Which States' Delegations Were Especially Naughty and Put a Lump of Coal in Their Workers' Christmas Stockings?

By Roy Beck, Updated Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 12:15 AM
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusab ... -lump-coal

We can track them even though the chambers of Congress are empty on this Christmas Eve. We know which state congressional delegations are the aspiring Scrooges by what they left behind -- a clear trail of votes and co-sponsorships making it easy for us to give out our awards for the Naughtiest Congressional Delegations (and also the NICEST!) when it comes to American workers who are unemployed -- or fear they soon will be. And the winners are . . .

'NAUGHTIEST' DELEGATION OF THE YEAR
The neighboring states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island fought hard to be the best at ruining the holidays for their states' workers.

Both delegations were UNANIMOUS in the Congress just ended in favoring higher importations of foreign workers and in tying up millions of U.S. jobs with illegal foreign workers.

The rest of you may think you have some real stinkers in your state's delegation to Congress, but imagine what it must be like to not have even one Member of Congress standing up for the state's workers against the desires of unscrupulous employers seeking their cheap foreign labor.

Because Rhode Island has only 4 Members in its delegation, I have to give the top Scrooge award to Massachusetts which is able to keep its perfect anti-American-worker record even though it has 12 Members in its delegation to keep in line.

Such discipline! Such a sense of community! Not one elected Member of Congress from Massachusetts dares break with the rest by speaking up for the interests of the rising tide of unemployed Americans.

No, every one of these dozen Bay Staters earns a Grade of D or lower for nearly always favoring foreign workers (and their employers) over American workers. They cheer current policies that bring in 140,000 NEW foreign workers each month, even as a half-million American workers have been losing jobs monthly. In fact, this dozen has constantly worked to bring in MORE than 140,000 a month.

Look at the page with their grades. It is ablaze with the scarlet letters of D and F for their lack of Christmas compassion for the least fortunate among the citizens they were elected to represent.

It will take visits by a lot more than three ghosts to transform these Scrooges -- it is going to take thousands of citizens who every day remind these congressional Members and their staff what they are doing with their immigration actions.

(Those of you in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, be sure you have gone to your Action Buffet and sent proper greetings to your congressional Scrooges.)

HARD-HEARTED DELEGATIONS, BUT NOT QUITE THE TOP SCROOGE
The national unemployment stats are really bad. But in the states where joblessness is much worse, seven have BOTH of their U.S. Senators working diligently to bring in more foreign workers to compete for the dwindling number of jobs.

California
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Ohio
Rhode Island
Washington
Are these Senators the Grinches who stole Christmas, or what!

Mixing Christmas tales, I would note that all the unemployed households going to bed tonight should not expect Scrooge to suddenly appear at their window tomorrow morning with a Christmas goose. The fact is, the Senators have already "cooked the goose" of millions of jobless Americans with their careless immigration policies.

Poor Connecticut. You are suffering from horrible job cuts, yet 6 of the 7 Members you send to Congress are champions for giving more jobs to foreign workers. (And you defeated in November the one Member who voted for reductions in foreign workers!)

And on the other coast, look at California. You have quite a number of U.S. Representatives who have fought to protect American workers (both legal immigrants already here and native-born) from losing jobs and wages to illegal aliens and new imports of foreign workers. But you have 32 Representatives and 2 Senators clamoring for ever-higher immigration!

No wonder Americans continue to flee California. (Reports last week confirmed that once again more Americans left California this last year than moved in. California is a place that attracts masses of immigrants but, on net, repels Americans. And it looks like the state's congressional delegation does its best to insult and drive away American workers through its immigration actions.)

One other state deserves special mention in the Scrooge category: Maryland.

Fortunately, its unemployment rate is currently below the national average. That may not continue if its congressional delegation gets its way. Eight of its 10 Members earn a Grade D or worse in terms of worker protections in immigration actions.

(Don't forget to send your own Scrooges your thoughts about their record. Go to the Action Buffet.)

THE NICE STATE DELEGATIONS
It's enough to engender a little Christmas Eve hope to know that 9 states don't have a single Scrooge in their delegation!

Alaska
Idaho
Kentucky
Montana
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Utah
Wyoming
Now, I know that several of these are small states. I also know that some of these states have Members who are wishy-washy in their actions protecting their state's workers from foreign labor competition. But none of the Senators and Representatives from these states routinely votes against their state's workers.

Isn't that something!

(If you are from one of those states, look for a fax you can send to your delegation thanking them for making the "Nice" list. You can take a look at these delegations by going to our Report Card map.)

'NICEST' DELEGATION
Well, we have made our lists and checked them twice and haven't hesitated to tell you who was naughty or nice.

But who was the nicest?

Kentucky and Tennessee, with moderate-sized delegations, performed very well.

Even better was Wyoming's 3-member delegation which gets Runner-Up Nicest with their A, A-minus and B+ grades.

But the delegation that gets everything pretty much OK is O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A!

Not even a mediocre one in that bunch, standing strong in protecting Oklahoma workers (and all American workers, for that matter).

One earned an A+, one an A, four an A-minus and one a B+.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA