Meanwhile in DC...
Congressman John Campbell's weekly message from inside the Beltway
[John Campbell] 4/11/06

I write you this from an airplane somewhere over Oklahoma, I think, as I am flying back to California on Friday night for the 2 week "Spring Recess." There were 3 big deals under negotiation in Washington last week. People in both houses were trying to pull enough votes together to pass a budget, an extension of the tax cuts, and an immigration bill in the Senate. All three attempts failed to garner the requisite votes as of today, so we are headed home and attempts will begin anew in 2 weeks.

I am disappointed that the budget did not yet come together. Democrats, for purely political reasons, will oppose any budget in mass. The debate is entirely between Republicans who want to spend more and Republicans who want to spend less. As you might guess, I am with those who want to spend less. Although some compromises will be made, I believe we will eventually get a budget that makes progress towards fiscal responsibility.

I am also disappointed that we did not get an agreement on extending the 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividend income and the lower tax brackets for everyone on regular income. These rates are all scheduled to expire in 2008. Again, virtually all Democrats will oppose any extension because raising these taxes is part of their political platform for the 2006 elections. The debate here is between House Republicans (who want longer extensions) and Senate Republicans (who want shorter ones). Again, compromises will undoubtedly be made, but I hope our House leadership wins most of the day.

What I am not disappointed about is that the so-called immigration "deal" in the Senate failed. This "deal" only garnered 38 votes in the Senate. And it's a good thing too. It was awful. If this was a "compromise," I having a hard time figuring out who it was a "compromise" between. Maybe Senator Kennedy (who was heavily involved) and himself?

Anyway, this thing would have granted full citizenship to about 8 million illegal aliens. Note that this is not a temporary work visa, but full citizenship. But, to add to the madness, it would have weakened the border security provisions included in our House passed bill HR 4437. It would have eliminated any employer sanctions for hiring illegals and would have eliminated the electronic legal status verification system so that even if an employer wanted to find out if they were hiring an illegal they would be unable to do so. This "deal" was a complete amnesty bill coupled with no real new border security. It would have made most of the current 12 million illegal aliens into citizens and would have allowed and encouraged another 12 million to come. This proposal would exacerbate and perpetuate the existing problem, not fix it.

What really frosts me about this is the inequity. My office in Newport Beach deals with hundreds of immigration cases all the time. So does every Congressional office. These are generally people trying to achieve legal residence or citizenship for a loved one or coworker or relative. Many of them called my office in the past week. They exclaimed that they had spent thousands of dollars on attorneys and months or years attempting to achieve legal residency or citizenship the legal way. And now they hear that the Senate may grant those rights immediately to people who have done it the wrong way. Why should they obey the laws? They will be rewarded if they just smuggle their friend in here and hide from federal agents. These callers have a very good point.

Millions of people all around the world long to come to America and become Americans. We must and we should allow many to come. But we must and we should control how many and who they are and what they will do when they get here. Our security is a stake in a world filled with terrorism. And it is just plain unfair to give a preference to those who are close by and whose first act was not to play by the rules.

The Senate will try again after the recess. I must say that I am losing faith that the Senate will come up with anything good on our immigration dilemma. If they do agree on something, it would then go to a conference committee with the House which will try to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate passed bills.

Inside the Beltway

You may have heard of the case of Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) who allegedly struck a capitol police officer after she went around security without identification (a pin which will be described later) while trying to enter a capitol building. Congresswoman McKinney is African American. She claims that she was stopped only because she is black and that the officer was exhibiting racism.

Members of Congress are allowed to go around security in the capitol building complex. There are 535 of us. The capitol police officers are taught to try to identify us all by sight, but that is obviously difficult with 535 members. So, we each have an identifying pin (about a half an inch in diameter) which we wear to show that we are a Member of Congress.

Now, I am a white male. I also have been told on more than one occasion that I look like central casting ordered up a Congressman. ( I don't think this is necessarily a compliment, by the way) Anyway, sometimes I forget my Congressional pin. It just isn't a part of my normal routine. When I do, the capitol police stop me every time. I eventually realized that if I forgot my pin, I need to show my Congressional ID card. I have even been stopped with my pin, when the officer didn't see it because he was standing on the other side of me. I think it's good they stopped me. Better safe than sorry.

Sometimes, the officer who stops me is black.

I don't think he's a racist.

I think he's doing his job. CRO

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