Posted on 06/16/2007 5:19:45 PM PDT by hardback
PROVIDENCE Immigration reform was to be George W. Bushs legacy. Its now clear that he wont have a legacy to stand on.
The presidents visit to the Capitol was supposed to restart the immigration grand bargain, currently in a mid-air stall. As is his habit, he painted scary scenarios if things dont go his way. (Note how he lists the dire consequences of pulling out of the mess he created in Iraq.) On immigration, he warns that the status quo is unacceptable.
And we can thank him for that unacceptable status quo. As Americas chief executive, it was Bushs duty to enforce the laws against hiring illegal immigrants.
And for seven years, he did next to nothing. No, he did worse than nothing. In 2004, he publicly vowed to match any willing worker with any willing employer, thus ending the tradition that stressed the interests of American labor in making immigration policy. The message was heard as intended, setting off a new surge of illegal entrants.
One recalls the famous line in the movie Touch of Evil, when Orson Welles, a corrupt U.S. cop, asks Marlene Dietrich, a fortune-telling madam in Tijuana, to read his future. You havent got any, she says ominously. Your future is all used up.
The same can be said of Bushs future as a leader on immigration reform. The presidents credibility is all used up by his conscious strategy to neglect immigration enforcement part of a shameful drive to cheapen American labor for the advantage of business.
Bush also pulled a bait-and-switch. He always spoke of amnesty as something that would be extended to illegal aliens whove been here a long time and paid their back taxes. But the bill he supports gives amnesty to people who crashed the border as recently as six months ago, and it drops the part about back taxes.
So, small wonder that Americans greet Bushs views on the immigration bill with either hostility or utter indifference. They sense that the fix is in that illegal-alien advocates and big business have combined with lawmakers to sell them out.
And they dont want to fall for a repeat of the 1986 grand bargain, which promised amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in return for fines against employers who hire them. The amnesty came off, while the employer sanctions were sabotaged. The original proposal called for a computerized registry against which employers would have to verify the right of all job applicants to work in the United States. It was ditched and replaced with an honor system that let employers accept documents that looked OK to them. Thus, a new era of counterfeiting was born.
Heres a simple idea to build public support for an immigration compromise: Have Congress pass the part of the bill that would force employers to check all new hires eligibility to work in the United States with a database (and fine those who dont). Once thats being done to the publics satisfaction, we can discuss what to do about the illegal immigrants living here and whether to increase the number of legal visas.
The latest round of threats has it that if Congress doesnt pass comprehensive immigration reform right away, the issue will get lost in the upcoming presidential campaigns. Wrong. On the contrary, the American people will have the opportunity to press the candidates on what they would do about a matter that affects their wages, health care, taxes and the environment.
There are worse things than the status quo. Bush has shown time and again that he knows how to create them. Now, if he would only just go away.
n Froma Harrop is a member of the Providence (R.I.) Journal editorial board and a Creators Syndicate colum
Bush (and 86% of Democrat senators who voted for Amnesty last week) want to pardon 20 million illegal aliens which include gang members, felons, child molesters, fraud perpetrators, drug runners, smugglers etc.....but wont pardon a handful of border patrol agents and law enforcement officials or Libby.
He has no intention of enforcing the borders, legislation or not. He is in hock to the liberals. If Stevens were to leave the court, he might nominate a Democrat to spite us.
You think 86% are totally against their base?
Liberals/Democrats are playing a game of good cop - bad cop, letting the Republicans ( Bush) be the bad cop and them pretending to be the good cop . Liberals/Democrats are multicultarists, they are economic socialists and so favor importing a poverty class, and they know they will get 200 million new democrat voters (20 million illegals and their family members they bring from the 3rd world) if this Amnesty bill passes. The media reporters are the most rabid, fanatical of liberals. That's the reason liberals go into journalism, to change the world to conform to their agenda of socialism, multiculturalism ( cultural Marxism).
I don't see a huge backlash against the 86% of the Democrat senators who voted for Amnesty from Democrat voters like I see from Republican voters against Bush.
So we've come to the point where conservatives are bashing The GOP and praising liberal reporters for wanting to do what's right for America? The day I see a a liberal do that is when pigs fly.
Also after Amnesty those 20 million illegals will join unions.
Unions are for this Amnesty bill and so are a coalition of hundreds of liberal groups which lobbied congress ,including "LA Raza" which had veto power over ammendments and many of these lobbyists sat in on meetings to craft this bill.
Corporations don't want Amnesty. then they will have to pay taxes on these employees and pay them higher wages.
So up is down here. We have everyone blaming the GOP and corporations for this Amnesty bill while giving unions and Democrats a pass.Sure Bush is wrong but he is not the whole GOP. Right now they are bribing and threatening the Republican Senators who voted to kill this bill to change their vote. I doubt they will vote to kill the bill again since all they got was bashing for doing the right thing last week and killing the bill (86% of Republican senators voted to kill the bill)
Nothing has been said about the increased property taxes we are going to have to pay for new schools, teachers, cops, jails etc. or the strain on our already over burdened not for profit hospitals, that will be needed when they bring their millions of ‘extended families into the USA.
People are unable to distinguish GWB from Republicans in Congress. They don’t understand the differences like you do.
To everyone,....when you call your senators and congressmen, please be aware that they use Washington-speak. They will say they are against AMNESTY. Make them define amnesty. It may well not be the same as yours (that meaning, not the one normal people use as a working definition all over the world.) They are mostly liars and deceivers and, like Trent Lott, do not want any sort of participation from the plebians. Call every one of the people on exactly what they mean when answering your questions.
Somewhere way back in the files of FR is a photograph of Bush shooting the finger. I realize that was the “Political capital” which he is ‘spending’ on his base. That is his message to the base.
am·nes·ty noun 1. a general pardon for offenses, esp. political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.
2. Law. an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.
3. a forgetting or overlooking of any past offense. verb (used with object) 4. to grant amnesty to; pardon.
You are forgetting the Tax Amnesty portion. From what I can tell the Corporations won't have to withhold or be responsible for back taxes or taxes of the Z status workers while they are working here. This will simply open the flood gates and the corporations will now have legal workers that they don't have to withhold taxes on.
The big problem is not the 20 million that are already here. It is the 100 million coming when this bill gets passed.
Call me a conspiracist but this is all about the New World Order driven by international bankers. The vehicle these bankers are having Bush railroad through is the North American Union (NAU) with regional foreign policy and commerce set by CAFTA.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is a clearing for laying the foundation of the NAU.
The ultimate goal is control of world banking and commerce. World Government will follow once the regional integration and trade agreements are established.
The seeming conspiracy that I espouse is that Bush is controlled by bankers. He is their puppet. I believe very sincerely that I am correct.
Even though it appears ominous that Bush is a puppet to bankers, we still have parts of Congress to counter Bush’s moves.
But we sorely need to wake up to what is really going on in the world today. Because once enough of us are aware, our numbers will cause those that plot our futures without our approval to take us seriously.
You can get a great overview from a film that connects all the dots. If you have a high speed internet connection you can watch the film here (~1.5 hours):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173
Stampeding the herd is an old Texas tradition
Even a few Connecticut Yankees have learned how to do it
“It’s the Subversive UnAmerican Latino organization lobbyists that have more “clout” with our President than ‘We The People’ do.
I never thought I’d see this happen.
sw
NONE of us did!!
Not this evil, or this all encompassing.
“We have been trying to warn people about the globalist designs of George Soros — yet “our” George W. Bush is threatening to become even more harmful to America and the world”
Absolutely incredible!!!!
“..which include gang members, felons, child molesters, fraud perpetrators, drug runners, smugglers etc.....
And dont forget the many jihadists who have sneaked across the border during that time.”
Ya know, Bush needs to ram this evil bill down our throats quickly.....before all the terrorists who snuck across the Mexican border attack America!
Pledge taken
Yeah : )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.