Whither that $4.4 Billion for Border Security, Mr. President?

By John W. Lillpop

When the United States Senate was considering that legislative abomination known as S1639 last month, President Bush attempted to persuade senators to vote for the bill by proposing to commit an additional $4.4 billion dollars of taxpayer money to border security.

Even for a free spending politician like GW Bush, $4.4 billion is a huge sum of money. Therefore, one would assume that the president proposed spending those billions because he was convinced that U.S. homeland security and the well being of the American people were at risk because of flaws in border security.

If that is indeed the case, and if $4.4 billion is needed to secure our borders, then the fact that S1639 ultimately failed is completely irrelevant.

Either the borders are secure, or they are not. Either borders are a homeland security issue, or they are not.

If the borders are secure and not a threat to homeland security, then why in the world did Bush propose spending $4.4 billion dollars on a non-problem?

If, on the other hand, lack of border security is a legitimate threat to the American people, then why in the world is America's war on terror CEO not campaigning 24/7 for legislation and funding to fix those border flaws?

Why is securing the border not the single greatest priority on the Bush agenda these days?

Granting amnesty to 12-30 million illegal aliens will not impact border security one whit, except to encourage scores of millions of additional third-world peasants to head north. And that would only exacerbate the problem.

The big question: Where are those $4.4 billion dollars, Mr. President, and when will your administration finally take border security and rule of law seriously?



John Lillpop is a recovering liberal.