Is there any way America could absorb the cost of both open borders...

[-..__...]

and public health care at the same time?

Which one should be a priority and better serve the interests of this country?

[madeline_con]

1. Public health care would be extended to illegals anyway,

just like everything else. So, what's the problem?

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Er...the cost?

[madeline_con]

15. My point is, the cost be damned....

it will be extended to include everyone within the borders at any given moment. There's no need to choose between them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Does bankruptcy have any meaning to you?

I don't disagree that we morally should, I'm asking if we fiscally can?

[madeline_con]

27. My felings on bankruptcy have no bearing on whether....

our esteemed leaders will eventually put us there.

Right now, the war has us tapped.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. Bush is the Master of Disaster.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. If Iraq hadn't cost us so much money it would not have to be an either/or

choice. It could be both.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. If Bush had not been president, we wouldn't have had such a loose

policy in the last five years.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. People would freak if they had any idea just how much money is

being spent on this issue. Just on subsidized housing alone. It's a necessary cost, in my opinion, but I can't see how we can keep up with it with open borders.

[Minnesota Libra]

4. Sure - become a third world country ourselves but then..........

.....with all the illegal aliens coming here from everywhere we are probably going to end up as a third world country anyway.:banghead:

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Personally, I don't have a problem with the cultural issue, but,

there's got to be a tipping point and we may have reached it.

[Minnesota Libra]

11. That is precisely what I mean!! nt

[Strelnikov_]

16. Oh, Didn't You Hear. We Are A Country Of Infinite Resources And Wealth

No need to worry about the middle and lower classes. EVERYBODY wins, kinda like a GOP tax cut plan.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Voodoo Economics at work here, boys.

[Minnesota Libra]

33. That is my whole point - although Canada might have a problem with that...

....open border concept. They tightened up their immigration laws a few years back. So someone better check to see if their interested in being a third world country with everyone else.:eyes:

[IsItJustMe]

19. It will be good for the Corporations. They love this new bill.

[Horse with no Name]

22. We are closer to a second world country than we are a first

and it has nothing to do with "illegal aliens".

[IsItJustMe]

37. True that!

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. Universal health care

single payer- and immigration complement each other nicely.
If we could just eliminate Big Insurance- and all of it's
bureaucracy/redundancy. And while I'm dreaming lets add
fair elections. Somebody needs to run on these 3. The people
are ready.

[mdmc]

8. we can afford everything! open borders, free health and education

We're number 1! We're number 1!:patriot:

[IsItJustMe]

21. Yeah, number one to the bottom. Hey though, there were some good times.

[mdmc]

29. imagine!

we can do it.

[UTUSN]

10. WHO has ever advocated "open borders"?????? or AMNESTY?

Nobody here.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. What are you advocating?

[UTUSN]

18. Better question, what is the o.p. advocating? n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. O.p.?

[Warpy]

12. Not without parity in currency exchanges among all 3 countries

meaning a living wage in the US would be mandated and would be the same as a living wage in Mexico and Canada. Right now both Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos are cheaper than dollars, so those American jobs that allow an alien to save dollars for exchange into his cheaper currency look like a great deal, no matter what utter squalor the worker lives in temporarily while in the US.

Labor law parity would also have to be a part of this, with equal enforcement, and certainly national health care in all 3 countries needs to be mandated.

I'm afraid while none of these conditions are being met, the closed and guarded borders are the only protection the US worker still has, and it's piss poor protection, at that.

Until wages are mandated at a living level and labor law seriously enforced in this country, we'll continue to see immigrants, legal or illegal, used to depress wages and gut labor laws. That's the way it's always been and I don't see corporations or even small businessmen getting religion overnight and changing their exploitative ways, do you?

[AndyTiedye]

14. Yes. Stop Invading Other Countries. Repeal the Tax Cuts.

Reverse the tax incentives for offshoring (WHY are we paying
companies to ship jobs offshore in the first place?!?!???)

Before Bush** screwed up everything,
the government was running a quarter-trillion dollar SURPLUS,
and there were plenty of jobs for everyone.

[IsItJustMe]

17. Why don't we just provide free health care, food and build houses in

Mexico and that way theyy don't have to leave.

When it's all said and done, chimp will get the credit and the Latino vote will be split anyway. Chimp took a hefty portion of the young Latino vote last election.

[mdmc]

30. what would John Lennon do?

:kick:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

36. Better yet

Why not get wal-mart to open stores all over Mexico. You know how good they are good for the economy. :sarcasm:

[ulysses]

20. we have to choose?

why?

[phusion]

23. Pentagon: $2.3 trillion unaccounted for

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

hmmm...

Why are dems afraid to go after the bloated military budget?

[Neil Lisst]

28. We can't afford both, in a few years, we won't be able to afford eithe

[Jacobin]

31. No.

[foreverdem]

34. No way can we afford both

Not now, and not in the foreseeable future. This country is so f'ed up financially, it will take decades before we are even to think in terms of having both.

[Bridget Burke]

35. Who wants to "open" the borders?

And why are so many DU'ers in love with the Republican bill? Gosh, those "illegals" dare protest--while we sit on our cans.

If our government stopped funding illegal wars & giving tax breaks to the very rich & to corporations, we'd be able to afford a lot more than we do.