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If President Barack Obama grants amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants before Labor Day, it could become "the issue" of the November midterm elections, says political commentator Pat Buchanan.
"There could be a firestorm unlike any we've seen on this issue," Buchanan told John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV Monday. "It would elevate it dramatically and make it 'the issue' for the fall campaign."
"That would clearly rally and energize Obama's base, but it would do the same for the Republicans," the former presidential adviser explained.
However, he contends that even Obama supporters would condemn the move.
"There would be a real firestorm, there would be a division of opinion and some editorial writers who are friendly to Obama would say he's going too far here," he added.
Buchanan wrote an opinion piece for Townhall.com in which he predicts that Obama will grant amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants through an executive order before Labor Day.
The former presidential candidate says that his prediction is based on comments made by Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, who has said that Obama will "act broadly and generously" for "millions and millions" of illegal immigrants.
"He might draw back from doing it, but let me say this: If the Republicans gain in the Senate and the president realizes he is going to get nothing from the next Congress, zero, I think there's a possibility he could do it after the election," he added.
Buchanan predicts that it could be a tactical move to get Democrats to the polls in November, especially the Hispanic community.
"There's no doubt that La Raza and the left wing of the Democratic Party and many folks in the Hispanic community would say that 'Obama has done something dramatic for us, he really has, we ought to get out and vote,' " he explained. "That's a real possibility."
However, he also says that it's "a very risky strategy, but it's also bold and it would be historic, whether we like it or not."
Buchanan argues that Obama will have to decide if it's something he wants bad enough as part of his legacy because it could also put him at risk for losing "the elections badly in November."
"It's a huge big play, no question about it, but I cannot believe that in the White House they are not thinking of it," he said.
"I know if I were in the White House and if I were a liberal Democrat, I would certainly be analyzing the potential fallout from such a decision."
We are always amazed with the Obama Administration Their ability to choose the wrong side of every issue is incredible. Just look at Egypt and its deposed leader Morsi. Obama went out of his way to praise him even though even us peons knew that the new leader had extensive ties with the Muslim Brotherhood which could not be good for US-Egyptian relations. Yet the "bright people" in Washington were praising the new relationship.
When the Obama-nuts announced the billions of weapons being given to Egypt, we scratched our heads and asked one question--why? Morsi had made it clear he was not a friend of Israel and by extension the US, he had imposed a very Sharia oriented Constitution on his people and he had not protected the rights of religious minorities in the country. Why would we be giving him this aid?
There was only one reason, the liberal desire to be liked. If we give them the aid, they will like us. When are we as a country going to understand that giving "stuff", whether it be money or materiel, it will not make us liked. Heck, most of the countries to which we give things vote against us in the UN. When are we going to wake up?
Money does not make friends no better than spoiling your child will make him or her respectful of you. It is time that the US realized that friends cannot be bought and that we must act ONLY in our own self interests. We should start by withdrawing from the UN, then stop all foreign aid to countries who do not support our goals, strengthen our borders and use all the left over money to rebuild our bridges and roads. Let's start worrying about ourselves first and let the rest of the world find out that our role as world-wide peacemaker must be taken up by others. We doubt there are others who will take the role!
No matter how much we would love to see the aforementioned occur, it will not. The "smart people" in Washington love their interventionist ideas and are so unschooled in people skills that they believe love can be demanded. We will continue to bumble along losing personnel, money and materiel and keep wondering ""why don't they love us?"
Obama is just another one of those who thinks that he can command respect by his oratory and strength of personality. He cannot and will continue to saddle up with those whose interests are diametrically apposed to ours. He is a loser and so are his advisers. We have an ego-driven narcissist being lead by career bureaucrats who have no idea how the world works. We have a mess.
Can we have a re-boot of the 2008 and 2012 elections? It might turn out differently this time!
Conservative Tom
Ros-Lehtinen to Newsmax: Obama 'Bet on Wrong Folks' in Egypt
The military coup in Egypt shows that “the Obama administration has thoroughly failed when it comes to handling the post-Arab Spring revolution,” Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax TV.
“They've bet on the wrong folks time and time again,” the Florida Republican tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview. “Many of us in Congress were saying: ‘Guys, look at the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a group that's going to take over — and it's not going to be what you think.’”
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On Wednesday, Egyptian Army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced that President Mohammed Morsi had been removed and was replaced with the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court. He also suspended the Islamist-backed constitution and called for early presidential elections.
Morsi’s ouster as the nation’s first elected leader comes two years after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in another popular uprising.
The Arab world's most populous nation has been in turmoil since the fall of Mubarak as Arab Spring uprisings took hold in early 2011, arousing concern among allies in the West and in Israel, with which Egypt has a 1979 peace treaty.
First elected to the House in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen is the senior woman Republican in the lower chamber. She was chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and currently is chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia.
“The Obama administration is adrift when it comes to policy in the Middle East or North Africa,” she tells Newsmax. “Morsi came in with the Muslim Brotherhood. What does that mean?
“They were anti-Christian, anti-minority, anti-women — and one year after Morsi won in ‘his election’ and all of the millions of dollars that the Obama administration badly wasted in this government, the people have risen up and said: ‘No, you have failed us. We want you out. We want to try again.’”
The United States sends $1.5 billion annually in military and economic assistance to Egypt.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, said on Wednesday that federal law prohibits aid being provided when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree.
The Egyptian support would be reconsidered in upcoming budget talks, Leahy said.
But the issue has long been settled, as far as Ros-Lehtinen is concerned.
“It is way past time to suspend the aid,” she tells Newsmax. “Why are we giving money to theocratic regimes or to autocratic regimes? It's not like we don’t have a lot of problems here at home. Let's use the money wisely. Let's leverage it so we can help countries become stronger and freer and more democratic, which is in our national-security interest.
“Giving money to someone who's a thug and wishing and hoping and praying that they're going to turn into a Jeffersonian Democrat is wrongheaded. It’s foolish and it's never worked — and it's proven again with Egypt,” she says.
When she chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax that she put holds on aid to Egypt and similar rogue nations, but that the Obama White House always “went over our heads” to obtain the assistance.
She frets whenever President Barack Obama or Secretary of State John Kerry visit foreign nations, too.
“They give money away as if they were Santa Claus, giving people millions of millions of dollars,” Ros-Lehtinen says. “We need transparency. We need accountability. We need to see that the money that we're using to help us build friendships and keep our country strong is a really effective way of using American taxpayer dollars.”
Because the Obama administration backed the deposed president, it became clear to the Egyptian people whose side the United States was on, Ros-Lehtinen says.
“We gave Morsi a lot of money. We just threw that money down a rabbit hole. It's wasted. They know that the U.S. government was standing firmly with Morsi — and look what the Egyptian people did? They rose up.
“Now, it doesn't mean that all the folks demonstrating there are good guys,” she cautions. “There are going to be a lot of hot-headed factions there, but it's important for the United States to be cautious to not do anything that will exacerbate the violence.
“This could lead to a very bloody road and what the Egyptian people want it to live in freedom and democracy,” Ros-Lehtinen tells Newsmax. “Who does not want to live in freedom? That's everybody's dream — and it's a dream that should be fulfilled for all oppressed people throughout the globe.”
It might be obvious to many, but what Jeb Bush says is so true. We cannot continue to give away money and not expect the country to maintain its strength. It is like having a small bleed in your stomach. It doesn't cause you pain but over time, it becomes a problem when you become anemic, sluggish and depleted of strength. We have been giving money away since the Depression and serious bucks since the 1960's. How much longer can we continue down this road. Our belief is not long. What do you think? Conservative Tom
Jeb Bush: Entitlement System Will Collapse If We Don’t Act Now
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has written the cover story for the April edition of Newsmax magazine, offering an optimistic view of America’s future — and straight talk about its problems — with the resounding message: “Growth is the answer” to our nagging economic woes.
And the leading Republican sat down with Newsmax for a wide-ranging interview elaborating on a number of topics he discusses in his magazine feature, arguing that America can be great again if we open up the doors to economic opportunity.
Bush, who served two terms as Florida’s governor, has earned a nationwide reputation for reform proposals in the fields of education and immigration. He is founder and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, author of the new book “The Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution” — co-written with constitutional law expert Clint Bolick — and is considered a strong contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
Bush’s Newsmax magazine piece stresses the need for economic growth to deal with the nation’s debt and deficit problems.
In his exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, he was asked if growth alone will solve those problems.
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“If we grew at 2 percent more per year than what’s projected, which is anywhere from 1 to 1.5 percent per year in real terms, we would create a Germany in terms of incremental economic output in the 10th year,” he says. “And that Germany would be taxed at the current rate at least to the tune of about $1 trillion.
“There is no tax plan that could come close to [that].
“The president, almost every time he has a chance to speak, talks about the need for high growth, but his policies do the exact opposite. His policies have created the most tepid recovery in modern American history.
“The dual effect of high growth creating higher income that’s taxed by government at all levels, combined with lessening demands placed on government that occurs during economic prosperity, is a worthy objective.
“Right now we have this discussion of austerity versus government spending, when in fact what we ought to be doing is [determining] how we can invest in the private sector, creating investment opportunities and job creating opportunities that create the kind of growth that lessens government’s involvement in all this. That’s what’s missing and the president has a duty to outline specific proposals that will create economic growth. Up until now I don’t think he’s done it.”
Bush suggests that Republicans could be talking too much about the debt and deficit instead of growth.
“It’s a principled position to say that we have to live within our means, and over time you can do that and we should do that. But the fastest way to get to that is in combination with high growth. It’s also a winning political message to embrace the dynamic nature of our economy. It’s much better than just saying, ‘world coming to end. Memo to follow.’
“We should be much more hopeful and optimistic about the future of our country. If you just see the trends in the life science area and telecommunications and information technology, we’re living in the most wondrous time ever in human history, and globally the United States is a leader. We should be excited about the future and creating strategies to ensure that we create long-term, sustained economic growth.”
Reform should start with energy, immigration policy, regulations, the tax code, and education, Bush states.
“They’re the set of policy objectives that we should embrace, not all of which are ideological either. The sad thing is the dysfunction in Washington right now limits the ability even when there’s enough consensus to move forward.”
During the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was criticized for not putting specifics on the table, particularly regarding entitlement cuts and taxes. But Bush believes lawmakers and candidates can get specific without getting bogged down in minutiae.
“First of all you have to inform. You can’t just assume that everybody has the facts,” he maintains.
“Most of the cuts we’re talking about are cuts in the growth of spending, not actual cuts, and there are people in Washington that have [offered] specific proposals, Paul Ryan being perhaps the most obvious one. He was Mitt Romney’s running mate and a courageous and inspired choice, and they did defend those so-called cuts for a while, then they kind of reverted back to trying to make the election about the president, exclusively a referendum on his job performance.
“. . . The lesson of 2012 is be bold, be specific, persuade, don’t follow polls, don’t be driven by what people’s feelings are here and now because those opinions can shift if you make a compelling case.”
But Bush does agree that the entitlement system is “unsustainable” and “no one argues that we can keep doing what we’re doing. So either we have it collapse or we change it to protect it.”
Among the changes he suggests are “raising the retirement age to reflect the life expectancy increase that’s been dramatic, means testing some of the entitlement programs over time. We have to reform healthcare underneath the entitlement system as well so that the cost curve is dealt with, which means we should move toward catastrophic coverage as the form of insurance and reward healthy lifestyle decisions and focus on prevention to lessen cost by improving healthcare outcomes.”
Bush favors eliminating tax loopholes and reducing taxes to the lowest possible rates
“If you eliminate as many of the deductions as possible, you would create a boom of economic activity. You would lessen compliance costs. Right now, whether it’s a small business guy or a private person, people pay an arm and a leg for just the simple compliance costs. Now, you have to pay a lot of money because our code’s way too complex. My personal belief is the simpler the code, the better it is.”
Asked if he would be willing to give up the mortgage interest deduction if tax rates are lowered, Bush responds: “I would. To me, the better way of doing this would be to say, all of the tax code expires” and must be rebuilt from the ground up.
“That would be a better approach because people could see the benefits of a simpler code and the empowering nature of that. People could keep more of their own money, make decisions for themselves, and not effectively get in line to get their version of some tax expenditure or tax credit. [We would] lower the rates significantly and create a burst of economic activity for our country.”
In his Newsmax magazine article, Bush never once mentions President Obama or the Democrats.
He tells Newsmax TV that other Republicans could be too focused on talking about what the opposition is doing instead of what they have to offer.
“We’ve gotten a little far removed from where we once were not that long ago, which is the party of reform, the party of new thinking, the party of ideas, the party that embraces the future.
“There’s a reason why in my recent speeches and the Newsmax article that I didn’t mention the president. The president’s record on economic policy is a failed one, but we’re not going to win the day unless we have a compelling alternative and that’s where the focus needs to be.
“In Washington, particularly, the loyal opposition has a job to be the opposition. But you can’t stop there. You have to oppose in a principled, civil way but you also have to offer alternatives.
“There are a lot of reasons why the election turned out the way it did. All I know for sure is that I wish Mitt Romney was president right now because he’d be a practical person trying to forge common-sense solutions to these big, dysfunctional challenges we face.”
On education, Bush writes in his magazine cover story about the need to increase the choices that are available to parents and students.
To do that, he tells Newsmax we need to “change laws. We have 50 states that are the governance model or the catalyst for how governance operates. We have 13,000 government-run monopolies, heavily unionized. And in that kind of setting, it should not be a surprise that the economic interests of the adults is really a dominant part of education life in America today.
“We have a third of our kids that don’t make it through the system, even though we spend more per student than any country in the world. And a lot of students could be doing college-level work by the time they’ve graduated from high school but in effect they’re held back because we’ve got this adult-centered homogenized learning model.
“What the Foundation for Excellence in Education is trying to do is to help policymakers in our 50 states open up their laws to allow more innovation to take place.
“We’re putting too much emphasis on the college experience. The country’s moving towards fewer standards that require critical thinking skills both for going to college as well as for being able to get a job in some technical skill or career-oriented avocation. So the skills necessary for both paths need to be higher.”
Bush in his magazine article cites the need to strengthen family values as a way to boost our economy.
“It’s really important to recognize that family life in America has changed pretty dramatically,” he tells Newsmax TV.
“For the first time in American history there are fewer married women than unmarried women in the age cohort that’s measured. We’ve had dramatic increases in out-of-wedlock birth rates. Every study that I’ve seen suggests that if a young woman doesn’t have a child before she’s married and she can defer marriage [until] she’s 25 and can graduate from high school, the chance of her living in poverty is dramatically reduced, and similarly with men.
“If we get that right then we can have a chance of creating economy prosperity over the long haul. If we don’t get it right, it really does change who we are as a nation and it creates enormous strains.“
Bush also says there is an “inverse relationship” between liberty and the size and scope of government, and agrees with Sen. Rand Paul that the Republican Party needs to embrace more libertarian ideas.
He also talks at length about the immigration policies espoused in his controversial new book.
And he ends his Newsmax interview on an optimistic note, stating that “I just have total confidence that a dynamic world will yield benefits that we can’t even imagine.
“If you believe like I do that the world is abundant with possibilities, then we need to make sure we build capacity so that everybody is successful or can be successful in the pursuit of their dreams — not the dreams of someone from government, but their own dreams.”
