Nation
Poll: Half of Americans say their taxes are too high

Half of Americans think their federal taxes are too high according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.
“Heading into this year’s delayed tax filing day, half of Americans think their taxes are too high, while 44% consider them about right and 4% too low. The 50% calling them too high is up slightly from an average 45% over the prior three years, while similar to most of Gallup’s yearly measurements since 2003,” the poll report said.

The percentages have changed over time, especially after the second Bush Administration.
“Americans’ concern that their taxes are too high was much more prevalent before the implementation of President George W. Bush’s first round of tax cuts in 2001. From 1982 to 1999, between 55% and 68% of U.S. adults described their taxes as too high,” the Gallup report said.

Interestingly, a majority consider their tax rates fair.
“Currently, 55% say they are fair, while 43% disagree,” the report said.
“The 55% who now deem their taxes as fair is down slightly from the 57% to 61% range recorded over the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, from 2017 to 2020.”
Read the full report here.

Healthcare
CA to provide all low-income illegal immigrants health care at a cost of ‘$2.7 billion a year’

On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a $307.9 billion operating budget “that pledges to make all low-income adults eligible for the state’s Medicaid program by 2024 regardless of their immigration status” reports the Associated Press.
The guarantee of free health care for low-income immigrants here illegally, is a “move that will provide coverage for an additional 764,000 people at an eventual cost of about $2.7 billion a year” adds the AP.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care nonprofit, people living in the country illegally in 2020 accounted for roughly 7% of the population nationwide, or about 22.1 million people. The border crisis and number of migrants entering the United States illegally has skyrocketed to historic levels since 2020 when President Joe Biden took office.
Medicaid nationwide is the current combination of federal and state governments assisting Americans and low-income adults and children to receive free health care, but the federal government does not cover those living here illegally.
“Some states, including California, have used their own tax dollars to cover a portion of health care expenses for some low-income immigrants” reports the AP. “Now, California wants to be the first to do that for everyone.”
“This will represent the biggest expansion of coverage in the nation since the start of the Affordable Care Act in 2014,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer health care advocacy group. “In California we recognize (that) everybody benefits when everyone is covered.”
While 92% of Californians currently have some form of health insurance, “that will change once this budget is fully implemented, as adults living in the country illegally make up one of the largest groups of people without insurance in the state” the AP concludes.
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