Hispanic lawmakers call on Trump to apologize

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus called on Donald Trump to apologize for incendiary comments he made toward Mexicans during his presidential campaign announcement speech earlier this week.

In a blistering statement Friday afternoon, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) said she and fellow lawmakers were “outraged” by his comments that she said “perpetuate hateful stereotypes toward the Latino community.”

“Donald Trump owes an apology to the millions of Mexicans in this country who have contributed their talents towards making the United States the envy of the world,” Sanchez said.

During his presidential campaign announcement speech at the Trump Tower in New York City, Trump suggested that Mexicans immigrating illegally to the U.S. were dangerous.

“The U.S. has become the dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” Trump said.

“They’re sending people who have lots of problems,” he said. “They bring in drugs, they bring in crime, they’re rapists. I assume some are good people.”

“It’s got to stop, and it has got to stop fast,” Trump added. 

Sanchez warned that comments like Trump’s could cause extreme attitudes that lead to violence like the mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., this week. A gunman allegedly opened fire during a Bible study at a historic black church in what federal authorities are calling a hate crime.

“It's this kind of incendiary rhetoric which can lead to acts of violence. The most recent shooting in Charleston, South Carolina and the fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorian immigrant in Suffolk County, New York are examples of the incendiary acts that can result from hateful speech,” Sanchez said.

“True leaders find ways to unite the community and bring people together. Anyone seeking the highest office should denounce such bigoted and erroneous views,” she added.

Capitol Hill Republicans indicated this week they’re largely fine with Trump’s entry into the race, even though he may qualify for the first presidential primary debate and force other candidates off the stage.

Via: The Hill

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Democratic Campaigns Pay African American, Hispanic Staffers Less

Democratic federal-level campaigns are paying minority staffers significantly less than their white counterparts, according to a study from the New Organizing Institute (NOI).

“African American staffers on Democratic federal-level campaigns are paid 70 cents on the dollar compared to their white counterparts; Hispanics are paid 68 cents on the dollar,” writes Ethan Roeder, executive director of NOI.

The study finds that although Republican campaign staffs hire a disproportionately high number of white men, the income disparities between racial groups are not nearly as pronounced as on Democratic campaigns.

Barack Obama’s reelection campaign received criticism during the 2012 elections for a picture of his Chicago headquarters that revealed a lack of diversity; it responded by making a push to hire more African Americans.

NOI completed the study by compiling data from the Federal Elections Committee on 16,241 individual campaign staffers from 2012 that they could with good confidence determine the race of.

Via: WFB

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CONGRESSIONAL HISPANIC CAUCUS CHAIR ON OBAMACARE FOR ILLEGALS: 'NOT AT THIS TIME'

On Wednesday, House Democrats renewed their push for an immigration bill to be brought to the floor, and although members from both parties favoring passage for such legislation appear confident a bill will surface in the lower chamber in the near future, Democratic members are hesitant to discuss how the issues of immigration reform and Obamacare may intersect at this point.

During an immigration press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D–TX), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told reporters, “Let me set the record straight: comprehensive immigration reform is not dead in the House.” As he stood among other Latino Democratic lawmakers, Hinojosa said, “The time for excuses is over. The time for action is now.”

Illegal immigrants are not currently eligible to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges. However, according to Hinojosa, that may change in the future.

When asked by Breitbart News if he would want immigration reform legislation to allow these illegal aliens to be covered under Obamacare, Hinojosa initially refused to answer and only remarked, “Affordable health care is already written. Those who are undocumented do not qualify.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made a similar statement in May. "It is stated very clearly in the Affordable Care Act, [and] it is our position in the immigration bill: no access to subsidies in the Affordable Care Act. Secondly, no access to Medicaid; no cost to the taxpayer," Pelosi said at the time. "That has always been the Democratic position." 

Via; Breitbart

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Ex-Obama aide to sell health reform to Hispanics

A nonprofit led by a former aide for President Obama will target the Hispanic population — particularly mothers — in the coming weeks as part of the push to inform Americans about potential benefits under the new health care law.

Enroll America officials say the fast-growing Hispanic population accounts for about a third of the uninsured population who will be eligible to enroll in state-based insurance markets, known as exchanges, tied to the Affordable Care Act.

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SEE ALSO: Poll finds more share negative view of Obamacare

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The exchanges are portals where Americans without employer-based coverage can buy coverage, often with the help of government subsidies. Open enrollment begins Oct. 1 for coverage that takes effect in 2014.

Enroll America’s president, Anne Filipic, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, said the group is sending out field teams to work with Hispanic community groups in states like Florida, which has a high number of uninsured residents.

They will put a special emphasis on reaching out to mothers, who hold sway over young people.

For the law to work, young, healthy Americans need to enroll in the exchanges to balance out the risk pool when sicker persons with pre-existing conditions enter the individual market because they can no longer be denied coverage.

Republican critics of the law have pointed to rate hikes in select states — premiums are expected to fall in others — as proof that Obamacare is a misguided attempt by the federal government to inject itself into the insurance market.

Via: Washington Times

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Race tightens for swing states

Mitt Romney’s overwhelming debate victory has tightened the presidential race in the dozen or so battleground states that will determine the winner of the election.

To reach the Oval Office, Romney must win back a number of the states won by President Bush in 2004 but President Obama in 2008 —or win back states like Pennsylvania that have been won by Democratic presidential candidates the past several cycles.

Here’s a look at where the swing-state battles stand ahead of Obama and Romney’s second debate showdown on Tuesday night.

Florida (29)

Romney enjoys a two-percentage-point advantage in the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average of polls after crushing Obama in their initial debate. He had previously trailed the president by 1.6 percentage points.

But it’s possible Romney’s numbers are being boosted by one poll. The Tampa Bay Times released a survey Thursday that showed him up by 7 percentage points, a finding the looks like an outlier compared to other polls.

The Tampa poll showed Obama’s 11-point lead among independents swing to a 13 point advantage for Romney. In addition, Hispanic voters in the poll favored Romney 46 to 44 percent over Obama, despite the president’s more than 50-percentage point lead among the group nationally.

Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe dismissed the poll, telling the Tampa Bay Times that “it’s impossible for us to be at 44 in Florida,” and arguing that the campaign believes it will outperform its 2008 support among Hispanics. Plouffe said Obama’s campaign expects to take win at least 60 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Florida is must win territory for Romney given the uphill climb he faces in other swing states.

Via: The Hill

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Dick Morris: Why The Polls Understate Romney Vote

Republicans are getting depressed under an avalanche of polling suggesting that an Obama victory is in the offing. They, in fact, suggest no such thing! Here’s why:

1. All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin.

In English, this means that when you do a poll you ask people if they are likely to vote. But any telephone survey always has too few blacks, Latinos, and young people and too many elderly in its sample. That’s because some don’t have landlines or are rarely at home or don’t speak English well enough to be interviewed or don’t have time to talk. Elderly are overstated because they tend to be home and to have time. So you need to increase the weight given to interviews with young people, blacks and Latinos and count those with seniors a bit less.

Normally, this task is not difficult. Over the years, the black, Latino, young, and elderly proportion of the electorate has been fairly constant from election to election, except for a gradual increase in the Hispanic vote. You just need to look back at the last election to weight your polling numbers for this one.

Via: Dick Morris

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