Tax Lawyer's Blog

A few weeks ago Joe Wilson indecorously called President Obama a liar on the house floor for saying that the Democrat’s healthcare proposal will not cover illegal aliens.

Well, will it?

This is from an article written by Jeffrey Young of The Hill titled Senators Turn Back ID Requirement for Immigrant Healthcare:

Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs.

Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits.

Grassley’s amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote.

The bill, authored by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. Under current law, legal immigrants have to wait five years after obtaining citizenship or legal residency before they may sign up for Medicaid. That waiting period would not apply to receiving  tax credits or purchasing insurance through the exchange created by the legislation, however.

But the bill would not require them to show a photo ID, such as a drivers license. Without that requirement, the bill “remains dearly lacking when it comes to identification,” Grassley said.

“Frankly, I’m very perplexed as to why anyone would oppose this amendment,” he said.

I’m not perplexed.

Everyone has a name and a place of birth and we know from experience that anyone can forge a social security card. The only way to ensure that illegal aliens don’t benefit from the healthcare bill is to require people to prove that they are who they say they are.

The only possible reason for Democrats to reject the ID requirement is that they want to cover illegal aliens or at least assuage the pro-immigration amnesty lobby.

Bookmark & Share: