National Review Online
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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Fact-Checking Politifact on Immigration [Ramesh Ponnuru]

PolitiFact claims that Joe Wilson was wrong, and Obama is telling the truth about illegal immigrants. But PolitiFact ignores the central argument made by Wilson's camp: that the House bill does not require that the legal status of people who receive "affordability credits" be verified. (Democrats in committee voted down an amendment to require verification.)

Here's the entirety of PolitiFact's discussion of this issue, in a fairly long piece about Wilson vs. Obama: "The bill specifically says that people in the United States illegally are not eligible for tax credits, on page 132, section 242." So what? The law "says" that people aren't supposed to be here illegally in the first place, after all.

PolitiFact also reports, "Right now, most states have laws on the books that require hospitals to treat severely ill people who arrive at the hospital, regardless of immigration status, and we didn't see anything that would change those laws, either." I'm not sure what they're talking about, but federal law has included that provision for more than two decades.

09/10 02:11 PM

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