DNC platform draft: a healthcare lie?, same old immigration line with a Bush echo, Katrina, service, firearms, U.N. MDG

A draft of the Democratic National Committee's platform is in this PDF: link. As one might expect, it's full of vague, empty promises.

1. They refer to "the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance", which is a slight step-down from Obama's false claim that there are 47 million Americans without healthcare. While they don't provide a total number of those to whom they'd give insurance, and they do only say they're going to give healthcare to "Americans", they do say there are "nine million children" without insurance. According to the Census Bureau, in 2006 there were 8,661,000 people under 18 without insurance. Yet, about a quarter of all those without insurance aren't citizens, and that percentage might be even higher for those under 18.

2. The immigration section contains pretty much everything you've come to expect if you've listened to a Barack Obama speech (or one from Hillary, McCain,...) As was recommended they use pseudo-tough language in order to try to fool people: instead of "offering" legalization, they'll "require" illegal aliens to "come out of the shadows and get right with the law" and "go to the back of the line". They support massive chain migration, referring to "family reunification" as the "cornerstone of our immigration policy for years". And, indeed it more or less has been since Teddy Kennedy changed the rules in the 60s.

They also appear to be supporting either H1-B visas or some form of "guest" worker scheme:

Given the importance of both keeping families together and supporting American businesses, we will increase the number of immigration visas for family members of people living here and for immigrants who meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill, as long as appropriate labor market protections and standards are in place.

I guess even they realize that "jobs Americans won't do" is a losing phrase. Compare the bolded section with this early 2004 George W. Bush quote:

Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling.

Here's another Bush quote from that same time frame:

Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics: Some of the jobs being generated in America's growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling.

Maybe the Dems should find out who put that highly similar bit in their platform.

That section ends with this curious bit:

We will fight discrimination against Americans who have always played by our immigration rules but are sometimes treated as if they had not.

Presumably that refers to racial profiling, but considering the Democratic confusion over the words "American" and "immigrant" it really isn't clear what they're getting at.

3. They say "It is time to make the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which aim to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, America's goals as well." Those MDGs aim to do a lot more than just cut poverty (and perhaps cost the U.S. hundreds of billions). See the other goals in the post about BHO's Global Poverty Act.

4. They have a section on Katrina, which includes:

We will create jobs and training opportunities for returning and displaced workers and contracting opportunities for local businesses to help create stronger, safer, and more equitable communities.

What happened before is the Dems colluded with Bush to move the former residents out and warehouse them in other cities, while allowing connected contractors to bring in illegal aliens to take the jobs those former residents should have been doing. That scheme had tremendous costs, and the only people who came out ahead were the contractors and the Mexican government. In other words, the Democrats are full of it.

5. Someone who's more familiar with the code words used might want to weigh in on the "Firearms" section, but it sounds like the Dems are capitulating on this issue and supporting state's rights.

6. The "Service" section includes:

We will expand AmeriCorps; double the size of the Peace Corps; enable more to serve in the military, create new opportunities for international service, integrate service into primary education and create new opportunities for experienced and retired persons to serve.

Now, that's not like the Soviet Union or anything. It's just on the way there.

Politics · Sat, 08/09/2008 - 13:40 · · Importance: 1