o'bamacare - Illegal Aliens: Cost to taxpayers

Lamar Smith Spells Out Costs of Speaker Pelosi's Insistence on Covering Illegal Aliens With Federal Health Plan

By Roy Beck, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9:59 AM

Are we as a country going to get stuck with the bill for subsidized medical care for millions of illegal aliens? I know, I know--it sounds impossible. But It sure could happen.

Now, nobody in Congress can claim not to know what is going on with illegal aliens and the proposed federal health plan. Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas has laid out the details in The Hill, a newspaper for the Capitol Hill staffers and Members of Congress.

The Democrats’ bill in the House, H.R. 3200, contains gaping loopholes that will allow illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded benefits. And these loopholes are no accident.

-- Rep. Lamar Smith quoted in the Hill

Rosemary Jenks (NumbersUSA's Director of Government Relations) and I have been doing non-stop radio shows across the country about this. One thing that occurs to us routinely is that the host reads a quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying firmly that the health plan will NOT cover illegal immigrants.

To that, I have to say simply, PELOSI IS LYING. And she knows she is lying.

I don't talk and write like that often. I tend to give people -- even politicians -- a lot of benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. But Pelosi and her leadership team have been engaged all year in coming up with deceptive language and amendments to make it look like they are denying illegal aliens benefits, all the while including language that that creates loopholes giant enough to drive 11-19 million illegal aliens through them.

(Read here and here about the vote in House committee last week and then here about the effort to cover up their dirty deed the next day. Also watch my short video from Friday about the subject.)

The costs to the American taxpayer will be incredible, writes Smith, the Ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.

If Americans aren’t already concerned enough about the astronomical costs of the healthcare proposal, this taxpayer-funded benefit for lawbreakers should sound the alarms.

Take just the uninsured: According to the latest research from the Pew Hispanic Center, 59 percent of all illegal immigrant adults lacked health insurance in 2007. These figures are dramatically higher than the 14 percent uninsured rate for U.S.-born adults. The children of illegal immigrants are also uninsured at extremely high rates — 45 percent of their foreign-born children are uninsured!

Of course, when it comes to illegal immigration, taxpayer-provided health insurance represents just part of the cost. Healthcare for illegal immigrants costs Americans at least $1 billion each year, not including health costs for children and the elderly. In my home state of Texas, just the price tag of educating the children of illegal immigrants adds up to around $4 billion annually!

-- Rep. Lamar Smith

Of course, Pres. Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid have a simple solution that would greatly reduce the cost of insuring and providing health care to illegal aliens:

Their solution is to stop calling them illegal aliens and to call them "legal immigrants" and "U.S. citizens." Of course, the cost to the taxpayer will be the same (or probably quite a bit higher as they fully take advantage of more welfare benefits). But since they are no longer called "illegal aliens," nobody can say the costs are attributable to paying for illegal aliens.

Don't you just feel like you have been plunged into a George Orwell novel?

Right now, millions of people around the world are preparing to move to the United States illegally to take U.S. jobs from American citizens because the Congress won't require businesses to use E-Verify.

If Congress now approves a federal health plan that covers any foreign national who can get into the country, just imagine how many more millions of people will be preparing to move here illegally.

Spending billions of taxpayer dollars to overhaul a healthcare system that provides Americans with the best care in the world makes no sense. And using those taxpayer dollars to provide benefits to illegal immigrants is inexcusable.

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress should not force American taxpayers to provide healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants.

-- Rep. Lamar Smith

I urge all of you to protest at the top of your lungs at all Town Hall meetings of your Members of Congress this month.

If you have Republican Members, protest the fact that the Republican leadership in Congress is taking a pass on this issue. Lamar Smith is high-ranking. But the half-dozen highest ranking Republicans are standing mostly mute. They are not making the inclusion of illegal aliens a big issue. What is wrong with them? Which big-money special interest is keeping them quiet.

If you have Democratic Members, make them understand that YOU hold THEM responsible for the fact that THEIR Party is putting illegal aliens and the corrupt businesses that hire them ahead of the interests of U.S. citizens, taxpayers and workers.

We the People surely can stop an outrage this clear and this gigantic.

Nearly in every neighborhood. We are literally everywhere. This is why Congress pays close attention to NumbersUSA. Look at this chart of where our donors gave last month. You can also see that we've barely begun to move the needle in August.

OK, so here are my requests. 1) Send all your faxes. 2) Make a phone call to you Congressmen, especially this month! 3) Stretch yourself, and attend a town hall meeting.

Lastly, if you can afford it, and you haven't given too recently, and you appreciate the benefits of membership, please consider making a donation to NumbersUSA. Nobody in America uses your donations more carefully.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

Views and opinions expressed in blogs on this website are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect official policies of NumbersUSA.

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