Why Bush, McCain and Kennedy Want the Immigration Bill

There's a concept in business called "What's in it for Them?" The idea is you have to know what value and benefits a potential customer would see in a product or proposal or what incentive or benefit an employee would see in a new program or policy. If a customer doesn't see enough value or benefit to them - they won't buy the product or service. If an employee doesn't see enough incentive that benefits them - then whatever new program or policy that is being enacted is doomed to failure.

I won't pretend to know all the details of the proposed Immigration Bill but I will admit to wondering why George Bush and John McCain would be so strongly in support of a bill that is so very unpopular in the Republican base. What's in it for them?

John McCain represents Arizona - a border state with Mexico. George W. Bush is from Texas (you can take the man from Texas but not the Texas out of the man). Both Arizona and Texas are spending lots of time and money dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. My guess is that to them (Bush and McCain) the Immigration Bill represents a chance to have the Federal Government help relieve a problem that has been plaguing their states. The immigration equivalent of the S&L bailouts.

McCain and Bush have to understand that the Federal Bureaucracy can't handle the job they already have in regard to immigration. You would have to be naive to think that making the job that much bigger and throwing some money at it will result in anything close to efficient.

I think Bush and McCain also understood that the best way to get this bill passed was to rush it through so that it could not be closely examined. The rush to passage was waylaid and now the bill is in limbo and probably (hopefully) doomed to failure.

What was in it for Ted Kennedy and the Democratic Party? Easy - they assume that all the new "citizens" would vote Democrat.

Immigration Bill

I haven't studied the proposed Immigration Bill but my gut tells me its simply a bad idea. My gut also tells me that a good way to kill the bill would be to slip in an amendment that requires all Z visa applicants to show documentation for the same requirements children need in order to get into kindergarten.

That means showing documentation than they have inoculations for Diphtheria, Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Hepatitis B. My guess is that "undocumented workers" wouldn't be able to come up with the medical documentation and thus turn the Bill into a non-starter. I don't mean to turn the former Department of Immigration and Naturalization into the Department of Immunization but shouldn't it be harder to get into this country than get into kindergarten?