Immigration and Other Wedge Issues
By now, most are aware that the Republican Party deliberately gay-baited in the key swing states during the 2004 election. States like Ohio, where gay marriage was already illegal under state statute, adopted an absurd and repressive constitutional amendment outlawing all forms of domestic partnership. The issue passed overwhelmingly, particularly in Ohio’s rural counties — those that were hard hit by the economic downturn — where there’s no openly gay people or gay institutions.
This is the nature of vicious Republican wedge issues. It is basic divide and conquer, where people are so busy focusing on an emotional non-issue, you can impose massive economic hardship on them.
Following the 2004 election, commentators began to predict that “immigration” would be the divide and conquer issue during the 2006 congressional midterm elections. So, right on cue and as predicted, the country is busily debating immigration while Bush plots to attack Iran and make his cronies richer by looting the U.S. Treasury. While people worry about immigrants, they forget the fact that their President is a war criminal who got us into Iraq by openly lying and who committed a felony by ordering the leak of the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.The reality is, we are all for legal immigration, except for Bush’s wealthy corporate friends who believe in a “free” labor market and have always favored illegal immigration. The key people responsible for illegal immigration are the corporate employers like Walmart, who hire them and mainstream Democratic politicians like Bill Clinton who opened our borders with the North American Free Trade Agreement without creating a healthy work environment for all Americans.
If we wish to stop illegal immigrants from coming to U.S., we need a continental minimum wage that pays people in Mexico a living wage. We need to require that American corporations that fled into the free trade zones of Mexico abide by U.S. environmental laws and occupational safety and health laws.
Don’t fall for Republican propaganda and the deliberate wedge issue introduced into this election. They’ll have another one in two years, when you’ll be worked into a tizzy over homonecrozophiliacs who need to be castrated, according to Bush and Company.
Yes, Bush and co. are great at distracting us with these wedge issues. Why do we keep falling for it?
The only difference this time is that the fraud in Ohio is so thick and deep that the GOP can’t keep it off the front page of the papers. I hope that Bob can help to keep the pressure on. We can’t let Bush, Blackwell and their cabal get away with it again!
Listening to Ed Schutlz last week I caught a fellow who said he had friends that worked with a computer system at the IRS that checked Social Security numbers submitted by employers of perspective new employees.
He continued to say that once Bush got into office in 2001, this system was dismantled at the request of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and sold to school loan collection agencys.
So now, what do they use to track new employees with false ID’s on the Social security rolls?
What happens to the money they put into the system?
I would assume Bush and Co. thought that holding the employers somewhat accountable was a threat to business and that illegal immigrants should be welcomed with open arms; and thus displacing our system of labor with locals.
I am not against immigration or people being treated fairly in the market but this mass influx of people willing to work at lower wages depresses the standing of the economic base and cuts off the progress of workers rights in the United States.
http://www.devvy.com/ssa_19991031.html (vintage 1999)
Q: As an employer, I have been told that every person who works in the United States must have a social security number and present that number to me for tax reporting purposes. Is this true?
A: Let’s look at the response from SSA in a letter to Mr. Scott McDonald dated March 18, 1998 from Charles Mullen, Associate Commissioner, Office of Public Inquiries, SSA:
“The Social Security Act does not require a person to have a Social Security Number (SSN) to live and work in the United States, nor does it require an SSN simply for the purpose of having one. However, if someone works without an SSN, we cannot properly credit the earnings for the work performed.”
>snip author continues;
One would think this is quite plain and clear. However, let’s look at another letter from the same Charles Mullen about one month earlier (February 24, 1998) addressed to me:
“People cannot voluntarily end their participation in the program [SS]. The payment of social security taxes is mandatory, regardless of the citizenship or place of residence of either the employer or the employee. Unless specifically exempted by law, everyone working in the United States is required to pay Social Security taxes.”
42 U.S.C. Section 405(c)(2)(B):
“(B)(i) In carrying out the Commissioner’s duties under subparagraph (A) and subparagraph (F), the Commissioner of Social Security shall take affirmative measures to assure that social security account numbers will, to the maximum extent practicable, be assigned to all members of appropriate groups or categories of individuals by assigning such numbers (or ascertaining that such numbers have already been assigned);
>end paste
I checked the SSA web at http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/
and the standard policy is there. At the bottom is a system for employers to gain access to verify SS#s.