Politics

Stimulus Bill — Really Bad!

Unbelievable – Democratic Leadership Requires Stimulus Job Access for Illegal Aliens!

E-Verify amendments stripped, use our free fax-sending system to make your opinions known.

From Roy Beck — NumbersUSA

House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid and the Obama White House were absolutely certain about one thing for the House/Senate negotiating committee on the Stimulus Bill: There was to be no special restriction to keep illegal aliens from getting new jobs created by the bill at a cost of $250,000 to $500,000 each. [1]

The Democratic leadership of our federal government made it clear that there has been no change from eight years of a Republican White House that let the Chamber of Commerce call the shots on immigration.

Pelosi, Reid and Obama gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce exactly what it wanted — freedom for unscruplous businesses to continue to hire illegal aliens at the same rate as in the past, and to use the hundreds of billions of Stimulus dollars to do it.

Rep. Calvert (R-Calif.) was the one who inserted E-Verify language into the Stimulus Bill in the House Appropriations Committee.  Tonight, he stated the sad betrayal of the American workers. His words take on a partisan tone. As a studiously non-partisan organization, NumbersUSA is uncomfortable when issues are stated in partisan ways. But in this case, there is no question but that the national Democratic leadership sold out the interests of the American working man and woman.

Tonight, behind closed doors with no input from House Republicans, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid crafted the so-called compromise on the stimulus bill.  What we now know is that while billions of American taxpayer dollars are going to be spent, there is no assurance that the jobs created will go to American workers.  The two amendments that had been accepted by the House Appropriations Committee were stripped without discussion or debate.

— Rep. Ken Calvert of California

The House of Representatives had included two provisions in its Stimulus bill to make sure that the huge sums of money would create jobs only for legally authorized workers. One provision reauthorized the current voluntary E-Verify program which expires March 6. The other required local government or business receiving stimulus funds to run their new hires through the electronic 99.5%-accurate E-Verify system.  There were no publicly stated objections to this.

But the U.S. Senate repeatedly brushed aside Alabama Sen. Sessions‘ efforts to introduce the same protections into its Stimulus bill.

When the House and Senate negotiators sat down, the leader of the House, Rep. Pelosi, tossed aside the will of the Members of the House of Representatives and did the bidding of the most unscrupulous businesses of America.

The American people have repeatedly voiced their support for employment verification and yet we find that once again special interests win out.  The one candle in the darkness of this disastrous bill was the reauthorization and requirements to use E-Verify.  Now all we are left is a bill that places illegal immigrant interests above those of hard working American families and leaves the bill at the foot of future generations.

— Rep. Calvert

Furthermore, Pelosi, Reid and Obama also demanded the stripping of the one protection that had been included by the Senate.

Sen. Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Grassley of Iowa had gotten unanimous approval in the Senate to include language that bailed-out banks could no longer be allowed to fire American workers and replace them with foreign workers.

Pelosi, Reid and Obama made sure that banks can continue to discriminate against Americans in favor of cheaper more compliant foreign workers.

Friends, this is an injustice that will come to plague the perpetrators as time moves on.

But the extent to which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce can continue to call the shots on using illegal foreign workers and importing additional authorized foreign workers will depend on how hard each of you reading this will work to spread this story in every newspaper, talk show and website.

These closed-door affronts to fair-play and compassion were executed because the leaders believed they will get by with it.

…. because they believe the American people are too tired, too dispirited and too baffled by the complexity of the trillions of dollars of bail-outs to hold their leaders accountable.

I hope you will use our free fax-sending system to make your opinions known.

The negotiated Stimulus Bill is expected to come to a vote in the House and Senate this week and then go to Pres. Obama for his signature by next Monday.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

P.S. As you write your comments, please try to stay civil. It will be difficult because you will be so angry. But what we all need to hear is quick stories of what you have done to spread this tale of betrayal to others. Let’s be inspired to greater action by each other’s deeds large and small.
[1.] Robert E. Rector: “the typical low skill immigrant household will cost taxpayers $1.2 million”
Views and opinions expressed in blogs on this website are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect official policies of NumbersUSA.
Article Source: NumbersUSA.com

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UPDATE:

From:   Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date:   Thursday 12FEB09     12:30 p.m. EST
Pelosi delaying House Stimulus vote — Phone calls still have chance for miracle on E-Verify
DEAR FRIENDS,Call your Members of Congress. Go to your Action Buffet corkboard and take all actions offered there.Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121.Get direct info on your Congress Members here.The outcry against the devious, secretive and undemocratic way that the conference Stimulus Bill was negotiated has led to House Speaker Pelosiputting the House vote off until Friday.Even though Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid and the Obama White Househave made it clear that they will not accept any limitations on illegal aliens in the Stimulus Bill, there remains an outside chance that your phone calls this afternoon could tip the balance somewhere.Long-time NumbersUSA members know that we never give up as long as there is any chance at all.The people who most need calls are Democratic Senators and these 3 Republican Senators: Snowe (R-Maine), Collins (R-Maine) and Specter (R-Penn.) If any two of those 61 Senators will tell Sen. Reidthat they won’t vote for the Stimulus without an E-Verify protection of American workers, we will get the protection.IT WILL TAKE ONLY 2 SENATORS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING.Phone with these key points:”Although the Senator has made it clear that he/she will vote for the Stimulus Bill, he/she has the power to slow down the process long enough to correct a huge injustice in the Conference Report.””Please tell Sen. Reid that your Senator will not be able to vote for the bill until the bill clarifies that jobs created by the Stimulus must go to American workers and others who are legally authorized to work in this country.”

“I am sure the Senator does not want this bill he/she has created to spend this precious money hiring illegal foreign workers. Please decline to pass the bill until the E-Verify protections passed by the House are put back in.”

Go to the NumbersUSA home page to read my full blog and our news stories about what is happening with the Stimulus Bill

THANKS,

Staff