This is good news for many conservatives.
What I do not understand is why so many Senators voted to end debate on this issue.
All but seven Republicans voted against ending debate, with many arguing they needed more time to make the bill tougher with tighter border security measures and a more arduous legalization process for unlawful immigrants.
All but 11 Democrats supported the move, but they, too, were holding their noses at provisions of the bill. Many of them argued it makes second-class citizens of a new crop of temporary workers and rips apart families by prioritizing employability over blood ties in future immigration.
Still, they had argued that the measure, on balance, was worth advancing.
If the bill was so bad, why vote to send it forward anyway?
3 comments:
Why send a bill forward which has some bad provisions in it? Because it starts the process of addressing an important issue. Because it always the House to look at the issue and pass its own version--hopefully with the bad provisions removed. Because it allows us to get off the dime and have a meaningful debate on the provisions of the reforms.
Is that enough reasons?
That is no excuse whatsoever. Passing the problems along to someone else is exactly the wrong reason for passing any bill along.
Taking responsibility is exactly what we expect from our elected officials.
Passing the blame is exactly what is wrong with government today.
I expect our elected officials to work on getting things done the right way.
So, no Jeff- passing the bad bill on to the house in hopes that someone else will correct the problems is not a good reason to vote for any bill.
Rare is the bill passed by one house which is perfect. Rare is the bill where the Senate and House agree perfectly on language and content. That is why there are conference commmittees. The reality of governance is never as pretty as the utopian view of how it should be. Bills get passed with warts all the time.
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