5/16/2006

103 MILLION, THANKS GEORGE

Even worse than Vincente Fox lite--below--the Heritage Foundation has totaled up the number of "immigrants" Bush will let in: 103 million.

How many people would the SenateÂ?s immigration plan allow into the U.S.? Until now, the focus has been on the 10 million illegals to whom the bill would give amnesty.

Robert Rector adds up all the provisions. He finds the Senate plan would admit 103 million--or one-third the current U.S. populationÂ?over the next 20 years.

The low-skill immigrants who would take advantage of the Senate plan are likely to be a fiscal burden on society.

In this paper, Rector projects increased government spending of $46 billion per year or more. The Senate immigration plan "would be the largest expansion of the welfare state in 35 years," concludes Rector.

I amending my low opinion of Bush: he is the worst president ever, James Buchanan (he who fiddled while the Civil War brewed) is a possible exception.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

James Buchanan (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States (1857–1861). He was the only bachelor president and the only resident of Pennsylvania to hold the office of President. He has been criticized for failing to prevent the country from sliding into the American Civil War and generally lacking good judgment and moral courage. On Buchanan's final day as president, he remarked to the incoming Abraham Lincoln, "If you are as happy entering the presidency as I am in leaving it, then you are truly a happy man."

...

Policies

In his inaugural address, besides promising not to run again, Buchanan referred to the territorial question as "happily, a matter of but little practical importance" since the Supreme Court was about to settle it "speedily and finally." Two days later, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott Decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Much of Taney’s written judgment is widely interpreted as obiter dictum — statements made by a judge that are unnecessary to the outcome of the case, which in this case, while they delighted Southerners, created a furor in the North. Buchanan was widely believed to have been personally involved in the outcome of the case, with many Northerners recalling Taney whispering to Buchanan during Buchanan's inauguration. Buchanan wished to see the territorial question resolved by the Supreme Court. To further this, Buchanan personally lobbied his fellow Pennsylvanian Justice Robert Cooper Grier to vote with the majority in that case to uphold the right of owning slave property. Abraham Lincoln denounced him as an accomplice of the Slave Power, which Lincoln saw as a conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and nationalize slavery. Buchanan's friends did a poor job defending him.

Buchanan, however, faced further trouble on the territorial question. Buchanan threw the full prestige of his administration behind congressional approval of the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state, going so far as to offer patronage appointments and even cash bribes in exchange for votes. The Lecompton government was unpopular to Northerners, as it was dominated by slaveholders who had enacted laws curtailing the rights of non-slaveholders. Even though the voters in Kansas had rejected the Lecompton Constitution, Buchanan managed to pass his bill through the House, but it was blocked in the Senate by Northerners led by Stephen A. Douglas. Eventually, Congress voted to call a new vote on the Lecompton Constitution, a move which infuriated Southerners. Buchanan and Douglas engaged in an all-out struggle for control of the party in 1859-60, with Buchanan using his patronage powers and Douglas rallying the grass roots; Buchanan lost control of the greatly weakened party.

Economic troubles also plagued Buchanan's administration with the outbreak of the Panic of 1857. The government suddenly faced a shortfall of revenue, partly because of the Democrats' successful push to lower the tariff. Buchanan's administration, at the behest of Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb, began issuing deficit financing for the government, a move which flew in the face of two decades of Democratic support for hard-money policies and allowed Republicans to attack Buchanan for financial mismanagement.

When Republicans won a plurality in the House in 1858, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential veto. The Federal Government reached a stalemate. Bitter hostility between Republicans and Southern members prevailed on the floor of Congress.

Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split. Buchanan played little part as the national convention meeting in Charleston deadlocked. The southern wing walked out of the Charleston convention and nominated its own candidate for the presidency, incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge, whom Buchanan refused to support. The remainder of the party finally nominated Buchanan's archenemy, Douglas. Consequently, when the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected even though his name appeared on no southern ballot. Buchanan watched silently as South Carolina seceded on December 20, followed by six other cotton states, and by February, they formed the Confederate States of America. Eight slave states refused to join.

In Buchanan's Message to Congress (December 3, 1860), he denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want it.

Beginning in late December, Buchanan reorganized his cabinet, ousting Confederate sympathizers and replacing them with hard-line nationalists Jeremiah S. Black, Edwin M. Stanton, Joseph Holt, and John Adams Dix. These conservative Democrats strongly believed in American nationalism and refused to countenance secession. At one point, Treasury Secretary Dix ordered Treasury agents in New Orleans, "If any man pulls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot".

Before Buchanan left office, seven slave states seceded, the Confederacy was formed, all arsenals and forts were lost (except Fort Sumter and two remote ones), and a fourth of all federal soldiers surrendered to Texas troops. The government decided to hold on to Fort Sumter, which was located in the center of Charleston, the most visible spot in the Confederacy. On January 5, Buchanan sent a civilian steamer Star of the West to carry reinforcements and supplies to Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, South Carolina state batteries opened fire on the Star of the West, which returned to New York. Paralyzed, Buchanan made no further moves to prepare for war.

Historians in 2006 voted his failure to deal with secession the #1 presidential mistake ever made.[1]


Substitute "Bush" for "Buchanan" and "illegal immigration" for "secession."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan

Kim du Toit said...

Howard,

While I more or less agree with your prognosis, I fail to see how the SENATE bill can be tied to BUSH. Anyway, it has no chance of passing: the House is going to gut it.

Anonymous said...

this is what i would say to the fucking niger who desided not to let them in! Nigga, (BOOM)(BOOM)12 gadge.. rofl lets the fucking works 62 hours for $4.50 an hour. Besides that it would be stupid not to cause im 18 and i know i aint going to no fucking field and picking 400 rows of every fucing vegE you can amagin. Its idiotic not to for simple fact they know if they all go back to mexico are taxes are going to fucking flip,(AG). Africans, Asians, every white race that isnt including England have all been in one situation forced and others were just let in by some high ranking coporal prick. Its a favor game who will benifit me most and if the Gov. could notice that the mexicans are actually helping already by taking (not the jobs americans need, but the jobs americans wont do)... theres way to much political bs to even get on this subject 18 (cocasian) stoned and im outsKeet.