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.
In the dead of night, right after they do something really big & unrelated in an attempt to deflect attention.
It won't work.
Jorge Bush is reverting back to the "can't we all just get along' mindset that the country club republicans have . Just as politically tone deaf on this as his father was on taxes.
I second the motion.
Right. Because we disagree with utter garbage being rammed down our throats we are bashers. GWB should thank us he is even there in the first place, let alone try to sell us out to his Daddy V. Fox.
It is precisely that kind of tone deaf obliviousness that doomed his father.
Is he idiotic enough to be still pitching the 'jobs Americans won't do' line ?
Thank you. I have been saying the same thing for a long time and people don't get it. These illegals don't want to be legal. They want cash under the table. The employer will still find a way to cheat the system.
Who thinks for one moment that the system will be enforced???
That pissant never shuts up, does he?
It's not even a partisan issue anymore. Republicans, democrats and independents are all coming around to the realization the country is in danger of being destroyed from within thanks to open border policies.
The GOP had better pay attention to the American people on this issue.
Bush bashing? Sorry, just because I voted for the man in two elections doesn't mean I have to cow-tow everything that comes out of the White House. This is wrong, plain and simple and will only drive votes to Hitlery in 2008. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
it won't be.
the guest workers that come - will be new immigrants. Hell, forget guest workers, we might as well just bring them in as new legal immigrants.
the problems remains, and will remain even under this plan, the illegals who are all over the place in the underground economy. this will do nothing to fix that problem.
So what is to stop employers from using this reasoning to employ guest workers in IT, Accounting, Finance, Engineering, Medicine, any field where they can cut the salary 20 or 40 or 60 percent?
I simply can't take GWB seriously any more because this issue totally undermines his strong stance on Homeland Security.
If he can't push for banning driver's licenses to illegals, closing the sieve called the border, deporting illegal aliens who commit any crimes, then he has other motivations.
I think we all know what that motivation is. Its called CFR plan to integrate the hemisphere and totally ruin any chance at securing our border.
I have seen some bashing, but mostly ideas that are more conservative. Nothing wrong with "bashing" when other solutions are put forward.
Well said! I couldn't agree more!
Federal and State government spending and regulatory legislation drive taxation and regulatory measures which increase the cost of goods and decrease the resources of consumers, driving consumers to seek higher wages through organized labor efforts or vertical career moves and increasing the number of consumers who cannot access income sources that keep them above the "poverty line". Punitive measures built into public assistance programs ensure that consumers taking advantage of these programs cannot access low-paying jobs without placing their benefits at risk, so those jobs must be filled by someone else, illegal aliens being first in line.
The entire problem is driven by taxation levvied to fund out-of-control spending by politicians creating programs that reward special interests for their campaign support, and regulatory legislation passed by legislators for the same reason.
If government lowers taxes and loosens regulatory requirements, the cost of goods drops, more consumers have more to spend, the income from more jobs will keep more consumers above the "poverty line" and more Americans will be able to fill more low-income jobs and still make ends meet.
Short story: Lay it all at the feet of the New Deal and the tax-and-spenders. The DNC is NOT a friend of America.
As for Chinese slave, er prison factories, half the people in there are political or religious prisoners.
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