Beware “Reforms” Which Amplify the Problem

When Obamacare was pushed through Congress in 2010, its proponents often cited the large numbers of people living in America without health insurance.  Because many believed in the urgent nature of the problem of such a large uninsured population (a number in fact greatly swelled by immigrants without health insurance), the promise that Obamacare would decrease the numbers of uninsured helped its passage. At least it proposed a solution to a genuine problem. However, the preliminary results of the implementation of Obamacare are not encouraging for the prospect of “comprehensive reform” solving the problem it is meant to address. The Daily Caller reports that the official results are now in: on the first day Obamacare officially went into effect, more Americans had lost health insurance because of the law than gained it.

The failure of the Obama Administration’s first term signature accomplishment to achieve even its stated goal upon implementation is worth considering when debating the centerpiece of the Administration’s second term agenda.  In a way reminiscent of the invocations of the uninsured in 2010, amnesty supporters have a tendency to simply cite the presence of an unacceptably large illegal population living in America as a reason to pass their proposals. Because the consensus among Americans is that the presence of a very large number of illegal aliens in the United States represents a failure, amnesty supporters simply point to the “broken system” and call their plan “reform” without specifying that what they mean by reform is amnesty for illegal aliens and a surge in legal immigration. 

Like the promise that you can “keep your healthcare plan,” amnesty proponents promise that their bill will stop illegal immigration: on the day S. 744 passed the Senate, Gang of Eight member Chuck Schumer proclaimed from the Senate floor that “illegal immigration will be a thing of the past.” But just as implementation of Obamacare revealed an increase rather than decrease of the uninsured population, implementation of the Senate immigration bill would likely lead to a surge and not a decrease in the illegal alien population. And it is worth asking the question of whether Schumer and his amnesty allies will continue to fight tooth and nail against any increased enforcement after amnesty passes, just like they did in 1986.

The increase in the uninsured population under Obamacare is even more ominous when one considers this failure is likely unintentional. The Obama Administration probably desired to make its signature law work initially as promised, considering how politically damaging the inept roll-out proved to be.  But only the incurably naïve could extend the same level of good faith in the area of immigration to an administration that has given every sign it prefers to increase the illegal alien population by undermining enforcement at every turn.