New Orleans offers a quick study of Bush labor policy in action: On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina strikes, causing widespread destruction. Four days later, President Bush commits $10.1 billion of the taxpayers' money to rebuilding New Orleans. Four days after that, he suspends the Davis-Bacon Act — the law that requires federal contractors to pay workers the going local rate.The other sweet thing about this (for the Bush administration and other "free" marketeers) is that the Dems are too p***y to say anything about this. After all, what if MALDEF calls them "mean-spirited"? Or, what if the National Council of The Race says they're xenophobes? At all costs, the Dems must sell out American citizens to far-left race-based groups with questionable loyalties to this country.
Illegal immigrants, willing to work at less-than-prevailing wages, stream into New Orleans. And a mere six weeks after the last evacuee leaves the Superdome, we hear of complaints by illegal workers that employers are stiffing them of their meager pay.
So here you have it, a lesson on how to crush the market for blue-collar labor. And it could have been done in four PowerPoint slides...
There's only one sane explanation of why Bush would try to lower wages in a tight labor market: He intended all along to flood the market with cheap foreign workers.
It's a simple setup: (1) Get rid of Davis-Bacon, so contractors can offer below-market pay that Americans and legal immigrants won't touch; (2) continue to disregard the law that forbids companies to hire undocumented workers; (3) when people complain that the workers restoring New Orleans are not legal, say that they are taking jobs no American wants.
The one price that may never rise, in the Bush mindset, is the price of labor. Companies must cope with rising costs for energy, drugs or land. If they can't deal with it, they go out of business. But cheap labor is somehow an entitlement...
Immigration2005b · Wed, 10/26/2005 - 19:48 · Importance: 1
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"It's a simple setup: (1) Get rid of Davis-Bacon, so contractors can offer below-market pay that Americans and legal immigrants won't touch; (2) continue to disregard the law that forbids companies to hire undocumented workers; (3) when people complain that the workers restoring New Orleans are not legal, say that they are taking jobs no American wants."
And add one more thing: Now the illegal aliens deserve some kind of amnesty for taking these "jobs no American wants", right? What we have here is yet another preview of coming attractions if we pass McCain-Kennedy or some other amnesty bill being considered. The 1986 amnesty law is, of course, one other preview: Lots of amnesty followed by weak to zero enforcement with tons of illigal immigration on top. If another amnesty bill passes, we will see New Orleans all across the country because as M-K exists now, businesses can post jobs below prevailing wages and if no US citizen takes the job, he can seek out anybody in the world who will. It's no accident that the bill to raise minimum wages recently failed to pass Congress. Soon most blue-collar jobs will be minimum wage if we're not careful.
Posted by: D Flinchum at Oct 27, 2005 6:42 AM
If you had told me that someone would write an article suggesting that suspending the Davis-Bacon act is contrary to free-market principles, I'd have said you were crazy.
Posted by: Ralph at Oct 27, 2005 5:31 AM