Americans Want The Immigration Bill
Sony's new Vita. / Sarah Tew
Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
Here's the "clean little secret" about immigration: For all the noise from the right side of the Republican Party and the left side of the Democratic Party, most Americans want immigration reform, want some kind of guest worker program, and want some way for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status.
Actually, it's no secret — those were the findings of a recent CBS News/New York Times poll.
But you'd never know it. The Right and the Left turned up the volume and drowned out the center. When the Democratic leader in the Senate was unable to cut off debate and bring reform to a vote, the blame game began.
Republicans said the bill could have passed with a few more changes. Democrats said Republicans were trying to kill the legislation with amendments. All sides blamed the President's poor relations with Congress.
Excuse me, but when has the President ever had good relations with Congress?
I've never been one to question motives, but I have to wonder: Is this what both sides secretly wanted?
As important as it is, no politician gains much by supporting reform. To the contrary, support guarantees well-financed attacks from both the Right and the Left. Doing nothing left senators in the best place of all — they could all blame each other and head for the next fundraiser.
The problem is, the problem is still there. The loudest voices prevailed and Congress demonstrated yet again that it could not muster the political will to confront a major problem head-on and resolve it.
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By Bob Schieffer
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Here's the "clean little secret" about immigration: For all the noise from the right side of the Republican Party and the left side of the Democratic Party, most Americans want immigration reform, want some kind of guest worker program, and want some way for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status.
Actually, it's no secret — those were the findings of a recent CBS News/New York Times poll.
But you'd never know it. The Right and the Left turned up the volume and drowned out the center. When the Democratic leader in the Senate was unable to cut off debate and bring reform to a vote, the blame game began.
Republicans said the bill could have passed with a few more changes. Democrats said Republicans were trying to kill the legislation with amendments. All sides blamed the President's poor relations with Congress.
Excuse me, but when has the President ever had good relations with Congress?
I've never been one to question motives, but I have to wonder: Is this what both sides secretly wanted?
As important as it is, no politician gains much by supporting reform. To the contrary, support guarantees well-financed attacks from both the Right and the Left. Doing nothing left senators in the best place of all — they could all blame each other and head for the next fundraiser.
The problem is, the problem is still there. The loudest voices prevailed and Congress demonstrated yet again that it could not muster the political will to confront a major problem head-on and resolve it.
By Bob Schieffer
it is YOU and those of you that want the Laws of the US Circumvented for your Own reasons.,,,,and it isnt being Kind to your Neighbors.....it's being Stupid and ignoring ALL of the issues underlying the Illegal Immigration Issue, like Babies being Born at US Taxpayer Expense, and Illegals Driving without a License in Uninsured cars and crashing them into Hard Working US Citizens, and then Leaving the country, it is the Over Crowding of ER's the misuses of Public services that keep TAX payers from using them, it's a Whole HOST of issues that go WAY beyond Hate, it will eventually bring Major Violence when US Citizens begin Starving and watching People that have NO Business being here taking Jobs at Much lower wages and living 50 in a house.....it MUST stop and it Will, one way or the Other. people in the US arent going to be Ignored forever,
this is NOT just about letting people Become Americans, it's about OUR country and OUR Government doing it's Basic Fundamental Job, and Securing our Border is one of the most Important, we have NO idea who is in this Country....or why they are here, we have People paying 10's of Thousands of dollars to be brought inot the US at ANY appaent Cost ....do YOU honestly think they are here to Boost our economy ?....Snap out of it.....
Guess how many of thos Forclosed Homes were by people who werent even US Citizens ?...and had loans that they didnt even have to prove an Income ?...under the Clinton era Fair Housing laws ?.
Wake Up America!
I work in a professional office with about 110 people in the age range of 28 to 45 on average. The illegal immigration topic has been discussed many times and there are few if any people who would want that bill passed. The same statistics hold up for the neighborhood I live in of slightly more than 300 homes. You'd be hard pressed to find more than 10% of the people living here that would support this bill.
The bill does nothing to stop the flow of people coming over the border. It doesn't address the cost to the current legal citizens of the United States. I believe Americans are sick and tired of having to press 1 to speak English when they call up their cellular service provider, cable company, local government office, when they go to their ATM machine and almost every other service they use on a daily basis.
This isn't a Republic vs. Democrat issue. I believe that this is the first issue that a majority of Americans regardless of their political ties can agree upon. People want our laws to be enforced.
Are you kidding? He had a rubber-stamp Congress for years. Note that he did not seriously push this legislation during that time. All he did was give it lip service. For all his rhetoric, it doesn't appear that he really wants this to pass. He just wants to pander to the immigrants' vote.