Since one competent President (Obama) and one incompetent President (Bush the lesser) failed to get immigration reform through, the chances of a totally disastrous one doing so make my chances at winning the next Powerball jackpot look promising.
Ouch.
Like the Russia sanctions bill, it would be possible IF the congress could actually work together. A veto proof majority could marginalize this administration in a heart beat if they so desired. Perhaps if Trump really bottoms out and stays there they might do it for their own self preservation, but until then I think Republicans will hold out hoping to pass their ideal wish list on their own.
That’s amazing. It must be the most disrespectful depiction of a President on a magazine cover since… well, since any NYDN cover these days.
But no other President was ever treated with such disdain.
I seriously wonder if Kelly’s real mission is to get the nuke codes away from trump and out of the hands of the likes of Bannon et all when trump finally has his melt down, because you know that melt down is coming.
Interest that multiple GOP senators, had almost the same response - and go on the record, so quickly after the bill went public.
It’s almost like it’s coordinated. Like the resistance, but from within the GOP. Arming for return fire for Trump’s attacks on congress?
Anyone else starting to crave popcorn?
“I think you have to consider that we do want high-tech people, but we also need low-skilled people who will do work that Americans won’t do,” McCain told Arizona Republic during a sit-down with its editors and reporters this week. “I wouldn’t do it. Even in my misspent youth, I wouldn’t do it.”
Maybe I’m just edgy on this Friday but this statement really disturbs me. Just why won’t any Americans, even aimless youths, do those jobs to the point we need to being in other people to do them? Citing that as the main reason to bring workers in has a bad undertone.
Maybe it’s just that I’m reading this as very stark (especially after seeing M-W’s word of the day) rather than the usual winking allusions.
No other president deserved it as much…
Because its not whether or not Americans will do the jobs… its whether they will do them for the money employers will pay.
They purposefully keep the wages down which leaves the jobs unfilled so they can claim they need foreign workers to exploit do the jobs.
No other President ever treated the office with such disdain (at least not in my memory).
Capitalism is a sickness… just like every other form of organized society.
Woke up feeling a bit nihilistic I guess :-/
Right, and the refusal to even entertain that thought from McCain, et al., while they say they wouldn’t do those jobs is maddening.
'Together, the two lead an unsuccessful 2013 bipartisan reform effort, coined the ‘Gang of Eight.’ ’
The past tense of the verb “to lead” is “led.” A frequent problem on this website.
Grammar police.
“What did the editor know and when did he or she know it?” - Grammar detective
Well, first off, McCain didn’t have any misspent youth like he is alluding to. He was the son of a Navy admiral, he went straight to the Naval Academy and then straight into service, until he returned from Vietnam.
But to the heart of your question its a combination of wage levels/working conditions. Picking food from the fields, particularly in places in Arizona, is extremely demanding physical work, with minimal working condition standards that most Americans know. And the pay is equally horrible. Likewise the other side of that coin is, if growers raised their pay scale, the price of food at the grocery store would sky rocket.
In context, it seems McCain is saying that he would never do farm labor, not even in his ‘misspent’ youth.
…he’s concerned about how it would impact farm labor in his home state.
He concerned for the rich farmers that get rich on the backs of underpaid undocumented workers and send him some of that money.
In order to make these low-wage jobs attractive or even sustainable for US workers, those wages must rise – meaning in increase in the price of the goods produced. Since most of this is food, and since we throw away half of the food we produce, Americans should easily be able to absorb these price rises just by using what they’re already buying, or buying less than twice what they need.
In addition to making wages more attractive, there need to be opportunities for US workers to work off-season in the communities that revolve around migrant labor, and they have to pay enough to support families through the lean months. Better yet, they should pay enough for seasonal workers to spend money in those communities that currently have to hunker down while they wait for the next wave of migrants. What I would suggest is a re-imagining of what an agricultural community looks like: in addition to open fields and barnyards, there could be manufacturing warehouses that operate on a partially-seasonal basis. Manufacturing takes up space, but very little compared to agronomy. A focus on craftsmanship, responsible sourcing and low-tech assembly, coupled with a limited seasonal supply, would employ more workers during peak production and would fairly fetch a higher price at market that “coastal elites” would be more than willing to pay. America has a nostalgic relationship with agriculture and heartland, but also a nostalgia for the old school of craftsmanship and local production. Bringing these two together could provide opportunities not just for US workers willing to labor in the fields, but also for migrant workers to put down roots and support these communities’ retail sectors year-round.
Needless to say, laborers who split their time between crops and crafts will develop skills and self-sufficiency, which not only migrants lack.
Shorter: we produce too much simply in service of capitalism.