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Dobbs: Bush, Congress tell working folk to go to hell

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Baqui99, May 24, 2006.

  1. Baqui99

    Baqui99 Contributing Member

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    Excellent article by Lou Dobbs, host of CNN Moneyline, about how out of touch the White House is with the average American.

    Dobbs: Bush, Congress tell working folk to go to hell
    By Lou Dobbs
    CNN

    Wednesday, May 24, 2006; Posted: 12:30 p.m. EDT (16:30 GMT)

    NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bush says that the installation of the new Iraqi government was a "watershed event," but at the same time warns Americans of the challenges and loss as we continue to prosecute the war against Iraqi insurgents. Sen. Harry Reid declares that legislation that would render English the national language is racist.

    Thirty-seven Democrats vote for full amnesty for all illegal aliens in this country, even though nobody really knows whether the number is 11 million, 12 million or 20 million. The Senate Republican leadership demands that a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan must be passed before this Memorial Day weekend. And the president signs into law a tax cut that raises taxes on the educational funds of teenagers saving for college.

    Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital.

    George W. Bush's approval ratings have slumped to the lowest of his presidency. The approval rating for Congress is even lower, and nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

    But what is our government doing about that? The president is staying the course in Iraq and apparently demanding little of his generals to create a new, far more effective strategy for urgent success. Of course, he also wants a guest-worker program and amnesty of millions of illegal aliens. And Congress, faced with midterm elections in just over five months, is intent on giving the president what he wants and telling working men and women and their families, American citizens all, to go to hell.

    Illegal aliens are more important to this Congress than securing our borders and our ports, more important than those legal immigrants who have waited in line and who follow the law. The Senate has added to the litany of lunacy that makes up what it calls reform: Illegal aliens would only have to pay back taxes on three of the past five years, they will not be prosecuted for felonies such as identity theft or purchasing or using fraudulent Social Security cards, and unlike millions of visa holders who have to leave the country to have them renewed, they may simply remain in the United States while this Congress and this president give away all the benefits and privileges of American citizenship.

    This is an outright assault in the elitist war on the middle class. And working men and women who've already borne the pain of losing good-paying manufacturing jobs and having middle-class jobs outsourced to cheap foreign labor markets are faced with the onslaught of more illegal immigration and cheap labor into the American economy. This president and Congress talk about bringing illegal aliens out of the shadows while they turn out the lights on our middle class.

    President Bush and his most trusted advisers tell us how well our economy is doing, how many jobs have been created and how so-called free trade will enrich the lives of the same people whose livelihoods these policies are destroying.

    It's hard not to think of the trusted adviser to Catherine the Great who sought to hide from her the embarrassing and shoddy condition of Ukrainian and Crimean villages by having elaborate facades built to divert her attention and to mask an uncomfortable reality. I don't know whether Karl Rove is President Bush's Grigori Potemkin or whether George Bush has created Potemkin villages all by himself. But the facades are cracking, and phony fronts of failed policies are quickly crumbling.

    Six thousand unarmed National Guardsmen working as adjunct rear support to our undermanned, under-equipped Border Patrol is not border security. Three million illegal aliens continue to cross our borders and depress wages by hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The millions of manufacturing and middle-class jobs lost over the last five years have been replaced by lower-wage employment.

    The president's faith-based commitment to so-called free trade will likely lead to a $1 trillion U.S. current account deficit this year and a trade debt of $4.5 trillion after 30 years of trade deficits. And while the president and Congress point to No Child Left Behind as a solution to our educational crisis, we're failing an entire generation of Americans whose test scores continue to fall and whose high school dropout rates would be embarrassing to a third-world country.

    And a third-world country is what we will be if our elected officials don't soon come to their senses.
     
  2. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
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    moneyline is such left wing commie rubbish ;)
     
  3. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    Apparently the republican Mayor of New York City agrees with Mr. Dobbs. --

    Bloomberg Says Plan to Deport Millions Is 'Ridiculous'

    By JOHN O'NEIL

    Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in his most scathing attack to date on legislation working its way through Congress, declared a House proposal to deport 11 million illegal immigrants "pure fantasy" and called parts of a Senate plan "no less ridiculous."

    "You have to wonder what world Congress is living in," the New York City mayor said in an interview on CNN. "Talk to any mayor who has to enforce the law and you'll find that none of these things are remotely possible."

    Mr. Bloomberg was elaborating on proposals he made in an Op-Ed article published in The Wall Street Journal today, in which he called for the creation of an employment identity card using fingerprints or DNA information, and for an increase in the number of visas issued to both skilled and manual workers.

    The mayor had made similar comments before, both during his re-election campaign last year and interviews earlier this spring. But the article and television appearance today represented his most visible and detailed attempt to influence legislation as the Senate moves toward final passage of a bill — or to distance himself from the work of his Republican colleagues in Washington.

    Mr. Bloomberg did ally himself with one portion of the Senate bill, which would allow illegal aliens who have been in the country for more than five years to earn legal status through a lengthy process. But the mayor, who had previously sidestepped the question of what to do about current illegal aliens, went far beyond the Senate plan, saying that the only "practical" solution was make that offer available to all of "those already here."

    Mr. Bloomberg said the bills in both houses of Congress would repeat the mistakes made the last time immigration laws were overhauled, in 1986.

    "Here we are with 10 times the problem, and we're going to do exactly the same thing," he said.

    Mr. Bloomberg said in the interview that the American economy would be "devastated" by the deportation of large numbers of illegal immigrants.

    In the article, speaking of New York and its estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants, he wrote: "Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or overstaying their visas, our economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported. The same holds true for the nation."

    Mr. Bloomberg said that the current situation was the result of two decades in which the federal government was "pressured to look the other way while workers were exploited."

    "As a business owner, I know the absurdity of our existing immigration regulations all too well," he wrote. He said that the "crucial step" in reducing illegal immigration was holding businesses accountable for hiring legal workers only, while creating an identity card and database system that would make that possible.

    In the interview, he acknowledged that any such plan would raise "Big Brother" fears, but said that without cards based on fingerprints or DNA information the only result of any new law would be a flood of new faked documents. "With today's computers you can replicate anything," he said.

    While the mayor said that he supported plans to toughen border security, he said that without reducing incentives for illegal immigration and issuing more visas, "border guards will remain overwhelmed by the flood of people attempting to enter illegally."

    Mr. Bloomberg said that workers from overseas were needed both to keep the economy growing and to replace members of the baby boom generation as they begin to retire. He said "recent studies give the lie to old arguments that immigrants take jobs away from native-born Americans and significantly depress wages."

    But the mayor was most critical when discussing the bills under discussion. Last December, the House passed a bill calling for the deportation of all illegal immigrants and making illegal entry into the country a felony instead of a misdemeanor.

    The Senate has been voting this week on a bill that would take a layered approach. It would require that all illegal immigrants who have been in the country for two years or less be deported, and that those who have been here for three to five years return to the border to apply to participate in a guest worker program. Those who had been in the United States longer would be eligible for an 11-year process that could lead to citizenship after the paying of fines.

    President Bush has indicated support for the Senate plan, while Republicans in the House are firmly opposed to anything that could be considered an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

    Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican mayor of an overwhelmingly Democratic city, said the House plan for mass deportations would be "physically impossible to carry out, though if it were attempted, it would devastate both families and our economy."

    "The Senate's tiered approach requiring that some people 'report to deport' through guest worker programs — while leaving their spouses, children and mortgages behind — is no less ridiculous," he wrote. "If this approach becomes law, there can be little doubt that the black market for false documentation would remain strong and real enforcement impossible."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/n...9223ee989&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
     
  4. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Contributing Member

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    Remember...CNN stands for Clinton News Network! :D
     
  5. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    I'll side with the Bush Admin's stance on immigration than what the Republican Congress is proposing. However, Bush's proposals will never get through the House.

    The bigger issue is how Bush will heal the rift with his hardline constituents and Congressman after the elections. Everyone for themselves...
     
  6. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    I hope and expect that there will be far fewer GOP Congressmen (and women) for Bush to "work with," after the election, although working with them seems to be, "Shove anything in front of me, and I'll sign it. Lost my veto pen down on the ranch, or whatever you call that playpen of mine in Texas."

    Has there ever been a President in US history that went 2 full terms without ever vetoing a bill? Just curious. After the November elections, Bush will find some good bills to veto, bills coming from a Democratic Congress. His hypocrisy is limitless.



    Keep D&D Civil.
     
  7. losttexan

    losttexan Contributing Member

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    I just hope true republicans realize that Bush has never been in their corner. He serves only Big Business. He distracts republicans with Gay Marriage, Tax Cuts (that only benefit the wealthy) and War, and the mindless mob have flocked to him in the wake of 9/11. Bush and all his cronies are from the Oil industry, Chaney from Halliburton, and guess who well these corporations are doing in the Bush White house? Record profits. The blind sheep, baaa, and say coincidence. I don't believe in "coincidences like this.
     
  8. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    He has a way of repeating lies or accusations until it's true or forgotten. He has limitless hypocrisy because the public rewards him time after time for it.

    Bring on the vetoes. He's only escaped the lame duck moniker this far because he hasn't. His 29 would have to grasp for remaining qualities that Bush supposedly has.
     

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