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.
i would LOVE his job!
It's analogous with speeding only if during that speeding the driver was uninsured and crashing into other cars.
The victims of the speeder are the working citizen whose labor is devalued and the taxpayers who pay for the scofflaw employers to utilize the cheap labor.
Speeders don't change the demographics of your country and speeders don't give the vast majority of their votes to one party.
That's about it. And lets not forget that these folks have been sapping our nation dry for years getting free healthcare, education for their kids and welfare, plus other freebies.
Speeding ticket? What a hoot! Somebody is actually stuped enough to think we'll buy into this.
"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.
What a LOAD !!!
Hey Tony, mexicans get 12-15 CHANCES at crossing our borders before they are ever charged the first time.
Care to tell me which state I can *knowingly* get 12-15 WARNING tickets before I have to pay one ??
and will speeders also have the *option* of TAX EVASION for the next several years ???
Hmmmmm......???
(I too, want to be 'undoctmented'.....the perks get better everytime our *lawmakers* meet.)
What a slur against Coolidge!
This isn't a country anymore. We have become a pinata, full of limitless goodies to be batted out and exploited.
Tony, Tony, Tony (shaking head) You ought to be ashamed.
Tony Snow has his peices of silver, now he cares not a damn about the country, he is the well paid mouth piece of those that would destroy us.
I disagree: reasonable thinking is not on the Senate's side.
Based on the past, verifiable history of the government's broken promises on immigration, "enforcement first, enforcement only", at least until 2008, is the only reasonable solution.
White House compares illegal immigration to speeding
Everyone please bookmark this thread.....you can save it and when we look back and wonder why the GOP got a ass kicking in the Nov elections well can remember why
Under that comparison, If I got a speeding ticket, speed laws would no longer apply to me. Excuse me officer, I paid my fine, now am I free to go?
Tony did not go nuts. He has always been on the Bush bandwagon as far as amnesty goes.
You left out drivers licenses and voter registration. That last one will rise up and bite us in the butt.
Snow actually took a pay cut to give up his independence and become George Bush's "mouthpiece."
Our battle is not with the Senators who voted on the "Senate Version" on the bill....the two bill are "oceans" apart.. with the house version being a MUCH BETTER BILL !! our battle is with the Senators who will go to conference with house.. which I just found out will be ALL MEMBERS of the Judiciary Committee and then some additional Senators yet to be named by Reid and Frist !!!...
WE NEED TO LET THESE FOLKS KNOW that we SUPPORT THE HOUSE VERSION !! NOT THE SENATE VERSION !!! now get er done !!
---> for now we can focus our efforts on the JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMEBERS !!!
Arlen Specter Orrin G. Hatch Patrick J. Leahy Charles E. Grassley Edward M. Kennedy Jon Kyl Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Mike DeWine Hrbert Kohl Jeff Sessions Dianne Feinstein Lindsey Graham Russell D. Feingold John Cornyn Charles E. Schumer Sam Brownback Richard J. Durbin Tom Coburn
I have written an OPEN LETTER to the conferees and I encouge EVERYONE who cares about this to do the same.... feel free to copy/edit/distribute my letter..
Hey, Tony, speeding kills!!!
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