Another Stinky Layer of the Senate Immigration Bill Onion

Source: CNN (Lou Dobbs show transcript). H/T to and video at For the Cause.

U.S. construction employees working under a federal contract are guaranteed wages significantly higher than the minimum wage. The so-called prevailing wage rates are ensured by what's known as the Davis-Bacon Act.

The Senate's immigration bill extends those protections to foreign laborers under a guest-worker program. But it went a step further. It also guaranteed the prevailing wage to foreign workers even on private construction projects and in other professions, a benefit American workers do not have.

Say WHAT?

SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON (R), GEORGIA: If a foreign worker on an immigrant firm were working in that job, they would have to be paid $30.27, yet an American citizen working for the same company would not. They might be paid $10 or $15 or minimum wage for that matter.

That's right, folks. In an attempt to stop foreign workers from undercutting the wages of American workers, the Senate's "comprehensive immigration reform" would guarantee wages to foreign workers that are not guaranteed to American citizens. It just doesn't get any more boneheaded than this.

And who's responsible for this brilliant addition to the Senate dung heap? My own senator, Barack Obama.

Do they even read this shit before they submit it for consideration, let alone vote for it?

Please don't answer that. It's too depressing.

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Immigration Reform * Barack Obama * Davis-Bacon Act * Lou Dobbs