Deconstructing the To the Point Interview with Rep. Hillary Scholten: When reporters and politicians agree on a massive US military budget and strict border security

It has been a little more than two weeks ago that senior reporter at WOOD TV 8, Rick Albin, interviewed Rep. Hillary Scholten on his Sunday talk show, To the Point. 

The interview with Rep. Scholten last for 22 minutes and 50 seconds, with Albin asking questions about the 3rd Congressional District Representative’s first 7 months in Congress, Child Labor, funding for the Kent County Airport, US immigration Policy and the US Military Budget.

What I found instructive about this interview was the fact that both Rick Albin and Rep. Scholten have internalized the values of the US political system, often agreeing on certain truisms in regards to US Imperialism and US militarism. 

We often hear about the need for bipartisan support on policy issues and there have almost always been bipartisan support around two major issues within US politics – 1) the need to support and perpetuate the economic system of Capitalism, and 2) the importance of having the largest military in the world, which includes the largest military budget. These two truisms are embraced by both the Democrats and the Republicans, no matter who sits in the White House.

The necessity of US Militarism 

On the matter of funding for the US military, Rick Albin said that most people believe that having a well funded defense is important. Rep. Scholten responded by saying, “We need to make sure we have a fully funded and capable defense.” The $886 Billion US military budget is the largest it has ever been, plus the US Military budget is larger than the next 10 largest countries military budget combined. Part of the vastness of the US Military budget is due to the hundreds of US military bases scattered across the global, the deadly weaponry, the amount of training and advising the US military provides to other militaries around the world, plus military aid to countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia. And let’s be clear, the only thing that the US is defending around the world is global dominance and the defense economic interests. 

None of these issues came up in the channel 8 interview with Rep. Scholten. Instead, they talked about the riders that the GOP has added on to the military budget, which to be sure are deeply problematic, but the point here is that Rep. Scholten has no issue with supporting the largest US military budget in history, nor how the US military operates globally. This has been consistent when Democrats are in the White House, where US militarism is seen as a tool of humanitarianism, but when Republicans are in the White House they are nothing more than War Criminals. This theme is explored in more detail in the following two books – The Liberal Defense of Murder, by Richard Seymour, and Savage Mules: The Democrats and Endless War, by Dennis Perrin. 

US Immigration Policy

The second major issue discussed in the interview with Rick Albin, was US Immigration Policy. Albin begins by framing his question as follows “Lets talk about immigration policy, which is contentious. There hasn’t been any comprehensive immigration policy since the Reagan Administration. You have introduced bipartisan legislation, so what needs to happen?”  

First, it is important to note that while there were some major immigration policy changes during the Reagan years, specifically the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, this policy was not comprehensive, since it increased funding of the US Border Patrol by 50% and did not address any of the root causes of immigration,  particularly from the south. See Daniel Denvir’s book, All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as we know it. 

Rep.Scholten response to Albin’s question was to talk about the Dignity Act, which she introduced. The Dignity has some positive elements to it, but it also has an emphasis on enforcment, which Scholten spoke to. She said, “Crossing have increased, but so has enforcement. Border agents do have adequate technology resources, which means more enforcement.” Rep. Scholten discussed the need to enforce the existing US immigration laws, but failed to bring up the issue of why so many people are fleeing Mexico and Central American, to come to the US. 

Scholten also talked about having bipartisan support for the Dignity Act, specifically with Rep; Salas from Florida. However, the Dignity Act is not Comprehensive Immigration Reform, nor does it address more structural elements of root causes of immigration, such as the US role in supporting military and trade policies in Latin America that have destabilized most of the region, along with the fact that more and more people are being displaced and forced to flee their homelands because of Climate Change. (See Todd Miller’s excellent book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security.) 

For additional resources on US Immigration Policy and US Immigration History:

GRIID Popular Education Class on History of US Immigration Policy