Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Last Call

If there's any wonky study on immigration reform that will ensure House Republicans will murder the legislation in its crib, this is it.

With the debate raging over whether immigration reform would gouge taxpayers, Senator Marco Rubio’s office has asked the Social Security Actuary to produce an analysis of the legislation. The findings will provide immigration reform advocates with a major boost.

You can see the findings in a letter from the Office of the Chief Actuary to Senator Rubio that is also accompanied by a table.

The most important finding, for the purposes of the debate, is that the Gang of Eight immigration reform proposal would create 3.22 million jobs by 2024, and boost GDP by 1.63 percent. “We estimate a significant increase in both the population and the number of workers paying taxes in the United States as a result of these changes in legal immigration limits,” the analysis says.

Can't have that!  Bill's dead now, and that's even if it makes it to the House.  Odds are really good now that Republicans will finish the job early by destroying the bill with hundreds of amendments.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will be taking its first crack at the bill Thursday. Republicans opposed to reform have now turned to a time honored tradition of oppositional behavior in the Senate: Offering a whole bunch of amendments to slow down the process and. If they're lucky, they'll be able to slip in a poison pill amendment—a change so noxious that it makes the entire bill harder to pass.

How many amendments? Well, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is currently leading the pack with seventy-seven. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has proposed 49, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is bringing up the rear with 24.

And every one will have to be voted on.  Awesome.  Good luck with that, guys...

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