Posted on 11/14/2004 11:08:06 PM PST by goldstategop
It didn't take long for President Bush to betray those who returned him to office for another four years.
The first big insult to his base came this week when he moved to resurrect his ugly plan to relax rules against illegal immigration – as if they weren't relaxed enough.
Bush reportedly met privately in the Oval Office with Sen. John McCain to discuss re-igniting his badly misguided initiative to grant legal status to millions of immigrants who broke the law to enter the United States.
McCain is one of the Senate's most outspoken supporters of expanding guest-worker programs and has introduced his own bill to offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants – in other words, another amnesty program like those that have failed so badly in the past. It's time for the American people to rise up, once again, and denounce this plan as vociferously as possible – not just to defeat it, but to put a stake through its heart once and for all.
The leader in Congress on this issue is Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who characterized Bush's plan for what it is:
An amnesty by any other name is still an amnesty, regardless of what the White House wants to call it. Their amnesty plan was dead on arrival when they sent it to the Congress in January, and if they send the same pig with lipstick back to Congress next January, it will suffer the same fate.
Let's hope he is right. But, more importantly, let's be sure he is right by lending him the nationwide support he needs to ensure defeat of this dangerous proposal.
Why dangerous? Because this nation is at war. It is an unconventional war waged by monsters who have in the past used our lax immigration policies to attack us here at home – and they are certain to do so again.
As astonishing as it is to believe, U.S. borders actually became more porous following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks and the incorporation of immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.
It should surprise no one that illegal immigration into the U.S. has accelerated in the last year, since Bush proposed a temporary worker program that amounts to a limited amnesty program that would allow millions to remain in the U.S. legally.
In the coming 12 months, some 3 million more illegal aliens will enter the country – "enough to fill 22,000 Boeing 737-700 airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year." According to Time magazine, this year's influx of illegal aliens is the largest wave since 2001, and illegal immigration now represents triple the number of immigrants who enter the country legally.
While new security procedures guard our airports from illegal entry, thousands of aliens walk across or drive across the Mexican border with impunity every day.
The illegal immigrants include a growing number of people categorized as "other than Mexicans," including many from nations with populations hostile to the United States – Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran and Iraq.
Americans overwhelmingly want to crack down on illegal immigration, but the government elite don't seem to want to fix the problem. Even those caught violating the border multiple times are not punished, according to the report.
Besides the security nightmare this invasion creates, illegal immigration is driving up the cost of living for American citizens and making our communities less safe.
Why does this trend continue without any real national debate? Why are our laws ignored not only by the criminal invaders but by our elected officials? Why do both political parties pretend there is no problem?
The response from the American people should be this:
Let's try enforcing the old laws before we pass any new ones.
Let's try beefing up the Border Patrol.
Let's try pressuring the companies hiring these illegal aliens to hire legal Americans.
Let's try denying taxpayer-supported social services to lawbreakers.
Let's try deportations.
Let's try enforcing criminal laws against illegal aliens just as we prosecute American citizens.
Let's encourage states and local governments to cooperate with immigration to uproot the illegals – especially those who continue to break the law.
Let's try putting the National Guard at our borders.
Let's try bringing home more than 100,000 American troops currently guarding Germany from some unknown threat and place those troops where they can make a difference – protecting America from an ongoing invasion.
Maybe the president, living in his ivory tower, doesn't realize the effects this national plague is having on ordinary Americans. It's about time he heard from us.
You said that, I didn't.
"As for a wage increase for the lowest ten percent of jobs"
In order to quit being a liberal, first you must stop sounding like one.
You raise the wages of the bottom, all wages abpve them go up exponentially.
Then prices go up.
Now, answer the question...how much would we have to pay you to pick tomatoes?
Answer the question.
If I wanted to say that, I would have said that, but I didn't, so your whole "if I understand your thinking" bit is just so much crap; not only do you not understand my thinking one bit, but now you're making up crap out of whole cloth and attributing it to me.
Now, quit talking for Republicans, Americans, conservatives, and me, and just answer the very simple question posed to you:
What hourly pay would you require to take a job picking tomatoes in a field?
You can talk about the mythical $10 tomato all you like. Everyone here knows we aren't talking about seasonal agricultural workers that would return home with their pay when their work cycle is done.
It's about tens of millions of Illegals overtaxing every public program and sending blue collar wages through the floor.
the economy is not going to be crushed, because if there is an exodus of illegals, it will be in waves, like their arrival. Anyone with a head on their shoulders doesn't even mull over your foolish hypothetical.
Another guy putting words in my mouth.
If I wanted to talk about a $10 tomato, I weould have friggin' talked about a $10 tomato...but I didn't, did I?
Why won't any of you guys talk about what I'm talking about instead of what you claim I'm talking about?
How much would you demand in wages to pick tomatoes for a living?
What do you think will happen to the US housing market if we throw all illegals out of the country?
So I say it sounds like a good start.
Our economy does not need illegals.
Those who support illegal immigration have their work cut out for them convincing everyone of the necessity of illegal aliens because believe it or not, there are still a lots of areas left in the country where they haven't taken over yet. And guess what, all the work is getting done, including factory, construction, landscaping, meatpacking, service industry, and farming.
Illegals may work hard but their presence is not needed. If they all left tomorrow the US of A would go right on living.
Who said anything about need?
Plain fact...
You can't remove them without having someone available to IMMEDIATELY replace them, which means that the replacement workers better be in the country, trained, and ready to take up the tools and work the moment you throw the illegal workers out.
Houses need to be delivered on time, crops need to be picked on time, hotels and restaurants need to function...they can't stop.
The legal workers need to be IN THE COUNTRY and ready to go BEFORE we go about rounding up the illegal ones.
That's just insane.
Flame away, but Bush's plan is the only viable, workable alternative.
One last thing...check out the worker replacement ratio in the country lately. The baby boomers are leaving the workforce at an increasing rate, and drawing SS dollars as they go. We don't have enough workers to replace them and maintain the same worker to retiree ratio that we had in 1980, or 1990 for that matter.
Why is that important?
Because it's the people working and paying into the SS fund who are funding the payments to the retirees.
Here's a scary fact...and it IS a fact.
We can let the entire working age of Mexico into the US by the year 2030, and it won't be enough to maintain the same worker to retiree ratio that we had in 1990.
Well, the business community's addiction to illegals needs to be curtailed. It's the costliest thing for our society, both in human terms (crime, out of wedlock births, educational mediocrity) and in financial terms.
The process would be done gradually and it could be done. How in the hell did all these things get done prior to the great influx of illegals (in the last 30 years)?
With reagards to agriculture, we need to truly force the issue of mechanization : that's the real answer. For example, in 1960 it took about 45, 000 farmworkers to harvest 2.2 million tons of tomatoes. By 1999, thanks to advancements in farm mechanization, it took only about 4,000 to 5, 000 farmworkers to operate machines that harvested over 12 million tons of tomatoes. Advancements in farm mechanization have been going at a snail's pace because of the political pressure from all the different (farm) labor unions that want to protect their jobs.
As for social security, we definately need to stop the illegal influx and daisy chain immigration. Social Security would be better off with a lot more legal immigrants with better education and skills (than the illegals). They would be less likely to need government programs and would pay more money into to S.S. fund.
And those are plain facts.
How did we get things done thirty years ago?
Thirty years ago there was a guest worker program.
By the way...would be better off sounds great, but it does not address reality.
But that was basically for agricultural related services. Back in say, 1973 for example, the lion's share of custodians were still people that were native born or people that had spent most of their lives here (legal immgrants) not illegals. Same thing is true for fast food jobs, construction jobs, etc. You should know that Luis.
Oh, my proposal for less illegals and more skilled legal immigrants does address reality ; if you truly do want to put more money into the S.S. system.
A proposal includes a plan to make the proposal a reality. Bush has a plan which deals with the reality of the situation.
Today people want to do two things:
Right there your plan fails because it requires an increase in the number of legal immigrants entering the nation..and we still need to replace workers should we get rid of them.
There are roughly 8.5 million unemployed Americans today, 5.6% unemployment rate, and well over ten million illegal immigrants in our workforce. I can guarantee you that not one single unemployed IT person out there will take a job picking tomatoes, or cleaning hotel rooms.
We need to deal with the reality of ten plus million people who are already integrated into our workforce, and the need for a substantial increase in the numbers of workers that will not be provided from within our own population.
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