I'm hoping its a trick of some sort to stir the Rat pot right before the caucuses/primaries. Can you imagine Howard Dean spewing his opinion on this issue?
The other thing I'm hoping is that it is just a trial balloon, and will get shot down by everybody. Bush gets to say, "I tried," and blame opposition from both left and right as the reason that the status quo is still in effect.
I've been in favor of regulating "guest workers" rather than just continuing the existing system, but the details of this program really shock me. The certification that employers must provide to employ Mexicans (that no Americans would take the jobs) is so thin, you can see through it. All an employer has to do is offer jobs at seven bucks an hour, say that no Americans would take them, then get green cards for Mexicans who live 20 to a single house, to live on that wage. The same employers that would export our jobs to India would jump at that.
This makes my job of trying to convince my new wife's relatives to vote Republican even harder. Even though the Rats are against them on nearly every social issue, they still insist that "Republicans are only for the rich." How else do we explain some of the provisions of this proposed bill?