Obama Admits Healthcare Overhaul May Die On Hill
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Alert: After insisting for a year that failure was not an option, President Barack Obama is now acknowledging
his healthcare overhaul may die in Congress.
His tone at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday night verged at times on defeatist. Even
while saying he still wanted to get the job done, Obama bowed to new political realities. Democrats no
longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with
jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system.
"I think it's very important for us to have a methodical, open process over the next several weeks, and then
let's go ahead and make a decision," Obama said Thursday night.
"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the
options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done
the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections
coming up and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other
during election time."
"Here's the key, is to not let the moment slip away," Obama also said.
Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans
passed both chambers of Congress last year and was on the verge of completion before Republican Scott
Brown's upset victory in a Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election last month. Brown was sworn in
Thursday, giving Republicans 41 votes, enough to block the initiatives of the Democratic majority.
Now the health legislation hangs in limbo. Lawmakers are looking to Obama for guidance, but he has not
publicly offered specifics. His signals have been mixed. At the DNC event he said Republicans should be
part of the process - something they've shown little interest in and that would doubtlessly drag out a
legislative effort that many rank-and-file Democrats want to end quickly.
"The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to
present their ideas. What I'd like to do is have a meeting whereby I'm sitting with the Republicans, sitting with
the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let's just go through these bills. ... And then I think that
we've got to go ahead and move forward on a vote," Obama said Thursday. "But as I said at the State of the
Union, I think we should be very deliberate, take our time. We're going to be moving a jobs package forward
over the next several weeks; that's the thing that's most urgent right now in the minds of Americans all
across the country."
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Obama adviser: Amnesty to ensure 'progressive' rule
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Alert: (WND) Granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants would expand the "progressive" electorate
and help ensure a "progressive" governing coalition for the long term, declared a recent adviser to President
Obama whose union group is among the most frequent visitors to the White House.
"We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters,"
stated Eliseo Medina, international executive vice-president of Service Employees International Union, or
SEIU.
Medina was speaking at a June 2009 Washington conference for the liberal America's Future Now!
Medina said that during the presidential election in November 2008, Latinos and immigrants "voted
overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showed up."
"Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters
who care about our issues and will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not
just for an election cycle."
The SEIU is closely linked to the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or
ACORN. SEIU President Andrew Stern was the most frequently logged White House visitor, according to an
official list released in October.
Medina and the SEIU are top supporters of Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez's Comprehensive Immigration
Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Bill, which seeks to document up to 12 million illegal
immigrants inside the U.S.
During the most recent presidential campaign, Medina and Gutierrez served on Obama's National Latino
Advisory Council. Also on the council was Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the co-sponsor of Gutierrez's
immigration reform bill.
Medina was a chief lobbyist credited with a change in the longstanding policy of the AFL-CIO, the largest
union federation in the U.S. The union reversed its stance against illegal immigration in February 2000,
instead calling for new amnesty for millions of illegals.
The New Zeal blog documents how Medina was honored in 2004 by Chicago's Democratic Socialists of
America for his "vital role in the AFL-CIO's reassessment of its immigration policy." That same year, Medina
became a DSA honorary chairman.
The DSA also supported Gutierrez's 1998 bid for Congress. In the mid-1990s, Gutierrez served on the board
of Illinois Public Action alongside a number of DSA members, including Obama health-care advisor Quentin
Young.
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