Destructive federal laws in NMI

Private industry, the engine of the local economy, has expressed in straightforward fashion its views on the new immigration and federal wage laws, the net effect being business closures and economic collapse and annihilation.

The drastic economic downward spiral is a confirmation of the fallacies inherent in these two federal laws. It was pushed by liberal progressives of Congress, staff, and labor unions without thorough review of the consequences it would inflict on a fragile island economy.

It isn’t surprising either that Obama and the liberal movement has a single problem in their leadership: accountability. Obviously, they slammed the two federal laws against the CNMI, mindless of the devastating consequences it now render to both private industries and the working people who get nailed to their cross daily.

Said Bill O’Reilly, host of the Factor and author: “There comes a time when the truth must be told. The federal government is not built to run massive entitlement programs or health care or even the U.S. Postal Service, which is now going bankrupt. Washington simply cannot administer 300 million people no matter how much money pours in.” I couldn’t agree more and my personal gratitude Mr. O’Reilly, for saying it in forthright fashion, too.

As new immigration law removes guest workers, the obvious effect is the paralysis of private industries that have to endure additional fees imposed by new sets of regulations. This right smack in the middle of killer surcharge fees, new imposition from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on SS deductions for guest workers; and statutory increase in wages that either forces businesses to cut some more or close their doors permanently.

No wonder the late eminent economic Milton Friedman said of politicians, “Give politicians the Sahara Desert and there won’t be any sand left in five year’s time.” Here at home we collectively cringe at the net effects slammed against families by a political decision from Washington that simply failed to consider the economic consequence of ill-conceived federal statutes. It seems the prime movers have been awfully quiet, tiptoeing through alleys in both chambers contented that they never had to live out their ill-conceived decisions. We do!

In Alabama, Republican leadership is scrambling to ease the country’s most strict immigration laws. Reason? It has drained private industries of workers, forcing closure that results in far less wealth and jobs creation. A good number of manufacturing businesses have shut down that translates into joblessness and unstable economic future.

The immigration raids conducted against major manufacturers in Iowa also forced the deportation of immigrant workers. When they left, there’s no one around to fill specialty jobs in meat packaging firms, etc. It also drained the town of a good number of immigrant workers who used to rent houses for their families and patronize grocery and other businesses. Those who established family businesses just put up shutters and left. The recovery is woefully slow, if at all.

It pays to do a go-slow approach of ridding this island of guest workers. You go from San Antonio through Garapan down to Lower Base. The once beehive of activities has turned empty and silent. Nearly all workers have left leaving behind huge empty buildings that have rusted to waste in recent past. Sad too that most investors have either pulled out or taken a wait-and-see posture, watching if the CNMI could return to a healthy economic level over the next five years. I seriously doubt this could happen by then.

The feds seem to specialize in bankrupting territories by simple imposition of federal laws that instantly kill industries. It has done the same in sterling fashion in Puerto Rico, now nearly a complete nanny territory. Is this the plan for the CNMI too? Liberal progressives may disdain the current administration, but please don’t forget that the greater responsibility are the innocent people who must endure the annihilating consequence of your tit for tat gamesmanship! Keep paternalism on your side of the Pacific Divide and allow some room for the exercise of self-government.
n n n
Federal Intrusion

There was hope some 33 years ago to foster synergistic working relationship with the feds via the Commission on Federal Laws. This group was tasked to jointly review and approve the application of new federal laws. For some reason, it fizzled out silently. It ended the very idea of refining the new political relationship. It seems it was intended as a temporary tool to appease the CNMI. Subsequently, it turned into a piece of loose trash bouncing off Capital Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s a tale of how the feds view the CNMI from the outset.

The death of the commission prompted some questions, including: Why was it allowed to disappear into thin air? Is it because the feds finally got their gem in terms of land for defense purposes signed, sealed and delivered? Is this why it left two-thirds of Tinian undeveloped for 33 years now? Isn’t there a moral obligation to do something to assist the Tinian local economy? Why the wonderful rain dance of negligence and seeming dismissive arrogance? Aren’t the folks on Tinian people too, with legitimate economic aspirations? If it isn’t developing Tinian, then how about returning the land for economic ventures with foreign investors?

The saddest aspect of this invasive intrusion that should have been handled with kids’ gloves is our loss of confidence in the now highly questionable integrity of the feds. An instructive and synergistic working relationship via the commission would have accomplished the goals of both impositions without sending the economy into a titanic tailspin to the bottom. It may be a bit too late to reverse the hands of time.

Definitely, however, there would be a lot of very unhappy campers as they literally struggle to endure the disastrous ruination of the local economy by the two federal laws and a leadership that often finds itself dazed and disoriented or sleepwalking. If it’s change for the better with real opportunities on self-government, fine. But change with economic annihilation, sorry Uncles Sam and Ben.

DelRosario is a regular contributor to the Saipan Tribune’s Opinion Section.