Reid gets what he wants

This afternoon, I got an e-mail from a conservative group lamenting the fact that Harry Reid is inserting the Dream Act into the upcoming Defense appropriations bill. The e-mail first points out that there were already two major problems with that appropriations bill: first, it repeals don't ask, don't tell before any report about the impact of such a repeal, and second,it provides funding for elective abortions at military hospitals. Then the e-mail says the obvious that Reid is only trying to get political advantage out of this. "Reid admitted at a press conference that amnesty is dead for Congress this year. His move is purely political."

So, Harry has managed to get Conservatives riled up at him by sticking the Dream Act into this bill. Since the Defnse appropriations bill is supposed to be the main item on the senate agenda in the next few weeks while Congress is in session, Reid has now assured that there will be a heavy focus on this issue. Hours and days and weeks will be wasted dealing with this issue. In the end, the Dream Act will probably be stripped from the bill, even though it represents, in my opinion, good public policy. There is just no constituency now for giving any illegal aliens amnesty of any sort. So what will the end result be? As I have written before, this move will take up time that should have been devoted to the economy. Reid will use the Senate's time to show himself a friend to illegals rather than to let the senate take actions that could help the economy. The tax issues will just be left to drift, and the uncertainty will cause further harm to the economy.