The economy is not creating many jobs. The fix will not be easy. We are awash in a sea of private as well as public debt. A persistent problem is the demand drag from the foreign sector..We import more than we export. Energy is 1/3 of the problem. But since governments cheat to prevent adjustment in trade flows (example, China keeps their currency low) major changes in trade deals are needed. The gold standard once provided such a mechanism. Since the gold standard is unlikely to come back All that said it is not good policy to add to the labor force supply more than one million legal immigrants every year. The county is not short of educated people. Scientist and engineers are unemployment. In addition the administration has issued

I did not see the immigration issue. The massive wave of immigration has hurt almost all waorkers. The increase in labor supply is a major factor in the long term stagnation of real wages. The educated find themselves in surplus - 20 % of the college educated are unemployed or are holding jobs not requiring a college degree. There are more people graduated in science and engineering than are needed. With illegal immigration adding large numbers to the unskilled the Black population is at ground zero for damage from excess immigration. Barbra Jordan recognized the damage from excessive immigration much of the Black population does to - but not the Black leadership that is more interested in building coalitions.

I am serious when writing this. I from listening to Gailbreth a few years back is senile. Four decades back economists reasonably discounted concern about the size of the public debt. One central argument was that we owe it to ourselves. This is no longer the case and the debt level threatens to equal total nation income. Some countries with high public debt also face high levels of private savings- not true in the US.

If an auto maker has huge inventories over a period of time on dealer lots, they likely will make cuts in production. If there are two few jobs for people in the labor force, good policy would seem to reduce or eliminate additions to the labor forece through immigration and visas issued to foreign workers. Obama and very few Democrats or Republicans have stepped forward to do the right thing.

This is a very thoughtful and moderate discussion ot the illegal immigration problem. Illegal immigration is all in excess of the huge (rep Guitterez view aside) level of legasl immigration. Fir the last decade real wages have been stagnate for almost all workers. Even those with degrees in science and technical fields have found that there are too many people chasing too few jobs. For the less educated blue collar workers the last 4 decades have been ones of big declines in real wages. But in the end immigration crime is crime and should not be facilitated and rewarded with citienship (and citizenship for their children).

Not dealing with the schools but with distortion of history the Ken Burns second world war documentary comes to mind. Looking at the census of 1940 we see that very few Hispanics were in the country at the time. There were accordingly very few Hispanics in the military. Ken Burns gladly accomadated the Hispanic lobyists and re recorded part of the film woth Hispanic sounding voices reading some of the historical letters. So Ken Burns seems to believe that a Doctor Quinn medicine woman or history as it should be approach is acceptable.

Why do you liberals upport high immigration and rewards for illegal immigration? Increasing the army of the unemployed can hardly be rational and in the public interest. Young people getting advanced degrees in science or other areas and finding themsleves unemployed or working as a waitress- displaced by an immigrant can hardly be good policy. Oh if liberals were only rational and concerned about the public interest.

While I agree with the need to reduce the military, my own experience that the typical Costa Rico visitor is most likely a liberal teacher or other civil servant .

Members of the Republican parties often have differing views on defense, on the level and mix of legal immigration and dealing with illegal immigration, on extension and modification of flawed trade pacts and treatment of Medicare and other large entitlement and safety net programs. Almost always I find that Pat Buchanan articulates my own reasonable positions. This is true for his call for a reduced military as well.

Of course, he is wrong about ethanol. Perhaps, most important are the import of farm workers. Both groups legal and illegal consume government provided services while Americans are unemployed. Mixed in with this a a hidden subsidy to farm interests. I know evidence suggest a policy of horing only Americans would increase agricultural prices- slightly. Generally the serious estimates are less than a 5% price increase at the super market. The support for unemployment Americans and for services provided to immigrants (legal or illegal) eliminate any savings of the farmers. It time that the farmers acgt like Americans.