July 11, 2007 05:22 PM UTC

Newsflash - Progressives Were Right

• 2 Comments
• by: davidsirota

Some interesting tidbits in the Colorado newspapers today, showing that what many progressives have been saying for a long time is 100 percent true.

First up, if you didn’t believe progressives when they said that the immigration “debate” was really, in many ways, a proxy debate over globalization and business’s efforts to rig the labor market with a pool of cheap, exploitable workers, check out this Colorado Springs Gazette story about how the latest supposed “solution” is to exploit nearly-free prison labor. The United Farm Workers, however, are right on message. While I’m not quite sure what she is specifically referring to when she says “immigration reform,” the thrust of her point is dead on – this cheap labor band-aid doesn’t cut to the real challenge, and instead merely perpetuates the war on the middle class:

“An untrained convict can’t do the same job that a skilled farmworker can, said Alisa Rosas, spokeswoman for United Farm Workers. ‘The solution isn’t to bring in another work force we can exploit. What’s needed is immigration reform,’ she said. ‘It just seems like we’re trying to solve a much bigger problem with a quick fix.'”

Next up, if you didn’t believe progressives when they said TABOR was an attack on working families, check out this other Colorado Springs Gazette story about how Colorado is now provides among the lowest total funding for basic support for the working poor:

“A study issued Tuesday of the main so-called “work support” programs found Colorado spent $2,434 per person in low-income families to fund them in 2005. That ranks Colorado No. 38 among 44 states included in the study, conducted by the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank. The programs include help paying for child care, food stamps, tax credits and medical insurance for the poor.”

Finally, if you didn’t believe progressives when we said Sen. Ken Salazar’s (D) latest Iraq gambit was a deliberate effort to continue the war by providing wavering Republicans political cover, check out this Rocky Mountain News story headlined “Salazar Woos GOP on Iraq War.” Thanks, Ken!