Immigration and Foreign Aid legislation, February 2024
Donald H. Marks MD PhD
With the rejection of the previously agreed-upon and settled combined Immigration and Foreign Aid legislation, would it have been more acceptable to Congress to simply write a stand-alone immigration bill without foreign aid provisions? Creating separate bills—one focused on immigration reform and another on foreign aid—has its merits. Let’s explore the rationale behind this approach:
Clarity and Focus:
A stand-alone immigration reform bill would allow lawmakers to focus exclusively on addressing immigration-related issues without the distraction of foreign aid debates.
Similarly, a separate foreign aid bill could receive undivided attention, ensuring that aid decisions are made based on their own merits.
Efficiency and Transparency:
Separate bills streamline the legislative process. Lawmakers can deliberate on each topic independently, leading to more efficient decision-making.
Transparency is enhanced when bills are specific and targeted. Citizens and stakeholders can clearly understand what each bill aims to achieve.
Political Considerations:
Combining unrelated issues in a single bill can lead to political horse-trading. Lawmakers may vote for or against provisions based on their stance on other matters, rather than the merits of each issue.
By separating immigration reform and foreign aid, lawmakers can vote on each issue based on its own merits, rather than being influenced by unrelated factors.
Public Perception:
Bundling unrelated topics can confuse the public. Separate bills allow citizens to engage with specific issues and hold their representatives accountable.
Clarity in legislation fosters public trust in the democratic process.
However, there are counterarguments as well:
Comprehensive Approaches:
Some argue that comprehensive bills can address interconnected issues more effectively. For example, foreign aid may be linked to diplomatic efforts related to immigration cooperation.
Combining provisions can create a holistic approach to global challenges.
Negotiation and Compromise:
Combining unrelated issues can facilitate negotiation and compromise. Lawmakers may trade concessions across different areas to build consensus.
Separate bills may lead to gridlock if lawmakers cannot find common ground on either immigration or foreign aid.
Of course, in the end, the decision rests with legislators, balancing practical considerations, public opinion, and the urgency of addressing both immigration reform and foreign aid. Even more to the point, the decision ultimately rests with the opposition of Presidential Candidate Trump, who wants to keep this issue alive as a hot campaign point. The art of legislating involves finding the right balance between specificity and comprehensiveness, but in this case, and more to the point, presidential politics has taken a higher priority than immigration reform. I am also left wondering if politics was part of the decision to link the immigration reform and foreign aid issues, leading to a planned failure.
My Personal and Recommended List of Reliable and Trusted News Sources
Donald Harvey Marks, physician scientist
Reason, ethics, health justice, 3rd generation Veteran
The turmoil that swirls beneath
Help me oppose and fight #fakenews #deepfake, election interference, harmful toxic algorithms, clickbait, biased deceiving news.
Here is my personal, incomplete, evolving and partial list of Reliable news sources, which I find helpful, along with their Twitter handles and / or url.
Many of my publications and articles are found on my personal blog at https://bit.ly/3G76XsS
Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
To start, I almost never ever watch cable TV news (CNN FoxNews MSNBC), which I find superficial, incomplete, and often misleading. TV personalities (the talking heads) read the news, in general do not write their own presentations, and do not do their own research and verify their facts. Talking heads are not informed and informative commentators or analysts. For the last years, I obtain much of my news from the following sources:
@Axios @Politico
@TheAtlantic @NewRepublic
@BBC @France24
@DWNews @Gravitas
https://Ground.News Filters news reports, gives estimate of L vs R bias
UnHerd
Straight Arrow News
1440
If I am not certain of accuracy of what I am reading, I put in the effort to check the background, and use :
@FactCheckdotorg (sometimes and when they use credible qualified checkers)
@Politifact
@APfactcheck @LWV and their individual state sites, like @LWVNJ
@Public_Citizen
Wikipedia
You can read more of my thoughts on fact checking at http://bit.ly/3qudEyX
As Kissinger said, and he would certainly know:
Henry Kissinger at 100, former Secretary of State and National Security advisor, and conflicted Jew. You may be interested to my thoughts on Dr Kissinger, presented in The Existentialist podcast http://bit.ly/3jlf76x
For medical news and information, I consult and trust:
@CDCgov @JAMAnetwork
@KHNews @KevinMD
@NEJM and @JWatch @ACPOnline
@ZDoggMD
Dr Hong pharmacy classroom and Dr Moran, on @youtube
For news on medications, pharmaceutical industry :
Sustainable @RxPricing @commondefense @Public_Citizen
Note that I do Not universally and completely trust @NEJM and @JAMA because of past problems with publishing faulty research, improper incomplete fact and claim checking, and publishing articles to be used mainly by drug reps as virtual advertisements during office visits.
I personally advocate for:
Repeal of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, Section 230(c)(1). Social media should, IMO, be held criminally responsible $$$ for malicious, harmful and false posts,
Repeal #CitizensUnited, because businesses are not people and endless amounts of dark money are harmful to democracy and the way I love and informed and participating electorate.
Return of the #FairnessDoctrine for all public and private mass media and social media, to enable fair and balanced reporting and opinion,
Medicare55
expand Medicaid to all states
negotiate all drug prices
Related articles:
Gizmodo: This Russian Botnet Is Capable of Manipulating Social Media Trends on a 'Massive Scale,' Report Claims.
https://gizmodo.com/russian-botnet-spam-social-media-report-nisos-fake-news-1848956529
Video from Sky News open source intelligence team on how they verify news sources. https://youtu.be/wHqprO1FzGk
Selected personal writings of mine that may interest you: http://bit.ly/333exOp8
Reliable news sources used by Donald Harvey Marks (yes, this article) http://bit.ly/3kECPvr
Fake News: Everything You Need to Know http://bit.ly/345cj95
Elitists Neocons Neolibs, Globalists and Narcissists, oh my. What are they, who are they, and why should I care? http://bit.ly/3LMrs0e
Best Online Free Fact-Checking Tools http://bit.ly/3H97I44
Fact-Checking: The Ways We Can Fight Fake News http://bit.ly/3qudEyX
Infodemic: the epidemic of information http://bit.ly/3fV7BgN
The Curious Case of Deepfakes http://bit.ly/3GZJdXh
Favorites Books📚 of Donald Harvey Marks https://bit.ly/3ok9UxI and follow me on @Goodreads
My personal list of Red Flags, Dog Whistles, Buzzwords, Hot Button words and meaningless caricatures that will drive toxic algorithms to heat and twist elections and trigger hatred on social media. http://bit.ly/3TcuT4I
Einstein, Relativity and Relative Ethics https://bit.ly/3gWWH9t
What I Haven’t Told My Family on the Meaning of Time. https://bit.ly/374cpzJ
Jonas Salk, Polio Vaccine and Vaccinating Against Hate, https://bit.ly/3xjtosh
Link to my Favorite Books📚 (and recent read list, this article) https://bit.ly/3ok9Ux
My ever-updating fav list of coffee shops and espresso blends and locations https://bit.ly/3IkqOHE
Undermoney. Techno economic political thriller by Jay Newman. Reviewed by Donald Harvey Marks https://bit.ly/3Fa4wqb
How Woke can we be? The meaning of Woke https://bit.ly/3Fd7fPy
