Losing Private Ryan

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This is not exclusively on Congressman and erstwhile Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, but Ryan – along with Senator Marco Rubio, are the most notable examples of how elastic any politician with higher ambitions can be when they succumb to the wiles of the lobbying machinery in Washington D.C. I realize that sounds like they got swept up in a riptide which overcame their native sense of ethics and principals. I don’t believe that to be the case either.

Most politicians, and this is by observation, not my subjective conclusion – are naturally inclined to corruption to one degree or another. The intoxication of power leads elected officials to create rationalizations for disposing of previously firmly expressed convictions. In reality, however, the previously expressed convictions were not convictions at all, but instead, were merely shallow expediencies, which – once they no longer hold any value in advancing him or her to the next rung of the power ladder, are easily disposed of.

Normally, in a society where citizens are paying attention and the ‘free press’ is acting as the auditors of inconsistency – such individuals would be less inclined to contradict their own statements. For the protected class of lawmakers, who are following the same doctrinal arc that corresponds to that of the legacy media – abandoning prior positions is a relatively painless and risk-free affair.

Let’s start with Paul Ryan’s recent townhall meeting in Racine, Wisconsin, which was nothing more than a dog and pony show for residency status and eventual amnesty for the millions present in this country illegally. A small detail of this stands out as noteworthy. Racine, is a mini-Milwaukee – large per-capita minority population, high-crime, with lots of businesses employing illegals. It is a poorly kept secret that townhall meetings that are organized for the purposes of advancing a policy agenda are stage managed by congressional staffers, political handlers and coordinated with advocacy groups. This one was stacked with boosters of legalization. All the local confederates of La Raza, MECHA and their ilk, were heavily represented and those with an opposing viewpoint were curiously absent. Convenient, don’t you think?

Voces de la Frontera, is a Milwaukee based illegal support group has the ear of Congressman Ryan. It is to them he is providing assurances of amnesty. In May of this year, Ryan slipped up at a different townhall and made what was interpreted as unfavorable remarks about ‘Anchor Babies’ and immediately this group rounded up a petition with 2,700 signatures to scold him for even repeating the term. The aim of the illegal rights groups is to scrub from the language any accurate terms that describe reality, like ‘Illegal Aliens’ and ‘Anchor Babies’. Ryan capitulated – what a shock. As reported by NBC Latino, Voces de la Frontera, is also strongly opposed to the enhanced border security provisions tacked on to the Senate Bill, known as the Corker-Hoeven amendment – no surprise there. Another shock – this is the same outfit that showed up at the home of Wisconsin State Senator Cathy Stepp in the middle of the night, trespassing on her property and shouting in her windows in angry response to her vote against providing drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Some of Ryan’s comments to the element he was pandering to, included:

“Tentatively, October, we’re going to vote on these bills,” Ryan said. “We’re going to vote on a border security bill, we’re going to vote on an interior enforcement bill, like the workplace verification and the visa tracking. We’re going to vote on a legal immigration bill for visas, for agricultural workers, for skilled workers. We’re going to vote on a bill to legalize people who are undocumented.”

One thing that never ceases to amaze me, is the mindless repetition of coded phrases that proceeds from the mouths of the grand contingent of liars in Washington. They never really reset the silly and vacuous shibboleths that have been highlighted on the scripts they have all been handed by the puppetmasters. In the case of the screw job they are relentlessly trying to put over on you in the guise of ‘Immigration Reform‘, you hear repeated, little catchphrases like ‘broken immigration system’, ‘comprehensive approach’, ‘separating families’, ‘nation of immigrants’, etc. Here’s one from the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU) – you know, the Union that has such unfettered access to the White House via its president, that they all but maintain an office there? This, from their $300,000 campaign promoting ‘Immigration Reform’ legislation in Congress has just about all of the slogans wrapped up in a tidy, two sentence package:

“Our immigration system is broken and Congress has a chance to fix it the fair and accountable way, with back taxes paid, English learned and a real path to citizenship. No half measures. Let’s fix it once and for all.”

This is a bit tangential from the main topic here, I realize – but I would propose that if you had a dollar for every time you heard progressives, be they Democrats or Republicans or the echo chamber of the legacy media, repeat these hackneyed phrases – we’d accumulate enough cash to eat at Ruth Criss’ Steakhouse every week for as long as this debate continues. ‘Broken System’ = Broken Record! There’s something broken all right – our enforcement capabilities and the will to employ them. But I don’t hear any of these ‘Reform’ advocates pointing that out. The ceaseless regurgitations of the political class and the media are insulting to thinking people. But they reflect a belief that the mass electorate have been so brutally dumbed down by the government educational system, that it’s truly appropriate to communicate in this fashion. Orwell saw this coming from a long way off. Back to Paul Ryan and his cohorts. Ryan submitted his current viewpoint on immigration to the editors of the National Journal. Here are some excerpts:

RYAN – Immigrants bring talent and hard work. They started a quarter of new businesses in 2011 alone. Immigrant-owned small businesses employ about 4.7 million people. We are educating people here and not letting them stay when they could actually contribute and create businesses; instead, they go overseas and end up competing against us. We’re going to have labor shortages when the baby boomers are fully retired.

RYAN - [They] bring labor to our economy so jobs can get done. The dairy farmers in western Wisconsin are having a hard time finding anyone to help them produce their products, which are mostly cheese. If they can’t find workers, then they can’t produce, and we’ll end up importing. The flip side of the argument is: Just raise wages enough to attract people. But you raise wages too much in certain industries, then you’ll get rid of those industries, and we’ll just have to import.

RYAN – You need to be fair to the legal immigrants who did everything right, and honor them by making sure they are in the front of the line and that [undocumented] people are not given any special pathway ahead of them. That’s just fairness. You want to make sure that, for those who did not follow the rules, there are consequences to be paid. Those are guiding principles. The way we’re looking at it is, probationary visas will go to undocumented immigrants, who will be able to stay and work so long as they honor the terms of their probation, so long as the border and the interior enforcement is actually implemented.

I’m not going to address his assertions point by point, but a few things merit a response. Once again, Ryan employs the common tactic of conflating the attributes of legal immigration with illegal immigration. This is political rhetoric adopting the methodology of the illusionist.

Next, the argument that agricultural goods will wind up being uncompetitively priced as a consequence of offering American citizens wages sufficient to attract domestic labor, is a canard that has been repeated ad nauseum for years. I first heard it from a production manager I worked with at a company that supplemented its labor force with illegals. He tossed out the Red Herring of the $2.00 each head of lettuce, in response to my sentiments about immigration enforcement. I was skeptical, but intrigued to test this hypothesis. I constructed a economic model that involved paying $20.00 per hour and the entire typical entree of H.R. benefits and applied that set of costs against the time / labor factors of harvesting lettuce or cabbage. I’ve explained the precise methodology elsewhere and I’ve not been surprised to find I’m not the only one who has run the numbers. But the bottom line is that if you are an American produce farmer, you can pay $20 plus generous benefits and legitimate payroll expenses and the cost increase of that head of lettuce or cabbage? Drumroll please ……………………..ten cents max! I say max, because I was extremely liberal in my estimations of the time / labor ratio side of the equation.

So, is it really a matter of ‘jobs Americans won’t do’? Or are they in fact jobs Americans won’t do unless a fair and reasonable wage is offered. Ryan and his fellow RINO’s repeated assertions that immigration is broken because of a labor shortage is just patently false and he’s too smart a man to not know this. The Century Foundation reportedthat “labor is cheap and, on a real basis, getting cheaper,” and the U.S. already has “a surplus of domestic labor needing to take service jobs.” I contend that we could partner with industry to supply workers that are now receiving welfare benefits and transition these said welfare recipients out of the entitlement system into respectable work that will put them on track to self sufficiency and self-respect. Of that type of solution, there is little interest among Democrat and GOP party elites. The Democrats would lose their dependency slaves and the patrons of the United States Chamber of Commerce would no longer be able to exploit migrant laborers. Oh, the horrors!

Paul Ryan hasn’t always positioned himself as pro-amnesty. Suzy Khimm of the Washington Post observed during the past Presidential campaign cycle:

“Along with many other Republicans, Paul Ryan has adopted a firm anti-amnesty, enforcement-first stance on immigration in recent years. But Ryan hasn’t always held such a hard line: In the past, he has supported multiple bills that would have allowed some illegal immigrants to apply for temporary guest-worker status — including one bill that would have provided a pathway to a green card for certain illegal immigrant farm workers.

Outside of guest farm workers, however, Ryan has largely taken a more aggressive stance. In late 2005, Ryan also voted for Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s highly controversial bill that would have made illegal presence a criminal act (it’s currently a civil offense) and turn smuggling and illegal entry offenses into aggravated felonies. In both the Bush and Obama years, he also repeatedly supported efforts to ramp up border security.

Ryan has since turned against any pathway toward permanent legal status. He still wants to expand visas for temporary and seasonal workers, citing his home state Wisconsin’s reliance on such labor for agricultural work.

But he says that he opposes visas that “would have allowed an illegal immigrant to stay in America indefinitely,” he says on his congressional Web site. “They serve the same purpose as acquiring a green card, without having to leave the country or waiting at the end of the line. In my opinion, this approach amounts to amnesty.”

Here then, we encounter yet again, the politico – the souless career politician without any firm convictions who constantly trims the sails to leverage what he suspects are the prevailing winds. You can’t always eliminate these people, but you can exert eternal vigilance and confront them at every turn. This is important, because what they tell you and what they tell the interest groups are mostly two diametrically opposed versions of reality. McCain gratuitously declares that amnesty opponents should be satisfied that the Senate bill puts 20,000 Border Patrol agents on the border, but the Washington Examiner reported that

“McCain is signaling that…the 20,000 additional border agents, will probably be scrapped in conference. Calls to the offices of Republicans who committed to S. 744 after the Corker-Hoeven amendment was added, were not returned.”

I detailed in ‘Washington Whispers‘, how the big guns in the business community are now engaged in a full court press effort behind the scenes to coerce and cajole Republican lawmakers into giving them more cheap labor and that they won’t be hiring the legalized workers. The Democrats will get them. The employers will sweep up the next wave of hopeful border crossers, who will start at the bottom of the already debased wage scale for unskilled labor.

Kenneth Palinkas, the union chief for the 12,000 immigration officers at USCIS – the National Border Patrol Council, understands that essentially all the enforcement provisions will be redlined and only free tickets to legal status will be handed out. Mr. Palinkas -

“warned House Republicans that even flirting with a limited legalization such as just granting citizenship rights to so-called Dream Act immigrants could lead to problems. I cannot stress enough how ill-equipped USCIS is to engage in the sort of far-reaching plans before Congress right now — including both the enormous legalization programs proposed as well as the historic increases in both immigrant and non-immigrant visas…. “….I would therefore urge all House lawmakers not to conference with the dangerous Senate bill that will produce a totally deficient comprehensive proposal, but instead to work with USCIS adjudicators to produce responsible reforms that enhance the integrity and security of our immigration system.”

We’d better take this extremely seriously. The opposition is bringing their A-game. Carolyn Lochhead of Hearst’s Washington Bureau reports:

Carl Guardino, head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, came away from a meeting with House GOP whip Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield a few moments ago on Friday saying he “would bet on” comprehensive immigration reform getting to passage this year. “Kevin is a long-time personal friend,” Guardino said of McCarthy. “We just met one-on-one and I firmly believe, without breaking confidences, that we are going to see deliberative and thoughtful action in the House when they reconvene in September and October. I would bet on it,”

Thus the key to your activism efforts against legalization during the August recess – firmly tell your House Representative, “NO new immigration bill – enforce the laws on the books!”

Rubio supposedly got some $3 million from donors after the Senate bill passed.

Ryan is probably hoping for a similar payoff.

They are more interested in representing the concerns of big business than their home constituents. They just ignore that portion of their Oath about defending The Constitution.

To quote Judge Judy: “Follow the money.”

I would trust a used car salesman in a cheap suit before I would trust a scumbag politician. Only politicians could take a thriving country and bankrupt it. The worst thing is the corrupt assholes aren't finished killing us with their bright ideas.

Paul Ryan was never good on immigration. He has been a Jack Kemp fan.

Rubio got caught early when he attacked Arizona’s immigration law. At best Rubio said Florida didn’t need it but Arizona did. Rubio stopped enforcement bills in Florida. He wouldnt even let parts of the law like everify pass.

I dont think Rand Paul was never strong on immigration. He just signed up when it was part of the 2010 midterms.

Two words can describe Ryan and Rubio: Fools and Traitors. Bob

Unless their goal in life is to become the living embodiment of conservatism, I don't see how they're fools. My feeling is that their actual goal is to become much bigger players in politics, or make large personal fortunes for themselves. And in so doing, they are prepared to make fools of large numbers of their supporters. The question is whether those supporters are prepared to evict them from their seats. Ultimately Rubio and Ryan need to be primaried, and if necessary, voted against. If they win the primary, but lose the election, that will make clear to other GOP pols that being pro-amnesty will lose them elections even if they win the primary. If a pro-amnesty GOP pol cannot be primaried, vote for the Democrat after he wins the primary.

U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 4:

"The United States shall guarantee to every state in the union a republican form of government,

AND SHALL PROTECT EACH OF THEM AGAINST INVASION."

Yes it is true all politicians be they Local, State or National are venal, foul and corrupt. One can hardly stand to see their foul faces and hear their hypocritical mouthing. Aside from the fact we elect them, hence are partially responsible, we have yet to consider an interesting point of political philosophy. The issue being: is the politician's venality, foulness and corruption learned behavior or inherent(meaning in their very being, their very nature, their essence to use older terminology.)? Inquiring minds want to know.

George III really screwed up. He sent an army to subdue some uppity colonials. He should have just moved a couple million Hessians or Spaniards in to outnumber them instead.

formally. i am so effing done with paul ryan. forever. enormous disappointment. unforgivable he’s sold out on shamnesty.

_________________________

I championed him here,and it was a big mistake.

i gave him another chance after he voted for the first stimulus.

i used a half measure, when a full measure was due.

no more half measures. /breaking bad /sam

Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, John Roberts.

Not long ago I would have described all three as among our best and brightest. Wrong.

Good point, Zhang Fei. Indeed, both played conservatives as fools, and I admired both of them. They won’t BS me again. Bob

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