Posted on 01/08/2004 3:34:13 PM PST by kellynla
I am beginning to think John McCain actually won the presidency in 2000.
Conservatives were relieved when the Straight Talk Express petered out during the 2000 primary season. John McCain, although tough on national security and runaway spending, was hardly a conservative on major issues such as campaign finance, healthcare reform and immigration.
Yet this is exactly where we find President Bush today (except unlike McCain, Bush doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with runaway spending). Last year President George Bush signed the McCain-Feingold bill into law, which is one of the worst assaults on political speech this country has ever seen. When conservatives (and many liberals) howled, the President’s advisers whispered that they believed the Supreme Court would “clean up” the more onerous parts of the bill which dictates the types of political ads that can air before a general election or primary contest. Of course the Supreme Court rubber stamped the entire thing and so the result is less, not more political speech in the U.S.
And now President Bush charges across the landscape to rescue us from our “unfair” and “broken” immigration system by rewarding people who came here illegally with the promise of legal status. This proposal essentially mirrors the immigration legislation sponsored by—you got it—Sen. McCain. Under the Bush/McCain plan, anyone outside the U.S. who wants to come into the country would only need to show proof of a “job offer” in order to get an initial three-year work permit that would be renewable for an unspecified period. Such temporary workers could also bring family members here. What prevents these people from staying on beyond their time premitted for "temporary" work? As it stands now, there seems to be no limit on the immigration —temporary or permanent— allowed under this plan. And as for the claim that this would be a big boon to the American economy? Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $20 billion each year, in extra education, healthcare, welfare, and prison costs. Today thirty-four percent of Mexicans legally in the U.S., and 25 percent of Mexicans illegally here are welfare.
How are those costs diminished under the Bush plan?
Most bewildering is the Administration idea that this plan is necessary for homeland security reasons. On the contrary, it would not be surprising if some would-be terrorists are among the millions of illegals who will become “documented” under the Bush plan. As Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) charged, "Guest worker programs and gradual amnesty provide cover for terrorists."
It’s easy to understand why Vicente Fox, McCain, big business, and La Raza are happy this week—but what’s in this new proposal for working class American families? How about those immigrants who a lot of time and money to comply with our immigration laws?
The real answer is absolutely nothing. The only reasonable prediction is that wages for a wide range of jobs will be kept artificially depressed by outside workers—now with “legal status” will work for peanuts. “I have worked construction for 30 years as a truck driver (18-wheeler),” wrote one of my listeners, “And every year my pay has gone down because Mexicans are flooding the trucking industry…."
When Bill Clinton says we live in an “increasingly borderless world,” we’re not surprised. It’s the usual globaloney blather. But when a Republican president advocates a policy that will make our borders effectively meaningless, we should be outraged.
With his approval numbers high, President Bush has made a devil’s bargain with business and Hispanic groups. Elites from both parties are ignoring the view of a strong majority of Americans that we need to stop illegal immigration, not high-five it.
Another listener wonders: “What happened to the ‘party of principle’? More like the party of pandering. Considering the massive numbers involved, this amnesty being floated really is Pandora's Box, once opened cannot be closed.”
President Bush has now done the equivalent of posting a sign at the border: “Help Wanted for $5.15/hour.”
Conservatives are right to be disappointed in President Bush. We are right to ignore the Administration’s promise that this time, non-amnesty amnesty will be good for the American people. Our citizenship and legal residence should be reserved for people who love this country enough that breaking her laws—whether at the border or on the street—is out of the question. The next time I hear from his Administration that it is doing all it can to protect our homeland, secure our borders, and increase our standard of living, I will laugh.
Now I know the definition of “compassionate conservative:” a person who campaigns as a conservative, then sells out key conservative principles.
If I was in a long line, like back in the 1970's gas shortages line at the filling stations, and someone who had not been waiting in line got to pull ahead of others who had been waiting and got to stay there, well I'd be kind of mad.
When the first soccer mom gets nailed for hiring day labor, you're going to have a PR disaster on your hands.
People are against illegal immigration in the same way that they're in favor of motherhood and against sin. It's a generically accepted ideal.
Doing what you describe would inconvenience the American public, and that will go over about as well as a brick balloon. Generic ideals tend to fall apart when unpleasant specifics come up.
Welcome to America, where everyone wants to go to heaven, and nobody wants to buy a ticket.
So there's no problem then with using the military to secure our borders, as long as it is done in the way Congress has provided for elsewhere in the law.
Punishment should fit the crime mom pays a $100 fine. No PR disaster here. Wal-mart pays a million dollar fine. No PR diaster there either. You asked for solutions I am giving you solutions that will work.
No kidding, and, as I've heard soo many times before...
OH NOOOO! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE !
if we gotta pay an extra 10 cents for a head of lettuce.
Uh-huh. And Congress hasn't provided for doing this, and will not do so, unless you can convince them to reactivate the draft to get the needed manpower.
Oh, and you'd have to draft all women of child-bearing age, too. Not to guard the border--to produce the next generation of troops to guard the border with, and the next generation of taxpayers to pay for all of those troops.
In other words, you'll give them a lighter slap on the wrist than they get for speeding.
Which means that you'll get about the same level of legal compliance that the speed limit laws get.
And precisely how has the Congress provided for Air Force fighters to intercept commercial airliners entering our air space?
1) punish and I mean really punish employers that employ illegals
2) deny illegals social services (not emergency medical).
And you can have (and should have) an open border with Mexico.
The National Security Act of 1947. Note that there isn't a "round up illegal immigrants" clause.
I make it more expensive for her to hire an illegal then to hire a teen ager. Works every time.
She'll probably hire an illegal alien teenager--they don't usually have fifteen piercings on their face and tongue.
Yup. What a concept, government obeying the restrictions placed on it.
I'll be sure to ask for a search warrant next time the health inspector comes around the restaurant.
Those who would trade a little libery for security deserve--and shall receive--neither.
Nice try, but there's no "intercept commercial airliners" clause, either.
Actually, there is. Check out the Air Force's missions.
hahaha, you own a restaurant?
Cool, I own a bar, and I get inspected all the time. What's one more (NIS) inspection?
We don't need one million men on the border. We have technology to compensate. The aggessive use of just 200 drone planes would provide sufficient 24 hour/day recon of the entire Mexican border.
Check the American Border Patrol web site and see what they are able to accomplish in conjunction with the Border Patrol using just a few of these unmanned planes.
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