It's the Economy, Stupid

Ross Douthat in the New York Times agrees that immigration alone is not the magic fix and supports the case for Republican reform argued in Why Romney Lost:

The problems that middle-class Americans faced in the late 1970s are not the problems of today. Health care now takes a bigger bite than income taxes out of many paychecks. Wage stagnation is a bigger threat to blue-collar workers than inflation. Middle-income parents worry more about the cost of college than the crime rate. Americans are more likely to fret about Washington’s coziness with big business than about big government alone.