From now on, boots will be manufactured without straps.Michigan Republicans are pushing a new, Donald Trump-inspired bill that would require Medicaid recipients in the state’s mostly black cities to work to keep their health benefits, but exempt some of the state’s rural white residents from the same requirement.
Republican state Sen. Mike Shirkey, who wrote the legislation, has denied any discriminatory intent. He apparently came up with the bill’s most controversial provision — which has drawn withering scrutiny from legal experts — on the suggestion of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
“We were just trying to be helpful,” Michigan Chamber lobbyist Wendy Block told HuffPost. “It was really just a simple suggestion, not one that we’re married to.”
[...]
The disparity stems from a provision in the bill that would lift the work requirements in counties with unemployment rates of over 8.5 percent — but not from cities with similar joblessness rates. Since most urban counties in Michigan contain both high-unemployment cities and their richer suburbs, Michigan’s biggest cities would be subject to the work requirements.
[...]
Republicans in the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration have been pushing to make it more difficult for states to obtain food stamp waivers, making stricter work requirements the centerpiece of their welfare agenda.
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Earlier this year, the Trump administration invited states to draw up work requirement schemes, which would likely shrink program enrollment if they win approval from the administration.
And while the term “work requirement” may imply that people on Medicaid don’t work, the vast majority of nonelderly, adult Medicaid recipients without disabilities live in households in which someone is working, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and a majority of recipients work themselves.
HuffPo
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UPDATE:
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