




Obamacare is an enormous deal. It directly affects about one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It directly affects not just our well-being, but also life and death. Arguably, it provides the most significant entitlement in American history, and certainly one of the top three. No entitlement enacted since 1964 comes close to matching it.

Enacting Schumer-Rubio style immigration reform would be just as impactful. It would radically transform America by ultimately leading to citizenship for (an estimated) 30 million or more Mexicans, nearly all of whom will be low-skilled individuals, and many of whom violated American law as their very first act in this country.

It is highly unlikely that these new citizens will assimilate successfully. Thus, America will be a far less unified country than it is today.

It is overwhelmingly likely that the vast majority of the new citizens will vote consistently for Democrats. It is virtually certain that they will not vote for conservative Republicans, as that designation is currently understood. Thus, America will not be anything close to a “center-right” country. If we are a “center” country, it will only be because the center moved significantly to the left.

The economic impact of Schumer-Rubio is subject to legitimate debate, so I’m not going to include it in my analysis. But quite apart from immigration policy, the U.S. almost surely will either have an enormous debt problem or will have taxed the relatively well-to-do to the breaking point.

Either state of affairs will reflect another Obama administration “success” — its ability to fend off Republican efforts to reform entitlements and to bring about substantial cuts in government.

And, with so many new underclass voters, it will be nearly impossible to reverse the rot.

Name a U.S. president since Lincoln who has had more of an impact on America than that which I have just described. You could make a case for Reagan, but FDR is the only one I would agree on.


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