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Eugene

(66,808 posts)
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 06:19 AM Jul 2025

Trump official suggests Medicaid recipients, automation can replace immigrant workers. California farmers disagree

Source: Los Angeles Times

Trump official suggests Medicaid recipients, automation can replace immigrant workers. California farmers disagree

Andrea Castillo, Suhauna Hussain, Jessica Garrison
Wed, July 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT
7 min read

A top Trump administration official's claim that Medicaid recipients could replace farmworkers has met with pushback from California's agriculture industry, which faces the loss of its workforce amid the federal immigration crackdown.

"There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way," said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "And we move the workforce towards automation and 100% American participation, which, again, with 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly."

Helen McGrath, whose family farms citrus and avocados in Ventura County, said Rollins' comments were insulting.

"I can confidently say that most farmers in the country either laughed out loud or were just deflated by those comments," she said. "It just shows how uninformed and out of touch some of these officials are with what food production looks like in this country."

-snip-

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-farmers-medicaid-recipients-automation-100000063.html

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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bucolic_frolic

(54,068 posts)
1. So ripe for skits of farm workers with canes, walkers, and meds in tow
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 06:25 AM
Jul 2025

It takes an 8th grade mentality to pair farm work with Medicaid recipients.

bucolic_frolic

(54,068 posts)
13. The demographic includes some over 65 on SS as well as Medicaid
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 04:42 PM
Jul 2025

But yes i misconceptualized the bulk of recipients.

essaynnc

(972 posts)
2. Where's all those welfare queens???
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 06:57 AM
Jul 2025

The biggest take I got from it, as well as many others.....

"In 2023, nearly two-thirds of adults ages 19 to 64 who were covered by Medicaid were working, and more than a quarter were not working because of caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or because they were in school. That's according to the health policy organization KFF."

That doesn't leave too many ... able body bums .. on Medicaid to climb ladders and pick fruit! (My words, not theirs).

Hope22

(4,478 posts)
16. I foresee a grade 13....
Fri Jul 11, 2025, 06:47 AM
Jul 2025

Where high school graduates are drafted into a year of harvesting……before proceeding to life endeavors. Added bonus… the colleges and universities would lose an entire year of freshmen.

CurtEastPoint

(19,854 posts)
3. Look at our esteemed Ag Sec and tell me you haven't seen her or her ilk/look before. Behold 'Brooke'
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 07:23 AM
Jul 2025

Torrent63

(30 posts)
4. Yikes.
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 01:34 PM
Jul 2025

She looks like a mean sorority girl. And I know, I went to high school with a bunch of future look-alikes. Get her butt out picking strawberries. She wouldn't last a half hour.

kentuck

(115,119 posts)
6. Another brilliant idea by these "Know Nothings"
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 01:44 PM
Jul 2025

As the old saying goes, "Put their brain in a matchbox and it would roll around like a BB in a boxcar",

louis-t

(24,575 posts)
7. Usually, bullshit republican 'tax breaks for billionaire' bills
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 01:47 PM
Jul 2025

have at the end of the title "and jobs bill". This one doesn't, but they think Medicaid recipients will work in the fields? Really? That's not anyone's definition of 'creating jobs'. I'm reminded of driving through parts of Ohio where you see signs saying "Joe's Restaurant...and Gentleman's Club", "Chet's Ice Cream Emporium...and Gentleman's Club", "Wiley Bait Shop...and Gentleman's Club". Allright, I made those up but those kinds of business pairings exist in Ohio.

Linda ladeewolf

(1,106 posts)
8. Anybody else see people in wheelchairs
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 02:45 PM
Jul 2025

Zipping up and down rows of tomatoes and lettuce? I will be so glad when people finally wise up and realize Republican politicians don’t gaf about anyone who isn’t themselves or rich.

allegorical oracle

(6,194 posts)
10. One year I could see migrants picking tomatoes in the acreage behind my house. They started
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 04:18 PM
Jul 2025

at six in the morning. From six to noon they walked with bushel baskets behind a truck. As they filled their baskets, they would toss them to a guy in the truck, he would gently empty the basket and toss it back to the man on the ground. Their day ended at six that day. Don't think many Medicaid elders would last very long.

wolfie001

(7,101 posts)
15. They'd be done in less than half an hour
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 07:34 PM
Jul 2025

Many need velcro pull-on sneakers. This is pure republican hate and insanity somehow being passed off as policy from our sane-washing news media.

Karasu

(2,003 posts)
9. Republicans are dumbfucks who live in their own reality. Good luck getting a bunch of babies and old folks to slave away
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 03:05 PM
Jul 2025

on farms.

34 million my ass. These fictional numbers are going to blow up in their faces hard.

EarthFirst

(3,957 posts)
11. When the cult leader finds terms like "groceries" to be an odd word...
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 04:21 PM
Jul 2025

…sure you’re going to have out of touch government officials.

wolfie001

(7,101 posts)
14. Bloated imbecile hasn't thought about picking raspberries
Thu Jul 10, 2025, 07:31 PM
Jul 2025

What an ignoramus. He's never gone to a store and purchased a package of berries in his life. Think about that. So disconnected from reality.

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