Thread: Oregon Gov Sidestepping Feds on Healthcare!!Call and Email

OFIR Members and supporters:

This is an update on the governor’s Healthy Kids Plan bill, (HB 2201). The bill has been passed onto the House Revenue Committee.


HB 2201 is the so-call cigarette tax healthcare bill. HB 2201 would increase cigarette taxes by 84 ½ cents per pack in order to fund Governor Kulongoski’s children’s healthcare plan.

It is important to know that illegal aliens would not be excluded from the program. Representative Dennis Richardson tried to introduce an amendment that would have prohibited illegal aliens from being included in the plan. His amendment was rejected.

The bill has been sent to the House Revenue Committee and we urge you to contact them and voice your opposition to HB 2201.

Members of the House Revenue Committee:

Phil Barnhart, Chair (503) 986-1411

Tom Butler, Vice Chair 986-1460

Tobias Read, Vice Chair 986-1427

Vicki Berger 986-1420

Scott Bruun 986-1437

Sara Gelser 986-1416

Andy Olson 986-1415

Diane Rosenbaum 986-1442

Brad Witt 986-1431

We also urge you to call your State Representative. If you don’t know the name of your representative please call: (800) 332-2313.

The issue for OFIR is not whether or not smoking is bad, or if taxes should be raised, or if American’s need state health insurance. The issue is that by giving healthcare to illegal aliens the state would encourage more to illegally come to Oregon, stay here, usurp benefits from American citizens and continue the debasement of our immigration laws.

Logic would say that when a state raises taxes on cigarettes to the point where they rank in the top 3 of states in cigarette taxes, the revenue from such taxes will diminish. People will seek to buy their cigarettes from the internet, Indian tribes or other less taxing states in order to avoid the tax. As that revenue diminishes over time, the cost of the program will be taken out of other state programs that benefit American citizens.

The new Medicaid rules require proof of citizenship. HB 2201 is a sneaky attempt to get around the rules


Here is my email to my representative, I encourage you all to call or email Oregons legislators and reps to let them know people are watching these things?

Representative John Lim,

I have recently learned of a new bill being promoted by Gov. Kulongoski, called the "Healthy Kids Initiative". This bill, which would tax cigarettes to fund this proposed program.

While having more funding to ensure Oregon's children have good basic healthcare is commendable, it has also been brought to my attention that this bill would also include the children of illegal aliens, who are not citizens of this country, as opposed to those born here.

As the Federal Government has already addressed this issue when it mandated that ALL applicants for Medicare show proof or legal residency, thus excluding those here illegally, along with children who have been brought over the border as well. Now this program would sidestep the federal mandate for verification of legal status.

This is unacceptable, and needs to be stopped. Oregonians cannot keep funding the lives of those here illegally, it is nothing short of aiding and abetting. When our state government gives out free healthcare, and other service which are meant for legal and native born residents, it becomes an incentive for more people to come to our country and our state illegally and drains away dollars to those who have come here legally, and those who are citizens.

While we all can feel sympathy towards children who did not have a voice in their parents poor choice of crossing the border against American immigration laws, we also must make the reasons for coming here illegally, no longer possible for them. We would see a great many illegal aliens self-deporting when there is no more free health and state benefits as well as strict enforcement in the workplace.

Please speak up for the Oregonians in this. We need to dry up all reasons for illegal aliens to benefit from their crime of breaking our immigration laws.

Thank you,

Did I say illegal/illegally enough to make the point?

Truthfully, Rep. John Lim is a REALLY kind and thoughtful man, an immigrant from Korea himself, he has agreed that it is vitally important for the laws to be respected and that English be learned by EVERY person here.

It is dam well time that the tax payer has something to say about where and who their money is spent on and I don't mean by their fearless leaders!

Most Oregon politicians are fairly liberal, and that means they like giving away our tax dollars.

In Oregon we do not have a sales tax (luxury tax), but we have an income tax. Now on our income this last year, the income tax was 1497.65 based on 24,155.00. So with this minimal income, and this much tax, imagine how much the people with higher incomes are paying? I can guess it is a lot.

Our politicians here have always been quite generous in giving out these tax dollars to all too many social programs, and in the recent past Oregon voters got fed-up and started putting a stop to it with tax initiatives to curb the dollars and their spending. We also have a lottery by the way, which was supposed to make guaranteed funds to cover the schools and yet we have more problem now funding schools than we did in the past.

However, art seems to get a lot of funding, you know those wonderful projects where some guy is funded to glue together a bunch of junk that looks like nothing and they say it's art!

We do have some good and conservative politicians here, but they have a hard time fighting with the rest of them to do the right things.

How do you get things like this to a vote before the people instead of leaving it in the hands of our so called leaders?

Oregon has an initiative process which allows ANY voter to gather signatures on a well written proposal and bring it to the voters to decide.

It has always worked, but lately it seems that although we would yes on something, or no, then the state government would find a way around what we just voted for. We had one where they wanted to raise property taxes, and the voters said no, then they found a way to get the money anyways, against our will.

I received an email from John Lim, and this time he is taking the fence straddle position on this one. Again, he is a VERY nice man, and his concern over any child, overrides the true issue I think. He is thinking only with his heart and not with his head on the full impact on this issue and how the free healthcare for children of illegals would be more of a draw for them to come here.