Blog - Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare 
OpenCongress Blog
Blog Feed Comments Feed More RSS Feeds
Joe Wilson Voted to Provide Taxpayer Money for Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare
September 11, 2009 - by Donny Shaw
On Wednesday night, Rep. Joe Wilson [R, SC-2], shouted “You lie!” at President Obama when he said that the healthcare bill would not cover illegal immigrants. “The supporters of the government takeover of healthcare and liberals who want to give healthcare to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan,” Wilson said the next day in a campaign fundraising video.
However, in 2003, Wilson voted to provide federal funds for illegal immigrants’ healthcare. The vote came on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250,000 annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants. The program has been extended through 2009 and there is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress to make it permanent.
Hospitals have a legal obligation to treat everyone who comes in seeking care, regardless of citizenship status, insurance or other characteristics. This means that hospitals treat millions of people every year who don’t have the means to pay. Obviously, this drives up the nation’s healthcare costs overall. Section 1011 helps cushion the costs for hospitals, but it’s not nearly enough to cover the actual costs in most areas.
To be fair, Section 1011 is just a small part of a much larger bill that contained many Republican priorities. Still, Wilson’s protest against the current healthcare reform proposal giving coverage to illegal immigrants (which is false), is in direct contradiction to his 2003 vote. Allowing illegal immigrants to purchase unsubsidized healthcare through the Exchange that would be set up under the current proposal wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent, and it would be a step towards fixing the problem that Section 1011 was designed to throw federal money at.
Here are a few more links on Wilson and the healthcare reform bill:
- Wilson’s OpenCongress profile
- Wilson’s OpenCongress Wiki page
- The House healthcare bill
- The line in the bill blocking subsidies for illegal immigrants
- The healthcare bill’s tax increases
- 5 major lies about the healthcare bill debunked
Read all blog posts here, or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up with what’s really happening in Congress.
Get Blog Updates by Email
Want a simple way to stay on top of what's happening in Congress?
Subscribe to this blog!Send Us a Tip
-
I've been watching a lot of...
Submitted by Robert Schwartzman on Dec 9
-
Proposed Bill HR-2674 Prote...
Submitted by Mary on Jun 16
-
Amendment No. 601 to the Om...
Submitted by Winifred on Mar 3
You can submit a tip anonymously, or attributed to your own name and e-mail, whichever you prefer. Read more about submitting a tip.
Recent Posts
- Endless Blockade for the Senate ... January 25, 2013
- One Year Ago We Killed SOPA -- H... January 18, 2013
- Senate Democrats Looking to End ... January 08, 2013
- Welcome the 113th U.S. Congress:... January 03, 2013
- Secretive Conference Committee F... December 20, 2012
Archives
See All ArchivesBlogroll
- A plain blog about politics
- The Baseline Scenario
- Capital Eye
- The Caucus
- CBO Director's Blog
- Congress Matters
- The Corner
- CREW Blog
- Crooks and Liars
- Jamie Dupree
- Election Law Blog
- FDL News Desk
- Glenn Greenwald
- Hot Air
- Irregular Times
- Little Sis
- Naked Capitalism
- The Moderate Voice
- OMB Watch
- Open House Project
- Party Time
- Plum Line
- Political Animal
- Political Wire
- ProPublica
- Real Clear Politics
- RedState
- Secrecy News
- Sunlight Foundation Blog
- Talking Points Memo
- techPresident
- 2chambers
- Unanimous Consent
- The Weekly Standard
Sort By
Comments
Displaying 181-210 of 303 total comments.
I have integrity too…. I just made a donation to Mr.Rob Miller and I don’t live in South Carolina. I plan to send him more. With the Governor, the two Senators, and now this liar Joe Wilson, South Carolina have alot of house cleaning to do.
house cleaning in SC…man if only we could only get Washington to do the same on both sides.
hey, let them die writhing in pain on the ER floor, that what jeebus would do
I understand that folks don’t like Obama, and that’s completely fine with me, but things are just getting out of hand. I’ve watched people lose their minds over so-called death panels, socialism, Obama’s birth certificate, and now the unsurprising display of disrespect by Wilson.
Why don’t people just stop what they’re doing, take a deep breath, and realize that their team doesn’t get to win 100% of the time.
If you don’t already wear a blindfold, maybe you should put one on. Obviously you are biased
It’s funny how everyone has their panties in a wad over an unknown Congressman from South Carolina. It doesn’t matter how he voted in the past or what the ‘Health Care Insurance’ Bill under consideration says. Public opinion has already considered this issue a dead issue. The true concern that is really brewing is the fact that the majority of the public distrusts any legislation passed by this Congress and signed into law by this President. This is what happens when you don’t follow the Constitution and you turn your back on ensuring national security.
First they gave us Joe the Plumber, now they give us Joe the Dumber. Way to stay classy, Repugs!
This is an outright distortion of the facts. This is not a factual report… rather an opinion piece masquerading as a news story…. and here’s why. The White House has just shifted course, and recognized that Joe Wilson was, in fact, technically correct. He has been on this topic since the beginning. There is no mechanism in place in the bill, to prevent illegal immigrants from attain Government healthcare. Joe himself had written 2 amendments to the bill, in an attempt to fix this. They were both summarily thrown by the wayside, in a hyper partisan game of “screw those Right wingers” in committee.
Next up….. If a member of Congress pushes for the federal government reimbursing state and local hospitals for treating these same people, does one really think this falls into the realm of hypocrisy? Look, these hospitals are stuck having to treat them, and it’s the Federal Governments fault, for not maintaining our borders, and allowing the problem in the 1st place.
Extremely disingenuous artical. The vote by Joe Wilson was not to pay for drugs for Illegals but to reimburse Hospitals for expenses forced on them by the Fed Gov’t.
JOE Wilson is in the wrong no matter what
if we allowed any Tom , Dick and Harry Republican to disrespect the decorum of such a gathering …. we are really heading down the tubes !!
He should resign !
he is a disgrace
for he does not know ,there is a time and a place
I believe he planned this to give himself some kind of boost
a strange platform… ugly, ugly , ugly !
Yea, sure! And so should have the democrats in congress for their ‘undignified’ antics while Pres Bush was in office. Such as the booing during his 2005 state of the union address. Which actually is an important address. Unlike the massive number of speeches given by the current potus in the last 8 months.
By the stats, most of you didn’t watch it anyway since a dancing show beat it in the ratings.
When Bush was lying to the world about Iraq during his speech before Congress, no Democrat shouted to him “YOU LIAR”. Where are those WMDS? It was bad behavior by this Wilson character, and it was planned. He could have kept his disgusting so call apology too. He may have given himself some kind of boost, but it seems Mr. Miller the guy who’s running against him got a boost too. I’m planning to send Miller a donation myself.
It is a shame that we have ignorant, misinformed , uneducated and rude person like wilson in a sensitive position, I hope he is not re-elected because he is a shame to this nation. when he is ignorant and he shouted that our president a liar because he is uneducated and untamed,if he does not respect President Obama as a person, does he respect the nation that is feeding him and his family? what does he expect other nations in the world to think about us as Americans?. In short wilson is an untrained animal Period. It is unamerican to act the way he acted.
it’s almost as bad as the pres lying to the whole country, i mean what if a president were to lie to the whole country? does he respect the nation that is feeding him and his family? Is that unAmerican? b/c it has happened and we made no big deal of it. Can’t we move past Wilson, who was wrong in so many ways for what he did, and worry about fixing this broke ass system that both sides are responsible for? Or will everyone in Washington continue to forget why they are up there.
Is this true? Let’s see how Wilson supporters try to spin this. Wilson is a bold face liar, who acted like a spoil rotten four year old the other night. Forgive me four year olds for compairing you to Joe wilson. He is a lying disgrace.
The President was right the Health Care bill states in plain English that even Joe Wilson should be able to understand that it does NOT cover illegal-immigrants, but Hospitals can’t refuse to give medical care to someone who needs it now and the taxpayer already picks up the tab, which probably won’t change.
American seem willing to take illegal-immigrants labor, but unwilling to pay them a living wage or even give them medical care. if the American people didn’t exploit them they wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Im sorry to tell you all this, but it IS all a lie…the courts have already ruled that if you provide universal healthcare then you MUST under the 14th ammendment, among others, provide it for EVERYONE, legal, illegal….you cant tell me that a stack of lawyers in DC dont already know this…so they can claim it wont cover them, they can verify all the want, but at the end of the day the constitution will have the final word.
A republican trifecta – Rudeness, lying and hypocrisy.
Didn’t the President say “…in the bill I’m proposing…” which in itself is enough to discredit any claim he was lying.
Not only is Joe Wilson crude and an embarrassment to the state of S Carolina, he is wrong AND he is one who has lied.
That said, illegals will continue to be provided healthcare via the emergency rooms, when their illnesses are far advanced, as will low income people for whom a tax credit to buy insurance is an elitist joke. I can’t wait until an exceptionally contagious form of multi-drug resistant TB is brought into this country by an illegal, who felt sick but couldn’t get health care until he was about to die, after spreading it, hopefully, to his rich, white, Republican employers who most certainly will not be paying him enough to buy insurance on the open market.
You Republicans and anti-healthcare people are fools and if there is any God, you will pay mightily for your selfishness.
These ignorant people do not know how to read obviously. They only listen to Rush and watch Hannity and Beck buffoons. These is HOW the Republican party has been represented. See how Wilson lies and has lack of manners. Best of all, he has the temerity to ASK for donations while people randomly and spontaneously DONATED to Mr. Miller.
REPUBLICAN PARTY = CLOWNS.
SEND IN THE CLOWNS, BABE.
“What the hell do you think our cars would be like if the only choice we had was one the government made for us?”
An interesting analogy. However, consider this: If there wasn’t government mandates about how cars should be, they wouldn’t have basic safety features like seatbelts, air bags, or even padded dashboards. They wouldn’t be subjected to basic crash tests to see how well they stand up under impact. They wouldn’t bother with trying to improve the gas mileage, and wouldn’t be efficient in any way.
Oh sure, there’d be high end cars, like the Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royce who would have all those safety features and improvements, because you’ll always be able to sell to people who can afford them.
Don’t think of the government as some big nasty entity out to get you and your money. Your government is made up of people YOU elect to do a job for you. If you don’t like how that’s done, you can work to change it. It’s not perfect, but consider the alternatives.
Agreed. And don’t forget regulations like the Portability Act (HIPPA, to be precise) which forced insurance companies to limit pre-existing conditions to no more than one year from the time of employment and which allows you to go from one insurance company to the next without going through yet another pre-existing waiting period. And what about COBRA? In the past, you lost your insurance the same month you lost your job – period. Now your insurance must allow you at least 18 months coverage from the time you lose your job. (much longer if you lose it due to disability.) These are all government regulations that I actually saw save lives. I’d like to have one more thing – the choice of a public plan so that my premiums went to pay for people’s healthcare, low administrative costs (like Medicare) and NO fat CEO salaries and profits. Now why can’t I have that choice?
Look the one thing my Mother told me is that “Your Mind is a Waste if You Don’t Us It..” This clown here and the rest of them fools really think that people not like them are dumb and stupit. No matter how many times these fools are proving wrong and at the same time are shown to be contradicting themself.. Are making America look like fools and clowns. We have been trying to fix this system for many years, almost 50 yrs and fight for a system for almost a 100 yrs.. For 8 yrs we was lied too people lost there lives and everything they own. The Repugs have ran this country down! With they mind set we are in a War that had nothing to do with 911. We have people that have lost everything do to Wall Street crooky ways. Higher gas prices. Low stanard in the World. Homeless have raised to there all times highs and the people that are homeless, are with kids. Due to the housing bubble.401k have lost 45% of it’s value or more. the only thing I can say is, WOW 70% of us are not clowns & fools.
Moderated Comment
Republicans only care about themselves. They are greedy and hateful.
Joe Wilson is a scumbag…I hope he dies a slow and painful death.
/10 or 80/20.I cn’t think of an employer who advertises what healthcare plan they offer to job seekers,so you don’t get to look for another job with a plan you like. If you buy insurance on the open market and have any conditions such as high blood presure,diabeties,high cholesterol,or a previous bout with cancer,etc ,you have to take what you can get.
So where is the choice that we would be losing?
I think it is a brilliant idea to not treat an illegal who has say N1H1. Turn them away so they can infect more people and ultimately cost more money.