Posted on 11/30/2005 3:00:33 AM PST by dennisw
The late Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it "boob bait for bubba" — tough-sounding rhetoric designed to placate conservative voters. Moynihan applied the phrase to Bill Clinton's 1992 pledge to "end welfare as we know it," which it later became clear that he had no intention of following through on when he became president (eventually, Republicans pressured him into it). President Bush is offering his own "boob bait" in the form of speechifying at the border about a crackdown on illegal immigration.
It's not that Bush doesn't intend to use better technology to police the border and end the "catch and release" policy that waves illegals into the country, as he is now saying. But these steps are primarily meant to diminish opposition to a new guest-worker program and what would effectively be an amnesty for illegal aliens. It's a crackdown as prelude to a letup; in other words, Rove bait for red-staters.
A Republican close to the White House has told Time how Bush wants to lull his conservative supporters into swallowing some sort of amnesty and a guest-worker program, i.e., a "comprehensive" approach: "Bush decided to give these guys their rhetorical pound of flesh. In return, he wants a comprehensive bill, which is what he has always wanted. He's just going to lead with a lot of noise about border security."
The idea is that the House, where conservatives have the most sway, will pass a bill with new enforcement measures, only to see the Senate pass a different bill with an amnesty and guest-worker program, which will be shoved down the throats of the House on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. Supporters of tougher enforcement will have gotten their "noise," and Bush and the business lobby will have gotten their policy. Unfortunately for this strategy, conservatives aren't nearly as stupid as the White House political shop apparently thinks they are.
If the policy debate plays out the way the White House wants, we will have another iteration of a bizarre dynamic of American politics. Every time there is agitation about out-of-control levels of immigration, Washington acts — to preserve or increase current levels of immigration. As Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies notes, this is what happened in 1986, 1990, and 1996. The White House and the Senate want 2006 to be Act IV in the farce. Senator Arlen Specter's version of "reform" doubles legal immigration.
The enforcement measures Bush is advocating are welcome and he finally seems to get the public's dismay about the lawlessness of our immigration system. But the border itself is in some ways beside the point. We can put as many agents as the Minutemen could possibly want on the border and still have an illegal-immigration problem. Forty percent of illegals overstay their visas, meaning the border isn't an issue for them. Bush and fellow supporters of a guest-worker program are right about one thing: As long as there are jobs here for illegals, they will come.
The only way to address that is through interior enforcement, which Bush made a nod toward yesterday. The natural place to start is enforcing laws already on the books. Rosemary Jenks of the group NumbersUSA has compiled a partial list of currently unenforced laws that runs to four pages. The Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service have it within their power to inform employers when they have hired illegal workers, but don't. In 2002, the Social Security Administration sent out roughly a million "no match" letters to employers telling them workers had bogus or duplicate Social Security numbers, but business groups complained and the practice stopped.
Supporters of amnesty always ask the rhetorical question: "What are you going to do with the 11 million illegal immigrants already here — deport them all?" That is obviously impractical, but requiring employers to verify that their workers are legal would prompt many illegals to leave voluntarily and staunch the flow of new arrivals. Only after our immigration system is under better control should we discuss Bush's proposed guest-worker program and any kind of amnesty for those illegals who are entrenched in our society. Until then, don't take Bush's bait.
Get back to me when your hero pat buchanan is President.
Unless at some point we need to actually ramp for a real war and make ships and tanks, other than that I say go ahead and close all steel plants.
Why not import the entire nations of Guatemala and Honduras here? This would expand our economy in the sense that some economic figures would be instantly larger. This would add the people (12 million) and GDP of these two cesspits to our own GDP. This would be a smart move in your eyes
Pat Buchanan has been on the case of illegal immigration for at least 15 years. He was way ahead of the curve. Darn right he gets credit on this issue
Dane keeps pooping up just like an good OBL Straw man, we keep knocking him/her down.
Nice how you can't refute the message, so you just attack the messenger, like a good little apparachik!
Dane, you are an OBL fool, and a shill for Illegal behaviour that supports Drug Trafficking, Terrorism, Murder, Robbery and Rape.
All for cheap lettuce, clean toilets, and profit over Principles!
LOL, who is attacking the messenger now, especially with the customary over the top hyperbole.
DING-DING-DING!!!!
Wow...you must be psychic!
Just like the OTHER apparachiks here, it's Party over Principles...Profit over Principles, and "Cult of Bush" uber alles!
Now where have I said that, I haven't. I'm just not for MI's idea of contracting(i.e a recession) the US economy to solve the illegal immigrant problem.
I'm for a guest worker program which brings some sanity to an immigration problem and which doen't throw a wrench into the modern American economy.
A master of sarcasm, you are not. Oh well I can't help it if you wish that I was silent about my opinions.
Get back to me when you have a bad word about the NEA, who are doing much more damage to the American education system.
Now, we just need to beware the President's bait and switch he's going to try to pull next year. And we need to keep the pressure on.
I am still waiting for your single conversion to appear. The only reason to participate in political debate is to influence others. You are a total failure in that regard and I will remind you of that everyday if need be.
Yeah know you spend an awful lot of time and energy saying I'm a failure, kinda of like the democrats who spend an awful lot of time and energy saying Iraq is a failure.
You are incapable of persuading anyone to your view. You are terribly weak in your arguments. I feel like I should help you explain your position better just for the sake of pity. I feel the same way about the administration half the time. When are you ever going to win a convert? Why do you try? You are so terribly bad at it.
No it is not. There are many areas in this country where a teenager can no longer find a job that pays even a reasonable wage. Believe me, this was very recently for me.
I had an interesting discusion yesterday. A friend of mine made an interesting aurguement that the illegal immigrants were a bigger threat to the long term US nation/economic security then Al Qaeda. His arguement was basically that though the terrorist could sting us they could not really do much major damage. 911 basically distroyed 12 city blocks and killed just under 3000 people. More then that will day this month in traffic accidents. That as bad as 911 was it was a pin prick and illegal immigration is a knive to the throat of the middle class. They raise taxes and lower wages for the middle class. And as we all know it is the middle class and it's consumerism that drives the economy.
Just when I thought you couldn't make more of a fool of yourself, you step up and outdo yourself. You can't begin to argue against Lowry's points with any substance, so you attack the messenger.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.