LTE: On the brink

Regarding "Texas GOP cool to immigration plan" (Page A1, Tuesday), Republican Senator John McCain is quoted as saying that the amnesty plan supported by him and three other Republican senators is all about "elections. … The Republican Party is losing support of our Hispanic citizens."

 

Put aside the curious notion that a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens will benefit anybody other than the Democratic Party. Why would McCain purposely make the Republican Party look like a bunch of hacks grasping for votes while the nation wallows in an economic crisis unlike any since the Great Depression?

Embracing this distraction is to be expected of the Democrats: They have every reason to change the subject when it comes to government spending, and if Republicans want to gift-wrap millions of additional voters for the Democratic Party, it would be crazy for them to say no. From Republicans, though, it is downright bizarre: It is legislative malpractice for our elected officials to be distracted by this issue when our nation is being ruined by berserk government spending; yet these Republicans not only went down this road, they led the way. Even more bizarre is the inevitable outcome if the immigration reform they have proposed is successful: hundreds of billions of additional government spending.

One can only hope that Texas Republicans can help haul the party back from the brink of self-destruction.

Pete Smith, Cypress

Read more: http://www.chron.com/opinion/letters/article/Letters-Skeptics-of-immigration-reform-4244560.php#ixzz2KYjDvPHi