It could work, but the underlying issue here is how Medicaid is distributed. Each state can generally determine how their Medicaid grants from the Fed are disbursed. There are a number of states that do not distribute the funds through their Department of Insurance or corresponding entity. This prevents the required disclosure of statutory financials since, as far as their books are concerned, are not assuming the financial risk. Since the risk is offset, insurance agencies should compete with Medicaid, but in reality they are making a ton of money off of it and not giving a shit where the premiums go. Right, and I think this is the end goal of what (most of) both sides are after, or should be. Problem is, aside from nuking the whole system and hoping the replacement works, the only way to go is to slow carve away bit by bit and allow market adjustments over time. Politically, this is a non-starter and would require surviving many political administrations and congressional turn-overs between both sides.
The wall gets more magnificent by the day. I guess this is old news, but I really didn't see that one coming.
Some idiot told Trump "if we put solar panels on it, then the left would be hypocrites to oppose it!"
I struggle to be open-minded when it comes to the Tangerine Tyrant, but....the problem we're trying to solve is "illegal immigrants" coming into the US and causing all sorts of trouble. So, wouldn't it be easier to fine, punish, shame or prosecute the people giving them jobs here? My memory is fuzzy, but wasn't that one of the reasons companies participate in E-verify? And I am sincerely curious about if the wall has something like, say....a design? Or an architect? Or any semblance of a legal team that could negotiate all the land, resources and permits required for it's construction? I suppose what I'm actually asking is: has anything concrete been done to suggest this is anything more serious than being threatened by a "Navy Seal with 108 kills that can find my house with his super-hacker skills" on Xbox live?
Because that's where solar panels belong. Instead of putting them anywhere and everywhere else like he should be doing.
There's a bunch of companies that are going to make proposals, but as far as I know they are no where near deciding how to pay for it. I wonder if the administration actually has any plan for the solar panels or it's just one of those things that sounded cool at the time. I'm going to guess the latter.
What are those companies? What information have they been given? Do specs for this exist somewhere? I'm genuinely curious what has been distilled into an actual, executable order, if anything.
I think you're giving this administration far more credit than it is due. I think we can expect, essentially, policy hot potato for the next three and half years. We're trotting out the wall to distract from the languishing health care bill. We're having some potential shenanigans (gas attacks, I guess) in Syria to go directly into after that. And then Trump will be visiting France which will give people something to hem and haw about. By that time, according to the not at all imaginary flow chart I've created, we'll likely move back to either ISIS or North Korea to panic about, and so on.
It will all be standard UFGS Spec'd construction just like every other Federally-procured construction project around the world for anti-terror fences. it will be an approximate 5 year minimum process from planning to design to procurement to construction to turnover. Go read the FAR regulations if you really want to understand the whole process. The companies that will bid this work will depend on the size of the contracts that it is broken down into: For instance my company probably will no-go the pursuit for less than $50MM contract values but the smaller stuff with all be small business (SB) set asides anyway. Like it or not, the wall is a jobs program, jobs that beat the pants off retail. The country needs to do the same for power substations, bridges, tunnels, ports, highways, schools, etc.
Maybe they should just funnel the entire wall budget into your Infrastructure period, so your country doesn't look so stupid for actually going through with this idiotic waste of time, money and resources.
This how I feel about it. The idea that it's 'immoral' to build a wall is stupid. A country has a right to have any immigration policy they want. However, the idea that this wall is going to solve problems is equally stupid. Although, assuming he does triple the size of ICE and most of the wall is patrolled it would be at least a little effective, right? By maybe 'a little effective' I do not mean worth $40 billion or whatever this thing ends up costing if it actually goes through.
There are a ton of bullshit programs that should be cut to fund infrastructure, the country is falling apart at the seams. Let Trump build the stupid wall, once the construction RFP comes out, just figure out how tall it is going to be and then go Mexico and start a ladder business selling ladders that are 5 feet taller than the wall. Then you can become rich enough to run for President and #MAGA.
Ahh, my mistake. The problem is that Trump's values are now the party's values, at least to some degree. If my party nominated Trump, I would leave the party. The "circus" is more damaging to the country than a competent and sane leader of an opposition party would be.
I'm not 100% on that. Trump is certainly more repulsive/personally embarrassing than everyone else considered for the position. But I think that Pence (for example since he's the one with the most realistic shot) would cause far more actual damage than Trump would, despite being less of an embarrassment. This is a more-or-less verbatim conversation that I had with one of my liberal friends a couple of days ago(he wants Trump impeached):* Spoiler: Conversation Me: I really don't think you've thought this through. Friend: Why? Me: Think about it. Trump hasn't even filled something like 96% of the DoD posts. Look at how palpably laughable the claims of a Fascist takeover by Trump from 10 months ago are. He makes previous incompetent Presidents look like Rhodes Scholars. But if you get rid of him you get Pence. Pence is the theocrat's theocrat. He will have absolutely no problem filling up those DoD posts (and many others). And he will fill those posts with Bible-thumping crypto-fanatics who hate gays and think that the only time women should be out of the house is when they go to and from church. Never mind the fact that Pence knows how to, y'know, get lawyers to draft executive/administrative orders properly. I'll take a deeply unpopular, mostly ineffective Trump over an effective-for-all-the-wrong-things Pence any day, despite how pitifully embarrassing Trump is on literally everything. The Presidential line of succession goes: Trump--->Pence--->Ryan--->Orin Fucking Hatch. No one is coming to save the day. *I say more or less because we were drinking Viking's Blod during this conversation, so I might be a wee off with the transcription.
Trump has had another Twitter war with the hosts of Morning Joe: http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/trump-ridicules-female-tv-host-s-looks-calls-her-crazy-1.3481858 It's kind of funny how he's not mature or smart enough to really engage with them effectively.
I think the "circus" has finally and fully exposed just how fucked up your politics is, and is forcing both major parties to try and get a handle on that. It's also made enough people so pissed off that there is a fresh new influx of non-political people running for office... tons of scientists that are pissed off over the current stupidity that is ignoring science, that kind of thing. I'm not saying any of them have a hope in hell of winning, but, well... Trump won, so why can't they?