On Thursday, President Trump unveiled his proposal for shifting the United States to a merit-based program for admitting future immigrants. The plan, which offers meaningful change and deserves serious consideration, is a non-starter politically, given that it does nothing to address the question of the Dreamers, or the millions of other immigrants already in the country illegally. Democrats, as expected, quickly condemned the president's plan.
Trump isn't wrong to highlight immigration. A broad-based restructuring of our immigration system is a laudable goal, and we do have a crisis on our southern border – as some Democrats now begrudgingly admit.
So immigration, legal and illegal, is an important issue, particularly to the president's political base. The problem is that it's not the most important issue for a most Americans, including many Republicans. It's not even close. On the issue that is considered the most important – health care –Trump and the Republican Party have no plan at all.
