Would Obama have been better served to pursue immigration reform before health care reform?

[pampango]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/25/ED8419DGO2.DTL

Immigration uproar will upstage health care debate

"A few months ago, I was talking to a group of political strategists who insisted that - given the Obama administration's desire to pursue both immigration reform and health care reform - immigration should go first. Otherwise, they said, health care would fail because of public fears that illegal immigrants would get free medical services. Make those immigrants legal, they said, and it would defuse the issue.""

"The point is moot since the administration decided to roll the dice on health care first. But the strategists were right that the immigration debate would find a way to infiltrate the health care debate and damage it. Already, in cities such as Houston with large immigrant populations, protesters who showed up at town halls ostensibly to demonstrate against health care wound up complaining about immigration. This includes the woman who phoned into conservative talk radio host Michael Smerconish's show last week to ask its special guest - President Obama - if he believed that illegal immigrants should benefit from health care reform."

"In fact, as divisive and shrill the health care discussion has been at times, the soon-to-be resurrected immigration debate could be much worse. The issue, expected to be on Congress' fall agenda, will provide its share of theatrics.

If Obama wants to get an immigration reform package through Congress, he will again need help from conservative Blue Dog Democrats. Just like with health care. And if Obama panders to the Blue Dogs too much, he could alienate more liberal Democrats. Just like with health care."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090823_Editorial__A_path_to_citizenship.html

"President Obama should have tackled immigration reform first. His drop in the polls probably wouldn't have been any worse than the dip he's received in attempting comprehensive health-care reform. Plus, after spending the better part of two years trying to hammer out an immigration compromise, Congress was closer to overhauling that law than it is, after six months of debate, to changing the way the nation buys and receives its medical care."

"That doesn't mean immigration reform would be easy. But considering the greater likelihood of success with it - which, like health-care reform, has been a defining goal of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) - Obama should have seen it as the better vehicle to forge bipartisan support. That might have even helped smooth the way for health-care reform."

"Now, immigration reform may become a collateral victim in the health-care war, which has Republicans walking in lockstep with so-called Blue Dog Democrats, whose opposition to reform really has more to do with their personal reelection chances than what's good for America."

"Of course, any new immigration legislation will bring back howls that it grants unearned "amnesty" to lawbreakers. And screaming the loudest will be the same dissimulating crowd that now yells about "death panels" in the debate over health-care reform. In many cases, they are egged on by people whose primary goal is to keep lowering Obama's poll numbers."
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I don't believe that putting immigration reform first would have significantly helped pass health care reform for a couple of reasons.

1) Even if immigration reform somehow diffused the "illegal immigrants will get free health care" meme, RW scaremongers would merely focus more on charges of "socialism" and "liberal politicians" who just rammed immigration reform down your throats now going after health care reform.

2) While the progressive wing of our party believes in health care reform (though we differ on whether we prefer a British style, Canadian style or a public option), there is not the same unity within our wing on immigration reform.

[merh]

1. There is no way to reform immigration that would be politically

satisfying and effective short of closing the borders.

To have tried to tackle that issue first would have been political suicide.

You know, according to the right, we are being invaded, those damned foreigners.

[pampango]

4. I hope tackling immigration AFTER health care won't be "political suicide".

:)

Obama still says he will go after immigration reform this fall, what the right says about "foreigner invasions" or "socialized medicine" notwithstanding. It may be more difficult now than in 2007. The recession has decreased the flow of migrants into the US and increased the number that are leaving (plus the enforcement of employer sanctions is more effective now than then) - which might make reform easier, but it also increases the tensions felt by "native citizens" towards immigrants, as it does in almost every country during economic downturns - which might make reform more difficult than two years ago.

Perhaps Kennedy's legacy can propel us to success in two reforms, which he believed strongly in, that were on the table during the last year of his life - health care reform and immigration reform. Immigration reform will certainly be a bruising partisan battle, especially coming on the heals of another bruising partisan battle over health care reform. I hope that Obama has the stomach and political will to pursue it.

[merh]

5. Here, this comment from the article on Trent Lott remembering Kennedy

may help you understand how impossible the immigration issue truly is:

Although they often disagreed, the two worked on immigration reform not long before Lott retired from the Senate, but Lott said he was hammered by conservatives, while Kennedy was hit by liberals, and the bill failed.
http://www.sunherald.com/pageone/story/1563641.html

There is no compromise - many cannot understand the complexities of the issue to be able to appreciate a reasonable, workable compromise.

Most of the right hate Kennedy for the 1965 Immigration Act. It let all those free loaders in, don't ya know. (I hope a sarcasm smiley is not needed.)

[AlphaCentauri]

7. Republicans want to move the debate to their territory

it's not a surprise that arm men hung at town home meeting or some fanatics protesting on abortion clinics or the minutemen killing Mexicans. What they want is to change subject in the debate, they don't want to discuss immigration reform 'cos re-pugs benefit from bashing immigrants, they prefer to talk about guns than health care reform, also re-pugs don't want to talk about ending the war they want to talk about abortion.
The democrat senate is serving Obama's presidency to re-pugs on a golden plate for the 2012 election by not acting on immigration reform, re-pugs will have one more tool for their election campaigns like they are doing now with health reform.
Without immigration reform the issue will keep coming back on any proposal, like education reform, financial reform, election reform you name it, re-pugs will try to mislead the public attacking illegal aliens for anything.
So there are two ways to put aside the immigration debate, reforming immigration law or the wet Hitlarian dream of the nativist that is, massive deportation, turning government agencies into SS and Gestapo dependencies.

[pampango]

9. Heck, the anti-immigration repubs were able to move the debate to their territory in 2007 even

though it was proposed by McCain (and Kennedy) and supported by Bush. McCain may support it again, but his is a spent force now (well, even more than he was before) and Bush is almost never mentioned by repubs (with good reason).

A renewed immigration reform effort this fall will have almost no support from repubs, since they killed it last time and have opposed every major proposal from Obama so far. It is inevitable that the right (imagine the birthers with a "Kenyan" Obama proposing immigration changes) will demonize reform as a "liberal" proposal from Obama and the "liberal establishment" (the usual icons - Pelosi, Reid, etc. - with Kennedy's past support for reform thrown in to fire up their base). This would seem to make for an even more partisan battle this year than in 2007.

[AlphaCentauri]

10. it would be a partisan battle but democrats have the votes now

what is preventing them from using that mandate? don't want to think that part of the democratic party is a extension of the repugs party.

[liberal N proud]

2. Maybe that is his ace in the hole on Health Care

The right is all freaked out that some Mexican is going to get "free: health care.

They want the status quo where the illegal immigrants actually are getting free medical treatments.

Maybe something could be attached to the health care reform that somewhat satisfies the fears of the morons.

[Tippy]

3. Obama promised he would if elected make Health Care #1 priority

He kept that promise...now it is up to we the people to make sure it passes...it's doablewrite or call your congress critter daily.......

[Motown_Johnny]

6. I think this logic is ass backward. Immigration reform would give legal status

to people who are now "illegal"

then health care reform would give the majority of these immigrants low cost health care subsidized by the taxpayers


it would just make the uproar about insuring "illegals" worse since it will take time for the newly legalized immigrants to be widely accepted.


Right now the legislation does not change anything about the way "illegal" immigrants are treated and that helps keep the uproar over them to a minimum

[AlphaCentauri]

8. It would give legal status to those who pay taxes

and do not get complete labor right or benefits.