Immigration Reform Task Force Event’s Co-Chair Jeb Bush A No-Show
Immigration Reform Task Force Event’s Co-Chair Jeb Bush A No-Show
The Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) Independent Task Force on immigration released a 118-page report on immigration policy at an event held at the CFR’s Washington office this morning. The Task Force’s co-chair and event headliner, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL), was noticeably absent due to “plane issues.” He was replaced by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s president and prominent figure in Republican politics, Richard Land.
In his absence, CFR’s Senior Fellow, Edward Alden, was asked by moderator Mark Whitaker to speak on behalf of Bush:
WHITAKER: Since Governor Bush is not here, I’m going to ask you to channel him. Obviously, he had a lot of experience with this issue in Florida. I’m sure it came up in some of the sessions of the task force. What would he say about the political obstacles and constraints if he were here?
ALDEN: That’s a tall order and I wouldn’t presume to speak for him. But, I think what he would point to is simply the fact that our experience over the last 20 years has not been a good one on the illegal immigration front. I mean there was legislation that Congress passed in 1986 that was supposed to address this problem. And it got much worse after 1986 and there’s lots of reasons for that, there’s been lots of analysis.
Watch it:
It’s too bad Bush wasn’t able to speak for himself. It sounds like he played a big role working with Clinton’s former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McLarty, Alden, and other Task Force members, in putting together one of the most sensible reports to come out on immigration yet. The Task Force thoroughly explored the benefits of immigration, without neglecting the costs. Whether immigrants choose to stay or leave, CFR finds that they have a positive effect on the nation’s economic and political interests at home and abroad. CFR’s Task Force concludes that comprehensive immigration reform that includes an “earned” path to legalization, improvements to the legal immigration system, and strong enforcement provisions, will have the long-term effect of improving national security and US international relations.
McLarty observed at the end of this morning’s event that anti-immigrant platforms have ruined the political careers of most nativists, the majority Republicans. In a recent Esquire interview with Tucker Carlson, Bush indicated that he is well aware that the demographics are against his party. There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether Bush will run for president against Obama in 2012. If that’s the case, he’s certainly doing a good job of positioning himself to win over a massive emerging voting bloc of Latinos and naturalized immigrants. Yet following the immigration raids and harsh enforcement tactics employed by his brother’s administration, he’d probably want to avoid mentioning his last name.
One Response to “Immigration Reform Task Force Event’s Co-Chair Jeb Bush A No-Show”
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Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, are fueling this growth. I’m not talking about environmental degradation or resource depletion. I’m talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty in America.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled “Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America.” To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management, especially immigration policy. Our policies of encouraging high rates of immigration are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
The U.N. ranks the U.S. with eight third world countries – India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia and China – as accounting for fully half of the world’s population growth by 2050. It’s absolutely imperative that our population be stabilized, and that’s impossible without dramatically reining in immigration, both legal and illegal.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at OpenWindowPublishingCo.com where you can read the preface, join in my blog discussion and, of course, purchase the book if you like. (It’s also available at Amazon.com.)
Please forgive the somewhat spammish nature of the previous paragraph. I just don’t know how else to inject this new perspective into the immigration debate without drawing attention to the book that explains the theory.
Pete Murphy
July 9th, 2009 at 8:51 amAuthor, “Five Short Blasts”