According to the National Debt Clock, the current national debt is about $38 trillion dollars (that’s a lot of zeroes). In addition to cutting spending, it might also be a good idea to see how we got here.
On Sunday, The Daily Signal reported the following:
Oregon state Rep. Dwayne Yunker began asking questions when he discovered the state was using tax dollars to bring developmentally disabled clients to a strip club this past summer.
Yunker—a Republican lawmaker in a very blue state with a Democrat super majority in the legislature—has exposed this and other controversial Medicaid spending in the state that has little or nothing to do with medical or health issues.
On Monday, he will be in Washington meeting with members of Congress and Trump administration officials about looking into how his state—and likely others—are spending Medicaid dollars. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program intended to cover health care coverage for the poor or disabled.
The Oregon Department of Human Services informed the lawmaker in mid-August that denying the strip club outing could jeopardize federal Medicaid funding, Yunker told The Daily Signal.
Specifically, the state agency referred to a federal law that requires state Medicaid programs to help disabled people integrate into the community.
“The adult day care [program] has taken developmentally disabled clients to strip clubs and bars,” Yunker said. “They say they are integrating them with the community. But we are not talking about taking them to a park or the museum.”
Yunker supports the Trump administration’s reforms to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that include work requirements to receive benefits.
The article concludes:
The part of the funding paying for illegal immigrants comes from state Medicaid dollars, not federal Medicaid dollars. The state also notes online that Medicaid dollars can go for temporary rental assistance as well as nutrition assistance.
In August, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, denounced Republicans’ federal Medicaid reforms, saying they will make Americans and Oregonians “sicker, hungrier, and less prosperous.”
“I am going to work with Oregon lawmakers and community partners to do all that we can to stand up for Oregonians and get through this needless, callous hardship,” Kotek said.
In his letter to Oz, Yunker wrote, “The real hardship is what my constituents endure under Oregon’s broken Medicaid program.”
“We’ve barely scratched the surface of the broken Medicaid system,” he said.
Using taxpayer dollars to take people to strip clubs is not helping anyone (except the strip club owners).