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Economists for Dean
By Lerxst
The Washington Post reports that Bush is planning to propose an overhaul of immigration policy:
President Bush plans to kick off his reelection year by proposing a program that would make it easier for immigrants to work legally in the United States, in what would constitute the most significant changes to immigration law in 18 years, Republican officials said yesterday.
Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.
I am amazed once again how this transparently political move of appealing to Hispanic voters just before the Presidential election is treated in such a ho-hum way in this article. Who is the policy person who has devoted much of their lives to studying immigration reform?
The White House plan is being designed by Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, in consultation with the domestic policy staff.
Recall, what Bill Kristol wrote recently about the importance of the Hispanic vote to dean's chances:
Could Dean really win? Unfortunately, yes. The Democratic presidential candidate has, alas, won the popular presidential vote three times in a row -- twice, admittedly, under the guidance of the skilled Bill Clinton, but most recently with the hapless Al Gore at the helm. And demographic trends (particularly the growth in Hispanic voters) tend to favor the Democrats going into 2004.
What's most appalling is that this is just likely to be one element of a State of the Union speech laced with more bait and switch tactics. Recall the mirage of increased AIDS funding, the failure to fund Americorps...not to mention the made up Niger-Iraq nuclear connection.
Here's the reality of the prospects for immigration reform:
Some conservative lawmakers remain adamantly opposed to any changes that could be portrayed as encouraging immigration, and some members of the Republican congressional leadership are leery of the idea, making its outlook on Capitol Hill uncertain. But presidential advisers said they believe that Hispanic voters, one of the targets for Bush's reelection campaign, will give him credit for pushing for the changes even if nothing is enacted before the election.
As we noted in our very first post which cited the John DiIullio memo, this Administration is intellectually bankrupt and has been devoted primarily to producing policies designed to maintain power.