Tearing Down the Wall of Our Humanity, One Brick at a Time

Chuck Grassley continues to disgrace himself with his petty, opportunistic hatchet blows at what's not going to end up as our health care reform bill anyway:

"Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a 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. In addition, legal immigrants would have to wait five years, as under current law, after obtaining citizenship or legal residency to access federal healthcare benefits such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program or receive tax credits or purchase insurance through the exchange created by the legislation.

But the 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."

Well, it's not hard to perplex a man who will parrot any damned crazy crapola his  party's morons make up, and is happy to exploit the nativist panic over our immigrant population.  Why are they always so quick to deny care to the very people who basically wipe the nation's ass for it because white people are too busy?  They may not want to take care of sick immigrant children (and what the hell do the children have to do with it? where is all this "pro-life" bushwa when it counts?), but they don't object to them dying for us in Iraq.
As of February 2008 there were about 65,000 non-citizen and naturalized immigrants in the armed services--people who would have to wait five years under Baucus'  bill before we would deign them worthy of health care.  Here are some stats:

• Approximately 65,000 immigrants serve in the armed forces.
• The foreign born represent approximately 5 percent of all active-duty personnel.
• The top two countries of origin for foreign-born military personnel are the Philippines and Mexico.
• Nearly 11 percent of those serving in the armed forces are of Hispanic origin.

All this whinging about how immigrants are stealing our cheese conjures to mind an image of a chandelier of an old lady, bejeweled about the dewlaps, clasping tightly at her purse as a ragged child in the street tries to sell her a box of matches.  "Oh God!" she shrieks, "Get her away!  She's probably capable of anything!  She'll take everything I have if I let her get any closer! Oh, take me home, James!"  Upon which she's off to her estate for a formal dinner as the child dies in the gutter.

What a disgraceful panorama of hypocrisy and faux-Christianity.  But thank God Max got his.