Rep. Broun: Undocumented Immigrants Have "Anchor Babies" For Health Insurance

As we head towards what we hope is the home stretch of the health care reform debate, we're reminded of all of that misinformation, insidious fear mongering and bombastic rhetoric Republicans have employed in their efforts to deny millions of Americans the safety and security of reliable health insurance.  This morning, we compiled a brief memo highlighting and correcting the six most common Republican lies, but there have been way more than just six false claims.  One of the most oft-repeated and similarly oft-refuted claims against health care reform is that Democratic bills will allow undocumented immigrants to receive federal subsidies to purchase health insurance. 

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) who earnestly believes that the Congress is "overrun" with "domestic enemies" is one of the biggest proponents of this claim.   Last July, for example, Broun warned that health care reform "is going to give every single one of those illegal aliens health insurance at the cost of taxpayers."  It wasn't true then and it isn't true now.  But Broun, who has warned his constituents that president Obama aims to implement a dictatorship, is not one open to reasoning and facts.

Speaking on the House floor last night, he took his immigrant-baiting one step further by absurdly claiming that undocumented immigrants will flood the United States and have "anchor babies" - a derogatory term for children born to undocumented immigrants - in order to benefit from government-run health care. 

BROUN: Now, we're going to give them free health care.  And the American people need to just say "no" to our Democratic colleagues cause it's just going to be disastrous.  We're going to have an influx of illegal aliens just to come and have those anchor babies to get on Medicaid.  We've already seen that happening.