Wonderful. Massachusetts Spent $93 Million On Health Care For Illegal Immigrants Last Year

Be thankful to Rep. James Lyons who made a very public demand for the numbers by refusing to leave the House chambers until the Patrick administration released the information.  Now we know why the governor has been stonewalling on Lyons’ request since May:

The 58-year-old Andover Republican — who bucked Beacon Hill by holding a sit-in in the House chambers two weeks ago — pried the shocking report from state officials. It showed that nearly 55,000 illegal immigrants received more than $93 million in MassHealth benefits for emergency medical services last year.

I don’t want to hear another word about looming budget cuts or teacher layoffs when the state is spending close to $100 million a year on free health care for people who are here illegally.

 

Shocka: Wealthy Mass Moonbats Opt Not To Pay Higher Tax Rate

Trustafarians always balk when it’s time to put their money where their mouths are.  Howie Carr lays it all out as only he can in his column today.

Your average liberal would give an illegal alien the shirt off your back. Not his back, but your back. Just ask them. They sit in Starbucks and angrily blog about how AmeriKKKans who work don’t pay their “fair share.”

They harrumph, what about the children?

So far this tax season, the state Department of Revenue has received 1,971,000 returns.

And of those 1.971 million filers, exactly 862 have checked the box to pay at the old, higher 5.85 percent rate rather than the current 5.3 percent rate.

[…]

Of course, this is an old tradition in Massachusetts, liberals running up the tab and then when the check arrives — hey, come back here you ponytailed carpetbagger! They play the political equivalent of the old chew ’n’ screw. And I don’t just mean their heroes, such as Sen. John Kerry, with his $7 million yacht, the SS Deadbeat. Or the assorted state solons loading up on booze and smokes in tax-free New Hampshire.

We already know the most liberal states contribute the least to charity per capita. The louder the liberals talk about the need to pay more, the faster they flee from helping out the most vulnerable members of society who fell through the safety net shredded by George W. Bush, etc. etc.

But . . . but . . . we all know that with their trust funds and their no-heavy-lifting jobs at the colleges and the Globe and WGBH, most moonbats are living high on the hog. So maybe these 862 people are coughing up big bucks.

Guess again. Those 862 people ponied up an extra $69,188. That works out to about $80 per person, which means their average income is . . . $16,000.

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

“Make no mistake about it. We are at war.”

The new civility comes to Massachusetts again.  First it was Mike “The Penguin” Capuano with his hate speech and now the Commonwealth’s Labor Czar is declaring war on the governor of Wisconsin.

Politicians and taxpayer advocates blasted Gov. Deval Patrick’s labor czar yesterday for attending a pro-union rally and declaring “war” on Wis. Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining crackdown — saying the administration’s open union support doesn’t serve taxpayers’ interests.

“The administration is not on the side of the taxpayer. … It’s been on the side of the unions and special interests,” said state Rep. Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton), who co-sponsored a bill on Beacon Hill that would strip some collective bargaining rights from state employees. “The rhetoric really needs to be toned down.”

Patrick officials scrambled to distance themselves yesterday from comments by state Department of Labor chief George Noel, who told the crowd at a union rally Saturday: “Make no mistake about it. We are at war.”

It goes without saying that had the same sentence been uttered by a Republican, the usual suspects on the left would have the vapoers and the footage put on a continuous loop on MSNBC.

We’re Wicked Freakin’ Smaaht

The People’s Republic of Massachusetts has been named the smartest state in the USA.  Judging from how the majority of my smarty pants neighbors voted in the last election, I’m not so sure. 

BOSTON (CBS) – A new survey says Massachusetts is most-educated state in the nation.

The Kauffman Foundation looked at the education of each state’s work force.

It found 61-percent of residents in the Commonwealth have some college education and 16-percent have advanced degrees.

Maryland and Colorado were second and third in the survey, followed by three New England states – Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire.

More than 60-percent of New Hampshire residents have been to college and more than 11-percent have advanced degrees.

Advanced degrees don’t translate to smarts.  Look no further than the current occupant of the Oval Office for proof.

Helluva Job, Big Sis. NC Teen Plunged To His Death From Jet Wheel Well

On November 15th, while Americans were being subjected to being groped by TSA agents and/or body scans, a North Carolina teen  made his way onto the tarmac at the Charlotte airport and climbed into the wheel well of US Air jet.  He later plunged to his death, landing in a quiet Milton, Massachusetts neighborhood.

The grieving mother of a North Carolina teen — who “likely” plummeted from the sky over Milton after toppling out of a Boeing 737 wheel well — slammed airport security last night, saying her boy should have been stopped on the tarmac.

“I thought that after 9/11 there would be more security, especially on the ground,” said Jonette Washington, mother of 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale.

“He was a good kid. He wasn’t really going to Boston. He was trying to get to Baltimore to get to me,” she tearfully told the Herald.

In a stunning announcement, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said yesterday it’s “likely” the teen climbed into a wheel well of a jet in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 15 and fell to his death over Milton at about 9 p.m. Keating said a neighbor heard “a loud crashing noise” around that time.

Imagine what could have happened if it had been a terrorist who had climbed into that wheel well and not just a messed up teenager?  It’s a good thing we’re groping nuns and toddlers at airports, huh?

Your Tax Dollars At Work: MA Spends Millions Per Year On Chauffeur Driven Rides To Methadone Clinics

Not only is this Godforsaken state paying for methadone (synthetic heroin), but they are providing chauffeur driven Town Cars to the clinics.

BOSTON (CBS) — The state is strapped with a $2 billion budget deficit, yet it’s spending millions of dollars on chauffer driven rides to methadone clinics.

An I-Team investigation found that day in and day out, chauffeur driven livery cars make the trek to local methadone clinics with recovering heroin addicts and other drug users on board.

Most of the passengers are members of MassHealth, the state medical plan once known as Medicaid, and it is an expensive trip when there’s only one person in the passenger seat. Expensive for the taxpayers, that is, who are paying the fares.

“The word has got out now that MassHealth is pretty much a free taxi service,” said one professional driver who asked the I-Team to hide his identity.

“Why would you want to use your own gas and your own car when you can just call MassHealth and get a luxury ride to Boston in a Lincoln Town Car?” said the driver, who used to work for a livery service that contracts with the state.

“I found myself doing taxi work, basically picking up people and shuttling them down to Canal Street in a luxury vehicle,” the driver said. “I’ve done as many as five or six trips in a week and I’m just one person.”

Lovely.

Barney Frank Remains Bitter And Obnoxious In Victory Speech

How one handles defeat says a lot about a person.  How one handles victory says even more.  Barney Frank was his usual small, mean and bitter self in his victory speech last night.

A cranky U.S. Rep. Barney Frank blasted the Herald last night as “irrelevant,” even as surging Republicans grabbed control of the U.S. House and swept him from his lofty perch as chairman of the powerful financial services committee.

“With the re-election of the Massachusetts delegation and Gov. Deval Patrick, we can reaffirm the complete political irrelevance of the Boston Herald,” Frank told more than 100 supporters at the Crowne Plaza in Newton. “There is no limit to the bias and vitriol they unleashed.”

They say you get the government you vote for.  The people in Barney Frank’s district have made it clear that they want this porcine, obnoxious, pompous ass to represent them in Washington.

Update: Howie Carr reminds Barney that irrelevance awaits him on Capitol Hill.

You want to talk irrelevant? How about an over-the-hill back-bencher whose district is just crying out to be eliminated in the upcoming redistricting?

It’s November…Time To Remember

The day of reckoning has finally arrived.  Nationally, today is our day to send a very clear message to Obama and his Democrat pals in Washington.  Locally, today is our day to send a very clear message to Cadillac Deval and his corrupt, hack Democrat pals on Beacon Hill.

In case you had forgotten (as if) here are a few reasons to get out vote, courtesy of Moe Lane:

Now, some of you (more of you, I suspect, than are willing to admit it) read the paragraph above, read the article that it links to, and then started to feel… pity.  Or empathy, because it happened to you in 2006 and 2008.  Or merely a natural desire to not kick someone when they are down.  And those are laudable impulses to have.  But before you act on those impulses with regard to these professional Democrats, please remember this:

• These people told their clients to say that you hate African-Americans.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Latinos.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate gays.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate women.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Jews.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate Muslims.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate the poor.
• These people told their clients to say that you hate America.

Shall I continue?

• These people told their clients to say that you were fascists.
• These people told their clients to say that you were theocrats.
• These people told their clients to say that you were stupid.
• These people told their clients to say that you were uneducated.
• These people told their clients to say that you were hatemongers.
• These people told their clients to say that you were insane.
• These people told their clients to say that you were violent extremists.

I can keep this going for quite a while, you know.

• These people told their clients to call you unpatriotic.
• These people told their clients to call you cowards.
• These people told their clients to mock you at every opportunity.
• These people told their clients to deliberately use a sexual slur when referring to you.
• These people told their clients to trivialize and dismiss your concerns at every opportunity.

And now these professional Democrats are sad because they’re going to lose.  Well, they deserve to lose.  Because they’re bad people.  And because the entire point of the United States of America is to make sure that bad people lose.  So go vote on Tuesday, and make as many bad people as possible lose.

Locally, how can anyone forget Deval’s Cadillac, his $10,000 drapes, his wife’s social secretary, the doling out of six figure jobs  to his Milton neighbors, the attempt to plant a hack pol pal into a six figure job which had been vacant for twelve years, his broken promise to lower your property taxes, his broken promise to hire 1000 new police officers, his dismantling of the program that allows State Troopers to work with ICE to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, his support of drivers’ licenses for illegals, his support of in-state tuition for illegals, the refusal to let the citizens of Massachusetts vote on marriage, the 25% increase on the sales tax to 6.25% – including already taxed alcohol – and all the while local aid has been cut and your taxes keep going up.

It’s finally November…it’s time to remember.

Illegal Immigrants In MA Have Received $35.7 Million In Health Care This Year

Courtesy of you and me.

(photo credit: Boston Herald)

Beleaguered Bay State and U.S. taxpayers coughed up a staggering $35.7 million this year in free emergency health care for more than 52,000 illegal aliens in Massachusetts, sparking outrage from candidates and critics who back a tougher line on immigration.

The figures — released by Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration under an order for the Secretary of State’s office and after more than a month of ducking questions — show illegal immigrants who belong to MassHealth Limited received $33.8 million in taxpayer-funded in-patient hospital care this year.

They also made 6,160 visits to the state’s overburdened emergency rooms in the fiscal year ending in June for an additional cost of $1.9 million, a Herald analysis shows.

And how’s this for breathtaking arrogance?  Cadillac Deval won’t let anyone from his admininstration talk about the  rage-inducing numbers.

The Patrick administration, which supplied the figures last week, refused to make state health insurance officials available to discuss them.

But critics were quick to blast the huge medical bill being footed by hard-pressed, law-abiding taxpayers.

“Incorporating illegal immigrants into any type of government-sponsored health care is legitimizing their presence here,’’ said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter immigration policies. “It’s a kind of piecemeal amnesty.’’

Added state Rep. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), “It’s just another example in this state of working people paying the bills, and some people availing themselves of the benefits we have in the commonwealth.’’

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER.

Deval Patrick’s Wife Has Aide To “Coordinate” Her Appearances On Taxpayer Dime

Groundhog day comes early to Massachusetts.

In a stunning rerun of one of Gov. Deval Patrick’s early embarrassing Beacon Hill stumbles, first lady Diane Patrick once again has a taxpayer-funded aide to coordinate her official appearances, the Herald has learned.

Patrick communications director Kyle Sullivan confirmed that Rose Arruda, who makes $55,000 a year to run Patrick’s ribbon cuttings and speaking engagements across the state, also works on up to 52 events a year for the governor’s wife, who’s a lawyer at the prestigious Hub firm Ropes & Gray.

Republicans immediately seized on the news — which comes almost four years after Patrick’s disastrous decision to hire a $72,000 chief of staff for the first lady in the first few months of his term. The aide resigned in March 2007 after public outrage over her hire.

Sullivan defended the move, saying, “The great majority of her time is spent on staffing Gov. Patrick at official events. Occasionally she will also assist Mrs. Patrick when she is attending an event in her capacity as first lady.”

Arruda, who identifies herself as a “staff person for First Lady Diane Patrick” on her Linked In profile, also assists Diane Patrick on the campaign trail, but only on her own personal time, Sullivan said.

Pu-leeze.  Since when does a hack on Beacon Hill do anything on their own personal time?  

Remember in November.