Is Democratic Party chairman Tom Perez seeing some really bad internal polls after Democrats raised their hands in unison about providing government health care for illegals?

Sure looks like it - external polls show that government health care coverage for illegals is extremely unpopular, according to this Rasmussen poll.

Now Perez, speaking with Fox News's Chris Wallace on Sunday, looks as though he's trying to do damage control, factually shifting what had been said at that second Miami debate, to something maybe more palatable to voters. His only problem is that it's not what voters heard.

Here's most of the video clip with Fox News from GOP War Room:

The rest, particularly the line claiming the health care was "not a handout" can be seen at this Fox News ink, around the 7th minute.

Here's my transcript:

Chris Wallace: ...You're in this country illegally, you get health insurance coverage. Perez: And it's an insurance program, so you have to pay into it. As you know, immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, pay billions of dollars of taxes, and, and, that's the reality. And what Democrats also said, Chris, which is far different from Republicans, is that if you have a pre-existing condition, you should be able to keep your coverage. Democrats believe that health care should be available, affordable, quality health care should be available to everyone and thanks to Obama, thanks to LBJ, to Medicare and Medicaid, we're 90% of the way there. We're having a final discussion about how to get the 10%. O.K., but what we are talking about is whether people in the country should get government benefits. (plays tape of Obama saying illegals can't get Obamacare, and Rep. Joe Wilson shouting 'You Lie!') Perez: Democrats believe that you should be able to buy into a health insurance system, this is not a handout. Wallace: But Barack Obama didn't say that. Perez: We're in a different era. I believe that what we're doing now is the right thing to do.

Whoa, hold on, Tom. The conversation up until that point among Democrats was all about taking away people's private insurance and placing it in the hands of a government monopoly. Taxes would go up, as Bernie Sanders admitted, all to make health care "free." That's assuming you paid taxes, of course. There were arguments about whether to permit private insurance for the rich to continue, and the candidates who favored that, such as Amy Klobuchar, did not do well. Meanwhile, multiple candidates spoke of zero-deductible, utterly "free" health insurance, and with many Americans paying no taxes at all, Medicare-for-All really would be 'free' for quite a few, certainly for those who get paid under the table such as illegals. What's a 20% tax hike for someone who pays zero? Yup, zero.

Bottom line: The question they raised their hands on was about government health insurance, the Medicare-for-All option, and already the poor pay nothing for it, so illegals would now be included. Claim a low income and it's already free. Now with the Democrat plan, it doesn't even matter if you snuck in yesterday.

Perez tried to claim that it wasn't a handout, because illegals pay taxes but that's a load of hooey. Of course it's a handout - all you have to do is work off the books and conceal your income, which is what many illegals do. Or, beyond that, you maintain low educational and skill levels to ensure you don't have to pay taxes for the free benefit, which is a category illegals from Central America fall into easily. Illegals already are known to drive down American workers' wages based on their low skill, language, and educational levels (Central America has the lowest levels in the hemisphere). And Perez's claim that illegals pay taxes is nothing compared to the amount of government services they use vastly exceeding their contributions, if they contribute at all. According to NCPA:

In 2010, the typical illegal immigrant household received $24,721 in government benefits but paid just over $10,000 in taxes — an annual benefit of more than $14,000 per household. Illegal immigrants not only receive the benefits of government services (like fire and police protection), but their children receive public education. Additionally, children of illegal immigrants that are born in the United States are eligible for the full spread of government welfare benefits, including Social Security and Medicare.

The bulk of the argument about illegal immigration is about whether foreigners should be free to avail themselves of U.S. taxpayer-paid free stuff, as well as crowd emergency rooms, commit crimes, take affirmative action slots, and bankrupt school districts without contributing a thing, some waving the Honduran flag as they do it.

Perez wants them to have free health care presumably if they have low incomes, and expects they'll pay for it via Obamacare if they have high enough incomes. (Sure they will, Tom). But that wasn't what was said at the debate. The first part had the candidates speak of getting rid of Obamacare in favor of something more socialized with less choice, taking away everyone's insurance options. The second part was about including illegals in for the free ride.

It all makes his claims about health care for illegals not being such a bad thing, and illegals paying the same as Americans sound like a possibility. Most Americans are smarter than this and know that illegals' low and concealed incomes mean free health care for them at taxpayer expense. They also know that if someone's here in the country illegally, it's not entirely likely that they'll hop to it to sign up for price-inflated Obamacare (which Democrats already want to get rid of), and allow themselves to be fined if they don't. How are the Obamacare "fines" (reinstituted in California) for the health care mandate going to be collected from illegals if they don't buy in at those inflated costs? If someone can't obey U.S. immigration law, why would they pay Obamacare fines?

No wonder the internals aren't going well. Perez will likely try to keep spinning this further, but this is one that most voters already are showing signs of not being fooled on.

Image credit: GOP War Room / Fox News Video Clip, screen shot via shareable YouTube