WASHINGTON – On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, delivered the first of what he says will be a series of speeches focusing on the U.S. economy.
Sessions said that the lack of growth is limiting lower-income Americans’ upward mobility, which has historically been a hallmark of the country’s economic system.
“The sad fact is that the state of middle- and lower-income Americans is worsening on virtually every front,” Sessions said. “The slow growth of the economy is restraining the normal upward movement in income that previous generations have experienced. And, if you don’t have a job, you’re twice as likely to only find part-time as full-time work — if you can find any work at all.”
In addition to the obvious financial impact of the stagnant economy, Sessions said that their are also social implications.
“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, middle class incomes have declined for 18 years,” he said. “That means that savings for college and retirement are growing at all-time lows. Young people are not marrying as early as they want, sometimes due to bad economic prospects. That means that families are launching later in life, which gives couples fewer years to pay down a mortgage or raise children. Perhaps the single greatest source for economic anxiety for working Americans is the fear of losing their jobs.”
Sessions then turned his attention to big business’s effort to push immigration reform, specifically calling out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donahue for collaborating with pro-immigration reform advocates like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and La Raza.
“Here in Politico on Sept. 17, it starts off saying ‘Nancy Pelosi is huddling with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, top labor leaders and former AOL executive Steve Case in separate meetings this week as supporters of immigration reform try to revive the issue, which fast seems to be dying on Capitol Hill.’ They try to revive the issue after getting hammered so badly by the American people when it passed through the Senate, it was pronounced dead on arrival in the House.”
Sessions continued the onslaught by quoting Donahue’s acknowledgement that the Senate immigration bill was a deal between the Chamber and labor unions.
“An agreement between the nation’s business lobby and the AFL-CIO was crucial to passing immigration reform in the senate,” Sessions quoted Donahue as saying. “Unions are looking for new members,” Sessions said, continuing to quote Donahue.
“Now, this is a frank statement, I give Mr. Donahue credit,” Sessions continued. “He lays it right out here. If you want to know the forces at work here, unions believe that if we legalize people and bring in more, they will have a better chance of adding new union members…That’s their interest. They have forgotten the interest of their workers today, the ones that are working and having wages decline and are being laid off.”
Sessions quoted a Byron York piece from the Washington Examiner noting that some Fortune 500 companies are lobbying for so-called high-skilled immigrants for the labor force, while at the same laying off the high-skilled workers they currently employee.
“The road we’re on is leading to the continued erosion of middle class civil society,” Sessions said. “The quality of life for hard working Americans is not improving.”
Follow Jeff on Twitter @Jeff_Poor
