LatinaLista — It’s thought that the conservative party got the message during the 2008 elections, when Democrats soundly beat Republicans.
Yet, someone is feeding conservatives the belief that the issue of illegal immigration still resonates loudly with independents and those on the fence about it. Otherwise, the latest idiotic allegations involving undocumented immigrants wouldn’t have been issued, let alone signed with pride.
It seems Congressman Steve King (R-IA), the Ranking Member on the House Immigration Subcommittee really wants to see Obama’s healthcare plan defeated along with his fellow Republicans.
So while all the Republicans have been retreating to their corners to strategize how best to instill fear in the American public, someone must have told King to use his position on the House Immigration Subcommittee to issue a statement that people would think he knows what he’s talking about.
It’s painfully clear he doesn’t. The poor guy, while towing the party line, is setting himself up to not only be the fall guy for a proven failed strategy but in the process is revealing the level of desperation that the Conservative party feels towards immigration reform.
King issued a press release this morning, where he said the information he got from the Congressional Budget Office, revealed that Obama’s healthcare plan would give “5.6 million illegal aliens” health insurance.
Funny, but everyone from Obama to Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the CBO, have explicitly stated that this healthcare plan is for legal residents only.
The President did make one exception and the fact that he did should instill pride in every American who likes to think we are still the most reasoned and compassionate country in the world.
In an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News, he was asked specifically if undocumented immigrants would be covered under his healthcare plan. He said, “No” – with one exception.
“The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children,” he continued. “Partly because if you’ve got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren’t getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception.”
As an American citizen, the idea that any child would be made to purposely suffer because they lacked health insurance is offensive for what this country has historically stood.
If the Republican Party sides with denying undocumented children health coverage then it’s becoming more and more clear that they have less in common with Latino values than what they’ve claimed.
King’s morning press release was such a poorly executed attempt to rouse fear in the American public by linking two issues that the Republicans have vowed to fight tooth and nail to defeat that it just doesn’t get anymore obvious than this.
But for those who do need clarification:
Obama’s healthcare plan is for legal residents only.
As it is now, undocumented residents do not take advantage of receiving any healthcare benefits. The healthcare they do receive is payed by them with cash they save.
The only time that undocumented immigrants are forced into taking advantage of any healthcare is in an emergency when they must use ER facilities. Like everyone, emergencies happen when you least expect them or when you’re least financially prepared. It’s just what happens in life.
Only hospital collection departments know how many try to make a good-will effort to repay the costs — as with anyone who finds an unexpected hospital bill that always costs into the thousands of dollars.
Some other facts as compiled by the Immigration Policy Center:
- U.S. citizens make up the majority of the uninsured, at 78%, while legal and unauthorized immigrants make up 22% of the nonelderly uninsured.
- Immigrants incur fewer health care costs than the rest of the population because they are generally younger and healthier than the overall aging U.S. population.
- Immigrants’ per-person medical expenditures were one-half to two-thirds less than U.S.-born citizens.
- Recent immigrants were responsible for 1.4% of the total public medical expenditures for adults in 2003, even though they constituted 5% of the total population.
- The cost of Medicaid and Medicare could be as much as $1.2 trillion per year by 2015. Having more healthy, working-age people paying into the system will lessen the burden on the current, smaller pool of taxpayers.
- Non-citizens are a vast, untapped network of new subscribers who can share the risks and the benefits of health care coverage.
In trying to gather what the real experts on analysis of Obama’s healtcare policy thought of King’s accusation, one expert had something to say.
Arthur Caplan, Ph.D, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, who authored an excellent analysis for the msnbc website on what was myth versus reality in Obama’s healthcare plan, wrote to Latina Lista his impression of King’s stunt.
I think this is a bit of scare mongering to be honest. I believe The Obama Administration is not going to go to the mat to include illegal aliens in health insurance plans and will not support this if it becomes a huge issue.
So, in my view, this is just cheap political red meat thrown out to delay reform.
Comment(12)
cookie
Just another good reason to deport illegal aliens in our country so that they won’t be using our healthcare system. We should also require that when parents enroll their children in our schools that they show proof of their children’s legal right to be here. Problem solved!
ratbstard
The fact remains that without a verification of citizenship system in place IAs will get it.
Evelyn
ratbstard :
The fact remains that without a verification of citizenship system in place IAs will get it.
E
I couldent agree more. That is why we need CIR passed.
With CIR a bio-metric card will be issued to all immigrants who are eligible to work in the US.
The enforcement side has tried to pass many bills and nothing gets done because the violations of immigrants rights side wont vote for any bills that arent part of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform package.
The violations of immigrants rights side has tried to pass many bills and nothing gets done because the enforcement side wont vote for a bill that doesent include an enforcement side.
The de-facto amnesty in place now and supported by the enforcement only people shouldent be allowed to continue.
Everyone should come togather and learn to compromise (instead of acting irresponsibly and wanting it to be my way or the highway)and support CIR so this immigration mess could be fixed once and for all.
Evelyn
This show that Rep King is putting on is part of the GOP Healthcare Plan: Delay, Obstruct, Lie, Rinse, Repeat Or Throw The Kitchen Sink At Obamas Health Care Plan If You Have To!
The RNC is building on the GOP consultant Alex Castellanos’s messaging memo advising Republicans: “If we slow this sausage-making process down, we can defeat it, and advance real reform that will actually help. Key Message Point: We’ve got to ‘SLOW DOWN the OBAMA EXPERIMENT WITH OUR HEALTH.'” The external manifestation of that is their scary Web site, and now Sam Stein at HuffPo has the lastest internal effort, a private memo from the RNC to anti-reform advocates (i.e., Republicans).
The memo, which was obtained by the Huffington Post from a Democratic source, provides the clearest illustration to date of the political playbook being used to stop Democratic attempts at a health care overhaul. Much of the material mirrors the speeches and presentations made by conservatives both inside and out of elected office to date. Obama’s plan for health care is deemed an “experiment” and a “risk” that could bankrupt the country and dangerously change the doctor-patient relationship.
In particular, the 12-page memo makes the case that it is a Republican priority to slow down the consideration of health care reform before it can become codified.
“The Republican National Committee will engage in every activity we can to slow down this mad rush while promoting sensible alternatives that address health care costs and preserve quality,” the memo affirmatively declares.
Of course, those “sensible alternatives” from the Republicans have yet to actually materialize, and don’t go looking for them in this memo, either.
As for a Republican alternative to the president’s agenda, the RNC memo doesn’t offer much in the way of details, save to make the argument that the status quo isn’t as bad as it is being painted.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/
Jose
“The enforcement side has tried to pass many bills and nothing gets done because the violations of immigrants rights side wont vote for any bills that arent part of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform package.”
What violation of immigrants rights? If you’re not entitled to be here under our immigration laws, you are not truly an immigrant, any more than a visa overstayer is, be they visitor, student or guest worker. Which part of the code of federal regulations pertaining to immigrant’s rights are you referring to? Rights are always associated with laws based upon our Constitution or they are not rights at all. I suggest that you’re making up things again, Evelyn.
cookie
Of course the pro-advocate side won’t “compromise” by allowing us to secure our borders and handcuffs us from doing this by any means necessary including the fence that helps the Border Patrol do its job more effectively. They also oppose e-verify which would deter more illegals from coming here looking for work. They oppose anything that takes the incentive away for more to come like denying them an education, healthcare (unless it is an emergency) or any other taxpayer benefits. They don’t want the birthright citizenship amendment to be re-interpreted correctly so that at least one parent has to be a citizen for a newborn to qualify. Even fighting making English our official language.
No, it isn’t the anti-illegal groups that won’t compromise. It is the pro-advocate side that won’t.
ratbstard
“this immigration mess could be fixed once and for all.”
Evelyn I have heard that line of Bull somewhere before…It was in 1986 when I as a 31 year old man fell for it. I was for Amnesty then when it was promised to be ‘one time only’.
Well here we are just 23 years later and the problem is at least 5 or perhaps even 10 times worse.
I am a fan of the rock group ‘Who’ and “We Won’t Be Fooled Again!’
Evelyn
To jose, ratbstard, and cookie
Like I said,
The de-facto amnesty in place now and supported by the enforcement only people shouldent be allowed to continue.
Everyone should come togather and learn to compromise (instead of acting irresponsibly and wanting it to be my way or the highway)and support CIR so this immigration mess could be fixed once and for all.
Immaturity seems to be a factor in all the excuses you guys use because it has to be your way or the highway.
Not maturing by learning how to compromise will not let you progress.
Others will move on without you.
cookie
There is no such thing as a defacto amnesty. Illegals are being deported every day.
Evelyn
There is no such thing as a defacto amnesty. Illegals are being deported every day.
E
Because we havent enacted CIR there is no deterrent like the biometric card included in CIR which would deter Immigrants without proper legal status from turning around and coming back after deportation because without the card no one will hire them.
Our Immigration system is broken because e-verify cannot tell if the person presenting proper documents to a prospective employer is the true owner of those documents.
The biometric card included in CIR would eliminate the need for a fence, and is better then e-verify because it includes the persons fingerprints and prospective employers can tell if the person presenting the card is the owner of the card.
Immigrants who are not eligible for the biometric card would not come if they could not work as they would be unable to support themselves.
Biometric cards would eliminate the need for a fence freeing BP agents to chase drug dealers instead of nannies and gardeners.
There is de-facto amnesty in place kept there by those unwilling to compromise and accept CIR.
cookie
Yes and e-verify would do the same thing without a CIR. We can implement a biometric card without your CIR also.
No, we don’t need to eliminate the fence because even terrorists are trying to get thru. They aren’t looking for jobs and the fence/wall helps the BP do their jobs more effectively.
Your defacto amnesty is just another spin term that your pro-illegals use to try and force Americans to allow 20 million or more illegals to remain in our country for a real amnesty. It ain’t gonna happen and as I said there is no de facto amnesty, only in your head. They are being deported everyday and its going to get worse. Obama isn’t stupid.
Kenny
“There is de-facto amnesty in place kept there by those unwilling to compromise and accept CIR.”
Incomprehensible, because Cookie is right. We’re still deporting people. If that’s amnesty, then let’s do more amnesty.
Comments are closed.