Happy Republican fun time

Yet another Republican is piling on to immigrants. Representative Brad Finstad, who is certainly not a person of any note at the Capitol, has decided to jump on the furriner-bashing bandwagon by suggesting that immigrants not get welfare unless they take English classes and seek citizenship.

It doesn't matter that immigrants pay taxes like the rest of people. It doesn't matter that some are already required to enroll in English classes. No, this must become mandatory for some odd reason.

Is it better for people to learn English to be successful here? Yes. But then again, lots of things are "better" for people to become successful. Why don't we require all welfare recipients who don't speak English very well to take classes, instead of just those who weren't born here? Why don't we require them to take classes in jobs that are lacking in workers? Why don't we require them to have no more than two kids? Why don't we control their lives completely?

People on welfare receive so little in actual benefits that it is not a refuge anymore for the lazy and unmotivated. It's for those who have absolutely no other choices. There should be work or educational requirements as a condition of receiving welfare, but dictating that people must learn English or become citizens when they don't want to is simply mean-spirited. Republicans lost big in the last election because of their obsession over issues like these. Apparently, they aren't learning anything.