Reflections

I have to admit, the debate about the Big Beautiful Bill is....amusing.  I mean, for one, rural hospitals were largely decimated under Obamacare, so for Dems to complain about potential losses... well, it is rich.  More to the point (some friends in the restaurant industry were discussing this today at the gym klatch, in so far as I am a part of it).... the whole system of health care in this country is unsustainable in a lot of ways, including payment and reimbursement.  The fact that it was designed this way in the first place is a mark against Democrats, and the fact that they -- who started this -- didn't fix it...well, that is on them.

Second, as they mentioned, in the restaurant world, people just tell them to raise their prices to pay all of their people a living wage, even though...well, it is highly doubtful that it would work, as it would be too expensive to eat out, or people wouldn't want to pay the same amount for half the portions.  But... mention that to any healthcare professional -- especially the poorer people who don't pay their fair share anyways -- and of course people say you can't do that.  Even though, of course, the health care system is subsidized by people who are paying more to not use it (because it costs too much).

I noted that we could easily (or sort of) solve (or try to) the issue of migrant farm workers by mandating that anyone in public housing -- or using a Section 8 voucher -- would have 30 days to demonstrate they were working full time (I find the numbers to be a little spurious given the ease of finding medical get out of jail cards, and the child thing...well, I think if you can go to the effort of making babies, you can go to the effort finding a job.  Anyways, you have a month to show you are working, leave, or "volunteer" for rural farm work (some of these people can be siphoned to provide child care, but at the end of the day...people will come work.  Now, I don't think we will ever get rid of the need to have migrant labor, but we do not know until we try.  And, if we replace some of the illegal immigrants with native-born Americans...well, it would be a like a big, beautiful wall.

In the meantime, it was...hot. Quite hot.  But, I drank more water compared to the last two days, and while I am still feeling some of the effects of the heat, I am much better.  I made some sweet corn and salmon for dinner -- a few days of no-cook leftovers -- and it was quite good.  I also noted my pile of gift cards has moved and is missing, so... not that I will be using them, but I need to, and sooner is better than later...