Obama: No ObamaCare for illegals, we’ll give ‘em amnesty first!

Geez. I just wanted to get to bed early, but then I saw this:

TPMDC: Lawmakers who want to extend health coverage to illegal immigrants will not block the passage of the final health care reform bill so long as the White House offers a substantive promise to start pushing comprehensive immigration legislation this year.

Democrats who want a comprehensive bill that reforms immigration law but also offers a pathway to citizenship have threatened to vote against health care if illegals aren’t included in the new system, making immigration one of the sticking points as Democratic leaders negotiate the final details.

Democratic leadership aides believe that a firm White House promise of a comprehensive immigration bill will be enough to quell any House dissent.

[...]

The Senate’s health care bill bars illegals from any sort of coverage, a provision embraced after Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s address to Congress when the president said that illegals would not be able to get health care under the legislation.

Those familiar with the talks say any immigration legislation will include various amnesty provisions to allow for health care coverage.

Lawmakers want to be careful they aren’t viewed as giving up on a key goal, but have said they are confident the White House is being honest that Obama wants to see a comprehensive bill this year.

A source told us that members who have championed immigration reform “aren’t actually conceding, just changing tactics” to secure coverage for illegal immigrants whatever way they came. …..

I’m getting whiplash from shaking my head in disgust.

Allahpundit has a newsflash for the left:

Amnesty’s not going to pass in this political climate if it couldn’t pass in 2007, so either this is all an elaborate kabuki aimed at tactfully caving on benefits for illegals or the CHC is a really, really cheap date. As for the right, if this sounds familiar it’s because The One has been hinting at doing it for at least four months. Not sure why it hasn’t been more of a talking point among conservative pundits — probably people would just as soon avoid another clash with Hispanic voters — but it’s about to become a hot potato. Which, honestly, is probably Obama’s whole point in pushing it.

More on this topic can be found at memeorandum.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.