When I listen or read how Republicans, in both the House and Senate, are trying to defeat the Immigration Reform Bill, I can only wonder if they are operating with “a full deck”. Remember that the so-called Gang-of-Eight in the Senate has been trying to devise a Non-Partisan Bill for eight or nine months. Only recently, some members of the House have begun working on their version. Why not last December or January?
One Congressman wants to require undocumented immigrants to buy their own health insurance. Duh! If they are undocumented, how do you identify them to force them to do anything? Also, they can just go to the Emergency Room, at the local hospital, when they are sick–as the Republicans have been suggesting for years. Remember that was Mitt Romney’s solution during the Presidential Debates last year?
So, after 27 unsuccessful attempts in the House, to overturn ObamaCare, the GOPers now appear to be trying to hit two birds with one stone–defeat Immigration and Health Care. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is trying to make Immigration Reform his big stepping stone to the Presidency. (He surely has been working against the wishes of Floridians, perhaps to keep the Tea Party and Evangelicals happy.) Sen. Rubio has offered an Amendment for “Permanent Residents” to wait five years before they can receive Health Care Benefits. How does that change the Matrix of providing a better life, education and an expectations for a future in the U.S.?
The Republican Party supposedly realized, during the last Election that their votes primarily came from Old White Men. Now, they claim to be making a concerted effort to extend their appeal–to Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Seniors, Women and Younger Voters. But, just putting the few who were in attendance as the last Republican National Convention on the Stage is not the way to do it. They are fighting against: Immigration; a Minimum Living Wage; the Equal Pay Act; Women’s Health Care Issues; Food Stamps; PELL Grants; Social Security and Medicare; etc. (What have they missed?) Is the RNC merely getting ready to follow the Dodo Bird into oblivion?
