The White House just dribbled an excerpt from the immigration speech President Obama is set to give at a Las Vegas high school at 11:55 a.m. Pacific time.
And by “excerpt,” they clearly meant a small portion that’s insignificant except for showing that the president is going to try to take credit for the bipartisan framework announced yesterday by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and the rest of the Gang of Eight.
“We need Congress to act on a comprehensive approach that finally deals with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are in this country right now.
The good news is that – for the first time in many years – Republicans and Democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together. Members of both parties, in both chambers, are actively working on a solution. And yesterday, a bi-partisan group of Senators announced their principles for comprehensive immigration reform, which are very much in line with the principles I’ve proposed and campaigned on for the last few years. At this moment, it looks like there’s a genuine desire to get this done soon. And that’s very encouraging.”
Last week, press secretary Jay Carney confirmed that the speech would basically be a rehash of his 2011 immigration reform blueprint, making one wonder how much he’s going to try to poach the work of Rubio, et al, as him own.
“These are the principles that the President believes we can now move forward on together as a nation. What has been absent in the time since he put those principles forward has been a willingness by Republicans, generally speaking, to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform,” Carney said then. “What he hopes is that that dynamic has changed.”
Rubio followed up yesterday’s announcement — and preempted Obama’s spotlight again — by just introducing an immigration bill nearly doubling the visa cap for highly skilled workers.
The bill, introduced with Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.), focuses on increasing the number of employment-based nonimmigrant visas (H-1B visas) based on economic demand, increasing access to green cards for high-skilled workers by expanding the exemptions and eliminating the annual per country limits for employment based green cards, and reforming the fees on H-1B and green cards.
“Our immigration system needs to be modernized to be more welcoming of highly skilled immigrants and the enormous contributions they can make to our economy and society,” said Rubio. “This reform is as much about modernizing our immigration system as it is about creating jobs. It’ll help us attract more highly skilled workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, which will help our unemployed, underemployed or underpaid American workers find better jobs.”
Rubio also challenged Obama on the Senate floor today to avoid trying to start an immigration “bidding war.”
“In a few hours, the president will give a speech in Nevada. And early press accounts concern me. I don’t want to turn this into a partisan thing, though. Let me just say this. If this endeavor becomes a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest, quickest and cheapest pathway to a green card possible, this thing is not going to go well, folks,” the senator said.
“We have now a very common sense and reasonable set of principles, and I hope that the president will say today that he hopes that process succeeds,” Rubio added. “But if his intentions are to trigger a bidding war to see who can come up with the easiest process, this is not a good start.”
As an Obama liberal, I have to ask is it fair to grant amnesty to only the 11 million fortunate and wealthy enough to have been able to come north to break into our country but do nothing for the others millions who wanted to come but, for good and sufficient reasons, couldn’t? It just seems so unfair that only the gamblers profit while the stable and steady, law abiding folks get nothing. Can’t we provide health care, food stamps or tuition subsidies, the vote for those who did not break our laws, just out of fairness?
Finally a thought in the right direction. It’s an excellent idea, but incomplete. For starters, how do I apply for my welfare check and how do I get it every month? The US is far away and frequent flights are too costly, so I think you should have a social security office (at least one) in every city in every country in the world, staffed with locals who can speak the local language since not everybody speaks English. Of course, scholarships and tuition subsidies should apply also to local universities and colleges because not every student in the world can move to the US. Which is why I think you should also level the playground by giving those faculties research grants like you give American universities, because students and professors who don’t have the means and opportunity to study and work in American universities are underprivileged.
And why only the vote? Why can’t I run for office too? Why can’t someone like me have an equal opportunity to reach the highest office in the world, that of the president of the USA? I think all this natural born citizen BS is disgracefully racist and should be gone ASAP. Besides, you already have a Muslim Kenyan for president, so why not an Israeli Jew? Are you anti-Semitic or something?
Oh, and while we’re at it, I have an important question: When I’m elected the first Jewish AND female president of the US, do I really have to relocate to the White House? See, I really like the weather in Southern Israel, so can’t I just run your, that is our, country from my appartment in Be’er Sheva? After all, your president tries to run my country from his Oval Office in Washington and no one says a damn thing.
You are beginning to ask the right questions.
The only conclusion I can come to is that Obama has no care or desire to uphold the law as it is written or indeed ANY law. He grants amnesty to those who snuck accross the boarder but denies sanctuary to those who are respectful enough to ask for it first? If he had any intention to obey or enforce ANY law he would consider your question. Even if he felt that such laws were onerous and therefore wrong then this question would have even more weight.
IF he had respect for the law as it was written then Amnesty in any form would be out of the question. Period. End of story.
This is not only one action but a pattern of actions where he has disregarded the laws as written in brash actions. His invasion of Libya in violation of the war powers act. The abrogations of securities law during the GM Bankruptcy. The lack of investigations on the part of MF Global, and others.
He seeks not to change or reform the law but to destroy it, and replace it with the arbitrary rule of himself and those he favors.
But I ask you, and beg with you, do not take my word nor the word of ANYONE ELSE for granted. Perform your research, find the facts for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
I suggest Schumer and McCain get out of the way. This is THE O’s personal and signature project for 2013. Anyone who wants to usurp it will be treated accordingly. This is going to be the “Obama Immigration Reform Act of 2013″, not the McCain/Schumer Immigration Act of 2013.
The Vietnam Manchurian candidate.