It's entirely clear to both political parties that America's immigration system is broken. Republicans tend to complain about the influx of illegal immigrants while Democrats tend to complain about the difficulty in receiving a citizenship. Whatever bipartisan immigration reform the senate drafts will need to deal with both of these concerns.
Yes, there are many people coming to America illegally, but to say President Obama allows this is insane. On a per monthly basis, the President has deported more illegal aliens than any other. President Obama is not weak on border security and these false allegations that he is need to stop,
That makes step one of immigration reform securing our borders because illegal immigration is a problem and a security issue. Step two is recognizing that we can't deport the millions of illegal aliens already here. Not only because it is challenging from a practical standpoint but also because a lot of these people came to America when they were young, went to high school, served in the army, or have established themselves in American life in another way. This path to citizenship must be rigorous and include background checks, payment of all back taxes, and all of the immigrants applying must go to the back of the line behind people wishing to immigrate legally. Step three is making legal immigration easier especially to those qualified to work in STEM jobs in which the US is clearly lacking.
There are many other steps that a comprehensive immigration reform package must include such as an employment verification system, but the three steps outlined above are the most essential and the most agreed upon (at least when put together).
Monday, February 18, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Minimum Wage
After the President's state of the union proposal to raise the minimum wage to 9$ an hour and tie future increases to the cost of living, some Republicans (including Speaker Boehner) balked at this proposal. Tying the increase of minimum wage to the consumer price index would take away a key bargaining chip for those opposed to increasing wages. Ironically, it was Governor Romney who originally proposed this, but the Republicans still disapprove.
Fiscal conservatives should be for raising the minimum wage because at its current levels the government is forced to subsidize workers living below the poverty level. At a purely philosophical level as well a working person should not be subjected to living in poverty. Raising the minimum wage would increase revenue in taxes and decrease welfare spending, so this should be a no-brainer deal for Republicans.
However, a somewhat legitimate argument against raising the minimum wage is that it would reduce employment. This is a contested point as there is evidence on both sides of the debate. I am not an economist so I will not get into this point but in short the evidence seems to imply that greatly increasing the minimum wage would have an effect on employment but not a substantial one. Additionally from an ideological standpoint the question is simple. What is the point of having a job if it does not even pay you the cost of living? Wasn't this the point of the minimum wage in the first place?
Raising the minimum wage to 9$ an hour is extremely reasonable considering that, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the minimum wage would be $21.72 an hour if it had raised at the same rate as worker productivity and $10.52 an hour if it had kept up with inflation since it peaked in the 1960's. Finally, tying the minimum wage to CPI is a simple solution that President Obama and Governor Romney agreed on that would allow workers to not have suffer for congress's hostage taking and lack of action.
Fiscal conservatives should be for raising the minimum wage because at its current levels the government is forced to subsidize workers living below the poverty level. At a purely philosophical level as well a working person should not be subjected to living in poverty. Raising the minimum wage would increase revenue in taxes and decrease welfare spending, so this should be a no-brainer deal for Republicans.
However, a somewhat legitimate argument against raising the minimum wage is that it would reduce employment. This is a contested point as there is evidence on both sides of the debate. I am not an economist so I will not get into this point but in short the evidence seems to imply that greatly increasing the minimum wage would have an effect on employment but not a substantial one. Additionally from an ideological standpoint the question is simple. What is the point of having a job if it does not even pay you the cost of living? Wasn't this the point of the minimum wage in the first place?
Raising the minimum wage to 9$ an hour is extremely reasonable considering that, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the minimum wage would be $21.72 an hour if it had raised at the same rate as worker productivity and $10.52 an hour if it had kept up with inflation since it peaked in the 1960's. Finally, tying the minimum wage to CPI is a simple solution that President Obama and Governor Romney agreed on that would allow workers to not have suffer for congress's hostage taking and lack of action.