By Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times - Sunday, January 27, 2019
President Trump hosted a meeting at the White House on Friday with Hispanic pastors from around the nation who are attuned to the realities of illegal immigration in their cities. They clearly supported Mr. Trump’s proposals on the issue. The representative clergy in attendance, in fact, brought a letter signed by 150 Hispanic evangelical leaders thanking the president for his leadership.
“We’re here to support you, Mr. President. You know, there’s misconception in the public, thinking that our community is for illegal immigration. There’s a misconception also that we want open borders. And dealing with people every single day, I see that our community supports what you’re doing. We don’t want open borders,” Guillermo Maldonado, pastor of King Jesus Ministry in Miami, told the president.
“That misconception that Spanish people want open borders, they want no laws, that’s not true. We’re here to support you, and what you’re doing is great. The lowest unemployment for Spanish people — 4 percent — that’s incredible. We pray for you,” said Mr. Maldonado.
“The media gives a major misconception of the Hispanic community and the support that we have for you. I can emphatically say your values stand aligned with the Hispanic community. What you have seen in the polls is what they have seen — no matter what the media says. They see that your actions are aligned to their heart’s desire,” noted Lourdes Aguirre, president of Eres America, a Florida-based media group centered on faith-based programming.
Ms. Aguirre refers to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which revealed that 50 percent of Hispanics approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing, up 19 percentage points since December. In addition, a new Florida Atlantic University survey found that 7-out-of-10 Hispanics says they are financially better off compared to a year ago, and expect the trend to continue.
“The message is getting to our Hispanic community — truck drivers in Los Angeles, you’ve got the Villareal names following you. The Gonzaleses. You’ve got Hispanics that are truly supportive,” Ms. Aguirre said.
“I am an immigrant from Mexico and also daughter of an immigrant from Mexico, and I just wanted you to know that you have not only my support ,but you have the support of our community,” said Norma Urrabazo, pastor of the International Church of Las Vegas.
“I support wholly what you’re doing here, what you’re doing for America, concerning the crisis there at the border. I’m involved a lot with human trafficking and gang violence with the police department in Las Vegas, and we know there’s a crisis. And we want to tell you thank you for everything that you’re doing,” said Pasqual Urrabazo, her husband and fellow pastor at the Nevada church.
“I am the first lady president of the Hispanic Pastors Association in South Florida,” Marilyn Rivera told Mr. Trump. “And I just want to tell you that we pray for you, we are behind you, and we want safe borders.”
MANCHIN’S METHOD
There are many notions afoot on how to prevent another federal shutdown, and Sen. Joe Manchin III has offered one of them.
“There is only way you’re ever going to stop this from ever happening again. We have a piece of legislation that says we’ll never shut down again. And you know how you’re going to do that?” the West Virginia Democrat asked CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
“The legislators do not get paid. I guarantee you there will not be a shutdown. People in Washington didn’t feel the pain. It was the people outside of Washington, all the federal workers and all the millions of people depending on the services,” Mr. Manchin advised.
He introduced the bipartisan “No Government, No Pay Act” on Jan. 19.
“In West Virginia, we know that when you don’t do your job, you don’t get paid. If Congress can’t come together to fulfill one of our most basic constitutional obligations, then we don’t deserve to get paid either,” he said at the time.
In accordance with the 27th Amendment which forbids Congress from raising or lowering its pay, the bill would take effect during the 116th Congress and would be applied to each new Congress going forward. Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan of Minnesota introduced similar legislation in House.
FOR THE LEXICON
“Sick shaming”
— Handy new term coined by Wall Street Journal reporter Chip Cutter, who gives ample evidence that vexed employees no longer tolerate colleagues who some to work sick — and now respond by ordering the ailing out of the office altogether, giving them remedies or sanitizing their desks.
“During flu season, workers are striking back against sniffling colleagues, ordering them into quarantine, breaking out the disinfectant; ‘I don’t care. You still have germs.’” Mr. Cutter noted.
WHAT CONGRESS ACTUALLY DID in 2018
So was it a do-nothing Congress last time around — or not? Pew Research Center analyst Drew DeSilver offers this terse assessment of the lawmakers and their work in the last session.
“Between its inception in January 2017 and its final day on Jan. 3, the GOP-led 115th Congress enacted 442 public laws, the most since the 110th Congress (2007-09). Of those laws, 69 percent were substantive (as judged by our deliberately generous criteria) not much different from the 71 percent substantive share achieved by the 114th Congress, in which the Republican-controlled House and Senate faced off against Democratic President Barack Obama. (The 114th Congress passed 329 laws in total.),” wrote Mr. DeSilver.
“Nearly a third of the laws passed by the 115th Congress were ceremonial in nature; it was the third Congress in a row in which the ceremonial share increased. Those ceremonial measures include 109 that renamed post offices, courthouses and the like — a fourth of the Congress’ total legislative output.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 77 percent of Americans are “satisfied with the overall quality of life” in the U.S.; 89 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats agree.
• 65 percent are satisfied with the opportunity to get ahead by “working hard”; 87 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of Democrats agree.
• 53 percent overall are satisfied with the influence of organized religion; 70 percent of Republicans and 42 percent of Democrats agree.
• 36 percent are satisfied the way “income is distributed” in the U.S.; 65 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of Democrats agree.
• 40 percent are satisfied with how well the U.S. government works; 54 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of Democrats agree.
• 26 percent are satisfied with the “moral and ethical climate” of the nation; 32 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A Gallup poll of 1,017 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 2-10 and released Friday.
• Factoids and observations to jharper@washingtontimes.com