Immigration
Immigration
Why bother with hearings? It’s a sham
What’s the point of holding a congressional committee hearing if no one is going to bother to read the proposed legislation beforehand as happened at the April 22 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the immigration bill? The bill is 844 pages long and it was released to Congress at 2:30 a.m. April 17. Really? Why bother? It’s a sham. Just like the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
Sen. Max Baucus, one of biggest proponents of Obamacare, now admits that its implementation will be a “train wreck.” Well, what happened to change his mind? I’ll tell you what — he’s started to read the bill and he, like all in Congress, are hearing horror stories from businesses, hospitals, doctors and the public whose insurance policies are skyrocketing. Baucus has conveniently decided not to run for re-election in 2014. Cut and run. That’s what they do best.
The federal government is so out-of-control that it is now commonplace for dense legislation to receive almost zero serious scrutiny. On the local level, the Hawaii Legislature defrauds the public with their “gut and replace” tactic where bills are substantially changed because of crafty maneuvers in legislative committees without public notice. No fewer than seven bills this session were majorly amended in this deceitful manner. “Frankensteining” is another tactic, reviving “dead” bills and then adding nongermane material to them after public notice review. So watch carefully because you will likely see PLDC again in some form even though it was repealed this session.
But I digress. The proposed amnesty legislation will affect every aspect of American life, including our national security, our welfare programs, taxes and spending, and our health care system. The stakes are too high to have it jammed down our throats like Obamacare. Lawmakers are insisting on a fast-track to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens (even though no one can tell us how many illegal aliens there really are), but inside the bill is something far worse than this amnesty — work permits for 22 million foreign citizens.
Do you really think this does not permanently change the face of America? Culturally, economically and, maybe most important, after the Boston cluster-flub, it demonstrates the fact that we’ll never be secure in our own homeland.
Please remind Sens. Schatz and Hirono that government works for us and job No. 1 of the federal government should be to keep Americans safe. Secure the borders and then get back to us, period.
Michelle “Mike” Kerr
Waikoloa