Swimmer Kennedy ''Reformed'' Immigration in 1965
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Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Senator Kennedy says he's going to reform a problem he first promised would be "reformed" by his Immigration Act of 1965...

Ted Kennedy "Reformed" Immigration in 1965

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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me share with you this story. It's going to shock you. We talk about immigration reform, and the word to focus on here is "reform." There's no such thing as immigration reform. I mean, they sell it that way and they talk about it, but wait 'til you hear this story. Do you have any idea just what we're reforming? Because it's important. Before we can fix a problem we have to see what caused the problem in the first place, and we have to identify the problem, and before we seek a problem solver, we have to find out who helped create the problem and find out if they're still on the job.

First, the problem. The problem is called "Hart-Seller" or the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965. At the signing ceremony of Hart-Seller, President Lyndon Baines Johnson said, "This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not restructure the shape of our daily lives." Well, that's about 41 years ago. We've got a lot of hindsight that we can use. We have learned that this high sounding liberal dream Hart-Seller, 1965, worked out about as well as the war on poverty. In other words, it was a disaster.

Well, LBJ is no longer available to face accountability, but I do know that the man who marshaled the bill through the Senate is still around. The man who marshaled Hart-Seller immigration bill 1965, not only is he still around, he is leading the reform on the reform that he helped reform. We're into our third or fourth incarnation of reform here, and the guy who's working on the third or fourth version was the first guy who got this whole thing started in 1965. Now, before I reveal his name, let me pass on to you some of his quotes in 1965 as he then led the reform we are about to reform. Who do you think it is? Here's what he said. (interruption) Snerdley thinks he knows who it is, and I'm sure many of you think you know who it is.

First, "Our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, the bill will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia -- and in the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think."

The reformer then assured the Senate and the country and the media, quote, "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs," and if that weren't enough, the reformer, the man who started this whole thing with Hart-Seller, the Immigration Nationality Services Act of 1965 and who is today leading the charge to reform his own error, to reform his own failure, to reform his own disaster, said, "No immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge." All right, do you think you know who this is?

The reformer who wants to reform that which he reformed is Senator Ted Kennedy. These are the words of Senator Ted Kennedy, 1965, and he today is working on reforming what he reformed, what has been a total disaster. How in the world can we fix it if the same people are involved in fixing it who broke it in the first place? We're not even being honest with ourselves about the failures of our past attempts at reform. I know some of you are surprised that he's been around 40 years, but please, he's been around, and around, and around our necks for 44 years. Ted Kennedy is also the man, as an ancillary little bit of information here, who gave us the health maintenance organization.

It was Ted Kennedy's impetus that created the HMO, and it is now Ted Kennedy who's bashing the hell out of them and saying they're stealing people blind and mistreating customers and patients and so forth. He is the architect of at least two modern disasters, and that's probably barely scratching the surface. All you have to do is listen to his statements from his past records and do the opposite of what he wants to do. Ted Kennedy is a disaster. Ted Kennedy probably doesn't remember everything he said back in 1965 about the Hart-Seller bill, but it promised us then exactly what we're being promised now, and it was an utter disaster, and we tried it again, 20 years later, we had to go back and fix it. Hello, 1986, and it was Simpson-Mazzoli.

This immigration business seems to run in 20-year cycles. Now, here's the reality check. You heard the quotes from Senator Kennedy. Nothing bad's going to happen. We're not going to be flooded. We're not going to have these people become public charges, meaning welfare recipients. It's not going to happen. "Political refugees--" and this is the Center for Immigration Studies, their website. This was back in September 1995. This is ten-year-old stuff. You know it's even more profound now. "Political refugees qualify for public assistance upon setting foot on US soil.

"The exploding Somali refugee population of Lewiston, Maine, (pop. 36,000) is largely welfare-dependent. Likewise, 2,900 of Wausau, Wisconsin's 4,200 Hmong refugees receive public assistance. In all, 21 percent of immigrants receive public assistance, whereas 14 percent of natives do so. Immigrants are 50 percent more likely than natives to live in poverty." This was exactly what Senator Kennedy 40 years ago assured us would not happen. So Senator Kennedy and the Democrats want to pander. Well, then it's time to get both feet in the water on this immigration vote scam and be honest.

To demonstrate their compassion and their sympathy for the millions of potential new voteritos, Democrats ought to propose legislation granting illegal aliens the benefits of affirmative action. If they're gonna call this the modern civil rights movement, then let's take it right where we know it's going to go right off the bat. Affirmative action. Contractors employing more than 50% illegal aliens will get preferential treatment for minority contracts. Illegals applying to colleges get equal status with African-Americans. In fact, no, they get bumped ahead of everybody, and to really sew up the vote, new union job openings will go to illegal aliens.

They are the most depressed, oppressed, the people with the toughest row to hoe. This, my friends, is the only fair way of dealing with this never-ending discrimination. If these underappreciated and undervalued, well-meaning criminals really are the backbone of our country, if they really do represent like Ted Kennedy thinks and some of the other people on this, what is great about this country, then it's high time the Democrats, the wisest and kindest people in our planet, took the bull by the horns and did the right thing. Ted Kennedy says the immigrants today are part of a great and noble movement, like the civil rights movement of the sixties.

Well, if that's true, and if Kennedy is not just pandering, and he isn't just treating his new amigos like idiots and let's give these ne'er-do-wells a helping hand, we've got to boost them up. They can't get ahead on their own. It's too much discrimination. You can hear it out there all over the country, racism and sexism and bigotry and xenophobia, all is being directed at the backbone of America. And we in America have learned how Democrats deal with this. It's affirmative action. It's time to give them a liberal helping hand. Let's help them achieve what they can't achieve on their own.

Let's take care of them like helpless children and get them first in line. Affirmative action or give me death. Then give them something else to protest, too. We'll have an argument about it 'til they start demanding affirmative action as they fly the Mexican flag up there. I'm going to wait for Senator Kennedy here to be consistent, and the rest of the liberals to be consistent. If this is the modern civil rights movement, and we know what that means, then it's time for affirmative action for illegals and especially, not just affirmative action, it's time for comparable worth. The fact that they're being paid peanuts is insulting.

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Read the Background Material...
(FrontPageMag: The 1965 Immigration Act: Anatomy of a Disaster)

Rush Limbaugh.com ** Ted Kennedy "Reformed" Immigration in 1965