Bob Barr Criticizes Barack Obama Plan to Provide Health Insurance for Illegal Aliens

“Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain wants to talk about immigration, but the system is broken,” says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. “Unfortunately, neither of them wants to take the tough steps necessary to secure America’s borders and institute a realistic policy to cut illegal immigration.”

An example of the problem is Sen. Obama’s oft-stated promise to “give health insurance to 47 million Americans who are now without coverage.” Of course, “Sen. Obama doesn’t plan on giving them coverage. He plans on making the taxpayers give them coverage. There’s a big difference,” notes Barr.

But there’s an even more fundamental issue. Approximately one-quarter of those persons who are uninsured are in America illegally. “It’s not fair to expect U.S. taxpayers to pay for health insurance for the citizens of another nation. America’s bloated welfare state is expensive enough, and even after recent reforms it still creates a disincentive to work. Handing out insurance to people who have come to America illegally will encourage even greater illegal immigration,” Barr explains. “And that, in turn, will push up government health care expenditures, creating a vicious cycle of more and more spending and more and more illegal immigration.”

“Instead of increasing the reward for violating the law and America’s borders, the federal government should move in the other direction. It must stop requiring hospital emergency rooms to provide free care for illegal aliens and the courts must stop forcing states to provide free schooling for the children of illegal aliens. This means changing the law and perhaps even the Constitution, but until we do so the government will continue to create a taxpayer-funded draw for illegal immigration,” says Barr.

“There is much to do to construct a rational immigration policy. We must start by securing the border. We should adopt a constitutional amendment, if necessary, to ensure that the children of those here illegally do not automatically become citizens; such a privilege should be accorded only those who are born in this country of parents in this country lawfully. We should also allow more highly-skilled legal immigrants, emphasizing economic productivity over family ties,” Barr explains.

“Most important, we should stop paying people to come here illegally. No more free health care. No more free education. And certainly no free health insurance,” emphasizes Barr. “It’s wrong to make Americans pay for medical treatment of other people. In fact, it’s completely counterproductive and illogical to do so. Eliminating incentives for illegal immigration will be one of the top priorities of the Barr Administration.”

Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.

Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizen’s right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.