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Great Van Susteren last night on Fox News ran a segment exploring whether or not illegal immigrants were going to be dragged into the health-care debate by conservatives eager to find anything to latch onto to drag the legislation down.

Most notably, Sen. Jon Kyl has been giving them aid and comfort:

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday defended critics of Democratic health care reform plans who claim the proposals would provide subsidized health care to illegal immigrants. Kyl said Democrats have long sought to block curbs on public services for people illegally in the country.

“It’s a logical question for people to ask,” Kyl said during a conference call with reporters, maintaining that during last year’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program debate and other legislative fights, Democrats blocked efforts by Republicans to include curbs on health care for illegal immigrants.

“In the last couple of bills … there were efforts to ensure that only eligible people would get the benefits … those efforts were defeated by Democrats,” Kyl argued, pointing out that hospitals currently are required to provide illegal aliens — as well as anyone else — with health care if they are in need.

“That illegal immigrants get care ... it’s a big burden on hospitals,” Kyl said.

Well, just like the "death panels" and "euthanasia" and "socialized medicine" claims, this one is wholly false, with no basis in reality whatsoever.

Media Matters has compiled a handy list of health-care myths propagated by right-wing talkers, and the "illegal immigrants will receive benefits" is No. 4 on the list:

REALITY: House bill stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may not receive subsidies to purchase insurance. Under the "Individual Affordability Credits" section of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009:

SEC. 242. AFFORDABLE CREDIT ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.

(a) DEFINITION. --

(1) IN GENERAL. -- For purposes of this division, the term ''affordable credit eligible individual'' means, subject to subsection (b), an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph (excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) --

[...]

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Senate HELP bill excludes those "not lawfully present" from federal funding. Under the "Making Coverage Affordable" section of the Affordable Health Choices Act:

(h) NO FEDERAL FUNDING. -- Nothing in this Act shall allow Federal payments for individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

PolitiFact has a further debunking. Antonio Olivo in the LA Times had a good piece examining the issue awhile back.

Have no fear: The fact of the claim's provable falsity will not deter the teabaggers from adopting it. Indeed, it probably increases the chances we'll be hearing it a lot more in the days to come.

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(h/t David)

Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Kyl expressed "regret" for remarks made by a fellow Republican senator on health care reform Sunday. Sen. Jim DeMint was quote by Politico as saying "If we are able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

Sen. John Kyl told Fox News' Brett Baier that those remarks were "unfortunate." "I don't agree with that language," he said. But, tellingly, he didn't disagree with the sentiments, his weasel words trying to deflect the political calculus of it all:

BAIER: Senator, your colleague from South Carolina, Jim DeMint said this this week: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

Your colleague from Oklahoma, Sen. Jim Inhofe said this: “We can stall the Democratic effort on health reform. We can stall it. And that’s going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election.”

Senator Kyl, do you agree with them?

KYL: I don’t agree with that kind of language. I know what Jim DeMint has said is he wanted to break the momentum of the inevitability of passing these liberal health care bills. They said we had to pass stimulus and do it immediately or else the economy would see 10% or 8% unemployment, it’s now gone to 10%. And what we’re saying is slow this down, so that we don’t do…we don’t make another bad mistake here. But I do think that because the language has political implications, it’s unfortunate. Both sides talk about the politics of these issues. I don’t think we ought to be focused on that.

Kyl is nothing but a big, fat liar. OF COURSE they're speaking of political implications, because that's their focus. They don't care about the 76% of Americans who want health care reform. They don't care about the 145,000 Americans who will lose their health insurance over the month of August alone. Plain and simple: They don't care about Americans.

What they DO care about is regaining a majority again to stymie any success Obama might have in his first term in office, much like Newt Gingrich and his Contract On For America did in 1994. This is ALL about politics for the republicans and Kyl knows it. At least DeMint and Inhofe have the intellectual honesty to admit it.

With the departure of Arlen Specter and its party identification flat-lining at 20%, the GOP is launching a national rebranding effort. As part of its National Council for a New America, the Party of No will host public forums around the country for its rag-tag band of tea-bagging faithful and anyone who else wants to attend. As it turns out, this is the Republicans' second attempt at reinvention in 12 months.

A year ago, former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis warned that "the Republican brand is in the trash can," adding, "if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf." In response, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) led a marketing facelift which produced the memorable mantra, "The Change You Deserve." Sadly, that overhaul was soon aborted when Boehner's prescription turned out to be the slogan for the anti-depressant drug, Effexor.

Now with the beaten and battered Republican Party rapidly contracting into a southern, white rump, Boehner is back to take another crack at it. Spurred by Minority Whip Eric Cantor, a panel of the party's leading lights led by John McCain and Jeb Bush will convene this weekend in northern Virginia to perform the political equivalent of CPR. As CNN noted, the group will also include governors Jindal, Barbour and Romney, though not RNC chairman Michael Steele.

It will report to GOP congressional leaders, and among those signing the announcement that will be made public Thursday are:

*House GOP Leader John Boehner
*House GOP Whip Eric Cantor
*House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence
*Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell
*The No. 2 Senate Republican, Jon Kyl
*And the Senate GOP Conference Chairman, Lamar Alexander

"However, this is not a Republican-only forum," reads the letter announcing the new effort, a copy of which was obtained by CNN from Republican sources involved in the effort. "While we will be guided by our principles of freedom and security, we will seek to include more than just our ideas.

The announcement letter also notes that the Republican effort at reanimation will "include a wide open policy debate that every American can feel free to participate in." So be sure to contribute your ideas for the GOP's extremist makeover.

(As an aside, here are the results of the 2006 "What Does GOP Stand For?" contest.)