Posts Tagged ‘Arizona’

Taxed Enough Already

TEA Party members get a mixed bag of wins/losses from Congress, as it sends the Tax Cut Bill to Obama’s desk for signing on Friday, December 17th.  Though the bill contains a two year extension of “The Bush Tax Cuts”, Obama negotiated additional spending of $858 billion within the legislation.  Click the image above to read more.

In a Far More Aggressive Move to Limit Government,

How Omnibus was Defeated GOP Kills Omnibus Omnibus: The Ugly Truth Omnibus Funds Abortions?

U.S. Senate blocks DREAM Act,

passes repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

In a Saturday session a week before Christmas, the U.S. Senate voted failed to overcome a procedural vote to move the DREAM Act forward.

The Senate shot down the DREAM Act motion on a 55-41 vote.  The U.S. Senate did invoke cloture for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the law which prohibits openly gay or lesbian citizens from serving in the U.S. military.  The legislation went on to pass the full Senate late on Saturday afternoon.

U.S. Senate blocks DREAM Act “Dream Act” Bill Blocked

U.S. Senate repeals ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal celebrated in S.F.

Who Voted for What?

Click the our U.S. Senate image to begin your research

RATP was honored to host guest speaker Phyllis Schlafly at special July 23, 2010 meeting.

Nearly 500 people came to watch Phyllis Schlafly talk with the RATP group.

Now, you can watch Phyllis’ discussion on various topics, online.  Make sure to listen to the great question and answer period after her talk.  Click Here to view the Introduction by Eagle Forum Executive Director  Colleen Holmes, plus 5 videos of Phyllis.

This is a difficult post to write, the subject matter is grisly to say the least. But after listening to the recent firestorm of protest over the new Arizona immigration law, it is obvious that a lot of people are not really looking at all sides of the story squarely. It’s always easy to get caught up in emotion, but it’s difficult to think through all of the ramifications of our ideas and decisions to come to a more reasoned solution.

The Arizona border situation is a complete mess. Simply take a look at this poor person in the picture. They tried to walk across the Arizona desert and this is what can happen when you are ill prepared for what can only be described as a desert marathon. And what happened to the ‘coyotes’ to whom this person paid hard earned cash for their help and guidance across this difficult landscape? Nowhere to be found.

The victims of the federal government’s lack of interest in securing our borders include many like this person. They die trying to cross. This is a human tragedy. Obviously, the United States cannot simply open our borders completely and let everyone who wants to come enter. We are no longer the pre-industrial revolution country in need of millions of new immigrants to build the country from the ground up. We are now a post industrial society where education is critically important to success.

Yes, there are still jobs for new immigrants from the under developed world, but not nearly as many as there once were. Illegal immigration makes climbing the income ladder extremely difficult for those who are here and trying to work their way up the ladder. We still need immigrants, but they should come legally, in a measured stream, with some controls in place. What’s a shame is that illegal immigration has now given legal immigration itself a bad rap, a rap that’s not necessary. America can still prosper and grow with the help of new immigrants, as it always has, but we cannot continue to serve them, and ourselves, so poorly as this person was served.

Americans are a compassionate people, which is one reason why they support the new Arizona Law so broadly. So why does the political class have such a problem trying to understand this issue. The simple and I believe correct answer is that they are not trying to resolve the illegal immigration issue at all. They are manuevering for votes. This is why there is such a huge gulf between the citizens and our elected officials. We see the issue as the issue, they see the issue as political strategy.

My grandparents, all 4 of them, were immigrants to this country. They came legally, some through the famous Ellis Island. On a visit to New York a few years ago, I had a chance to see what they saw when they first set foot in America. It was an emotional experience. And like the poor person in the photo above, they came from an impoverished land, where they had little hope of a better life and less hope for freedom. They also came here legally. But the country needed lots of immigrants back then, and they helped to build the country we are today.  Today, we need a new solution to the immigration issue, one that respects the human tragedy that can result when we do not make our border secure, and one that understands the economic realities of life in modern America. C’mon, politicos, take a close look and tell me that we can’t do better than this!

If you want more information about the illegal immigration and the suffering it causes, you can start with some facts at good old wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrant_deaths_along_the_U.S.-Mexico_border. In 2000, the number of people who died soared to over 500, and these are only the ones we know about.