September 15, 2009 - Photo by Pool/Getty Images North America
This report in the Washington Times has created quite a buzz this morning. It discusses a speech that the President gave to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute on Wednesday evening. In the speech the President discusses healthcare and immigration reform. This has of course triggered red flags to go up across the nation. The logic here is – I promised no healthcare for illegals, so lets make them legal.
President Obama said this week that his health care plan won’t cover illegal immigrants, but argued that’s all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.
He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered – a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.
“Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don’t simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. “That’s why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else.
Mr. Obama added, “If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.”
Republicans said that amounts to an amnesty, calling it a backdoor effort to make sure current illegal immigrants get health care.
“It is ironic that the president told the American people that illegal immigrants should not be covered by the health care bill, but now just days later he’s talking about letting them in the back door,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
“If the American people do not want to provide government health care for illegal immigrants, why would they support giving them citizenship, the highest honor America can bestow?” Mr. Smith said.
But immigrant rights groups see the speech as a signal that Mr. Obama is committed to providing health care coverage for anyone in the United States legally, regardless of their citizenship status.
“It’s the first time I’ve certainly heard, publicly, him talking more about legal immigrants,” said Eric Rodriguez, vice president for research and advocacy at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). “I think that was certainly positive progress. We were absolutely concerned about not hearing that.”
Here’s the speech.
Heres’ my take. I should start by saying that I have no doubt that this President fully supports granting amnesty to the “12 million” illegal or undocumented workers currently living in the United States. I think he wants it. I think he will push for it – eventually. I should also say that I think its disgraceful that our federal government admits that there are in fact 12 million people living here illegally; but has no plan to solve the problem. That represents 12 million crimes that have been committed, and 12 million potential threats to national security that we just ignore as if they are problems too big or too inevitable to deal with. Its pathetic.
All that being said, I have to say that I am not connecting all the dots here that many of my conservative brethren are with this speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. I have listened to it 20 times and have read the transcript, and I think we’re grasping at straws here. It does seem a bit early to call him on this issue. Like I said, I have no doubt he’s going to head down that road, but I just don’t think he’s there yet. When conservatives and Republicans on Capitol Hill jump the gun on these things, they think they are saving us from something, but I have to say that they just distort the bigger message. Let’s slow down a bit on this one guys before credibility is tossed out the window. We have the high ground on the healthcare fight. The American people are on our side for the first time in a very long time. Let’s not concede that ground over faulty conclusions.
