Wal-Mart soaks Taxpayers for their Employee Health Care Coverage. They Blame Clinton for Raising Poverty Ceiling...couldn't resist Exploiting Public.

The shocking report below is even more so after reading Wal-Mart’s incredible response.

Bottom Line: Wal-Mart is using the Clinton era policy that raised Medicaid eligibility up to 300 percent of the poverty line to keep wages just under that mark to siphon taxpayer health care support for their employees. To a tune of over $1 million in Wisconsin. That’s the free market?

You've got to check out Wal-Mart’s response, it’s hilarious and an utter admission that hey, everybody else is trying to do it too. Although Wal-Mart makes a baseless claim the research is all wrong, it’s hard to argue with the Wisconsin’s “superior records” regarding Medicaid participation. Other state’s may not be exactly like Wisconsin, but some are, and some are worse or slightly better. Talk about splitting hairs.

Cap Times-Pat Schneider: Report: Wal-Mart costs taxpayers $1 million in worker safety net for each state store: Wal-Mart keeps wages and benefits low, relying on taxpayers to foot the bill for basic needs for its workers, according to a new study that used Wisconsin data to draw its conclusions. Assistance programs for Wal-Mart workers can run $904,542 to $1.74 million a year for each of the retail giant’s 75 super stores in Wisconsin, the congressional staff report found.

The report — which used Wisconsin data because of the state’s superior records on Medicaid participation — calculated the cost of a range of benefits programs, from health care to food stamps and housing subsidies and more for the number of workers likely to be eligible at a typical super store. 

This very odd spin from Forbes should appeal to low information teabillies everywhere who are afraid of "union thugs:"

The report drew criticism from Forbes as a vehicle for lobbying for initiatives to raise the minimum wage and make collective bargaining easier. But even that skeptical look took note of the report's "important" observation that the last 10 years have been a “lost decade” for working families, as their wages fell  to the lowest share of GDP on record and corporate profits rose to their greatest share. 

The report, “Wal-Mart’s The Low‐Wage Drag on Our Economy," drew renewed attention this week, with Mother Jones publishing a post Thursday noting that as the country's largest low-wage employer, Wal-Mart's policies are a driving force in keeping wages low.

Don’t laugh too hard over Wal-Mart’s unintentional admissionthe report is absolutely true when it comes to Wisconsin, and their childish attempt to blame Clinton for making it too easy for them to scam taxpayers:

Wal-Mart calls the congressional report inaccurate and based on unrealistic scenarios.

In a 2005 paper, Jason Furman, an Obama administration adviser, noted that President Clinton’s welfare reform law changed public assistance programs to focus on helping working families, increasing Medicaid eligibility by as much as 300 percent above the poverty line. Furman also indicated that the percentage of Walmart associates on Medicaid is similar to the percentage for other large retailers and comparable to the national average of 4 %.

President Bill Clinton, “changed the nature of social assistance in America, shifting from assistance to the non-working indigent to assistance that supports families who work…. In some states, Medicaid eligibility extends up to as much as 200 percent of the poverty line for parents and 300 percent of the poverty line for children.”

See, soaking the taxpayers for Wal-Mart's health care coverage is all President Clinton’s fault.