Political Quotes

“we had a lot of rhetoric, expressions of what we might have fantasized reality was, what we thought it might be; words like ``we expect you to live up to your promise.'' All of those are patriotic, soaring statements, which have little to do with the reality of the amendment that the Senator from Illinois has offered. What is the reality today, of the requirement of sponsors to their legal alien sponsoree, who is in the United States? As the Senator from Illinois has pointed out, we Members of Congress have looked at all the programs that we might wish to require deeming to apply to, that is to require the sponsor's income to be added to the alien's income in determining the alien's eligibility for programs. What have we decided? We have decided we will require deeming for SSI, supplemental Social Security income, which primarily affects older aliens; we will require deeming for food stamps; and we will require deeming for aid to families with dependent children. We could have passed deeming for Medicaid, we could have passed deeming for college Pell grants and guaranteed Federal loans, we could have passed deeming for weatherization and heating for low-income people, we could have passed deeming for any one of the hundreds of programs the Federal Government has that requires some form of means testing in order to be eligible. But we decided thus far not to do so, but to limit it to those three programs.”