The comprehensive immigration reform bill that has been heavily discussed in the Senate this past week has been shelved. While the bill is not “officially” dead, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pulled it off the table for the time being. I believe pulling this bill off the schedule is the right thing to do. Many Senators on both sides have already talked about making amendments in the coming weeks to get this bill back on track.
I believe this has been a small victory for the American people. This bill has been polling at lower and lower numbers. There are aspects of this bill that those on the left and the right disagree with. However, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the President have been pushing very heavily to get this bill made into law.
I know there are many people that don’t believe their voices matter in Washington. They think the two parties control everything and our voices don’t matter. I think the American response to this bill illustrates a different reality. If enough people don’t like something, and they are willing to speak out against it, our officials have no choice but to listen. That is what happened with this bill.
I think this should be celebrated because the voice of the voters was heard over everything else in Washington. For those who didn’t believe, we now know that our voices have weight.
In the coming weeks, the Senate will try to revive this bill. They will want to let the noise die off and try again. Our jobs as voters is to watch them, and when they bring it back up, we must let them know what we think. If they backed down from the voters once, we can make them do it again.
1 comment:
It is naive to expect Congress to do anything about illegal immigration, except to try to get as many new voters as possible.
This is another classic example of Americans looking to the government to solve a problem we have created, and can solve ourselves.
American consumers who buy goods and services that the illegals provide, drive this underground economy. If enough people really cared, then they could start asking questions before they spend money, and take their business to providers with legal status. I suspect that we really don't want to go through the trouble, so this will continue, much as is did in the 1980's, the last time we went through this.
When Americans realize that the real power we have is with our wallet, we will be much better off. In the meantime, we will continue to have less in that wallet, while our government pretends to be solving our problems for us.
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