In my opinion, no policy the US could adopt would help more than passing the once bipartisan DREAM Act. And no policy is so blatantly representative of the obstructionist gridlock in Congress.
This was originally a Republican bill proposed by no less a Republican stalwart than Orrin Hatch of Utah when it first showed up in 2001 and was blocked. Now essentially the same bill is being put forth as a Democratic bill and is being blocked. It seems to me that the policy or the law matters less than the party behind it.
The current brouhaha over the bill is highlighted in an article yesterday in the Washington Times: "Obama targets Republicans for blocking Dream Act" http://wtim.es/p9Sxh1
The gist of the Act is to grant conditional permanent residency to aliens who
· are students of "good moral character" who graduate from US high schools who had arrived in the US as minors and have lived in the country continuously for at least 5 years
· served in the US military for two years with honorable discharge with promise of 8 year military commitment
· are students at four year university who are in a bachelor's degree or higher degree program would obtain temporary residency for a six year period and chance to permanent residency
A December 2010 report, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the November 30th, 2010 version of the DREAM Act would "reduce deficits by about $1.4 billion over the 2011-2020 period and increase government revenues by $2.3 billion over the next 10 years” and "would increase projected deficits by more than $5 billion in at least one of the four consecutive 10-year periods starting in 2021". You can see the study yourself at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/119xx/doc11991/s3992.pdf
By the way, if you would like to compare the two bills, the original 2001 bill is viewable at http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SN01291:@@@L&summ2=m& and the essentially same bill resubmitted in 2009 and blocked in 2011 is viewable at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc111/s729_is.xml
I would welcome your thoughts on this, and in particular what this means for US competitiveness in education and business development.
I agree that the partisan color to issues seems to matter more than the issues today. It is frightening how polarized politics seems to be. Here on the William and Mary campus, there is a lot of discussion about the Dream Act and it appears that much of the student body, including myself, is in favor of it, both for what it stands for and the overall benefit to the economy (read reduction in deficit, increase in revenue).
ReplyDeleteMy only thought is that I have also heard a lot of complaints and concern over the polarization of the nation politically, and it makes me wonder more and more if this is becoming a battle of politicians more than it has ever been. At what point do one realize that perhaps his/her constituents have the capacity to see compromise and a middle ground?