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Title: On immigration, conservatives need to give Bush a break
Source:
Post Gazette
URL Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06141/691654-108.stm
Published: May 22, 2006
Author: Jack Kelly
Post Date: 2006-05-22 00:28:48 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 109
Comments: 21
Sunday, May 21, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette What does this have to do with President Bush's plan for comprehensive immigration reform? Maybe lots. Medicare and Social Security are going broke chiefly because there aren't enough workers paying into the systems to support beneficiaries. Unless millions of new workers can be found to pay the payroll tax, the retirement of the baby boom generation will bust both programs. An Obrador victory likely would be a greater blow to our national security than the Ayatollah Khomeini's ouster of the shah of Iran has proven to be. Imagine the harm a Marxist dictator controlling a nation of 108 million people which shares a 2,000-mile border with us can do. President Bush has. You should. The No. 1 source of revenue for Mexico is remittances from Mexicans working in the United States. Threatening those remittances helps Mr. Obrador. Regularizing them helps Mr. Calderon. We should not institute a major domestic program primarily to aid a foreign ally. But a guest-worker program can benefit both our economy and our security. Supporters of a guest-worker program say there are jobs too few Americans are willing to do at anything close to prevailing wages. Opponents says businessmen are just looking for cheap labor to exploit. There is truth in both positions, but the weight of evidence supports the need for immigrant labor, at least for seasonal agricultural industries. Our economy is booming, so it is difficult to argue that immigrant labor is harming it. Unemployment is approaching all-time lows, so it is difficult to argue we could dispense with immigrant labor without serious economic consequences. A properly designed guest worker program can meet the legitimate needs of business, while sharply reducing the exploitation of illegals and the depressing effect that has on wages. Lawful guest workers with tamper-proof ID cards would end the excuses businesses have for employing illegals. If the Border Patrol didn't have to chase so many people who just want to come here to work, more of its time and resources could be devoted to hunting down those who pose serious threats to our security. Many are unwilling to see the potential benefits in a guest worker program and a path to normalization for illegals already here because they are angry, with good reason. In 1986, we were promised a "comprehensive" solution: strict enforcement coupled with amnesty for illegals already here. The amnesty was delivered, but not the enforcement, with the result there are roughly 12 million illegals now compared to about 4 million then. Americans don't want to be bamboozled again. But some conservatives are so angry they complain even when they get what they want. Columnist Michelle Malkin has been demanding a crackdown on employers who hire illegals. Now that that's happening, she says it's just for show. When President Bush announced enforcement measures its editorial board approved of, the Manchester Union Leader said his heart wasn't in it. President Bush has said the right things about enforcement. He'd better mean them, or there will be hell to pay. Voters in Herndon, Va., tossed out the mayor and town council because they supported an employment center for illegals. Rep. Tom Osborne, the Cornhuskers' football coach during their glory years, was an icon in Nebraska, but lost a gubernatorial primary this month because he backed a bill providing college tuition breaks for illegals. Anger shouldn't blind us to opportunity. What to do about the 11 million to 12 million illegals already here is understandably contentious. But the key issue is how to keep more illegals from coming in. President Bush hasn't done enough to secure our borders. But he has done more than Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, his dad and Bill Clinton combined. The surprisingly large vote in the Senate Wednesday for a border fence indicates the Osborne example has raised the consciousness of even many Democrats. The political atmosphere has never been better for enactment of meaningful enforcement measures. That atmosphere is unlikely to improve if we kick this can down the road to a future, perhaps Democratic, Congress.
On immigration, conservatives need to give Bush a break
Mexico has a presidential election on July 2. The leading candidates are Felipe Calderon, a conservative, and Andres Lopez Obrador, a leftist who has the backing of Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
He needs a break all right. A real good break.
God is always good! Is this one of the most assinine articles written?? Dear gawd.. give him a break?? He fricking destroying this country with this nonsense.. There is nothing conservative about him OR congress.. He's told his base basically to shove it..
Has it ever occurred to these people that the reason communism and marxism made such big inroads in many countries was because the people were so poverty stricken and beaten down they had nothing to lose? Kind of like the Mexicans right now. I'm sure many if not most of those folks would rather stay in Mexico if they only had jobs and could keep their farms. We have only greedy and fanatical free traders to thank for the probable success of Marxism in Mexico.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Oh please, enough of this lie already! If the economy was booming you wouldn't have to tell people about it, they would know. The average American by far does not agree that the economy is booming. So the government and the talking heads are basically telling Americans they don't know the "facts", but they do know their own facts and things aren't so great or they wouldn't think the economy was doing so bad.
God is always good! I found this which I thought was interesting: http://www.theamericanresistance.com/articles/art2004jan04.html 2. Mexico is NOT a poor country. It has the fifth richest economy in the world, and by sending its teeming masses to our country, that status keeps on rising. Mexico has more resources per square mile than the U.S. and plenty of money to take care of its own people. Why should the taxpayers of this country subsidize Mexico's corruption? You are right though re the farmers..many were farmers who couldnt compete after NAFTA.. globalization which IS basically Marxism is what is destroying this country and has destroyed Mexico.. and the list is far longer of course.
Gets rather tiresome does it not?? Why should we believe ANYTHING they say?? They all are proven liars..
Sorry, but I'm not willing to destory the nation and turn it into a 3rd world hell hole in order to save some depression era re-election gimic from the scrap heap it belongs in.
"The more I see of life, the less I fear death" - Me.
I understand that is correct - Mexico has enormous natural resources and a lot of wealth, but it's concentrated in a small number of families and the vast bulk of the people have gotten poorer and poorer especially since NAFTA was passed. They're in pretty rough shape down there, that's why they're all trying to get up here. We'd have half of Mexico up here if nothing is done. Well, nothing will be done, of course. Mexico is the model for what the elites want for us.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
yep..the Ponzi scheme is headed south .. this guy's premise is so flawed..
Agreed.. the same model they want us to have .. two classes of citizens the poor and the wealthy.. sorta like royality.. a royal pain in the a**..
If only we had one honest pol who'd just come out and say Social Security is a failed experiment - a noble idea, maybe - but it just hasn't worked in the long term. We pay off our debt to the coming generation who were encouraged to rely on it and then phase it out over the next 2-3 decades. Instead we tell people to plan for their own retirement, or maybe their companies will have pension. But woe to those companies that screw over employees on their pensions. That's like stealing the widow's mite, and I think those execs should be jailed for life.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
actually this information in the article is false. One third of the money collected by the payroll tax is spent on something other than social security & medicare. The payroll tax is used today as a means to collect general revenue. If this were not so, if the law were not changed in 1986 and all of the money collected in the payroll tax were dedicated to social security & medicare, then these programs would be well-funded. after they made it legal for the government to take payroll tax revenue and spend it elsewhere in 1986 they initially took only 1% of the money collected in the first year, but every year they increased it by 1-2$. and now it is one third of the money that they take. Just think if all that money diverted had instead been invested. You should be saying if we had one honest pol who will tell us the truth as to why these programs are in financial trouble.
That's why I'd just rather see the people keep their own money, Red, and just have welfare type programs funded at the most local level possible. Some people need welfare or old age assistance, but all the feds do is end up stealing our money one way or another. These fed gov programs are just too big. Time to phase them all out and move everything back to state and local gov where at least we know where the criminals live.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
just think ... this article above is representative of the type of thinking that gets play in the media and the university too. I was impressed that the author above said that the guest worker program will help support wages. That is insane. a guest worker cannot switch jobs. he is not free to do so. The employer can pay him low if employer desires, if worker doesn't like it, they get another guy from china/pakistan/india/phillipines/bangladesh where billions of people live who are desperate for work. And this writer above thinks that making this labor pool available to be turned into indentured servants that are called guest workers will support wages. this article is insanity. and yet it is what our people are fed in the media and in the university.
A guest worker program is simply the modern-day equivalent of slavery as you say. Interestingly, the political party (Democrats) who resisted ending slavery are all in favor of granting as many guest worker passes as they can print. The Republican base, who ended slavery in the civil war, resists this. History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes quite clearly here.
Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Deportation.
Oh yeah, like Jose is going to be really happy about paying taxes to support a bunch of old selfish gringos who never grew up and couldn't be bothered to have kids. And on that note, I'd like to announce Mrs. Tauzero is expecting again.
Jack Kelly is taking his readers for fools. With this statement he is claiming our current laws against illegal aliens are not "meaningful", but somehow new, so-called "better" laws, would be. I can assure you Jack that our current laws against illegal aliens are meaningful, and if enforced would end our problem with illegal aliens once and for all. Here he wants us to give George a break when he is the very person responsible for not enforcing our current laws on illegal aliens. I guess Bush just doesn't enforce laws he doesn't like, so all of this pass a law and solve the problem business is all a big show for the citizens. Based on past experience nothing meaningful will be done, nothing meaningful at all, other than granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and their extended family members now living in Mexico. Yeah, Bush needs a break all right! America needs a break too, a break from corrupt politicians that won't do the job they took an oath to do like George W. Bush.
God is always good! Goodness.
Selfish? You have the nerve to call Americans selfish when they have given millions of illegal alien Mexicans free health care and education? You are a moron who doesn't have a clue.
God is always good! True, narcissistic fits better than selfish.
Congratulations!!!
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02] More and more of our imports come from overseas. - George W. Bush
#2. To: RickyJ (#1)
He needs a break all right. A real good break.
#3. To: Zipporah (#0)
#4. To: Zipporah (#0)
Our economy is booming...
"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02] More and more of our imports come from overseas. - George W. Bush
#5. To: mehitable (#3)
Has it ever occurred to these people that the reason communism and marxism made such big inroads in many countries was because the people were so poverty stricken and beaten down they had nothing to lose? Kind of like the Mexicans right now. I'm sure many if not most of those folks would rather stay in Mexico if they only had jobs and could keep their farms. We have only greedy and fanatical free traders to thank for the probable success of Marxism in Mexico.
#6. To: RickyJ (#4)
Oh please, enough of this lie already! If the economy was booming you wouldn't have to tell people about it, they would know. The average American by far does not agree that the economy is booming. So the government and the talking heads are basically telling Americans they don't know the "facts", but they do know their own facts and things aren't so great or they wouldn't think the economy was doing so bad.
#7. To: Zipporah (#0)
Medicare and Social Security are going broke chiefly because there aren't enough workers paying into the systems to support beneficiaries. Unless millions of new workers can be found to pay the payroll tax, the retirement of the baby boom generation will bust both programs.
#8. To: Zipporah (#5)
#9. To: Pissed Off Janitor (#7)
Sorry, but I'm not willing to destory the nation and turn it into a 3rd world hell hole in order to save some depression era re-election gimic from the scrap heap it belongs in.
#10. To: mehitable (#8)
I understand that is correct - Mexico has enormous natural resources and a lot of wealth, but it's concentrated in a small number of families and the vast bulk of the people have gotten poorer and poorer especially since NAFTA was passed. They're in pretty rough shape down there, that's why they're all trying to get up here. We'd have half of Mexico up here if nothing is done. Well, nothing will be done, of course. Mexico is the model for what the elites want for us.
#11. To: Zipporah (#9)
#12. To: mehitable (#11)
Medicare and Social Security are going broke chiefly because there aren't enough workers paying into the systems to support beneficiaries. Unless millions of new workers can be found to pay the payroll tax, the retirement of the baby boom generation will bust both programs.
#13. To: Red Jones (#12)
#14. To: RickyJ (#1)
#15. To: Red Jones (#14)
#16. To: Zipporah (#0)
Medicare and Social Security are going broke chiefly because there aren't enough workers paying into the systems to support beneficiaries. Unless millions of new workers can be found to pay the payroll tax, the retirement of the baby boom generation will bust both programs.
A short saying often contains much wisdom. -- Sophocles
It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. -- Robert Southey
#17. To: Zipporah, All (#0)
The political atmosphere has never been better for enactment of meaningful enforcement measures.
"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02] More and more of our imports come from overseas. - George W. Bush
#18. To: Zipporah (#0)
Possibly the goofiest artice I've ever read on 4.
#19. To: Tauzero (#16)
Oh yeah, like Jose is going to be really happy about paying taxes to support a bunch of old selfish gringos who never grew up and couldn't be bothered to have kids.
"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02] More and more of our imports come from overseas. - George W. Bush
#20. To: RickyJ (#19)
A short saying often contains much wisdom. -- Sophocles
It is with words as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. -- Robert Southey
#21. To: Tauzero (#16)
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