By: Dale Weckbacher
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.
NKJV
Even though we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s
high standard, God still holds us with high value. Our value to God is so high that he offered
the life of his only Son so we could live eternally in the presence of God
(John 3:16). All one has to do is believe,
we do not have to pay anything for our salvation, for the price has already
been paid.
Unfortunately, large bureaucracies tend to dehumanize
people. The worst bureaucracy of all is
the United States Government where politicians promise to meet every need of
voters and most often fail to deliver.
The current debate over immigration and amnesty is a prime example.
Democrats and Republicans are both in a hurry to pass some
sort of immigration reform and most of these proposals contain some sort of
amnesty or path to citizenship for those in our country illegally. Both parties are putting on a good front that
appears to be extending a compassionate hand to illegal aliens who they claim
are only here seeking a better life as our ancestors did, ignoring the fact
that most of our ancestors, like mine, came here legally.
Potential GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush even went so
far as to claim that illegally coming into the country is an act of love. (1) Only a politician could justify breaking the
law and call it an act of love. Even
though it may appear humane on the surface to open up the borders and let
anyone come in and find a better life.
That is not why politicians and bureaucrats want amnesty and their
agenda is not humane but actually dehumanizes everyone involved.
Politicians need votes to keep their jobs. Many, especially those that have held office
for many years, have learned to buy votes by offering goodies to people. When they look at someone in our country
illegally, they see a poor needy person that they can help and turn into a voter
for their party. By offering these
people amnesty they are opening up the opportunities our nation has to
offer. However, since most of these
individuals have few skills and education, they will be stuck in a low paying
job. However, do not fear for once they
receive amnesty, they will also have access to our nation’s entitlement
programs. Of course, they will also be
encouraged to vote for politicians promising to expand these entitlement
programs along with raising the minimum wage.
In other words, many politicians do not see illegals as humans but
voters that will help them win on Election Day.
Business owners see the expansion of their bottom lines
because of the cheap labor these people offer. To these business owners, illegals are not
people but cheap labor they can use to enhance their bottom line. Now, I am not against making a profit but I
believe these business owners dreams of profits are short sighted and fail to
look at the bigger picture.
Granted, cheaper labor may initially expand the bottom line
but since these people’s low skills and lack of education force them into low
paying jobs, they have no choice but to take advantage of government
programs. Opportunistic politicians,
seeing them as future voters are more than happy to grant them access to these
taxpayer funded programs. In fact, the
cheap labor these individuals offer may be short lived if politicians increase
the minimum wage to $15 as recently happened in Seattle. (2) Not only will an increased minimum wage eat
up any profit but eventually politicians will need to increase taxes on these
businesses to pay for an ever-expanding entitlement system. (3) The bottom line of these businesses may
initially grow but these advances will be short lived due to increases in
minimum wage and taxes. Eventually these
people viewed as an asset to the business that will increase their bottom line
will become a liability.
We must also consider the hard working Americans that are
still employed. These individuals still
represent a majority in our country and they are the backbone of our
economy. These people get up every day,
fight traffic, put in a hard and productive day at their jobs and are the ones
making delivering, and selling the goods and services we as consumers use. However, all this talk of amnesty means they
too will experience an increase in their taxes.
They are also negatively impacted by depressed wages due to the influx
of cheap labor into our country.
These individuals are feeling the pinch of higher prices,
lower wages, and higher taxes. As one of
these individuals, I often feel like politicians view me as their ATM machine
where they can go whenever they need more money to buy votes. I am fortunate to work for a small company
that still treats people as humans but I know many who work for employers that view
employees as a liability because they know there is a potential pool of cheap
labor available to replace them.
However, not all is lost for we the people have an
opportunity to speak up each election. We
also have an opportunity to make changes through our state legislatures using
article 5 of the Constitution should the Federal Government continue to turn a
deaf ear.
I therefore encourage everyone to seek out candidates this
election that views us as individuals and not some voting block they can buy to
retain their job. God values each
individual so is it too much to ask our leaders to treat us with value as well?
1. Breitbart TV. JEB BUSH: CROSSING THE BORDER
ILLEGALLY AN 'ACT OF LOVE'. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News,
April 6, 2014. [Cited: June 24, 2014.] http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/04/06/Jeb-Bush-Crossing-The-Border-Illegally-Is-An-Act-Of-Love.
2. McGreal, Chris.
Seattle minimum wage: $15 figure represents 'historic victory' for workers. www.theguardian.com.
[Online] The Guardian, June 3, 2014. [Cited: June 24, 2014.]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/02/seattle-plan-minimum-wage-hike-workers.
3. Robert Rector and
Jason Richwaine, Ph.D. The Fiscal Cost of Unlawful Immigrants and Amnesty
to the U.S. Taxpayer. www.heritage.org. [Online] The Heritage
Foundation, May 6, 2013. [Cited: June 24, 2014.]
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/05/the-fiscal-cost-of-unlawful-immigrants-and-amnesty-to-the-us-taxpayer.
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