That’s a rather bizarre way to look at immigration.
A more salient way to view it is, we are upside down as far as working people vs. retired people, and that’s not sustainable on many levels. Therefore we need more younger, working people to migrate here.which is precisely what most immigrants are.
Schumer ought to wander down to Susan Collins’s office and check in on McConnell’s track record for keeping his word.
What this whole effort tells me is that it is time for a change in leadership for the Dems. Not because Shumer or Pelosi were wrong in how they handled this issue but because their value in winning elections in November is exceeded by the baggage they continue to bring to the table in the eyes of the dem base and the ability of the republicans to continue to use them as boogeymen (Shumer Shutdown) to fire up their base. I see few opportunities for Shumer or Pelosi to shine this year and especially Pelosi due to numbers. Does anyone actually think that given the quick end to this shutdown that Shumer can start and sustain a second? If this is truly going to be a wave election year a winning formula cannot simply be “that we are not Trump” that was tried in 2016…and well…we know how that worked out.
This is one way to look at it.
And yet in growth economics, you basically focus on three trends, population growth, income growth and wealth or income disparity. In an advanced economy, population growth slows but income growth continues. Since the 1960s, the US population growth trend has been remarkably steady, while income growth has slowed and wealth disparity has increased after a brief decrease in the late 1960s. The age dependency ratio (and the trend) for the US is not remarkable among G7 countries, or do you think we should become more like India?
Also, it might help if I spelled Schumer correctly…
That includes Pelosi, Clyburn, et al., does it?
Ryan is emasculated by the “Freedom Caca” That’s the reason he is afraid to bypass the Pedophile (Hastert) Rule.
Agree that Mitch has nothing to lose here. I am willing to give Dems until Feb 8 to get this fixed and having CHIP off the table is a good thing. But if there is no DACA bill passed and signed by Feb 8 then they better shut it down or they can kiss midterms goodbye. The enthusiasm will be gone and this will indeed turn out to be political malpractice.
Not to mention that McConnell has the out of saying, “POTUS won’t sign the bill, so I’m not bringing it up for the vote, I don’t do pointless votes. That was implicit in the promise I gave.” There are so many ways for McConnell to renege, and so many political upsides too.
@bdtex What should Schumer have done? Very simple. (1) Foreseen the shutdown, like everyone else. (2) Planned an intense messaging campaign that was ready to go in the event of shutdown. (3) Won the PR battle that the shutdown was obviously on the all-powerful, child-hostaging GOP. (4) Held the line in the knowledge that the PR was damaging Rs. (5) Held the line some more. (6) Made a better deal.
I’m ultra-critical of Schumer and Senate Dems on this, but no way will it scupper the midterms. Hatred of Trump/GOP will bring victory in any case. It’s just enraging that D voters have to process not only the GOP assault on the democracy but also our electeds chronic inability to add value to the process.
We don’t control the press. And I’m not sure that the PR was damaging Rs more than Ds.
"But when it comes over here I know that there are a large number of our members who will not support it.”
But when it comes over here I know that there are a large number of our members who are more concerned with being re-elected than doing the right thing.
FIFY
Huh? I thought Mexico was going to pay for that wall?
I would like to think you are correct but I do not think so. I am an old man and have been a political junkie since I was 12. I have never seen a pending election, especially a midterm, with the kind of enthusiasm among Dems that this one had. Last I heard which was about two weeks ago, Dems had candidates for every house seat in the country save 18 and that number is probably lower now. I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime and I fear the Dems may have just thrown all this enthusiasm right out the window. I will be checking twitter to see how this is going over but I am not hopeful.
Yup and how did that being reasonable and moderate work out for all those red and southern state Dems that were up for reelection in 2014. I believe they went 10 for 10. They all lost.
I would have demagogued the ever-living shit out of McConnell and Republicans by accusing them of playing politics with children’s healthcare. I would have had every single Dem repeating that over and over during every single TV appearance for the last month.
Republicans holding up CHIP funding was to our advantage, not theirs. And we just handed them back that chip and let them claim it as a political victory, to boot. Now we don’t have that leverage or the leverage of a shutdown, and next time it will be solely about “Dems valuing dangerous illegal immigrants over our military,” their words.
You can always count on the incredible gall of the purity scolds to whine and complain about the manner in which others try to deal with the mess the scolds caused. The Bernie Bros dead-enders and the Stein voters wanted Trump, and they got him — so they can all STFU while the adults do what they can to mitigate the damage.
This can be a smart strategy if played properly. Republicans are calling this a win while our people are gnashing their teeth. If they don’t get DACA fixed, we’re right back to where we were before once the funding runs out; but now our side has even more incentive to hold out while Republicans are left wondering what they were celebrating. That gives us more leverage than before…
The best argument I heard from people who “hate both sides” but were mad at Democrats was that DACA could wait until after we passed the spending bill. We’ve now agreed to that, but if Republicans still play games, this argument is gone and our hand is stronger even among “independents.” But all this assumes that Democratic leaders keep the focus on DACA and not blowing up the party.
Amen!