Per the Booman,
Most of Obama's upcoming agenda has nothing to do with tax rates and revenues.
He wants comprehensive immigration reform and an assault weapons ban and infrastructure spending and education reform and work on climate change.
Yes, tax reform in on the agenda, too, but that is only one part of what Obama hopes to accomplish.
Let’s take this one heading at a time.
Immigration.
The immigration reform in question is very apt to legalize the 10 or 11 million non-criminal illegals in the US but almost certainly not make citizens of them lest, to Republican chagrin, they vote Democrat.
[04052013. Update.
Looks like "a path to citizenship" will be included owing to Republicans caving to Democratic criticism for racism, and to the rise of the false dogma among them that being nice to Hispanics will make Hispanics vote for them in the long run, though certainly not the short.
The result is certain to be a significant gain in the lead Democrats hold over Republicans among voters, especially in areas of large Hispanic concentration.
/Update.]
[04052013. Update.
Looks like "a path to citizenship" will be included owing to Republicans caving to Democratic criticism for racism, and to the rise of the false dogma among them that being nice to Hispanics will make Hispanics vote for them in the long run, though certainly not the short.
The result is certain to be a significant gain in the lead Democrats hold over Republicans among voters, especially in areas of large Hispanic concentration.
/Update.]
It will either allow more immigration or at least keep it coming at the present rate.
It will also likely include a guest-worker program.
Every piece of this immigration agenda is bad for American and bad for working class American citizens.
What America and American labor of all races need is a moratorium on immigration and total rejection of any guest-worker program.
And Americans do not need to accept 10 or 11 million people newly allowed to legally compete with them for jobs.
The only avowable argument against massive deportation that does not rely on the libertarian principle of open borders, adoption of which would be absolutely devastating to our country and to the American working class, rests on the harshness of the thing.
But that is not excessive if non-criminals who have been here for some significant number of years, say for 10 years (eight? five? twelve?) as of the date the reform is signed into law, and are self-supporting are allowed to stay with their children born here while the rest are slated for deportation.
Children of those to be deported should also in general be deported and it would be best, given that intention, to confine birthright citizenship (by constitutional amendment, if need be) to children born here to parents both of whom are citizens or legally permanent resident aliens.
The unavowable argument against mass deportation is that many people want to brown America in order to weaken the political, cultural, economic, and social power of white Americans along with the political significance of the Republican Party, and many of the illegals are Indians, blacks, or in varying measures and manners non-whites who can be expected to mostly support Democrats.
This racist intent is masked, of course, by liberal strategic insistence that there is no morally acceptable or socially tolerable argument against amnesty or for a moratorium, opposition to the one and support for the other being equally and unforgivably racist.
I am not aware of any good reasons to pursue the browning of America per se and I am aware of reasons to fear it.
I certainly cannot accept that the browning of America is not merely a good thing but a good thing of such value that it outweighs the egregious economic harm immigration does and amnesty would do to America's workers of all races.
And being white I personally resent the animus toward white people as such that this far from colorblind liberal policy aim, along with so much else in the recent positions and publicly stated views of liberals, betrays.
Too, given the atmosphere of increasingly frank animosity toward white people that liberals have been actively encouraging, I personally would feel safer if this remained a majority white country for now and in the near term future, at least.
Certainly, if would be a safer place to speak candidly about colonialism, imperialism, slavery, race, racism, and race issues.
After that, well, apres nous le deluge.
The only avowable argument against massive deportation that does not rely on the libertarian principle of open borders, adoption of which would be absolutely devastating to our country and to the American working class, rests on the harshness of the thing.
But that is not excessive if non-criminals who have been here for some significant number of years, say for 10 years (eight? five? twelve?) as of the date the reform is signed into law, and are self-supporting are allowed to stay with their children born here while the rest are slated for deportation.
Children of those to be deported should also in general be deported and it would be best, given that intention, to confine birthright citizenship (by constitutional amendment, if need be) to children born here to parents both of whom are citizens or legally permanent resident aliens.
The unavowable argument against mass deportation is that many people want to brown America in order to weaken the political, cultural, economic, and social power of white Americans along with the political significance of the Republican Party, and many of the illegals are Indians, blacks, or in varying measures and manners non-whites who can be expected to mostly support Democrats.
This racist intent is masked, of course, by liberal strategic insistence that there is no morally acceptable or socially tolerable argument against amnesty or for a moratorium, opposition to the one and support for the other being equally and unforgivably racist.
I am not aware of any good reasons to pursue the browning of America per se and I am aware of reasons to fear it.
I certainly cannot accept that the browning of America is not merely a good thing but a good thing of such value that it outweighs the egregious economic harm immigration does and amnesty would do to America's workers of all races.
And being white I personally resent the animus toward white people as such that this far from colorblind liberal policy aim, along with so much else in the recent positions and publicly stated views of liberals, betrays.
Too, given the atmosphere of increasingly frank animosity toward white people that liberals have been actively encouraging, I personally would feel safer if this remained a majority white country for now and in the near term future, at least.
Certainly, if would be a safer place to speak candidly about colonialism, imperialism, slavery, race, racism, and race issues.
After that, well, apres nous le deluge.
Guns
This is an excellent time to move against guns in America and the faster the better.
It might be a good idea, too, if at least some Democrats had the sand to own up that the 2nd Amendment is really the source of the problem and prevents measures we ought to take.
But perhaps the Supremes will force them to it by striking down an assault weapons ban as a violation and spelling out that the 2nd really is what the NRA and other gun-rights organizations say it is, a guarantee of an individual right to own and carry weapons designed for military use.
Infrastructure spending
A piddling poor substitute for the massive jobs program we really need in America, but certainly a step in the right direction.
Education reform
Higher education and professional training, like medical care, have become insanely expensive in recent decades, compared to other goods and services.
Access has grown more and more shockingly unequal.
Even the puny steps likely to be taken to remedy the situation are welcome.
Climate change
This is apparently a red herring and any steps taken to advance the liberal agenda here, whether domestic or international, are to be regretted.
Tax reform
Fix the cap so that earned benefits are properly funded for decades into the future with better benefits and making retirement possible at an earlier age.
60 would be good.
Tax the rich more and everybody else less.
Tax wealth as well as income and tax inheritance much more heavily at the top with the aim of breaking up concentrated personal wealth and diminishing inequality in America.
No doubt it would help if more Democrats were willing to publicly insist on every suitable occasion that capitalism and inequality are tolerable to a free people in a genuine democracy only where and so far as they serve the public good better than any known socialist alternative and not one inch beyond that.
And the rest?
Once in a while some liberal with too fat a personal bank account trumpets the lie that the progressive agenda with us since the beginning of the 20th Century has been fulfilled or, as they sometimes say, “essentially fulfilled.”
And that there is no more to do about making education, medical care, decent housing, safe, abundant, appetizing, and nutritious food, safe and well-paid and meaningful work, a safe and healthy public and natural environment, adequate and rewarding leisure, and a comfortable and rewarding retirement available to all Americans.
No kidding.
Sometimes they say that.
No comments:
Post a Comment