WSJ: Bed tax in states such as Georgia is ‘fraud’

Note to Georgia Republicans: Not everyone on the right is convinced that saying “But, the hospitals asked us to tax, er, fee them!” justifies the Medicaid bed tax, er, assessment fee passed two years ago and possibly up for renewal in next year’s legislative session.

In fact, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal suggests this bed tax, er, assessment fee is ripe for elimination if President Obama and Congress are serious about even modest reforms to entitlement programs. From an editorial today:

A deal also ought to end the long-running “bed tax” scam in which states charge hospitals a fee to increase health-care spending and thus their federal matching rate. Then they launder some of the money back to the hospitals to offset the fee. This is real waste, fraud and abuse, not the talking-point version.

Who in the General Assembly will carry the bill to renew the tax, er, fee and explain why it’s not a “scam” that’s “real waste, fraud and abuse, not the talking-point version”?

– By Kyle Wingfield

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154 comments Add your comment

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
7:41 pm

Hillbilly – I never meant to say that Lincoln went around unlocking the cages of every slave in the United States, what are you trying to get at?

Hillbilly D

December 3rd, 2012
7:44 pm

Aesop

That it happened after he was dead. He didn’t free anybody.

Linda

December 3rd, 2012
7:46 pm

Martin Luther King was a Republican & Democrats have always been & are still racists.

http://runslave.blogspot.com/search?q=Martin+Luther+King+Republican

Some of King’s most trustworthy followers have bashed his memory. Blacks vote for Obama & other blacks, despite the content of character & because of the color of their skin. It’s the complete opposite of King’s legacy.

Linda

December 3rd, 2012
7:50 pm

Democrats have always been & are still racists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwqhoVIh65k

Hillbilly D

December 3rd, 2012
7:55 pm

No party or region had a monopoly on racism. It was and is an American problem.

mike

December 3rd, 2012
8:07 pm

MLK was a Republican and Democrats are racists. Linda, you give “crazy” new meaning on this blog. Hey, you know what? I’ve found a way to “burn” ordinary tap water in my car engine.

JamVet

December 3rd, 2012
8:09 pm

Ninety plus percent white and you Republicans are talking about Abraham Lincoln???

Hysterical…

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
8:14 pm

Well, actually, Obama is the one talking about Lincoln. Funny though, considering that Lincoln freed the slaves from bondage only to have the libs and Obama reenslave them to government bondage.

They toil on a new plantation…

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
8:18 pm

A rathole is some crime ridden housing project and a couple hunerd bucks a month, all in exchange for their votes, anything less and the libs could be prosecuted for human trafficking. Let’s call it the minimum wages.

But yet, they libs say they “care.”

JamVet

December 3rd, 2012
8:19 pm

Aesop, you are a Democrat’s dream come true!

Keep up the good work, they are counting on you…

Linda

December 3rd, 2012
8:26 pm

mike(with a little m)@8:07, Didn’t read my sites. Minions only hear, see, & do what monkeys do. Can’t even venture outside their boxes to ascertain the merits of other people’s views. Keeps you guys welded to the liberal agenda, which we, conservatives, consider propaganda.
Expand your horizons. Think for yourself. Don’t just let maturity, thirty years from now, wake you up to being the blind led by the blind.
I’ve been there, done that.
Calling conservatives “crazy” is what liberals do when they don’t read sites, don’t do their own research, can’t comprehend critical thinking & can’t argue with facts. Just attack the messenger, rather than the message. You are nothing more than a wasted statistic & casualty of the liberal agenda that is taking our country into economic oblivion.

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
8:29 pm

Does the non sequitur make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Jamvet?

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 3rd, 2012
8:38 pm

AmVet, you’re an American’s nightmare come true!

CC

December 3rd, 2012
8:43 pm

Aesop’s:

JamVet is always “fuzzy” on issues. Nothing new here . . .

CC

December 3rd, 2012
8:45 pm

mike@8:07:

Linda is correct on all counts. Learn a little before challenging facts!

CC

December 3rd, 2012
8:47 pm

Tiberius:

JamVet is an American?

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 3rd, 2012
8:59 pm

He is, CC, but he just doesn’t think like one anymore.

Sold out his principles to government a long time ago.

JamVet

December 3rd, 2012
9:09 pm

Man, getting you Wingfield Republirubes all riled up is easier than sending Alan West, Joe Walsh, Todd Akin, Richard Mourdoch, George Allen amd Mitt Romney back to the private sector.

But I do confess that I am loving your post election meltdowns. They are even funnier than the pre-election ones.

Stay belligerent, my friends…

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 3rd, 2012
9:23 pm

When you can’t refute, claim the others are having election meltdowns.

Modus operandi of the terminally ignorant.

Rocky

December 3rd, 2012
9:27 pm

Game, set, match to JamVet….

You have to love the he doesn’t think like one anymore comment. As if there is one way to think….

Hahahahahhaa

You have to love it along with the snarly comments from those melting like cheap candles.

Rocky

December 3rd, 2012
9:30 pm

Well some meltdown regardless, the election just gave it a turbo boost

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
9:31 pm

Does anybody know what Rocky said?

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 3rd, 2012
9:32 pm

“As if there is one way to think…. ”

As to thinking like an American should think, Rocky, this country was founded on freedom, small government, individualism and liberty.

AmVet (and most liberals) possess none of these qualities. So, no, he doesn’t think like a traditional American once thought. Of course now, many Americans don’t think like Americans should, either. Witness the election and re-election of Obama.

Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories

December 3rd, 2012
9:32 pm

Does Rocky have white powder around the nostrils?

Rocky

December 3rd, 2012
9:34 pm

Tiberius

And that is your opinion and right to have it, but along with $1.00 it will get you a copy of the AJC.

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 3rd, 2012
9:40 pm

As is your opinion that game, set and match went to AmVet, Rocky.

The difference is that my opinion is based on reality, not fantasy.

Rocky

December 3rd, 2012
9:58 pm

And if that made you feel a little better about yourself, run Forest run

ODD OWL

December 3rd, 2012
10:08 pm

Non rich Republicans are illin’ ignoramuses…

JDW

December 3rd, 2012
10:16 pm

@Tiberius…”The difference is that my opinion is based on reality, not fantasy.”

The man with the maturity of five year old says as he stamps his feet and holds his breath while clutching his toys yelling MINE MINE MINE.

ODD OWL

December 3rd, 2012
10:21 pm

When the Boehner/McConnell led Republicans push the American economy off the fiscal cliff, their rich, elite Koch Bros. type benefactors will provide golden parachutes for them to land gently… But what about you lower class and middle class non union Republicans, will the corporate bosses provide golden parachutes for you too, or will they allow you to plunge to the depths of the economic abyss ???

Jefferson

December 4th, 2012
6:40 am

You can go forward or be left behind, nothing stay the same.

Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!

December 4th, 2012
6:50 am

Gotta love the scared little proggies…returning to the Clinton tax rates and taking $100 billion out of their messiah’s $500 billion increase in spending looks like a disaster to them.

Thomas Heyward Jr

December 4th, 2012
6:57 am

Since Wingfeild loves his Washington central planners so much…….he should do his patriotic duty and narc his state out to big brother—————————
.
•Call the Recovery Board Fraud Hotline: 1-877-392-3375 (1-877-FWA-DESK)
•Fax the Recovery Board: 1-877-329-3922 (1-877-FAX-FWA2)
•Write the Recovery Board:

Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
Attention: Hotline Operators
P.O. Box 27545
Washington, D.C. 20038-7958
.
If you see something……..tell someone.
.
lol

independent thinker

December 4th, 2012
7:32 am

One more socialized medical care scam from the cons Just like Reagan’s EMTALA.
They will run funding of hospital care off the cliff so state pays as little as possible and the Feds keep funding blue state money and insurance money into the red states to cover medical care. Feds should elect to cut off all Medicaid funding to the red states and let them cover their own- Think of the effect on the Deficit? Oh I forgot the cons on the Supreme Court said that would be unfair. No wonder we have such a huge deficit.

Hopeful

December 4th, 2012
7:59 am

I wished we could have Justice in this world but
the whole world is turn into a bunch of crooks
Politicians,doctors, plumbers, electricians you name it your favorite is the Is the people fixed car!!!!!
I wander what God is thinking ??? This world is drained of any hope when it comes to taxes !!!!!

Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!

December 4th, 2012
8:05 am

Feds should elect to cut off all Medicaid funding to the red states and let them cover their own
———

No objection here, assuming the taxes collected stay in the states too.

Hopeful

December 4th, 2012
8:06 am

If they start taxing beds in Hospitals they are to just Legalize marijuana and Prostitution

Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!

December 4th, 2012
9:17 am

LOL…one of the losers tweeting a question to Obozo on the fiscal cliff complained that middle class tax cuts don’t help her because she doesn’t have a job. A no-doubt Obozo voter.

Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed

December 4th, 2012
9:27 am

John Q, a sock puppet is an online identity used for deception. Get that through your thick head.

If you wish to keep posting nonsensical drivel, I suggest Bookman’s would be more suitable for your kind.

@@

December 4th, 2012
9:28 am

A deal also ought to end the long-running “bed tax” scam in which states charge hospitals a fee to increase health-care spending and thus their federal matching rate. Then they launder some of the money back to the hospitals to offset the fee. This is real waste, fraud and abuse, not the talking-point version.

This is no different from what the present tax code allows. Just as “the rich” play the odds, so too, do the politicians.

Wealthy Dump Assets Amid Worries About Going Over ‘Cliff’

I’m with Hillbilly Deluxe on this one:

This is just another example of why the entire federal, state and local tax systems to be blown up and started anew.

The simpler, the better. Opportunities for some exist in the maze. Voters get lost in that maze.

They cry after getting the boot

December 4th, 2012
9:40 am

Tiberius

Did you used to post at Bookman’s blog?

Let me guess, you did and left on your own.

;-)

CC

December 4th, 2012
9:47 am

Very good read . . .

“The present occupant of the White House, and the party of which he is an iconic if standard feature, was born into and suckled upon the milk of zero-sum economics, perennial class antagonism, class envy, and a neo-feudal status centered mentality of human relations. Like many of his generation and worldview, he is convinced there is a “better world” possible in which humankind can be redeemed and made whole through a moral regeneration imposed by sheer force of will by the state and by the cleansing influence of a purifying ideology. With the dawning of the Obama era, and a renewed animus toward free-market economic relations and the key importance of the individual to a free society, this mentality is in process of arriving at its apogee.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/the_great_transference.html#ixzz2E5vA4kR3

They cry after getting the boot

December 4th, 2012
9:50 am

CC

Thanks for your not so well disguised post election continued whine.

Stop being bitter and start getting better.

breckenridge

December 4th, 2012
10:07 am

Everywhere I look I see and hear nothing but whining about Medicaid, food stamps and welfare. It’s okay to whine, I suppose, if you propose solutions as well. I certainly don’t have all the answers but I do have one of the answers.

Several months ago the AJC ran an article on the Georgia state prison population. The article stated that 90% of those in Georgia prisons are high school dropouts. That is problematic; high school dropouts cannot make enough money to raise a family. Therefore we need a program that would dispatch a representative of the state to a prison several weeks before an inmate is to be paroled. This representative would offer the inmate to be paroled a cash incentive of $1500, in $20 bills, to get him off to a good start once he is released. All the inmate need do is agree to have a vasectomy. It would be a win-win; the inmate would have a nice chunk of cash to start his new life and the taxpayers would be off the hook from future tax liabilities.

CC

December 4th, 2012
10:55 am

“Thanks for your not so well disguised post election continued whine.”

There’s no “whine” involved: read it or don’t read it. Your opinion, and in fact your existence, means nought to me.

They cry after getting the boot

December 4th, 2012
11:03 am

Cc

Yet you replied

The best lab cases are those that can’t help but whine… It is who they are.

Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!

December 4th, 2012
11:10 am

You can call it whining when Americans question their government. Know that whatever ypu may call it, t’s going to continue at a time and place and manner of my choosing.

Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!

December 4th, 2012
11:13 am

Why is Obozo trying to pass yet another stimulus?

Dusty

December 4th, 2012
11:22 am

Kyle, hurry up and get back here. Get this show on the road. I got bored this morning and got a laugh by reading Bookman’s commentary on his AJC presentation…. About Petraeus being persuaded one past time to run for the presidency.. What? Another election? No, Bookman was just stiring up some old stuff about Fox News.

But the comments were like watching a rooster fight. KInda like watching AmVet and JohnQ preening their feathers over their mental greatness. Now that is COMIC!

So hurry back with some old jokes,Kyle.. “Old situations” seem to be the style. Did Truman write a fiery note to critics? Was Clinton’s “life style” a copy of Kennedy’s? Was Dolly Madison really a flop at parties? Let’s wring the wrong out of those stories.

Whoohoo and la te dah! Let us be fashionable in the newsworld and dig up some old old “dirt”!!! !And did you know that” Bush did it?”

bluecoat

December 4th, 2012
11:33 am

Obama trying to rescue the nation from the Bush-whacking.