Immigration

the benefits would mostly go to business owners.....He's afraid “the 21 million Americans who can’t find full-time work will have an ever harder time getting a job and supporting their families.” This bill, Sessions said, apparently with a serious face, could be “the biggest setback for poor and middle-class Americans of any legislation Congress has considered in decades.”

Source: AL.com

A Republican expressing concern about the poor and worrying that benefits from legislation would go to wealthy business owners?

Don't get too excited. Republicans only pretend to care about the poor and the middle class when they think it will benefit them politically. In this case, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama was trying to make up reasons on the spot to kill the pending immigration reform bill before Congress.

Recently, Republicans have been trying to use the tried-and-true "It costs too much!" argument against the bill, but unfortunately, that ended up not working for them:

The American economy would suffer some initial struggles if a Senate bill legalizing the nation's million unauthorized immigrants becomes law, but the overall effect would be a reduction in the federal deficit, according to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

But the CBO also found that the border security components in the bill would reduce illegal immigration only by 25%.

The CBO, which estimates the cost of legislation, stated the bill would decrease federal deficits by $197 billion within a decade of passing Congress and an additional $700 billion over the next decade.

(Emphasis mine)
Source:  USA Today

Whoops! So onward and upward, pandering to the poor and middle class by pretending to care about their plight.

And while we're at it, how about launching anti-immigrant, tea-party-like-it's-2010 rallies in DC?

At one point, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., addressed Hispanic media outlets in Spanish — only to get heckled.

“If they all learned English …” someone shouted from the sidelines, then trailed off, as a woman arrived wielding a sign that read, “Do not reward criminals, no amnesty for illegal aliens!!!”
The speakers sought to brush it off.

“I want to make a call for unity,” said Becky Keenan, a pastor with the Gulf Meadows Church of Houston, Texas, “a call for a tone that is civil, where we can discuss issues, see where we can compromise.”

Across the East Front lawn, a woman was shouting wildly into a much louder microphone, almost drowning out Keenan. Protesters wore T-shirts emblazoned with American flags and tea party slogans, and they waved homemade signs that read, “John Boehner: no amnesty, get a backbone,” “Boehner: go home,” “exporting illegals = importing jobs for Americans, stop socialism,” and “if we lose rule of law we become Mexico.”

Source: Roll Call

After losing to noted fearsome Socialist Barack Obama for a second time in 2012, Republicans launched a "rebranding" campaign in which they pledged outreach to women and minorities (both of which came out of the woodwork to vote for Obama in droves).

Despite all the talk of "rebranding" and a "softer, kinder" Republican party, however, we still see nativist "English only" idiots gathering at the Capitol to derail a bill whose passage would likely help Republicans with minority outreach!

Is it any wonder that the GOP is (deservedly) "in the wilderness" right now? Maybe they should stay there until party leaders actually start showing a modicum of common sense (for a change).