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In fact, Republicans have tried to introduce amendments to require verification of legal status to qualify for subsidies, but the Dems have refused to allow the issue to come up for debate because polls show voters overwhelmingly would support it and the Dems are afraid that if everyone with a Spanish accent had to prove their legal status it might cost them some Latino votes.
That's because limiting verification to people of Hispanic origin is DISCRIMINATION, and is illegal.
In order to have a legal verification method, it would have to equally apply to everyone, which would require a verifiable national ID method. Republicans don't want that because it would cause a revolt in their party.
The more important issue than whether Republicans have any good ideas is why Democrats don't seem to have any good ideas.
This is a non-productive statement. I specifically didn't say Republicans didn't have good ideas, in fact I stated the opposite. That is called "being positive", and "trying to work with others".
All of the reforms that are proposed by the various Dem schemes, such as insurance at standard rates for those with pre existing conditions, caps on out of pocket expenses and continuation of insurance if the individual stops paying premiums because of illness, will increase the costs to insurance companies and these increased costs will be passed on to consumers and businesses that provide health insurance to their employees. That means that almost every American would be paying more for health insurance than they do today if any of these plans become law and every business that provides health insurance to its employees would be paying more for each employee's coverage. It also means that all the cost estimates based on today's premiums are lower than the actual costs would be meaning higher deficits than projected and fewer uninsured that can be covered under the spending cap Obama promised.
It's as if Pelosi and the other Dem leaders sat down and said, "Voters want to see lower health insurance premiums, so let's devise a plan that will raise health insurance premiums, and voters want to see lower deficits, so let's devise a plan to increase the deficit, and voters want to see universal coverage, so let's devise a plan that is so impossibly expensive that universal coverage will be impossible to achieve."
The question should not be why Republicans are negative about this dangerous lunacy, but why Democrats who should want to see health insurance premiums decrease and deficits decrease and universal access to health care at affordable rates are not telling Obama and Pelosi and the other Dems leaders that they will throw them out of office if they don't scrap this excessively expensive and destructive collection of campaign slogans they are trying to pass of as health care reform and come up intelligent solutions that will address voters' real concerns: lower health insurance premiums, lower deficits and greater access to affordable health care.
And more negativity. Sigh.
Obviously, verification of legal status would have to apply to everyone, but since so many of our illegal immigrants are of Hispanic origin and because those of Hispanic origin are our fastest growing minority, they would be especially taxed by the verification process, most likely bringing charges of discrimination and costing the Dems votes since the verification process would have passed while they controlled Congress.
No national ID card would be necessary for these purposes, just multiple sources of identification such as SS #, birth certificate, Selective Service number, passport, etc., pretty much what Homeland Security requires. House Republicans have been pushing for a verification process and House Dems have refused to allow it, but since Joe Wilson called Obama a liar, the Senate Finance Committee has decided to establish a verification process in the Senate bill.
Since all the Dem plans now under consideration would raise the cost of health insurance for nearly all Americans, raise the cost of providing subsidies to those now uninsured and therefore reduce the number of those who now have no insurance get insurance, it is bizarre not to regard these plans negatively.