Despite this progress, we do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that. Tonight I am calling on Congress to provide funding for dramatic improvements in manpower and technology at the border. By the end of 2008, we will increase the number of Border Patrol officers by an additional 6,000. - George W. Bush speech to the nation May 15, 2006

Transcript

Link: Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents

President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force

Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.

Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.

But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Retired Adm. James Loy, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until nominee Michael Chertoff takes over, said funding only 210 new agents was a "recognition that we need to balance those things as we go on down the road with other priorities."

The White House referred questions about the border agents to the Homeland Security Department.

The law signed by Bush had a caveat that went virtually unreported at the time.A summary, published by the Senate Government Affairs Committee, required the government to increase the number of border patrol agents by at least 2,000 per year, "subject to available appropriations."

Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A Jan. 24 letter signed by leading Republican lawmakers implored the president to fully fund the new law "in order to secure our borders against infiltration by terrorists."

The lead signer was Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a leader of GOP efforts to toughen immigration laws and anti-terrorism statutes.

Link: Homeland Security Receives over $30 Billion for Immigration Enforcement in 2006

November 1, 2005

The bill adds about $490 million to Bush's proposal for immigration and border enforcement.

The funding will support increased border and interior enforcement, providing $2.3 billion for the Border Patrol, including funding for 1,000 additional Border Patrol agents. The president's budget had called for 210 additional agents.

I knew it!
The guy makes Used Car salesmen look like saints!

Correction Sky,

It needs to be a "Katrina car" sales man.

Somebody gimme a picture of Bush in a Green Plaid shirt and white polyester pants.
Oh, and don't forget the cheesy haircut!

Ask, and ye shall receive.

I still say it needs to be a Katrina car, not a junkyard car.

Katrina cars are being shipped across the Nation, fixed up and undisclosed as cars previously submerged in water. They've caught a few up here in Seattle Wa. It is illegal to recover and fix up autos and not disclose the previous damage and sell it as first rate.

Sorta like Bush does with the law and his presidency.

A Katrina car is a great metaphor for the illegalities that he sells to us, across the Nation, concerning how he hides and circumvents the law. And Katrina's effect of New Orleanians is also something he's responsible for, avoiding at any attempt to handle and fulfill at helping out Americans. Instead, sells them short on a true deal.

Wonder what else is recovered from Katrina and reconditioned then sold as new?
Boats? RV's? Appliances?

Senate report: Dismantle FEMA

Hurricane Katrina exposed flaws in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security that are "too substantial to mend," and FEMA should be dismantled and rebuilt inside the troubled department, according to the final report by Senate investigators.