MARTIN ARMSTRONG: American taxpayers are now on the hook for three ongoing wars, over 21 million migrants, and countless spending packages.

Former President Bill Clinton approved the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) that prevented illegals from accessing Medicaid and other federally funded benefits. The loophole here is that they are able to access Medicaid for “emergency” situations and then are provided a minimum 90-day grace period, thanks to Biden and Harris.  --Martin Armstrong.

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have declared that illegal migrants may have access to Medicaid in a move that will cost billions. Individual state rights are coming into play once again, but how do individual states manage a federally funded program? Estimates believe over 21 million people have entered the United States since 2022, but no one knows the true figure. The Foundation for Government Accountability has produced a new study that indicates a major catastrophe ahead for Medicaid as millions of people who have never paid into the fund are receiving access.

Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan have reported a 500% increase in Medicaid usage since 2019 due to migrants. The states required to provide financial transparency revealed that the cost of Medicaid to taxpayers has increased by 550%. Hospitals allegedly check to see if a patient is a US citizen, but even if they are unable to provide proof, they are still legally required to treat them. Patients unable to provide proof of citizenship are given a 90-day grace period to show documents but states are now extending that period or simply asking for proof of citizenship.

Blue states like New York, Oregon, and California want to expand Medicaid coverage to illegal migrants regardless of citizenship status. In New York, anyone over 65 may enroll, so long as they reach the low to no income requirement. California and Oregon have already begun providing migrants with full Medicaid benefits. The Foundation for Government Accountability believes that taxpayers in California alone are now paying an additional $4 billion annually to cover these costs.

“Nationwide, taxpayers could soon be paying tens of billions of dollars on health care for people who have no right to our safety net—including those who have no right to be in the country,”   says Hayden Dublois, analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. “All of health care will suffer, too,” Dublois says. “Medicaid pays much less than private insurance, so burdening hospitals with illegal aliens will lead to mounting red ink. Some hospitals have already closed, especially in states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, and covering illegal aliens will likely cause more to follow suit.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) believes that US taxpayers have already footed a $16.2 BILLION bill to provide emergency Medicaid care to illegal immigrants since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, marking a 124% increase since the Trump Administration. “With over $16.2 billion flowing from federal and state governments’ coffers to pay for emergency services for illegal aliens, it is clear that Open Border Czar Vice President Harris’s failed border policies remain the greatest threat to both the United States’s national security and our economic standing,” the CBO reported.

This was never a partisan issue.  Former President Bill Clinton approved the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) that prevented illegals from accessing Medicaid and other federally funded benefits. The loophole here is that they are able to access Medicaid for “emergency” situations and then are provided a minimum 90-day grace period, thanks to Biden and Harris.

Kamala Harris recently voiced her support for migrants over taxpaying citizens. “Health care is a basic human right,” Harris said. “No one should be denied medical attention because of their status.”

Countless people are continuing to flock to the United States as our borders remain open. Every payroll you can see the amount paid into Medicaid by people who may never have access to this service. American taxpayers are now on the hook for three ongoing wars, over 21 million migrants, and countless spending packages. Yet people are cheering that we can't turn back the page to 3.5 years ago when NONE of these issues existed.

VENEZUELA: They literally don't want their own citizens back in the country. They are emptying their jails, sending the gang members to the USA and refusing any returns.

JUST IN: Venezuela stops accepting deportation flights from the United States.

They literally don't want their own citizens back in the country. They are emptying their jails, sending the gang members to the USA and refusing any returns.

Like Trump said, they are not sending… pic.twitter.com/xbXWn8dgT9

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) March 1, 2024

Does the Economy Need Migrants?

Fresh on the Newsletter: Does the Economy Need Migrants?

Read it here 🥳https://t.co/jfeEHhon88

"You actually worsen the shortage of skilled workers, from dentists to mechanics. While you cause a glut of unskilled workers that drives your own workers to poverty-level wages." pic.twitter.com/WpW0qFbse8

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 9, 2024

Does the economy need migrants?

The left claims we need millions of unskilled migrants to avert a catastrophic labor shortage.

In truth, migrants do nothing for labor shortages. Because they consume as much labor as they produce, from dentists to mechanics to social workers.… pic.twitter.com/DQRQVLcrOm

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) February 9, 2024

New York City is currently spending $394 per day on every single migrant. That comes to $144,000 per year per migrant, which is of course far more than Americans make with actual jobs.

This is staggering. Also, not explicitly mentioned is that boomer healthcare should not really add to GDP because it is the cost of keeping a rapidly depreciating asset minimally functioning (like an old Chevette)...   https://t.co/sRDC46Oois

— Dave Collum (@DavidBCollum) January 2, 2024

Why are GDP and job number jobs numbers defying slow-down predictions?

Easy.

Because most new jobs are disguised government spending.  They don't create anything, of course, but they sure do spend and they are about to get a lot worse.  A few days ago The Wall Street Journal ran an excellent article on what they call the "Welfare Industrial Complex."  They kick off asking, "What's driving America's job growth?" concluding it's government social assistance and associated healthcare.  In fact, more than half, 56% of the 2.8 million net new jobs created last year, were precisely that--government social assistance and healthcare.  In Blue states, like New York and Illinois, those welfare jobs make up literally more than all the job gains.  So 113% in Michigan; the same in Illinois, and 121% in New York.  In other words, their real productive economy is actually shrinking.  Without those jobs from just the last year alone, nationwide we would be close to 5% unemployment; if you add back the millions of workers who dropped out during COVID, we'd be closer to 8% unemployment. 

Now, welfare spending is GDP.  To be sure, it will get Paul Krugman popping the bubbly but it is not economic growth; it's not making us richer.  In fact, it's economic deconstruction, converting formerly productive people into the permanent wards of society.  Indeed, if you go into poor areas in many of these states, you'll see literally nothing but welfare services, so nonprofits, Medicaid-paid health clinics, with a tiny sprinkling of gas stations, and takeout with bulletproof glass.  So the productive economy is actually shrinking, but the GDP numbers hide it.  All pretty dire but brace yourself because there's a lot more to come as literally millions of new welfare cases pour in wholesale from what was formerly known as the border. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that New York City is currently spending $394 per day on every single migrant.  That's the price of a nice Disney vacation.  That comes to $144,000 per year per migrant, which is of course far more than Americans make with actual jobs, possibly more since I can only imagine the games government activists play to hide the money they spend.  Add these imported millions to the hundreds of thousands of "drug-addled and mentally ill homeless living on the street," that is a quote from the WSJ, and you've got the makings for some very impressive consumer spending.  

Those nosebleed trillions are just the start since decades of experience have shown that the more government spends on welfare, the more people go on welfare.  In Joe Biden's first stimulus bill, for example, they poured out nearly $43 billion in housing subsidies to end homelessness as we know it.  

So what happened?  

Well, the homeless population shot up by 85,000.  While homeless don't cost as much as migrants, they're just $86,000 a year again per person, which is also a very respectable salary anywhere in America; again, that's taking the activists who run government welfare at their word.   As the WSJ notes, progressive government doesn't do anything on the cheap.  Indeed they don't.  Los Angeles is currently spending $837,000 per unit to build housing for the homeless.  So at $144k a year per migrant and $86k per ruined life times millions, you get the makings of some fantastic consumer spending numbers even as the economy and the treasury are gutted.