# Brother comparing immigration bill to health bill

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brother-comparing-immigration-bill-to-health-bill/537937>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 1, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brother-comparing-immigration-bill-to-health-bill/537937 "2010-05-01T02:48:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brother-comparing-immigration-bill-to-health-bill/537937/1 "2010-05-01T02:48:39Z")

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So my brother has drank the Fox News Kool-Aid and on Facebook has been acting like Bill O’Reilly Jr. I find it rather amusing, after all, he’s entitled to have his own opinion and share it. However, what surprised me was when commenting on the Immigration bill, he tried to handwave it by implying it was merely inforcing a law already on the books. When my girlfriend and I pointed out the implications, he tried to change the topic by asking, “why is the Arizona immigration bill so opressively nazi-like but being fined/jailed by the IRS for not having health insurance is ok?”

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but the IRS does not have the authority to jail you if you don’t pay the fine. In fact, in USA Today, they mentioned how _little_ the IRS can do if you don’t pay the fine for not having insurance- apparently all they do is deduct it out of any tax returns you might get that year. Not nearly as bad as getting deported.

Then again, I may have my facts mixed up. Any dopers want to contribute?

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brother-comparing-immigration-bill-to-health-bill/537937/2 "2010-05-02T03:54:20Z")

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There [was](http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/11/interview-with-the-president-jail-time-for-those-without-health-care-insurance.html) the threat of jail time for not paying the fine in the senate version of the health care bill, but it since has been removed. Your brother isn’t crazy, he’s just not up to speed on current events.