Bend Over, Kids

Because the One Big Bamboozle Bill cuts $900B out of Medicaid every year for the next 10 years, the states will have to take up the slack.

And because some states have Filial Responsibility Laws on their books, the children of indigent seniors will be held liable for the cost of the care and support of their elderly parents - plus, in some cases, whatever other family members are currently getting help from Medicaid, or are otherwise unable to care for themselves.

This could get crazy stupid bad in a big fuckin' hurry.

This Is Why You Might Be Responsible For Paying Your Parents’ Medical Debts

Some states have filial responsibility laws that let creditors turn to adult children for payment of their parents' medical bills.

As the cost of health care expenses rise, so does anxiety.

Key Takeaways

• Some states have filial responsibility laws that let creditors turn to adult children for payment of their parents' health care costs.
• Filial responsibility laws need to be triggered before going into effect, and enforcement is rare.
• Collectors may still pursue adult children for their parents' unpaid medical bills.
• Adult children should consider planning ahead for their parents' health care costs with emergency savings and long-term care insurance.
• If you’re like most Americans, handling the vast array of health care expenses is a major financial challenge. As those costs rise, so does anxiety.

A February 2024 KFF Health Tracking poll found that 74% of respondents were worried about how they would pay for unexpected medical bills and health care services for themselves and their families.

It’s one thing to cover your own and your children's bills, but in some cases you may be paying for those of your parents.

Here’s when your parents' care costs may be passed on to you, and how to prepare for those expenses even if you are not legally liable.

Filial responsibility laws were enacted to ensure that adult children will financially support their parents who can’t provide for themselves.

If your state has these statutes, technically it's possible that you would be required to pay for some of your parents' essential care needs when they are unable to do so.

Each state has its own variation of the filial responsibility law. For example, California Family Code section 4400 reads, “Except as otherwise provided by law, an adult child shall, to the extent of the adult child’s ability, support a parent who is in need and unable to self-maintain by work.”

And in Nevada, per NRS 428.070, filial liability is mandated if there is a written agreement to pay for care, the child has control over and access to the parent's assets or income and the child has sufficient financial ability to support the parent.

A couple of quick Google searches:

"Filial responsibility" refers to laws in some U.S. states that can hold adult children financially responsible for supporting their indigent parents. The term has recently become associated in social media and news discussions with a new federal law known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) or the "Big Beautiful Bill Act," which passed in July 2025.

The connection is not that the OBBB created a new federal filial responsibility law, but rather that critics suggest its significant cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) may lead to existing state filial responsibility laws being enforced more frequently.

How the Laws Interact

• Filial Responsibility Laws (State Level): These are long-standing state laws (some dating back to colonial times) that impose a duty on adult children to support parents who cannot support themselves. Most states have these laws, but they are rarely enforced, with Pennsylvania being a notable exception where nursing homes have successfully sued adult children for unpaid bills.
• The "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act (Federal Level): This federal law, passed in July 2025, extended tax cuts and made significant changes and cuts to federal spending on health and nutrition programs. Key changes include:

An estimated $911 billion in Medicaid spending cuts over the next 10 years.

• New work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents to receive Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
• Provisions that could result in millions of people losing health coverage.

The Concern

Advocates and legal experts argue that as federal support for long-term care and health services is reduced, more elderly individuals may become "indigent" (unable to pay for care). When this happens, medical facilities, such as nursing homes, might turn to existing state-level filial responsibility laws to seek reimbursement from the adult children, potentially leaving families with massive, unexpected bills.

For my home peeps:

Colorado does not have filial responsibility laws, meaning adult children are not legally required to financially support their indigent parents under this type of law. Therefore, a nursing home cannot directly sue an adult child for their parent's unpaid bills in Colorado. However, there are exceptions where adult children could be held responsible for their parent's debt, such as if they signed a contract as a guarantor for a care facility or if they jointly own assets with the parent.

Key points about filial responsibility laws in Colorado

• No direct legal obligation: Colorado does not have a law that mandates adult children support their parents financially to the same extent as states with filial responsibility laws.
• Nursing home contracts: If a nursing home or other care facility requires a family member to sign a contract and act as a guarantor for the parent's bills, the family member may become personally liable for those costs, even if the state does not have a filial responsibility law.
• Jointly owned assets: If you and your parent jointly own assets, like a house or bank account, the state may take action against those assets to recover costs paid by Medicaid after the parent's death, which could affect your inheritance.
• Medicaid estate recovery: The state's Medicaid estate recovery program is separate from filial responsibility laws. It allows the state to seek repayment of Medicaid benefits from the parent's estate after their death. This can reduce or eliminate what an adult child inherits.

States with Filial Responsibility Laws (as of 2025):

1. Alaska
2. Arkansas
3. California
4. Connecticut
5. Delaware
6. Georgia
7. Idaho
8. Indiana
9. Iowa
10. Kentucky
11. Louisiana
12. Maryland
13. Massachusetts
14. Mississippi
15. Montana
16. Nevada
17. New Hampshire
18. New Jersey
19. North Carolina
20. North Dakota
21. Ohio
22. Oregon
23. Pennsylvania
24. Rhode Island
25. South Dakota
26. Tennessee
27. Utah
28. Vermont
29. Virginia
30. West Virginia

The One Big Bamboozle (updated)

The Instagram post truncates, so I went looking for the full version.

Found it on YouTube: (via Eddie Roadcap)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Abigail Simon (@galaxina500)

About That Medicaid Thing

There are many Medicaid things. A ride in an ambulance is kind of a big one.

But, there might not be a hospital close enough for the thing to take you to anyway, so hey - who needs an ambulance, right?

Today's Bamboozle

Yay, Belle

You can spend your way into oblivion

But you can't save your way back to prosperity

Finally - a strong clear voice that at least mentions the revenue side of the equation.

Seight Of Hand

Today's Driftglass

Ode The The Low Information Voter

Because I know you are so very very busy

That you have no time to know anything at all

I will keep this brief.

I know you are far too busy driving Chinese toys and 

Cigarettes and

Pressboard furniture across the continent 

To pay attention to anything

Except double-clutching and yellow lines, and

The radio,

Which is playing Hannity and Rogan and Savage and Levin and Beck and 

Shapiro and

Kirk and 

Savage and

Prager and 

Larson, and, of course,

The game, and

Maybe you have just enough time to stop off in that Ohio diner and 

Tell to the New York Times foreign correspondents 

Permanently stationed there

About the caravans of illegals and

The price of eggs and 

Shoplifting in San Diego and yet

You are also a single mother

Raising nine kids and

Working nine jobs who

Has no time to think about anything except

Making correct change and getting the order right, and

Who is up and who is out on the Masked Singer, and

Can you believe the bullshit judging on Dancing the the Stars, and

Dropping in on focus groups to explain about how tariffs work, and

The illegals making houses so expensive, and

Why Kamala Harris cannot be trusted,

(Did you know that she slept her way to the top, and

Her father is a communist!) and

You remember hearing something about January sixth or

Maybe it was the seventh, whatever, 

You're not exactly sure what, but

Strangely you are also 24 and a dude and have no girlfriend,

Which is fine, really, fine, because you are just crazy busy all the time

With...stuff like Call of Duty and GTO and Diablo 4, and

Your shitty job where customers ask the stupidest questions, and

Bitch about everything like you're Mr. CVS, and

How come fucking Joe Biden will pay off those rich college fuckers bills, but

Won't make weed legal in your state, and

Someday you're going to be making real money with MMA

Because you practice your moves in your garage, but

It's hard to relax when everything is so fucked up, like, uh, like,

Y'know the price of stuff and crime and shit, and 

What we need is a badass MMA guy to kick some ass because,

Respect, gotta have respect,

Chicks go for that like magnets, and

You remember hearing on Twitter something about 

COVID being a scam, and somehow 

You're also a retired couple, living well, but 

You hear all these things,

On the news, and

It's all so bad,

So, so bad,

Never been so bad,

Sure you're doing ok, but out there, just over the horizon,

The country is in ruins, and

Unemployment has never been higher, and 

DEI caused the California wildfires, and 

What's going on on college campuses which is just shameful, and

Inflation is out of control, and 

Crime gangs run the Blue cities, and,

The government is giving all our money to moochers and foreign wars, and

Everyone knows Biden was being controlled by you-know-who, and

Do your own research because everything is out of control, and 

It's never been this bad before

Ever.

The Bamboozlement Of Innocents

She was bargaining on Facebook.

She asked friends with dead relatives.

She scored some in parking lots.

Another Shoe

Why there's no reason to believe a conspiracy fantasy when it requires total secrecy on the part of lotsa people.

Like they say:

Three people can keep a secret -

as long as two them are dead.

Today's Quote

One of the saddest lessons of history is this:
If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth.

It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

--Carl Sagan

Another Day Another Swindle

Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump, his company and three of his children must face a class-action lawsuit in which people claim they were scammed into spending money on fraudulent, multilevel marketing ventures and a dubious live-seminar program.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan ruled Wednesday that the case can go forward with claims of fraud, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices. The decision likely opens the door for the plaintiffs to start gathering evidence from Trump and his company, including documents and testimony.

Schofield dismissed federal racketeering claims, eliminating allegations that could have netted triple damages for the plaintiffs.

A group of four people claims the Trumps ripped off thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs by promoting two bogus multilevel marketing ventures and the live-seminar program that promised to teach Trump’s “secrets to success” in real estate. They’re seeking to sue on behalf of a nationwide class of people they claim were also cheated.

They sued in October using the names Jane Doe, Luke Loe, Richard Roe and Mary Moe, claiming they feared Trump’s habit of criticizing opponents on Twitter and exposing them to potential retaliation by his followers. Schofield let them remain anonymous at least until her decision on the Trumps’ motion to dismiss the case. She’ll likely revisit the question now that she’s ruled.
The fire hose of shit will never stop spewing until we can get Congress to step up and put an end to it.

The Big Giant Distraction

"...they hate - our country." 

I don't know how it gets any clearer than that. A very American brand of casual racism is embedded in that statement. And the fact that he said it that way - casually and without self-consciousness - shows it to be deeply embedded in Lindsey Graham's heart.

Tim Wise at Medium:

For years people have debated whether Donald Trump is a racist.

For some, the answer was always an obvious yes. When you launch your campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers, claim a Mexican American judge can’t fairly adjudicate a lawsuit against you because of his ethnicity, call African nations “shitholes,” and suggest we need more immigrants from Norway and fewer from Haiti or Central America, you’ve earned the title. To say nothing of soft-pedaling Nazis in Charlottesville, of course.

The evidence of Trump’s racial bias is clear; it stretches back decades and is available for all who are willing to see.

But for others, the charge was unfair. Not only Trump supporters, whose denial is at least understandable but even those who are critical of him.

“Well,” they would aver. “Maybe it’s not fair to call him a racist. I mean, we don’t know what’s in his heart.”

But as Amanda Marcotte explained after watching the always execrable Chuck Todd inquire into the aortic nature of Trump’s prejudice, the question of whether one is a racist “in their heart” is a bizarre one:

Let us imagine for a minute a person who loves, say, the Philadelphia Eagles as much as Trump loves racist language and actions. He tweets about the Eagles regularly, often using all-caps. He buys season tickets and attends every Eagles game he possibly can. He’s been talking about the Eagles and watching their games for decades. He feels elated when they win and crushed when they lose. He wears his Eagles logo hat all the time.

Would anyone look at that man and ask, ‘But wait — is he an Eagles fan in his heart?’

Marcotte’s point was simple, though it is often missed. Racism may be a noun, but it functions as a verb. It’s about what one does, not merely what one is.

Meanwhile, here's the thing: the air is filled with chaff and the water is slick with chum. 

Whatever it is they don't want us to see might be getting closer and clearer.

All this shit hit the fan on the day of Jeffrey Epstein's bail hearing, at which it was revealed that he had a Saudi passport - with a fake identity - plus a bugout stash of diamonds and dollars. They also found 100s if not 1000s of pictures of underage girls.

And -

CBS News:

ABC News:

Attorney Brad Edwards, who represents Epstein accuser Courtney Wild and several other alleged victims, claims that Epstein's 13-month jail sentence -- the result of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Florida -- failed to prevent the money manager accused of sexually assaulting numerous underage girls from having "improper sexual contact" with young women.

Mother Jones:

As Mother Jones noted during the 2016 presidential election, Trump was known to pay particular attention to Epstein during his Florida pool parties. “He threw a party one night just because of Epstein,” former beauty pageant promoter George Houraney said of Trump. “He said, ‘The other guys aren’t coming, but I don’t care because Jeff’s coming.’”

The video’s emergence comes as more women come forward to allege that Epstein sexually abused them. In recent days, prosecutors have also revealed that several suspicious items, including a fake passport with a Saudi address and Epstein’s photo and “piles of cash,” were uncovered in Epstein’s Manhattan home.

Remind me again why everyone freaks out about Joe Biden putting his hands on someone’s shoulders?pic.twitter.com/TV9F0IaXkO

— TDP (@TDPattillo) July 17, 2019

What remains now is that we're being asked - again - to dismiss what we see, and believe only what they tell us.

But also, there's the probability that all of this smoke indicates only a little fire where 45* is concerned. He may be perfectly happy to let the speculation run wild so that when the "truth" is revealed, and it's less horrific than what we're being encouraged to imagine, it plays out as "what was the big deal here?" even though it may well be a big fucking deal - because yes, having sex with children is a very bad thing and it is in fact a big fucking deal.

A president who hangs out with guys who have sex with children is a big fucking deal. 

And the fact that possibly more than a few of this president's buddies were involved in having sex with children is a big fucking deal.

Trafficking in children for guys to have sex with - is a big fucking deal.

And the attempts to cover it all up is a big fucking deal.

Today's Tweet

Because it always ends up being about the voters - Republican's efforts to the contrary notwithstanding.

Well said: “They sold their souls for political power — and the check bounced.” @jmeacham on @JoeNBC, commenting on how Pennsylvania went for Trump in 2016.

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 27, 2018

 

Bamboozle Me, Baby

Ben Carson went to Phoenix - and the obvious reason was to be exploited as "my African-American".

WaPo, Philip Bump:

And, as simply as that, a law was likely broken.

There are a lot of ways in which the federal government could be used to reward political friends and allies, of course, appointments being just one example. But the power of the government can also be leveraged to political advantage. Imagine a candidate who appeared at a campaign rally to be endorsed by the heads of each branch of the armed forces, for example. That would carry a lot of weight.

In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act into law, a measure meant to preserve the impartiality of public servants. “The law’s purposes,” the Office of Special Counsel’s website explains, “are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.​​​​”
Add it to the list. 45* cares nothing about these little-people rules.

Obeying the law?
Ethics? 
Honorability? 

That shit's for suckers - which is exactly why I call 'em rubes. They support 45* because he embodies their fantasies of having the power to live outside the norms, ignoring the simple fact that those norms - those rules - are there to protect them from Daddy State assholes like 45*.

Today's Tweet

The big bamboozle

To recap: Trump is threatening a government shutdown unless his fellow Republicans fund border wall he promised voters Mexico would pay for.

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 23, 2017

No Way Out

No good way anyway.

If the Repubs continue to go it alone (against the polling) on a variety of issues they've decided they need to pursue based on their arrogant assumption they can continue bamboozling the rubes, then they lose the broader popular support they have to have. Especially if they keep fuckin' up the  Healthcare thing.

If they decide to negotiate with the Dems, then they're in danger of the hardcore base assuming they've caved, and they'll lose primaries to more radical candidates, who're more likely to lose in the general.

Which makes me think they were really counting on not having to pay a political price for all their fuckery, which makes me think we have to keep pushing back hard against GOP Voter Suppression efforts in the next 15 months or so.

Worth Repeating

From way back in March - Alcee Hastings gettin' after 'em.

The take-away quote comes up at about 6:50.

"I don't have to be nice to nobody when you're bein' nasty to poor people"

Debate-Watcher's Tip: When Red Team Guy starts bitchin' about the Blue Team Guy's "tone", it means Red Team Guy knows he's losing so he has to tamp down on the visceral enthusiasm that the audience will pick up from Blue Team Guy's passion or outrage or whatever.

It's also about stalling - you need a little time to regroup so you can get back on offense.

The GOP has since come out with We-Don't-Fuckin'-Care 4.0, and let's be clear - there's not much that's changed because this is not about healthcare or coverage or looking out for people. They want their fucking Tax Cuts.

If you further weaken Da Gubmint by decreasing its revenues, people will feel the pain (of shitty roads and shitty water quality and poisoned food, and poverty creep, etc) and eventually, they'll agree to practically any level of Fuckery just on the remote prospect of relieving some of that pain.

And it makes no difference who gets fucked over, as long as enough people get fucked over enough - they have to make us tap out so we'll give the Plutocrats everything they want, including ownership - or at least control.

The National Privatization Festival has picked up some speed, and they need financing for their coming acquisition spree - have you priced a National Park lately?

These assholes are selling themselves as Reformers, but their motivation is no different from that of any other radicals who always ride in promising Bread-n-Freedom, and delivering neither.

But there's an extraordinarily shitty little twist.

"Government should be run more like a business" is cover; it's a dodge; it's nothing but chaff.

With the interjection of the Russians, we've put people in power who honestly believe Mobsters are justified in the way they operate because after all, the Mob is private enterprise patterned after the government.  

So why not take that next step?

"Government is like the Mafia - so let's be honest and run it that way".

And hey, relax - it ain't personal. It's just business.

Today's Bamboozle

45* knows he can feed dis-information to the rubes directly, so most of them won't ever hear anything that runs counter to what he needs them to hear - what they already believe anyway - which is what he continues to reinforce, and why he's working so hard trying to freeze out traditional corporate media.

Vox:

What you’re looking at is a massive cut in Medicaid spending. In 2026, the Better Care Reconciliation Act would cut Medicaid spending by about $160 billion, and end Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid to low-income Americans.

As my colleague Sarah Kliff writes:

The Senate bill begins to phase out the Medicaid expansion in 2021 — and cuts the rest of the program’s budget too. The Senate bill would end the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid to millions of low-income Americans. This program has provided coverage to more Americans than the private marketplaces

It would also cut the rest of the public insurance program. Better Care would also limit government spending on the rest of the Medicaid program, giving states a set amount to spend per person rather than the insurance program’s currently open-ended funding commitment.

Ultimately, the Congressional Budget Office projects 15 million people would lose coverage with the repeal of Medicaid expansion.

So it’s incredibly misleading for the president to claim that Senate Republicans are increasing funding for Medicaid.

This is pretty typical of the Faux Conservative crapola they've been peddling for a long time. It's a variation on one of their favorite themes - "tax revenue goes up when tax rates come down".  So it follows that the rubes will internalize this new crapola and adopt it as part of their catechism - "cutting Medicaid funding now increases Medicaid spending in the long term."

Yeah, OK. And the best way to fill a bath tub is to open the drain and turn one of the faucets off.

A smiling hyena will still eat your children

These people have no soul and no honor.

Balls

I'll go ahead and call this Leadership - cuz that's what it is.

And hey "conservatives" - if you still think guys like 45* are the ones talkin' plain English and gettin' down to bidness wid it, then you're admitting to being the rubes I've been saying you are for a very long time now.

Stop volunteering for The Big Bamboozle.

Today's Tweet

Comey just confirmed both political parties were hacked in 2016 by Russians—but that only Democratic info was released.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 20, 2017

Take a candidate we've been conditioned to dislike - for a good 25 years now - and just play up everything negative even more. Hammer on it night-n-day. It's especially effective when "the dirt" just happens to include the magic word "email", which of course links nicely to the more recent negative inferences about Hillary that were set in place over the last 5 years or so.

Eventually you can move the needle enough to make a difference.

Because advertising works. The world is being run by some pretty smart people (current POTUS notwithstanding), and smart people don't spend $500 Billion a year on shit that don't work.