The Insanity of the Senate Republicans and President Bush

Cost of Senate Immigration Bill Put at $126 Billion

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Page A01

The Senate's embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, as the government begins paying out federal benefits to millions of new legal workers and cracks down on the border, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis concludes.

Law enforcement measures alone would necessitate the hiring of nearly 31,000 federal workers in the next five years, while the building and maintenance of 870 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers would cost $3.3 billion. Newly legalized immigrants would claim nearly $50 billion in federal benefits such as the earned income and child tax credits, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The CBO report is the most detailed analysis to date of legislation that has divided the Republican Party, energized millions of Latinos, and become a focal point of congressional campaigns from southern Arizona to upstate New York. Under the legislation, passed this spring by a bipartisan Senate coalition, tough border security measures would be coupled with a path to legal work and citizenship for most of the nation's 11 million undocumented workers and a new guest-worker program for prospective migrants.

President Bush applauded its passage, but House GOP leaders have dug in their heels against it, favoring a House-passed measure that would make illegal immigrants felons, build hundreds of miles of fencing on the southern border and offer no new guest-worker programs.

Well there you have it, the complete refutation of the pro-amnesty arguments. The additional burden on our social welfare net would far out weigh any benefit America would see in the granting of citizenship to "11 million" (more like 30 million) illegal aliens. This bill should be dead on arrival and hopefully the House GOP members will see that it is. The President needs to have his behind thoroughly kicked in this debate. He is ignoring the desires of 80% of the American people in his wrong headed "nice-guy" efforts to be understanding of the needs of the illegals.

Hey President Bush, what about the needs of the American people? You know the folks that hired you to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America?" How is allowing millions of unidentified people from nations all over the world to invade our nation virtually unimpeded "faithfully executing" your duties? We now have reports of Middle Easterners going to Mexico to learn Spanish before being smuggled across the border. Do you suppose that might have an effect on our national security? Just maybe?

Full Story: Gross Negligence in the Senate/White House

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