FRANCINE BUSBY INTO THE HOME STRETCH-- IN A DISTRICT WHERE THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE IS PARAMOUNT
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While the gaggle of nutcases and loons who are offering themselves to voters as a replacement for imprisoned Republican bribe-taker Randy "Duke" Cunningham in Northern San Diego County (CA-50) fight amongst themselves about who will be tougher and more draconian on illegal immigration, Democratic nominee Francine Busby is attracting a wide array of voters from across the political spectrum. Having positioned herself as the reform candidate in a district badly in need of reform, Busby has consistently dominated the polls, with a preference rating more than double that of her nearest rivals.
And while the Republican 3-ring circus wanders off the cliff of common sense and even sanity, Busby has come up with workable immigration proposals-- to go along with her well thought out ideas on a wide number of issues that concern people in Southern California. A quick visit to her web site will bring you to a set of easy to understand immigration proposals that go beyond the weak, divisive and pathetic Republican screaming points. Captive to the competing interests of bigotry, xenophobia and racism from their hard-core base on the one hand and to the financial demands from their Big Money backers eager to keep wages low and labor unions weak on the other hand, Republicans are in complete disarray on this. They would rather posture and pander than come up with a comprehensive program.
Busby's plan has 3 main points:
-Tough penalties for businesses that continually hire undocumented workers;
-Create a "smart fence" that utilizes 21st century radar technology to prevent unlawful border crossings;
-Create a demand-based guest worker program that addresses American economic needs
Here's the statement on her website:
Francine believes that the problem with our immigration policy is that we don’t have one. On one hand, we have a "Keep Out" sign and on the other hand we have a "Help Wanted" sign. For years, we've heard heated rhetoric from politicians in Sacramento and Washington without any concrete results. Is it any wonder that citizens are frustrated and demanding action? We need to implement a comprehensive immigration policy that addresses all aspects or our immigration issues. Unfortunately, current leadership in Washington and Sacramento has been unwilling to address the issue. Francine supports John McCain's bipartisan immigration reform plan that will strengthen border security, increase penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants and ensure that no jobs that Americans want are going to immigrant workers first. The legislation would also assist states and localities with the increased costs of education and healthcare that have come as a result of federal inaction on illegal immigration. She also supports the creation of a Smart Fence that uses proven 21st Century radar technology to detect and prevent undocumented border crossings.
It seems like every time you turn on the TV you see George Bush braying like a jackass at the behest of the corporate interests which he represents, that "Americans don't want these jobs." He's said it so many times, that everyone just accepts it as true. Is it? If Bill Clinton's economic policies were based on the premise that a growing economy-- growing from the bottom up-- would lift all boats, Bush's has been based on the premise that the rest of us would survive on the scraps that trickled down from an orgy of unproductive, conspicuous consumption by multimillionaires. Bush's economic agenda has destroyed the economic underpinnings of the working and middle class while creating a tiny minority of super wealthy, self-entitled privileged parasites (in his own image).
Let's look a little closer at "Americans don't want these jobs." Well, at $5.00/hour they don't. But in a capitalist, free market economy-- as opposed to Bush-ist corporate socialism-- market conditions set wages, not schemes for importing cheap foreign labor. Today my neighbor Cynthia and I were walking around Los Feliz. There was no one picking lettuce but on every block we saw painters, construction workers, gardeners, housekeepers, nannies, carpenters. I'd say if they weren't all from south of the border, maybe there was one or two who weren't. Maybe. Americans don't want those jobs? Why not? They don't pay enough. If market conditions determined the wages for the jobs Americans would want them. But that is precisely what Bush and his Big Money backers don't want. Their alternative: serfs... virtual slaves... people struggling to stay alive and make ends meet, shipping jobs overseas and keeping taxes low with still legal offshore schemes.
Bush's plan seeks to create two America's-- a built in "us and them" dynamic that will institutionalize a caustic and stressful faultline based on class and race inside America. It should be firmly rejected while the Republicans tear each other apart over the issue. Today on CBS' Early Show Republican strategist and well-known sociopath, Bay Buchanan, called for the deportation of 11 million undocumented workers living in the U.S.-- 11 million men, women and children. You think I'm making it up? I mean could anyone actually say such a thing? Here, watch it yourself.
In two weeks voters in Southern California start the process of replacing the disgraced Cunningham. In one fell swoop the citizens of CA-50 can go from being represented by a corrupt self-serving slob who was voted "stupidest person in Congress" (tied with recently unhinged and also drowning in corruption Katherine Harris) to being represented by an intelligent and energetic voice for commonsense moderation and reform, Francine Busby. It's not too late to help her win a very winnable district, right here at the DWT ACT BLUE Page.
UPDATE: BRAND NEW POLL NUMBERS SHOW BUSBY LEADING THE FIELD
The Busby campaign just released new polling numbers. At this moment 39% of the voters in the district are supporting her and the 17 others split up the rest with her nearest competitor, a former Republican Congressman from another district who has since become a lobbyist, at 15%. The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, also showed that President Bush’s approval rating in the district is at 38% and that by a 47-38 margin, voters prefer a candidate who will provide a check on the President’s agenda over a candidate who will blindly support the President’s policies. “Voters have shown that they are not excited by the business as usual candidates: career politicians, lobbyists and millionaires trying to buy votes,” said Busby. “I’m not a career politician and I am running to make Washington work for the people of San Diego, not the special interests.”
Labels: CA-50, Duke Cunningham, Francine Busby, San Diego
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 11:26 AM
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Rachel Maddow noted last week that these next couple of weeks, with the spotlight on immigration, should be entertaining, since in addition to bringing out that basic split among the Republicans, it shines the klieg lights on the wingnuttiest of the wingnuts. If you're a Republican, do you want the public at large to know about Tom Tancredo? (The emergence of Bay Buchanan from under her slimy rock would be the punditocratic equivalent.)
Since this is a genuinely difficult issue, on which the GOP manages to have two repugnant positions, I thought readers who don't contribute to the New York Times Columnists Held Hostage ransom fund might be interested in Paul Krugman's thoughts"
March 27, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
North of the Border
By PAUL KRUGMAN
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I'm proud of America's immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia.
In other words, I'm instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration. But a review of serious, nonpartisan research reveals some uncomfortable facts about the economics of modern immigration, and immigration from Mexico in particular. If people like me are going to respond effectively to anti-immigrant demagogues, we have to acknowledge those facts.
First, the net benefits to the U.S. economy from immigration, aside from the large gains to the immigrants themselves, are small. Realistic estimates suggest that immigration since 1980 has raised the total income of native-born Americans by no more than a fraction of 1 percent.
Second, while immigration may have raised overall income slightly, many of the worst-off native-born Americans are hurt by immigration — especially immigration from Mexico. Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren't for Mexican immigration.
That's why it's intellectually dishonest to say, as President Bush does, that immigrants do "jobs that Americans will not do." The willingness of Americans to do a job depends on how much that job pays — and the reason some jobs pay too little to attract native-born Americans is competition from poorly paid immigrants.
Finally, modern America is a welfare state, even if our social safety net has more holes in it than it should — and low-skill immigrants threaten to unravel that safety net.
Basic decency requires that we provide immigrants, once they're here, with essential health care, education for their children, and more. As the Swiss writer Max Frisch wrote about his own country's experience with immigration, "We wanted a labor force, but human beings came." Unfortunately, low-skill immigrants don't pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the benefits they receive.
Worse yet, immigration penalizes governments that act humanely. Immigrants are a much more serious fiscal problem in California than in Texas, which treats the poor and unlucky harshly, regardless of where they were born.
We shouldn't exaggerate these problems. Mexican immigration, says the Borjas-Katz study, has played only a "modest role" in growing U.S. inequality. And the political threat that low-skill immigration poses to the welfare state is more serious than the fiscal threat: the disastrous Medicare drug bill alone does far more to undermine the finances of our social insurance system than the whole burden of dealing with illegal immigrants.
But modest problems are still real problems, and immigration is becoming a major political issue. What are we going to do about it?
Realistically, we'll need to reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants. Mainly that means better controls on illegal immigration. But the harsh anti-immigration legislation passed by the House, which has led to huge protests — legislation that would, among other things, make it a criminal act to provide an illegal immigrant with medical care — is simply immoral.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush's plan for a "guest worker" program is clearly designed by and for corporate interests, who'd love to have a low-wage work force that couldn't vote. Not only is it deeply un-American; it does nothing to reduce the adverse effect of immigration on wages. And because guest workers would face the prospect of deportation after a few years, they would have no incentive to become integrated into our society.
What about a guest-worker program that includes a clearer route to citizenship? I'd still be careful. Whatever the bill's intentions, it could all too easily end up having the same effect as the Bush plan in practice — that is, it could create a permanent underclass of disenfranchised workers.
We need to do something about immigration, and soon. But I'd rather see Congress fail to agree on anything this year than have it rush into ill-considered legislation that betrays our moral and democratic principles.
"It seems like every time you turn on the TV you see George Bush braying like a jackass at the behest of the corporate interests which he represents, that "Americans don't want these jobs." He's said it so many times, that everyone just accepts it as true. Is it?"
Nope, it ain't true. As you put it so well, those $5 an hour jobs can become $12 an hour jobs if you stop the flow of people desperate to work and who can be exploited.
You raise fines on businesses using illegals to $50,000 per offense and the problem ends tomorrow.
Yeah for Busby! (From a Californian, currently displaced in Texas.)
If Busby is elected in the special election will she have to be reelected in November?
Yes, if she wins she needs to get re-elected (as an incumbent) in November.
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