• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more imm

Cold Highway

Dispenser of Negativity
DP Veteran
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
9,595
Reaction score
2,739
Location
Newburgh, New York and World 8: Dark Land
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian
"If it means the Lou Dobbs kind of rants about immigrants wrecking America, I don't subscribe to that. I think immigrants, by and large, do good things," Stossel says.

"What a self-important ass," Dobbs quipped. "He doesn’t understand basic economics. He doesn't understand my point of view, nor does he care to. He’s just a silly little trick waiting to do some sort of Libertarian flip. He's just unbelievable."

I found this story interesting because Im both a fan of Stossel and Dobbs. Dobbs' position on immigration Libertarians should side with, he isnt anti-immigrant he is anti-illegal immigration. He is one of the few guys who supports open immigration the legal way.

Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more immigrants | Raw Story
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Who doesn't support legal immigration?
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

I think Stossel made a disparaging comment about Dobbs sometime in the last week or so, and it must have pissed off Dobbs.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Lou Dobbs is a self-important ass, and a frightening demagogue. Stossel is absolutely right on this issue. I really don't know where Dobbs ever got the idea that "basic economics" supports his xenophobia and protectionism. I would bet that the vast majority of economists support a very liberal immigration policy, and I know for a fact that most economists disagree with Dobbs' protectionist views. 83.3% of economists agreed with the statement "The US should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade"...and 37.1% strongly agreed with that statement.
http://www.aier.org/aier/publications/ejw_derc_sep09_whaples.pdf
 
Last edited:
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Groups like Numbers USA support highly restricted immigration as far as I know.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pgz6ZCqhtg"]YouTube - Immigration Gumballs (5 min version)[/ame]
Shorter version.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ"]YouTube - Immigration Gumballs[/ame]
Longer version.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Lou Dobbs is a self-important ass, and a frightening demagogue. Stossel is absolutely right on this issue. I really don't know where Dobbs ever got the idea that "basic economics" supports his xenophobia and protectionism. I would bet that the vast majority of economists support a very liberal immigration policy, and I know for a fact that most economists disagree with Dobbs' protectionist views. 83.3% of economists agreed with the statement "The US should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade"...and 37.1% strongly agreed with that statement.
http://www.aier.org/aier/publications/ejw_derc_sep09_whaples.pdf

Spot on as usual, and further evidence of why Fox has become big brother t.v.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more


The arguments of those of us who favor more liberal immigration policies aren't based on any desire to prevent overpopulation in the third world. The fact is that immigration is good for American consumers (goods/services are cheaper), it's good for our economy (more people buying and selling more goods/services), it's good for American workers (immigrants are much more likely to start their own businesses than native-born Americans), it's good for the immigrants (they earn more money), and it's good for their native countries (they send remittances to family members back home).

I agree with this guy that we need to do a lot more to assist the developing world with family planning and birth control, but that's no excuse to shut off the immigration valve.
 
Last edited:
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

The arguments of those of us who favor more liberal immigration policies aren't based on any desire to prevent overpopulation in the third world. The fact is that immigration is good for American consumers (goods/services are cheaper), it's good for our economy (more people buying and selling more goods/services), it's good for American workers (immigrants are much more likely to start their own businesses than native-born Americans), it's good for the immigrants (they earn more money), and it's good for their native countries (they send remittances to family members back home).

I agree with this guy that we need to do a lot more to assist the developing world with family planning and birth control, but that's no excuse to shut off the immigration valve.

The vid asserts we can't afford an increase in immigration, legal or not.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

The vid asserts we can't afford an increase in immigration, legal or not.

Why not? I don't see that assertion anywhere in the video...he's just saying that allowing immigration isn't going to reduce overpopulation in the developing world. That's true, but not particularly relevant to the economic arguments in favor of immigration.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Why not? I don't see that assertion anywhere in the video...he's just saying that allowing immigration isn't going to reduce overpopulation in the developing world. That's true, but not particularly relevant to the economic arguments in favor of immigration.

It's been months since I last watched the long version. I think it talks about our not being able to afford increased immigration.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

I have always thought Dobbs should change his name to 'Sweet Lou Dobbs'.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Lou Dobbs is a self-important ass, and a frightening demagogue. Stossel is absolutely right on this issue. I really don't know where Dobbs ever got the idea that "basic economics" supports his xenophobia and protectionism. I would bet that the vast majority of economists support a very liberal immigration policy, and I know for a fact that most economists disagree with Dobbs' protectionist views. 83.3% of economists agreed with the statement "The US should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade"...and 37.1% strongly agreed with that statement.
http://www.aier.org/aier/publications/ejw_derc_sep09_whaples.pdf

I would agree with you that economic protectionism doesnt work but Dobbs is no bigot. If you want to see a bigot in the illegal-immigration debate look at people like Frosty Woodridge, that guy is nothing but a racial collectivist but hides under the illegal immigration banner.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

The arguments of those of us who favor more liberal immigration policies aren't based on any desire to prevent overpopulation in the third world. The fact is that immigration is good for American consumers (goods/services are cheaper), it's good for our economy (more people buying and selling more goods/services), it's good for American workers (immigrants are much more likely to start their own businesses than native-born Americans), it's good for the immigrants (they earn more money), and it's good for their native countries (they send remittances to family members back home).

I agree with this guy that we need to do a lot more to assist the developing world with family planning and birth control, but that's no excuse to shut off the immigration valve.
Bull****, the people who favor liberal immigration are liberals. AND THE SOLE REASON IS VOTERS. MORE VOTERS MORE POWER AND LONGER CAREERS IN CONGRESS PASSING MORE LIBERAL POLICIES. It's as simple as that. And yes, I question their patriotism.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Bull****, the people who favor liberal immigration are liberals.

What does that have to do with anything? You do realize that just saying "ZOMG UR LIBERAL LULZ" doesn't win you the argument, right?

BTW, plenty of prominent conservative economists have supported more open immigration. Greg Mankiw supports it. Lawrence Kudlow supports it. Milton Friedman supported it with caveats.

American said:
AND THE SOLE REASON IS VOTERS. MORE VOTERS MORE POWER AND LONGER CAREERS IN CONGRESS PASSING MORE LIBERAL POLICIES. It's as simple as that. And yes, I question their patriotism.

I'm not sure if this post was just meant to troll, or if you really are this ignorant. Try picking up an economics book before you just assume that anyone who supports immigration has some political motive in mind.

In any case, there's nothing in your post resembling a logical argument or a rebuttal to any of the points that I made in my previous post. Just a few ad hominem attacks.
 
Last edited:
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

It's been months since I last watched the long version. I think it talks about our not being able to afford increased immigration.

But that would go against the conservative theory that the pie gets bigger, not that we cut more slices?

Anyway, I think most every economist believes that legal immigration helps the economy.... as long as they are coming in to work.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

But that would go against the conservative theory that the pie gets bigger, not that we cut more slices?

Anyway, I think most every economist believes that legal immigration helps the economy.... as long as they are coming in to work.

Did you watch the long version of the video?
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Lou using the word trick is priceless to me. LOL! I like em both though.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

It's been months since I last watched the long version. I think it talks about our not being able to afford increased immigration.

I just watched the long version. His argument that we cannot afford immigration is based on two flawed assumptions:

First, he uses the US population in 1970 as a baseline, to which he compares immigration since 1970. This is flawed; even if Congress completely halted all immigration and the executive branch was 100% effective at enforcing it, a lot of the "red" part of the graph would still grow from the people who are already here. He should be using the population in 2009 as a baseline, unless he honestly thinks that we can effectively deport people who have been here for 30 years (many of whom are citizens by now) and that doing so would be a good idea. But he doesn't make that argument in the video; he just argues that we should reduce the number of NEW immigrants.

Second, he assumes that such a growth level is unmanageable, and will result in a huge burden on our schools, parks, and other public facilities. In reality, the current population growth is not a radical departure from the historical norm. According to the US Census, here is the annual population growth in the US:

1910 - 1.9%
1920 - 1.4%
1930 - 1.5%
1940 - 0.7%
1950 - 1.4%
1960 - 1.7%
1970 - 1.3%
1980 - 1.1%
1990 - 0.9%
2000 - 1.2%

As you can see, our current level of population growth is about average or even a little below average. During the past 100 years, we've not only been able to accommodate that level of population growth, but we've built our economy into a powerhouse at the same time.
 
Last edited:
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Spot on as usual, and further evidence of why Fox has become big brother t.v.

WTF are you talking about? Stossel works for Fox News and Lou Dobbs works for CNN. :roll:
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Lou Dobbs might be going over to Fox Business channel. CNN is suffering from poor ratings. I wonder why he would start badmouthing two coworkers Geraldo and John Stossel?


Lou Dobbs’s Next Home: Fox Business? - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com

Dobbs has fought with his co-workers before.

Dobbs repeatedly clashed with Rick Kaplan, who became president of CNN in 1997. Dobbs said Kaplan, noted friend of then president Bill Clinton, was "clearly partisan" and "was pushing Clinton stories," while Kaplan said Dobbs was "a very difficult person to work with."[2]

Lou Dobbs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

But that would go against the conservative theory that the pie gets bigger, not that we cut more slices?

Anyway, I think most every economist believes that legal immigration helps the economy.... as long as they are coming in to work.

LEGAL immigration....where the US decides what skillsets we give preference to, yes.

The mass invasion of the United States by nearly thirty million unkilled illiterates (in english) .... that's not good, not when our public schools are already graduating millions of indigenous unskilled illiterate (in english) citizens every year.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Who doesn't support legal immigration?

Well, I don't. I think that legal immigration should exist, but that there should be far less of it and fewer dodges by which one can bypass our laws concerning residency and citizenship. I acknowledge that we need steady population growth in order for our economy to continue functioning, but I think this needs to be accomplished by promoting the birth rate.

Bull****, the people who favor liberal immigration are liberals. AND THE SOLE REASON IS VOTERS. MORE VOTERS MORE POWER AND LONGER CAREERS IN CONGRESS PASSING MORE LIBERAL POLICIES. It's as simple as that. And yes, I question their patriotism.

Except that immigrants are not particularly liberal in their political affiliations. Immigrants from certain countries, especially Cuba, are particularly conservative, and they vote with both their ballots and their pocketbooks as quickly as they are allowed to do so. Liberals support liberal immigration because it's simply the liberal thing to do-- as a matter of personal and social liberty. Not to mention, of course, the positive effects on the economy.

This is why support for immigration is widespread in both the Democrat and Republican parties. Anti-immigration sentiment is just as likely to come from union Democrats as it is from nationalist Republicans.

Hell, my family's as liberal as the day is long and they've got no more love for border jumpers than you or I have.
 
Re: Lou Dobbs calls Fox Business reporter ’self-important ass,’ claims he wants more

Dobbs is a moron and has ruined the credibility of CNN. What a racist Xenophobe.
 
Back
Top Bottom