Posted on 12/12/2004 9:23:59 PM PST by CHARLITE
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) has promised disgruntled conservatives that the House's top priority in the 109th Congress is passing legislation that bars illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses, language the Senate stripped from the just-passed intelligence bill.
House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.), a strong proponent of the driver's license provision, secured Hastert's assurance once House leaders agreed to vote on the intelligence bill last week. Sensenbrenner helped thwart a November 20 vote on the legislation because the provision was removed.
Hastert's spokesman, John Feehery, said the speaker wouldn't hesitate about attaching the language to an Iraq supplemental bill, which President Bush is expected to request early next year. "We're going to do everything we can to get it on there," Feehery told HUMAN EVENTS.
But getting the Senate to comply with the driver's license provision is expected to be difficult, particularly because Senators Susan Collins (R.-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) fought its inclusion in the intelligence bill. Collins ducked a question last week from HUMAN EVENTS about Sensenbrenner's proposal, claiming she hadn't had time to review it (see page 3).
President Bush has also yet to signal where he stands on the driver's license proposal. In response to a question from HUMAN EVENTS' John Gizzi last week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "In terms of driver's license, the President stated that we need to consult closely with states about the standards that we're talking about setting."
Sensenbrenner said the White House was trying to work out disputes within the administration before agreeing to the language. He rejected the idea that Bush might want the provision attached to his controversial "guest-worker" proposal for illegal aliens.
Although Sensenbrenner said he would like a House floor vote on his proposal--which also includes asylum reform and completion of a fence on the Mexican border in the San Diego area--he didn't rule out its inclusion in the Iraq funding request. Tying the language to that bill would make it more difficult for the Senate to reject it. Sensenbrenner said, "We will have this all keyed up so when the must-pass bill train leaves the station, this will be on it."
House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R.-Va.) pledged his support for Sensenbrenner's proposal, as did Rep. Steve King (R.-Iowa), who voted against the intelligence bill because it failed to include the immigration reforms. King said he would also push for the expedited removal of illegal aliens and the ability to detain those who pose a danger.
Eleven states currently issue driver's licenses to people without lawful presence in the United States. "The driver's license has become a de facto identification card and that's all it takes to get on an airplane or buy a gun," King told HUMAN EVENTS.
Robert B. Bluey is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS
"Lieberman is a schumck...."
Lieberman is on the short list for "intelligence Czar".
"
If the taxpayers found out the Illegal's qualify for Food Stamps and Medical assistance, they would demand reform. And people wonder why the Social Security funds are depleted? It's shocking!"
Tell the people about this:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/columnists/s_282131.html
-snip-
Ay caramba.
Apologists for illegal immigration (usually leaders of the two dominant political parties) tell you that foreigners are needed to do the work that lazy Americans will not do.
Well, the American worker is not lazy -- and he is not stupid. The reason low-paying jobs go wanting is that the pay is too low. Am I going too fast for the defenseless-borders crowd?
The more illegals that flood in, the more low-paying jobs there will be because employers will be less inclined to offer good wages. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If there were no illegal immigrants, every job would pay what it would be worth. Prices of some items would increase, but at least then you would know the real cost of a carrot, potato or onion without the de facto subsidization of illegal labor.
Every taxpayer pays for the hidden costs of these illegals so agribusiness and other labor-intensive conglomerates do not have to offer fair wages.
But every once in a while you get a glimpse of the high costs of low-priced produce. Like maybe 21 years' worth of education costs for up to 900,000 foreigners annually. And counting.
AND this:
http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html
http://www.predatoryaliens.com/
"I agree...the SS is SO ABUSED and MISUSED according to it's lawful (narrow) purposes..."
Totalization: Sellout of American Workers
by Phyllis Schlafly
Nov. 17, 2004
The Democrats are trying to make a campaign issue out of George W. Bush's alleged plan to "privatize" Social Security, scaring seniors into thinking their checks will be cut off. That is a phony issue; all Bush suggests is to offer younger workers the option (not the compulsion) of transferring a very small part of their Social Security benefit into private investments.
The real threat to Social Security doesn't come from giving young people this opportunity. The threat comes from the Bush Administration's plan to load illegal aliens into the Social Security system, an idea that would skyrocket costs and bankrupt the system at the same time that baby boomers flood into their benefit years.
The code word for this racket is "totalization." The United States has totalization agreements with 20 other countries, which have been reasonable and non-controversial, but totalization with Mexico is TOTALLY different.
The idea behind totalization with other countries is to assure a pension to those few individuals who work legally in two countries by "totalizing" their payments into the pension systems of both countries. All existing totalization agreements are with developed nations whose retirement benefits are on a parity with U.S. benefits, and the affected employees work for companies that have been paying taxes into the other countries' retirement systems.
Workers from the other 20 countries come with documents from their employer verifying that they are authorized to work in the United States. Only a minuscule fraction of Mexicans enter with such documents.
The legitimate goal of totalization with other countries is to avoid double taxation for retirement when employers assign their employees to work temporarily in another country. Reciprocity works because there is rough parity between the number of U.S. workers in the 20 other countries and the foreigners from those countries who work in the United States.
But this goal has no relevance to Mexico. There is no parity whatsoever between the number of Mexicans working in the United States and the number of U.S. citizens working in Mexico, and absolutely no parity in the social security systems of the two countries.
Mexican benefits are not remotely equal to U.S. benefits. Americans receive benefits after working for 10 years, but Mexicans have to work 24 years before receiving any benefits.
Mexican workers receive back in retirement only what they actually paid in, plus interest, whereas the U.S. Social Security system is skewed to give lower-wage earners benefits greatly in excess of what they and their employers contributed.
Mexico has two different retirement programs, one for public-sector employees, which is draining the national treasury, and one for private-sector workers, which is estimated to cover only 40 percent of the workforce. The rest of the workers are in the off-the-record economy (euphemistically called the "informal" sector).
The 10 million Mexicans who have illegally entered the United States previously lived in poverty, did not pay social security taxes in Mexico, and did not work for employers who paid taxes into a retirement plan. If they were working at all, it was in the off-the-record economy.
Illegality is no issue with the countries where we have existing totalization agreements because none of them accounts for even one percent of the U.S illegal population. On the other hand, Mexico provides more than two-thirds of the illegals in the United States.
The Bush totalization plan would pay out billions in Social Security benefits to Mexicans for work they did in the U.S. using fraudulent Social Security numbers, something that Americans would go to jail for doing. It would pay Social Security Disability benefits to Mexicans who worked in the United States as little as 3 years.
The Bush totalization plan would lure even more Mexicans into the United States illegally in the hope of amnesty and eligibility for Social Security benefits. The Bush plan would even cover the Mexicans' spouses and dependents who may never have lived in the United States.
Since few if any of the illegal aliens have built up any equity in the Mexican retirement system, what is there to totalize? Totalization is a plan for the U.S. taxpayers to end up assuming the entire burden.
When George W. Bush became President in 2001, the Mexican government expected the United States to pass amnesty (disguised as a guest worker plan and "regularizing" the entry of Mexicans). After 9/11, Mexico's national policy turned to increasing the number of its nationals working in the United States and getting them to qualify for all the social benefits and privileges Americans receive, from driver's licenses to Social Security and Social Security Disability.
The Social Security commissioners of both Mexico and the Bush Administration signed a totalization agreement in June of 2004, but the text of the agreement has been kept secret. Maybe we will be permitted to see it after the President approves it and sends it to Congress.
Let your Members of Congress know you want them to stop this billion-dollar sellout of American workers and taxpayers.
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2004/nov04/04-11-17.html
Whatever some politicians are thinking is certainly not what the American public is thinking. Let's review some recent polls.
*******
NOV. 24, 2004 www.cnn.com/lou
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Do you believe the intelligence reform bill must contain a provision that prevents illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses?
Yes 88% 1247 votes
No 12% 177 votes
Total: 1424 votes
Yes, probably the FTAA, NAFTA on steroids. Open borders/free travel from Canada to South America. Guess where all the poverty will come?
If President Bush forces this on America, he should be impeached.
I'll second that.
I don't think President Bush is that stupid....
It is a bit rash to think that he will do something like that, don't you think?
Sorry that won't happen, SS has been helping it's self to part of my paycheck since I started working, I am going to get every bit of it back I can, if there is anything left to get by the time I get there.
Discussion of the FTAA is part of his trip to Chile.
That does not mean he is just going to open the borders.
Hysteria over this issue won't fix it.
Read it and weep. President Bush favors the FTAA.
Any Republican is going to favor Free Trade...get used to the idea.
No weeping here. Just because he supports something like that doesn't mean is just going to open the borders from Canada to Chile...that would be like the UN declaring war on the terrorists and then being effective, in short, it isn't going to happen.....that's hysterical and funny to me.
And realistically, he won't get impeached for it either.
You know the DU'ers are looking at this, laughing and you also have to know that this is getting back to the Hildebeast and she is going to run the illegal immigration marathon for the next 4 years to convince you people that SHE can fix the problem. And I am worried you will believe her.
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