"What about reforms in Mexico to keep his citizens from fleeing by the millions?"
AC - I haven't seen the thread yet, but I was thinking the exact same thing when I heard FNC announce the Fox call.
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the things that really burns my cookies is that they have the resources to be a very wealthy country, in fact, they do have some very wealthy individuals (read an article yesterday in which they have some of the top billionaires in the world - - one of which is #3). However, the wealthy folks have pressured and/or paid off their legislature not to raise their taxes of 12%. I'm a conservative and believe in cutting taxes (as President Bush has pushed through) rather than raising them. However, 12% for billionaires and millionaires is nothing - - especially when the country's infrastructure and social services are falling apart. They try to keep taxes and healthcare and other expenses down by encouraging their poor people and criminals to migrate to America, illegally. They have tons of oil and aren't developing the facilities to properly develop/refine it, but, they won't let foreign (such as US) investors come in and do it. Yet, they tried to enact a law allowing various drugs to be legal. No one has mentioned this, but I have a feeling that Pres Bush called Vincente and told him that if he signed that bill, he was toast as far as the US was concerned (IIRC Fox had said previously that if the legislature passed it (which they did), he would sign it).
They don't allow legal aliens to have any rights in their country (including owning real estate as I understand), but, they scream racists and everything else when Americans don't want people who are breaking the law (illegals) in our country.
While we have issues here that need to be addressed, the Mexican government hasn't done one thing to help, quite the contrary.
I didn't post a link to the article about the wealthy in Mexico yesterday - here it is:
List of Mexican billionaires (Carlos Slim, 3rd richest man in the world)
answers.com/ ^ | 2006.
Posted on 05/11/2006 8:31:06 AM PDT by dennisw
This is a list of Mexican billionaires according to estimates by Forbes magazine.
Shown below are Mexicans with net fortunes above one billion United States dollars (or its equivalent in other currencies) as of 2006.
>snip
"Just call him Midas. Latin America's richest man upped his wealth this year by an incredible $10 billion, thanks to a growing and diverse empire that includes holdings in retail, banking and insurance, and auto parts manufacturing. Shares of his flagship wireless telecom outfit, América Movil, soared 76% during the year. And his fixed-line operator, Telefonos de Mexico, or Telmex, is reportedly gearing up to double its customer base this year, primarily in Mexico, by signing up 600,000 broadband Internet subscribers. As one of its largest shareholders, Slim was purportedly contemplating taking MCI private—until Verizon bid to acquire the beaten-down phone company in February. Said to have one of Latin America's largest collections of Rodin sculptures; is also the founder of Foundation of the Historic Center of Mexico City, dedicated to restoring colonial buildings in Mexico City's historic city center."
And this is an excerpt from one of the posts on that thread:
"Mexico has more "Forbes" billionaires, 11, than all but eight other nations. It has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires. According to a CNN report, Mexico sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex. However, some observers say this is due to Mexican gov't corruption, and the obsession to line their own pockets."
8 posted on 05/11/2006 8:41:31 AM PDT by Liz
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1630496/posts
And, as I was searching for that one, I found this one:
Mexico's Slim Moves On Univision (Mexican billionaire invades US business world)
NY Post ^ | April 20, 2006 | ZACHERY KOUWE
Posted on 04/20/2006 3:31:31 AM PDT by Liz
The powerful family of Carlos Slim - the world's third richest man, with a $30 billion fortune - bought a huge stake in Spanish-language television giant Univision .....It signals that the Slim family, which owns several Latin American companies, could be planning to participate in a buyout of Univision or is trying to block a takeover by another suitor.
Slim purchased 8.5 million Univision shares between March 9 and March 20...... The family now controls about 2.8 percent of Univision's outstanding shares through its real estate company, Inmobiliaria Carso. Carlos Slim's son sits on the board of Mexican company Grupo Televisa SA, which owns nearly 11 percent of Univision and has a lucrative broadcasting agreement with Univision.
Grupo Televisa said ......it is not acting in partnership with the Slim family.
Foreign companies can own only 25 percent of US-based broadcasters, and Televisa together with the Cisneros family, which controls Venezuela's biggest broadcaster, Venevision, own nearly that much of Univision.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1618148/posts