Democrats pass the Law of Unintended Consequences

Giddy Democratic senators Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer held a rally for a higher minimum wage Thursday.

"We will raise it and raise it and raise it and raise it!" Senator Kennedy yelled.

"Let justice roll!" Senator Clinton shouted.

"No one in America should be forced to live on six dollars and fifteen cents an hour!" Senator Schumer thundered, provoking a wave of embarrassed laughter. The federal minimum wage is currently five dollars and fifteen cents an hour.

In Los Angeles, airport hotels were just ordered by the city government to pay a "living wage" equivalent to ten dollars and sixty-four cents an hour in wages and benefits. It is the first time private businesses on private property with no contractual relationship to the government have been ordered by the government to raise the salaries of their employees.

The L.A. Times described the scene in the Los Angeles City Council chamber when the living wage ordinance passed Wednesday by a vote of 11 to 3:

After the vote, about 100 hotel workers who filled most of the seats in the council chamber began a rhythmic clap familiar in the city's union halls and chanted "Si se puede" (Yes, we can.)

Si se puede is the slogan chanted by the half-million illegal immigrants who filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles a few months back, demanding legal status.

Let's observe the Law of Unintended Consequences in action by following this to its logical conclusion:

1. Democrats win control of the House and Senate.

2. The federal minimum wage is raised, making the "jobs Americans aren't doing" more attractive to Americans who aren't doing anything, like unemployed teenagers (and their frustrated parents).

3. Congressman Bennie Thompson, incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, keeps his promise to "revisit" the just-passed law requiring the construction of seven hundred miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

4. The Democratic-majority House and Senate pass "comprehensive immigration reform" that includes a "path to citizenship," and the president signs it into law.

5. Businesses on the razor's edge of profitability find the higher minimum wage crippling and have a strong incentive to hire illegal immigrants for cash under the table.

6. Illegal immigration soars.

7. President Tom Tancredo.

State and local governments may not share the federal government's enthusiasm for illegal immigration. The people who pay the bills for education and low-income health care services and public transporation and police and fire protection and prisons might be feeling very frustrated that their costs are going up and up and up due to an influx of people who have broken the laws of the United States in order to get here.

Well, beleaguered officials, America Wants to Know is here to help.

Did you know that the United States Constitution can be amended even if the House, the Senate, the President, the Supreme Court, and all fifty state governors oppose the idea?

Would you like to have some fun?

Would you like to have some leverage?

Under Article V of the United States Constitution, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a constitutional convention to propose amendments.

A proposed amendment becomes part of the United States Constitution when it is ratified by three-quarters of the state legislatures.

The House, the Senate, the President, the Supreme Court, and the fifty state governors have no role in the process: no vote, no veto, no appellate jurisdiction.

The state legislatures can control the whole process from start to finish.

Don't be frightened. The procedures set up by the Founding Fathers guarantee a lengthy, public debate. Nothing goofy is going to slip into the Constitution by accident. There will be plenty of time for all viewpoints to be heard and all arguments to be made. Ultimately, the Constitution can only be amended if an overwhelming majority of the citizens of the United States want it to be.

If nothing else, a proposed constitutional amendment on immigration is a two-by-four that will get the federal government's attention.

To find out more, read "How to Get Congress to Foot the Bill for Illegal Immigration, and Fast" at www.SusanShelley.com.


Copyright 2006

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