Posted on 05/26/2006 2:31:43 PM PDT by VU4G10
WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.
"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.
"So the fact is, you have paid your debt to society," he added. "And we have come up with a way to make sure that the debt to society gets paid. Then you move forward."
The "traffic ticket" analogy raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where many House Republicans regard illegal immigration as a grave crime.
"I don't know if Tony meant to trivialize it or not," said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "But it's certainly misleading."
"The penalty for a speeding ticket is a fine," he added. "The penalty for being here illegally is being removed from this country. But the president doesn't want illegal aliens to go home."
Snow emphasized that illegals would have to pay fines, learn English and wait years for a chance at full citizenship. But Adams called that "a slap on the hand" compared to deportation.
"Here's a more apt analogy," he said. "You get stopped for speeding, and you say to the cop: "Hey listen, you're about to give me a $300 ticket. How about we make it 20 bucks and just call it even?"
Snow predicted that House Republicans would eventually drop their opposition to the Senate bill, which passed Thursday. The bill, which includes a guest worker program that would grant legal status to aliens, is headed to a conference committee for possible reconciliation with a House bill aimed at beefing up border security.
Snow suggested the guest worker program could be sold to even ardent opponents like Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
"Chairman Sensenbrenner, who's got some real problems with various aspects, has said publicly that the temporary worker program has merit," Snow said.
"There are areas in which members of the House are going to agree with the president," he added. "I certainly don't want to be speaking for Chairman Sensenbrenner, but the fact is, you know politics."
But Sensenbrenner appeared unmoved.
"What's going on now, in calling it a pathway to citizenship or earned legalization, is not honest because it is amnesty," he said at a news conference.
What is the status of Social Security payments from employers of illegals when they don't have a Social Security number?
Skinner wouldn't allow him to post his pictures.
I really like tony's style and really wish he had a better subject to use his talents.
It is troubling that Tony Snow is saying the house will adopt the Senate version of the Amnesty Bill.
call and email the house folks http://www.house.gov
HILL DRIVE FOR '55' ( National Maximum Speed Limit )
In a surprise move yesterday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called for "most of the country" to return to a speed limit of 55 mph in an effort to slash fuel consumption...
I gotta believe George Bush and Tony Snow are two of the nicest guys in DC. But they cannot maintain any credibility doing the heavy lifting for Teddy Kennedy's and Insane McCain's idea of an immigration bill.
Why is the WH protecting the remitances?
Is is to prop up mexico?
Is it to help drug dealers launder money?
They are nice guys but they are 100% stuck on stupid and being SOMEBODY's useful idiots.
And here in FR.
That's MY job.
I certainly hope it wasn't President Bush who actually said that. That would prompt a response that goes something like this, "What a moron".
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15017
Nafta signed away our national sovereignty.
The U.S. no longer exists as we knew it, as our forefathers intended.
I thought GWB's father was a terrible President who had a chance with the victory in Kuwait to make a legacy for himself. But in the end he not only broke his promise but he sided with Democrats to do it. It just seems that GWB has the same twisted sense that it is somehow leadership to go against the majority of those that elected you and with the ultraultra liberals on the two issues which conservatives care most about. With his father it was taxes and with him it has been enforcing the law and maintaining our sovereignity.
I'm calling them all.
Gonna have a hell of a phone bill!
"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.
Our elites are so contemptuous of our sovereignty and our precious American citizenship. They want to dilute it via insane illegal immigration policies. And insane legal immigration policies. This is what the Senate bill amounts to. The average Freeper has far more reverence for America than does the average US Senator.
So jumping the border, living here illegally, is no big deal to Tony Snow and other DC hacks. It's roughly equivalent to speeding. BTW I've heard others make the same comparison. Tony is hardly original here
BINGO!
And here in FR.
I like Tony Snow. I would like to think that people who considered going to work in the White House, would set a bar below which they would not go to curry favor with their boss.
For all I know Tony Snow thinks illegal immigration is great. Perhaps this isn't asking him to cover for the president, perhaps this is just how he sees it too.
In my post 10 on this thread I fired off a couple of examples that were way over the top. But in comparing illegal aliens to folks who have gotten a traffic ticket, the administration is equally as off the mark, only in the other direction.
Illegal alines stole something that wasn't their's to come here. It was citizenship. Only citizens or those who are here by our permission are allowed to live in the U.S. Illegal aliens stole that right from us. That was wrong.
Illegal aliens get healthcare for free. Do you? Illegal alien children get the education of their children paid for for free? Do you? Illegal aliens get welfare and other freebies. Do you? Of course you don't get any of this for free. No, you're the one paying for it.
If I get a speeding ticket, do I get tens of thousands of dollars in free goods and services to boot? Do my children get a free education and I get a free pass on taxation?
Tony Snow, the President hasn't the tools to understand this example is a slap in the face of every citizen in this nation. I would have hoped that you had the class to realize it. You didn't. To say I am quite disappointed with you, is a real understatement.
You clowns in the White House need to get out a little more. Quit talking to the elites. Down home folks hold more votes and they're livid.
I meant to ping you to my post 159.
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