It’s basically a waste of time for one chamber of Congress to spend a lot of effort on a bill that has no chance of passing the other chamber. In an ideal world, neither chamber of Congress would bother working on bills that have no chance of becoming law. But politics has its place. Sometimes you just want to highlight the fact that the other party opposes something popular. What makes zero sense, however, is to debate legislation that will never become law that divides your own party. That’s what House Republicans are doing with Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) E-Verify immigration bill.
Like it or not, our agriculture sector relies on undocumented workers. When Georgia and Alabama passed strict immigration laws this year, they quickly discovered that without workers to pick the crops farmers lost millions of dollars and food went to waste. Republicans are in complete denial about this. They simply don’t want to acknowledge economic reality. They’re incapable of crafting a solution because they won’t agree on the basic facts.
Yet, Republicans who represent agriculture-rich districts have to answer to their farmers, and they don’t want an E-Verify system that would be immediately ruinous.
California Rep. Dan Lungren (R) told The Hill that he supports E-Verify but that “it has to be accompanied by a workable guest worker program for agriculture.”
“A bill on E-Verify won’t come to the floor unless we address agriculture, I am convinced,” Lungren said.
The bill is creating some revelations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports it because the bill would supersede state and local laws making it easier for businesses to comply. Then we have Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), who made a name for himself as the rapidly anti-Latino mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, saying that he opposes the bill.
“I have no faith that the federal government is serious about enforcing our immigration laws. They haven’t, I don’t believe they will. And the Supreme Court agrees that the states have the right — why would we come along now and take that away from them? And the United States Chamber gets solidly behind this preemption — which raises all sorts of red flags for me — this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, this bill,” Barletta said in an interview with The Hill.
I’m not sure what he’s talking about with the Supreme Court, but Barletta is a classic paranoid freak.
As i said at the top, this bill is not going to become law. What’s interesting is that it might not even pass the House. Why would the Republicans bring it up then?
Because John Boehner isn’t very good at his job.
in state after state with those WHAT ABOUT IF YOU AINT WHITE, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND laws..
the CROPS ARE ROTTING.
the reality is the MONEY lost
Right now, I don’t think it matters to the Republicans: they’re running on an alternative political fuel called pure stupid. House Republicans won their majority by being stupid, Herman Cain became the frontrunner by being stupid, etc., etc., etc. Until there is a negative reward, like losing in 2012, they are not going to change.
High octane stupid.
Given the GOP’s habit of doubling down on the stupid, I think it will take losing in 2012, 2014, and 2016 — at least — before they consider changing.
Whoever becomes the next GOP frontrunner will have accomplished that by being stupid.
I think we’re finally seeing the internal contradictions starting to divide the wingnut coalition. The economic plutocrats, small business, and “social conservatives” are all finding that their fundamental interests are at odds with those of their partners. Could the Reagan idiot-glue finally be starting to dissolve?
At the same time, the Democratic coalition is becoming unglued. This may be one of those once in a century or so political realignments.
Probably. Sometimes, on some issues and attitudes, the teabaggers and Occupy have more in common with each other than they do with their respective parties.