An April 7 CBS Evening News report on the health care monetary burden of illegal aliens on American taxpayers has just now drawn the ire and the fire of the two largest Hispanic grievance groups -- the National Council of La Raza (translation: "The Race") and the Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund (MAL (not Mos) DEF).
Byron Pitts' piece is fairly mild and pretty much down the middle of the fairway, and CBS News and their (for now) flagship girl Katie Couric deserve kudos for at least addressing the issue.
But the Latino Intolerance Duo (LID -- as in flipped their's) can not let stand unchallenged the reporting of the costs of the invasion. Pitts pointing out that someone somewhere (that would of course be us) must pick up the tab -- when the likes of Fabiola (the illegal alien mother featured in the story) does not -- is to them an "anti-Latino falsehood". They do not offer how or why something so obvious as this is either "anti-Latino" or a "falsehood" -- we are left to assume that their asserting it empirically makes it so.
On our end, there was bit of a bone to be picked with the Tiffany Network's numbers.
The tally CBS offers for the aggregate damage done to federal, state and local budgets by the unremitted health care bills of illegal aliens seems far short of what seems to be reasonable. It is in actuality false.
CBS cites a Rand Corporation study that asserts that the cost to the taxpayer for health care for "all undocumented men, women and children" -- their words, both spoken and in chyron -- is $1.1 billion per year. That jumped out -- at least to me -- as woefully underselling the drama.
And so it is. The Rand study cited is in fact NOT for "all undocumented men, women and children" as CBS claims, but examines only "nonelderly participants -- those between 18 and 64" as so described in the Rand report's executive summary.
In other words, it does NOT include children as claimed by CBS, nor does it contain those of advanced age, the two age groups that far and away partake of the most health care -- and dollars therefore.
CBS inaccurately stretching the findings of the report to include children and the elderly, when it so CLEARLY does not, is decidedly false and minimizes substantially the impression left with the viewer as to the costs attending the illegal alien population in our midst.
Many thanks to La Raza and MALDEF for bringing this old story to our attention anew, else this egregious error might have slipped permanently into media bias and falsehood oblivion.
An aside: Even confined to the actual parameters, the $1.1 billion in costs per annum Rand claims still seems extraordinarily small. One perusing the Center for Immigration Studies' "Costs" report page will find their inkling supported in study after excellent study.
In but one 2004 report, "The High Cost of Cheap Labor - Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget", we find Executive Summary Point #1:
Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of almost $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household.
Emphasis ours. Here we have already hurdled by a factor of 10 Rand's $1.1 billion total -- just at the federal level and in only a portion of the illegal alien population here in the United States.
CBS's uncritically accepting Rand's paltry number -- and falsely applying it to the broader illegal alien population -- looks more feeble still.
—Seton Motley is Director of Communications for the Media Research Center.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
As a resident of Arizona
April 30, 2008 - 19:22 ET by DEVILDOCMOMI can assure you, as I often do, that the cost is huge here in Arizona, especially Southern Arizona. In the last few weeks we have had multiple accidents from Benson to Phoenix involving many, many illegals...drunken illegals and/or poor driving illegals. Many deaths, HUGE transportation costs to our struggling departments who respond to these accidents and to the hospitals involved.
My own facility, which is not a trauma center, still has "our share" of illegals. One, a rather sad case, of a young woman found bleeding (after a birth...infant deceased) behind a small business. She was an ICU admit and is still in the hospital...huge costs and not an unusual case.
No matter who is elected this fall, this is an issue which will not be resolved the way I would like it to be...none of the candidates will crack down. They will bow to the illegals and their corrupt organizations.
It's even worse
May 1, 2008 - 07:40 ET by sentforth5when we take into consideration all the diseases they carry into our country with them. They completely bypass our screening function and bring third-world sicknesses we have'nt seen in 50 or more years. They work in food service, they pick our vegetables ( a job I had as a teen in Virginia to earn summer cash), their children are sitting next to our children in public schools sneezing and wiping boogers on each other....
It is only a matter of time...oh, let's say five or so years down the road, before these aliens bring us down from within. One cannot calculate the potential costs looming on the horizon.
Bye bye, Lady Liberty...you were HOT, too!..Ah well,the past has taught us NOTHING.
If I had to choose an artist to depict Lady Liberty these days.
May 1, 2008 - 07:49 ET by sarcasmoI'd have to go with Fernando Botero.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
→ Abu Ghraib, sarc?
May 1, 2008 - 07:57 ET by Cool ArrowWhy would you choose this artist who obsesses over Abu Ghraib?
Some of those pictures you linked to are pretty disgusting.
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The obesity.
May 1, 2008 - 08:07 ET by sarcasmoArtists are sometimes disturbing. That's art, not obsession.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
→ OK
May 1, 2008 - 08:20 ET by Cool ArrowBut I wouldn't appoint Jack Kervorkian as Surgeon General, either.
Guess I miss the blowup doll message in his art.
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I wouldn't appoint him as that
May 1, 2008 - 08:31 ET by sarcasmoBut I would want the freedom to go to him or someone like him if in the final stages of something like malignant melanoma. Lady Liberty USED TO be skinny, or at least in halfway-decent shape. Not anymore...
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Now I get it
May 1, 2008 - 08:37 ET by Cool ArrowYou're looking for something a little more Reubenesque in the depiction.
All I saw was blowup dolls and Abu Ghraib.
Actually, the blowup doll goes well with government inflicted "inflation".
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Inflation
May 1, 2008 - 08:49 ET by sarcasmoI'm still amazed and floored by this graph. I can't seem to get over it. Yes, some things have changed that are tough to measure during those years, like computer memory. But those things factored in with the prices of other stuff like food & gas clearly show that something political is going on with the calculation. It's not being very well covered by most journalists, especially the ones on TV (again, with the notable recent exception of Glenn Beck).
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
thanks, Sarcasmo!
May 1, 2008 - 07:58 ET by sentforth5chubby little link ya got there!
You are right, of course
May 1, 2008 - 11:41 ET by DEVILDOCMOMeven tho' I still eat out in restaurants in Tucson, I am well aware of the hepatitis problem among restaurant employees. Worse here because of our proximity to Mexico...
WHAT? See-BS reporting falsehoods? Say it ain't so!
April 30, 2008 - 20:00 ET by R D HelmAnd I bet that $1 Billion of the "total" $1.1 Billion is going for skin-grafts for Tumbler, er, I mean Eugene, since his taco truck caught fire the other day out in Cali. Sad, that was. :-^)
Face it, folks, the cost to us hapless tax-payer types is far, far in excess of a paltry $1.1 Billion, which is chicken feed, even at its current price.
Still, even though See-BS is reporting deflated numbers, I'm guessing McCain will complain (about the story) just the same.
What the American people are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems. - Barack Obama, April 27, 2008
R D--Ah--
May 1, 2008 - 00:17 ET by misterbillR D--Ah--but if you looked into their brown eyes and saw the suffering there. I am TOTALLY opposed to illegal immigration, but we should have made it easier for them to become legal. You folks are just racists and haters. The only reason they get drunk and drive and kill Americans on the road is because people like you make them feel so unwanted. I talked to one of them who was cooking and eating my dog in my back yard and he apologized because he was so hungry and when I saw his need, I just melted. I gave him everything in my refrigerator and pantry and checked him into motel. I have to go now, I can't find my wife plus my supervisor called and told me not to come to work anymore because he is reducing his labor cost. Father Ignacio stopped by a little while ago with one of his altar boys and asked if they could use my spare bedroom. He said he wanted to let the boy make a full confession.
Good news!!!! My supervisor just called me back and said I still had a job. It appears the new guy did not know how to create false driver's licenses.
All is good!!!!!!!
→ Misterbill
May 1, 2008 - 00:24 ET by Cool ArrowSorry about your dog.
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Welcome back, misterbill!
May 1, 2008 - 00:36 ET by R D HelmNice to have you back, sir.
You are always welcome here, as you well know.
-And dayem, that was funny! :-)
What the American people are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems. - Barack Obama, April 27, 2008
mrbill
May 1, 2008 - 00:31 ET by gfrrmanthanks to you I am cleaning my computer screen from my freshly opened Sweetwater I.P.A (India Pale Ale made right here in Atlanta,Ga) that I spewed from laughing so hard. Thanks for the laugh, but that's what I call alcohol abuse!!! LOL...... ;-)
"Eventually, Socialists run out of other peoples' money...." MARGARET THATCHER
Funny But...
May 1, 2008 - 01:21 ET by PopularTechI don't get the connection between Mexican Priests, Homosexuals and Illegals?
The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource
...but
May 1, 2008 - 10:37 ET by bigtimer...but ...but...misterb...
...did you ever find your wife?
Inquiring minds want to know!
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
What...False numbers from
April 30, 2008 - 19:43 ET by bigtimerWhat...False numbers from the RAND and intentional biased reporting by CBS... say it ain't so!
If we had just one candidate running on making illegal immigration in this country, gas prices/oil self-dependency here, along with SC Judges, and tax cuts being made permanent as main priorities... we would win hands down...goes without saying to defend this country against terrorists IMHO.
We don't.
The way the dems are going though we may slip through anyway with just one of those being guaranteed...guess that will have to do.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
The socialist Hispanic groups would have been...
April 30, 2008 - 22:21 ET by ThalpyThe socialist Hispanic groups would have been better served bt if they had let the sleeping dog lie. Illegal immigration, despite the heartrending stories from the msm, has done incalculable damage to our citizens, to say nothing of the societal changes ( few for the better) that have resulted. It goes way beyond the money. I would suggest that many among the Black youth in our country would appreciate an explanation for almost total lack of enforcement of our immigration laws--a policy that seems to be supported by both unresponsive political parties.
Shall we all begin trying to develop an appreciation for the sound of the Muslim call to prayer? Given the quality of our leadership, can this issue be far behind?
Evening Thalpy.... In
May 1, 2008 - 23:47 ET by bigtimerEvening Thalpy....
In answer to your question at the end...No.
...and I fear and foresee that too.
Btw...I know well how the blacks feel about this too...and I agree with you...unfortuantely when it comes time to vote with the black population the majority stick with the dems no matter what, look at the school voucher choice...that is a prime example.
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill
Much More
April 30, 2008 - 20:06 ET by GoodieOff by Billions, lets consider Fraud (add another $1B for Ca alone), then the ambulance chasers for Work Comp and Auto claims (add another $1B) Gee we are at $3B just for CA with respect to Healthcare related costs towards Illegal Aliens...
Here is some new state Slogans:
Delaware: "Its Good to be First"
Missouri: "Show Me State"
Arizona: "The Grand Canyon State"
Arkansas: "The Natural State"
Indiana: "Restart your Engines"
Oklahoma: "Oklahoma is OK"
AND OF COURSE CALIFORNIA: "PRESS 1 FOR ENGLISH"
out
Illegal costs for LA County alone is $1 billion - one county
April 30, 2008 - 20:20 ET by Gary HallIllegal costs for LA County alone is $ 1billion - one county!
(note: I can't specifically credit the source -- to the best of my knowledge a staffer for Antonovich sent me the above excerpt. The MSM, including the LA Times will not disclose such information to their readers and viewers - apparently neither will CBS)
And note - this doesn't even include the cost of education for illegals in Los Angeles County.
Gary, WOW is all I can say.
April 30, 2008 - 20:39 ET by R D HelmI shudder to think what the total cost would be for all of California.
Then, when you factor in the rest of the country...well, mind-boggling that is.
You have to wonder if there is not a concerted effort on the part of some to conceal what the actual total cost to the taxpayers is for illegal immigration.
I am guessing we will never know the true figures.
What the American people are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems. - Barack Obama, April 27, 2008
RD
April 30, 2008 - 20:44 ET by Gary HallThanks -- I don't know what the total cost is -- but I do remember, that in an odd moment in time, the LA Times did publish in it's old Sunday Magazine a very remarkable piece which covered a lot of ground - from a very leftist and perhaps environmental point of view - which suggested then (2000, or so) that the total cost to the state was estimated at somewhere around $11-12 billion a year. That was well over 10% of the state's entire budget at the time.
got to run -thanks again.. (;~> gary
That amount on health care
May 1, 2008 - 12:05 ET by dscottThat amount on health care is so ridiculously low as to be laughable, did they take lessons from Baghdad Bob?
Medicaid is $196 BILLION, who do you think picks up the tab for most of the unpaid hospital bills for the poor and indigent???? The truth is illegal immigration cost this country $565 BILLION a YEAR! When 7.5 million people are out of work because 12 to 20 million illegals are working instead who pays for this?? Us suckers, the taxpayer. Who pays for TANF, HOC, Food Stamps, EIC, ad nauseum? Us suckers, the taxpayer. Why? Because illegals depressed the wages for the poor and as a result denied them a living wage forcing them to draw upon government benefits. All this because of cheap skates who want cheap maids, cheap landscapers and cheap fruit pickers. Not satisfied with this they then deliberately hire illegals to cut corners and fatten their bottom line at our expense. ENOUGH ALREADY.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
While you are correct that
April 30, 2008 - 23:49 ET by cleverpigWhile you are correct that the study doesn't appear to include the elderly, I think you are jumping to conclusions to say it doesn't include children.
The participants in the survey were people from 18-64. This is because you don't actually ask 7 year olds about their yearly health costs or utilization of the national health care system. Their answers tend to be unreliable.
I think it is reasonable to assume that the adult participants were asked about expenditures for their children.
Illegals
May 1, 2008 - 00:10 ET by jefflebowskiWe should be cutting our own damn grass.
→ Even better, Lebowski
May 1, 2008 - 00:26 ET by Cool ArrowWe should be paying the neighbor kids to cut our lawns.
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Cutting Grass is a job Americans will not do
May 1, 2008 - 01:16 ET by PopularTechJust ask John McCain. Prior to illegal immigration grass was never cut, dishes never washed, vegetables never picked, painting never done. I have no idea how America survived before illegals.
The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource
Yeah, right cleverpig
May 1, 2008 - 01:07 ET by gfrrmanand ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, NOT "undocumenteds" are going to tell the truth after they have broken numerous laws already? Just make up the numbers like CBS did, ok....they're both consistant. Geez!!
"Eventually, Socialists run out of other peoples' money...." MARGARET THATCHER
Look, I know everyone here
May 1, 2008 - 23:35 ET by cleverpigLook, I know everyone here knows I'm a liberal, but can't someone read my point for what it is? I brought up a technical issue with the interpretation of the study. We don't have to argue ideology on every single post!
You don't seem to mind it
May 1, 2008 - 23:49 ET by MightyMouthYou don't seem to mind it when "fudging numbers" supports your Ideology... Like "600,000 dead Iraqis at the hands of GWB" or was it 1.5 mil? Can't remember what Schummer, Ried and Murtha made up. Give us a break cleverpig, you are as idealogical as anyone else!
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Wow. Thank you for
May 1, 2008 - 23:57 ET by cleverpigWow. Thank you for demonstrating my point :P
Ohh really? you mean you
May 2, 2008 - 00:03 ET by MightyMouthOhh really? you mean you come here to learn something? Haha, how funny cleverpig want's to debate. Of course you are not an idealog, and you are offended that you would be accused of such!
MM appologizes to the non ideolog cleverpig! Please forgive...
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
The word is
May 2, 2008 - 09:56 ET by cleverpigThe word is "idealogue."
I wonder, if not to learn and debate, why you think I bother to come here at all?
MM, not only that, but being told at every turn by the MSM...
May 2, 2008 - 00:02 ET by R D Helm...that we are "nativists" (lib-speak for racists) for having the gaul to object to the fact that illegals are invading our country, and violating our laws with apparent impunity in the process.
And don't even get me started on the myriad implications of the MSM that I am somehow a "racist" for not turning my back on true freedon and falling prostrate and kissing the feet of Comrade Obama.
Or that I am a flag waving member of the He-man Woman Haters Club for not supporting the equally Marxist freedom-hating Hillary Rhodam Clinton.
Or being constantly reminded by the MSM that I "hate" poor people because I support the idea of lower taxes and smaller government (never mind that most of that money winds up lining the pockets of government employees).
Or that I don't support taxing the "rich" at confiscatory levels (never mind that doing so would put many of the people the MSM feigns support for out of work).
Or...well, you get the idea.
Everything is political.
What the American people are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems. - Barack Obama, April 27, 2008
I'm a liberal, but can't
May 2, 2008 - 08:40 ET by dscottI'm a liberal, but can't someone read my point for what it is?
Well CP, what did you expect given people like Arianna Huffington telling the MSM that the Right (people like us here at NB) should not be allowed to have their views published or broadcast? When the left engages in such divisive or polarizing behavior, don't expect us to allow any liberal's assertion to stand unchallenged. Yes, it does make it hard to have a civil and congenial discussion but the left has created this atmosphere so we are dealing with it. After all, you are at a website that specializes in exposing "liberal" bias. And certainly don't expect us to suspend disbelief (cynism) whenever we encounter a liberal assertion. The rules have changed CP, you must support with facts any assertion that runs contrary to the consensus (in fact Al Gore made those rules). Not only that, given the liberal penchant for euphemisms like investments in lieu of taxes, or patriot in lieu of America basher, are we really supposed to take anything at face value?
In fact, consider this, most of us here believe McCain to be a liberal of center candidate, McCain knows this and that's why he calls his campaign the "Straight Talk Express". He knows in order for the Right and Independents to accept his liberalness he needs to convince us that he is not the typical liberal who has hidden agendas by talking in euphemisms. He knows that most conservatives detest hidden agendas as they feel they are being tricked into something that they wouldn't agree to if all the cards were laid on the table. A hidden agenda is antithetical to self governance no matter how "noble" the so called ends are believed or represented to be. McCain knows most reasonable people can agree to disagree but still work together, his challenge is in overcoming the stereotype of being a liberal. So coming full circle, CP your challenge is the same as McCains.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
DO YOU THINK I AM CORRECT
May 2, 2008 - 09:54 ET by cleverpigDO YOU THINK I AM CORRECT THAT THE STUDY DID INCLUDE CHILDREN OR NOT?
Oh wait, I think I just figured this out.
You do think I'm right, you just can't bring yourselves to say it. So since there is absolutely no way to argue with the actual point I made, you go for "you're a liberal so nothing you say is true." or "some liberal said something nasty!"
You realize this is why the political atmosphere in this country is so poisonous, right? The dismissiveness you accuse us of on the left is what you are doing right now.
If we aren't capable of acknowledging when the other side has a valid point, then we will never actually work anything out together.
Man, you guys are depressing!
survey
May 2, 2008 - 10:01 ET by AgnosticMy guess is that it included children if the parents included the children's expenses in their responses (which I have no reason to believe they wouldn't); however, children were never directly addressed by the questions. For clarity sake this should have been stated as an assumption but considering what passes for journalism and statistical reporting today I am not suprised. Afterall, that information would have helped the effect of their story and they still missed it.
Thank you!
May 3, 2008 - 15:52 ET by cleverpigThank you!
Just One More Data Point
May 1, 2008 - 00:49 ET by geoff.galeHere in sunny CA, our most recent budget proposal calls for $48B for the corrections department for the year. Given that one-third of our prisoners are illegals, then one-third of $48B or $16B is spent on caring for illrgals.
$1.1B? Busted!
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)
www.conservativeboot...
→ Just too sad
May 1, 2008 - 06:28 ET by Cool ArrowDrudge is reporting Illegals are sending less money back home to Mexico.
Cry me a river. Preferably one wider, swifter, and deeper than the Rio Grande.
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