As I alluded to in my earlier post, Jeff Sessions has found that the Obama administration, specifically the USDA, has been partnering with the Mexican government to advertise about the USA food stamp program.
They are already advertising the variegated spender of our welfare state across the border, thumbing their nose right in the face of the American notion of immigration. People come here for opportunity, not to live on the labor of others, but to succeed on their own.
That will change if the goal is simply new SNAP enrollees. Take a moment and marvel at http://www.benefits.gov/ and think about whether or not there are enough welfare programs.
The welfare state has expanded to the point where:
- For every 1.65 employed persons in the private sector, 1 person receives welfare assistance
- For every 1.25 employed persons in the private sector, 1 person receives welfare assistance or works for the government. (Source:ZeroHedge)’
The country has hit a point where work literally does not pay. The message that projects to new potential Americans is not one of opportunity, but one of entitlement and class warfare. Our assimilation process is fundamentally damaged by the expansive welfare state, and it destroys the core of what powered our successful engine of immigration.
The last thing that this bill does not address sufficiently if people are to pursue citizenship is instilling in new entrants what it means to be an American citizen. For so long the common perception is that new citizens know our history and love and appreciate our country more than native born Americans.
In light of current events, that could certainly be questioned, but there’s no need to dive into that fertile ground for this discussion. All one has to do is look at a few facts from the Hudson Institute and ponder the real assimilation problem the country is facing:
- By 14 percentage points (93% to 79%), more native-born than immigrant citizens knew that Thomas Jefferson (not Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, or Martin Luther King) wrote the Declaration of Independence.
- By 19 percentage points (87% to 68%), more native-born than naturalized citizens knew that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves.
- By 19 percentage points (85% to 66%), more native-born than naturalized citizens knew that the U.S. fought Germany in World War II.
- By 21 percentage points (65% to 44%), native-born citizens are more likely than naturalized immigrants to view America as “better” than other countries as opposed, to “no better, no worse.”
- By about 30 points (85% to 54%), the native-born are more likely to consider themselves American citizens rather than “citizens of the world.”
- By 30 points (67% to 37%), the native-born are more likely to believe that the U.S. Constitution is a higher legal authority for Americans than international law.
If Boston has not awakened people to the fact that we have turned the heat down on the American Melting pot, I’m not sure what will.
This bill doesn’t guarantee an improvement in security, a reduction in the welfare state, nor does it say there are consequences for violating the law. Why should anybody support it?
This is not a reflection of Marco Rubio. It does conservatives no good to bash Rubio personally as a “RINO” or a “traitor” over this as it accomplishes nothing. The bill and the country would be better off with pointed criticism that forces some compromise over the content and works towards a bill that will actually reform the system and not just band-aid over the problems.
This is simply a bad bill. And it will make bad law.
It gives Democrats the amnesty they want and then ten years to beat Republicans over the head to speed up the process as a bludgeon to use in every election cycle.