Posted on 04/04/2013 6:11:36 PM PDT by haffast
Senate Republican staffers estimated Thursday that the annual cost to taxpayers of legalizing illegal immigrants could be in the billions, if they use their status to apply for federal benefits from Medicaid and ObamaCare. The claim, though, was challenged by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a key Republican engaged in immigration bill talks.
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee -- responding to an emerging immigration proposal that includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants -- had estimated that the cost could total up to $40 billion in 2022, "just for Medicaid and ObamaCare."
"The net costs would be enormous and only increase once citizenship is granted," the office of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, top Republican on the committee, said in a statement Thursday. The estimates were crunched by budget committee Republican staff.
Payments from Medicaid and subsidies from the federal health care law represent just a fraction of federal government benefits that a green-card holder or U.S. citizen can apply for.
But Rubio spokesman Alex Conant disputed the numbers, saying in a statement late Thursday that it's simply too early to provide cost estimates.
"Since we don't yet have a legislative proposal, it's not possible to come up with anything resembling an accurate calculation about the potential fiscal impact of bipartisan immigration reform," he said.
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"Senator Rubio has been clear that he will only support legislation that prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal benefits, and in our negotiations, the Democrats have gone along with that demand -- even agreeing to a partial repeal of ObamaCare to bar undocumented immigrants benefits. In the long-term, there's no question that modernizing our broken legal immigration will be very good for our nation's economy," he said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The courts will rule that once amnestized they have equal rights to helathcare.
In other court cases they ruled illegals have rights to certain parts of the medical system.
Rubio went to community college and Cruz went to Princeton. David Vitter is a Rhodes Scholar. Jeff Sessions was an AG, Attorney and could have been a district court judge if not for the attacks on him.
Your point being?
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