Opinion

With the unrelenting talk about election fraud, I’ve decided now to clear my conscience and disclose that I voted twice for President in 1996. No, it wasn’t an act of voter fraud. As a delegate to the Republican convention that year, I voted to nominate Bob Dole as the Republican candidate. I voted for him again at my polling place in Whitefish in the general election.

After reading through U.S. Representative Rosendale’s rant on refugees and immigration, I got to thinking how great it would be if both sides of the congressional aisle would sit down and work out a bi-partisan, revised immigration policy as a prime goal for the New Year. For decades immigrants have come to America from all over the world and we have never had a workable immigration policy. When hundreds of thousands of people came in the early 1900s it was all well and good; they were inexpensive and plentiful labor. Big business was excited to see them come because they thought they would counteract the Unions and the growing Labor movement. Railroads recruited them because they would come and settle the open land and provide markets. Chinese were recruited with the idea they would return to China when the railroads were built, but in the meantime they were inexpensive labor and if they were injured or died, too bad; they were just temporary anyway. When they kept coming, Congress set up an immigration act that simply excluded people and did not enact workable policy.

Montana families across the state are feeling the pain in their pocketbooks from inflation and higher prices on everything from gas to groceries to heating their homes. What’s causing this? President Biden and Congressional Democrats’ wasteful spending problems, and their multitrillion dollar reckless tax and spending spree bill will only make matters worse.