It’s been intriguing to me to watch how House Republicans are stewing in their own juices on the immigration bill.
Speaker John Boehner says no proposal will come to the House floor unless a majority of Republican reps approve it.
Well, that makes it pretty difficult because a majority have their heads in the sand and either don’t want illegal immigrants already here to have a path to citizenship or they’re not satisfied with the Senate bill’s steps to reduce illegal immigration. That, in spite of the fact that 66 percent of respondents in a newly released Quinnipac poll said they believed illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay. Plus, 54 percent of respondents said illegal immigrants should be given a path to citizenship.
David Brooks, the most reasonable and thoughtful of the conservative columnists, in my opinion, had a great column Friday about the foolish opposition of a majority of House Republicans.
Among other things, he said that the Senate bill fulfills the main conservative objectives, including that it would:
— Spur economic growth.
— Reduce the federal deficit.
— Significantly reduce illegal immigration.
(If you want more about Brooks’ reasoning on those points, see his column.)
Brooks said that a chief complaint of conservatives is that “Republicans should not try to win back lower-middle-class voters with immigration; they should do it with a working-class agenda.”
Working-class, of course, is political speak for the white lower-middle-class people. In other words, conservative Republicans are inclined to cast their lot with the traditional, white voting bloc instead of the rapidly expanding ethnic melting pot.
Then, Brooks brought down the cudgel:
“Whether this bill passes or not, this country is heading toward a multiethnic future. Republicans can either shape that future in a conservative direction or, as I’ve tried to argue, they can become the receding roar of a white American that is never coming back.”
As another New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, said in an op-ed piece before the 2012 general election, conservatives “are on the wrong side of demographics.”
The immigration bill offers a golden opportunity for conservatives to take a step toward the right side of demographics. If they want to remain competitive politically, they should heed Brooks’ advice: “Pass the bill.”
***
Here’s something I wanted to let you know about. Three of my former colleagues at The Star have established a scholarship fund at the University of Missouri in memory of the late Jerry Heaster, longtime Kansas City Star business columnist, who died last year.
Heaster
The Jerry Heaster Business Journalism Scholarship Fund will be administered by the Missouri School of Journalism’s Office of Development. Each year, a special committee established by the journalism school will award a scholarship to a deserving student who plans to study business journalism.
The founders of the scholarship fund are former Kansas City Star Editor Mike Waller; former assistant managing editor Randy Smith; and current managing editor Steve Shirk.
Waller, who is now retired and living in South Carolina, went on from The Star to become publisher of the Hartford Courant and the Baltimore Sun. Smith teaches business journalism at Mizzou, his alma mater, and he is the first person to hold the position of Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism at MU.
If you are interested in contributing to the fund or learning more about it, please send e-mail to Waller (mikeewaller@aol.com), Smith (smithrandall@missouri.edu) or Shirk (sshirk@kcstar.com). Or you could send me an e-mail, jim.fitzpatrick06@gmail.com, and I will send it along to one of them.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Senate bill is loaded with loopholes and pork. Now that BIG SIS is leaving put Joe Arpaio in charge of DHS. He’ll make sure the border is sealed and that systems and personnel are in place and working to actually enforce existing laws and implement the amnesty and citizenship strategy.
Senate bill is another end run around taxpayers and decent hard working Americans that will flood the democrat voter roles with more takers and grifters that will break us financially.
The system is and has been broken forever. Better chance of getting your new airport than getting the Senate bill through the House.
Ted Cruz is the leading GOP voice. He has credibility with Hispanics. He’ll make sure the right bill gets passed. Otherwise dear leader will do the same thing he’s doing with ACA. Cherry pick what parts to implement and enforce in a way that suits him and the DNC.
No more Mister Nice Guy on immigration. Time for some serious change that makes the system fair and equitable for all immigrants.
We saw how the White House and media railroaded George Zimmerman. If they can openly influence our justice system with impunity they’ll have a field day with immigration reform. Jose can you see…..might very well become the new opening words to the Star Spangled Banner.
Takers and grifters?? Quite the opposite. It’s the immigrants who do the work because few native-born Americans will do hard manual labor. The US will need several hundred thousand MORE workers in agriculture, landscaping, roofing, construction, food service, hospitality etc. in the year ahead. Ask any employer who does the actual work – especially on the third or fourth day when many native-born “citizens” simply are no shows. Interestingly, most Hispanic immigrants dream of being business owners. Over time many will become Republicans.
65% of ILLEGAL immigrants to this country receive some sort of governement assistance for food or housing. The other 35% are most likely engaged in criminal activity, working or running businesses “off the books”.
The Mexican drug cartels are flooding the US with illegals who will become distributors, dealers and enforcers.
Add in the burden to the health care and education systems and yes, “takers and grifters”.
I’m all for safety nets, but when those nets turn into a stay at the Four Seasons, No Mas! Immigrants should at a minimum be revenue neutral. That is not the case. Overall, immigrants to the US, legal and illegal, result in a cost burden.
I don’t have a problem letting a stranger use my bathroom, I’m certainly not going to wipe their #ss.
Very bold statement of fact on the 65 percent, Smartman…
I did some research, and it appears to me that accurate numbers about the number of illegal immigrants getting federal assistance are nearly impossible to come by.
The best information I could find was contained in a 2009 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. group dedicated to researching legal and illegal immigration in the U.S.
Among the findings:
“In 2009 (based on data collected in 2010), 57 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal and illegal) with children (under 18) used at least one welfare program, compared to 39 percent for native households with children.
“Immigrant households’ use of welfare tends to be much higher than natives for food assistance programs and Medicaid. Their use of cash and housing programs tends to be similar to native households.
“A large share of the welfare used by immigrant households with children is received on behalf of their U.S.-born children, who are American citizens. But even households with children comprised entirely of immigrants (no U.S.-born children) still had a welfare use rate of 56 percent in 2009.”
Even including legal immigrants, the percentage falls short of your unattributed 65-percent figure.
I’m sure you can back up your 65-percent claim with numbers from somewhere, but I probably would be skeptical of the source, unless it’s the Census Bureau.
Jim, are you saying these numbers (from your research) aren’t alarming, or are you just disputing the 65%? Just looking for clarification.
Just disputing alleged “65 percent of illegal immigrants” statement by Smartman..The fact that 57 percent of households headed by legal or illegal immigrant used at least one welfare program is a heck of a lot different than 65 percent of illegal immigrants…But you’re implication is correct: It’s still awfully high.
“Takers, grifters, social service sponges, criminals, tax evaders, and border-crashing felons” Exactly correct. Let’s add hospital wreckers, money launderers, and drug dealers and almost 100% uninsured motorists doing hit-and-runs with complete abandon.
The phony, feel-good “Path to Citizenship” should start south of our borders in Meh-hi-co. If they are already in here illegally, that says it all. They have committed a serious crime and deserve no reward regardless of how clever they’ve been at avoiding the laws of this nation.
Mexico protects her southern border with machine gun positions and high fences. If a miscreant border jumper manages to get in anyway, they are immediately thrown into a stone-age prison where they can perform sex acts or whatever to get enough money for food, since none is provided by the kindly old Mexican penal system.
We have been promised a fence and secure borders since 1986, and it has never come to reality. The current “Path” is nothing more than a liberal, vote-buying scheme, and until the borders are actually secure, nothing should be brought before our lawmakers that would legalize the crimes already underway.
Game, set, match to Mr. Everhart.
Fitz, I got the 65% number from a friends daughter that manages a Welfare office for the State of Missouri in St. Louis. She got the number at a US Government sponsored seminar she attended in June. The purpose of the seminar was to teach office managers how to perform outreach in their communities through public service announcements, religious, civic and social organizations to communicate the availability of state and federal assistance to any and all who need it.
Not sure who the lead agency was but the Feds were passing out flyers and pamphlets in Mexico telling people how to apply for assistance when they got to the US. Basically encouraging people to come here, illegally, prior to the immigration bill being passed to bulk up the democrat voting block.
Illegal immigrants are breaking the back of our social welfare structure. They come here for a better life. Get welfare, food and housing assistance, make some cash off the books and never properly assimilate. They are the new Welfare Kings and Queens.
For lack of a better term we should call these The New Great Mexican Society Programs. Viva Mexico!!!!! Viva Obama!!!!! FU America!!!!!!
JimmyC: “Objection, Your Honor, hearsay!”
Judge: “Sustained.”
FRE 406. smarty’s evidence is admissable as evidence of habit and routine. Overruled.
One more outburst like this, you two will approach the bench and if necessary see me in chambers and we will discuss this in camera. The most pixels wins.
The children will play when the judge is away…
The elephant in the room for the GOP is elections. Sure, they can rile up the tribe with anger about ‘those people’, but how far will that get them in this changing cultural nation? There are pockets of very large communities in red states that have been working the angry white male for decades now and it keeps their loons in Congress prosperous (although Bachmann leaving gives hope for all things sane). They also spent too much time demonizing women’s health in the last go around that it makes it easy for Dems to just sit back and do nothing (yes, they do nothing but say, ‘look at them’).
Prospects for 2016 look bleak for both parties, but you have to wonder if the GOP has the cojones to go through another one of ‘those people’ campaigns.
Thanks, Jennifer…
You and all our readers should see Kathleen Parker’s op-ed column in today’s KC Star. Like Brooks, Parker is an extremely clear-eyed Republican columnist.
One of her best paragraphs in today’s column goes like this:
“At this stage in the second terms of the president they couldn’t defeat, Republicans seem more like stubborn children refusing to come out of their rooms for supper, even though the alternative is going to bed hungry.”
Here’s another:
“…90 percent of life is picking your battles, and congressional Republicans keep picking the wrong ones.”
Hearsay? Kinda like Benghazi was a spontaneous uprising. We do not spy on Americans. The IRS scandal is isolated to some rogue agents in a field office. I’m going to have the most transparent administration in US history. Gotcha.
Republicans that cave on immigration will pay for it at the ballot box. Marco Rubio has already paid the price for his stupidity. This issue will not hurt the GOP at the midterms.
If the GOP caves on immigration say bye bye to the party. The GOP is already DNC-lite.
If the immigrants are here illegally, I don’t see a problem with sending them back and let them try again the right way. Keep this up until they get it right. Otherwise, what good is having a border? May as well open it up to anyone who wants in, if the laws are not going to be enforced. Is this what we want? Kinda makes my citizenship seem worthless if it’s not needed to live here. Just makes me a taxpayer…or working class.
Read it and weep
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/15/196551/inside-the-immigration-bill-details.html#.UeSVfMu9KSM
Damn good detail…I just think that Canadian retirees should be able to stay in the U.S. nine months a year instead of eight…The winter is very long north of the border.
If the GOP caves on immigration…..
If the GOP caves on gay marriage…
If the GOP caves on abortion….
If the GOP caves on ‘entitlements’…..
If the GOP caves on guns……
And ObamaCare still hasn’t been repealed.
Some people are trying to move forward and many Americans understand that.
If the GOP doesn’t find the next Lee Atwater or Karl Rove, and they could only get guys named Bush elected (Jeb???), the GOP is toast.
jenniferm makes good points, but she should be careful what she wishes for.
I don’t care who they get, Jennifer — even if David Axelrod switches sides — they probably won’t win a presidential election for a long time, unless they get more, uh, democratic.
Rove? He lost his credibility, for the world to see, on election night when he refused to accept Fox News’ projection that Romney had lost Ohio.
Two nights later, according to the New York Daily News, he was on Fox News again, insisting that Obama “had won because he ‘succeeded in suppressing the vote’ with negative ads ‘that turned off’ voters, keeping them from the polls.”
The Daily News story went on to say:
“Fox News host Megyn Kelly didn’t buy it, interrupting Rove by saying, ‘But he won, Karl, he won!’ ”
Unless Rove has some Nixon blood in him, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of him in future elections.
I agree Rove is gone from campaigns and, for the most part, as a TV commentator. Axelrod is cut from the same cloth as Rove and Atwater, and played the race card to success. It’s sad for our country.
When Obama leaves office we will have had 16 years of divisive and bitter politics…that’s almost a generation who know nothing of compromise, compassion, honesty and ethics.
Some information.
http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-labor-s-share-falls-as-immigrant-workforce-rises-so-why-do-democrats-support
Somebody saves a hundred dollars on a roofing job, while the roofer’s old lady walks scott free from a hospital leaving a 200K unpaid maternity bill behind. The roofer sends everything he makes back to the mother country, and looks for another cash job.
Now they have an anchor baby entitled to food stamps, free housing, free health care, and a host of other freebies. And guess who pays??? You and me.
The “path” to citizenship should start somehwere’s around Mexico City, not Phoenix or Laredo.