Paying the Medical Bills of Illegal Aliens

The Bush administration has just announced that the American taxpayer will provide $1 billion over the next four years to pay illegal alien (search) medical expenses. Unbelievable.

Each state can apply for the federal funds based upon the amount of illegals it has to deal with. California, of course, will get the most money, but the point is the feds recognize the magnitude of the illegal invasion but still won't stop it.

Now, we asked all the border state senators what they would do to stop the chaos. And their answers are very interesting. Dianne Feinstein (search) from California favors federal funding to pay for the incarceration of criminal aliens and more funding for the Border Patrol. California's Barbara Boxer (search) would not answer the question, typical of her. Arizona's John McCain (search) says he has a plan and will make it public soon. Jon Kyl of Arizona also has a plan, but it differs from McCain's. Kyl's plan will be unveiled in June.

John Cornyn of Texas is on board with Kyl's plan, whatever it is. Kay Bailey Hutchison, also from Texas, wants more Border Patrol agents. Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico wants ranchers to be given radios so they can call the Border Patrol and wants more Border Patrol agents. New Mexico's Pete Domenici wants almost $1 billion more to beef up border security.

So there you have it. What do you think? Do you think the politicians have a clue?

Talking Points is not optimistic. There's no serious talk of using the military to back up the Border Patrol. And unless you stop the flood of illegals coming in here every day, all the other stuff's useless. And Americans will continue to pay for the invasion. It's that simple.

And help is not on the way. We conducted an experiment on border interest by giving "Factor" viewers and listeners access to a petition asking for effective border security. About 400,000 of you signed the petition. That's a lot of folks. But since we reach millions every day on radio and TV, the response was not overwhelming. You can view that petition, by the way, by going to www.billoreilly.com.

So what we have here is an unresolved problem that's likely to remain unresolved. The politicians are simply avoiding the issue. And the majority of Americans are OK with that. What more can I say?

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

We've been so busy that I've neglected to mention "The Radio Factor" has celebrated its third birthday and has emerged as one of the most successful and profitable talk radio programs in the country, thanks to you.

Now things are getting even better. FOX News has acquired the "Radio Factor," and we will work with Westwood One in providing our 425 — 4-2-5 — affiliates with the best possible programming. No, that doesn't mean replacing me. Come on, will you?

Now we understand many of you are working when "The Radio Factor" is on, but we do stream the program on www.billoreilly.com for premium members each night beginning at 9 E.T. Also all stations that carry "The Radio Factor" are listed on www.billoreilly.com.

So happy birthday to us. Thanks again for listening. And that is never ridiculous.