Bushite Betrayal of Working America
By Patrick Bucannan
On Christmas Eve, a story and column in the Washington Post caught
the eye. For they tell much about the two Americas we are becoming
under George Bush and a Democratic Party that has cut its roots to
working America.
The front-page story by Mike Allen describes a Bush initiative on "immigration
reform." Seems that U.S. employers would post jobs and the wages
that go with them on a Department of Labor website. If no Americans
came forward to take the jobs, the employer would be allowed to bring
Mexican temporary workers in legally, give them the jobs, and put
them on a fast track to permanent residency and citizenship.
What would this mean? U.S. companies would offer pay at or near
the minimum wage for jobs they had open in, say, construction.
As few Americans can support a family and kids in school on $5 an
hour, many of these jobs would go begging. The employer would then
be allowed to go to Mexico, where the minimum wage is about 60 cents
an hour, or countries where it is even less, and hire all the hard-working
labor he needed at the U.S. minimum wage.
As there are billions of people on earth who do not earn anything
near $5 an hour, what the Bush plan means is throwing open America's
borders to millions of workers who will come in and suppress the
wages of America's workers.
Why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might love this is easy to understand.
But what is Bush doing to the working Americans who put him in office?
Yet, as one reads further in the story, it appears it is not Bush
who is doing this, it is boy-wonder Karl Rove. Bush's guru seized
on the idea as part of the campaign's "compassion agenda."
In addition to bringing in millions of workers who would take jobs
at a fraction of a living wage for American families, Bush will propose
that 10 million aliens, who are in this country illegally, be made
legal.
According to the Post, Rove & Co. "concluded that they
needed a response to the large population of undocumented workers
for the plan to be credible and for Bush to get credit from Hispanic
voters.
In that last clause lies the motive behind the sellout.
Rove is pandering to Hispanics, giving militants in the Latino lobbies
what they demand - some form of stealth amnesty, where those who
broke into this country are made legal residents of the United States
and put on the path to citizenship. He is buying votes by selling
out the white working class, which, presumably, has nowhere else
to go.
As a sop to those who believe aliens who break our laws should be
sent back home, the Bushites promise better border controls. In brief,
if you want Bush to enforce America's immigration laws, you must
permit him to pardon those who broke these laws. And if you agree,
Bush will promise to be more conscientious in doing his presidential
duty to defend the borders of the United States.
How are the Bushites shafting American workers? Let me count the
ways. Under Bush's free-trade zealotry, the United States has lost
manufacturing jobs for 40 straight months, the longest stretch since
the Great Depression. Under Bush, hundreds of thousands of high-tech
workers have been brought into the United States to take jobs at
wages one-half or a third of those commanded by the U.S. workers
they replace.
Under Bush, the "outsourcing" and "off-shoring" of
U.S. jobs has accelerated, with tens of thousands of jobs once held
by high-paid white collar and information-technology workers going
to Asia.
Under Bush, millions of legal and illegal immigrants have poured
into the country, putting downward pressure on wages.
Under Bush, the merchandise trade deficit has risen to $550 billion,
which represents a massive annual transfer of factories, jobs and
technology. China, Japan and East Asia are the lead looters of America's
once-awesome manufacturing base. Americans today buy nearly 15 percent
of the entire GDP of China. The Chinese buy two-tenths of 1 percent
of ours. It's what the Bushites call "free and fair trade."
What are the consequences for American workers? In a Post column, "Un-American
Recovery," Harold Meyerson says it all.
U.S. corporate profits have been rising for 7 months. In the third
quarter of 2003, the economy grew at 8.2 percent, productivity at
over 9 percent. Have our workers shared equally in the good times?
Writes Meyerson: "Since July, the average hourly wage increase
for the 85 million Americans who work in non-supervisory jobs in
offices and factories is a flat 3 cents. Wages are up just 2.1 percent
since November 2002, the slowest wage growth we've experienced in
40 years."
That's right. According to Meyerson, the wages of Americans have
gone up three cents since the economy took off on a tear in July.
Let it be said: Working America has no powerful voice in politics.
Both Democrats and Republicans are open-borders, free-trade zealots,
who troll for cash from corporate America and burn their incense
at the altars of the global economy.
America needs a new party.
