Posted on 06/17/2012 6:29:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I asked the same question in an update to Erika’s post on Barack Obama's unilateral move to accommodate young illegal immigrants by refusing to deport them and issue them temporary work permits instead. With potentially as many as 800,000 new workers flooding into the system, what happens to the millions of Americans who can't find work now? The Washington Post wonders the same thing, and more:
President Obama has just opened a floodgate of opportunity for young illegal immigrants in the United States, but could it squeeze the aspirations of legal Americans in the process? ...
Under the new policy, as many as 1.4 million undocumented immigrants under age 30 will be able to apply for the amnesty, allowing them to work and attend college legally. To be eligible, they must have been in the United States for five years, have no criminal record, and attend high school or college or be a military veteran.
The policy does not provide permanent legal residency, but it protects those who qualify from being deported and gives them a chance to renew their new status every two years. It also does not grant any public benefits, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Federal law already grants all undocumented immigrants the right to a public-school education and emergency hospital care.
The new policy could entail additional costs for administration and enforcement, however, and put pressure on state systems of higher education to meet growing demand for slots.
A move like this might have made sense in 2005-6, when the civilian participation rate in the workforce was near its all-time high (around 66.2% at that time), with unemployment in the 5% range, and labor so tight that hourly wages on entry level positions were constantly rising. American businesses would have welcomed a larger pool of legal workers and the competition wouldn’t have put others out of work or forced them to work for significantly less money. People would have opposed it for other reasons, but economically speaking, it wouldn’t have had a tremendously negative impact, at least not in the short term.
But now? We’re not creating enough jobs to keep up with population growth as it is. With this new policy in place, Obama will introduce hundreds of thousands of suddenly-eligible workers into an economy with an 8.2% nominal unemployment rate, a 14.8% U-6 un/underemployed rate, with a civilian participation rate that has plummeted from 65.7% at the start of the Obama recovery in June 2009 (the same as it was when he took office, too) to 63.8%, lower than it was when Reagan faced his first midterm election. Those who are already struggling to find jobs are not only going to face more competition for those slots, the glut of labor will depress entry-level wages even further.
Don’t make the mistake of dismissing the short-term benefits of this move for Barack Obama. When a chief executive “takes the bull by the horns” and acts in a strong manner, he will usually get rewarded with a bump upward in approval and support. Americans like to see leaders lead, which is the reason incumbent Presidents have such an advantage in re-election efforts. It’s also no secret that the Latino community had grown angry with the increased rate of deportations in the Obama administration, and this will heal a breach that Obama can’t afford in November. But this has a large potential for backfire — and if jobs reports this summer continue the downward trend we’ve been seeing this year, those 23 million Americans who already feel locked out of the economy will be asking the same question the Post does this morning.
I don’t think this will affect the job market that much. Those people are probably already working because of the other laws the government refuses to enforce.
Will this additional 800,000 now be counted in the Jobless Claims?
I chanced on CNN about a week ago. The gravelly voice of Bob Woodward got my attention. Curiously enough the date of the break-in to Watergate was June 17,1972 (Hope I got it right). For years, when there was a scandal in politics, the two men got a rerun of their "intrepid" reporting.
What got to me was the bad mouthing of the late President Nixon by Woodward. Woodward went on, without details, of the crimes of Richard Nixon, far, far worse than is known, said Woodward. I would echo the classic liberal mouthing at an famous hearing vis: "Have you no shame?" to Woodward.
Rest in peace Mr President.
Both of these lucky hacks stumbled on something the media and liberals were aching to monopolize.
Berstein has been largely absent from the post kangaroo lynching, but Woodward (slo-mo I call him because of his halting speech obviously symptomatic of a dimwitted mind).
Despite media’s concocted history of them, neither were, or are, anything special despite the accolades bestowed on them (do we remember Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize?)
If it weren’t for Hollywood’s hatred of America and the screen portrayals of them by Hoffman and Redford, they would likely be working for the Enquirer now. (Sorry, Enquirer, you really deserve better even if the Silk Pony is gonna walk on his cheating on his dying wife). I digress, but Nuclear (you hear me Kennedys and Carter? I said effing NOO-CLEE-ARE, you morons) would also have fared better had it not been for that b!tch Jane Fonda and the China Syndrome.....
Regardless, the liberal media won’t ever (I’m hopefull they’ll all die off sometime soon or their professors that teach this sh!t develop Alzheimers or something) stop with this Watergate crap, nor will it stop with the Kennedy Camelot dynasty - unless they try to replace it with the Obama Dynasty......
Hell, I’m so p!ssed off right now I can’t stop - but I will.
I don't agree.
Many of the large states are already openly communist due to universal suffrage, ensuring that no solution will ever be forthcoming from Congress, the Federal Judiciary, or the WH, as has been painfully obvious since the 17th amendment was adopted.
Nothing but bigger Federal Government and more Federal apparatchiks at the expense of ever increasing amounts of money extorted from working people.
The collapse is inevitable.
Doesn't mean there will be a shooting civil war though, the communist states don't have the power to raise armies, and will be too busy looting their own to pose a threat to the non communist states.
I envision a Provisional military government for six months , all incumbents fired from all three branches of government, then new elections with only taxpayers and veterans enfranchised.
The Federal capital to be rotated amongst the States (and not all states are necessarily going to be admitted), and term limits.
Unless the terrorists do us a favor and nuke DC first, but I doubt they would be that stupid, recognizing that the threat of the federal bureaucracy to productive US citizens makes the threat posed by the muhammadans pale in comparison.
All of this nonsense about there being a difference whether a foreign communist from Kenya or a mormon cultist grandson of polygamist refugees from Mexico occupies the White House is absurd.
Jobs? Who cares whether they work or not? Obama just wants them to vote. Then they can bloody well evaporate for all he cares.
Thanks for the well thought out reply. I heard this somewhere once.
When you are on a roll, you are on a roll.
Or words to that effect.
Anyone can pay taxes. I’d much rather just have a random drawing ~
And yet there are people who still insist BO must be a natural-born citizen (even if the bastard son of some American communist) who meets Article II requirements.
This man is a textbook example of what the Founders warned against.
This is why there are two watertight doors on a submarine.
Born on U.S. soil of U.S. citizen parents = puts Americans first. Not foreigners.
What you guys fail to understand is that the federal personal income tax is NOT the source of all tax dollars ~ it's just one of many, and not only that it was sold to the American people by Progressive Republicans as something that would never affect more than the top 1% or 2% of wage earners.
The fact that it attacks 50% give or take a few, is a CRIME!
The federal personal income tax has failed. It should be abolished!
Look at it this way, it's just another useless federal program long past its expire date.
re: “The collapse is inevitable.”
That may be but where I disagree with you is the outcome. I think another civil war is much more likely to be like the French Revolution - bloody, brutal, atrocities, and anarchy.
Once the shooting starts there is no telling where it will end up politically.
I hope you would be correct, I just don’t have that much faith in humanity once open war breaks out.
The success of the American Revolution was near miraculous. The integrity of the leadership, the last minute help from the French, and defeating the British at Saratoga and Yorktown, plus catching them napping at Trenton - we accomplished the impossible.
We defeated the super power of the day - I truely believe that it had to be with God’s help. Not because we were so righteous, but the principles upon which we were founding our nation were.
I don’t see our people being that wise or acting with as much personal integrety today.
BUMP for later read
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