Thread: GOP senator: Health reform could kill immigration reform

GOP senator: Health reform could kill immigration reform

By DENA BUNIS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
March 11, 2010

WASHINGTON - It was immigration reform day at the White House Thursday as President Barack Obama met separately with advocates and two senators determined to pass a comprehensive bill.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, the lone Republican senator who supports such a measure, said after his meeting with Obama that if Democrats continue to push through health care reform using a procedural maneuver called reconciliation, then he believes the immigration issue is dead for this year.

"For more than a year, health care has sucked most of the energy out of the room,'' Graham, R-S.C. said in a statement.

"Using reconciliation to push health care through will make it much more harder for Congress to come together on a topic as important as immigration.''

So far Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee, has only been able to recruit Graham from among Republican senators in this effort. Schumer and Graham brought Obama a framework for a comprehensive bill.

While the details have not been made public, their bill is expected to include a legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living here, beefed up border enforcement and a secure identification card that will let employers know that the people they are hiring are authorized to work in the United States.

These elements are similar to those included in bills in 2006 and 2007, both of which came close but fell short in the Senate.

The House has yet to vote on an immigration reform measure.

Most Republicans – including Orange County's congressional delegation – strongly oppose any bill that would give legal status to illegal immigrants.

Still unclear is whether the Schumer-Graham measure will include a temporary worker program.

Most Democrats oppose such a provision and those Republicans who have supported immigration reform before – most notably Sen. John McCain of Arizona, say the issue is a non-starter without a future worker clause.

In a statement after the immigration meetings, Obama said he "told both the senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort.''

In his post-meeting statement, Schumer said he and Graham asked Obama "to help us gain increased support in the Senate and to help us work out the final aspects of a potential agreement between business and labor on the future flow of lower-skilled labor.''

A march on Washington by immigration advocates is planned for March 21.

The leaders of the groups organizing that demonstration told Obama Thursday they wanted to see a framework made public in time for that march.

"We want results," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "That's what we're going to be expecting in the next couple of weeks."

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said he was well aware of the political difficulties involved in getting immigration reform done this year.

"I think it's incumbent on us - business, labor, churches, community groups together to make the case to the Republican Party and the American people that this is a good thing for this country,'' Medina said.

"I think it's going to be very hard. I don't think it's impossible."

Contact the writer: (202) 628-6381 or dbunis@ocregister.com

http://www.ocregister.com/news/immigrat ... raham.html

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said he was well aware of the political difficulties involved in getting immigration reform done this year.

"I think it's incumbent on us - business, labor, churches, community groups together to make the case to the Republican Party and the American people that this is a good thing for this country,'' Medina said.

"I think it's going to be very hard. I don't think it's impossible."

I think Medina should be charged for all of the illegal lobbying he has been doing this year.

I think these traitors, globalists and socialists are all going to devour each other over health care and immigration reform and self-destruct. All they could name in this article is Lindsey Graham who is as we speak serving his last term in public office, and John McCain who will be put out to pasture in November ... so keep those calls and letters going folks and tell them about HB 1583 that repeals the McCarran Ferguson Act that exempted the insurance industry from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Federal Trade Commission Regulations which will force the entire insurance industry to operate like every other industry in America which will open up interstate competition, force rates down and increase benefits and options for everyone. And it doesn't cost 1 dime of government spending or increase our debt 1 cent to achieve this. It doesn't create mandates on free Americans, it's doesn't give the government access to our bank accounts, or give law enforcement the right to send Americans to prison because they choose for whatever reason to pay their own medical bills without an insurance policy, and NO DEATH PANELS, NO RATIONING, NO GOVERNMENT AT ALL.



Oh and of course don't forget to tell them to pass HB 25, the FairTax legislation which increases expendable income for all Americans and earnings for all our employers which increases both the workers ability to purchase competitive insurance and enables more employers to provide it, which also doesn't cost 1 dime of government spending, in fact it abolishes the IRS and saves US $12 Billion a year in IRS nonsense and doesn't increase our national debt 1 cent because it will reduce government spending because more people will have more income which reduces poverty and our costs of entitlements to the poor.

www.fairtax.org

2 simple bills, HB 1583 and HB 25 = WIN WIN FOR AMERICANS

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http://www.alipac.us/article-5008--0-0.html

Lindsey Graham: Immigration reform in peril

JOSH GERSTEIN | 3/12/10 4:49 AM EST

A pair of White House meetings Thursday designed to chart a path forward for immigration reform instead spotlighted the daunting obstacles ahead — and showed why many Capitol Hill insiders believe it’s quite unlikely an immigration bill will happen this year.


After meeting with President Barack Obama, the leading Republican backing a comprehensive approach warned that a Democratic health care push could scuttle any chance of action on immigration in this Congress.


“I expressed, in no uncertain terms, my belief that immigration reform could come to a halt for the year if health care reconciliation goes forward,â€

All they need to do is enforce the laws.

Originally Posted by onetrickydude

All they need to do is enforce the laws.

Exactement, Mon Ami!