Congress to authorize $50 billion for disease programs, allow immigrants with HIV to enter US
Posted by acorcoran on July 12, 2008
Update July 18th: Passed by the Senate by a wide margin, see report here at Blue Ridge Forum (including link to how they voted).
Urgent, July 14th: Read the latest on this issue at America’s Survival, Inc. here. Today is the best day to express your opinion to your Senators.
Your tax dollars:
Interesting that this information should come on the heels of our Africa post yesterday. Hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum. In answer to a commenter yesterday, we do send enormous aid to countries around the world to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, but $50 billion over 5 years is way beyond anything I even imagined.
S.2731 goes to the Senate floor on Monday and is expected to be signed into law by September because it is supported by the Bush Administration (well, maybe its a tad bit more than the Bush proposal of $30 billion, but what’s $20 billion here or there).
Here is the kicker (if $50 billion of our tax dollars wasn’t already) from the Congressional Budget Office:
….enacting S. 2731 would increase direct spending [no kidding]. The bill would allow immigrants with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States. CBO estimates that providing certain benefits to those immigrants and their children would increase direct spending by less than $500,000 in 2010 and by $83 million over the 2010-2018 period.
Refugees are already coming here with HIV (and TB for that matter) despite the ban on foreigners with the disease from traveling or immigrating to the US. This bill would allow all immigrants to enter the US with HIV and be treated at taxpayer expense. I don’t think it takes a genius to see how this opens the door wide to more immigrants (including illegal immigrants) who will rush the gates and become dependent on our already overburdened health care system.
Read the entire CBO report here.
JSBolton said
Thanks for the warning on this.
Senator Sessions to move to strike HIV provision « Refugee Resettlement Watch said
[...] Congress to authorize $50 billion for disease programs, allow immigrants with HIV to enter US [...]
William said
Not everyone with HIV is an illegal immigrant, I for example would just like to be able to visit the US and see a yellow taxi, walk through central park, see las vegas… anything… I cant even visit the country where my friends live and it brings me to tears to think if this isnt passed I might never get to.
acorcoran said
William, it strikes me that if Congress wanted to write a law that allowed visitors with HIV to enter the country for a brief time and not ask for tax payer funded medical care, they could do that. And, some would say that would be a reasonable compromise.
But, apparently they haven’t. This provision if passed would open the door wide for immigrants of every stripe (legal or illegal)to come here and be treated for HIV at taxpayer expense.
Mark said
Well, since refugees with AIDS are already allowed in, how will this bill change anything?
Why don’t we bar immigrants who have heart disease? Maybe make an exception for the Indian doctors and software specialists we need? If we say immigrants can come in permanently with expensive-to-treat diseases, except for those with AIDS or HIV, what is the point of that?
acorcoran said
Hi again, Refugees are only a small portion of the immigrants entering the country. We have banned all other immigrants and even travelers, See Williams comment above, from entering the US with HIV/AIDS. I am assuming that was originally because it is contagious.
Again, I can’t presume to understand any Congressional logic, but I assume it was the highly contagious part they are (were) worried about.
I agree from a taxpayer standpoint that the part about entering the country with any expensive-to-treat disease and expecting others to pay for the treatment is the infuriating part.
Mark said
I don’t know WHAT the logic was of singling out immigrants with AIDS/HIV alone for exclusion, because although HIV is contagious, from what I understand as a lay person, it is not highly contagious. You have to actually exchange bodily fluids to get HIV. This is because the virus, unlike other viruses, is extremely fragile outside the body. So someone could leave their bodily fluids around, but the virus is going to die quickly once outside the body. Also, its not able to get airborn (think of TB, influenza, etc).
judyw said
Since the supply of would-be immigrants and refugees is far greater than our quotas, we can choose whom we admit. I suggest we should choose those who will make the greatest contribution to our country, not the ones on whom we will have to spend the greatest amount of money. It’s pretty expensive to pay for lifetime treatment for AIDS/HIV patients. In fact, it’s cheaper to treat them in their country of origin because the drug companies make the medicines available at a fraction of what they charge here. Or maybe it’s that the patents don’t apply so generic drugs can be used. Either way, it’s far less expensive.
Bix Nood said
I see no reason why we should be supporting another country’s problem, we should fix OUR problems first (illegal immigration, deficits, etc).
Also, can you imagine of these “refugees” rape a citizen? What are the chances it will be reported? Not likely, causing a risk for it (HIV/AIDS) to be spread at a greater rate.
HIV-positive immigrants will soon be on the way to a city near you « Refugee Resettlement Watch said
[...] AfricaBosnian teen killed in Bowling Green, KYHIV-positive Sudanese refugee convicted in CanadaCongress to authorize $50 billion for disease programs, allow immigrants with HIV to enter USFood Stamp fraud cropping up everywhere « Muslim immigrants [...]
Road Sassy » Bush and Obama: Betraying America said
[...] Refugees are already coming here with HIV (and TB for that matter) despite the ban on foreigners with the disease from traveling or immigrating to the US. This bill would allow all immigrants to enter the US with HIV and be treated at taxpayer expense. I don’t think it takes a genius to see how this opens the door wide to more immigrants (including illegal immigrants) who will rush the gates and become dependent on our already overburdened health care system. (Source) [...]