Dobbs to President: Do you take us for fools?
By Lou Dobbs
CNN



Wednesday, May 10, 2006; Posted: 3:44 p.m. EDT (19:44 GMT)


NEW YORK (CNN)-- Reports this week that the Border Patrol is notifying the Mexican government of the locations of Minutemen volunteers are being denied by US Customs and Border Protection. True or not the Bush administration continues to follow absurd policies on both issues of border security and illegal immigration.

President Bush continues to push his guest worker program and amnesty for anywhere between 11 million and 20 million illegal aliens, and he insists still that nothing less than what he calls comprehensive immigration reform is acceptable.

And the lies keep coming from both political parties. This president is not enforcing the immigration laws enacted by Congress, and this Congress is failing in its duty of oversight to demand that those laws be followed.

Only a fool, Mr. President, Senator Kennedy, Senator McCain, would believe you when you speak of new legislation. You don't enforce the laws now.

Would you do so if the law were more to your liking? Would you secure our borders and ports? Would you halt illegal immigration? Those are rhetorical questions, only, I assure you. The answers are obvious; obvious because of your conduct.

As many as 3 million illegal aliens continue to cross our border with Mexico each year. Enforcement against illegal employers of illegal aliens in this country is all but nonexistent, Mr. President. How do you explain that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have all but ended their investigations and inspections of employers that hire illegal aliens? Again, only a rhetorical question, because we all know the answer.

But here is the official record of your sense of duty: 318 employers out of five and a half million in this country have been fined for hiring illegal aliens since 2001. In 2004, only three employers were fined. That is a dismal record, Mr. President, as dismal as the fact that the number of ICE agents assigned to enforce immigration laws in the workplace has declined from only 240 back in 1999 to now less than 100.

Illegal Alien Employer Fines


2001 100
2002 53
2003 162
2004 3
(Source: GAO reports,8/31/05)

The problem in our lack of border security and illegal immigration is becoming increasingly obvious: two political parties that are beholden to corporate America, the largest employers of illegal aliens, and the leadership of both parties that are selling out American citizens in search of cheap labor and political advantage. How dumb do you all think we are? Again, that's only a rhetorical question.

Over the next few days on my broadcast, I'm going to make a suggestion that I hope may help the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic Parties begin to take some notice of our laws and our expectations that those laws be enforced. And also take at least some notice of the fact that Republicans and Democrats also represent American citizens, not just corporate America and special interests.



-------------

I had the same complaint about gas price gouging. Congress upped the fines for price gouging. Big fuckin' deal. You could make the penalty a zillion, billion, catrillion dollars. You could threaten to fling anyone guilty into the sun, because the federal government will never take any steps to convict someone of the crime.

Stupid liberal media.

the unfortunate thing is that bush (or anybody representing his administration) will ever directly address these questions, or any other editorials of a similar nature. i don't exactly blame them (or anyone in power of doing the same), but it is still a shame.

Lou Dobbs is a self-proclaimed republican/conservative.

Sarcasm, bud. Read around a little more and you'll see how I feel about it.

i heart price gouging.

This is another, IMO, excellent article from Lou Dobbs on cnn.com today.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/dobbs.may24/index.html



Dobbs: Bush, Congress tell working folk to go to hell

By Lou Dobbs
CNN

Editor's note: Lou Dobbs' commentary appears every Wednesday on CNN.com.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bush says that the installation of the new Iraqi government was a "watershed event," but at the same time warns Americans of the challenges and loss as we continue to prosecute the war against Iraqi insurgents. Sen. Harry Reid declares that legislation that would render English the national language is racist.

Thirty-seven Democrats vote for full amnesty for all illegal aliens in this country, even though nobody really knows whether the number is 11 million, 12 million or 20 million. The Senate Republican leadership demands that a "comprehensive immigration reform" plan must be passed before this Memorial Day weekend. And the president signs into law a tax cut that raises taxes on the educational funds of teenagers saving for college.

Never before in our country's history have both the president and Congress been so out of touch with most Americans. Never before have so few of our elected officials and corporate leaders been less willing to commit to the national interest. And never before has our nation's largest constituent group -- some 200 million middle-class Americans -- been without representation in our nation's capital.

George W. Bush's approval ratings have slumped to the lowest of his presidency. The approval rating for Congress is even lower, and nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

But what is our government doing about that? The president is staying the course in Iraq and apparently demanding little of his generals to create a new, far more effective strategy for urgent success. Of course, he also wants a guest-worker program and amnesty of millions of illegal aliens. And Congress, faced with midterm elections in just over five months, is intent on giving the president what he wants and telling working men and women and their families, American citizens all, to go to hell.

Illegal aliens are more important to this Congress than securing our borders and our ports, more important than those legal immigrants who have waited in line and who follow the law. The Senate has added to the litany of lunacy that makes up what it calls reform: Illegal aliens would only have to pay back taxes on three of the past five years, they will not be prosecuted for felonies such as identity theft or purchasing or using fraudulent Social Security cards, and unlike millions of visa holders who have to leave the country to have them renewed, they may simply remain in the United States while this Congress and this president give away all the benefits and privileges of American citizenship.

This is an outright assault in the elitist war on the middle class. And working men and women who've already borne the pain of losing good-paying manufacturing jobs and having middle-class jobs outsourced to cheap foreign labor markets are faced with the onslaught of more illegal immigration and cheap labor into the American economy. This president and Congress talk about bringing illegal aliens out of the shadows while they turn out the lights on our middle class.

President Bush and his most trusted advisers tell us how well our economy is doing, how many jobs have been created and how so-called free trade will enrich the lives of the same people whose livelihoods these policies are destroying.

It's hard not to think of the trusted adviser to Catherine the Great who sought to hide from her the embarrassing and shoddy condition of Ukrainian and Crimean villages by having elaborate facades built to divert her attention and to mask an uncomfortable reality. I don't know whether Karl Rove is President Bush's Grigori Potemkin or whether George Bush has created Potemkin villages all by himself. But the facades are cracking, and phony fronts of failed policies are quickly crumbling.

Six thousand unarmed National Guardsmen working as adjunct rear support to our undermanned, under-equipped Border Patrol is not border security. Three million illegal aliens continue to cross our borders and depress wages by hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The millions of manufacturing and middle-class jobs lost over the last five years have been replaced by lower-wage employment.

The president's faith-based commitment to so-called free trade will likely lead to a $1 trillion U.S. current account deficit this year and a trade debt of $4.5 trillion after 30 years of trade deficits. And while the president and Congress point to No Child Left Behind as a solution to our educational crisis, we're failing an entire generation of Americans whose test scores continue to fall and whose high school dropout rates would be embarrassing to a third-world country.

And a third-world country is what we will be if our elected officials don't soon come to their senses.
------------------------------


I like the fact that he puts the blame with both Congress and the Pres. and both parties.

I'm sorry, but this is false. There are a number of options for investing in education for teenagers and they are all tax free upon withdrawal so long as those funds are used for education purposes and expenses. You can even use (I believe they are called 587 funds) to pay for an apartment while going to school.

it's not false. they changed the age limit for taxing at the "kiddie" rate on custodial accounts. there are other options but the change impacts some folks who used custodial accounts for there kids before those options were available.

You're gonna have to give me some information, because my grandmother wants to start accounts for some of my younger cousins and I found multiple ways for her to invest money into various types of accounts that are totally tax free so long as it's not withdrawn until they turn 18, or until they retire (if they don't use the money for education.)

there are multiple options today. there were not multiple options 10 years ago. the changes affect people who chose custodial accounts as their vehicle for their children's education savings before things like Coverdell and 529 were options.

this article sums it up pretty well:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06137/690855-28.stm