While the White House and congressional Democrats try to con Americans into believing that 10 years of Medicare cuts and tax increases and six years of new health care benefits equal deficit reduction, another hot-button issue is waiting its turn before the spotlight. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are proposing a mandatory national ID card for American workers. The card, they claim, would make it impossible for illegal aliens to work in this country. The ID card would accompany a comprehensive immigration plan that would provide a long-term path toward citizenship for some illegals already here and a guest-worker plan to help businesses that need immigrant labor.
“The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past,” writes WSJ reporter Laura Meckler. You can read the entire article here
Personally, I don’t think this is the worst idea in the world. If we want to stop illegal immigration, we need to assimilate millions and then prevent others from working illegally. An ID card would go a long way towards that, particularly since its never been a practical idea to wall off the southern United States. But I can’t be the only person who knows that Graham and Schumer’s ID card solution doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding. A biometric ID card scares both extremes in this country. Both will see it as an excessive intrusion of privacy by government that can be abused. By the time the debate’s over, the whole purpose of an ID card — to make sure only American citizens are working — will mostly be forgotten.
I am not a fan of ObamaCare, but there would be a tiny bit of optimism attached to seeing the president ram through a major policy initiative despite public disapproval and an overwhelming media machine — left and right — that is fighting over the 40 percent of independents who do not define themselves ideologically. Conservatives are better at these battles; there’s more of us than liberals and we still dominate talk radio and cable news, although the Web is an equal playing field. In the health care debate, conservatives have destroyed liberals in the battle for public opinion.
I like the debate, but I worry that we are entering a state where nothing can get accomplished if legislation is constantly defined and argued through ideological prisms of left and right or if its fate is defined through political victory or defeat. ObamaCare is a budget-harmer, but it won’t bust the budget as much as if we do nothing. If it fails, will anything replace it? Probably not. Its defeat will be hailed as a big Republican victory. If that occurs, the chances of a GOP-sponsored health care reform bill are nil. I personally would prefer seeing a change in political power because the party in power failed to make promised cuts and tax increases after health care reform was passed rather than a switch due to failing to pass a bill at all.
The same logic applies to immigration reform. The ID card idea, after its defeated, will be hailed as a win for anti-illegal alien activists, rather than as a defeat for efforts at reducing the amount of illegals working here. A healthy percentage of this dysfunction is the fault of politicians. They have allowed the deficit, and other problems, to rise to truly frightening levels. But we keep voting the same people in, and too many of us lead the chants of “kill the bill” without offering any alternative solution that is grounded in reality.
I look at the country we are leaving for our children and I’m not optimistic.
Brittanicus
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 3:56 pm:
Dump out of office every politician, Governor, Mayor, Judge or other elected official, beginning with majority leader Sen.Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Speaker,Nancy Pelosi who favors the illegal immigration occupation of this nation
Whatever the outcome of the discussions between Sen. Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham of any other partisanship play on the illegal immigration explosion. No matter if our politicians kill E-Verify, 287 (g) federal agreement with local police, slowing down on ICE raids or anything. Whatever law they try to enact, the American people will not tolerate any kind of AMNESTY. Disguise it as they may, no Comprehensive Immigration Reform will ever pass. Illegal aliens will remain “Illegal” and stay that way, as patriotic citizens, sovereignty lovers will–NEVER–allow this abomination to pass. A citizen workers ID or biometric identity card may gain some recognition, but only for legal immigrants. THOSE WHO STOLE ACROSS THE BORDER WILL–NEVER, EVER–BE ACCEPTED BY AMERICANS.
We will take the late Senator Ted Kennedy at his word, when he stated in 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli bill: “This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this.” End of Quote. SO BE IT! We take this venerated, liberal politician as his word. NEVER ANOTHER AMNESTY. We are now dealing with the monstrous backlash of astronomic costs, that have amplified in support for illegal aliens who have cheated the entitlement system. Amendments to the 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act may be possible, but if you want to settle in America, you follow the Rule of Law.and enter America through the front gates. READ THE LATEST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NEWS AT NUMBERSUSA, CAPITOL THE CORRUPTION AT JUDICIAL WATCH. INFORM EVERY STATE POLITICIAN IN YOUR CONSTITUENCY YOUR ANGRY. JOIN MILLIONS AND CALL THE WASHINGTON SWITCHBOARD AT 202-224-3121. INSURE THAT YOUR POLITICIANS- AIDE LOG IN YOUR FRUSTRATED COMPLAINTS AND DON’T TAKE–NO–FOR AN ANSWER!
AD
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 5:25 pm:
Brittanicus, I have read your hateful rhetoric on other sites. You are a dieing breed of racists and can’t wait for all of you to eventually go away.
Mark Shenefelt
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 5:35 pm:
Sign zee papers. Vher are your papers?
I fail to see how instituting yet another costly and tangled layer of bureaucracy, expense, inconvenience to workers and employers, not to mention the added privacy intrusions, will resolve the illegal immigration issue. I’m taking bets on how badly the program would be botched, and how little it realistically would do to deter illegals.
The new Utah driver license renewal process (shudder) can serve as a five-minute dress rehearsal for your national ID card program.
Vhe hahf vheys of making you talk.
Cire
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 5:35 pm:
AD,
Go move to Mexico. Adios, you anti-american, taco eating, scumbag.
Skeptical
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 5:52 pm:
You call yourself AD, but you are really a DODO. Facts are, most folks do not have enough discretionary wealth to indulge in extravegances like tolerance of economic enroachers. That time has passed.
Al Kay
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 5:54 pm:
This is the prototypical online debate on illegal immigration. Someone makes a well thought out, logical, open minded comment in favor of immigration law enforcement. Then some open border, anti-American bigot calls names and slings accusations wholly without merit, of what they are themselves guilty; bigotry.
Al Kay
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 6:02 pm:
The ID is most likely a poison pill. No way it passes given the reasons the author of this article states. Americans are afraid of our government acting like Big Brother. The politicians want to look as though they are trying to legalize illegal aliens to mollify the feared Latino voting block.
Al Kay
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 6:04 pm:
Oh, I get it. Not a serious discussion. I’m out.
flatlander100
on Mar 9th, 2010
@ 9:07 pm:
Doug:
You wrote: “I worry that we are entering a state where nothing can get accomplished if legislation is constantly defined and argued through ideological prisms of left and right.”
Much of the discussion [politely so called] above illustrates your point, I’m afraid.
Dovie
on Mar 11th, 2010
@ 10:03 am:
The biggest obstacle to a “right to work” card is that fundamentalists see it as the mark of the beast or something. They want govt to know everything about everyone else but nothing about them. They expect the drivers license people to catch illegals without asking any “good” people any questions or causing them any inconvenience.
This is somewhat off topic (which, undoubtedly will upset people) but relates to immigration. Remembering the words engraved on the Statue of Liberty, “..send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to me”, I think The Standard should have a contest for the Statue of Responsibility’s inscription. That would be really, really fun.
The Statue of Responsibility is a proposed structure to be built on the West Coast of the United States . The prototype, sculpted by project artist Gary Lee Price, consists of a pair of clasped hands oriented vertically, symbolizing the responsibility that comes with liberty.
…….”Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Responsibility
Gary Lee Price’s Biography
Price went to both grade school and high school in Montpelier, Idaho. After graduating from Montpelier High School, he went on to study at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. He then served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in southern Germany. Following his mission, Price studied in Jerusalem for six months through Brigham Young University’s Study Abroad program. He then studied at the Utah Technical College in Provo, Utah (now Utah Valley University), where he met and studied with sculptor Stan Johnson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lee_Price
Charles Trentelman
on Mar 11th, 2010
@ 1:38 pm:
ID card, just something else to fake.
What we need is legalized job permits to allow people to come here, work, leave.
What we REALLY need is the sort of effort we’re spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, halfway around the freaking world, to build up and improve the economy and social structure of a country right across our border that is a vastly greater threat to our economy and stability when (not if) it melts down in poverty and drug crime.
We wouldn’t have to spend billions flying halfway around the world, either. We could start by decriminalizing drugs and kick the props out of the whole thing.