"Let them eat cake" has been replaced by "Jobs Americans won't do!"

The four word phrase, “Let them eat cake” is often attributed to 18^th Century French Queen Marie Antoinette, purportedly in response to being told that the peasants of France had no bread to eat.  It is likely that the quote was never uttered by that member of French aristocracy in the days before the French Revolution.  However, while she may not have made that statement it is clear that she and the other members of the elite of French society could not relate to the daily suffering of their far less fortunate fellow citizens and in fact, treated them with abject contempt.

Today the leaders of the United States are not suggesting that the poor eat cake but politicians from both sides of the political aisle provide the disingenuous claim that illegal aliens do the work that Americans won't do.  Many of these politicians such as Chuck Schumer, the Senator from New York and former President Clinton have never even held a “real job!”  They graduated from college and immediately set about getting elected- working within a political system that bears no relationship to the world that most people live in.  These politicians truly live and operate in a parallel universe!

Immigration laws have not been effectively enforced for decades.  This is why we currently have millions, if not tens of millions of illegal aliens in the United States.  However, the Obama administration has demonstrated the ultimate betrayal of American workers by providing millions of illegal aliens with employment authorization under the aegis of the failed “DREAM Act.”  What you may not know is that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) rarely enforces worksite investigations into the hiring of illegal aliens and when, on rare occasions it does, it now conducts “Silent Raids” meaning that when employers are investigated for hiring illegal aliens, it is likely that the ICE agents won't even contact the illegal aliens and only look to fine or prosecute their employers.  The illegal aliens will likely just go on their merry way to seek new employment elsewhere in the United States!

There are so many organizations and individuals who literally and figuratively make out “like bandits” by exploiting vulnerable desperate illegal aliens that it is easy for politicians seeking campaign contributions to curry favor by combatting meaningful immigration law enforcement and to find ways of stymying efforts to provide real border security.

In order to attempt to convince American workers who are betrayed by the massive influx of illegal aliens seeking to take jobs for which they will be paid substandard wages and all too often made to toil under illegally substandard and dangerous conditions these political “leaders” blithely claim that the aliens do the work Americans won't do!

“Day laborers” often supplant American tradesman on construction sites.  The quality of the work that day laborers do does not begin to approach the level of quality of work that journeyman tradesmen do, but all too often those who hire them seem to live up to the adage that they know the price of everything and the value of nothing!

This topic is close to my heart!  My dad was my biggest hero.  He was a construction worker- a “Plumber by trade” as he would proudly proclaim when asked about his livelihood.  He (and his buddies) would go to work with a fever even if the roads were covered with ice.  He would go to work with an aching back even when the temperature climbed above 100 degrees!  He ultimately died at age 57.  He had lung cancer that I suspect was, in part, attributable to his 3 pack a day Chesterfield Cigarette addiction and to his having been exposed to asbestos at work.  During World War II, he desperately wanted to join the military but because his only brother had enlisted in the Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force); the Draft Board rejected him in the wake of the terrible tragedy of the five Sullivan Brothers and the implementation of the Sole Survivor Policy that followed.  Consequently my dad worked in shipyards in Brooklyn, New York and then in New Orleans- determined to make his contribution to the war effort by building and repairing U.S. Navy war ships.

Today Americans (when they can find work) continue to work on construction sites, in coal mines, in steel foundries and other dangerous, filthy and back-breaking jobs.  Some Americans are “under-employed.” taking part-time jobs and jobs that pay less than they had previously earned.

Studies continually show Americans to be the hardest working workers yet politicians who would likely recoil at the mere thought of getting their hands soiled, repeat the outrageous mantra about the “Jobs Americans won't do!”

I prefer the words of Homer Hickam, the author of the book, “The Rocket Boys” that became the basis for the excellent film, "October Sky."  Homer is the son of a coal miner from Coalwood, West Virginia.

When called upon to deliver the eulogy at the memorial service for the coal miners who perished in the mine cave-in at the Sago Mines several years ago, he said, “There is no water holier than the sweat off a man's brow!”

America's immigration laws were enacted to protect the lives and livelihoods of Americans.  Failures to enforce the immigration laws and secure our borders enable criminals and terrorists to enter the United States and set up shop in towns and cities across this nation.  These failures are also responsible for creating unfair and illegal competition for American workers and their families who are today, in record numbers, living below the poverty line.

The problem is not that Americans won't do the tough jobs but that too many of our politicians won't do their jobs- to look out for their fellow Americans who they were elected to represent!