I can't decide if the senate is full of retards or just plain evil. Maybe both, if they think they can so blatantly ignore the will of the American people by passing a bill that would give amnesty for illegal aliens. I like how the Washington Times leads the story anyway:
The Senate yesterday easily approved an immigration bill that allows 10 million illegal aliens to become citizens, doubles the flow of legal immigration each year and will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $54 billion over the next 10 years.The leaders of both parties hailed the 62-36 passage as a historic success.
Majority Leader Bill Frist said the vote represented the "very best" of the Senate.
I don't doubt that, Mr. Frist, but why go out of your way to highlight how ridiculous your side of Congress is?
"This is a success for the American people," the Tennessee Republican said. "It is a success for people who hope to participate someday in that American dream."
This is a success for people who have broken our laws, leeched off our social welfare system, and shown absolutely no respect for the ideals that make America great. This is a success for short-sighted corporations who care more about the bottom line this year than next decade. This is a success for criminals and terrorists. This is a success for the Democrats, who can't hope to stay in power without an ever-increasing population of poor "oppressed" people.
This is a defeat for the American people.
Opponents said that the Senate is ignoring clear public will and that the bill would have disastrous consequences for decades to come."We will never solve the problem of illegal immigration by rewarding those who break our laws," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "We must stop illegal immigration by securing the border and creating a temporary-worker program that does not reward illegal behavior with a clear path to citizenship and voting rights."
Duh. Normally I hesitate to label people as "evil", but Senator DeMint is so plainly right that there's no way to reconcile the votes of the majority of the senators with what is best for the American people. They're clearly going against the will expressed by their constituents, and their actions will clearly hurt the future of our country.
Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said the bill "puts the cart before the horse" because it gives citizenship rights to illegals, grants full-blown amnesty to employers and opens the borders to millions of new immigrants each year.
Exactly: not only will the illegal aliens already in America get to stay forever, but millions more will be invited in under the "guest worker" program. And what happens when they don't leave when their visas expire? Will we enforce the law then and deport them? Give me a break! The goverment already actively refuses to deport people here illegally. The "guest worker" program will just open the floodgates to millions more then-legal immigrants who will cause all the same problems the illegal aliens cause now.
But conservatives in Congress -- like many voters -- are skeptical that the federal government will make good on promises to secure the border and enforce the laws. They suspect that immigration reform is headed for a repeat of the 1986 reforms that granted amnesty to 3 million aliens and promised to seal the border. Ultimately, the laws were never enforced and 3 million illegals were replaced with some 12 million new illegals.
This is obviously what the Democrats intend, which is why they are so excited by this "bipartisan" legislation. The Democrats need poor, ignorant people to exploit who can be convinced that earning a living is too hard and that the government should take care of everyone. Apparently the Democrats think that the millions of Mexicans and others who will flood in as "guest workers" will fit their bill. (Are the Democrats racist? Yes.) But what do the Republicans get from this? I have no idea. Toss the bums out.
Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, said yesterday he has been amazed by the Senate's inability to do what voters clearly want."There seems to me to be a sense of surreality here, where people in the Senate just are not listening to what the American people are telling us," he said. "We've tried, through the course of the amendments that have been offered that people standing here have offered, to highlight some of the problems that we have identified and which I believe are responsive to the concerns that we've heard from our constituents."
Join the club, Senator. If you think the American people are going to sit still for this sort of chicanery, think again. It's way past time to repeal the 17th amendment and eliminate the direct election of Senators. This would help restore the intended balance of power between the federal and state governments, and would reduce the elitist mentality that runs rampant through the Senate.
Anyway, let's see what measures the Senate refused to include in the amnesty bill:
Chief among them was an amendment by Sen. Johnny Isakson, Georgia Republican, that would have delayed implementation of the amnesty and guest-worker provisions until after the secretary of homeland security had certified that the border had been secured. The Senate killed that suggestion.
Because the bill isn't about protecting our borders, it's about amnesty.
An amendment by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, would have barred illegal aliens from collecting Social Security benefits for past illegal work. The Senate rejected that proposal, even if the aliens had forged Social Security documents to get the employment.
Because the bill isn't about protecting our senior citizens or our economy, it's about amnesty.
An amendment by Mr. Cornyn and Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona would have required that the 200,000 new workers ushered into the country each year under the guest-worker program be allowed to stay for only a set period of time rather than permanently. The Senate rejected that proposal as well.
Because the bill isn't about meeting some perceived labor need, it's about amnesty.
Oh, and it's also apparently about bending over to get screwed by Mexican politicians.
Immediately before the final vote yesterday, conservatives suffered what they viewed as one final insult. Buried in a 125-page last-minute amendment was a requirement that local, state and federal officials in the U.S. consult with their Mexican counterparts before they can start building the fence.
It's also worth noting that the bill includes zero penalties for people who employ illegal aliens, whether they're "guest workers" or not. So, we'll get all the millions of "guest workers" who will never leave, plus additional illegal aliens who will come work for untouchable employers and then steal from the Social Security pot that is already running way too low to meet the needs of the baby boomer generation. Perfect.
I'm so sick and tired of this crap, but I feel so helpless. Screw you, Senate.
Time to email your senators and representative. Here's the Senate vote.
Does anybody know why conservatives in the Senate let this pass? I don't understand the motives behind what's going on.
Ok, I assume these new immigrants will have to pay Social Security tax for a while before they start receiving benefits. That's positive cash flow to Social Security, plus questionable cash flow to/from income tax. Would the revenue from low-wage jobs result in a net gain, or would we be handing out millions of earned income credits? Should't citizenship be something we sell and profit from, rather than something we subsidize?
What else might be goin on? I wonder if people are afraid of a housing collapse in the west? It would be a huge loss for the economy if we deported all of the illegals at once. I mean, it would be justice, but it would be very expensive justice. Do a lot of Senators have vested interests out west?
Why would anyone oppose the fence? Is there a technical concern about whether it can stop border crossings? Does it take too many workers to build it?
As I've said before, immigrants who apply, work hard, learn English, and stay out of trouble for several years should eventually be granted citizenship. For the ones never applied, they should have to apply now and face some sort of penalty, followed by an extended probation period (longer than those who apply from Mexico).
In the last election, Bush got around 45% of the Hispanic vote. Compare that to 11% of the black vote.
Bush's political advisors probably told the Republican members of Congress to start whoring themselves for the Hispanic vote by approving an amnesty bill.
Unfortunately, these asstards have just made a treaty to import a new generation of socialist Democrats. But then again, the GOP is full of big government, big spending socialists these days.
In the early 1990's, the libertarian writer Claire Wolf opened a book with the immortal line "America is at that awkward stage where it's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards." The way I'm feeling right now, I think we just moved a step towards the latter half of that sentence.
My understanding of the politics is:
The left wants massive immigration because it weakens the country long-term.
The moderate left wants massive immigration because it means more Democratic voters.
The moderate right wants massive immigration to keep labor prices down.
That leaves only those of us on the right, trying to get some border security and an end to immigration lawlessness.
This isn't an immigration bill, it's an expansion of government bill, a vote grabbing bill.... That's it.