Bush upbeat; $4bil for border security; amendments probably just ploy

Bush is still upbeat and thinking positively about the possibility of the Senate illegal immigration amnesty bill passing. And, in fact, this morning he said he wants to spend $4.4 billion on border security. Unlike the supplemental proposal which would be spent even if the bill doesn't pass, this would be part of the "comprehensive" solution and would only be spent if the bill passes. On a fantastic note:

The $4.4 billion would be spent immediately and then repaid out of fees and fines collected through the path to citizenship program and the guest-worker program, Mr. Snow said. He did not know where the money would originally come from.

And, Sen. Trent Lott is publicly saying that any amendments that are added to the bill don't really matter: they'll get stripped out in committee. So, bear in mind that any "tough" amendments may simply be ploys or at least may never be in the final bill:

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said those amendments will simply disappear when the House and Senate go to conference. "No big deal -- you pitch those before you get to the Rotunda," he said.

A similar point is made by an apparent Senate source here:

My source also noted that the cloture vote to end debate will be the "real" vote on the bill because if debate is closed off, the bill is sure to pass. Then, what will happen is that the votes for the bill will be counted, and a few Senators who are afraid that their election prospects will be jeopardized by a "yes" vote, will be allowed to vote against the bill. This enables those Senators to tell their constituents that they voted against the bill, but it will still allow them to collect campaign contributions from lobbyists who have a better understanding of how things work, and know that the bill couldn't have been passed without their support. Put another way, they get to reap the rewards of supporting amnesty while telling the voters in their home states that they opposed the bill.

Immigration2007a · Thu, 06/14/2007 - 08:27 · · Importance: 1