George W. Bush Center Goes After Trump, Says We Need More Immigration During Pandemic

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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FILE – In this June 23, 2017 file photo, former President George W. Bush speaks during “Stand-To,” a summit held by the George W. Bush Institute focused on veteran transition, in Washington. Bush will be in Florida on Friday to fundraise for Gov. Rick Scott’s bid to oust Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a closely watched and expensive campaign. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Yesterday, the George W. Bush Presidential Center released a video that is so complete tone deaf and nonsensical that you almost have to double check to make sure it’s not a parody. Surely, this is some liberal group putting out a video make the former President look ridiculous, but nope, it’s real.

In the video, we see Bush’s mouthpiece stumping for more immigration in the middle of a pandemic, criticizing Trump’s closing of the borders to help stop the spread of the disease.

Honestly, this is just incredible.

“Unfortunately, this executive order is not going to accomplish either of those objectives,” Laura Collins, the director of economic growth for the Bush Center, said in the video.

“First of all, the virus affects all of us equally. It doesn’t care who we are or where we’re from. Current travel restrictions and quarantine protocols put in place protect us from viral spread regardless of where we’re from,” Collins said, adding that there is no need to prevent more foreign nationals from entering the U.S.

Wait, what? Of course the virus cares about where we are from in regards to someone traveling from their home to a new area and possibly spreading it. To suggest otherwise literally makes no sense at all. On the most practical level, the way to stop the spread of the virus is to stop those infected with it from entering areas that are already dealing with the cases they have. Further, there are other concerns at play, such as importing yet more people we will have to pay for and hospitalize if they get sick.

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“We know that, before the pandemic, there were millions of unfilled jobs in the United States. If we assume that, in any recovery, all of those jobs come back, every American that wants a job will have the ability to fill the jobs that were there,” she said.

“We’re still going to have shortages and we’re going to need immigrants there to help fill those jobs,” Collins continued, noting that the labor force isn’t big enough to take on all the available jobs in the country.

How about we wait for those “shortages” to happen before flooding the zone again? That seems like a rather simple solution. The labor force is absolutely big enough to take on all the available jobs in the country right now and will be so for a long time yet. There isn’t going to be a recovery overnight.

I would expect rhetoric like this from some Democrat or the mainstream media. Instead it’s coming from a Republican, and that’s deeply disappointing. It’s one thing to hold liberal views on immigration during normal times. It’s another to be so ridiculously obtuse and ideologically rigid that you’d stump for more immigration while 30 million people sit out of work right now. That’s not only economically insane, it’s extremely uncaring to Americans who are just trying to play by the rules.

This is the same George W. Bush who couldn’t be bothered to say a cross word about Barack Obama, not even as the Middle East burned to the ground under the terror of ISIS. But let Trump stop immigration during a pandemic and he finds his voice again. It’s just infuriating from a purely political standpoint, and it’s exactly why Trump was elected. Many of these establishment figures are more worried about keeping their reputation in order among a certain class than speaking out when it really matters. They see no repercussions in bashing Trump, so they do so at will.

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Meanwhile, they are never down for the struggle when it comes to calling Democrats out for their malfeasance. Republican voters won’t forget that anytime soon.

 

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