BlogWonks

By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

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The Harris County Hospital District’s unreimbursed costs of caring for illegal immigrants approached $100 million last year, a 77 percent increase in three years.

“The costs are increasing because the population of undocumented immigrants is increasing and the cost of health care is rising,” said hospital district spokesman Bryan McLeod.

The unreimbursed costs rose from $55 million in 2002 to $97 million in 2005, the hospital district said in a report released Friday. Last year’s figure represented 13 percent of the district’s $760 million operating budget.

The district treats about 300,000 patients annually, but lacks enough funds and facilities to care for all of the county’s uninsured and underinsured residents, estimated to number between 800,000 and 1.2 million, McLeod said.

Commissioner Steve Radack, who requested the report on the district’s costs of treating undocumented immigrants, said county residents are shouldering a burden created by the federal government.

The federal government doesn’t prevent illegal immigration, but hardly reimburses local counties where the immigrants most frequently settle and use public health care facilities, he said.

“The federal government allows people to come here illegally,” Radack said. “Because of that the cost shouldn’t fall on the local taxpayer.”

The district treated more than 57,000 illegal immigrants last year, at a cost of $128 million. The federal and state governments reimbursed about $28 million, and the patients themselves paid about $3 million. Over the past 11 years, the district has paid about $607 million in unreimbursed costs for treating undocumented immigrants.

Read more: ( http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3977695.html )

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The United States simply cannot take on the huge burden of treating the ailments of American citizens and those of illegal Mexican citizens as well.

Many Americans who entered America the legal way, and those who were born here had a mind set and value system of working from nothing to achieve something…and without freebies from the government or preferential treatment.  So why should illegal immigrants who aren’t supposed to be in this country get priority over those who are already citizens? We are bending over backwards to support illegal immigrants, and we are unable to take care of ourselves, our healthcare system is crashing.   

A recent report by the Institute of Medicine found that our nation’s emergency rooms are overburdened. Now, think of the number of illegal immigrants who come to America to have children so that they can become automatic citizens of America. Think of how the emergency rooms struggle to treat American citizens and expectant illegal mothers. It’s a huge load. And it’s a situation which could be changed.

To give you an idea of how much of a strain this has put on the states, let’s take a look back at 1994, in California, where in that year, the state paid for 74,987 deliveries by illegal alien mothers.  Total cost, $215.2 million dollars.  Average cost per delivery, $2,842.  Thirty-six percent of births from illegal alien mothers were funded by Medi-Cal in 1994.

Read more:

( http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters4608 )

Those figures pertained to the situation in 1994, imagine how big the problem is now.  Congress could simply put a stop to the “anchor baby” issue and put into law that illegals whose children are born in America are denied citizenship.

The Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (headed by Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) goes further to explain why this is a good idea:

Shockingly, between 300,000 and 350,000 children per year are born in the United States to illegal-alien mothers, and these children are granted automatic citizenship upon birth.

After the Civil War, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which read, “All persons born in the US and not subject to the jurisdiction to any foreign power, excluding Indians, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” Just two years later Congress drafted the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, intending to constitutionalize the definition provided in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Senators Trumbell and Howard, the “chief architects” of the Fourteenth amendment, intended for a person to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States only if the person did not owe allegiance “to anyone else” (Senator Trumbell). The framers included the Jurisdictional prong of the Citizenship Clause to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship. A proper interpretation of the Citizenship Clause leads to the conclusion that political membership, and thus citizenship, can only result from free individual choices.

As previously indicated, a child born in the United States to a foreign diplomat is not a United States citizen. Since the foreign diplomat is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, the diplomat’s child, who inherits his parent’s status, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Because the child is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, he is not granted United States citizenship upon birth.

Likewise, Congress must declare that the child of an illegal alien inherits the status of his parent; thus, the child, like his parent should be deemed to be an illegal alien. Otherwise, immigration law creates a perverse incentive for people to sneak into our country and give birth. Illegal aliens are “individuals whose presence in the jurisdiction of the US is prohibited by law. They are manifestly individuals . . . whom society has explicitly . . . denied membership.” By automatically granting citizenship to the child of an illegal entrant, Congress rewards illegal entrants for violating American law. Congress should not incent illegal aliens to violate the law of the United States.

Read more…(under The Falsehood of Birthright Citizenship): ( http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/nationalsecurity.html )

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We can alleviate the stress on America’s hospitals and emergency rooms by simply taking care of American citizens first. This is common sense, and if Congress acts on a bill that would deter illegals from crossing our borders, that would help.  Right now, there are too many incentives for illegals to come across the border, and automatic citizenship for their children who are born in America should be challenged.

America needs to put its priorities in order. And first priority goes to the American citizen. Illegals who jump in line ahead of American citizens are robbing the system.

Whether it is in healthcare or in other areas of society… those of us, who grew up in the U.S. or came here legally, should not shoulder the burden of paying for the well being of illegal immigrants.

By Bernard Chapin

Just recently, after declining a funding request from one of Chicago’s numerous beggars, I heard a most peculiar thing. The man yelled at me as I walked away: “I’m sorry I’m not white.” At first I assumed he was talking to someone else; then I saw that he wasn’t. His tactic must have been an attempt to shame pedestrians into giving him more change. Presumably, as the man did not look like a novice to this ancient profession, it must be a strategy that, with the exception of this occasion, works which tells us quite a bit about the psyche of Caucasian Americans.

Shelby Steele, in his new book, White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, expounds upon the mindset of both groups while exploring our nation’s obsession with race. He outlines the interplay between white guilt and black power along with the pernicious effects this dynamic has upon both populations. The author grew up in a time when discrimination was not a shadowy thing. He witnessed it firsthand at baseball practice, and in his father’s having to deal with the customs of the southern towns they’d visit.

As Steele came of age, he was directly affected by the monsoon of changes altering America. Right before his senior year in college, Steele heard comedian Dick Gregory give a speech equating those blacks known as “good men”—or those who worked hard and were responsible—as being Uncle Toms. Their devotion and diligence was the yoke which bonded the black man to his oppressors. Therefore, to defy societal expectations was the road to individual freedom. Steele was powerfully impressed with this analysis and acquired a sense of freeform rebellion. He quit his high paying summer position, even though it was the best job he ever had, and vowed to no longer be a good man like his father. His self-sabotage amounted to a rejection of white authority. Luckily, his rebellion did not last long. Time, along with his stint as an employee of the welfare state, changed his views and allowed him to become the scholar who penned this excellent book.

Throughout the text, Steele combines remembrance with observation as a means to elucidate interracial relations. He defines white guilt as being a complete vacuum of moral authority wherein a stigma is cast upon an entire group of people regardless of what they do or say. In the 1960s, it flourished in whites due to the very real historical wrongs of segregation and slavery. By the end of that decade, due to the growing passivity of whites, the black leadership no longer echoed Dr. King. They became radicalized, and there was no shortage of white politicians, intellectuals, and glitterati (recall Leonard Bernstein) ready to sprawl before their collective feet and regain their moral goodness. For many Caucasians, irrational hate for your own race and your ancestors has now become a mechanism for self-esteem and purity.

When aggression meets submission the result is slaughter, and that’s exactly what has happened to the pride of white America over the course of the last four decades. Rage has become the preferred weapon for obtaining concessions from white politicians, and shame prevents rational minds from protesting these tactics. Steele compares the state of many whites to that of Kafka’s main character in The Trial, who is guilty of a crime solely because he has been accused. Black activists insisted that acquiring skills and education alone are not acceptable solutions; our government must actively raise them up. This demand is a reason why so many ashen faced elites embrace “diversity” and affirmative action. It allows them to acquire power while amassing feelings of personal superiority. Even corporations have gotten into the game:

Yet to gain employment today in most American institutions whites must
somehow pledge allegiance to “diversity” as if to demonstrate a white
identity of contrition and deference. Even in the corporate and military
worlds—not to mention academia—no white goes far without genuflecting
to diversity. Nevertheless, beyond an identity that apologizes for white
supremacy, absolutely no white identity is permissible.

The government internalized the stigma and dishonor of the majority population, and flooded black neighborhoods with lakes of redemptive spending. That the programs and grants issued were ineffective, or even made things worse, was largely irrelevant as the actions were designed to restore feelings of righteousness in politicians and their appointees. They became part of the solution and those of us who questioned their counter-productive, and steroidal, inflation of government were dismissed as being racist (and still are today).

To procure power, and as a way to impress upon others their own moral superiority, many whites pretend that history never happened and claim that without their noblesse oblige blacks would descend into the abyss. Steele accurately observes that their attitude is merely just a new form of white supremacy as it renders whites wholly responsible for the failures and successes of those they see as being below them. It suggests that blacks cannot possible fend for themselves.

Due to our country’s remarkable ascent from the nadirs of slavery and segregation, the devotees of white guilt have had to fabricate concepts like institutional racism and white privilege. Without them, they could not continue to proclaim that the most fair and prosperous nation on the planet is actually a Death Star of hate and injustice. Apparently, racism is so entrenched in our culture…that one cannot even see it.

In the opinion of this reviewer, what keeps racial tensions high in America are intra-race conflicts as opposed to the interracial ones. Most likely, if one group of Caucasians discontinued the practice of systematically defaming all other Caucasians then the strains among us would diminish. The alchemizing of racism from discussions concerning taxation and personal choice does little more than poison our air. When blacks are free from the conspiracy theories and psychologizing of a power obsessed white elite, we will all get along much better.

White guilt is a phenomenon that contaminates all who come into contact with it. As Steele notes, it has delegitimized the national virtues of industry, initiative, individual responsibility, the delay of gratification, and the need for meritocracy. When one embraces these quintessential values, one does not “act white” or “work for the man,” one betters oneself and the people around you.

Ultimately, the best practice for individuals is to treat others as your equals. Modifying your speech and pretending strangers are sensitive to your every syllable is just absurd. The solution to racial problems is not to kow-tow to certain groups and apologize for crimes you never personally committed; instead, we should simply treat other people with respect no matter where they lie on the diversity flowchart. Skin color has nothing to do with personality or worth. Just as one can be certain that segregation and slavery occurred, one can also be certain that the Lester Maddoxes, Orval Faubuses, and Theodore Bilbos are long dead and will never rise again. It is now an excellent time to bury white guilt along with them.

Bernard Chapin is a writer living in Chicago. You can contact him at veritaseducation@gmail.com.

If someone would have told me last year that some of our leaders in our government and those of the powerful elite in this country were plotting to merge Canada, the United States, and Mexico, I would have brushed it aside as a conspiracy theory.  Yes, it seems wild, however as we face the huge illegal immigration issue, many conservatives are now starting to put the pieces together.

Once again, the gay marriage issue has come before the Senate.  And with no surprise,  Senators motioned to strike down a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. What a sad state the Senate has become!  It should have been a no-brainer to stand up in the defense of marriage!