Democrats Hold Homeland Security Bill Hostage over Partisan Politics

FOX News ^ | 11/18/2002 | Staff

[Poohbah]

That's not hiring 170,000 new employees: that's stuffing 170,000 current Federal employees into the new department. Leave it to the lamestream media to not understand English as she is spoke.

[The Wizard]

I support the bill, the President and want it passed....

[WarHawk42]

Then you have read the bill?  All 400+ pages of it?

[Poohbah]

I've read it enough to see that it does NOT raise the government's headcount limit by even 1 employee, let alone 170,000 of them.

[mrsmith]

Go to Thomas and look up HR 5710.

Most of the bill was passed four months ago by the House.

Any Representative who tells you they haven't read it is lying- or should be removed for incompetence.

[WarHawk42]

Then please post your wonderful insight to enlighten us all.

I am assuming nothing except those who voted for it haven't read it and don't understand it.  I don't think you do either.  The devil is in the details you know.:)

[For the Unborn]

The very last people who need help are the ambulance-chasers!

[Poohbah]

Then please post your wonderful insight to enlighten us all.

I just did. What would be needed to do as you propose is a 170,000 plus-up in the headcount limit. It isn't in there.

[Green]

How do you figure that combining several agencies that already exist and have federal employees amounts to "adding" 170,000 add'l employees?

[concerned about politics]

If you find out what is in the bill please do inform those who voted for it. It would be nice if they new what they were voting on too.

Think.
The Democrats are still in control.
Maybe they had all kinds of stuff added to the bill themselves but could still get it passed. The article doesn't say what they had in there, right?
Maybe the Republicans HAD to add Republican favors to make sure the commie DEM version DIDN'T get passed by the current majority.
WHY? Then dems could blame Bush if he vetoed it!!! "He doesn't care about security! See? He's politicising it!! We gave him a good bill !! (a worthless one, really ) "
This is more political for the dems than it is for Republicans right now.
the Dems would pass a crap version of a bill and blame Bush for not caring about security for not signing it!!!
I'd hold off until we got our majority , too. Get the dems out of the way, so we can get a real bill passed.

[WarHawk42]

I just did.

You posted nothing more than your opinion.  Nice try, but no cigar.

[Poohbah]

You posted nothing more than your opinion. Nice try, but no cigar.

I told you that I reviewed the content of the bill for any mention of an increase in the headcount limit. It's not there, not one, not 170,000. Without that increase, the government can't hire any new employees.

[Green]

an excerpt from the end of the article on Fox News web site: "The Senate was expected to vote as early as Tuesday to approve the bill, which would merge 22 agencies and 170,000 workers into a Department of Homeland Security. The measure was Bush's top remaining legislative goal for the lame-duck Congress, which hopes to end its postelection session this week."

url: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70713,00.html

(sorry I do not know how to post the link)

This is how I have always heard this discussed....a merging of existing agencies and in fact, I seem to recall that they even said some positions could possibly be eliminated due to duplication once merged.

[WarHawk42]

Get the dems out of the way, so we can get a real bill passed.

Depends on the meaning of "real".:)

Tell me how we can have homeland security as long as our borders go unprotected and our ports of entry are like a revolving door.

The only thing I see in this bill is a power grab designed to make the sheeple feel more secure.

[concerned about politics]

I told you that I reviewed the content of the bill for any mention of an increase in the headcount limit. It's not there, not one, not 170,000. Without that increase, the government can't hire any new employees.

Yep. We've had lots of threads on this already. It's a consolidation of existing employees. They'll just merge, be moved around, or get removed and replaced by another. The head count stays the same.
WarHawk42 -- check the archives. You'll find info all over the place!

[WarHawk42]

I told you that I reviewed the content of the bill for any mention of an increase in the headcount limit.

You will pardon me if I don't take your word for it?:)  I haven't found your word to be all that great myself.

[Poohbah]

You will pardon me if I don't take your word for it?:)

Yeah, I usually pardon worthless no-load non-hackoing trailer trash for acting like worthless no-load non-hackoing trailer trash.

I haven't found your word to be all that great myself.

I have generally found you to be a waste of food, water, and oxygen, but I try not to hold it against you.

[WarHawk42]

Yep. We've had lots of threads on this already. It's a consolidation of existing employees. They'll just merge, be moved around, or get removed and replaced by another.

Call me skeptical but I've seen this movie before.  It may not grow by 170,000, but rest assured it will grow.

[concerned about politics]

Tell me how we can have homeland security as long as our borders go unprotected and our ports of entry are like a revolving door.

Security at the boarders is in the bill. That's why they're asking for reserves to sign up to guard the boarders. They also want the Coast Guard as part of the national security bill. They're also taking over the INS.
defending the boarders better is in there.

[WarHawk42]

Is that a personal attack?LOL  Now why am I not surprised?

Poo, ya gotta do better than that.:)