As a new week and month dawns, our team pulled together an assessment of the week that was as we look forward to the continued privilege to serve with thoughts courtesy of Defense One, The Coop Scoop, Heather Cox Richardson, and Crooked Media:
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The border crisis is politically manufactured and could be politically solved.
February 1, 2024
By Marc Cooper
If you want to measure the immense depth of our current political dysfunction you need only take a quick peek into the “border crisis” to see just how far down the rabbit hole we have gone. It’s rare to see when a political party, in this case the House GOP and its sure-to-be presidential nominee, are doing everything they can right out in public that we would expect them to do only in private. But MAGA and its followers have lost any and all sense of shame and feel they no longer even need to pretend that they are interested in governing, in solving any problems, in engaging in any dialogue and they have no problem demonstrating their commitment to a continuing legal and legislative logjam for the most banal of political purposes.
First, the narcissistic psychopath that is the virtual Republican nominee starts beating the drum again about the poisonous effects of so many foreigners – migrants—coming into the country with their diseased minds and bodies, intent on poisoning our bloodline, over running our cities and perhaps even conspiring with Taylor Swift to help install a communist dictatorship. The fear mongering is way over the top but as political demagogy goes, it’s pretty much a sure winner. It always is.
We have seen historically, and quite a bit just these last 30 years, that one of the great weaknesses of groups of human beings is their irrational and often dangerous fear of other groups of human beings, especially one that is poorer and looks different and doubly so if they are darker skinned and speak a different language. The now undisputed gains in the macro-economy are rendering impotent the whining from the Right about the “Biden Economy.” So Orange Jesus has jumped horses and gone back to the old reliable of intense xenophobia.
There is no question that there is an elevated and seemingly unstoppable flow of migrants across the border and –by the way—through the airports on tourist and other visas that are then overstayed. The reasons for this inflow are myriad and have little to do with “so-called” border policy. We can tick off a few relevant factors. The Central American economy and the pillars of its civic society were pretty much demolished by Ronald Reagan’s regional wars of the 1980’s and we are now reaping the full consequences. The NAFTA package of two decades ago decimated the subsistence farmers of southern Mexico who have been forced to pull up stakes. It basically comes down to he United States having a 2000 mile long land border that butts up against an impoverished Global South. Wages for immigrant workers -legal or not- are ten to twenty times higher than they are in rural Mexico and most all of Central America. Let’s not even get to Venezuela from where some 7 million have recently fled the marvels and miracles of President Maduro’s “revolutionary” regime. Argentina is now also in the crapper with 150% inflation and an extremist president who doesn’t seem to be all there; I would expect a new contingent of Argentines to be soon joining the northward flow of migration. And Nicaraguans who have always been reticent to emigrate are now doing so in much greater number as Daniel Ortega continues to defile Sandinismo and tightens his one family dictatorship. Cuba’s economy has also entered a new phase of radical shortages and folks are leaving in droves.
If the minimum wage is Canada was 10 times higher than the U.S. – if you could make $1000 a day by picking tomatoes or washing dishes — you too might also be jumping over some border walls and trekking through glaciers to get to the Great Northern Paradise, eh?
This massive flow into the Unites states via Mexico –taken over the last 4 decades—is the largest cross-border migration in modern history – one of biblical proportions and that includes tens of millions. Trying to stop that flow, trying to stop people from flooding into the US as their societies crumbles, makes about as much sense and will be just about as effective as standing on the Dover Cliffs and yelling out loud for someone to stop the tides. It’s not going to happen.
The United States also requires a good chunk of immigration to maintain and grow the economy. It’s going to be hard for the xenophobes – and that’s what those “concerned about the border” are—to explain why at a time there is an unprecedented pile up at the border we also have the lowest unemployment rate in decades and continuing booming growth (in spite of two constant years of CW that we were headed for an all-consuming recession). We need younger, foreign workers, period. As many as a million new ones a year. If we just recognized the fact, issued the visas, and calmly regulated this flow, tehre would be no “crisis.”
America’s birth rate, like all developed countries, is anemic. And, fortunately, our educational system has not been stagnant and over the last 50 years or so and has completely re-configured the American work force. The percentage of high school grads that go to college has more than doubled since World War II. De-industrialization has reconfigured the nature of “jobs.” A lot of these changes have been for the worse. Some for the better, Either way, if one does not recognize the changes then immigration cannot be understood, let alone managed. So here’s a question for you: how many parents do you know who are staying up nights hoping that when Johnny graduates high school he can get that job down at the car wash or on the construction site while his sisters takes on the work of live-in maid? You know any kids taking students loans to study bussing tables, gardening and roofing?
The issue we face is NOT “immigration,” it is rather how to manage what is the inevitable flow of humanity to our shores. There are solutions, or at least, some remedies. And we know what they are because in the last 20 years they have been on several occasions packaged into proposed legislation, reviewed by both parties, won support from sectors of both parties and then have consistently been voted down. Comprehensive reform would create a massive number of work permits, an acceleration in processing asylum at the border, more immigration judges, and some rational path to legalization and residency for the 10-15 million already resident without legal standing. Remember that while the President has some, and quite limited, authority to decree policy tweaks at the border, it is congress and congress alone that must approve and shape that policy. And congress has consistently failed, over and over again. Much like opposing abortion, they would rather have the political issue than the political remedy.
We are seeing that in spades this week. President Biden, apparently, has forced a Democratic capitulation in a yet-to-be-revealed “border deal” with a group of Senate Republicans. Sounding exactly like Donald Trump. Biden has twice said this week he is ready “to shut down the border tomorrow” if Congress approves this deal we have not seen. I assume that the agreement has a number of points that Democrats want: funding for Israel and Ukraine (which has been cynically tied to the border issue) and some forward-looking reforms for migrant processing. The Republicans have put Biden in a jam that I am sympathetic to but his mouthing off about closing the border is not only political suicide for a Democratic candidate, it is also immoral and repulsive and should not be rationalized. It will only heighten the ignorance and undue fear.
The good news for Biden, though, is that the Republicans are even more craven than he is so he probably won’t get his Trumpian chance to shut the border.. Mitch McConnell told his congressional troops and House allies that they should think twice about passing this measure as it would upset Donald Trump who wants no solution, just the issue itself to harp on for his campaign of fear. The religious nut, House Speaker Mike Johnson, is also blocking the bill as he does not want his name on a measure that would require some Democratic votes. As I write this on Wednesday, I think there is little to no chance of it passing unless Johnson can skew it farther to the right – thereby losing the Democratic and even some Republican Senate votes. So as of today, a 99% chance of no immigration legislation.
Instead, we have the absolutely bizarre tragi-comedy today of MAGGAT House Republicans moving to impeach DHS Secretary Alexander Mayorkas for his alleged failure to control the border and allow the current “invasion.” Impeachment should be used for high crimes and misdemeanors, not for policy differences and the only crime Mayorkas has committed is working for a Democratic president. With a 3 seat majority, it’s not clear the Republicans even have the votes to get to formal impeachment. And if they do, the Senate is not going to touch this travesty with a ten foot pole. This is100% political theater.
Instead of doing anything to remedy the border crisis, the MAGGATS are going to do NOTHING except engage in right wing virtue-signaling. Scapegoating Mayorkas to earn more Brownie points among its riled up and howling base of racists. Indeed, imagine a series of interviews with MAGGAT voters in, say, Iowa or Wisconsin and ask them directly, how is it, sir, that immigration is affecting “your life” apart from someone to cart away your dirty dishes? No matter. Jews had little to no effect on the lives of ordinary Germans and, initially, Hitler even downplayed antisemitism because he thought the Germans wouldn’t but it. Goebbels thought differently and finally convinced Hitler that with enough propaganda, Germans can be convinced that Jews were at the root of all the indignities average Germans experienced. And the rest is history.
Which brings us to Fox News, the caravans, the breathless reports about mentally-ill fentanyl-armed migrants storming the border, and so on and so on. Nothing is going to change policy-wise as a debased Republican House works only for The Leader and not for us. It’s going to get worse and do not buy into the now relentless propaganda. Biden cannot continue to show weakness on this issue and cower and capitulate to Republican demands. That’s why he must take immediate action to shut down the current stunt run by the fascist and rogue Governor of Texas who is defying the Supreme Court by permitting his National Guard to block Border Patrol from the borders! That guard must be immediately federalized and Biden must take command. Likewise with the trucker bozos and their “Army of God” currently barreling toward the border. There are legal ways to stop this before it spins into bloody violence and now is the time.
One final piece of news: Nancy Pelosi.
I’ve never been a fan of hers. I’ve always seen her as more of a hardball pol from a politically connected East Coast family rather a benign Queen of Social Justice from San Francisco. This week, the octogenarian former speaker threw some of her admirers for a loop when she loudly suggested –as if she were Richard Nixon-- that the FBI investigate what she said are links between some ceasefire in Gaza activists and Russia. Wowza! She tried a couple of times to clarify and water down such a stupid and chilling statement but I am afraid its substance still sticks. Apart from its appalling stench disregarding civil liberties, it’s about as reckless a statement she could have made. Somewhere between 65-80% of Democrats favor a cease fire and Nancy’s not gonna make them rush to the polls to reward her or the party for her insulting statement. There’s an easy solution here. Nancy Pelosi should resign and take the time to enjoy her $200m in net worth while she’s still young enough.++
One of the biggest stories of 2023 is that the U.S. economy grew faster than any other economy in the Group of 7 nations, made up of democratic countries with the world’s largest advanced economies. By a lot. The International Monetary Fund yesterday reported that the U.S. gross domestic product—the way countries estimate their productivity—grew by 2.5%, significantly higher than the GDP of the next country on the list: Japan, at 1.9%.
IMF economists predict U.S. growth next year of 2.1%, again, higher than all the other G7 countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projects growth of 4.2% in the first quarter of 2024.
Every time I write about the booming economy, people accurately point out that these numbers don’t necessarily reflect the experiences of everyone. But they have enormous political implications.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Democrats embraced the idea that using the government to support ordinary Americans—those on the “demand” side of the economy—would nurture strong economic growth. Republicans have insisted since the 1980s that the way to expand the economy is the opposite: to invest in the “supply side,” investors who use their capital to build businesses.
In the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration, while the Democrats had control of the House and Senate, they passed a range of laws to boost American manufacturing, rebuild infrastructure, protect consumers, and so on. They did so almost entirely with Democratic votes, as Republicans insisted that such investments would destroy growth, in part through inflation.
Now that the laws are beginning to take effect, their results have proved that demand-side economic policies like those in place between 1933 and 1981, when President Ronald Reagan ushered in supply-side economics, work. Even inflation, which ran high, appears to have been driven by supply chain issues, as the administration said, and by “greedflation,” in which corporations raised prices far beyond cost increases, padding payouts for their shareholders.
The demonstration that the Democrats’ policies work has put Republicans in an awkward spot. Projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are so popular that Republicans are claiming credit for new projects or, as Representative Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) did on Sunday, claiming they don’t remember how they voted on the infrastructure measure and other popular bills like the CHIPS and Science Act (she voted no). When the infrastructure measure passed in 2021, just 13 House Republicans supported it.
Today, Medicare sent its initial offers to the drug companies that manufacture the first ten drugs for which the government will negotiate prices under the Inflation Reduction Act, another hugely popular measure that passed without Republican votes. The Republicans have called for repealing this act, but their stance against what they have insisted is “socialized medicine” is showing signs of softening. In Politico yesterday, Megan Messerly noted that in three Republican-dominated states—Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi—House speakers are saying they are now open to the idea of expanding healthcare through Medicaid expansion.
In another sign that some Republicans recognize that the Democrats’ economic policies are popular, the House last night passed bipartisan tax legislation that expanded the Child Tax Credit, which had expired last year after Senate Republicans refused to extend it. Democrats still provided most of the yea votes—188 to 169—and Republicans most of the nays—47 to 23—but, together with a tax cut for businesses in the bill, the measure was a rare bipartisan victory. If it passes the Senate, it is expected to lift at least half a million children out of poverty and help about 5 million more.
But Republicans have a personnel problem as well as a policy problem. Since the 1980s, party leaders have maintained that the federal government needs to be slashed, and their determination to just say no has elevated lawmakers whose skill set features obstruction rather than the negotiation required to pass bills. Their goal is to stay in power to stop legislation from passing.
Yesterday, for example, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who sits on the Senate Finance Committee and used to chair it, told a reporter not to have too much faith that the child tax credit measure would pass the Senate, where Republicans can kill it with the filibuster. “Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good…means he could be reelected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley said.
At the same time, the rise of right-wing media, which rewards extremism, has upended the relationship between lawmakers and voters. In CNN yesterday, Oliver Darcy explained that “the incentive structure in conservative politics has gone awry. The irresponsible and dishonest stars of the right-wing media kingdom are motivated by vastly different goals than those who are actually trying to advance conservative causes, get Republicans elected, and then ultimately govern in office.”
Right-wing influencers want views and shares, which translate to more money and power, Darcy wrote. So they spread “increasingly outlandish, attention-grabbing junk,” and more established outlets tag along out of fear they will lose their audience. But those influencers and media hosts don’t have to govern, and the anger they generate in the base makes it hard for anyone else to, either.
This dynamic has shown up dramatically in the House Republicans’ refusal to consider a proposed border measure on which a bipartisan group of senators had worked for four months because Trump and his extremist base turned against the idea—one that Republicans initially demanded.
Since they took control of the House in 2023, House Republicans have been able to conduct almost no business as the extremists are essentially refusing to govern unless all their demands are met. Rather than lawmaking, they are passing extremist bills to signal to their base, holding hearings to push their talking points, and trying to find excuses to impeach the president and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Yesterday the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which is firmly on the right, warned House Republicans that “Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing” other than “political symbolism,” and urged them to work to get a border bill passed. “Grandstanding is easier than governing, and Republicans have to decide whether to accomplish anything other than impeaching Democrats,” it said.
Today in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin called the Republicans’ behavior “nihilism and performative politics.”
On CNN this morning, Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) identified the increasing isolation of the MAGA Republicans from a democratic government. “Here we are both on immigration and now on this tax bill where President Biden and a bipartisan group of Congress are trying to actually solve problems for the American people,” Goldman said, “and Chuck Grassley, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson—they are trying to kill solutions just for political gain."
Notes:
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/
31/us-economy-2024-gdp-g7- nations https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/
09/politics/biden-republicans- infrastructure-law/index.html https://www.washingtonpost.
com/opinions/2024/02/01/gop- blunders-nihilism/ https://www.washingtonpost.
com/us-policy/2021/11/05/ house-infrastructure- reconciliation-vote/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/
06/15/us/child-tax-credits- pandemic-colorado.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/
31/politics/house-vote-tax- bill-child-tax-credit/index. html https://www.politico.com/news/
2024/01/31/southern- republicans-obamacare-00138109 https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/
31/media/taylor-swift-travis- kelce-right-wing-media/index. html https://www.cbsnews.com/news/
child-tax-credit-bill-senate- vote/ Twitter (X):
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1753093857527382355 IanSams46/status/
1752511045187383334 TheDemocrats/status/
1753101008086171900 RepSwalwell/status/
1752870024014975228 TristanSnell/status/
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Another marker for today: Yesterday, after the U.S. military’s strike on more than 85 targets at four facilities in Syria and three in Iraq used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the militant groups it sponsors, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was clear that there would be additional responses to the attacks on U.S. troops. Today, U.S. and British forces launched strikes against 13 military targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis, who have disrupted international shipping by attacking international vessels in the Red Sea. The coalition struck against “deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars,” according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Austin continued: “This collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels. We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways.” |
We close out with the following:
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