CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

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SCHNEIDER: It would take a political earthquake for the Democrats to win control of Congress this year. But you know, earthquakes have been known to happen, Christine.

ROMANS: Bill, what about the six-year itch and how soon it will be felt? Well before the midterm elections?

SCHNEIDER: We could see the signs of it earlier because if Republicans feel the six-year itch coming on, they're going to want to keep their distance from President Bush, and put him in kind of a political quarantine.

ROMANS: All right, Bill Schneider in Washington. Thank you very much, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

ROMANS: Well ahead of those congressional elections, lawmakers will have to weigh in a number of critical issue, including the Patriot Act and $40 billion in federal budget cuts. Members of Congress are in their home districts, likely getting an earful from their constituents on these and many other issues, including the war in Iraq and domestic spying.

Joining me now for more on what they're hearing back home. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California joins us from Irvine, California. And Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Ohio joins us from Toledo. Thank you both for being here. I want to start in California and ask you, Congressman, what are you hearing from your constituents about border security and about immigration? This will be a top item on the agenda for Congress when it gets back in the coming weeks.

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, my constituents are happy that the Republican Party has finally gotten off its duff, seeing that we do control the House and the Senate and the presidency, and taken up the issue of illegal immigration.

We passed through the House, I would say, a very good first step in immigration reform. Most all of the Democrats, I'm not insure how Marcy voted on this, but almost all the Democrats opposed it. So this core issue I think is going to be a major factor in the upcoming election, and it's clear out here in California. But I think throughout the country, seniors don't want illegals getting Social Security. People understand illegal immigration is very bad for them.

ROMANS: What, Congressman, are your constituents saying about a guest worker program? It's not in the bill, but there's a lot of talk that this House bill could be what some are saying is a Trojan horse that can slide a guest worker program into later for the Senate version.

ROHRABACHER: Well I of course will not vote for any bill that includes a guest worker program because I happen to believe, No. 1, there are alternatives. We could use prisoners to pick the fruit, for example, and they should work, rather than sit in the jail or work out in the gym all day.

But also, the guest workers program, it's quite often misused, meaning people could come in as part of a guest workers program and after two weeks in the fields, they'd run off to do every other kind of job that isn't covered by a guest workers program. So I'm very skeptical of that and most people who are concerned about illegal immigration are skeptical of that alternative.

ROMANS: Congresswoman Kaptur, let me ask you how important illegal immigration and reform is of illegal immigration to your constituents. Are you hearing them talk about this as your home there?

REP. MARCY KAPTUR (D), OHIO: Well of course, much of the illegal immigration that America is experiencing now is a push back to NAFTA and its failures. And the fact that we do not have labor provisions that are enforceable within the NAFTA accord.

I'm one of those members of Congress that is pushing for a continental reform of NAFTA. And unfortunately, the crime associated with illegal immigration is not often talked about, but it is severe. It impacts a community like my own, where workers are literally trafficked, and they are brought up here. They don't like it.

The employers may get fined. The workers are needed, but we need to have provisions in NAFTA that treat workers with respect, whatever side of the border they are on. I don't think that is part of the Republican proposal. Congressman Rohrabacher and I both oppose NAFTA very strongly, and I hope -- I'm at Canadian border, he's near the Mexican border -- this is a ripe opportunity for us to embed labor provisions and get the crime.

They call them coyotes, people who get up to $5,000 a person to poach workers in Mexico and Guatemala and El Salvador and all these countries and bring them here. It is a terrible system. We have hundreds of people die in the fields in this country every year. It's a continental sacrilege. We need to go back and address the shortcomings of NAFTA.

ROHRABACHER: We do have a bill, the legislation that passed Congress, does for the very first time set down the requirement for employers to use a system that we have. That they now will have to verify that the people they're hiring are here legally or not.

And all people will be verified, there's nothing wrong with that, having an employer verify that a worker is a U.S. citizen or a legal resident. But that will go a long way, a long way towards deterring people from coming across the border, because we have a treasure house for them. We have jobs.

Now what I would like to see added to that is a verification for people's legal status before they can get any government benefits as well.

ROMANS: Congresswoman, let me ask you a little bit about the treasure trove of jobs. In your state, clearly the economy has got to be on the minds of your voting constituents. And the president expected to start talking on the economy in the coming days here. What are your constituents saying about the economy. What economy are they feeling as we're hearing from the White House and corporate America that the economy is doing quite well?

KAPTUR: Well, in the Midwest, incomes have actually been going down. And I would disagree with my dear colleague from California, Dana Rohrabacher, who's a very good friend of mine, and say that to put the burden on employers is unfair because we have a continental system of corruption related to the importation of labor.

The people in my area want good jobs with good wages with benefits that are dependable, and that will be there for them when they retire. The system that we are actually creating, with agreements like NAFTA, we're pitting first-world countries against third-world countries, where corruption is very high.

And some of the officials within the Mexican government and those in charge of enforcement are part of the problem. So you can't put all the burden on U.S. employers. We need a continental system that is transparent and fair to all concerned. And I can tell you that wages here in the Midwest have been going down. Middle class people just can't afford to buy what they did before. So the president needs to hear us. I think in some ways he's insulated from the street and what's really happening.

ROMANS: We'll have to leave it there. There's so many, so many different ways the president and both parties can set the agenda in 2006. We obviously can't get to it all, but Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from California, thank you so much for joining us. Also, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur from Ohio. Thank you both of us and best of luck to you on what -- a lot of work to be done in the year ahead. Thank you.

KAPTUR: And a blessed New Year.

ROMANS: Thank you.

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