Joe Wilson has been trashed, justifiably, for shouting “You lie,” at President Obama during the President’s speech to Congress. President Obama had just declared that illegal immigrants would not be given health coverage under his plan. That night I wrote that illegal immigrants would be given health care because they would be given amnesty.
Last week, President Obama confirmed that amnesty will be the path for extending coverage to illegal immigrants and thus buying 12 million votes for the Democrats; “If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”
Then there is the President’s open door pledge where he extended an offer to opponents of health care, “If you come to me with a set of serous proposals, I will be there to listen……My door is always open.”
Except, that it is not. According to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Republican Tom Price of Georgia has proposals and he has written several letters to the White House seeking an audience with President Obama. So far, no luck.
Tom, his door is “Always open.” Just stop by the White House, maybe one evening on your way home from work.
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I have three points:
1. He said that the issue of 12 million illegal immigrants needs to be resolved. You took that quote and said that Obama “confirmed that amnesty will be the path.” That seems like quite a leap for you to make, and more of one than you usually make in this blog. At the most, you could say that you think that’s what this means.
2. Anyway, let’s say that every single person in the country automatically becomes a citizen right now. That still doesn’t mean that NEW illegal immigrants (and there are a lot every day) will be covered. Illegal immigration isn’t just about the current situation, but the future. Let’s not be short-sighted.
3. Legal residents presumably pay taxes, whether they got amnesty or were born here. To me, that’s the issue. Whether we give them amnesty is a question worth arguing, but I don’t see how it’s related to the healthcare issue. If they’re paying for it, they should have it. If not, then not.
Weeklyrob,
You enumerated:
“2. Anyway, let’s say that every single person in the country automatically becomes a citizen right now. That still doesn’t mean that NEW illegal immigrants (and there are a lot every day) will be covered. Illegal immigration isn’t just about the current situation, but the future. Let’s not be short-sighted.”
How old are you Weeklyrob? You must have been too young to remember the LAST time there was amnesty in 1986. That was supposed to be the one and only amnesty, yet here we are talking about another one. Apparently all one has to do if you miss an amnesty is just hang on until the next one. And you are so right that
“Illegal immigration isn’t just about the current situation, but the future.” Amnesty doesn’t fix the problem, but forcing employers to use the E-Verify system would cut illegal immigration significantly without doing raids and splitting families up.
“Let’s not be short-sighted.”
I will say to president Obama Thank you he think about humain been what is money dirt on the hand they are here ligal ilegal it humian in your house you have to help some they all we have been they are pleace!
Illegal aliens get FREE healthcare now! Imagine that. You are in this Country ILLEGALLY and you get FREE healthcare paid for by the American taxpayer.
Illegal aliens have made America the dumping ground for all their illegal alien children, then we have to school them and give them free medical care.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSe3C5vMafM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ZnX9JRo5M&NR=1
I for one, am sick and tired of these ILLEGAL ALIENS snubbing their nose at our immigration laws and the many other laws of this Country. If our Federal Government can not ENFORCE our immigration laws, and get these ILLEGAL ALIENS out of this Country, then let the States do it! One way or another, an end has to come to this illegal immigration, and not with AMNESTY! Amnesty will only encourage more ILLEGAL ALIENS to invade our Country and reward those who broke our laws and raped the American taxpayer in many ways…depressing our wages, taking our jobs, overwhelming our schools with their ILLEGAL ALIEN children, driving without a license or car insurance, all the crime from stolen identities to rape, drugs and everything else.
It’s time for ZERO TOLERENCE with these ILLEGAL ALIENS. It’s time for them get out of this Country and back in their own Country where they belong. When we get rid of the ILLEGAL ALIENS, we will get rid of all the problems that go with them. THAT IS A FACT!
Yes Delaware Bob, let all the illegal aliens go back to their countries because YOU CANNOT wait to take over their jobs of CLEANING BATHROOMS or PICKING YOUR OWN VEGGIES!!
Ignorance… read a book..it will help you not let the ignorance shine.
Are we supposed to be proud of ourselves for denying life saving medical treatment to illegal aliens?
Are we to pat ourselves on the back for refusing to set a broken bone of an illegal alien?
Is it ethical to deny basic health care to any person?
Hi Nancy,
I’m 40 years old, thanks. I totally agree that employers should be responsible about not hiring illegal immigrants. I just don’t see how the argument about healthcare has anything to do with the argument about amnesty.
We should either have amnesty or not, and we should either have the healthcare plan or not.
Oops. Well, I’m weeklyrob and Robert Levy, in case that last comment was confusing.
Weeklyrob aka Robert Levy,
I guess the issues are being blurred because the healthcare bill didn’t/doesn’t have a mechanism for verifying the eligibility of those applying for the healthcare benefits. Then that spreads over to the fact that illegal aliens are here in the first place and all we need is to wave the Amnesty Wand and everything will be peachy.
Nancy, I know why people are mistakenly conflating the two issues. I’m saying that it’s wrong to do so, and I think we can be smarter than that.
I don’t want to argue about whether the bill should have enforcement rules written into it. It looks as though the people who voted against those rules claim that they didn’t want to add complexity to an already complex system and that verifications systems cost more than they save.
I can’t say whether that’s true or not, but I’m always hesitant to assume that people are lying. In any case, it’s looking more like those rules WILL be written into the bill. At that time, will you be happy? I predict that you won’t.
Weeklyrob,
No wonder we have a “failure to communicate” you say you are always hesitant to assume that people are lying. Does that include politicians? Most of them didn’t get where they are without lying. I assume a politician is lying and mostly interested in furthering his own agenda.
And if verification systems cost more than they save, let’s get rid of all verification systems required for any government benefit and allow anyone from any country to come here and take advantage of our services…then will you be happy? I predict that you will.
BTW, Obama is the one who conflated the two issues. This quote taken from the Washington Times article linked in the original blog entry above. “Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don’t simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. “That’s why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else.
Mr. Obama added, “If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”
Nancy, your prediction is wrong. I still bet that mine was right.
In fact, in your rush to paint me with your broad brush, you’ve seriously misunderstood my position as far as immigration goes.
Luckily for me, I don’t care. Enjoy your knee-jerk reactions and I’ll enjoy my interest in learning both sides of a position before reacting.
Bye now.
One last thing, Nancy. Do you seriously think that Obama’s quote that you mention was the first time that the issues were conflated? Do you not think that maybe, perhaps, there’s an off-chance that he was responding, rather than creating, a conflation? Not that it matters to me, because I do assume that Obama makes mistakes just like anyone else.
Anyway, these are, of course, rhetorical questions. I’ll move on now and allow you the last words.