Ultimate jobs program: Immigration timeout ~ By Tom Tancredo

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Tom Tancredo Posted: January 30, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2010 In his State of the Union speech a few days ago, President Obama said, "Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010." I agree with that statement. But unfortunately, Obama's solution will just make things worse and he overlooked a real jobs program that would not cost taxpayers a penny. Many Democratic strategists and talking heads are saying the party erred by putting health care before the economy. But the real problem is not Obama's priorities, but that his solution to every problem is more government spending. Obama first took on jobs by wasting over a trillion dollars in his stimulus package, and then he tried to deal with health care by proposing another trillion-dollar boondoggle. The new jobs bill he outlined in the State of the Union speech was more of the same: spending money we don't have on public sector jobs in infrastructure, education and energy. Instead of putting future generations further into debt, we could immediately free up millions of jobs by tackling immigration reform – true immigration reform, not the impostor called amnesty. Barack Obama mentioned immigration only briefly at the end of his speech when he said, "We should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system – to secure our borders and enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation." Like with the economy and health care, Obama has identified a problem but then proposes a solution that makes the problem worse. While the statements in the speech seemed innocuous and vague, the White House's website issued talking points that explained what the line meant:

The president is pleased Congress is taking steps forward on immigration reform that includes effective border security measures with a path for legalization for those who are willing to pay taxes and abide by the law.

Obama is referring to a bill by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) that will gut enforcement, reduce border security, grant a blanket amnesty to illegal aliens, and massively increase legal immigration. This will cost Americans literally millions of jobs! In last week's column, I discussed a number of real reforms we should make to fix our immigration system. The final step I advocated was a three-year "timeout," a moratorium on legal immigration. In light of the growing debate on job creation, I'd like to elaborate on what exactly a moratorium is and why we need to enact one immediately. READ FULL STORY >