Friday, August 6, 2010

Jefferson Davis, er...

...Jefferson Sessions, Republican senator from Alabama, is worried about the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States:

"I’m not sure exactly what the drafters of the amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen."

Is that really a problem, or just another figment of Fox News's imagination? It reminds me of a similar argument that was used so often in the last year by the opponents of health care reform:

"The United States has the best health care system in the world! That's why foreigners are always coming over here for their health care!"

Whenever I heard this old chestnut I'd think to myself, really? Do foreigners really come over here in droves for their health care? How come I've never heard a German or a French accent at my doctor's office or the few times I've been in a hospital? And how come you don't see planes and planes and planes full of Japanese, Norwegians and Dutch flooding O'Hare with sick people desperate for the Best Health Care in the World? Is it because -- maybe -- it's all a myth concocted by the right wing? Kind of like Brazilians flying over here to have babies.

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