Please, Democratic Candidates - hear my plea!
Much is said about Immigration by Democrats. The party traditionally focuses on how to stem the flood of new immigrants, and what to do with the ones already here.
But little is mentioned about the infrastructure cost of Illegal immigrants. Specifically the costs to our schools to provide ESL, remedial programs, and free & reduced lunch programs. Then there's the Health care sector. The cost of Hospital treatment is driven in no small measure by the use of Emergency rooms as a primary health care resource by Immigrants. You only need to walk into any Emergency Room on a weekend to see the full impact of this.
All of this has been said before. However -
Its no small coincidence that the costs of Schools & Medical care are borne by individual property and payroll taxes. The business that exploit this cheap labor pool bear none of this cost. I would be much more accepting of an amnesty bill if the costs of assimilating new immigrants were more equitably distributed between individuals & business.
Democratic Candidates - hear my plea!
Then there's the issue of guest workers & trade that the Democratic party ignores at their peril. Conventional wisdom is that we live in a knowledge economy, and one needs a higher education to successfully compete. But our present trade and guest worker policies are eroding the economic foundation of the Middle Class. The American Middle Class is anxious about job security.
A powerful new study by the Economic Policy Institute provides striking proof of how guest worker programs and offshoring are suppressing the income and job prospects of College graduates. These policies strike at the heart of the American Middle Class, but Democrats seem tone deaf to the issue.
Democratic Candidates - hear my plea!
You can call me selfish, insensitive, (etc.). But the bottom line is I have to feed my family & send my kids to college. Bluntly put, ideology rarely trumps economic interests. Though I've been a Yellow Dog Democrat all my life, these two issues would make me vote Republican.
This is the wedge issue of 2008