Setting the priorities straight

I’m going to tread a bit into the territory that Crabbin‘ usually covers pretty well, but he may not have caught this story.

When you have a question of border security vs. a count of people who shouldn’t be here in the first place (because they’re ILLEGAL) there shouldn’t be a question. But apparently in our screwed-up federal government there is.

The idea of the census was to provide the number of citizens in each state for proportional representation. It’s why every decade some states lose members of Congress and others gain more representatives. And in theory, additional population in border states would tend to help Republicans because, with the exception of California, the states along the Mexican border were all “red” states and the additional Congressman or two that those states would be entitled to would in probability be added to the GOP column.

On the other hand, a closer look at where these illegals congregate shows that large numbers move to the bigger cities – areas that vote Democrat. Additional population there would juryrig the districts into overweighing the actual legal city residents at the expense of suburban and rural areas, as well as changing the distribution of federal dollars unfairly. (Personally I’d love to see fewer federal dollars going to any area while more dollars stay in citizens’ pockets!)

Yet another concern I see is that the Census Bureau missed 10-15% of illegals in the 2000 census anyway, so they attempted to estimate the population in order to do what they considered an “accurate” count. Another effort like that in 2010 will also tend to shift population and power into urban areas, so naturally Democrats would be all in favor of that.

Quoted in the FOX News story I link to is Michigan Rep. Candice Miller. She introduced a bill that would amend the Constitution to count only citizens for the purposes of Congressional apportionment. While one would think the Constitution already mandates this, a look at the Fourteenth Amendment states that, “Representatives shall be apportioned…according to their respective numbers, counting the whole numbers of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.” It says nothing about citizens (as opposed to occupants) which is what Miller’s bill intends to address. As one would expect in a Democrat-controlled Congress, though, the bill has sat in committee for the last 6 1/2 months.

While Miller’s goal is admirable, it’s a sad statement that she feels a Constitutional amendment is necessary to deal with something that lies within the realm of good old common sense. But common sense is and has been in short supply inside the Beltway for many moons, and we’re a long way from bringing it back. The Census Bureau’s harebrained idea to stop enforcement of our laws and give illegal immigrants yet another get-out-of-jail-free card just illustrates another example of the idiofluenza that permeates Foggy Bottom.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael