Thursday, January 17, 2008

I’M NOT MY BROTHER’S KEEPER – Part II

Looking at Solutions for the Problems of our Time

In Part I of this piece I touched on the affects of Illegal Immigration on our nation, including the “Hispanification” of America, Buchanan’s solution, and their logical results. Here in Part II I will continue with the following: our Need for Unskilled Labor, Immigrant Abuse, Foreign Spending and Investment, and Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and the steps we must take to save the Republic. Although, our government’s overriding concern must remain the well-being of our citizenry i.e. government needs to keep their grimy mitts out of the pockets of the citizens they were elected to SERVE. Elected to Serve, that phrase, without question, is one our politicians have forgotten long ago. In truth, citizens need not fear their government, but government must fear its citizens; it was once this way. Ben Franklin once said, “Every American citizen must be alert to the encroachments of government power”. We see signs of such encroachments everyday, problems at home that have long needed attention. Even so, there are still bleeding hearts among us that believe it is America’s responsibility to end the woes of the world’s disenfranchised.

Today there are more than 500 million people residing in Latin America (more than 100 million in Mexico alone), and untold millions elsewhere who would like nothing more than to relocate to the United States for the sole purpose of securing gainful employment. An admirable goal indeed, but at what expense to the American people?

Forget the fact that felonies are being committed against the American people in order for these foreign nationals to achieve their goal of employment in the United States. Forget for a moment that these uncounted millions are bankrupting our healthcare, educational and welfare systems. What about President Bush’s repeated claim that these hardworking folks are here doing jobs that the average American refuses to do? I have two letters that succinctly describe the accuracy of that statement by the President … a big B and a big S! Put ‘em together and what do they spell… BS.

The fact of the matter is: these low-paying jobs currently being performed by illegal aliens are the exact same jobs I performed as a teenager. Newspaper delivery, fast-food, gas station attendant/auto maintenance, construction worker, laundry attendant in a convalescent home. None of these jobs are highly desired by America’s mature workers, but are a necessary training ground and have historically been effective in building a serviceable work ethic for our future workforce. Again, the jobs I’ve referenced above are jobs I’ve performed during my youth from the age of 12 to 18 years. Without this valuable experience I would have been at a great disadvantage when I finally did enter the higher paying job market at 18 years of age.

So for you folks claiming it is inhumane to arrest and deport these hardworking people who were not blessed to be born in the USA, I say step back and take a good look at who we’re really hurting; could we be hurting our youth and our country’s future? I know we are.

Combine the disenfranchisement of America’s youth from our labor pool with what is happening to our society from an economic standpoint. One can then only conclude that our children’s collective future is being bargained away by corporate interests that fail to recognize employment of our children in entry level jobs is failing to invest in our country’s economic future.

Today, nobody can deny America’s youth is exhibiting an unsettling measure of irresponsibility, far beyond anything seen in the recent past. The Grunge and the Goth, our children display dark-souled behavior embracing violence and to others and themselves. What is the difference between today’s kids and those of us born in the sixties, seventies and eighties? It’s simple, today’s kids have too much time on their hands, and you know the old saying about idle hands…

When I was 16 years old I went to school (begrudgingly), participated in sports and other extra-curricular activities, as well as held down a variety of part-time jobs. I had no time to get into trouble (at least not a lot). Today, those jobs I held are now being performed by people who aren’t supposed to be in this country; leaving nothing constructive for our kids to do. The answer to industry’s need for unskilled labor does not lie outside the borders of the United States, the answer is right here under our noses in our local high schools. And they even speak English, more or less.

Work Experience programs still exist in our high schools as far as I know, the Work Experience program in my high school gave me my first taste of hourly pay as a Box boy at a local grocery store. In this job I learned how to be productive and develop a work ethic. Business should be mandated to first look to these programs to employ our youth before they can import labor from other countries.

If a company is legitimately unable to locate somebody to fill a job, then and only then can they seek an import to sponsor for employment. Once a company has established they are unable to hire an American citizen, whether young or old, they would be entitled to source and sponsor a foreign national for employment. The criterion for importing labor is pretty standardized around the world. The employer must provide acceptable housing for the employee and his or her family, health insurance, and a living wage to be agreed upon. These characteristics have been present in every overseas employment contract I have ever entered into. Anything less can be viewed as immigrant abuse. Following this course would largely eliminate the problems illegal immigration creates for our nation.

In fact, if American employers were compelled to follow these rules, the preferred choice would be to seek out American youth for unskilled jobs simply because providing immigrant workers the necessary training, a living wage, housing and healthcare is not as cost-effective as it is to employ an American youth and train them to do the job.

This provides a framework for Immigration reform of a sort, which in and of itself only requires enforcement of our existing laws and the expeditious processing of employer sponsored visa requests. The bane of the visa process has been the inordinate amount of time it takes to get an approval, 12 months is not unusual. That is just not a realistic timeline for a business and a process that can be accomplished in five business days at most.

Once an appropriate foreign national has been identified and a visa application submitted, the HSA, through Consular Affairs, must conduct an interview with the applicant worker, perform a physical examination and conduct a background check to identify any past criminal activity and assess any potential risk to our populous. Leveraging the technology we have at our disposal with cooperation of the respective Foreign Ministries, visa approval should not exceed five business days.

“Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is not as difficult as Washington wants you to believe, justifying the presence of illegal immigrants, which is what they refer to as “reform”, is not such an easy sale. Another area of concern that contributes to the illegal invasion is the way we are spending our money abroad. Grants, microloans and the like do not include mandatory training and oversight of the funds dispersed.

Foreign entrepreneurs receive money to develop enterprises in their home countries, without guidelines being enforced to mandate development of local workers and a payscale that coincides with an acceptable standard of living. These monies should serve to create opportunity for people in their home countries, sadly we waste it, and illegal aliens keep coming.

Another area of foreign spending that amounts to nothing less than fiscal mismanagement and fraud as it is related to the housing of our Foreign Service Officers (FSO’s), the DIMWITS we send overseas to work in our embassies and consulates. I can personally confirm that the following is fact, because I have been a recipient of the massive booty available from the housing of our FSO’s.

As with most immigrant workers around the world, we (the American Government) provide adequate housing to a US standard for all of our FSO’s, all the way from the Ambassador to lowly consular officers. Each property leased for an FSO must meet specific criteria that mandates a secure parking structure, security system, fire alarms, back-up generator, washer and dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave and the list goes on.

While living in Armenia, my friend who was the Political Officer at our Embassy, admitted to me with disgust, exactly how our tax dollars are spent abroad and specifically for FSO housing. Depending upon the length of the FSO’s assignment, a house or apartment is leased for three to five years; an 802 meter (8432 ft) two-bedroom apartment meeting our criterion can be rented for $1,200 per month (my 852 meter two-bedroom apartment cost me all of $280 per month), but the State Department (on our behalf) generously pays the property owner $3,500 per month.

When I learned this, bells, whistles, light bulbs and dollar signs began going off in my head. I then contacted a local friend who deals in real estate and told him about the process. Within 48 hours he came up with a list of 18 properties that were qualified to be considered by the housing board at the Embassy. He then approached the owners of these properties and secured conditional agreements to lease the properties, then we took photos and I wrote descriptions of each property for presentation to the board.

The result was three of our 18 properties offered were leased by our embassy with monthly lease payments totaling $15,500; this left my new partner and I a net profit of $9,500 per month to share. Not bad money for shuffling a little paper, and that was great for me and my Armenian partner, but how do you feel about this kind of blatant waste? Do you take umbrage, as I do; at the fact our government spends OUR HARD-EARNED DOLLARS so cavalierly?

Did you know December is the biggest spending month of the year for our government agencies? Why? No, it’s not for Christmas presents. It’s because every dollar not spent by December 31st of each year, is returned to the US Treasury (to us) by law. Ohhh, God forbid a federal agency return a single unspent penny to our Treasury. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems fundamentally wrong, irresponsible and dishonest. Why is it acceptable for these DIMWITS to throw our money down the toilet because they won’t be able to waste those monies in the following year? Under my administration, these practices would be punishable by hefty fines and imprisonment.

If we as a nation commit to reclaiming our government and hold our politician’s feet to the fire; we must criminalize government waste both foreign and domestic, make our civil servants more accountable for their actions, close our borders, and compel illegal aliens to self-deport, then we will be able to regain control of our country and our future.

This brings to mind a quote by Ronaldus Maximus (President Reagan for those of you in Rio Linda), that is as true today as it was 20 years ago when he made the statement, and goes as follows: “Lower Taxes and Lower Spending equals Prosperity”, and that means prosperity for all. No truer words have ever been spoken; simple, direct and to the point.

Ronaldus Maximus was one president who genuinely understood the meaning of Elected to Serve.

And they all lived happily ever after…

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