This Week In Quotes: July 5 – July 11

12 Jul, 2013 by John Hawkins

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Now I’ve already gotten enough mail from you all, you don’t like what I say about not letting your students come here,” he began. “If it were up to me, I would not have another mosque built in this country until we got it worked out who was not a terrorist. — Bob Beckel

Of 472 civilian occupations defined by the Department of Commerce, only six are majority immigrant (legal and illegal). These six occupations account for 1 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Many jobs often thought to be overwhelmingly done by immigrants are in fact majority native-born: 51 percent of maids are U.S.-born, as are 63 percent of butchers and meat processors, and 73 percent of janitors. — Mark Krikorian

My colleagues Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler have published a report showing that all the net growth in employment among the working-age (ages 16—65) over the last decade went to immigrants (legal and illegal). Since 2000 the total number of immigrants employed is up by 5.3 million, while native-born employment is down 1.3 million. And this is despite the fact that immigrants accounted for only one-third of the growth in the working-age population. That means the U.S.-born working-age population increased by 16.4 million from the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2013, but the number of them working declined. So natives accounted for two-thirds of the growth in potential workers, but none of the growth in actual workers. — Mark Krikorian

If we don’t do (immigration reform) right politically, it’s going to be the death of the Republican party. If we do it right, I think it’s going to be good for us, but if we don’t do it right, what’s going to happen is that we’re going to lose our base because we’re still going to have a large number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States, and the Hispanic community is not going to listen to us because they’re going to always listen to at this point to the people that are offering more, that are offering a faster pathway to citizenship, all those things. so I think we lose on both groups if we don’t do it right. — Raul Labrador (R., Idaho)

House Republicans should make sure not to allow a conference with the Senate bill. House Republicans can’t find any true common ground with that legislation. Passing any version of the Gang of Eight’s bill would be worse public policy than passing nothing. House Republicans can do the country a service by putting a stake through its heart. — Bill Kristol & Rich Lowry

Egypt can’t democratize because none of the major players are liberal democrats. The Middle East’s traditional social system is decidedly resistant to modernization, and elections won’t change that. In any case, the secularists and the Islamists are so far apart in their basic outlook that trust is impossible between them. — Stanley Kurtz

“My friend the majority leader is going to be remembered as the worst leader in the Senate ever,” McConnell said. “It makes me sad.” – See more at: http://nakeddc.com/2013/07/12/mitch-mcconnell-and-harry-reid-had-a-bitch-fight-on-the-senate-floor-today/#sthash.rSW1Bp4x.dpuf — Mitch McConnell

It has become a trope among defenders of the law that its flaws are the fault of Republicans because they don’t want to fix them. They must have seen their own peculiar version of Schoolhouse Rock!: The first step in making a law is jamming a massive bill down the opposition’s throat. The second is whining that the opposition won’t fix problems inherent in the bill jammed down their throats. — Rich Lowry

I want 11 million people on a path to permanent legal status to lead to citizenship,” she said. “Permanent legal residency is a path to citizenship. This isn’t two separate things. … For our country, who are we as a country, if we say we have second-class Americans – it’s not even second-class citizens, because they’re not citizens, second-class Americans. So I think you can say a path to permanent legal status. But eventually after a certain period of time those people are eligible for citizenship. So it’s just a question of sequencing. — Nancy Pelosi