Bruce Bartlett Grilled by Paul Gigot And Stephen Moore

03/15/2006

Bruce Bartlett is the economist who lost his job with the National Center for Policy Analysis for writing Impostor, a book bashing Bush from the conservative side. One thing he

said in his syndicated column at the time of the Miers nomination was this:

It is the rare conservative who has a kind word for the Bush immigration policy. Most conservatives think that he has been woefully weak on protecting our borders. Among the grassroots of the Republican Party, there is active hostility to administration plans to allow illegal immigrants to have guest-worker status. Most see this as a form of amnesty that will further encourage illegal immigration.

Recently he was grilled by Open Borders true believers Paul Gigot and Stephen Moore on the WSJ Editorial report:

Moore: Even Ronald Reagan made mistakes. He had Bitburg and other problems. I think one other thing I'd like to just mention that, I think, is wrong in your book. When you talk about Bush deviating away from the Reagan legacy. Bush has been very strong on immigration. He’s been pro immigration. He wants to keep the golden gates open. And you attack Bush, in your book, for basically trying to keep up the Reagan legacy in the Republican Party being a pro immigration party.
Bartlett: Well I — you make it seem like I wrote a lot about that issue and there was really about one paragraph, I think. And I am conflicted on that issue. I'd like to be more libertarian on that subject, but I’m just very concerned about, we've passed a tipping point. There was just too much. And I don’t think we have a strategy for dealing with it. But I do think that also —

Moore: But that’s your opinion. How can you blame Bush for being anti-Reagan when, in fact, you're the one who’s not for Ronald Reagan’s —

Bartlett: Well, look, you know, I didn’t say he was 100% against Reagan. But, I mean, by and large, I think, if you look at Ronald Reagan’s philosophy as being the cornerstone of what Republicans believe in, I think he’s done more to go against it than to go towards it. And that’s really the gist of my argument.

It’s an article of faith with the WSJ’s Church of the Open Border that Ronald Reagan would have supported the present wave of mass immigration, including the illegal immigration. I doubt it, myself. Reagan was a patriot.

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