Your tax dollars at work
On Monday of this week, the Democrats demanded -- with the leadership of possibly the only real hawk left in their party, John McCain -- wait, have I gotten that wrong? You say he’s running for President on the Republican ticket? What exactly was in your tea, again? The man who has made more deals with Teddy Kennedy than any other mortal, the man who helped draft an act which has been proven to undermine the First Amendment (BCRA) is a Republican? Pull my other leg, now.
As I was saying, political paratrooper McCain and his tap-dancing Democrats attempted to push through an unread, and mostly unreadable, draft of a bill purported to reform our nation’s immigration policies and practices. They had demanded a cloture vote (a call for setting the vote on the bill as it stands, allowing for no more debate) for this past Monday evening, and they were expecting to have everybody vote on the actual article this Friday. Now, I don’t know about anybody else, but even with my currently moderate schedule, I have a hard time polishing off a 200-page speed-readable trashy novel in a week. I can’t imagine an insanely busy congresscritter having the time or attention span to consume 1,000 pages of crucial yet dull information, then make a rational judgment on its worth to this nation, in the span of five days. Granted, they have full-time staffs to do the bulk of the research, but it’s probably still too much to ask of most of our elected officials, that they inform themselves on so important a topic in such a short period.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Enough noise had been made among the constituents that, the last I heard, the cloture vote was pushed back a few weeks, by which time they hope many of us will have forgotten the rudiments of the bill.
Those rudiments, by the way, are somewhat intriguing, if not outright rude rudiments. For example, there was, in one early draft, a requirement for those who would seek legal immigrant status to declare and pay all back taxes. Dubya, that dirty dog Democrat in the White House, said it would place undue hardship for these people to do their homework like regular citizens, so we should include tax forgiveness for illegal immigrants.
Oh, wait. President Bush was elected on the Republican ticket, wasn’t he? But, aren’t the Republicans the guys who want to stick it to the little guy? So why was the little foreign guy getting pardoned by the Republican president, while the rest of the citizen-taxpayer little guys get stiffed? What’s wrong with this picture? Or, should the better question be, “what isn’t wrong with this picture?”
There is some good in the bill, though. For example, somebody remembered to include the building of a fence or two, arrangements for employers to be able to do background checks on prospective hires, enforcement for those same employers who become scofflaws, and limits to how many family members can be “grandfathered” into the country on a single person’s paperwork.
On the other hand, it offers nothing toward making it easier for legal immigrants to upgrade their status, it does nothing to encourage current foreign businessmen (or women) to increase their investment in our joint future, and, most importantly, it includes no recognition that a porous border (either north or south) is not merely a sovereignty issue but, with the presence of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Central and South America, and similar groups’ members passing through Canadian points of entry, it’s a serious national security risk. The people we’re supposed to depend upon for our future have made it very clear that our safety is not their concern.
The word is out. Our elected “leaders” are determined to force us to accept that we are unsecured second-class citizens in our own country, and the first-class seats are reserved for illegal immigrants and foreign nationals -- and the assorted elected officials like William “frozen assets” Jefferson, John “Abscam” Murtha, and Nancy “despot hugger” Pelosi who adore them so. Respect for the rule of law is for us, not for them. Apparently, the plan is to “drain the swamp” using illegal immigrant labor, and dump the sludge on the rest of us.
The 2008 elections can’t come soon enough.
Recommended reading:
The immigration bill -- annotated
Thomas Sowell: The Amnesty Fraud.
Michelle Malkin: The comprehensive open-borders goodie bag.
RedState: Response to White House Myth/Fact on Immigration Bill.
Lileks' Bleat -- funny and yet not so funny.
As I was saying, political paratrooper McCain and his tap-dancing Democrats attempted to push through an unread, and mostly unreadable, draft of a bill purported to reform our nation’s immigration policies and practices. They had demanded a cloture vote (a call for setting the vote on the bill as it stands, allowing for no more debate) for this past Monday evening, and they were expecting to have everybody vote on the actual article this Friday. Now, I don’t know about anybody else, but even with my currently moderate schedule, I have a hard time polishing off a 200-page speed-readable trashy novel in a week. I can’t imagine an insanely busy congresscritter having the time or attention span to consume 1,000 pages of crucial yet dull information, then make a rational judgment on its worth to this nation, in the span of five days. Granted, they have full-time staffs to do the bulk of the research, but it’s probably still too much to ask of most of our elected officials, that they inform themselves on so important a topic in such a short period.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Enough noise had been made among the constituents that, the last I heard, the cloture vote was pushed back a few weeks, by which time they hope many of us will have forgotten the rudiments of the bill.
Those rudiments, by the way, are somewhat intriguing, if not outright rude rudiments. For example, there was, in one early draft, a requirement for those who would seek legal immigrant status to declare and pay all back taxes. Dubya, that dirty dog Democrat in the White House, said it would place undue hardship for these people to do their homework like regular citizens, so we should include tax forgiveness for illegal immigrants.
Oh, wait. President Bush was elected on the Republican ticket, wasn’t he? But, aren’t the Republicans the guys who want to stick it to the little guy? So why was the little foreign guy getting pardoned by the Republican president, while the rest of the citizen-taxpayer little guys get stiffed? What’s wrong with this picture? Or, should the better question be, “what isn’t wrong with this picture?”
There is some good in the bill, though. For example, somebody remembered to include the building of a fence or two, arrangements for employers to be able to do background checks on prospective hires, enforcement for those same employers who become scofflaws, and limits to how many family members can be “grandfathered” into the country on a single person’s paperwork.
On the other hand, it offers nothing toward making it easier for legal immigrants to upgrade their status, it does nothing to encourage current foreign businessmen (or women) to increase their investment in our joint future, and, most importantly, it includes no recognition that a porous border (either north or south) is not merely a sovereignty issue but, with the presence of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Central and South America, and similar groups’ members passing through Canadian points of entry, it’s a serious national security risk. The people we’re supposed to depend upon for our future have made it very clear that our safety is not their concern.
The word is out. Our elected “leaders” are determined to force us to accept that we are unsecured second-class citizens in our own country, and the first-class seats are reserved for illegal immigrants and foreign nationals -- and the assorted elected officials like William “frozen assets” Jefferson, John “Abscam” Murtha, and Nancy “despot hugger” Pelosi who adore them so. Respect for the rule of law is for us, not for them. Apparently, the plan is to “drain the swamp” using illegal immigrant labor, and dump the sludge on the rest of us.
The 2008 elections can’t come soon enough.
Recommended reading:
The immigration bill -- annotated
Thomas Sowell: The Amnesty Fraud.
Michelle Malkin: The comprehensive open-borders goodie bag.
RedState: Response to White House Myth/Fact on Immigration Bill.
Lileks' Bleat -- funny and yet not so funny.
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