Reuters: "A federal judge lifted a block on a controversial Arizona law on Wednesday forcing state officials to begin restricting some government benefits to illegal immigrants."
Never let a good race-based argument be interrupted by facts.
Arizona voters passed Proposition 200 which would deny social welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants. According to a spokesperson, such benefits cost the state "millions of dollars a day". With 365 days in the Arizona calendar, one would expect at least $730 million to be spent on benefits for undocumented immigrants alone.
That is not the case.
According to the state's budget Arizona spent a total of about $1 billion on welfare programs in 2004: $680 million on health care and $320 million on the Health Services Department. Health care spending has increased dramatically in Arizona over the last two years, but not because of a recent tide of immigration. In fact, Proposition 204, adopted in 2001, intentionally expanded eligibility for health care.
"The most striking change occurred in Arizona. State voters overrode years of legislative opposition to Medicaid expansion in 2000 by enacting a citizens initiative,
Proposition 204, that greatly expanded Medicaid coverage to include households up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
Enrollment grew from 575,000 in January 2001 to 902,500 in January 2003."
Even still, families earning more than $15,670 annually did not qualify for health care benefits for children over the age of 6.
Now Arizona also lies about the growth in Medicaid spending. According to a Kaiser Family supported web site, Arizona spent $650 million on Medicaid in 1998. According to the state's budget, it spent $680 million on Health Care Cost Containment (Medicaid) in 2004. The anti-immigration activists are inflating the cost figure by 50%.
NPR, of course, remains agnostic about facts and lets anybody say anything they want in fifteen seconds or less.
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