Because liberal Democrats didn’t have a large enough obstacle already to passage of government-run health care thanks to pro-lifers like Bart Stupak, the Hispanic Caucus is now demanding health care coverage for illegal aliens. Or they’ll oppose the bill.

A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration provisions.

The scheduled meeting comes as Democratic leaders and the White House are struggling to craft a final bill that will attract 216 votes in the lower chamber.

Since last fall, Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) members have kept quiet, at least publicly, about their objections to the immigration provisions in the Senate bill.

The Senate language would prohibit illegal immigrants’ buying healthcare coverage from the proposed health exchanges. The House-passed bill isn’t as restrictive, but it does — like the Senate bill — bar illegal immigrants from receiving federal subsidies to buy health insurance.

Hispanic Democrats say they haven’t moved from their stance that they will not vote for a healthcare bill containing the Senate’s prohibitions.

We have a $1.4 trillion annual deficit and February’s deficit was a record-high. Congress recently raised the debt ceiling to over $14 trillion and we have tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. Oh, and then there’s the pesky double-digit real unemployment figure.

But sure, let’s pay for millions of illegal aliens to visit the doctor for the sniffles. Federal law prohibits the denial of emergency care based on inability to pay or legal status, so it’s not a matter of helping in the case of a heart attack or other major incident. This is about taxpayers being forced to fund regular doctor visits for people who are here illegally to begin with.

But the policy virtues or sins aside, this is not a budgetary matter. Which means any removal of restriction on illegal alien health care coverage from the Senate legislation would, theoretically, be subject to filibuster. I say “theoretically” because Democrats have yet to care about historical precedent, Congressional rules, or even the Constitution in their push for government-run health care.

Anyway, another day another blockade for SanFran Nan.