Detroit, Obamacare, and Unexpected Consequences

DonDiego is touched by forkushV's concern over poor old DonDiego's early demise.

DonDiego may have unintentionally given the impression that he lives among the provincial, rustic inhabitants of the backwoods of Appalachia, . . . far from the sophistication and convenient facilities of an urban community.
It is true that from his homestead DonDiego can see a multiplicity of colorful songbirds, squirrels, and chipmunks and a horse, a donkey, and several cows daily, . . . and wild turkeys, deer, groundhogs, raccoons, foxes, and snakes occasionally, . . . and a goat, once. And something is opening and emptying DonDiego's birdfeeders in the dead of night; based upon the mechanism by which they are closed DonDiego suspects a powerful bear or a clever monkey. Oh, and lots of lightning bugs on Summer evenings. Nonetheless, he is within a few minutes drive of several grocery store chains, and a licensed liquor store, and even a bank, . . . and within reasonable walking distance of a barbecue joint. Unlike some more agrarian locales the police, emergency medical resources, and even sizable hospitals are less than an hour away.

DonDiego's Backyard 29 July 2013


And although DonDiego is about to triple the area of the raised beds which constitute the DD Tomato Ranch, he is still not likely to suffer a significant agricultural accident, as he has no mechanized combine or other powered equipment, . . . except for a hedge-cutter and a string-trimmer. teechur drives the lawn tractor.

So DonDiego has the advantages of living the life of a country gentleman, without many of the injury risks inherent in working in a rural setting, combined with easy access to the necessities available in an urban environment.

If DonDiego were to seek to relocate to Chicago in the future, he will seek forkushV's advice as to selection of a neighborhood.

80%f the "farm bill" is for food stamps! I don't think that makes it a "rural" problem. I agree that portions of the farm bill are a stretch, that corporate farms have taken excess advantage of. Is that not true of about every government program that we have?
farmers would like the "food stamp" program to not be included in any farm bill, they also realize that makes it easy for urban senators to never support a true "farm bill"

No one said it was. But the farm subsidies that I mentioned are 100% rural, aren't they?

What does this have to do with anything being discussed? Why are you yelling? Who are you quoting?

I'm all for seeing a discussion meander to new topics. But there should be some logical flow to it, no?

Right It's not like anyone actually mentioned Food Stamps and Farm Subsidies in this thread. Oh wait a minute.

Umm, . . . sort of.
"According to the [Environmental Working Group], 290 people in New York City received farm subsidies in 2010 and raked in a total of $880,887. 734 "farmers" in Chicago got $2,173,344 in federal subsidies, and 203 people in Miami got $2,472,071 worth. On the West Coast, 179 people in San Francisco were paid $1,094,172."

Ref: ABC News

I think another huge IFis if enough of the younger/healthy generation can be convinced to sign up. I've read several times of the need for huge numbers needed to enroll to offset the large amount of sickly/unhealthy folks who are expected to sign up. I'm pretty sure this is why a number of celebs have been recruited to aid in this attempt.

I think there are aspects of the plan that I would like to see stick around but I think as whole, it's just a severely complex behemoth to actually work. I'm certain it's going to cost way way more than any cost saving thing the CBO or whoever is predicting. As somebody who is unfortunately very intimate with the healthcare system, that from what I hear and understand, cost's(what hospitals and healthcare professionals are allowed to charge) are going to be suppressed. Also the amount of rules and regulations are getting ridiculous already for fraud purposes. This is getting to be a PITA but I'm all for cutting the amount of fraud that's currently going on. If it truly cuts it significantlythen that in and of itself should be a huge savings, we'll see how well it works.Cutting off the illegal folks would go a long way to saving a few bucks as well. All IMHO of course.

J

Unfortunately, it is the rural areas of our country that are the most costly and dangerous.

I say costly because it really is the rural areas of our country that suck the government teat to the greatest degree, with all their farm subsidies, federally subsidized rural electrification and so on.
__________________________________________________________________________________
why chili, it appears that it is mentioned in this posting by forkie.
if I were to yell, I would type that in caps.
you are such a tender guy!

Of course that "cut and paste" post wasn't particularly relevant to the topic of Detroit's Bankruptcy and pawning off their obligations on the federal government. It was a response to a single word uttered by another poster. Go figure.

Okay, I was too quick, sorry rdwoodpecker. I still don't see a connection between what was being discussed and what percentage of the farm bill was food stamps, or who was being quoted or why the shouting, but I'll move on.

While some 80 percent of the cost of the recently-failed Farm Bill went towards SNAP, one must realize that when the government buys food for nearly 50 million poor people, a fair portion of that money, certainly far less than half, winds up in the pockets of the farmers who grew that food. So while only 20 percent of the bill's cost went directly to farmers as subsidies, SNAP gives farmers additional subsidies, albeit indirectly.