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.
