Message Forum

Let me copy what i posted otos..

Maybe the immigrant crisis isn't a real "invasion" of enemy tyrants but I can understand how it can feel like (Addendum) an invasion of some kind. ( coming out of the woodwork).. I think it is crazy down by the border and I would be absolutely screaming if I lived down in a border town. It is so sad for those people and also horrifying that it is so out of control down there.

This problem has been decades coming to a head.. We finally had a chance to get some control legislation passed a few weeks ago and the Reps shut it down.. So no, repubs should not be crying right now while they wait for their orange faced lord to save them. Trump didn't do shit about the border crisis.. last term.. Only put up 80 miles of NEW border wall. The border is 1900 miles .. something.

As for controlled immigration , I am for it.. Who is going to pick my tomato’s or cherries in the fields, or in 100 degree heat putting a new roof on my house ? Who is going to repair my road , pouring asphalt in the mid summer heat waves? You white boys aren’t going to do it. Quite frankly, most are the kindest people I have met.

With more Americans are retiring, and they are living longer and American adults aren’t giving birth to enough children to replace all the retiring workers in the labor force , our Social security reservoirs are being depleted. The Social Security Administration says immigration would help save our Social Security system. "IN 1960, about 5.1 workers supported each person receiving a retirement or disability check. In 2022, there were 2.8 workers for every beneficiary."

"Undocumented immigrants and those with legal status pay billions of dollars each year into the Social Security system through payroll taxes, but because most are undocumented they will never get to reap the rewards of SS benefits.. They will add an extra $7 trillion to the U.S. economy within the next decade and an extra $1 trillion in federal tax revenue. They will also boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product by a total of 2%." We need them .

So yes, get the damn legislation passed and get to it.. It is a human crisis down there.

It is all for the birds...

National Geographic Dance GIF by Nat Geo Wild

03/06/24 06:03 PM

#29196

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Jan,

I can tell what you've been reading and which TV channels you must be watching. You need to investigate the whole slew of available media outlets to get the well-rounded WHOLE truth, which is in the middle of the plethera of facts. Just hearing one side keeps you unable to understand WHY the divide remains.

The Republicans didn't like that particular bill written mostly by Schumer, who added a few things to 'snow' the two Republicans so often mentioned as having added their two cents worth, but, mainly it was Schumer who was in charge. He knew EXACTLY what he and the Democrats needed to secure all they wanted, but he allowed some input by Republicans: the Republicans who DIDN'T get the main item they were insisting upon.....that being a huge reduction of illegals entering our country. Instead, what Schumer concocted, was a a reduction of illegals AFTER 5,000 people had entered each day, or was it each week? It amounted to almost zilch, in the total number of reductions of the masses. Wasn't that clever?

As soon as the Republicans heard that one issue, they said, "No!" That was the MAIN thing they wanted, and Schumer KNEW that! Schumer tried to 'dress-up the package' with other niceities, but the Repubs don't need those other items as much as they need the border hoards to stop.

Have you also heard that Biden has sent airplanes down to many different countries to pick-up illegals who apply to an app called CBP One. They simply fill out the info needed, and they get a date of when they will be picked-up at a nearby airport, to be transported to a city of their choosing!!!!! So when did we ever hear of a country picking-up non-citizens and bringing them to a city of their choosing in the nicest place in the world to live? Talk about insanity reining in the Democrat Party! You, my Dear, are footing the bill for this nonsense, along with me and our other middleclass friends!

As for the border fence/wall, everytime Trump tried to resume working on it, the opposition ran to the 9th Circuit Court, which, I believe is in California, and shut him down with glee in their hearts. Then, after Trump was out of office, they SOLD all of the fencing materials that had already been purchased with money allocated by Congress.......they sold that fencing at pennies-on-the-dollar, to companies who wanted the materials for a bargain, rip-off price. Who got ripped off? YOU GUESSED IT!

03/06/24 07:38 PM

#29197

Jan,

I am opposed to illegal immigration. What you might call an undocumented migrant I would call an illegal alien.

Do you want more immigration? Fine. Change the law.

Do you want 5,000 illegals per day to be able to enter the country before this country can act to stem the flow? That's 1.8 million per year. I don't like that would-be law.

There are legitimate concerns about the limitation on economic growth if there is minimal population growth. Fine. Then pass laws that increase legal immigration. My preference would be to put the emphasis on skill sets that we need. Bring in Indian doctors and Filipino nurses, not unskilled Venezuelan felons who are not vetted.

As I have said, there is a market-clearing price for all sorts of labor. If there are not enough illegals to clean houses and mow yards, then native-born Americans may be willing to do the work if the price is right. How many native-born Americans would be willing to clean toilets for $20,000 per year? Probably not many. How about for $50,000? $100,000? $1,000,000?

Illegal aliens will do these jobs for cheap. If they weren't available to do the jobs, we would have to pay more to have them done -- enough so that low-income Americans would take the jobs and would see there incomes rise.

03/06/24 09:19 PM

#29198

David,

I understand the concerns about the numbers of immigrants allowed per day. I haven’t studied their report as to how they came up with those numbers.. However as I said , I am for controlled immigration and I should have also said for a strict vetting system of asylum laws . I agree we don’t want hoodlums’ but people who can contribute with desired skills but we also need those who are willing to work in our labor force. This bill was not only going to limit who will be allowed to seek asylum and limit the reasons of why they are seeking asylum. The majority of those seeking asylum were going to be turned away..

As you said there were things in the bill that weren’t acceptable. So why aren’t the key folks in DC rolling up their sleeves and continuing to hash out the details RIGHT NOW? It is because the Republicans in D.C. want it to be a key election issue ; apparently it isn’t about the real crisis anymore.

OK, time for sleep.......... I quit.

It would be interesting to be a mouse in Sen. Lankford's house...and hear what he utters under his breath.

03/06/24 10:03 PM

#29199

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Jan,

One of the main reasons Americans are not having many children anymore, is the cost of raising those children. Most married, young couples today, each work at jobs, just to have enough income to provide for one or two kids. When I was young, I grew up in a family of four children, while my Mom stayed home. She could have taught school, but she felt she was needed at home to run everything that needed to be done. My father was raised in a family of five boys. They lived on farm land and worked everyday, especially my Grandfather and the boys, unless they were at school.

My daughter has one son, a nine your old, and plans to have no more. She and her husband have modest salaries: she is a public school teacher, and her husband works in construction. They say they can just barely make ends meet, so no more kiddos for them.

If the Democrats are so concerned that Americans are not procreating enough to sustain the country's needs, then maybe they should figure out the reason for it.

The cost of living has gotten too high in recent years!

And the future does not look to be any better, but rather looks to be more costly each year, with a huge national debt that hangs over our youngsters heads! (34 trillion dollars owed, with no end in sight!) (And owed to the Chinese!! GEEZ! How did we manage to get into this mess!)

Bad judgment and stupid management, seems to me.......And that applies to both Republicans and Democrats! They know they can't manage their own personal finances in such a way, so why do they run the country with such wreckless abandonment? Irresponsible!

03/07/24 08:07 AM

#29200

David,

I just watched a vedio showing Lee Marvin was a WW II combat Marine Scout Sniper in the Pacific. He made 21 night before invasion day landings on islands on the Marshalls. He would go into the beach in a small rubber boat to pave the way for the invasion force.

03/07/24 08:12 AM

#29201

Jan,

I don't want to belabor this discussion, but I do want to say something about Social Security.

First, green card holders can qualify for Social Security benefits.

Second, benefits are progressive. That is, lower incomes receive proportionally higher benefits

Example:

Person A averages $100,000 in covered compensation and retires at 67. Retirement benefit is $2,533.
Person B averages $50,000 in covered compensation and retires at 67. Retirement benefit is $1,610.
Result: Person B pays in 50% as much as the Person A, but receives a benefit that is 63.5% as much.

It is often said that Social Security taxes are regressive because the percentage of income that we pay declines for incomes beyond the SS wage base. For 2024 the wage base is $168,600, so incomes in excess of that amount are only taxed on the first $168,600. While that is true, those folks only receive benefits based on the first $168,600.

03/07/24 09:40 AM

#29202

I just saw on the news White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre saying to solve the budget problem we need the "Rich and big business" to pay their fair share The one thing I see the Dems is they do not consider giving to charities, colleges, museums, music halls and other things as being part of their "fair share" They want the government supporting charitable areas. Any dollars given to charity and deduted as a dollar they cannot spend.

03/07/24 11:12 AM

#29203

Lowell Tuttle

Janalu. I didn't research it, and probably Cordell knows better, but I think that the US debt is 80%--90% owed to ourselves.

Banks, Credit unions, corporations/insurance companies, unions, and huges depositors. A lot of foreign countries also buy our bonds and notes.

The US owes trillions to social security.

It is easy to google.

China is our largest trading partner (sometimes it's Mexico.)

They buy 12% of all the insurance premiums in the world. (What is a communist country buying insurance for?)

There are hundreds of billions of dollars invested between the US and China...if not trillions.

They hate us, we hate them. Yet, there is a co existence that sort of has to continue...

A lot of media rhetoric on both sides muscling up in the Pacific over Taiwan.

In my opinion, Taiwan will eventually be swayed to be ingested by China. Those against it will leave...coming to Mexico, US, Hawaii...

There is a brutal media campaign going on as we speak to convince the voters of Taiwan to vote that way. I don't think China will change that course. They will take over on just political /media related convincing...

Sort of like America has been convinced by Fox news.

The birth rate in China is also way way down... More than ours. They have economic problems...and this is centered around them not being able to sustain an aging population...more so than that problem exists here...

The Chinese view themselves as a success, but only as far as it being a financial success. They are a very greedy culture. Once things start going badly, their set up is revolution...It's their nature. All those guys on top are just pawns to their big problem, 2 billion people. A lot of people die when things go wrong...that is the future that portends them...IMHO

03/07/24 12:01 PM

#29204

David,

You brought up Social Security and Meidicare. For the record, I have both and the latter has been great! Danny was able to get top notch surgery to replace his mitral valve last year at UT Southwestern and was covered by Medicare and our supplemental plan. We don't have an advantage plan. Just regular Medicare. If we had had an advantage plan then we would not have had a choice of hospitals or doctors. We went to UT Southwestern because the surgeron had worked on Danny's brother, Richard to replace his aortic valve and did not need to crack his chest to do it, and he recovered splendidly, a miracle considering he is a liver transplant recipient. Danny's recovery was less than half because of it. They went into his heart between two ribs, stopped his heart, deflated his lungs etc. He got a bovine valve. He was in less pain, etc. Danny had a heart infection too, he almost died as a result, they caught it in the nick of time. So our biggest out of pocket was the PICC line and 6 weeks of IV antibiotics. That ran us a bit over $1,000. My guess is the Advantage plan would have steered us to doctors in Ft. Worth who use the standard open chest, saw through breast bone technique. Just a guess. I don't even want to think about the recovery. Danny was so sick before his surgery he could barely walk and had lost over 40 pounds.

That being said...since you are a retired professor and your wife was a public school teacher, you are on a different retirement plan. Teacher retirement. Right? And a different medical retirement plan?

Next question. So if you both are, how do you feel about school vouchers? I think Abbott was celebrating the recent wins to accomplish this next session. Vouchers are pretty much a done deal in Texas. Funds will be taken from public schools to fund private schools. Teachers will either be laid off or voluntarily go to private schools for jobs. What will happen to the retirement funds and health coverage there do you think?

I think most public schools will suffer huge losses and schools will close and new for profit private schools will spring up. Where they will, is a good question. My prediction: The rural kids will have little or no choices. The rich folks are celebrating and making moves to get the most out of the public coffers to ice up their kids educations at tax payer expense. The guy who won over the incombent in Parker County (Olcott won Rogers lost) vows to bring little or no accountability to the private schools. We will see.

Just wondered what your take on this is. You seem to feel like Trump has no malice, no vendetta and will only make it all better here in Texas and elsewhere.

Oh, our 401K is really gaining lately. From my standpoint the economy is booming!

03/07/24 12:05 PM

#29205

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Lowell,

There's a lot of truth in what you say, and I hear that the Chinese economy is doing poorly at the present time, so we will see what they do in the next few years. I fear what they may choose.

I'm not sure how much of our debt is owed to them, but I know that we keep borrowing money from them very often, especially to pay for the Ukrainian assistance we are giving to them right now. We borrow money from China to be able to give weapons to Ukraine---it's crazy, in my opinion.

I've also heard that each American family owes about $250,000 to pay off the debt, if we actually did try to pay the debt off. Do you think each American family can cough up $250,000 just out of the blue? Of course not. Not since many families are just barely making ends meet, with groceries costing as much as they do, plus gasoline prices, utilities, mortgage payments, etc. Just paying the interest on that 34 trillion is a killer to us all. Something bad is going to happen to our economy if we don't stop spending so doggone much. The writing is on the wall and it is screaming at us! I blame Republicans as well as Democrats! Rand Paul is right! He tells us we MUST return to our senses and reduce our social programs at least a little bit. Nobody wants to do that, but those programs can not continue to spiral upward. We are putting ourselves and our kids in terrible danger. Of course, with all of these illegals entering constantly, our social programs are going to end up with enormous costs breaking us! It's total madness! I can't believe that Biden is now flying illegals into our country, along with keeping the borders wide open. How long is this going to continue? Evidently, it is going to continue until the end of Biden's term. And if he gets re-elected, it will probably continue forever! How can anyone say that the United States can rescue all the poor of the world?

We can't take in all who want to come here to live! They should go to Canada or Europe, in my opinion.

03/07/24 12:15 PM

#29206

This is a rhetorical observation and question , sorta.

When I saw the Texas Republican propositions , I noticed the first one was asking to eliminate property taxes.

I have lived in several states that also have property taxes but have noticed they seem much lower than Texas prop taxes. However , I know Texans don’t pay state taxes or have to file every year. Nor do they have sales tax on , for instance groceries.

Whereas where I have lived , we do have to file and pay state taxes and we do have sales taxes and we pay property taxes..

So if Texans don’t have pay state taxes and or file , there is no sales tax on some items , for example on groceries, and now asking to not have to pay property taxes, how is the state going to be funded to run things smoothly and keep up infrastructure needs , etc ? Where is the revenue going to come from ?

Just curious ?

03/07/24 12:20 PM

#29207

Sandra, My mom was a Texas teacher and I remember she worked little summer jobs to get enought credits to also have some SS benefits and be able to use the medicare plan, plus have her teacher retirement..

03/07/24 12:59 PM

#29208

Jim Bedwell

I guess I spoke too soon. After the trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks won 7 in a row with their new players on board. Now they've lost 5 of their last 6. But I'll still watch their nationally televised game tonight at home against Miami - after all, the only parts of the State of Union address that I'll see will be snippets shown on FNC displaying how bankrupt that the totally worthless Joe is on facts, credibility, persuadability, you name it..........

03/07/24 02:25 PM

#29209

Jan,

Those were non-binding resolutions on the ballot, not acutual laws or amendments. They are basically questions the Republican party asks their voters what they want. Sure, nobody wants to pay taxes! Hell yes, everyone said yes to that one. It is pie in the sky. Money for nothing and chicks for free. Good question though, who pays for roads, infastructure, firemen, police, courts, etc? Who needs governement?

Who will pay for schools? How much will it take to properly fund vouchers and what is left of public education?

03/07/24 02:43 PM

#29210

Sandra,

This fall you should look at Advantage and compare companies. I am with United and you can go anywhere without getting approval. They do have both innetwork and out of network, They have athe largest inetwork. I go to Baylo/ Sott & White and UT Southwestern all inetwork.Their Advantage prem is $0 over Medicare B.

03/07/24 03:14 PM

#29211

Wayne,

Advantage plans are dependent upon where you live. I think you live in Collin County, right? I live in Parker County. The deals the insurance companies make with the local doctors will affect the price and availability of the plan and who your insurance company has in their network. Our experience with Advantage plans here (my mother had an Advantage plan) is the choices are less and less desirable.

03/07/24 03:20 PM

#29212

Kurt Fischer

Sandra:

Regarding vouchers, my wife and I are of two minds. Of course it is appealing to react to certain movements in public schools and decide to put your children in private school to escape. Up until now that has resulted in a dual funding delimma - paying school taxes and paying private school tuition.

My daughter-the-teacher raised two points before the election. Obviously, the first was how we are going to continue funding the public school system if we give out a significant amout of money for vouchers. Her second point was more interesting to me. Essentially it was that a movement to private schools would result in increased segregation in our society. Not necessarily racial segregation, but segregation based on worldview. The reasoning goes the evangelics will tend to move to schools representing their viewpoint, the Muslims will move to their own schools, etc. In the end, many folks will be only talking to those that look and think just like them. One of the benefits of public school has always been a mixing of demographics and beliefs.

I believe the "segregation" issue is probably the most impactful result of a voucher program and not a direction we would like to go.

03/07/24 05:15 PM

#29213

Kurt,

You make some excellent points. I agree with them all. When my son attended public school in Collin County, I was very disappointed in the experience. He struggled to read. He repeated a grade. They degraded him, put him in the "yellow" reading group and finally separated him in a "special classroom" with not only a few who also struggled to read, but the "problem behavior" kids too. He continued to falter. We finally put him in a private school. His first year in public school they taught him phonics, he next year a different teacher taught him "sight reading", which is bascially memorizing each separate word. It confused him, frustrated him and had him talking about giving up completely---on life. When I heard him say to me that that if it was going to go on like this it was not worth living, it got our attention. Big Time. I immediately withdrew him and never looked back.

He now reads, and writes, has his own business. It just took time and patience and trying everything. But mostly it was more focus on enjoying stories, books and reading even if it was a book read to him. At the time, I would have done anything. A voucher would have been sweet.

I don't feel the same way now as I did then. He was a special kid with special needs that were not addressed by the school. Period. Bottom line our responsibility. Lovejoy ISD did not provide a decent reading program for kids with his reading issues. We did instead. We paid our taxes and the tuition.

We (RHS grads) got one of the best public school education in history. The district offered programming classes, advanced mathematics, sciences, shop classes, physicial education, several foriegn languages, drafting, art, band the list goes on, not the mention a decent sport program too. I realize that is not the case any more and I am sad. We got the benefit of Texas Instruments and the oil industry pumping cash into our school and it paid off big time. It seems the teachers got to teach without their hands tied behind them too. It was creative and it produced some the best of the best of that generation.

I don't know what has degraded our public schools but it is sad. I think instead of tearing them down and going a for profit private school patchwork they should take a hard look at the why's and fix our schools. Have the teachers actually be to teach. Fund them properly. Teach, not constantly test. Go back to phonics!!! Teach the arts!!! Get rid of the cell phones.....Now I sound like an old foggie.

03/07/24 06:33 PM

#29214

Et Al with an IRA

Anyone that has an IRA and make charitable gifts. If you have the istribution check made out to the charity and either sent direct to the charity or made out to the charity in care of you the money comes out tax free.It is not reported as income and you cannot use it as a deduction if you itemize.

03/08/24 07:26 AM

#29215

Sandra,

UT System insures Medicare-eligible retirees free (for the retiree) through a Blue Cross-administered advantage plan called UT Care. I've been very happy with it, and I have had no problems finding physicians. No deductible and no copays.

Martha has a Medicare supplement through Humana, and she has been happy with it, although she is switching to a less expensive provider. When I was working we insured Martha through UT System because we liked that plan better than her TRS plan. She should have taken the retirement version from TRS, but we didn't understand the time limit for enrolling. Banned forever. She could be on my UT plan, but it is expensive for spouses.

The concern I have about Advantage plans is when you are older and need big bucks care. I would definitely have the PPO version and not the lower-cost HMO version. As Wayne noted, there are Advantage plans that are free. There are a couple of items at the bottom of the page linked below, including something Tommy Thomas wrote several years ago. https://www.rhs1969.net/class_custom.cfm?page_id=424993

About taxation, Medicare taxes do not have an income max (wage base) like OASDI Social Security. So someone making $1 million per year pays 20 times as much into Medicare as someone making $50K per year. Yet the million dollar guy gets no better medical coverage at retirement than the $50k guy. What's more, in retirement the higher income guy has to pay a higher monthly premium if his retirement income exceeds about $206k for married-filing-jointly. It's $174/month per person below that level. But for $750k, it's $594/month per person.

My point is that lower income people get a better deal with Medicare and wealthy people pay the freight, or "pay their fair share", and then some.

Jan,

Yes, the tax proposal on the Republican ballot was goofy. That said, I am a bit ambivalent. I actually favor income taxes and consumption/sales taxes over property taxes. Property taxes on residential homes seem rather unfair when, for example, a new homeowner could be charged $4,000 per year in property taxes when their equity in the house might be only $10,000. Seems to me to be a usurious wealth tax on shelter.

03/08/24 07:50 AM

#29216

Sandra,

You did the right thing with your son. Bravo! But you shouldn't have had to pay twice for your son's education when public schools weren't doing all the.

People have complained for years about the school situation, and nothing has improved. In fact, test scores have dropped. Parents who care about education are seeing their children

By the way, Martha taught first grade, kindergarten, and pre-K for 37 years. She taught in a private school, but most was in public schools, including two Title 1 (poor) schools. She is a big believer in phonics. The last school she taught in was in Plano ISD at a "rich" school. Mostly Asian/Indian well-educated parents. What a difference! Parents cared about education and honored teachers.

I have told this story before. At a conference with a student's mother at a Title 1 school, Martha told her that she should work with the girl on numbers and colors. The mother respondes, "I don't teach her nuthin' at home. That's what I send her to school for."

03/08/24 08:30 AM

#29217

David,

My mother had an Advantage plan. It worked out Ok for her, until she had to use to go to a couple of rehabilitation facilities, which is really a fancy name for assisted living with nurses. Her plan was strictly limited as to where she could go. She used two facilities in Weatherford for illnesses she had that caused her to be weak and she needed more "intensive" physical therapy. Intensive is in quotes because what Medicare allows and what the insurance will pay for is not very intensive, in my opinion. First, because she was a fall risk she was put to bed and an alarm set on the bed. Great. However to get up required help from a nurse. Help often took time and mom's needs required a more prompt response. As a result she regularly messed up herself, would get more depressed, frustrated and got less and less interested in moving on her own. So she moved less and physical therapy took weeks. She would progress, but it was a long process. Her age a big factor, yes, but with adequate care and the ability to move on her own would help her more than the rules set to protect her. A no win situation.

Back to the facilities. The first one College Park Rehab was nice. However, I never got in there to see for myself. It was during the pandemic and I was not allowed in. It was there she caught Covid. So much for limiting visitors...I got her out and home and she got better.

The next one, was Hilltop Park Rehab. Her first day there she was transferred from Weatherford Hospital. It took them 24 hours to change her soiled underware. 24 Hours. She was there to get over a UTI. I was livid. I could not change to College Park, they refused her. She complained to much there and the insurance hassled them. So they would not take her ever again. Due to the advantage plan I had a choice, pay full price and transfer her to one not on her plan or put up with them. So I raised hell and watched them like a hawk. She got better and came home again. Her plan was limited as to where and the only other facilities was in another county and not well rated.

I doubt for the present we will change to an Advantage plan. If we do, we will check which rehabs are on the plan, and their ratings. One fall, and bingo, you need one! Living in Collin County you probably have nice places, here in the good ole boy WestOPlex it is quite different.

03/08/24 08:54 AM

#29218