Flap’s Links and Comments for June 27th on 14:03

These are my links for June 27th from 14:03 to 14:41:

• House Subcommittee Expected to Introduce Mandatory E-Verify – A U.S. House subcommittee is expected to discuss a bill that will make the E-Verify, the federal program that verified whether a worker has authorization to work in the U.S., mandatory and permanent. Introduced by the chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Policy Enforcement, Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the "Legal Workforce Act" is expected to be debated by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. 

  In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, Smith and the co-author of the bill, Elton Gallegly (R-CA), said that they were pushing for Congress to expand E-Verify because “while 26 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, 7 million individuals work illegally in the United States. On top of all the challenges Americans face today, it is inexcusable that Americans and legal workers have to compete with illegal immigrants for scarce jobs.”

• Empire State Blues – What’s Next for Marriage? – Maggie Gallagher is the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage. But that is only the beginning of the introduction. A longtime and courageous advocate, researcher, and laborer for marriage, she is a nationally syndicated columnist. She spoke with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about the marriage law Andrew Cuomo signed Friday night in Albany.

  KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s your best explanation of what happened in New York on Friday night?

  MAGGIE GALLAGHER: Governor Cuomo pushed hard for something he a) believed in and b) knew would help his national profile and political prospects. The Republican party inexplicably decided to help him, despite knowing its own base disapproved.

• John Wayne’s birthplace no secret in Iowa – If Michele Bachmann lived in Iowa, she would have known better.

  The Minnesota congresswoman cited John Wayne as an inspiration during her campaign kickoff in Waterloo, Iowa, Monday, saying the actor hailed from the town. In fact, Wayne hailed from Winterset, while serial killer John Wayne Gacy came from Waterloo.

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  It was a simple gaffe, but a telling one for a candidate whose whole campaign launch played up her childhood in Iowa.

  Wayne's origins are well known to actual residents of the state, said Brian Downes, director of the John Wayne Birthplace Society.

  "You can't go anywhere near this part of the country without seeing signs for John Wayne's birthplace," Downes told POLITICO.  "We've been misidentified before … It happens, but the information is posted on Interstates 80 and 35," two major routes that meet around Des Moines.

  Downes sounded forgiving of Bachmann's blunder, acknowledging that "every last one of us misspeaks" and recalling: "John Wayne himself would mangle names like crazy — longtime friends and co-stars."

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  Simply a gaffe…move on.

• LA Times story on Michele Bachmann benefitting from federal aid mostly overblown – Liberals are in an uproar over a Los Angeles Times story portraying Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as a hypocrite because she personally benefitted from federal government aid despite campaigning as somebody who wants to rein in spending. While the article does raise several fair criticisms, its central charges of hypocrisy are mostly overblown.

  Here’s is the crux of it:

  (T)he Minnesota Republican and her family have benefited personally from government aid, an examination of her record and finances shows. A counseling clinic run by her husband has received nearly $30,000 from the state of Minnesota in the last five years, money that in part came from the federal government. A family farm in Wisconsin, in which the congresswoman is a partner, received nearly $260,000 in federal farm subsidies.

  It’s been a popular theme of liberals for some time, particularly over the past few years, to raise alarms every time any conservative accepts any form of government aid. The problem with this line of argument is that no matter how conservative or even libertarian people are, they still have to live in the world of big government and pay taxes to support it. Therefore, it would be absurd for them to unilaterally decide not to receive any benefits that are going to exist – and that they’ll help pay for – regardless of whether or not they accept them.

  Applying this standard to everybody would mean that libertarians should not collect a penny of Social Security benefits, even if they spent a lifetime sending payroll taxes to Washington. It would mean that if you favor a flat tax, to be consistent, you couldn’t take advantage of any deductions or tax credits when filing returns under the current system.