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Bush: 'Guest worker' plan will benefit U.S. employers
Houston Chronicle ^ | Augist 3, 2005 | Michael Hedges

Posted on 08/05/2005 1:04:32 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest

The president, in a wide-ranging talk, gives a hint at how he'll pitch reform measures

GRAPEVINE - President Bush told a crowd of state legislators Wednesday that he will push immigration reform as beneficial for U.S. employers as well as foreigners looking for work.

He also made an impassioned pitch for Americans to stay behind the war in Iraq.

"Immigration reform is going to be an interesting subject when we get back to Washington" in September, said Bush, who plans to spend this month at his Crawford ranch.

He argued that his proposal for a "guest worker" program is good for employers and illegal immigrants who want a mutually beneficial relationship.

"If you are a willing employer (and) you have somebody looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a legal way for you to employ that person," he said. "We'd rather have people coming in with a card that said, 'I'm a legal worker,' than trying to sneak across the border."

The president has proposed a system under which immigrants would be granted worker temporary worker status, after which they would have to leave the United States. Critics have called it a thinly veiled amnesty program. Immigration reform plans have stalled in Congress so far this year, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist recently suggested a GOP push on the issue was more likely to happen next year.

Talking hours after the first reports that 14 U.S. Marines were killed in Iraq, Bush said, "The violence in recent days in Iraq is a grim reminder of the enemies we face. These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America."

With polls showing that public support for continued military involvement in Iraq is eroding in the face of steady casualties, Bush relied on a familiar linkage of the war with the larger struggle against terrorism. He said Americans who died in Iraq and Afghanistan "lost their lives in a noble cause."

Speaking to 1,800 people at the American Legislative Exchange Council conference, Bush basked in recent legislative victories delivered by a GOP majority in Congress, including the Central American Free Trade Agreement and energy and highways legislation.

Bush said his priorities when Congress reconvenes after Labor Day will be immigration reform, making his tax cuts permanent, getting Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts confirmed and resurrecting his Social Security reform initiative.

Bush drew loud cheers by saying he strongly believed in private retirement accounts for workers under 55. "Now is the time to permanently fix Social Security," he said.

The event was held at a mammoth convention center where visiting legislators were introduced to Texas pride, including a large replica of the Alamo, a 10-foot-long space shuttle model and other state symbols.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 43move2mexico; aliens; armtheminutemen; bordersecurity; buhuck; bushamnesty; butbushisarepublican; idontwanttogo; illegalaliens; immigrantlist; invasionusa; mexicosucks; openborders; propaganda; shoot2kill; theregoesmyjob; werebeinginvaded; whatacrock; whatasuckingsound
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To: jb6
Worth repeating (even a little louder):

Thank you Mr. President. How about the benefit to the average American who is a worker not an employee?

Oh that's right, he gets to watch his wages drop, opportunity decrease and continues to pay for benefits for the illegals and quasi-legals.

Gee, Mr.Bush, can you possibly work any harder to get the Democrap majority back in Congress?

101 posted on 08/05/2005 1:55:26 PM PDT by nicmarlo
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To: Die_Hard Conservative Lady
I'm sorry and I know it will make some people mad, but I am loosing respect for our President when all this garbage comes out of his mouth....

Bush knows full well few support any guest worker program. He's going to lose a lot more respect if he keeps talking about it.

102 posted on 08/05/2005 1:55:29 PM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: chris1

You asked and you shall receive.

103 posted on 08/05/2005 1:56:49 PM PDT by jb6 ( Free Haghai Sophia! Crusade!)
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To: jb6

Just what I need on a friday.


104 posted on 08/05/2005 1:58:46 PM PDT by chris1 ("Make the other guy die for his country" - George S. Patton, Jr.)
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To: Cecily

In fact, thanks to the open-border policies American cities are flooded with gangs like the MS-13. Most of them ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT... well armed and dangerous.


105 posted on 08/05/2005 1:59:11 PM PDT by Kurt_D
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To: nicmarlo

106 posted on 08/05/2005 2:00:06 PM PDT by jb6 ( Free Haghai Sophia! Crusade!)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest

Lock down the borders first, Mr. President. Then we can talk about these other programs you'd like to have, AFTER you've stopped the flow of illegals.

We need to demand better triage for this issue. First, handle the emergency that is seriously jeopardizing the security of the nation. Then, start a discussion of how to handle the illegals who are already here.

LOCK DOWN THE BORDERS FIRST, MR. PRESIDENT.


107 posted on 08/05/2005 2:01:33 PM PDT by savedbygrace ("No Monday morning quarterback has ever led a team to victory" GW Bush)
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To: Reaganwuzthebest

"'Guest worker' plan will benefit U.S. employers "

No question about it !


108 posted on 08/05/2005 2:01:46 PM PDT by traumer
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To: Buyers Remorse

Taking the man out of the country club does not take the country club out of the man


109 posted on 08/05/2005 2:02:14 PM PDT by U.H. Conservative
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To: jb6

Are there any Mexicans left in Mexico?


110 posted on 08/05/2005 2:02:48 PM PDT by Die_Hard Conservative Lady (Close the borders.....)
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To: jb6

FWIW, I define the assinine strategy of "issue debt and pay it later" as a tax, since the payments will inevitably be made using tax revenue whether actual tax rates are increased because of that or not.

Unfortunately, an aspect of this tax-and-spend model that is lost on many is that individuals are doing this to themselves daily with increasingly ruinous results by abusing credit. That is the most direct method of "issue debt and pay it later" known and, as the behavior is epidemic among individuals, why are we at all amazed that it is becoming epidemic among governments?

The whole of every State and Federal legislature is made up of individuals drawn from the ranks of the private sector. Since these ranks are infected with abysmal fiscal habits, those bad habits cannot be kept out of government unless a fiscally irresponsible public is astute enough to elect to office men and women NOT like themselves. But men do not elect men unlike themselves; this would defy human nature, which is such that we prefer those who are more like us.

A solution cannot be effected, here, unless we can somehow bar fiscally irresponsible people from the voting booth.


111 posted on 08/05/2005 2:02:49 PM PDT by HKMk23 (GoT tHis sweLl tajlYne oN eBay qith chngE I fond in meye soFa)
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To: savedbygrace

I need a drink.


112 posted on 08/05/2005 2:02:56 PM PDT by chris1 ("Make the other guy die for his country" - George S. Patton, Jr.)
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To: chris1

What?


113 posted on 08/05/2005 2:03:56 PM PDT by savedbygrace ("No Monday morning quarterback has ever led a team to victory" GW Bush)
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To: savedbygrace

This issue causes me to need a hard drink.


114 posted on 08/05/2005 2:04:51 PM PDT by chris1 ("Make the other guy die for his country" - George S. Patton, Jr.)
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To: Black Tooth

a work no American wants to do... a work no American wants to do... a work no American wants to do...a work no American wants to do...a work no American wants to do...a work no American wants to do...a work no American wants to do...


115 posted on 08/05/2005 2:05:04 PM PDT by traumer
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To: chris1

Personally, I think a lot of the folks supporting this are just pissed that they missed being born in the antebellum South.


116 posted on 08/05/2005 2:07:24 PM PDT by U.H. Conservative
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To: Black Tooth

Same Sh!t different day. I'm so sick of that man and his double talk and his insults and his lies. I don't regret my vote over the diabolical traitor Kerry, but I feel Booosh has stabbed me in the back. He isn't proposing anything on illegals that won't produce a huge new gush of them across the border, and he isn't telling us anything about what we're accomplishing in Iraq other than "noble cause" which is wearing mighty thin.

Are we killing any of THEM, Mr. President? Are we pacifying any territory? Are we cracking down on islamists in B-diddy? Are we going after safe havens in Syria? Or are we being vietnamized more and more, day by day?

More and more I'm tempted to vote for gridlock in 2006.


117 posted on 08/05/2005 2:07:31 PM PDT by johnb838 (In peace sons bury their fathers. In time of war, fathers bury their sons.)
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To: traumer

It's Margarita time!!!!


118 posted on 08/05/2005 2:07:42 PM PDT by Die_Hard Conservative Lady (Close the borders.....)
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To: chris1

119 posted on 08/05/2005 2:08:07 PM PDT by jb6 ( Free Haghai Sophia! Crusade!)
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To: chris1
This issue causes me to need a hard drink.

I hear ya. In fact, though, if you think about it, Borderless George's plan is similar to something a gang at a bar might come up with, "Hey... I know! We'll give'em all cards. Yeah... that's what we'll do. No more illegals if they all have cards."

120 posted on 08/05/2005 2:09:41 PM PDT by Types_with_Fist (I'm on FReep so often that when I read an article at another site I scroll down for the comments.)
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