.  The problem here?  Well, firstly, only 10% of Medicaid fraud is due to consumer-side.  I mean, are you going to get 15 scripts filled for antibiotics?  Of course not.  Most of the fraud comes from the provider side, billing for services not rendered, double billing for services, and inflating costs billed, etc etc.  It's the same-old, same-old attack on people collecting benefits, instead of attacking the true source of the problem.

The second issue with the biometrics is the costs involved.  I wish Sen. Grisanti would talk to some of his constituents who are in Information Technology.  We could explain to him to steep costs involved, and the lack of ROI unless a high-dollar contract is requiring it.  In the case of Medicaid, we'd be in the same boat as Florida with their drug testing welfare beneficiaries.  It costs about 3 times what it saves, causing a net loss.  This is going to be the same deal.  We spend $15 billion, to save $3 billion.

Also, the attack on "Illegal Immigrants".  Now, the target of this measure is to keep students who have excelled in high school and grade school from collecting TAP or anything other state benefits, if their parents brought them here illegally.

Now, on it's face, this sounds like a sane enough plan.  However, it breaks down the further you look at it.  The students this will hit are those who were brought here as infants, and raised here their entire lives.  Many don't even have any sort of accent.  We are basically refusing to aid potentially productive members of our society; because of a decision that was not made by them, and they might not even know it.

It sounds like something that needs to be done, since we can't fund TAP completely.  However, when you realize we refund over $1 trillion per year in stock transfer taxes, back to brokerage houses, because of a back-room sweetheart deal that happened about a decade ago.  Most interesting about this?  You, as an individual investor, pay this tax when you buy or sell stocks.  The money is refunded to the brokerage.  You never see it again.  See how that works?

Bottom line here:  Mark Grisanti, stop pandering to the radical right in your party.  You'll get on the ballot, and win the general, if you keep the course you've been on up to this point.  Keep working for your constituents, and stop trying to pit one versus another.  Trust me.  It'll bite you in the ass at general election if you keep up the behavior over the past 2 weeks.  Words on the internet are there forever, and will return to haunt you.