Wilson and Our National Character

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090913_joe_wilson_and_our_character/

Wilson and Our National Character

Posted on Sep 14, 2009
By E.J. Dionne


If you saw a woman struck by a car, would you call an ambulance right away? Or would you first ask for her papers to make sure she was not an illegal immigrant?

If someone living down the street from you was suffering from the H1N1 flu, wouldn’t you want him to get immediate medical help? Would you rather see him in pain and perhaps spread the disease to others in your neighborhood?

Rep. Joe Wilson deserves all the condemnation he’s received for his boorish behavior during President Barack Obama’s address on health care. No Democrat ever shouted “You lie!” during a George W. Bush speech to Congress.

snip//

As for immigrants who are here illegally, those who go to an emergency room receive medical attention, and they should. No doctor I know, whatever his or her politics, would deny treatment to a sick person on the basis of immigration status.

Forget compassion and consider self-interest. Aren’t you better off if the person working next to you who has a communicable disease has early access to care?

I am not one of those who dismiss Americans concerned about illegal immigration as racists or reactionaries. There are legitimate disagreements as to what we should do about it and problems with extending government programs to those who violate the law to get here.

But I am not at all at peace with the fact that the one issue about which a member of Congress chose to rise up and accuse our president of being a liar related to the charge that our chief executive wasn’t doing enough to build walls between illegal immigrants and health coverage.

How mean-spirited will we allow ourselves to become? How coarsened has our political culture made us? We like to see ourselves as a generous, caring and welcoming nation. Are we losing that part of our character?

is ok with msm

Deficit Reduction of Act 2005 sec. 6036 REQUIRES proof of citizenship before someone can receive federal aid for health care. There is already a law ON THE BOOKS requiring the very thing that the GOP is whining about now. There's know need for HR 3200 to do so.

Joe Wilson is either misinformed ......... or he's LYING.

Either is unexcusable.

We don't mind the lower prices that result from cheap labor unprotected by the law.

We don't enforce the law.

Illegal immigrants are the scapegoats for everything.

the plan doesn't provide health insurance for undocumented immigrants.

A pestilence that affects all people, rich and poor, native and immigrant alike.