That agenda is several things and in my opinion none of them good.
- Harry Reid has introduced four versions of the "Dream Act" This legislation has not even went though committee in the Senate and could add over two million illegal aliens to the election rolls.
- Recently the Pentagon issued a report supporting repeal of don't ask don't tell. Senator McCain has predicted over a quarter million members of the armed services will resign or fail to rein-list if this policy is repealed. McCain is many things we don't like but he is a patriot. You can argue about the virtues of gays openly serving in the military in a time of peace much more easily than in a time of war.
- Unemployment insurance extensions for over two million Americans is on the table. All of us know people who are just hanging on but this has to stop some time.
It will be an interesting next few days.
A Voice In the Wilderness
It is funny how you see this.
ReplyDelete1) The Dream Act protects only those "illegal" immigrants brought across the border as children, who have known no life but the one here in the US, have gone to school here and college here, and are being given the option to gain citizenship, despite the choices their parents made, if they enroll in college or the military. I cannot see this as a bad thing.
2) McCain is many things, a fool among them. Polls among service members say that most agree with repealing DADT. Most armed forces do not have such absurd rules in place, and function. THe joint chiefs agree it is time. They outnumber, outweigh, and outrank McCain.
3) Those receiving unemployment checks DO have a limited amount of funds, limited by the amount they paid into the system. 73 or 99 weeks of an amount based on how long you worked and how much you paid into the system. The "extension" as it is being termed, is only allowing people to claim closer to their earned (and paid) benefits, not to continue to collect beyond their original amounts.
Pablo continues to get rejection notice after rejection notice, which he duly submits to the unemployment office in order to recieve the check that feeds our kids and keeps our children's medical needs met. Yet, his benefits will be cut off 60% sooner than what he paid for without this "extension."
My problem with the bill, of course, is that the temporary tax cuts, created when we had a surplus, are being extended when we are in a record deficit. Even that would be bearable, but that the squawking is coming from the 3% of Americans who don't want their tax rate to go back to 39% from 35% (the Clinton Rate, mind you, not the 50% it was under Ronnie or the 79-70% under Nixon).