Tragedy And Farce All At The Same Time
Charles Krauthammer has a harsh column about the immigration "reform" deal working its way through the Senate in today's Washington Post. It recounts the farce that surrounds the deal and examines a real tragedy in it as well: The best and the brightest - the most desirable of immigrants - will be treated the same as an unskilled laborer in terms of waiting for a visa. As Krauthammer puts it: get in line, Einstein.
Until now we've had a special category for highly skilled, world-renowned and indispensable talent. Great musicians, athletes and high-tech managers come in today under the EB-1 visa. This apparently is going to be abolished in the name of an idiotic egalitarianism.
I suspect this provision is a kind of apology for one of the few very good ideas in the bill — taking skill, education and English proficiency into account rather than just family ties, thus cutting back on a chain migration system in which a Yemeni laborer can bring over an entire clan while the engineers and teachers desperate to get here languish in the old country.
The price for this lurch into rationality appears to be the abolition of the VIP fast track, which constitutes less than 2 percent of total immigration and, from the point of view of the national interest, is the most valuable. This staggeringly stupid idea is reason alone to vote against the immigration bill. Beyond stupidity, the bill offers farce. My favorite episode is the back-taxes caper. John McCain has been going around telling everyone that in order to be legalized, illegal immigrants will, among other things, have to pay back taxes. Such are the stern requirements on the "path to citizenship."
Problem is, McCain then discovered that back taxes were not in the bill. The Department of Homeland Security had argued that collecting on money paid under the table — usually in cash, often with no receipts — is pretty much impossible. Indeed, the cost of calculating and collecting the money would probably exceed the proceeds.
Now, nonpayment of taxes is not the kind of thing you want to defend when trying to sell immigration reform to citizens who do pay their taxes — back and otherwise. So last week John McCain proposed an amendment to restore the back-taxes provision. A somewhat sheepish Senate approved this sop — unanimously.
Krauthammer also notes the mendacity of the media coverage, noted by me in an earlier post, of completely misrepresenting the results of a NYT/CBS News poll. They twisted the results by using a skewed question of the "did you walk to work or bring your lunch" variety. They completely disregarded the fact that a vast majority of voters want the border secured. A very solid majority also do not want amnesty no matter how the pig is gussied up and called something else.
The Republican party is rightfully in trouble over this issue right now. I believe the Democrats will also pay a heavy price if the deal goes through. Every Senator - regardless of party - will have to answer to a very irate constituency if this passes. The media may have dropped the cone of silence around the voter revolt that is brewing, but they will not be able to do so for very long.
Immigration Reform, Politics | Gaius Friday, 1 June , 2007
By Purple Avenger, Friday, 1 June , 2007 @ 1:15 pm
I gotta go with Bush on this one. One can never have enough bad sheet rockers and lawn guys leaning on shovels.