Cato Daily Dispatch for October 31, 2005
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Bush Taps Alito for Supreme CourtImmigration Provision in Budget Bill
Tax-Revision Plan Forthcoming
Bush Taps Alito for Supreme Court
"President Bush today named appeals court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alito, 55, serves on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where his record on abortion rights and church-state issues has been widely applauded by conservatives and criticized by liberals," The Washington Post reports.
In "The Key Issue for the Court Isn't Abortion," Edward Crane, president of the Cato Institute, writes: "For too long conservatives who understand the Enumerated Powers doctrine and the role the Constitution plays in limiting the power of government have allowed the religious right and Planned Parenthood to control the debate over the future of the judiciary in America. The litmus test for any judge must always be his or her view on Roe v. Wade, as though abortion and abortion alone should determine who sits on the federal bench. ...[T]he fact that the abortion debate so controls the debate over judicial philosophy is unfortunate. There are more important issues out there, such as federalism and private property rights, the cornerstones of our liberty."
Cato senior fellow Mark Moller comments: "The appointment of Sam Alito is a step in the right direction, although the President had nowhere to go but up. The onus is now on the Senate to ensure that Alito has what it takes to improve the quality of the Court's decision making, by deciding cases with an independent spirit, critical judgment, and commitment to the rule of law."
Immigration Provision in Budget Bill
"The Senate's budget package includes provisions that would make available hundreds of thousands of green cards for new permanent legal immigrants, in what is shaping up as the next congressional fight over immigration," The Washington Times reports. "The bill's measures would 'recapture' 90,000 unused employment-based immigration visas and would exempt family members from counting toward the cap, which is set at 140,000 per year."
In "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Daniel Griswold, director of trade policy studies at the Cato Institute, writes: "Demand for low-skilled labor continues to grow in the United States while the domestic supply of suitable workers inexorably declines -- yet U.S. immigration law contains virtually no legal channel through which low-skilled immigrant workers can enter the country to fill that gap. The result is an illegal flow of workers characterized by more permanent and less circular migration, smuggling, document fraud, deaths at the border, artificially depressed wages, and threats to civil liberties."
Tax-Revision Plan Forthcoming
"Treasury Secretary John Snow, who receives the report of a tax-reform panel Tuesday, says his department has done enough groundwork to turn the recommendations into a far-reaching administrative proposal at the start of next year -- if President Bush decides to do so to reinvigorate his domestic agenda," The Wall Street Journal reports.
In "Tax Panel Omission," Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, writes: "The president's tax reform panel, headed by former Sens. Connie Mack and John Breaux, is set to propose two interesting plans. Plan A is a simplified income tax. Plan B is a more radical consumption-based tax. Both plans have features that would reduce tax code complexity and promote growth. However, the plans are missing a crucial element of supply side tax reform: substantial rate cuts."
Kristen A. Kestner, editor, kkestner@cato.org