Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Where all the money's going

The state of California is so broke that beginning February 1 it's going to begin issuing IOU's instead of checks to meet its financial obligations for such government debts as tax refunds, social programs and many other items.

(Does that mean that Cali residents can reciprocate if they just don't have the scratch to make their tax payments or pay speeding tickets because they spent too much the previous month on video games and other unnecessary items? Right, those deadbeats immediately get hauled off to jail. That just doesn't seem equitable, now does it? And, by the way, why aren't legislator paychecks the very first thing to be IOU'd? Yeah, I know it's a pipe dream, but it certainly would give them a kickstart, wouldn't it?)

The state is currently looking at a 41.6 billion dollar deficit over the next eighteen months or so unless something changes radically (read: the lawmakers there stop spending like drunken sailors on those very same social programs, as well as passing stupid, onerous regulations and imposing prohibitive tax rates on businesses (Buck Knives, for example) that are forcing them to flee to more welcoming states such as Nevada).

Well, here's one humble suggestion that'll help begin stemming the tidal wave of red ink - stop paying for health care for illegal aliens, which the state is doing with Federal funds, in direct violation of the law that provides those dollars.

For example, according to this article, California spent $51 million on routine kidney dialysis alone for illegal immigrants in 2007, even though the money allocated by the Feds is explicitly banned from being spent on any medical treatment for illegals save for "emergencies", which routine dialysis certainly isn't.

It's so blatant that illegal immigrants actually move to other states for different reasons, only to come running right back when they can't obtain the treatment anywhere else that they've become accustomed to demanding and receiving in California:

"The kidney failed when [Marguerita] Toribio briefly moved to North Carolina, which refused to pay for her anti-rejection drugs. She needed to go back on dialysis three days a week to clear toxins from her blood, but North Carolina didn't cover that, either.

The best a social worker could offer was a prepaid plane ticket back to California.

'When I came back here, I said, 'There is no way I'm leaving for another state again,' ' said Toribio, now 29, before a technician poked two needles into her arm at the St. Joseph Hospital dialysis center in Orange, Calif."

Or back to Mexico, either, the story reports her as saying. Isn't it interesting (and infuriating) how these lawbreaking individuals have no qualms about giving their full names to national journalists, as well as bragging about the quality "free" care they're getting courtesy of the American chump taxpayer? These interviewees seem to have no fear whatsoever of being deported once their sweet little deal comes to light.

Here's another illegal immigrant named Teresita Aquino, this time from the Philippines, who is planning to stay in the U.S. forever, specifically because of the "free" health care she receives:

""If I go home, I won't be able to afford this," said Aquino, 56. "No way am I going home."

She can't afford it here, either. You and I are paying for it.

Look, it's extremely difficult to avoid appearing heartless on this topic. We certainly don't wish ill to befall anyone, and it's always a tragedy when someone becomes sick, especially through no fault of their own. It's ludicrously unfair, however, to expect the American peasant to continue to fund (illegally given) health care for more and more illegal immigrants, care which is significantly better than those same Americans can expect to receive for themselves even though they're the ones paying for it, and light-years better than the care that those immigrants would ever receive in their home countries, which usually delight in bashing the U.S. over its lack of "rights" such as "universal health care". In the words of a Dallas social worker quoted in the article,

"'We cannot provide dialysis to the world'"

But California sure is trying, which is but one reason their budget is such a mess these days.

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