The Insanity of Pork

Cassandra Kipling — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:30:09 +0000

I feel like I am missing something. We all know that the way bills are passed in the United States Congress is by giving each member pork for their district– you could call it a bribe. But it’s not a bribe than goes straight to the Congressman who votes for the bill. It goes to his state or district as a whole. So surely, it can’t really effect that many people in the state– not as much as a vote that many people hate. So if Mary Landrieu gets 300 million for Louisianna, this 300 million won’t affect the voters as much for the good as the health care bill will affect them for the bad. So why would getting that 300 save her seat more than voting for an unpopular bill would endanger her seat?

Hello world!

Cassandra Kipling — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:58:48 +0000

This is actually my second time starting a blog. I always seem to want to write one when I’m undergoing employment transition. The title is a reference to a quote from Juvenal, meaning, an irresistible urge to write. Which seems very appropriate to blogging. So appropriate there are quite a few blogs out there named in the same way. But it’s not my fault that several people had my original idea before me!

The Party of Big Government versus the Party of Big Business

Cassandra Kipling — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:49:20 +0000

When I go to events with Republican candidates as speakers I very often ask them about immigration. They usually will say that they support enforcement, they are against illegal immigration. But that is easy– illegal immigration is massively unpopular. When I press them about legal immigration, for instance, “with unemployment over 10% in America, how much legal immigration do we need right now?” This is a very basic question too. It’s not really what I would consider hot button: it doesn’t even touch upon the cultural changes that many Americans find undesirable that the massive immigration since 1965 has brought us. It’s just a simple fact that we don’t have enough jobs to go around right now for the people who are already here. Why should we bring in more? However, Republican candidates just refuse to discuss the matter. An explanation often presented to me is that they don’t want to alienate any potential voters with a controversial issue- that it is unrealistic to think any politician would make this a banner issue as it is so controversial.

However, I think there are more votes to be gained by attracting people to the cause than to be lost by alienating voters. Yes, it is nice as a politician to be all things to all people. It worked out great for Barack Obama. But not everyone can attract attention by the sheer force of their personality. There must be some politician out there that wants to champion a popular and overlooked cause and ride that wave to office. So why not immigration? It actually has a proven track record. In the early 90′s, Pete Wilson did exactly that. He was reelected quite handily by supporting Proposition 187, which denied social services to illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, no results were ever delivered. The Courts invalidated the Proposition, and that was that. Subsequent demographic change has made Republican victories in California virtually impossible. But that doesn’t change the fact that a politician can use the immigration issue to win office, especially in a Republican primary.

So why don’t they? I don’t think it’s the voters. I think it’s the party. I was reading a post by Jay Cost on Real Clear Politics, where he explained that the Republicans are the party of big business and the Democrats are the Party of Big Government. Neither of which independents actually like. I think there is a lot of truth to this. And this is what explains the silence on immigration. Big Business likes immigration: it lowers wages and helps businesses grow through sheer expansion of the economy. Big Government also likes immigration– for various reasons, but I think mostly because our current immigration policy favors immigrants who support Big Government. And thus, we have the two parties, both of whom don’t put any effort into stopping immigration. Both of whom are not even willing to discuss legal immigration. And without the consent or the desire of the people, Big Immigration carries on.

And so this is an interesting wedge issue. Unlike issues like abortion, where there are dedicated voters on both sides of the issue, and it is deep seated passion for many, the split isn’t between the passions of one group of voters and the passions of another. The split is between the voters and the parties that are supposed to represent them.

Cacoethes Scribendi

The Insanity of Pork

Hello world!

The Party of Big Government versus the Party of Big Business