“Where hacks come to spew nonsense” – B2B
A good one from TPM:
TPM Reader JB checks in …
“The White House is now saying the troops would only be temporary. But temporary until when? I guess just until there aren’t any more illegals trying to come across the border from Latin America.”
In other words, you’re suggesting the White House doesn’t have an exit strategy from getting the troops out of … our own country?
Sounds about right.
The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush’s austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.
Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.
But Bush’s proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.
President Bush will call for thousands of National Guard troops to be deployed along the Mexico border in support of patrols aimed at keeping out illegal immigrants, White House officials said Sunday on the eve of an Oval Office address announcing the plan…
The officials spoke on a condition of anonymity before the address Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. The officials would not say how many troops Bush wanted to use, except that it would be in the thousands but less than an estimate of as many as 10,000 being discussed at the Pentagon.
“It’s not about militarization of the border,” Hadley said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “It’s about assisting the civilian border patrol in doing their job, providing intelligence, providing support, logistics support and training and these sorts of things.”
If this administration had funded border patrol in the first place I guess they would not be able to justify the use of the National Guard for this PR move. I am all for border security while still allowing those who want to peacefully live and work in the United States to have that ability. But Bush’s idea to send the National Guard to the border is not going to do anything other than alienate a voting block that the GOP has been heavily courting for the last 10 years.
