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The wall, indigents, and Reyes-Martinez

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UTPA Forum http://itec.panam.edu/msirc

I got a comment from Scott Henson on a recent post about building a wall along the border. I've been thinking about the problem over the past couple days. I'm starting to change my mind about the wall. I'm not to the point of opposing the project, I don't think I will get to that point. I am considering, however, practical matters like the scale of the project, maintenance, and staffing. More detail in the audio.

You can find the President's State of the Union speech here.

Hidalgo County's indigent health care budget fell short $400,000 in 2005. This year's budget is $8.4 million, about $1 million more than last year's. Recently I posted on tuberculosis concerns in the RGV. We have what are called Multiple Drug Resistant strains of tuberculosis. Often, these occur in our indigent population and is expensive for the county to treat. Our indigent population is growing while state funding is shrinking. This means, basically, that the county is having to dip into contingency funds and other programs to cover the shortfall. This is a problem for the county, for which I am beginning to lean towards JD Salinas for County Judge. He seems more concerned about healthcare in Hidalgo County.

Going back to the story of Jessica Reyes-Martinez's campaign, it looks like she will be in the race again. The only obstacle is that both she and Juan Maldonado are uncertain how to proceed with reinstating her. Just to recap, Reyes-Martinez has been married to Rep. Mando Martinez less than a year and is currently in the process of getting divorced. She would be the Rep's only challenger in this election. Reyes-Martinez wrote a letter to the Texas Supreme Court seeking guidance on the matter.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Your are leaning on JD because of his intrest on healtcare!! Please JDs intrest is on making sure his compadres at FNB and the commissioners receive some of that infrastructure money that will become available to the county. I wonder which two precincts will get the most could it be Joe Joe and la Bruja de Weslaco?? MD Tuberculosis is not caused by our residents but because of our proximity to a third world country just south of us called Mexico and all the influx of people coming in. To kill an epidemic you have to kill the epicenter and that epicenter is about 1000miles south of us. Is JD willing to spend our tax dollars to treat our neighbors to the south. Better get some Drs from somewhere else because he has alienated them all. JD is worried about himself ask his exwife and children.
12:05 AM
Anonymous said…
Another anti JD comment. As you have no merits all you can do is attack. One needs only look at the other camp long line of faux-pas in Indigent Health and the way that agency is run (and by whom). I agree the problem is bigger than either of these men and I question the overall wisdom of providing health care to people who really aren't, at the expense of the hard-working middle class. Talk about cutting yourself at the legs.
7:53 AM
Anonymous said…
I just love a good fight, and you two are pretty good.

I agree with the first comment though. Everytime something is anti-JD or any of his cronies, someone says it's without merit.

Indigent care is out because of lack of state funding, and the abuse by the department's workers who probably distribute it to friends and family that don't necessarily qualfy.

Hey, JD has an ex-wife? Who caused that? Did it have anything to do with "elections"?
6:56 PM
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