Health Care Push Threatens Amnesty Agenda

"A pair of White House meetings Thursday designed to chart a path forward for immigration reform instead spotlighted the daunting obstacles ahead -- and showed why many Capitol Hill insiders believe it's quite unlikely an immigration bill will happen this year. After meeting with President Barack Obama, the leading Republican backing a comprehensive approach warned that a Democratic health care push could scuttle any chance of action on immigration in this Congress," Politico reports. "For more than a year, health care has sucked most of the energy out of the room. Using reconciliation to push health care through will make it much harder for Congress to come together on a topic as important as immigration," said Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC).

The New York Times covered yesterday's meeting between Obama, Graham and Sen. Schumer (D-NY) as well. "President Obama said Thursday that he would proceed with an overhaul of the immigration system this year if he could attract substantial Republican support. But a leading Republican who supports an overhaul said an immigration bill could not go forward if the president used a legislative shortcut sidestepping Republicans to pass his health care bill," Julia Preston reported.