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Partial Transcript
Obama's Media Blitz; Racism or Dissent?; Ties to Terror; California's Prisons; Swine Flu Vaccine
Aired September 18, 2009 - 19:00 ET
[...]
President Obama has declared that illegal immigrants will not be covered under his health care plan, but that may not be an issue because the president has another plan. He has a plan for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Amnesty could give millions of illegal immigrants now in this country access to health care coverage and that changes the game. Lisa Sylvester has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama has made it clear illegal immigrants should not receive benefits under the health care proposals, but he's also made clear that he supports creating a path to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens currently in the United States. This is what he told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
OBAMA: Though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those here illegally, if anything this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all.
(APPLAUSE)
SYLVESTER: Some Republicans sense a backdoor strategy in the making, that despite language in the health care bills that prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving government subsidized health coverage, in the end representative Lamar Smith says they could still get coverage.
REP LAMAR SMITH (R), TEXAS: He is saying on one hand the health care plan that is being considered now is not going to cover illegal immigrants, but then he is saying well I really want to give all those illegal immigrants amnesty, legalize them, so that they'll be eligible for health care.
SYLVESTER: A White House advisor dismissed Smith's contention saying immigration reform is not a means to get more immigrants into the health care system. But law professor Jan Ting, a former immigration official, who describes himself as an Obama supporter says if millions more might be added to the health care system that should be a factor in the debate.
JAN TING, TEMPLE UNIV LAW SCHOOL: We're struggling to find a way to pay for health care reform without raising taxes and, you know, it's a balancing act and if you weigh in 12 or more million illegal aliens who are going to be legalized, and become eligible for benefits, that tilts the balance.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SYLVESTER (on camera): And if a comprehensive immigration reform bill does pass in Congress, you know, one question is how soon would those receiving amnesty be eligible to sign up for government subsidized health assistance? Under the 1996 Welfare Reform Law, newly legalized immigrants have to wait at least five years before being eligible for programs like Medicare, but groups like the National Council of La Raza, well, they want to eliminate any waiting period for immigrants with this newly acquired legal status -- Lou.
DOBBS: And of course if they get newly legal status and the number is somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal immigrants in this country right now, or as the president insists on saying, despite Senator Schumer's admonishment, "undocumented people," that could be as many with bringing in direct family and conservative estimates somewhere between 36 million and 60 million people added to this.
SYLVESTER: And they would be added to this health care benefit and entitled to the health care benefit so you can do the math really quickly to see, you know, how affordable this is going to really be.
DOBBS: And you can almost begin to see why the, some of the ethnocentric interest groups in this country are working so hard to have me removed from this chair at CNN, can't you, as we start dealing with this debate. Thank you very much, Lisa Sylvester.
Professor Ting, by the way, an absolute rationalist. Doesn't he understand he has to be a vested interest of some kind here? It's great to hear, it's very refreshing to hear a rationalist, a man putting forward reason and knowledge on the issue. As always do you, Lisa Sylvester, thank you.[...]
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