It’s good news that the so-called "Flag Desecration Amendment" failed by a single vote in the U.S. Senate.

We don’t need a Constitutional amendment to defend the flag.

Article III give Congress the power to limit the jurisdiction of Federal Courts. Congress can prohibit the courts from ruling in favor of those who would burn or otherwise desecrate the American flag.

If there were to be a Constitutional amendment to protect the flag, how about one to defend the Ten Commandments or the Bible?

The Flag Amendment is a perfect example of political pandering by those members of the Senate (especially Orrin Hatch) who should know better and who should recognize that Article III is in the Constitution for a reason.

The same thing goes for the Marriage Amendment. The Senate, by simple majority vote, can extend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to prohibit Federal courts from ruling in favor of "same sex marriage".

That’s a far better approach than amending the Constitution.

CONSERVATIVE LEADERS BLAST PENCE PROPOSAL AND PLEDGE TO OPPOSE PRO-AMNESTY CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT

Here follows a statement endorsed by me other conservative leaders at a conference held on Monday, June 19, as part of an ongoing effort to defeat amnesty and guest worker proposals put forward by President Bush, the U.S. Senate, and Congressman Mike Pence.

If you wish to sign on, please provide your name and affiliation, if any, to this blog and forward it to me at the National Headquarters of The Conservative Caucus, 450 Maple Avenue East, Vienna, Virginia 22180 or fax it to me at 703-281-4108.

We, the undersigned, oppose any amnesty or guest worker plans such as the Senate bill (S. 2611), the Pence bill, or any other such proposals.

The Heritage Foundation estimates the Senate bill will bring in at least 60 million foreigners during the next 20 years.

If the demographics of the so-called temporary workers are similar to those of the illegal aliens already here, more than half will be high school dropouts. They will work low-paying jobs that require payment of little or no income tax. They will be 50 percent more likely to receive government benefits than those in non-immigrant households. And 42% of their children will be born out-of-wedlock-but all their children born in the U.S. will automatically become American citizens.

The cost of the Senate amnesty for illegal immigrants alone would be $50 billion per year for entitlements, including Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Earned Income Tax Credit (cash handouts as much as $4,400 a year to low-wage households), the WIC program, food stamps, public housing, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Federally funded legal representation.

Any amnesty would move America toward a future such as that of France, which is staggering under the burden of “guest” workers who never went home.

The Senate proposal has three main features that together, will cause the illegal immigration problem to reach critical mass:

1. AMNESTY: The proposal grants legalization to 85% of the nation’s current illegal aliens. The Senate bill repeats the mistakes of the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty bill of 1986. It also provides an amnesty for employers who have hired illegal immigrants.

2. PERMANENT “TEMPORARY” WORKERS: The proposal sets up a so-called “temporary guest worker” plan for individuals who will be here neither temporarily nor as guests. The so-called guest workers will be given new “H-2C” visas, that they can convert to legal permanent status with green cards. After five years, they will be eligible to become U.S. citizens. In the first year this scheme is in effect, the U.S. will import 200,000 new foreigners on H-2C visas.

3. FAMILY CHAIN MIGRATION: The number of immigrants will accelerate as “family chain migration” allows more new residents to bring in more and more relatives. The H-2Cers can immediately bring in their family members on H-4 visas, without any health requirements, and they will also get permanent legal residence and citizenship.

After the so-called temporary workers and their spouses become citizens, they can bring in their parents as permanent residents on the path to citizenship. Although the parents have never paid into Social Security, they will be eligible for Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income benefits. Siblings and adult children and their families will be given preference in future admissions.

In addition, the Senate bill gives so-called temporary workers preferences that American citizens do not enjoy. They can’t be fired from their jobs except for cause. They must be paid the prevailing wage. They can’t be arrested for other civil offenses if they are stopped for traffic violations. Also, these illegal aliens are forgiven two years in back taxes, something the IRS would never do for American citizens.

The Senate bill grants in-state college tuition (something that is denied to U.S. citizens in 49 states), plus certain types of college financial assistance to illegal immigrants. As minorities, they may even get “affirmative action” preferences in jobs, government contracts, and college admissions.

Even more outrageous, the Senate bill cedes American sovereignty by requiring the United States to consult with the Mexican government before building a border fence.

The so-called compromise proposed by Rep. Mike Pence would place no limit whatsoever on the numbers of foreign workers who could be imported by U.S. employers from any country anywhere in the world.

By flooding this country with so many immigrants, legal and illegal, controlling immigration will become impossible and by dumping that burden onto an already-overburdened system of government benefits, these proposals are a threat to the future of the United States. They must be defeated.

THEREFORE-

Passing no bill is better than passing any new amnesty, legalization, guest worker or foreign worker program of any kind.

We call for enforcement now. We favor a policy of attrition of the illegal population through strong enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws, which includes, first and foremost, the securing of our borders.

We call on both Houses of Congress to heed the American people and reject the Senate bill, the Pence bill, or any other bill that provides legalization of illegal aliens or substantial increases in legal immigration. We call on the House leadership to refuse to appoint members to a conference committee for the Senate bill.

If any such bill is enacted, including the Senate bill or the Pence bill, we pledge to withhold political support from any Member of Congress who votes for it.

Finally, we dedicate ourselves to defeating any 2008 presidential candidate who supports the Senate bill, the Pence bill, or any other bill that provides legalization of illegal aliens or substantial increases in legal immigration. We pledge to do so regardless of political party and in both the primaries and the general election.

Signed,

Along with a number of other heads of organizations, on behalf of The Conservative Caucus I have signed on to the following letter:

June 21, 2006

An Open Letter to the United States Senate: Support a Full Accounting of Federal Grants!

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the millions of taxpaying citizens represented by the groups signed below, we strongly urge you to support S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill, sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and co-sponsored by colleagues John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Tom Carper (D-DE), would direct the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to create a publicly-available website that would list every entity receiving federal grants or contracts and the totals awarded for the last ten fiscal years. Such a website would entail very little cost and would greatly increase transparency in the distribution of government funding. At last, those who most deserve to know about this process - the American people - would have the tool they need to conduct their own evaluations of Washington's priorities.

It is essentially impossible for the average citizen to obtain such an accounting today. According to the General Services Administration, the federal government provides roughly $300 billion in grants to 30,000 organizations, ranging from rail and transit security to youth theater troupes. Information is spread across innumerable agencies, frequently lacks specificity, and is not always available to the public. All too often, one must resort to filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act to truly determine the extent or duration of funding. Americans should not be forced to navigate the treacherous waters of bureaucracy just to find out who is receiving their tax dollars.

In the past, it was not feasible to have a centralized listing of the kinds of organizations and activities that received government monies. The effort needed to calculate, coordinate, and print such a listing would have been enormous, and the final product may well have required a forklift to transport. But today, with incredible increases in computing power and the advent of the Internet, such an undertaking is far less daunting. In fact, a precedent has been set by ExpectMore.gov, a website launched by the OMB to monitor the performance of more than 800 federal programs. ExpectMore.gov has made program review more transparent and accessible to the public.

Advocates from all points on the spectrum of opinion share the common notion that transparency of and public access to government information is vital to the health of our political system. It is for this reason that S. 2590 has broad appeal. Budget watchdogs can support the legislation because it would reveal duplicative or superfluous federal funding. Environmentalists can support it because it would detail exactly how much federal money goes to organizations and practices they deem to be ecologically harmful. Traditional values groups can support the legislation because it would allow them to track funding for causes they hold to be inimical to their own. The list of those with a stake in S. 2590, from civil libertarians to defense and foreign-policy reformers, goes on and on. Reasonable people of all political viewpoints should unite in support of S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, in the interest of good governance.

Sincerely,

Howard Phillips
Chairman
The Conservative Caucus

SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS DESERVES THANKS FOR HIS LEADERSHIP AGAINST BUSH-KENNEDY-MCCAIN IMMIGRATION SCHEME

This morning (June 15) at a policy conference sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies, I had the opportunity to personally thank Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for his leadership in opposition to the Kennedy-McCain amnesty/guest worker legislation.

I also brought to his attention the danger of massive additional influxes of immigrants to the United States as a result of the NAFTA highway which will soon be opened, linking Mexico and Canada via the United States.

Only a tiny fraction of the trucks passing through our country will be inspected and the trucks uninspected by humans could surreptitiously carry with them countless thousands of illegal aliens.

It is time to review and reject our participation in NAFTA and to oppose President Bush’s implementation of the NAFTA highway.

When asked what Republican senators for reelection could say to voters this fall if no bill is passed, the Senator pointed out that the House did, indeed, pass a bill and a pretty good one and that roughly 60% of the Republicans in the Senate rejected the McCain-Kennedy legislation, which has now been “blue slipped” by Bill Thomas, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The assignment of a “blue slip” means that the House will not even consider the Senate bill because it violates the Constitutional requirement that all appropriations originate in the House. The Senate bill authorizes expenditures in clear conflict with the requirements of the Constitution.

SELECTION OF HENRY PAULSON TO BE U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY IS A VICTORY FOR THE BIG BUSINESS, BIG BANK, AND NEW WORLD ORDER ESTABLISHMENT

In his latest effort to consolidate his New World Order, Big Business Establishment credentials, President Bush has named the Chairman of Goldman Sachs to be his Treasury Secretary.

While Paulson served as a Bush “pioneer” in the 2004 campaign, raising more than $100,000 for the President’s reelection, his wife, Wendy, has contributed heavily to Democrats, including $11,000 to New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her Political Action Committee. Most of the $55,000 contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Paulson that went to Democrats came from Wendy Paulson.

Steven Milloy, portfolio manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, says “Paulson is extremely weak on property rights. …He has basically used corporate assets to pursue his personal interest. …When the conservative base finds out what Paulson really stands for, they’re going to be up in arms”.

According to the Free Enterprise Action Fund, in a shareholders resolution earlier this year, Paulson “looted shareholder assets when Goldman spent $35 million to buy land in Chile to donate to the Wildlife Conservation Society”.

Mr. Paulson, a fervent environmentalist who has been Chairman of the Nature Conservancy, has actively supported the Kyoto “global warming” Treaty, and backed Bill Bradley for President when the former New Jersey Senator was a candidate in the Y2K campaign.

Paulson served, during the Nixon Administration, on the staff of RN’s liberal Domestic Council chief, John Ehrlichman, at a time when Ehrlichman did all he could to thwart my efforts to close down the $3 billion “Great Society”, through which Federal funds were provided to promote “welfare rights”, abortion, homosexual activism, Indian reservation extra-territoriality, AZTLAN, and voting rights for illegal aliens, among other dangerous policies.

Of particular concern is Paulson’s close relationship with the leaders of Communist China. When Chicom Party Chief Hu Jintao visited the White House recently, Paulson and his wife, Wendy, were invited to participate in a private lunch with the Red Chinese boss.