Who Scuttled The Immigration Reform Compromise?
By California Yankee Posted in Elections — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The Associated Press reports the Democrats are blaming President Bush and the Republicans on Saturday for blocking immigration reform legislation.
A little over a week ago the Senate appeared to have reached a great compromise on immigration reform. Just a day later the great compromise proved to be stillborn. According to the Associated Press, the compromise failed because of an inability to agree on procedures for voting on amendments to the proposed legislation.
In last Saturday's weekly radio address, President Bush said the deal fell apart when Minority Leader Harry Reid refused to permit votes on more than three Republican-backed amendments. Reid was quick to deny he was at fault.
In a web-exclusive commentary, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, a commentator generally regarded as being politically liberal, laid the blame on the Democrats:
Read the rest.
A compromise fashioned by Republicans Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida had toughened the earned citizenship portion of the Kennedy-McCain bill and made it more palatable to Republicans yet still acceptable to Kennedy.
But according to the recollections of those close to the principal figures, a battle ensued over how many amendments the Republicans would entertain, and Democrats feared that the GOP would use the amendments to strip away the progressive elements of the bill. Kennedy argued that he and McCain had the votes to defeat any troublesome amendments.
This is the U.S. Senate, Kennedy reportedly argued. The leadership has to allow for amendments. But the Democrats were dubious. They’d been burned before. And it didn’t take much persuading when New York Senator Charles (Chuck) Schumer reportedly made the case that the failure to get a bill would be good for the Democrats. As the head of the Democratic campaign committee, Schumer is focused on getting his party back into power in November.
Despite Reid's and Representative Solis' strident attempt to rewrite the history, of the Senate's great immigration reform compromise was killed at the behest of the Democratic campaign committee chair Schumer. Schumer and the Democrats turned their backs on the proposed compromise to resolve festering problem of how to stem the ever-rising tide of illegal aliens flowing across the border and deal with the 12 million illegals already here in a crass attempt to gain a political advantage.
From California Yankee.
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Who Scuttled The Immigration Reform Compromise? 15 Comments (0 topical, 15 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
...Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, a commentator generally regarded as being politically liberal...
to ask now is, how do we compel the Feds to enforce existing immigration law? Lately I've heard lots of anecdotes about INS inaction over the years.
If I had my way, I would combine tax reform and immigration reform, sending displaced IRS workers to the INS because they already have the personlity type that's called for.
It's a web-exclusive. I presume that means it won't be in the print version of Newsweek.
And, the part slamming Schumer is mentioned, and then quickly dropped, as she hastily resumes her Kennedy worship.
Still, I suppose it IS something.
of uncollected taxes every year, those IRS agents couldn't find a Mexican Mariachi band parading across the border in broad daylight.
And ICE already has it's share of political witch hunters... they don't need any more from the IRS. Wal-Mart being the biggest and best example of this. They were punished only because they were Wal-Mart and generally considered evil for reason I don't really understand.
Great idea... don't go after the people who actually hire illegals (like they are at all hard to find), go after the people who hired the people who hire illegals in violation of their contract with the first party.
more anti-business types belong to the federal employee unions.
I think they went after WM simply because it was a high visability target. Like McCain on the Sunday shows, it generated lots of perceived good press.
and engage their imagination as effectively as we can exploit their ignorance and/or stupidity about economic issues, just like when everyone was talking about Big Oil profits being so high in amount but not as a rate.
The message sent by the Wal-Mart action is that you can hire illegals, so long as you aren't on the top 10 list of evil corporations. Then you will get a small fine. What is the point of a high visibility target when they aren't actually in the wrong? And the penalty is so small? And you don't go after anybody who actually is in the wrong?
If they wanted to make an example, taking out bunch of small businesses that are operating completely on the wrong side and visibly putting them out of business would be the way to go.
If they needed a big target, there are pretty large high visibility targets that are actually doing the law breaking. I bet you could find illegals working at places like Tyson. They might be giving money to the right people, though.
When it comes to oil... I'm not sure why. My dad is not a stupid guy by any stretch, but he sure turns stupid whenever the topic of oil comes up. He does know better, but something seems to short circuit when the topic turns to oil. And then it's suspicious how gas is the same price everywhere, and it's equally suspicious how gas is different prices at stations right across the street from each other.
Oil has more than it's share of tinfoil hat theories too, like the 300mpg carburetor that they have somehow have prevented from getting to market for 40 years (I can only assume by assassinating people or using some kind of mind obliteration gun).
People have a REALLY short attention span. Make a point (right or wrong) and run. Go onto your next point.
If the Senate can reach a compromise or not, there will remain a lot to be hashed out in Conference, and one can only hope that the final bill will be much closer to the House version which is focused on the serious security issues at stake.
If the democrats stopped an amnesty, even for the wrong reasons, I am glad it happened. Now we need to take strong measures to put an end to illegal immigration and to send the lawbreakers home.
As usual, the party base finds itself fighting the liberal agenda of president george w. bush. Now we hear people supporting Guliani, Romney or McCain. Won't we ever learn??????
According to the Associated Press, the compromise failed because of an inability to agree on procedures for voting on amendments to the proposed legislation.
The compromise failed because it wasn't any kind of meaningful compromise. The right amendments might have turned it into one, which is why the Democrats (and it seems to me, the few Republicans who are extraordinarily soft on this issue) didn't want it to go through that process.