“Under the existing Senate immigration bill, immigrants who have been in the United States illegally can obtain a provisional legal status after paying fines and meeting certain preconditions. But this population would have to wait at least 13 years to be able to obtain full citizenship, and it isn’t until then that they could qualify for government benefits such as Obamacare.”
Therefore, it would make far more sense for an employer to hire one of these newly provisional, formally illegal immigrants, because he doesn’t have to give ‘em health care. They’re not entitled to it. So he doesn’t have to buy it for ‘em. And he wouldn’t have to pay a fine. I’m not making this up. It’s in the Senate bill that’s gonna be voted on today, procedural vote, cloture vote.
Now, here’s the little dose of reality. This 13-year business, you know and I know that that isn’t gonna hold up. That’s just in there to have some chance of this bill being passed. Cause I’ll tell you exactly what’s gonna happen. If this happens to get passed with this 13-year waiting period, within six hours of Obama signing the bill, Chuck Schumer is gonna find the nearest camera and microphone, and he’s going to start wailing and moaning about how unfair that provision is. Thirteen years to be able to be a full fledged citizen, after we have just made them legal? Thirteen years? That’s inhumane. That’s unfair. We may as well allow them to become citizens and vote tomorrow.
Then preceding Levin's program, the cracks in the damn became visible, courtesy of 82 members of the U.S. Senate, of course, led by the Gang of Ocho...with not a single Democratic dissent... (comments in red are mine)
Tom Coburn, John freakin' McRINO and Lisa Murkowski abstained from voting. Only 15 Republicans voted against cloture on this amnesty bill. You can guess who one of them was...The Senate Republicans who greased the skids for comprehensive amnesty by voting to bypass the super-majority, 60 vote requirement:
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Blunt (R-MO)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Chiesa (R-NJ)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI) - disappointing
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY) - disappointing
Portman (R-OH)
Rubio (R-FL) - lost cause
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Related link: Sen. Tim Kaine speaks in Spanish on Senate floor, pushes immigration bill
There's no way those ridiculous Rubio/Ryan ads made this difference...these fools already had their minds made up about a cloture vote to proceed with the amendment/debate process. True intentions are certainly being revealed in the first procedural move. Will these same Republican Senators vote to end cloture before final passage of whatever dysfunctional POS arises? Whoever ends cloture at that point ensures Democratic passage by a simple majority. It's crunch time, America...
HotAir: The situation’s critical, my friends. Senate Republicans are beginning to cave. Rubio’s screwing around with sideshow amendments designed to pander to conservatives without fixing the real problem in the bill. Boehner’s talking about having something on Obama’s desk by the end of the year.Allahpundit says there's one thing, specifically one person, who can serve as an opposition catalyst to singlehandedly squash amnesty advancement: Obama himself!
Mickey Kaus sounds the alarm: It’s panic time.
It’s time to wake up! Conservatives–while you are (rightly) excited about NSA snooping and partisan IRS corruption, the Congress is about to change America in a more profound, permanent way right under your noses. In the process it will hand President Obama the major second term achievement that will help him overcome the very scandals that are distracting you–or, rather, make his survival or re-ascendance unimportant. He will have won. Democrats will have shaped the future electorate to their own liking. They’ll have transformed what America is.
Please forget about Benghazi and Cincinnati and Edward Snowden’s girlfriend for a minute and pay attention to the main event.
You have one weapon in your arsenal that can trump the big money behind the Gang of 8 bill (S.744). That weapon is fear. It’s not as if the Republican elite has suddenly been persuaded that an amnesty-first immigration bill is a good idea, after all. They’ve always preferred amnesty. They were just too scared to pursue it. What stopped them was the prospect of swift retribution from the electorate, not limited to the Republican primary electorate…
Ignore the f—ing scandals for a few days and save the country from Chuck Schumer.
In the meantime, as Levin said, leave messages tonight and get ready to bombard your Senators with calls in the morning, cordially reminding them who they work for. Tell them NO to amnesty & NO to phony border security!He’s off to a fine start in exploding immigration negotiations with his East Room speech today, but we need much, much more Republican-bashing from him going forward. My recommendations: Accuse amnesty opponents of being bigots, suggest that he’ll speed up the law’s citizenship process by executive order, and maybe call Rubio a “punk” for good measure. I know he has it in him; dumping on the GOP is his favorite thing in the world to do. All we need is a few minutes of demagoguery at his next Q&A with the media and that ought to finish things off in the House. C’mon, champ. This is what you do best.
Capitol Hill switchboard: 202-224-3121
