As Streiff noted yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee considered Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) amendment on the health care legislation that would require identification to take advantage of medicaid benefits.
Senator Grassley’s position, and the logical position, is that if one is not asked to show identification before taking advantage of a taxpayer funded health care program like medicaid, the program can be accessed by anyone under the sun, including people who are not supposed to take advantage of the program, like illegal aliens.
It’s common sense.
But not to Senate Democrats, including Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who back home takes a tough stance against illegal immigration.
Despite her tough claims, her vote yesterday proves she is full of it. According to the Senate, Senator Grassley’s amendment “amends Title 19 of the Social Security Act to require an applicant (or the parent or guardian in the case of a child under the age of 18) to present at the time of application for Medicaid or CHIP benefits government-issued photo identification and that identification must be authenticated with the issuing agency.”
Blanche Lincoln voted against this, opting instead to support illegal aliens using the program with no verification of their eligibility. She joined John Kerry and Chuck Schumer, two men who do not exactly have Arkansas’s values at heart.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Rationality has totally departed from the health care debate
civil truth (Diary) Thursday, October 1st at 9:37AM EST (link)Let me get this straight, now.
1) Illegals, by definition, are not subject to the mandatory insurance requirements, and in particular are not subject to the fines imposed by the IRS (since they don’t file for taxes) or the corresponding jail sentences.
So therefore, they are being offered a free gift of medical care whereas U.S citizens are to forced to pay for health insurance under penalty of law. That is, the U.S. citizenry is going to support free health care for illlegal aliens. And somehow this is not going to attract more illegal aliens from crossing into the U.S.
2) Since no ID is to be required, then anyone can use this program, whether or not they are eligible. This is somehow not going to keep the number of people being treated under medicaid from exploding wildly.
3) This plan is supposed to reduce cost of health care and cost to the taxpayer while increasing utilization of these services.
4) Taxpayers pay for medicaid, but no increase in taxpayer burden is going to happen.
Or is this cost shifting from the Feds to the states – that is, is this Federal program being paid for by imposing a mandate on states, which will have to be made up with by state tax increases or further cuts in other programs – thereby commiting the “crime” while maintaining clean hands by pretending to be saving money at the federal level? Is the sky up?
5) And since the bill has degenerated into a political food fight among interest groups with no attempt to create a coherent bill (and subject to leadership sleight of hand anyway), what confidence does this give that there will be any rationality in the political process down the line when the bills start coming due and changes need to be made? And is this confidence level any higher than the likelihood that the earth will be hit by a moon-sized meteor in the next three years?
And how will this improve medical care over the current system?And is this question even being asked anymore?
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
And if you think illegal immigration is bad now...
scottbomb (Diary) Friday, October 2nd at 12:24AM EST (link)…imagine what would happen if we promised “free health care” to any and all comers. Let’s see, we currently have the world’s best health care technology. The world’s population is about 6 billion, last I checked.
2+2=4…..unless you’re a Democrat, of course. In that case, 2+2= whatever you want it to be so long as it gets you votes.
www.HowObamaGotElected.com
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” – Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
Maybe we will need all those aliens.
mosander Friday, October 2nd at 6:10AM EST (link)I Obama can annihilate all the Patriots and those that will defend freedom, he will have a country full of poor, but compliant immigrant subjects, most of whom don’t speak English. Of course, they will wonder after a while why them came.
This vote is great for Blanche Lincoln's challenger
ktsub (Diary) Thursday, October 1st at 10:22AM EST (link)The 30-second Ad writes itself. I cannot wait to hear her “defend” this vote, I hope she goes all across Arkansas expalining this vote.
Also, voting by “proxy”, the Tea Party goers heads will explode!!!
The only thing going for her is she has 3 million in the bank, and Arkansas is a cheap state to run a campaign.
We'll see if voters actually remember this
TxCon (Diary) Thursday, October 1st at 10:24AM EST (link)come November 2010. I have my doubts.
All We Need Is A Viable Challenger
DavidSage (Diary) Thursday, October 1st at 10:33AM EST (link)and Blanche Lincoln is gone.
I just hope some bigger names come out of the woodwork to try and knock her off, she’s probably the easiest pickup opportunity IF we can find a worthy challenger. She’s not going to be thrown out if we run a nobody against her.
Arkansas is too conservative a state to have two Democrat Senators.
Latest polls against Lincoln
Kyle-MI (Diary) Thursday, October 1st at 12:03PM EST (link)If you believe them, the latest polls show almost any GOP challenger (even ones without name recognition) beating her.
What if?
wgsampson Thursday, October 1st at 3:15PM EST (link)Okay, she gets defeated in her reelection bid. Reid loses, Dodd loses, Specter loses, Beau Biden, Bennet, whoever runs in Illinois; they all lose. And Republicans pick up 63 house seats. Yippee.
We’re still stuck with this Health crap sandwich. They may be gone (for now), but Freedom is gone too. What do we do then. How do we get it back, when there is no representative democracy left in America.