Oklahoma Senator Inhofe sticks to principle - requires budget cuts in exchange for aid to tornado ravaged community

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Libs hate Walmart because Walmart takes care of their employees without unionizing. Libs hate Walmart because Libs hate success.

As a liberal, I hate Walmart for dumping their employees onto public assistance programs that my taxes finance. I hate subsidizing Walmart's dividends with my tax dollars.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Grocery chains? Most are unionized, and miserable places to work. Maybe you should talk to a few of those employees and ask them what they think of the stores they work for.

Unionized grocery stores in Florida? Yeah, right.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Bull. My wife works in retail and has worked in retail for years. Her co-workers don't change frequently. I go to my grocery store for years - all familiar faces there because all the folks on the register, the deli, meat counter, seafood counter, bakery, pharmacy - these are all people that have been there for as long as I have frequented the store. A store belonging to a chain that year after year ranks in the top 100 employers in this nation. I have never seen Walmart making that list nor do I expect to ever see it there.

Grocery chains? Most are unionized, and miserable places to work. Maybe you should talk to a few of those employees and ask them what they think of the stores they work for.

As a liberal, I hate Walmart for dumping their employees onto public assistance programs that my taxes finance. I hate subsidizing Walmart's dividends with my tax dollars.

Now there is an urban myth!

[Karee 4,190]

As a liberal, I hate Walmart for dumping their employees onto public assistance programs that my taxes finance. I hate subsidizing Walmart's dividends with my tax dollars.

So Walmart is responsible for people collecting public assistance? How is that even possible? Did Walmart guarantee them lifetime employment and then not keep their promise?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Now there is an urban myth!

That's not a myth. I never thought you'd be such a huge fan of corporate welfare. I stand corrected.

Alan Grayson says more Walmart employees on Medicaid, food stamps than other companies

Leave it to Alan "Congressman with Guts" Grayson to get a security escort from Walmart on Thanksgiving.

Grayson, who returns to Congress next year after losing his old seat in 2010, ditched his family on Thanksgiving to hand out turkey sandwiches to employees of an Orlando-area Walmart.

Amid employee walkouts across the country, Grayson approached workers with his turkey tidings and told them about their right to join a union.

Walmart employees are paid so little, he argued, they often seek government programs for help.

"In state after state, the largest group of Medicaid recipients is Walmart employees. I'm sure that the same thing is true of food stamp recipients. Each Walmart ‘associate’ costs the taxpayers an average of more than $1,000 in public assistance," Grayson wrote in a Huffington Post column on Nov. 24, 2012.

He doubled down in a subsequent interview with The Young Turks show on Current TV, saying Walmart employees represent "the largest group of food stamp recipients."

Democrats and labor unions have long been critical of the non-union retailer and have recently been emphasizing that its low wages end up costing government because workers seek food stamps and other aid. ("Wal-Mart" is the corporation. "Walmart" is a store.)

We wondered if Grayson was right that the chain's impact was that large, so we dug into the numbers.

Largest group of Medicaid recipients?

Newspapers, lawmakers and liberal policy groups for years have analyzed which companies have large numbers of employees that seek public health insurance assistance.

In nearly all 24 states in which a study was completed, Grayson’s point proved accurate, according to a list from Good Jobs First, a labor-funded group that has criticized government support for Wal-Mart.

We should note not every study examined Medicaid, the joint state-federal partnership that insures the poor and disabled. Many reports focused on state-run programs aimed at people with low-paying jobs who don’t qualify for Medicaid and don’t make enough to provide insurance their families (these are often called SCHIP).

Philip Mattera, Good Jobs First research director, pointed to two simple reasons for it: Wal-Mart pays relatively low wages and is the biggest employer in the country.

Here's a sampling:

In Florida, Wal-Mart topped all companies operating in Florida with the largest number of employees and family members (12,300) eligible for Medicaid, according to a 2005 Tampa Bay Times story. Wal-Mart also ranked highly (No. 2) for dependents enrolled in Florida Healthy Kids or KidCare, trailing Miami-Dade County employees.

In Missouri, where Wal-Mart is the largest employer behind state government, the state’s social services department determined Walmart employees outnumbered all others with employees and family members enrolled in MO HealthNet, the state’s Medicaid plan, in the first quarter of 2011. However, at almost 14 percent, it did not represent the highest percentage of workers enrolled or responsible for an enrollee (Dollar General, for instance, was much higher at 42 percent).

And in Pennsylvania, a 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer investigation revealed the company had the highest percentage of employees enrolled in Medicaid. One in six of Walmart’s 48,000 Pennsylvania employees were enrolled in Medicaid, costing the state about $15 million a year (it’s likely higher because the Inquirer’s story did not cover employees’ dependents on Medicaid, or any other public assistance such as food stamps).

There was at least one exception on Good Jobs First’s list. In Vermont in 2005, Wal-Mart placed fourth of companies with employees and families enrolled in Medicaid, trailing Price Chopper, McDonald’s and Hannaford, according to Good Jobs First, which cited a 2005 Vermont Guardian report.

As labor groups pushed states to consider laws that would make Wal-Mart and companies like it pay more for employee health benefits, the New York Times reported on a 2005 internal memo from a Wal-Mart executive that showed the company knew a "significant number of associates and their children who receive health insurance through public insurance programs."

The memo from Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, said 5 percent of Walmart associates were on Medicaid compared to an average of national employers of 4 percent. In sum, she wrote, 46 percent of associates’ children were either on Medicaid or uninsured. Her memo did not address employees on food stamps.

"On both of these issues – affordability and public assistance – it is important to note that our offering and performance are on par with other retailers," Chambers wrote. "Wal-Mart’s critics, however, hold it to a ‘large company’ standard, not a retailer standard."

She continued: "Despite the difference in industry economics, critics believe we should behave more like a GM or a Microsoft than a Target or a Sears."

So on Medicaid, the sampling of states shows Grayson’s assessment of this happening in "state after state" is accurate.

Largest group for food stamp recipients?

There’s no national tally of where food stamp recipients work.

A handful of researchers and reporters have mined state data for Walmart employees on food stamps, though not as frequently as the Medicaid studies.

In Ohio, the state Department of Job and Family Services report found Wal-Mart to be the state’s top employer for workers and family members who receive Medicaid (16,098), food stamps (14,799) and cash assistance (803), according to January 2012 numbers. A state spokesman cautioned the report does not tell the difference between full- and part-time employees, or employees who do not yet qualify for benefits, or why employees sought Medicaid.

In Maine, Wal-Mart topped employers with the largest number of workers on MaineCare, food stamps and temporary cash assistance, according to a 2005 Lewiston Sun Journal report, but it did not break down how many employees receive each subsidy. The company was fourth in the percentage of employees on public assistance.

In Florida, 1.9 million households receive food stamps, and nearly 500,000 have earned income as of October 2012. Of those with earned income, 9,095 households get paychecks from Wal-Mart, according to a report prepared for PolitiFact by the state Department of Children and Families.

The Florida taxpayer tab for their food stamps: $2.6 million.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Unionized grocery stores in Florida? Yeah, right.

Maybe that is why the employees are so happy.

That's not a myth. I never thought you'd be such a huge fan of corporate welfare. I stand corrected.

Why do you hate the working poor?

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Maybe nationally, but I doubt those in Oklahoma will appreciate him trying to find money to help with their situation. Doesn't matter if he plans to retire though.

How does one find money. On the streets ? growing on Trees. Print more.. Poor American public does not understand that at some point you run out of other peoples money.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

So Walmart is responsible for people collecting public assistance? How is that even possible? Did Walmart guarantee them lifetime employment and then not keep their promise?

These people draw public benefits while working for Walmart - they are employed. Yet they get paid so little and are not afforded benefits. Thus they go to work and then they get taxpayer funded assistance in order to survive. This is nothing but corporate welfare - it's not like Walmart can't afford to pay their workers living wages, they just chose not to. Thus your tax dollars and mine end up in shareholder dividends. To b efair, Walmart ain't the only employer dumping their workers onto public assistance programs - this is becoming a really ugly habit - but it sure is the largest. Florida taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in order for Walmart shareholders to receive higher dividends.

[Karee 4,190]

That's not a myth. I never thought you'd be such a huge fan of corporate welfare. I stand corrected.

Since Walmart is probably among the largest employers in alot of those states, it would make sense that they would have a large number of people getting govt. benefits. I'm still trying to figure how that is corporate welfare. Is the govt. paying the bills for Walmart stores? Are they getting some kind of tax break?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Maybe that is why the employees are so happy.

Maybe. Walmart employees ain't unionized either and there isn't any happiness going on there. Must be something other than the union, eh?

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Grocery chains? Most are unionized, and miserable places to work. Maybe you should talk to a few of those employees and ask them what they think of the stores they work for.

Now there is an urban myth!

Go in a local Kroger (unionized) and then go in a local Publix (not unionized) . It is like night and day. The Publix employess are cheerfull, greet you and go out of thier way to help and talk to you.

Kroger Employees dress like street urchins and will hardly make eye contact. They are often times distant to the point of being rude. They all have frowns, and all you hear them talking about is the next break or what time they get off.

[Karee 4,190]

These people draw public benefits while working for Walmart - they are employed. Yet they get paid so little and are not afforded benefits. Thus they go to work and then they get taxpayer funded assistance in order to survive. This is nothing but corporate welfare - it's not like Walmart can't afford to pay their workers living wages, they just chose not to. Thus your tax dollars and mine end up in shareholder dividends. To b efair, Walmart ain't the only employer dumping their workers onto public assistance programs - this is becoming a really ugly habit - but it sure is the largest. Florida taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in order for Walmart shareholders to receive higher dividends.

It's called the free market. Let them go get a job somewhere else. Walmart isn't breaking any rules that I can see. Maybe congress should raise the minimum wage? I don't know. Don't like the wages, don't work there. Seems pretty damn simple to me. I would imagine the govt. would be paying even more to these folks if they weren't working at all.

[Karee 4,190]

Go in a local Kroger (unionized) and then go in a local Publix (not unionized) . It is like night and day. The Publix employess are cheerfull, greet you and go out of thier way to help and talk to you.

Kroger Employees dress like street urchins and will hardly make eye contact. They are often times distant to the point of being rude. They all have frowns, and all you hear them talking about is the next break or what time they get off.

That's what happens when people get paid for how long they've been working somewhere, rather how good they perform their duties. Where's the incentive to do a good job? Just put in your 8 and get your check.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Maybe. Walmart employees ain't unionized either and there isn't any happiness going on there. Must be something other than the union, eh?

Depends which employees you talk to.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I thought maybe Mr. Big Dog got himself a sock puppet. But alas Mr. Big Dog is intelligent. Wrong most of the time, but intelligent.

Most of the time ??? You are being generous.