Our infrastructure money went to Medicaid

I saw this headline and thought, what a fool: "Millennials ease off the gas (making it harder to pay for roads...)"

Taxpayers already give New Jersey $35 billion in taxes each year. That's enough yo pave the streets in gold. But New Jersey spends $12 billion a year on Medicaid, the health lobby's boondoggle in the name of aiding the poor. Hospitals rip off taxpayers with outrageous charges -- including using emergency rooms to meet non-emergency needs, and then charging emergency room prices.

This is a racket. States get "free" money from the federal government, but have to meet a match that is driving state after state toward the fiscal abyss. Conservatives like to blame state pension plans, and while there are abuses, the fact is this is an ordinary cost of employment. In many cases, the state pays no Social Security tax and the state pension must make up for that.

Nope, Medicaid is the No. 1 problem. It has become (depending on the state) either the top or second expenditure, and it keeps growing as no one will tell the medical industry no.

Politicians need to start budgeting. That means setting priorities. Priority No. 1 should be scrutinizing those emergency room bills. If the situation isn't a peril to life or limb, or a woman giving birth, it ain't an emergency.