Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Constituents focus on health care despite Obama’s attempt to redirect to CIA matters

While the President enjoys his time away from the health care quagmire taking place around the country, town hall attendees continue their push to enlighten their lawmakers.

In a veiled effort to change the country’s talking points, the White House decided to announce that a special prosecutor would be named to investigate a dozen CIA interrogations during the Bush Administration.

Political pundits say this is just another ploy to change the topic from health care. This particular witch hunt into the CIA could backfire because the majority of American’s do not want this investigation, according to Rasmussen Polls.

Many questions remain direct and focused on health care issues. A biggie is, 'Will the health care reform bill include coverage for those in this country illegally?' The President continues to say absolutely not.

However, there have been many attempts to add safety measures to ensure illegal aliens do not receive care and all have been voted down. A plan known as the Heller amendment was written by Rep. Dean Heller, R-NV, and wanted to include clauses that mandated checks similar to E-Verify in order to qualify for government subsidized health insurance.

The Heller amendment went down on party lines.

This amendment would include prospective applicants to pass through two programs the government already uses. The two identification processes the Heller amendment would use are programs the federal government already employ; The Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS) and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE).

The Heller amendment author said, “It would better screen applicants for subsidized health care to ensure they are actually citizens or otherwise entitled to it.”

A recent Rasmussen reports poll states, 80 percent of Americans oppose covering illegal immigrants in the $1.6 trillion health care bill.

Lawmakers have being telling constituents Section 246 of the House health care bill states; “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payment for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

However, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are more than 8 million illegal immigrants have legitimate jobs in this country.

Leading one to question why not add the two verification processes the government already uses for entitlements programs in order to quell the concern?

For more stories; www.examiner.com/x-10317-San-Diego-County-Political-Buzz-Examiner

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