Could Immigration Reform Bill Emerging This Week Set Off Another Conservative Backlash?
As a Senate committee prepares to begin voting this week on far-reaching immigration legislation, advocates are watching warily to see whether relatively tame opposition balloons into the kind of fierce resistance that killed Congress’ last attempt to overhaul the system.
Opponents acknowledge that supporters started out better organized and mobilized than last time around, and they also anticipate that outside groups pushing the legislation — including efforts headed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg — will outspend them. Supporters include large and influential groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO and the Catholic Church, while opponents include lesser-known think tanks or advocacy organizations such as NumbersUSA, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Center for Immigration Studies. Both sides have already begun running ads.
But critics also have important grass-roots influence, including from talk radio hosts who were instrumental in defeating the bill in 2007, and opponents argue that as the public absorbs the content of the legislation, the tide will turn against it. They say that there are already signs that it’s happening. Some talk radio hosts including Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh have begun to voice deep unease about the bill despite the efforts of its conservative standard bearer, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to sell the legislation to them and other conservative opinion leaders.
Lott said that supporters of the legislation still haven’t come up with an argument as concise and effective as that one word — “amnesty” — from opponents. He said he’s spoken with Rubio, among others, to make clear that supporters of the bill need to hone their arguments. “Last time our explanation was three paragraphs. Theirs was a word,” Lott said. When that happens, he said, “You’re dead.”
http://www.nationalmemo.com/could-immigration-bill-set-off-another-backlash/
From Maddow Blog:
On immigration reform, it's the Heritage Foundation vs. the GOP
For many years, the Heritage Foundation has partnered with the Republican Party on, well, just about everything. When Republican policymakers need aides, they often hire Heritage staffers. When Republican policymakers want to give a speech to raise their visibility, they schedule an event at Heritage. When reporters call GOP offices, asking for evidence to bolster one of the party's policy arguments, Republican staffers routinely send over Heritage materials.
But on immigration, the party and its favorite think tank are at odds. In fact, they're practically enemies.
The Heritage Foundation held a press conference this morning to unveil its new condemnation of comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that it will cost at least $6.3 trillion -- $9.4 trillion in government benefits, minus $3.1 trillion in tax revenue. As a substantive matter, independent estimates, including research from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, make clear that Heritage's numbers are literally unbelievable.
One might expect the pushback to come from the White House or Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) office, but instead, much of the Republican leadership wants to get immigration reform done, so we're seeing Heritage pushback come from the GOP. Indeed, we're seeing Republicans push a Republican argument -- the value of "dynamic" scoring -- to discredit Heritage from the right.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/06/18086980-on-immigration-its-heritage-vs-the-gop
If this were not a serious policy issue that we need to get right, it would be fun to watch the republican battle between the "amnesty-hating" base and the "gotta-stop-alienating-Hispanics" power structure of the party.
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