Video: Cornyn non-denies McCain’s F-bomb, non-opposes amnesty bill
posted at 10:41 am on May 21, 2007 by Allahpundit
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WashTimes says there are 17 yays, 17 nays, 22 maybe-nots, and 32 don’t-know-yets. The rest couldn’t be contacted. I don’t read much into it: the bill wasn’t published until Saturday so there was no incentive for the 54 on the fence to show their cards given the outcry on both sides. The question is whether ultimately they’ll need 50 or 60 votes to pass it. It’s unlikely they’ll have 41 Republicans voting to filibuster, but they may very well have 41 Democrats and Republicans. A bipartisan filibuster? Why not?
Here’s Cornyn not showing his cards. Meanwhile, Tancredo makes hay and the president’s chief immigration deputy comes out strongly against amnesty. Good news, no? Yup — except for one thing.
Update: Here’s why I don’t like writing about immigration — I simply don’t have enough education about economics to challenge stuff like this intelligently. Amid the standard whining from employers about the verification system being too burdensome and illegals’ skill sets not precisely matching demand in the tech industry, we learn:
Employers, who helped shape a major immigration bill over the last three months, said today that they were unhappy with the result because it would not cure the severe labor shortages they foresee in the coming decade…
The Labor Department estimates that 37 percent of all new jobs in the next decade will be filled by people with a high school education or less. Of the 10 occupations expected to see the largest job growth, only two require a college degree. On-the-job training is usually enough for the other occupations, like retail sales clerks, home health aides and food service workers, the department said.
If you don’t import the labor, the industry will export itself. On the other hand, if you do import the labor, the laborers’ children will educate themselves so that they can move into skilled jobs, such that you’re left with the same vacuum in unskilled jobs after a generation, which requires yet another wave of unskilled laborers. Not sure what the solution is here, but then neither does anyone else or we wouldn’t be having this debate, would we?
Update: A consensus seems to be emerging among illegals — they can’t pay the $5K fine and they don’t trust that they’ll be readmitted to the country if they comply with the touchback requirement. Which means many of them are inclined not to “come out of the shadows” at all. (And some of them are inclined to go back home.)
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Oh, and you’re going to love this part. Section 601(d)(1) is the “Grounds for Ineligibility” part of the bill. Who is ineligible?
and Section 601(d)(2)(a)(ii) disqualifies:
from applying for a Z visa. So, rest assured, genocidal, polygamist, child abducting, dictators, who have cast illegal votes, will be disqualified from applying for a Z visa.
amerpundit on May 21, 2007 at 10:50 AM
300’s Leonidas said it best: “…if those philosophers and boy-lovers showed that kind of nerve, then….Spartans….have their reputation to consider”.
Kid from Brooklyn on May 21, 2007 at 11:13 AM
“severe labor shortage” = higher wages
When that Armour meat packing plant was forced to hire legal workers ( and pay ALL of the taxes involved ) they had no shortage of applicants.
This whole amnesty crap-fest is about corporate whores. Making it clear that staying bribed will cost them their offices is the only way to derail this.
Kristopher on May 21, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Please… PLEASE… go take a look at this study
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007154.pdf
We have a LOT of US citizens who only come out with a High School Degree!!! College Degree rates are declining as the cost escalates out of the possibility of many families.
So… it they wish to import workers to hold these jobs, just where do these citizens get jobs?
Romeo13 on May 21, 2007 at 11:18 AM
They don’t. Our citizens will end up working in the fields for minimum wage, while “guest-workers” will be in office jobs.
amerpundit on May 21, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Amen. More like, “severe cheap, sub-minimum wage labor shortage”. This is why I always say that you have to kill the illigal immigration problem at the root, meaning, severely dealing with enabler employers first.
Kid from Brooklyn on May 21, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Allah,
You don’t have training in economics, but Milton Friedman obviously did. He was against it. Thomas Sowell is strongly against it.
There’s some jobs that employers just can’t export. We’ve nearly reached the upper bound in that respect. Everything that can be exported pretty much has. These people come here, work for nothing, and live off the taxpayer for the rest. They use emergency room services, which are a ton more expensive than everything else put together. It’s not that it’s cheap labor, it’s cheap labor for the businesses that avoid taxes and benefits and pin those costs on everyone else.
PRCalDude on May 21, 2007 at 11:57 AM
Allahpundit:
1)What you need to know about the economimc analysis in the NYT is that the unemployment rate of native Americans in jobs that illegals proliferate is double the national average. Also teen unemployment is almost triple the national average. There are people to fill those jobs. Has the economy tanked due to enforcement? No. The jobs are being filled by Americans.
2) How do you have a rip roaring economy and no inflation? The largest component of price is labor. The cost of labor has been decreasing over time due to illegal immigration. Poultry plant illegals were earning $7 an hour. When meat processing was done in large cities the wage was $17 an hour when you factor in inflation. Ask the public are they willing to pay $1.50 for their chicken nuggets if we get rid of illegals? You’ll get a yes.
3) We can meet demand by cutting back on social services. Forcing the highschool education or less crowd to take low wage jobs instead of welfare services. When demand exceeds supply we simply crank up the immigration machine. Do we need Mexicans? No. Venezuelans are looking good right now, and I think they would be much more appreciative than our current crop of ingrates.
4) The Tipping Point:
Securing the border to stop the northward flow of illegals. Continued deportation and enforcement. THEN! We bring low skilled workers into the country legally.
Illegals have zero upside to remaining illegally. When people they know will be in the country legally and they risk the posibbility of deportation and not being able to return. What’s the smart choice? Granted we will not allow as many in as are leaving, so at the same time Mexico needs t expand its private industry. Which is happening. Google the business developments in Ensenada Mexico.
Theworldisnotenough on May 21, 2007 at 12:13 PM
PRCalDude,
As one California resident to another I say well said brother, however I also feel compelled to warn you that if you insist on publicly broadcasting the truth like this you will be forced to suffer the not so metaphorical slings and arrows of our states mentally deranged San Fransicko values uber activists.
doriangrey on May 21, 2007 at 12:15 PM
If they end up with jobs at all. The population of the beach town I live in swells from 6,000 to nearly 60,000 from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Should be the perfect place to get a summer job, no? Fuhgedabowdit.
Illegals have taken all the landscaping, construction and kitchen jobs from the locals. All that’s left are ice cream vendors and the like on the boardwalk, with about 30 kids applying for each position.
The jobs American kids
won’t docan’t get.IrishEi on May 21, 2007 at 12:16 PM
I don’t mind. I won’t have a country if this bill goes through.
PRCalDude on May 21, 2007 at 12:21 PM
That is an outright lie. Just as they handed out American flags to march with, they throw this crap out for the libs to run with. Pure selfish deception.
If we put one half, just 50% of our energies and money into our OWN children and their futures as we do these illegals, we would NOT have these issues of labor. Thats how commerce works, it will even out with-in a few years. Millions of illegals w/out high school education will set back our economy for generations. The ebb and flow like the geologists of the 70’s will continue every decade or so, but it stays afloat.
Oracle and the blue stock guys can mold and ‘draft’ up who they need instead of importing and hoping for visa’s.
Promote from w/in. A good company does, our country should.
shooter on May 21, 2007 at 12:22 PM
To be sure, the lie I mentioned above( shooter on May 21, 2007 at 12:22 PM) is their unfounded fear they cant get back in. B.S. Thats a lib talking point.
This part is absolutely true, but they wouldn’t need an excuse as only 35% of them will show their faces no matter what we say or do. ( 35% is my estimate…you heard it here first.)
shooter on May 21, 2007 at 12:29 PM
The very concept that there can ever exist a thing called a “shortage of labour” is something straight out of central planning/Marxists ideology. There is no such thing in a capitalist economy, it will be self correcting by adjusting wages.
There is no way to import labor without also importing a consumer. So the very idea you will import enough labour to fill a missing component will never solve the dilemma on the balance sheet these corporate bozos are looking at. It is a cycle that won’t end until every person on earth has been ‘imported’.
Resolute on May 21, 2007 at 7:52 PM
The Immigration bill will cause a steep rise in greenhouse gas emissions via the US agricultural industry and expansion in Mexico attendant to heightened capital flows following legalization.
It’s about saving the Planet!
[just practicing rhetoric that might get *their* attention]
Anil Petra on May 22, 2007 at 5:07 PM