[citizen]

Another promise broken.

Pres. Bush, the Mexico-First President.

[RockinRight]

2,000 new border agents aren't part of budget, [Bush] says

But more Medicare handouts are??

[drt1]

OK, When does the Revolution start? These out-of-touch Elites in Washington "Scoff" at what the LARGE MAJORITY of Americans want. Same attitude as Marie Antoinette!

[sheana]

Revise that to the .........anyone else first president. Iraq, Mexico, Tsunami victims, etc. .....anyone but americans.

[FreePaul]

We don't need to hire any more government employees for border patrol. Just transfer those in the EPA, the Department of Education, DEA and a few more agencies to the borders and tell them what to do. Then make sure that they do it.

[TomGuy]

This feeds right into Hillary's position.

G_d help, GW, if another serious terrorist attack occurs within our borders AND illegals are some perps. GW's legacy will flush right down alongside Bill's, and GW could get an early retirement.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Sad, but true. Ignoring the borders will get many Americans killed. The terrorist cells are here, and growing by the week. We're soon going to pay a terrible price. And when it's discovered that they came through the Mexican border, the hue & cry from America will wash-out W's remaining presidency. IMO.

[WmDonovan]

Anyone know how border security was handled in WWII?

Nominally Mexico was on the allied side (a squadron of Mexican pilots did fight in the war, albeit trained and equipped by the US), but even so it (going through Mexico) would have seemed like an attractive way for German agents to slip into the US. Were there more agents then? A propensity to shoot first and ask questions later? Incidentally, there were some legendary gun slingers to come out of the Border Patrol in the first half of the 1900's(Charles Askins and Bill Jordan).

Anyone know what, if anything, was different then?

[conservativecorner]

Well now that the grass roots folks have put the Republicans back in power with another great election cycle, it's time for the Republican Leadership to stick it's collective head back up it's ass for another 2 years. Have you ever seen another group that can be so consistent in wrestling defeat out of the jaws of victory?

[untrained skeptic]

"Another promise broken.

Pres. Bush, the Mexico-First President."

To be fair I don't really remember Bush saying that he was planning on hiring 2000 more border agents next year.

Congress passed legislation that included allowing for it, but didn't allocate funds for hiring them. Bush didn't veto it.

Bush's administration does have a lot of control over how the funds the Department of Homeland Security are spent as long as Congress didn't earmark the money for a certain purpose, but they don't control the amount they are given, and have to do the best with what they are given.

Bush does set suggest a budget to Congress, and he doesn't have the money for those agents in his budget. He does deserve the blame for that. However, Congress is who really creates the budget and passes it. Congress passed the bill that allows those agents to be hired, and Congress has the ability to earmark the funds for that purpose.

I do agree that Bush is too weak on the illegal immigration issue. It's something he's shared with his predecessors. He's actully doing better than Clinton on the issue, but that's not exactly a high standard.

The department of Homeland Security has limited funds, and a lot of places that need to be shored up after a long period of neglect. Our intelligence gathering and coordination really needs some serious attention.

The money for additional border patrol agents needs to come from somewhere. There are a lot of government funded wastes of taxpayer money I would love to see have their money taken away, and that should happen. However hiring, training, equipping, and paying the salaries and benefits of 2000 agents adds up to a huge amount of money.

That several hundred million dollars would have to come from somewhere.

I agree that hiring these agents should be a high priority. I also thing that new technology to aid the agents should also be a high priority. However, I don't really know what we'd be giving up to make it happen, so I'm hesitent to say the administration is completely out of line on this issue.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Non-Sequitur]

"It's nice to say you're going to have 10,000 more Border Patrol agents in five years, but what other part of Homeland Security do you want to take the money from?"

The administration is set to request $80 billion for Iraq and Afganistan. I don't recall them worrying about taking that amount from the rest of the Defense Department. I would hope the security of our borders would be just as important.

[Red6]

He breaks few promises.

However, his catering to the Hispanic vote is annoying. The boarder IS an issue in crime, terror threat and in economic terms. Bush needs to reevaluate his position. He’s acting like a Democrat on this issue.

Red6

[azhenfud]

Congress should appropriate the money anyhow.

[untrained skeptic]

Any legislation passed by Congress that doesn't allocate funds is basically political posturing.

I'm sure there are lots of liberals that voted for the legislation that have no intention of funding it, and will be overjoyed that they can criticize Bush's administration for not fully funding the plan in his suggested budget.

However, remember that it's congress, not Bush that creates and passes the budget. Bush's budget is merely a request. Congress has the authority to allocate the funds for that purpose.

We can rightly criticize Bush for his weak approach to securing our borders, but don't let Congress off the hook. They're the ones that have the power to make this happen, Bush can only really request it, or direct the department of homeland security on how they should use the funds they are given that aren't earmarked for a specific purpose.

Write your congressmen and tell them to fund the hiring of those agents in the budget. They passed the law allowing it, they need to follow through and see that it happens. That's their responsibility.

[gubamyster]

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the Bush administration is making a mistake. "Cameras don't catch people, people catch people," he said. "If you don't have the agents you're not going to catch the people your technology sees."

TJ better get back in line, or his new best buddy David Dreier is going to take Bonner's name off his new immigration legislation.

[Marine Inspector]

As expected, Bush has no desire to increase border security.

[A Navy Vet]

"...but what other part of Homeland Security do you want to take the money from?"

Here's an idea...re-direct the 3 billion Bush is going to throw down the African toilet for AIDS this year.

[servantboy777]

2,000 new border agents aren't part of budget, Ridge says

Oh man! here we go. Don't get me started again on this illegal thing.

Ok- just for a minute. Bush doesn't want to restrict the illegals. Why? You guess is as good as mine, but we are losing our national sovereignty. Pappa and baby are both globalist.

[Plutarch]

The National Restaurant Association is pleased.

[ApesForEvolution]

Son of a Bit...