Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was spouting whoppers about the benefits of illegal alien amnesty on Saturday, saying he sees “rays of hope” in next week’s fly-in to Washington by business leaders to batter House Republicans into submission and that the President will deign to take a piecemeal approach (and count on Harry Reid’s conference wolves to make legalization happen for millions).

You can tell that one of the Democrat talking points is that mass amnesty is “good for the economy” because it is so frequently mentioned, even though the CBO reported that the Senate bill would reduce average wages in America for 12 years, increase unemployment for 7 years and reduce per capita GNP growth over 25 years.

Oh, and Robert Rector estimated the cost of amnesty to taxpayers would be $6.3 trillion.

The amnesty is like all the lies of Obamacare, only in Spanish.

Richardson stated openly, “Now as long as the path to citizenship of the 11 million is kept in an immigration bill, the House and Senate can move into a conference committee and then come out I think with a comprehensive package.”

In other words, walk into the trap, stupid Republicans.

Radio host Laura Ingraham has been grilling members of Congress on their position about going to conference with the Senate sharks, and she is a tough grader. She cross-examined Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) on October 25 about his position on conferencing and found his arguments inadequate for a passing grade: the title on the interview reads, “Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) supports immigration reform in the House.”

The idea is that even good legislation from the House will get rammed into a legalization deal, particularly with squishy Republican conferees. Texas Congressman Steve Stockman wrote a Dear Colleague letter to warn of the conference trap.

It’s too bad more conservative radio talkers don’t keep this issue front and center as Ingraham does. Rush Limbaugh is worse than useless, and he appears to have given up. Mass amnesty is the biggest threat to the country, worse than Obamacare, because legislation can be changed, but the big-government culture of hispanics has shown itself to last for generations. And culture forms politics, not the other way around.