but this statement:
“I’ve heard all the rhetoric — you’ve heard it, too — about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you’ve got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.”
hardly counts as an admission of the recently revived comprehensive reform bill as being amnesty. I know how opponents of this bill would like to cast it that way, but it's not. It's just another regrettable Bush gaffe. He does have a habot of those, you know.
Ok, I'm done with this.
UPDATE: James M. in the comments, who supports the bill, argues that this bill is amnesty, and supporters should just admit that. With all due respect, I cannot that do that. This is not amnesty. It's a sort of leniency, sure, but not amnesty. Now, if one believes that the penalties are too light, than we can debate that, but let's be clear on the meaning of words first.
2 comments:
It is amnesty, whether President Bush or others want to use the term or not, and even if it merely reduces the penalty rather than eliminating it. As a supporter of the bill, I think we should be more upfront about that..
No it's not, James. Words matter, and we cannot cede that to critics of the bill. It's leniency, sure, but not amnesty.
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