Posted on 06/10/2008 2:26:21 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Bad news: It’s not for America, but for Mexico and Central America.
The Merida Initiative, which I have blogged about extensively (see here), passed earlier today by a 311-106 margin.
Via CQ Politics:
The bill would authorize $595 million for fiscal 2008, $645 million for fiscal 2009 and $350 million for fiscal 2010.
The Senate supplemental would provide $450 million for fiscal 2008; the House version would include $461.5 million. The administration had requested $550 million.
Members cited Mexico’s increasingly violent drug war, which has taken some 6,000 lives in the last two years, including recent assassinations of two top police officials.
“Mexico is burning,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray , R-Calif., who represents an area north of San Diego. “We are not taking on a war on drugs down at the border, we are taking on the battle against narcoterrorism.”
The bill would authorize $1.1 billion for Mexico, $405 million for Central America and $73.5 million for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives programs that target the smuggling of guns into Mexico from the United States.
Several Texas Republicans said the bill should have included programs to address illegal immigration and the drug trade on the domestic side.
“It is inexcusable, it is intolerable to send one dime to the Mexican government when they can afford to pay for this equipment themselves,” said John Culberson , R-Texas. “But more importantly, our southern border is not secure.”
Our fence has yet to be completed, but we’ll be providing helicopters, surveillance equipment, computer infrastructure, expansion of intelligence databases, anti-corruption initiatives, human rights education and training, and anti-money laundering program to our southern neighbors.
Meanwhile, there’s a call to fast track funding for our southern border.
Don’t hold your breath.
That's my Congressman and I approve of his message!
Mexicans doing the job Americans won’t do
Other then Defense, the only other part of the budget where the Congress wants to spend less then the Administration.
Build a damn good fence. And you wouldn’t need many helicopters and border patrol.
Sub-headline:
Cayman Islands banks see rush of new accounts
And what jobs would that be?
Right! Give corrupt Mexico some more of our money. But don’t fund the FENCE that also was passed by these traitors in congress!
Yuck. I’m afraid to look at who voted for this thing.
Our idiotic law makers in action.
They know it’s not gonna work....just look at how they spend more every year.
Congressman Ted Poe was against this.
And that’s the way it just is!
Every time you read “one billion dollars”, think of it as $3.50 out of every member of your families pocket. Then ask yourself “Would I spent $3.50 to do this thing?”
If the answer is yes, congress did good, if no, fire off an email to your congress critters in protest.
($1 billion divided by a population of 300 million is really $3.33).
.....Bob
The white house was certainly pushing this ‘Merida Iniative”.....funny that....when my local sheriff calls and begs the Feds for help to fight the same Mexican Drug cartels operating at will in our national parks and forests, he’s told it’s not DHS’s concern and there aren’t funds to help!
Below are some of Chertoff’s comments from yesterday. The entire thing is pretty interesting/disgusting.
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1213101513448.shtm
“This fiscal year 744 incidents of violence have been perpetrated against Border Patrol agents, a 26 percent increase over the same time last year. Some of these attacks have shown a remarkable, callous disregard for human life, including one incident where an agent was literally struck and murdered by a vehicle fleeing into Mexico driven by a smuggler. I had the occasion to meet with the family of this agent shortly after he died as a result of this homicide. And I assured them we were going to continue to do everything we can to protect the Border Patrol as they work to protect the American people.
I also have to observe that as a consequence of President Calderon’s courageous and determined decision to proceed after the organized crime cartels on the Mexican side of the border, they have also seen an uptake in violence in Mexico. Hundreds of Mexican law enforcement officers have lost their lives or been attacked by violent drug cartels, including senior officials of the law enforcement establishment. President Calderon should be applauded for his efforts to dismantle these drug cartels and criminal organizations who are literally fighting to control portions of Mexico south of the border.
But we have to do more than applaud his work. We have to actually encourage it and assist it, and support his work as good partners with Mexico, dedicated to dealing with these organized crime organizations. And in these regard I want to call attention to the Merida initiative. We urge Congress to continue to move to pass practice appropriations legislation that will allow this very important plan to get over a half a billion dollars in money this year into Mexico to support this courageous effort to fight drug and organized crime violence.
We have a unique opportunity, one that may not come again, to partner with a determined leader in Mexico, so that we can address a shared problem in a partnership way that we cannot afford to ignore. Now of course we are not only focused on efforts to control the border between the ports of entry, we are increasing our security and our efficiency at the ports of entry themselves. We continue to move forward with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which is slated to go into effect in June 2009 at our land and sea ports of entry.....”
Tax costs aren’t simple headcounts and division. The great majority of Americans pay no significant taxes; the bottom 50% of tax filers contribute just 3% of federal income tax revenues. That’s not even getting into the millions who don’t file at all.
One billion dollars is about 0.08% of the individual income tax that will be collected this year.
If that works out to $3.50 per family member, your federal tax bill was just $4200 a head.
(If my bill was that low, I might start actually working hard again.)
Disgusting.
The problem with your math is that less than 50% of the population actually pays taxes that pay for this crap.
A total farce.
Another global bailout. “George is getting angry.”
ping
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