Yet Another Taxpayer-funded Incentive For Illegal Aliens?

Usually, I think of radio personality Rush Limbaugh as little more than a rabid Bushbot cheerleader for the Administration, but I happened to be listening to his program today (I usually don't) when I heard him say this: (from the transcript)

Listen closely. First here is an editorial from yesterday's Washington Times. "Unsatisfied with thwarting a Republican effort to authorize $3 billion for a border fence, congressional Democrats are trying to enhance the incentive for illegal aliens to enter the United States by removing the citizenship requirement from the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)."

We've talked about their attempts to update and revise this program. It comes up for renewal. This is the program that uses existing tobacco taxes to pay for health care for kids. Health insurance for kids, nine million of them or something, and they want to expand the number of people who are eligible. One of the things they've done here, this is the cigar tax at ten bucks a stick, this is also where they categorize a child as anybody 25 years of age or under. So a 24-year-old father with a 22-year-old mother and maybe two babies or one, can qualify for health care.

So this is the sneaky way that the left is attempting to get universal health care without taking it in one big bite. They do it in a stealth fashion, and they put it under the guise, (sniveling voice) "It's for the little children. We cannot deny the children health care. There's so many of them without insurance." So it's a sneaky little thing, and now to expand it even further; remember this is about the redistribution of wealth. This is about controlling people. This is about eliminating or putting as many obstacles in the way to acquiring wealth, by the way, on the part of wage earners as possible.

Now, a little history here. "The Republican Congress in 1996 passed legislation blocking people who are in the country illegally from claiming benefits from the federal government, and when SCHIP was created in 1997, states were required to verify citizenship.

But Democrats want to take that sensible requirement for Medicaid and SCHIP and leave it to the discretion of each state. This reflects the Democrats' eagerness to offer free services to illegals at taxpayer expense," and this is going to act as a magnet for more illegals to come. So you've got two things going on here in one bill. You have the stealth mass expansion of a children's health care program, and you have the Democrats trying to get as many illegals in here as possible and get them on a taxpayer plan, your dollars, that would pay their health insurance, even though it's against the law now. The Democrats are livid that the Republicans succeeded in this $3 billion authorization for a border fence, and this is how they're asking for reciprocity.

Now, from the Portland Oregonian: "Taking health care to migrants in the field -- They straggle in, sweaty and tired, from a day of picking blueberries. Their workday is ending, but for a group of college students, the day is beginning. It's late afternoon, and the sun is still hot when seasonal workers and students converge at Campo Blanco, a migrant camp in Washington County. The students are here to take part in a project to better know and serve the health needs of migrant workers from Mexico. Five students from Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work and five from a university in Puebla, Mexico, are participating in the Health Worker Outreach Project, organized by Ted Donlan, an assistant PSU professor and project co-director."

Here's basically what happens. Portland State University, which is supported through tax dollars, taking part in a little study. Students from the Graduate School of Social Work are participating in the health worker project. The goal of the project is to find out about migrant workers -- also known as illegal aliens -- find out about their health habits. So after the illegals finish picking the blueberries, these skulls full of mush from the Graduate School of Social Work flock to their migrant camp to interview them. The students collect information about the illegal aliens' medical history, their pains, the last time they saw a doctor. When they finish collecting their data, they create a little report.

"The information is intended to shape health programs tailored to the needs of seasonal workers," illegal immigrants is the proper term. Okay. As you people know, I can read the stitches on a fast ball. This information is intended to pave the way for taking money from people in this country legally and then using it to provide social and medical services to illegal immigrants who violate our laws every day, that they remain in this country. Information gathered by our tax dollars.

So here you have two stories, the Democrats trying to expand the SCHIP program, and basically under their plan, in addition to defining a child as anybody 25 years of age and under, you would qualify for the children's insurance health program even if you have a family of four income of $82,000 a year.

So we're going to get an expansion of this program, we're going to include illegal aliens in it, is what the Democrats want to do, and in Portland State, they're out there surveying illegal aliens after a tough day in the field, asking them about their medical condition. Of course we know what they're going to say, "Well, I haven't seen a doctor in five years. I've got pains here, and I'm terribly abused by my employer," blah blah blah blah. They're going to write a report saying these people need health care.

So two bills, one in Portland, one in the United States Congress, both designed to separate you and your money in order to pay health benefits to illegal immigrants and children up to the age of 25.

Even though Limbaugh uses quite a bit of hyperbole mixed with half-truths, (the proposed so-called "$10.00 per stick cigar tax," for example) I have to wonder if he might be on to something in this instance.

If we as a nation the federal government decides to extend yet another tax-payer-funded benefit to illegal immigrants, will it not be an incentive for even more people to move to this country illegally and strain our already strained public institutions such as schools and hospitals?

I'm certainly not for hurting kids, (we support SCHIP, but for citizens and legal residents) and I don't like seeing anyone, young or old, suffer from illness or lack of health care. But when it comes to illegal immigration, at what point are we, as a people, going to say enough is enough and stop shovelling out public money giving foreigners government-funded incentives to illegally immigrate to this country?

Shut the gates already! Turn-off the spigot!

Let's secure our border and enforce the laws that are already on the books.

As for blaming Democrats for ongoing tidal wave of illegal immigration, Limbaugh and his ditto heads supporters would do well to remember that the Republican Party (the so-called "law and order" party) controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency for five years.

And did nothing. -------------------------See our latest entries.