Stick a fork in yourself, Dr. Frist. You're done.
Posted on 04/13/2005 3:32:48 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
WASHINGTON, April 12 - Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said on Tuesday that he was discouraging efforts to incorporate immigration and border security measures into the Senate version of a supplemental military spending bill, which would set the stage for showdowns among Congressional Republicans over immigration later this year.
Meeting with reporters, Dr. Frist, of Tennessee, said, "I am encouraging my colleagues to defer, to postpone discussions of immigration and to postpone that debate."
He said, however, that he was still negotiating with senators who seek to add immigration provisions to the military spending bill.
The House version of the bill includes provisions to block illegal immigrants from obtaining standard driver's licenses, to make it easier to reject requests for asylum and to override environmental rules blocking construction of a barrier along California's border with Mexico.
Senators from each party seek to add amendments that would make it easier for employers to hire more foreign workers.
The immigration debate reveals a fault line in the Republican Party, pitting cultural conservatives hostile to illegal immigrants against business groups that seek foreign laborers. President Bush has declared his support for a guest-worker program that would be open to currently illegal immigrants.
On Tuesday, Dr. Frist called immigration "a huge issue, an issue that we have to address this year, that the president put a proposal on the table last year - legislatively, we did not address it - I believe we have to address this year."
House Republicans, however, said that negotiators in a conference last year promised that the provisions would be included in some "must-pass" legislation, like the supplemental military spending bill. In negotiations with the Senate, House Republicans added, they were determined to keep the provisions in the final version of the bill.
Senate Democrats want to offer a number of amendments seeking to loosen immigration restrictions or expand foreign-workers programs. Dr. Frist and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, were in talks on Tuesday night about whether to limit the number of immigration amendments to a handful, with some Democrats seeking assurances that the final bill would not include the House's immigration restrictions, aides said.
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, said they planned to offer an amendment that would make more visas available for temporary seasonal workers, which they said would be needed by the hotel and fishing industries this summer.
Meanwhile, two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, advocating the tightening of border security along the lines of the House measures, said they also favored deferring the immigration debate in the Senate and enacting comprehensive measures that would also include some form of Mr. Bush's guest-worker program.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a conservative strategist working with the White House on its guest-worker proposal, predicted that each side would ultimately succeed only through comprehensive legislation that tightens border security and at the same time adds foreign workers to the labor pool. "Immigration reform and border security are not competitors; they are the same thing," he said.
He said he believed that the House Republican opponents of the guest-worker program would "get boxed out by a bipartisan coalition," and that Mr. Bush could achieve his guest-worker program mostly through strong Democratic support.
I'm not sure if this is a good idea. This could provide easier attempts for illegals to sneak into the US.
There goes my respect for Norquist. Can't believe he fell for this crap.
Stick a fork in yourself, Dr. Frist. You're done.
"Meeting with reporters, Dr. Frist, of Tennessee, said, "I am encouraging my colleagues to defer, to postpone discussions of immigration and to postpone that debate.""
BS. Congress is doing nothing but witchhunting Bolton. Debate it now, with or without these "amendments."
Another gutless republican...
"There goes my respect for Norquist. Can't believe he fell for this crap."
Why do you think he "falls" for anything? He's a LOBBYIST. Who pays him he spins for. He is not on your side.
cheap foreign laborers. dirt-cheap foreign laborers who will rely on emergency rooms for health care, who don't care too much whether or not their children receive a decent education, who don't think too much about retirement, and who are not very good at organizing or asserting their legal rights.
This is proof we will see a loosening of restrictions on illegals long before we will see any sort of meaningfull border security (if ever).
First sure turned out to be useless.
U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
ping
Big time BS alert from this blow-dried fellow. We need a conressman who has a pair to run in 2008, not this cocktail party type.
So, The Immigration Reform Act of 2005 will be created in Conference Committee.
Oop, Frist..
I wouldn't say that illegals don't want a good education for their kids, or imply that they're bad at all. They are pliable in the wage market, true, and the biggest motive for bringing them here is a wage suppression policy. For which wage costs can't be outsourced overseas illegals will be insourced. The Corporate Conservatives and Corporate Liberals are on the same boat with this tacit policy.
Though the border is no barrier, there are some internal ones. One of the last is the driver's license. The transport industry wants to depress the wage market power of americans and legal residents who drive for a living so they are funding the licenses for illegals drive. For the Republicans they use business front groups. For the dems they subsidize pressure groups that pose as if they represent their ethnicity.
In truth, Bush's illegal alien policy is racist, if one accounts for who is disproportionately effected - Americans at the lower income scales.
defacto pubbie and dem policy.
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