Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/339581
Our great nation's immigration problems aren't going to disappear and continued inaction will only make matters worse. Despite this House Republicans refuse to take up any immigration reform legisla- tion although millions of illegal aliens now make America their home, work, pay taxes, and otherwise appear to be legitimate citizens. Now with a tide of over 50,000 un- accompanied chil- dren crossing our border from Central America it is essen- tial that we both clarify and rectify immigration policy. America does not provide a means for individuals to fill lower-skilled jobs with legal visas in year-round in- dustries like construction, landscaping, hotels and res- taurants. As a result, illegal immi- gration has continued, albeit at lower levels due to the post-2007 economic slow- down, and now appears to be increasing. The influx of child mi- grants at the border is one manifestation of the lack of economic-based visas. Par- ents who first came to the country to work have found that increased border secu- rity means once making it to the United States it is not advisable to travel back and forth, as people did many years ago. Having established eco- nomic footholds superior to those in their home coun- tries many have sent for their children to join them, with gang violence an addi- tional push factor driving young people from Central America. America's policies on hir- ing skilled foreign nationals also remains problematic. H-1B temporary visas are generally the only practical way to hire a skilled foreign national to work long-term in the United States, yet the annual quota on those visas has been exhausted before the end of the fiscal year for the past 12 years. This has caused employ- ers to lose skilled individu- als to foreign-based competi- tors and hire the individuals themselves to work outside the country. Either way it means more investment and innova- tion takes place outside the United States. Another problem is the low annual quota on employ- ment-based green cards (for permanent residence) and the per country limits within those quotas. That has meant immi- grants from India and China in particular can wait 10 years or potentially much longer for a green card. That leaves many highly skilled individuals wonder- ing whether America is the best place to fulfill their ca- reer ambitions. We also lack an en- trepreneur visa to allow individuals with good ideas and capital to gain a temporary visa or permanent residence to create jobs in America. Senate immigration bill (S-744) contains a new year-round visa for low- skilled work and with a set of rules that appear usable, if not ideal, for both employ- ers and employees. On high skill immigra- tion, the best approach for growth, innovation and the U.S. economy would com- bine the best features of the House and Senate bills. That would mean se- lecting the less-restrictive House approach to H-1B vi- sas; adopting the Senate approach to employment- based green cards, since that provides more green cards and will eliminate the current backlog; and tak- ing the best elements of the House and Senate measures on immigrant entrepreneur visas, particularly the pro- vision in S. 744 to permit a renewable temporary sta- tus for a foreign-born entre- preneur. These bills currently pend- ing in the House and Sen- ate would surprisingly solve a number of these problems and make a start on solv- ing the others if only intran- sigent conservatives would consider what is best for America, as opposed to their partisan crusade against il- legal aliens. The fact is that they are not in the shoes of those that desperately seek work in our land by the mere con- sequence of where they were born. Talk about entitlement consciousness run amuck, our unproductive congress- men and women are the ones we should be hassling with their high salaries and bene- fits, not those who only want an opportunity to work and raise their families. A recent Gallup poll of which institutions Amer- ican's have great or some confidence in revealed that Congress came in dead last with a paltry 7% favorabil- ity rating. No doubt this minority was made up of those that benefit from things as they are, stock brokers, lawyers, politicians, and others that don't labor as much as they pontificate and churn. American voters must pressure their legislators to enact immigration policy re- forms now, before the crisis burgeons to unprecedented proportions. It is our responsibility as those that benefit from the bounty this country pro- vides to ensure our elected officials enact policies that make our county strong, fair, and productive. It is increasingly appar- ent that we are all failing in these endeavors and have much to consider celebrat- ing Independence Day in an increasingly interdependent world. Positivepoint Independence in interdependent world Cartoonist's take CAPTION My reverence for our most basic of founding documents, The Declara- tion of Independence, is most acute for the simple and absolute proclama- tion in the second para- graph that begins "We hold these Truths to be self-evi- dent …" What follows is thereby placed beyond debate and dis- pute, subject to no one's interpre- tation or approval, let alone con- tingent upon the permission of mortals, by way of the laws of men. This is what those who re- ject, even deride, the notion of a Supreme Being, cannot es- cape: If "unalienable Rights … Life, Liberty and the Pur- suit of Happiness" are not granted by "Nature and Na- ture's God," then they are in some way granted by other hu- mans, other humans who can, if only by sheer force of num- bers, deprive someone of those same rights. It bears great sig- nificance that the "Pursuit of Happiness" was originally "Property," which was thought too restrictive a concept for Di- vine endowment. It could eas- ily be limited to what one can lay hands upon in commerce, or owned, measured and held against other claimants. The "Pursuit of Happiness" is a most open-ended, impossi- ble-to-limit concept meant to en- compass anything that ema- nates from one's own productive creativity—be it music, machin- ery, theories, poetry, designs, an- imals, food, commerce, clothing, meals, wages, interest income and on and on. You have, as far as the Founders were concerned, no obligation to part with any of it under the color of authority or power. Hence, we have the beauty and blessing of private charity and mag- nanimity towards those less fortunate; hence, the inherent dishonesty and unfairness of theft at the behest of government for the seemingly laudable purpose of "redistributing" to those quali- fying for "benefits." As Walter E. Williams is wont to explain, if someone walked in your door and helped them- selves to your food, stuff or cash, you'd throw them out and call the police. And yet, we are obli- gated under threat of fines, im- prisonment or other violence to pay from our abundance into a common store, called govern- ment, that has no restrictions on how much of your earnings can be "shared" with, not necessar- ily the less fortunate, but those meeting the program's loose cri- teria. You may remember Nobel economist Milton Friedman's ex- planation of the sliding scale of oversight, thrift and concern in spending money: 1) You spend your own money on you, exer- cising great care for the quality and value of your purchase; 2) You spend your money for some- one else and have similar care but not quite so much due to someone else benefiting and liv- ing with your choice; 3) Someone else spends money on you and you really have little say about the cost, quality and appropriate- ness (they use #2); 4) And finally, when someone else spends your money on yet another unrelated person or party, they exercise the lowest levels of care, concern and attention to value for the price. Government benefit programs, at best, rise no higher then #4; i.e. complete lack of economic thrift or value. In "The Last Founder Stand- ing" (7/03/2013), FirstThings. com blogger James Ceaser wrote of the relation of Thomas Jef- ferson to July 4th. Jefferson in- cluded, among a short list on his gravestone, "Author of the Dec- laration of American Indepen- dence." While a five-person com- mittee was charged by Congress to write the Declaration, "Jeffer- son was given the task of prepar- ing the initial draft," to which changes and modifications were made in committee and by Con- gress. "The Fourth today commonly celebrates the Founding, under- stood as the Declaration Of In- dependence (and the Revolu- tionary War) and the Constitu- tion. Most Americans today … treat the Founding—and thus the Declaration and Constitution— as whole. In this Americans fol- low Abraham Lincoln, who lik- ened the Declaration to 'an ap- ple of gold' and the Constitution to the 'frame of silver' around it. The view that the Founding is a whole was denied by the Aboli- tionists, by the Confederates, and by many Progressives, each of whom, for different reasons, saw the two documents as being at odds with each other." It may surprise you to find out that, to Jefferson, the Consti- tution was the more malleable, changeable and even replaceable document, suggesting in corre- spondence that each generation write its own Constitution. "One document, however, does not lose its luster with the passing of time. Nor can it ever be improved by amendment; its truth is eter- nal. By the testimony of one man, then, there would appear to be only one Founder left standing: the author of the Declaration of Independence. Praise to Jeffer- son, then, though perhaps less than he, in his subtle audacity, demanded." It is more-than-useful to recall Calvin Coolidge's speech on the sesquicentennial of the Declara- tion in 1926, explaining why the Declaration remains authorita- tive in American political life: "About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well dis- card their conclusions for some- thing more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter." Continued next week. Dennis Garton will be at to- night's Tea Party Patriots meet- ing, 6 p.m., Westside Grange. DonPolsonhascalledRedBluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it The eternal lessons of the Declaration of Independence Our unproductive congressmen and women are the ones we should be hassling with their high salaries and benefits, not those who only want an opportunity to work and raise their families. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Hopefullysomeofthatisforstreet maintenance. They annexed to the city to include the truck stops, but do not take care of the roads they annexed. Linda Hayes: On the passage of Corning's budget for the upcoming fiscal year Bless this little girl and those who helped make her wish a reality... This was a very heart warming story! Thank you Daily News for sharing. Kelly Cangelosi: On story about a wish granted by Make-A-Wish Foundation Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Don Polson It may surprise you to find out that, to Jefferson, the Constitution was the more malleable, changeable and even replaceable document, suggesting in correspondence that each generation write its own Constitution. Richard Mazzucchi OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, July 1, 2014 » MORE AT A6