Why do politicians write new laws versus enforcing the litany of laws that are on the books?

Question

such as immigration laws?

Answer 1

Because it's their job to write laws, not enforce them.

Answer 2

Have their been new laws regarding immigration? Or just laws providing enforcement of existing laws?

The distinction is important. Because many old laws have no existing enforcement. And enforcement costs money. And has to come from some agency's budget. Which means other things go undone.

It is not as simple as we want to make it.

Answer 3

Government and Politics, to me, are very similar to the inner workings of a corporation, but on a much larger scale.

The upper management in a big corporation write policies and procedures that sound good to them, but they really don't have any clue about how these policies and procedures will actually work, and most of the time they don't really work very well. Yet the continue to do this, because this is how they make money.

Lower management, and front line employees are then forced to abide by these policies and procedures, even though they know they are wrong, and don't really work.

The same is true with Government.

Answer 4

When judges start handing down sentences that dismiss the claims of the poor because they are being bribed, people start turning to drama etc. to tell them how life works because they hear judges making personal comments about victims. In drama, there is the illusion that you can analyse it any way you want. In practice, the entertainment and media industries get pretty intense about what they "meant" when politics is falling into the hands of oligarchies.

Therefore, the politicians are buying into the rhetoric that people are only interested in what's new. They're not watching TV because it's fun. They're watching it so as to figure out how to protect themselves on the streets by being familiar with the "latest."

The job of Christians is to treat politicians with love (not cult love-bombing; that's annoying) so that they can see that the trend for fashion and newness is being engineered for big political reasons. Criminals like peace and quiet and they think, delusionally, that they're the only ones who know how to enforce it.

Answer 5

Because every law is against liberty so that is their natural instinct to exercise their power and curtail freedoms. The Statue of Liberty and the original Constitution and the Magna Carta on which it was based make no provision for immigration laws in a 'free' land.

Answer 6

Politicians are supposed to write laws, that's why. They aren't the ones that enforce them.

Answer 7

Quite simple, my dear Watson! By enacting new legislation the politician can tell his constituents that he took action to make his, city, couty, parish, state or country a better and safer place and can show real honost to goodness papers with his name on it.

Answer 8

Holy sh*t! Objectivism! And you're anti illegal immigrant? Man, I can't get a read on you, you're all over the place. Plus I can't control the other people cutting and pasting my genius on your questions. I really don't have an answer on this one, and I actually agree with you. Christ, the world turned upside down.

Answer 9

Politicians respond to current events.That's what voters want to talk about and that's what gets you elected. Your not going to get elected talking about NAFTA and how it failed the people of Mexico. You get elected to appealing to who votes and that's the older baby boomers. All they can think about is protecting America's boarders and keeping those people out of this country..well maybe if you went down there and saw Mexico yourself you would understand why they risk their lives crossing borders..NAFTA failed them and this is Americas payback.

Answer 10

Jim has it correct. They aren't trying to SOLVE anything. They just want to be able to say "See? I sure tried my best to get it done!"

Just like the Iraq funding bill they passed - They all KNOW that it's stupid to tell the enemy "We'll leave in October - Just calm down a bit until then and you can kill everybody you want after that." And they know with 100% certainty that Bush would veto it. But they can now go back to their constituents and say "YOU SEE? WE TRIED TO END THE WAR.... IT'S JUST THAT WARMONGER BUSH THAT KEEPS IT GOING."