Throwing Our Youngest Citizens to the Wolves

Robert Pear of The New York Times reports this morning that the Bush administration has quietly begun requiring birth certificates for U.S.-born babies of illegal immigrants before they are eligible for Medicaid.

I defy anyone to read that story and not be shocked by its heartlessness. In these childrens' crucial first months of life, their illegal immigrant parents are being told they have to GO TO A GOVERNMENT OFFICE to get A CERTIFICATE before the newborns can be seen by a doctor.

Yeah, right. I can see the stampede now.

Another stunner was this factoid: over one-third of the four million children born in the U.S. each year are delivered by mothers who rely on Medicaid for their health care.