Political Quotes

“I support Senator Vitter's motion. There are multiple points of order that could be raised against this legislation. They have declared a number of the spending programs emergencies; if you designate an appropriation as an emergency, it does not count against the budget, but it is real spending all the same. Normally, we would expect that border enforcement and hiring of officers would not be an emergency; neither would other aspects of what we are doing here be considered an emergency. We were told by the sponsors of the legislation repeatedly that this bill will be paid for and it will be paid for by fees and fines contributed by those who are here illegally as part of their payment to get citizenship and legal status. Well, that comes nowhere close to funding the legislation. This chart I have in the Chamber gives us some--I will get to it in a second. But this chart gives an indication of where we stand with regard to budget implications of the legislation. So the fines and penalties and fees that are a part of this maybe bring in $6 or $7 billion. They said there was enough to pay for the bill. The bill originally started out at $6 billion, then it went to $8 billion, and then, with the Corker-Hoeven amendment, it jumped to $46 billion. There are no additional fees on the illegal aliens. When they met with the support group, the Gang of 8 met with the real group who has been driving the bill--this coalition of special interests.…”