Democrat Says: Republicans Have A Mandate To Discuss Real Immigration Reform
The
Republicans now control the US House of
Representatives and have increased power in the US
Senate. What better time to fix our broken immigration
laws with a real debate that serves American
citizens—and not the powerful cabal of corporate, ethnic
and religious advocates for open borders who have been
scandalously demanding passage of another
1986-style amnesty disaster (
Comprehensive Immigration Reform or CIR)?
Yes, I realize that the
upcoming lame duck session is fraught with danger. But,
again, if some further atrocity gets rammed down
Americans` throats, this will merely underline what
my Democrats` Congress and Administration have been
doing to hurt us.
Talk about
chutzpah! We are in the Great Recession—so dubbed
because no one wants to admit we are bankrupt—and still
taking in
over a million aliens on various legal work visas
every year.
So, let`s face
it, Republicans: it was ANGER that got you this new
power—despite your dreadful record of getting us into
endless wars, alienating millions with our arrogant
militarism, and incurring raging deficits.
By the way, your
success was in no small part the result of the Tea
Party`s support. As David Corn notes in a recent column:
Teapartiers and
the Need for Anger Management
"Look at a big tea party target: the TARP bailout. The
Bush-Cheney program—which
Barack Obama supported as a candidate and then continued
as president—was hastily arranged and shoved down
America`s throat, with little due diligence or small-d
democratic input. It was rightly seen by many as a
bailout of the big schemers who had derailed the U.S.
economy (while hanging on to their multiple vacation
homes). But it may well have partially worked by
preventing a more calamitous economic decline, and last
week, the news came out that the U.S. government earned
$25.2 billion on its $309- billion investment in TARP.
That`s an 8.2-percent return—more than what you`d get
from a 30-year Treasury bond. Are tea partiers upset
that Obama made money for U.S. taxpayers?
“And by the way, it was Obama and the congressional Democrats who went
after the Street scoundrels with a Wall Street reform
bill that was opposed by GOPers. The legislation may not
have been tough enough, but it did more to rein in the
perps than anything proposed by the GOP. So why do tea
party types complain about TARP (which is paying off),
while not caring much about changing the rules so the
Big Banks don`t play American taxpayers and consumers
for suckers again?
“Speaking of taxpayers, should tea partiers be ticked off about taxes?
Not at all. Taxes are down for most Americans and at a
historic 60-year low, partly due to Obama`s tax cuts."
So, Republicans, you`re
on a very short leash! Will your victory, if you do not
perform, galvanize Obama in 2012?
That things are likely
to be bad for our economy for years has been well
documented. For example, in an October 28th AP article,
Economists:
Unemployment Won`t Drop to Normal Until 2018,
we learn that, while modest
improvement is expected in the economy next year, AP
finds that economists` optimism
"has dimmed over the past three months." Other stories
recently have echoed the economists` views in this AP
article:
"In their view, shoppers and employers will stay cautious. Households
will keep saving. Inflation will remain tame. And
unemployment will dip only a bit from the current 9.6
percent rate to a still-high 9 percent at the end of
2011.
“In the previous survey in July, the economists predicted unemployment
of 8.7 percent at the end of next year. In the survey
before that, they foresaw 8.4 percent.
“Some now think unemployment won`t drop to a historically normal 5.5
percent to 6 percent until at least 2018 — several years
later than envisioned earlier"
But this long-term
outlook does mean that we may have a chance to do
something about our immigration invasion.
What? Serious
discussions at the highest levels of our government
about what the law should be. A real reform debate, with
all options on the table. Certainly an
immigration moratorium should now get serious
consideration.
Moderate voices have
for years been arguing, not against immigrants or
reasonable immigration, but for a serious discussion of
the issue by our Congress and Administrations.
But instead, since the
disastrous 1965 immigration act, over 70 million
aliens, legal and illegal, have come here and produced
children, as well as bringing many of their relatives
from abroad.
The untimely demise in
January of 1996 of former Congress member, Barbara
Jordan who headed the landmark study on immigration
—1995`s The Commission on Immigration Reform (CIR) was
formed by Congress in 1990,
kept a fuller debate at bay.
No-one then or now has
called Jordan the names so freely tossed at those who
seek such a discussion by the open border crowd.
But now, as has
been apparent for some time, the only bullet left in the
anti-immigration reform gun is the
charge of racism. Everyone discussing real
immigration reform has been charged as such by the
growing cabal of open border liberals.
The AP story
involved some serious polling:
"The economists are sharply split on whether the Fed should do so. And
they overwhelmingly oppose another round of government
stimulus spending. They think the economy will make
steady gains, just more slowly than they had earlier
thought.
“The AP survey collected the views of 43 leading private, corporate and
academic economists on a range of indicators, including
employment, consumer spending and inflation. Among their
forecasts:
-
The economy will
expand just 2.7 percent next year, scarcely more than
the tepid growth predicted for all of 2010. Under an
economic rule of thumb, growth would have to average at
least 5 percent for a whole year to lower the
unemployment rate by 1 percentage point. -
Shoppers will
boost their spending 2.5 percent in 2011, slightly
better than the increase that economists envision for
this year. But spending would have to rise roughly twice
that fast to deliver enough economic punch to lower
unemployment. Three months ago, the economists were more
optimistic about 2011: They predicted shoppers would
boost their spending 3 percent. -
Inflation will
equal just 1.7 percent next year. That`s slightly more
than the 1.2 percent predicted for this year. And it`s
about the minimum level of inflation the Fed thinks a
healthy economy needs. -
Americans will
keep rebuilding their savings, leaving less money for
spending. They`re expected to save 5.4 percent of
disposable income next year. That`s slightly less than
the 5.7 percent savings rate predicted for all of 2010.
But it`s still near the highest savings rate since 1992.
“`When you look to 2011, the words to describe the
economy are glum, lousy, subpar,` says Rajeev Dhawan,
director of Georgia State University`s Economic
Forecasting Center.
“What to do about it is the subject of dispute. Two-thirds of the
economists surveyed say Congress should refrain from
more stimulus spending. Some worry that such aid
wouldn`t be targeted effectively.
“Others say the extra spending would take too long to lift the economy.
“An overarching concern is that more government spending would widen the
budget gap, already at $1.3 trillion".
We are going bankrupt
and still importing cheap labor—while our real
unemployment rate is north of 15%!
This insanity must be
stopped. We American taxpayers must demand it.
Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
