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ALEX BRANDON / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., right, stands with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., center, and Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., Wednesday in Washington. Heller has aligned with Wilson in seeking assurances that illegal immigrants would be blocked from coverage under government-sponsored health care.
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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The Republican Party has been told again and again that it must tone down its rhetoric against illegal immigrants if it has any hope of keeping Hispanic voters who were once gravitating to the party from moving further toward Democrats.
Especially in Western states, including Nevada, with its growing Hispanic population, a measure of moderation would do the party some good.
But that has not stopped Republican Rep. Dean Heller from allying himself on immigration with the Joe Wilson wing of the party. Wilson is the Republican from South Carolina who shouted “You lie!” when President Barack Obama told Congress that health care reform would not cover illegal immigrants.
Heller stood, figuratively, alongside Wilson last week as the congressman and several others proposed amendments to ensure illegal immigrants cannot access any feature of the Democrats’ health care reform bill.
Republicans are finding great short-term success in using illegal immigration to whip up opposition to health care reform, particularly because it is an issue that has divided Democrats.
Democrats are in a bind: Their House bill expressly prohibits illegal immigrants from accessing government-sponsored health care or any of the proposed subsidies to help the uninsured pay premiums.
But the White House has signaled it might like to go a step further and prohibit illegal immigrants from buying private health care policies on the newly created health care exchange, as the Senate has moved to do.
This left House Democrats in an uncomfortable position and gave Republicans a wedge to keep pushing, stoking the conservative base, including the thousands who hollered “Kill the bill!” last week on the steps of the Capitol.
Heller did not attend his colleagues’ news conference Friday to support the amendments that bear his name, but he was there in spirit. (He did join Wilson earlier in the week at a news conference on other health care issues.)
More than once Heller got shout-outs from his colleagues for his efforts to clamp down on illegal immigrants, particularly his amendment to impose a stricter verification system that was shot down by Democrats before it could even come to a vote.
In the days after Wilson shouted “You lie!” at Obama, the White House floated ideas for tightening the verification system in the bill as Heller had suggested. Eventually, Democrats agreed to include a stricter system in the final bill.
But that is not good enough for those who want further restrictions, including the ban on illegal immigrants’ buying private insurance on the health insurance exchange.
Heller’s position is smart short-term politics in his mostly rural Northern Nevada congressional district. Opposing illegal immigration plays well in the north, a district that has never sent a Democrat to Congress, not even during the 2006 wave that brought Democratic control of the House and Senate.
But standing alongside the right wing on immigration may not do Heller well for his long-term political goals.
Heller has said he might like to run for governor someday. He is the state’s best hope, for now, for an eventual Republican Senate candidacy.
His anti-illegal immigrant record might not play so well statewide, particularly in urban Las Vegas, where Hispanic voters are a growing constituency.
Eric Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the effect of Heller’s actions now on his political future remains unclear.
“It doesn’t hurt him, short run, working with Wilson,” he said, noting that among conservatives, “Joe Wilson’s kind of a folk hero.”
But immigration is a volatile issue, and any position taken now “could have repercussions later on. If Heller is seen as too much of a hawk on immigration, it could hurt him.”
But tomorrow is another day. For Republicans today, the goal is to oppose Obama’s top policy priority, health care reform, the best way they know how.
Kudos for Dean. Any citizen that would not vote for Dean because of his stance on immigration probably thinks his job is so-o-o secure that he will never feel threatened in losing it to an illegal immigrant. Not all of the American citizens can feel that lucky.
Here again we have members of our government wanting to make provisions for people who are breaking federal laws instead of upholding the federal laws that are now written. A question that I have asked many times is,"Is it against the law not to uphold the law?"
Our elected officials are not upholding the laws of immigration on the books and at the same time are wanting to treat these illegals as citizens. They want us to get used to the fact that this is the way it is from now on. Thank God our forefathers had a better sense to fight for what the people believed in and stuck together to voice that they were not happy with ruling Britain at that time.
If we the people don't convince our politicians that the citizens of our country are fed up with their inactions they won't be getting our votes. Our elected officials are supposed to be protecting the people but have been making their priorities the CEO's of big business(greed destroys every politician eventually).
Hence the outsourcing of good American jobs to overseas markets ,lax enforcement on illegals breaking federal laws here are just two huge examples. Even the hispanic voter is in danger of losing work to undocumented immigrants.
If our elected officials don't start doing their jobs by protecting our citizens, they will be forced into early retirement.
Link Heller to Loudung or Baby tark in an ad in Vegas.
The Republican party is the public face of the KKK/Wing-Nut marriage. Pond scum of every stripe congregate under their banner.
Ignorance. Incompetence. Intolerance.
GOP.
Why are some of you people making this an ethnic problem when ethnicity has nothing to do with any illegal immigrant?
I do agree with the fact that during the Viet Nam war not just the blacks but any young adult not born with a silver spoon in his mouth had no option outside of serving his time in the military and going to fight the unneeded war in Viet Nam. Sad as it is that in todays world we are repeating history.
who the hell would want to join the stupid pathying lying repubican party these days???
only l-o-s-e-r-s!!!
Let us talk about Heller's marriage. Juicy.
I am a Democrat. However, I applaud Dean Heller's view that illegal immigrants should be denied health care in any way subsidized by the taxpayers.
Though Nevada doesn't have income taxes, we have very high sales taxes and very high real estate taxes. Need a permit from a local government agency, or have a business which must make filings with the State of Nevada, get bled for money. I am talking $60 fee to submit a business change of address form to the Nevada Secretary of State. The value of my house has fallen by half, yet my real estate taxes have stayed the same, because the scam artists in the State Legislature secretly put in a "floor" on real estate taxes when they did their faux real estate tax reform measure to head off Sharon Angle's version of Proposition 13.
We taxpayers are the ones who foot the bill to run the UMC hospital system, where much of the illegal immigrant community receives medical care, as mandated by Federal law, but not reimbursed by the Federal government. That's my tax money and yours going to subsidize people who contribute nothing to our society, and who instead destroy American jobs.
When we go to local, private hospitals, like Sunrise Hospital (which laid off 100 people because of the cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured) we subsidize medical care for these illegals through our co-pays and deductibles.
Our "real" unemployment rate here in Nevada is calculated to be something like 17%, yet the hotels on the Strip and Downtown are filled with employees who can barely speak English, and who knew exactly where to get fake I.D. which the casinos never check.
Because of the power of the casino industry in Nevada, no one dares calculate and announce the cost of these illegal aliens living in the state. However, in California, Governor Schwartzenegger has repeatedly announced that his government has calculated that illegals cost the taxpapers of his state more than $1 Billion per year, over any above any taxes the illegals pay. It wouldn't be hard to do the math here in Nevada, but the casino industry doesn't want the public to know how much we pay for Nevada's illegal aliens.
I am sick of these law breakers who steal our tax money and who steal American jobs. Anything which is written in a health care reform bill to deny these illegal immigrants another subsidized health care benefit is fine with me.
Good work Congressman Heller.
CynicalObserver,
Remember to applaud Dean Heller, et al, the day you arrive at an ER, deadly sick, and they demand you show proof of citizenship before they lift a finger to help you. That's how Republicans put the government between you and your doctor. You'll need a passport to receive medical care, so don't leave home without it...
Ignorance. Incompetence. Intolerance.
Those are the hallmarks of the Republican Party.
Spritzer: are you related to the disgraced former governor of New York? Or are you just pure carbonation? Shomer Shabaz!
Never understood why people vote for these guys.
"Ignorance. Incompetence. Intolerance."
Don't be so hard on yourself Sidney.
Your argument is an perfect example of ingornance and incompetence.
The Sumpreme Court has rule that no one can be denied emergency medical care.
Reply to Sidney Spritzer:
I do have my proof of citizenship in my wallet. It's my voter registration card. I have no fear of being denied medical care in the emergency room.
I also note that when I cut my foot open on a piece of glass on a hotel beach in Mexico, my spouse had to come up with $500 U..S. cash in the local hospital's emergency room, before they would even give me an admission form to fill out.
Pro-illegal immigrant Democrats are, once again, failing to realize that the vast majority of blue collar, union Democrat men in the eastern and central states very clearly understand that their jobs security has been destroyed by non-union employers who hire illegal aliens, and get away with it, and by NAFTA and other duty free import treaties.
With unemployment as high as it is, and not getting any better, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are going to have to effectively deal with the issue of the societal cost of illegal immigrants or lose control of the government. Rahm Emanuel gets it. Most other double talking Democrat politicians do too, they're just too politically correct to say anything.
"I do have my proof of citizenship in my wallet. It's my voter registration card. I have no fear of being denied medical care in the emergency room." - CynicalObserver
I highly doubt this, you would be pissed.
"I also note that when I cut my foot open on a piece of glass on a hotel beach in Mexico, my spouse had to come up with $500 U..S. cash in the local hospital's emergency room, before they would even give me an admission form to fill out." - CynicalObserver
The complete opposite happened to me, interesting. I cut opened my arm while I was in Mexico (add Intoxicated) and I was treated promptly, showed my American passport, and wasn't charged a single penny. The process required surgery and many other things that in the U.S. would of easily cost me $4,000+. I think it's just because they obvious. Where did you go? A private hospital? Mexico has a public and private system, private system is really expensive like here.
Besides the other, I really hope jobs are being stopped sent away. It's all the greedy corporations (who just happen to control our government and it's the reason why our government has sucked for many years).
Frenchie: you weren't in Mexico, you were in Shangra-la.
"Why Dean Heller's hard line on immigrants might sting later" That what the LV SUN used as a title.
It would have been more appropriate if it was:
Why Dean Heller's hard line on illegal immigrants might sting later
"Democrats are in a bind: Their House bill expressly prohibits illegal immigrants from accessing government-sponsored health care or any of the proposed subsidies to help the uninsured pay premiums." this just blows me away. it's like, oh no, what are the dems going to do? how are they ever going to be able to spend enough money on ILLEGALS? who cares about our citizens, what about the rights of the ILLEGALS?
Our Government, past & present, Republican & Democrat, have allowed the invasion of 20 to 30 million criminals and uneducated peons which is the largest invasion of any Nation, at any time, by any means & in direct violation of Article IV, Section IV of our Constitution.
This refusal to abide by our Constitution or enforce our Immigration Laws should be classified as Treason of the most foul kind, & as grounds for impeachment & trials for Treason!
Not only have they allowed the invasion, they force American tax payers to pay Billions on Billions of dollars to provide Welfare, Prison cells, Educate the invaders numerous children, and free medical care, at the same time the invading horde break numerous laws and massive document fraud, & are destroying our schools, hospitals, communities, culture and standard of living while Robbing, Raping, Killing & Assaulting American Citizens WAKE UP PEOPLE!
LarryVegas had it right.
This is about ILLIGAL immigrants, not those who come here lawfully.
Illegal immigrants of all colors and backgrounds need to be rounded up and deported before they break our systems (hospital, penal, education and various others).
Well before some of you even comment, you should learn the English language. You fail.
Just_Me: It's ILLEGAL, not "illigal". What a joke.
They're not braking your system, they pay taxes too
Paying taxes isn't a qualification for being a citizen. Being born here or having been naturalized legally is the only thing that matters. Illegal aliens and Illegal mexicans need to get the heck out of our country and stay permanently in their own. We don't want them here, we don't need them, and that's a basic factual truth.
No, that's your truth as Oprah would say.
You need to get out of our country and go back to where you come from...we don't need you.