Timothy Noah comments on the illegal-immigrant provisions of the emerging health-care reform bill — which goes so far as to prohibit such immigrants from purchasing unsubsidized health insurance. “Illegal immigrants are currently permitted to purchase a quart of milk at the corner grocery. Should that activity be banned, too?… If this remains in the bill, those of us who aren’t illegal immigrants will end up paying for the health insurance of those who are. Call it a nativism tax.”

Such provisions are a manifestation of the “send ‘em all back” sentiment among a certain type of affluent white voter — the type of voter who carries so much weight in this system. It’s an understandable sentiment, I suppose. But the measures carried out for the sake of this “send ‘em all back” sentiment don’t accomplish much — except to rub poor people’s noses in the dirt.

And, even that assumes that the measures won’t boomerang, and harm some of the very same people who insisted they be put in place. The immigrants are still here, picking crops, cleaning out flower beds, changing sheets in motel rooms, and generally subsidizing the price of just about every product or service in the marketplace. If they are denied medical care, what if a contract swine flu in large numbers, and then that spreads to you or your family? Just asking….