"Not Getting Burned Again" (Gary Bauer)

“Not Getting Burned Again” Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa is not a man prone to hyperbole or rhetorical flourishes. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he spends his days immersed in the arcane details of American tax law, and on most issues Sen. Grassley is a loyal partisan. On key issues and tough votes, the Senate’s “old bulls” can usually be relied upon to support the president. But for Sen. Grassley, the Senate immigration bill was “a bridge too far.” Introducing his list of “top 10 flaws” in the Senate’s immigration bill, Sen. Grassley said, “I was burned once in 1986 when I voted for amnesty believing that it would solve our problems. Now, we have a 12 million illegal immigrant problem. I’m not getting burned again. Not only do we have a glide path to citizenship, but it’s a glide path with plenty of loopholes that don’t meet the common sense test.” Among the most egregious flaws identified by Sen. Grassley is a provision allowing illegal aliens to avoid paying two of their last five years worth of back taxes. As Sen. Grassley noted, “Law-abiding American citizens do not have the option to pay some of their taxes. The bill would treat lawbreakers better than the American people.” The Department of Homeland Security is required to conduct background checks on illegal aliens in the United States. That’s good. But, the federal government is supposed to “complete the background checks on 10 million illegal aliens in 90 days.” Does anyone seriously believe the government can thoroughly screen 10 million aliens in 90 days? And what if they find something? (You might want to sit down for this one.) According to Sen. Grassley, “Under the bill, if an illegal alien applies for amnesty, the federal government cannot use information provided in the application for anything but adjudicating the petition. For example, if illegal aliens write in their applications that they are related to Osama Bin Laden, then our government cannot use that information. …Also, if a federal agent does use information provided by an illegal alien in an application for amnesty the agent would be fined $10,000.”