Posted on 03/03/2009 6:28:32 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
WASHINGTON – The Senate's majority leader signaled on Tuesday that provisions to ease limits on trade and travel to Cuba were likely to be approved because they were attached to a larger bill that he did not want to stall.
"I'm not wild about some of the Cuba provisions in this bill myself," Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, told reporters. "There are a couple of those that I don't like very much, but it's not enough to bring the bill down, in my opinion."
With Congress facing a deadline on Friday to pass the massive $410 billion bill to fund many government operations, an aide to Reid told reporters it did not appear that foes of loosening sanctions on the communist-run island had enough votes to strip the provisions.
The House of Representatives last week approved the bill with the Cuba provisions. Supporters say since Fidel Castro, who seized power in a 1959 revolution, retired last year due to poor health, it is time to review decades-old policies that have shunned the island 90 miles off the Florida coast.
The proposals do not lift the overall U.S. embargo on Cuba, but would prohibit the Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
We’ve gone from a government that resisted Communism to one that now embraces Communism.
It is strange that I can legally travel to China but not to Cuba.
However, if you wish to travel to Cuba, it is quite easy.
We now have the new Castro. I fail to see how doing biz with the old one hurts anymore.
Why does idiot Reid allow his fellow Democrats to attach things like this to a spending bill, if he doesn’t like it? Congress is nothing but a big grab bag for its more idiot members.
I was treated to stories about how a tube of toothpaste and a bar of soap are so scarce they're rationed.
sw
It’s easy but if you’re caught, the Treasury Dept can fine you $10,000.
I am against the stupid embargo and travel restrictions, but I’m sure to oppose much in this bill. I bet the bill will contain a provision that states that if the Cuban Gov’t defaults on any credit extended, the US Gov’t will pick up the tab (both the Farmers and Castro’s insist on this provision).
My suggestion is that one go to Mexico City and pay cash for an airline ticket to Havana. The Cubans will know not to stamp your U.S. Passport. Pay for everything in cash.
Cuba is probably safer than Mexico right now.
Cuba: Detroit with better beaches.
Go to the caymans its easier.
Why visit Cuba at all? Sure it would be fascinating, but to think that your tourism dollars are being used to prop up the dictatorship? How does that help anybody? Now, if one could be assured that the money would go to help the common people, sure, but basically you would only be helping to rationalize the Castros.
There are too many other places in the world to visit ...where the governments respect basic human rights.
Does Cuba still support violence, terrorism, etc overseas anymore, or is it just a another economically crippled totalitarian nation now? If so, we should use their cheap doctors and cigars.
sw
The epitome of whats wrong in congress...Reid doesn’t like the amendment and he doesn’t have the morals or the balls to stop it.
“Why visit Cuba at all?”
people have relatives who live there
President Raghead campaigned for Fidels father in Kenya in 2006.
I am not making this up.
Brad Pitt to meet with Nancy Pelosi in Washington
AP | 3/4/09
Posted on 03/04/2009 7:03:47 PM PST by DBCJR
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2199535/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.