Will US Congress hear the immigration reform message when the Wall Street Journal explains the issue?

The U.S. has a people problem.  

A Wall Street Journal opinion published in Quad City Times, an Iowa newspaper.  This is an important essay republished in Iowa in advance of Republicans campaigning for the 2024, election.

In fact, the birth rate has been sliding for years, and it’s about to translate into a shrinking labor force. By 2040, according to a recent study, America could have more than 6 million fewer working-age people than in 2022. The only way to counter the domestic trend is by attracting workers from abroad.

“The working-age U.S. population has peaked absent additional immigration,” writes Madeline Zavodny, in a forthcoming paper from the National Foundation for American Policy. “New international migrants are the only potential source of growth in the U.S. working-age population over the remainder of the next two decades.”

Zavodny is an economics professor at the University of North Florida, and her analysis is based on data from the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At a time when some Americans view foreign workers as cheap competition, she offers a prescription for growth and vigor. In particular she notes that, though foreign-born workers accounted for nearly half the gain in U.S. employment from January 2021, through May 2023, “employment among prime-aged U.S.-born workers also soared during this period.”

Unemployment has been historically low, she adds, and difficulty of finding good workers will increase if the pool of working-age people shrinks.

The domestic trend lines aren’t good, for two big reasons. The declining birthrate is one. The other is Baby Boomers are both living longer and aging out of the work force. 

Anyone who imagines that a shrinking population is pleasant should spend some time in Japan and Italy. As these countries are finding, decline means fewer people to produce goods and services, as well as less innovation. 

Even China’s Communists now admit that owing to their pursuit of a one- child policy, they now face, as Milton Friedman predicted, a huge worker shortage that will challenge economic growth.

So far the U.S. has been able to compensate via immigration, which was “the sole source of growth in the U.S. working-age population in 2021 and 2022,” Zavodny says. But this isn’t guaranteed. She suggests a future of competition among countries hit by the double whammy of a declining birth rate and aging society. 

Canada recently rolled out a new work permit to lure away foreigners in the U.S. on high-skill H-1B visas. The target of 10,000 applicants was met in two days.

Amid Donald Trump’s talk about a wall and Joe Biden’s chaos at the southern border, it’s hard to imagine any solutions from Congress before 2025. But Zavodny identifies labor-force trends that will have damaging consequences if they aren’t addressed. Someone needs to make the case that admitting foreign workers is good for America.

Iowa echo calls for "impartial justice" from Senator Joni Ernst

In my opinion, the coercion used by Republicans, like Mitch McConnell,to defend the indefensible Donald Trump, is the political analogy to putting the Senators' heads on pikes.

An Iowan opinion letter published in Quad City Times:

  

Dear Editor:  Weeks ago I asked U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst whether she had decided how she would vote on President Trump's impeachment.

That simple question needed only a straight-forward, Midwestern answer: Yes or no. In addition, she might have explained, like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, that as a prospective juror she was keeping an open mind. But she refused to do so.

Now Ernst has sworn an oath to "do impartial justice" in that trial. However, such impartiality requires an open mind. Her earlier refusal to pledge an open mind is evidence that she has sworn in bad faith. That action, chosen freely, speaks louder than the oath finally coerced from her lips by the impeachment proceeding.

She can rebut that evidence by voting for an open trial that includes both the documents and the sworn testimony of witnesses, both of which Trump has blocked. First-hand witness to Trump's abuse of office to coerce Ukraine into assisting his re-election could theoretically exonerate Trump.

Regardless, the truth would be known. Does Ernst fear that truth, or Majority Leader McConnell, who long ago seized her spine and conscience? Is it easier to mouth an oath and vote as instructed?

Iowans should demand that she vote for a real, open trial. I do dare her.  From Tom Walsh in Leclaire, Iowa

Gun violence is the national emergency- Iowa echo letter opinion

Gun violence in the U.S. in 2017, killed 39,773 people. In fact, stopping gun violence is truly the US national emergency.

This represents a total of 12 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest level in 20 years.

From a global perspective, Japan reports 0.2 deaths per 100,000, 0.9 in Germany and 2.1 in Canada.
Gun violence has a $2.8 billion impact on our economy.

The emotional trauma, resulting from gun violence, has taken a significant toll on families, communities and on our nation’s mental health system.

Law enforcement officials are trained and retrained in the use of firearms. After a police-involved shooting, there is an investigation. Officers then receive support to deal with the trauma experienced from the shooting.

Law enforcement officials are the "good guys" with guns.

Our laws need to protect them, so that they can continue to serve and protect us. But, sadly, they are increasingly at risk of being shot and killed by individuals who should not have guns.

We cannot control angry people with guns. However, we can control their access to guns, through our legislative process. Legislation needs to be in place to require that those wishing to purchase guns receive thorough training and extensive vetting.

Iowa's Senate is looking to repeal gun background checks and potentially provide unchecked sales of hand-guns to dangerous people. Iowa need reasonable gun laws to protect children and communities. Please call and write to government officials and tell them to support gun background checks.

Gun violence is America's national emergency.

Jeanne Wolf,  Davenport, Iowa

Opening the Trumpzi cult's eyes -Trump and Russia

This letter to the editor of the Iowa Quad City Times appears to confirm my opinion about how Trump cult followers are victims of mass hypnosis. They only respond to their leader's dog whistle. Mass hypnosis is not an abomination. Indeed, it's a psychological phenomenon.

What will cause the Trump cultists to finally open their eyes?

Opinion letter:  Okay, let' s try to put normal Republican/Democratic politics aside.

I think one of the biggest dividing factors between the American people is the fact that many see President Trump as beholden to Russia and many refuse to even see that as a possibility.

It is clear that our intelligence agencies are worried about him, and it's stunning that this in itself is not enough to open everyone's eyes. When you look at what has come out about Trump and Russia, the evidence is reaching the point of being overwhelming and that's without Mueller's findings.

Surely, there will be those who will not believe what the Special Counsel Mueller finally reports. They will be the ones Trump was talking about when he said he could literally go out on the street and shoot someone and they wouldn't care. But, hopefully, there will be enough people who care enough about "our" country to insure he does not get re-elected.

Tom Hebbeln, Davenport, Iowa

Does anybody in the White House understand the word "truth"?

Does anybody in the White House understand how to tell the truth?

Donald Trump is claiming that telling the truth puts him into a "perjury trap"?  That's ridiculous of course, because telling the truth cannot lead anyone into committing perjury. Yet, nearly everything being spewed from the Trump White House is weird, including how the staff understands the meaning of the word "truth".

Now, even a Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh must practice telling the truth! This is totally unacceptable.

This letter to the editor of the Iowa newspaper Quad City Times is asking the same question, in this echo opinion: 

Letter writer Tom Hebbeln: It doesn't look good that Brett Kavanaugh is practicing for hours at the White House for his potential testimony, instead of calling for an FBI investigation to clear his name. Why does he need practice telling the truth, since he's saying it didn't happen? It looks bad because Dr. Ford, is willing to answer these questions under an FBI oath, not to mention she passed a polygraph. Also, right or wrong, you can understand why Dianne Feinstein waited until the last moment. In face, Dr Ford was desperately hoping not to do this, hoping that something else would derail Kavanaugh. When it was apparent that wasn't going to happen, just like Anita Hill, she was willing to come forward. 

Appointments to the Supreme Court are important enough to bring out events that otherwise would never see the light of day. It speaks terribly to the Republican party that all the Republican senators are willing to follow McConnell, like lemmings, jumping off a cliff.

From Tom Hebbeln, Davenport Iowa

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is missing in action

Donald Trump is not the leader who Senator Ernst promised.

An Iowa newspaper has raised the ante for Republican Senator Ernst. She has not been honest with voters in Iowa. Although she campaigned for Donald Trump, she has not responded about the failed administration.

Senator Ernst (R-Iowa) campaigned for Republicans

Editorial published in the Iowa newspaper "Quad City Times":

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst campaigned for Donald Trump. 

She gave, perhaps, the most substantive speech of the Republican National Convention's opening night. She stood alongside Trumpzi on stages throughout Iowa, making his case.

Ernst worked for this. But now, she doesn't want to take the heat.

Ernst isn't the only Republican member of Congress tired of defending the Trumpzi tweeter-in-chief. But her response during a town hall in Red Oak, Iowa, is nothing short of an attempt to shirk her responsibility for the chaos now masquerading as governance.

"I don't respond a lot to what the president's saying because, if I'm going to talk, I want to talk about the things I'm working on," Ernst told the crowd peppering her with questions about Trump's behavior, according to KETV.

HELLO? Sorry Senator Ernst. That won't cut it, Senator. 

Trump's immense power means his words and actions define the political moment. Those things Ernst says she's "working on" do not exist in a vacuum.

Ernst, like a lot of Trump's supporters, promised Iowans that he would evolve once he entered the White House. Yet, the gravity of the job, or so the argument went, would force him to abandon the divisive, base-feeding rhetoric and grapple with the complexities of a socially and economically heterogeneous nation.

Instead, the American president's own staff grouse about his unwillingness to learn the basics about policy. He inflames global tensions 140 characters at a time. He attacks his own constituents -- more than half the country -- for simply disagreeing with him.

Trump is not the leader Ernst promised.

Iowa's junior senator made her bed. It's time she lie in it.

The U.S. is, by every account, in total chaos. The sweeping tax overhaul, the GOP lone legislative achievement in the Trump era, would have happened with any Republican residing in the White House.

In the past week, Trump promised to "take the heat" if a bipartisan immigration compromise offended his base. 

But, days later, senators brought him just such a compromise and he rejected it, complete with some crass xenophobia.

Trump's administration said it supported extending National Security Agency's controversial domestic spying program. But hours before the House was set to vote on the issue, Trump came out against it. Then, after a phone call from House leadership, Trump again did an about-face and, ultimately, supported the bill.

Trump's position is formed solely by with whom he last spoke. There's no rhyme, reason or political worldview from which he's operating. Trump desires only victory. And he's none too concerned with what that victory actually means for the country.

The president is an isolated, incurious man sitting atop an administration where pay-to-play, nepotism and palace intrigue are standard operating procedure.

On at least one occasion, Ernst did challenge the president's toxic drivel. She came out, carefully, against his attempt at booting transgender service members from the Armed Forces. 

Although her response was a commendable moment, it's also been an isolated incident.

Ernst isn't alone -- or even the worst offender -- among Iowa Republicans who carry Trump's water. Sen. Chuck Grassley has run an all-out deflection campaign for Trump from his seat atop the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rep. Steve King is, well, an embarrassment who gleefully champions the most nativist, racist components of Trump's rhetoric.

But King didn't play a substantial personal role in convincing Iowans to back Trump. Grassley worked quietly behind the scenes, urging GOP delegates that the Supreme Court was reason enough to support Trump regardless of his failings. Ernst, however, was Trump's in-state champion who, at one point, was among those discussed as potential vice presidential candidates.

Ernst made a lot of promises about the would-be president, pledges that have been exposed as hollow rhetoric. Iowans are right to want answers.

P.S. Now that Donald Trump has failed, Senator Ernst and her support are "missing in action".