Hispanic lawmakers say an old adversary, White House chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel, has his fingerprints all over a push to prohibit illegal
immigrants from buying health insurance plans in a new market for
people who don’t get insurance through their employers.
“A forensic study would show it all leads back to Rahm Emanuel and the
White House,” said Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a member
of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who worked with Emanuel when the
president’s top aide was in the House.
“This analysis is inaccurate,” said a White House aide who had been
shown the comments made by Hispanic lawmakers.
First of all, illegal immigrants would be highly unlikely to purchase
health insurance even if they were allowed to. The attempt to
prohibit the purchase of such policies under Obamacare suggests that
it is legal to purchase them now, and so far I've seen no evidence
that any undocumented alien has bothered to insure himself. Under
Obamacare, uninsured illegal immigrants will simply use hospital
emergency rooms, just like they do now.
And if the White House is behind the new rule, who cares? Obama
doesn't even care about the special interest groups that voted for him
(including Latinos), since he can take their support for granted in
the next election. Why do you think he cares about a group that can't
even vote for him? Who else are offended Latinos going to vote for,
Sarah Palin?