[kenavi]

Good post, people's memories tend to homogenize history.

The 1986 Tax Reform Act cut into unhealthy tax preferences, like getting depreciation tax deductions on real estate worth more than one's investment. Don't you agree it was healthy for the economy?

The Amnesty bill was likely the biggest ever (was there ever another blanket amnesty?). I believe it was done to deflate the revolutionary pressures on the Salvadorean people, where the communist insurgents were close to winning. As in Afghanistan, we paid a price to defeat the Soviet Union and its proxies.

The Salvadoreans themselves were hard-workers, but once in this country their kids got contaminated by the gang culture in the streets and schools.

[Philly Nomad]

Are you claiming that raising taxes is good for the economy(and closing loopholes is raising taxes)? You might get banished to DU by the mods for saying that. :)

McCain has had several good reasons for opposing the tax cuts and they are all traditionally conservative reasons.

I think the 1986 Amnesty was just a way to fix a broken system at the time. Not just Salvadorians, the Irish-American press was filled with stories of illegal immigrants getting screwed over by their bosses - and how the green card suddenly gave them more leverage. I’m first generation Irish American and my mom would get calls from “cousins” all the time asking for sponsorship. (I like to joke that she married my dad for the green card). For the Illegals, I think that American Pragmatism will win over conservative idealism.