the 9 step program

[bfp]

1. Make tax cuts permanent.
2. Close the borders now.
3. Deport all illegal immigrants now.
4. Eliminate bilingual education in all states.
5. Require health tests for all recent foreign born immigrants
6. Eliminate as many entitlement programs as possible.
7. Reduce the number of Federal Employees.
8. Oil Drilling on U.S. Soil.
9. Tort Reform "STOP LAWYERS"

[Infrared]

Originally posted by bfp
1. Make tax cuts permanent.
2. Close the borders now.


5. Require health tests for all recent foreign born immigrants

Does this include us leaving the country? And if not, what if we pick up some strange illness while traversing the 'heathen' land?

[bfp]

for one thing, im just speaking my opinion, whether you agree or disagree is another. there are pockets of illegal immigrants and legal immigrants near the mexican border where pockets of tb and other diseases run rampant. from texas to california. i didnt say deport recently legalized immigrants with diseases. im just stating that in my opinion these issues would improve the health of our nation.

[Michael Halo]

Originally posted by bfp

4. Eliminate bilingual education in all states.

----I disagree. Language education in this country is way behind many other areas of the world. We should have bilingual requirements (not limited to Spanish) in elementary school. People with language skills, generally, get higher pay and first pick at jobs.

[Michael Halo]

Originally posted by bfp
2. Close the borders now.

---Close the borders to who &/or what?

[Michael Halo]

Originally posted by bfp
8. Oil Drilling on U.S. Soil.

---Does this mean you want to increase or decrease U.S. oil drilling?

[Michael Halo]

Originally posted by bfp
7. Reduce the number of Federal Employees.

---Yeh, let's start at the top and work our way down.

[Element4040]

Originally posted by Michael Halo
----I disagree. Language education in this country is way behind many other areas of the world. We should have bilingual requirements (not limited to Spanish) in elementary school. People with language skills, generally, get higher pay and first pick at jobs.

I agree that more bilingual education should take place in our schools, especially Spanish since we have such close ties to the Spanish speaking world. However I must disagree as I don't think you understand the rational behind point (Which is easy with a BFP thread). Perhaps it is the wording.

The problem is that schools are teaching kids in Spanish, with little or no teaching done in English. This to me is a problem, this country does not speak Spanish and personally I don't like having my money spent on such catering. Let me explain further, right now the Texas School board hires teachers to teach classes in Spanish for a full range of curriculum and they continue on right through around 5th grade (if my memory is correct). I don't have a problem with schools teaching class to Pre-schoolers and Kindergartners (hell 1st grade for that matter) in Spanish. If that is all the children can speak then I don't have a problem with it if it is going to help them get an education (lord knows we need some more educated people in this country). And I know there are some immigrants that have children that are outside this age range and may not start our schools until they are past the Kindergarten age etc. I don't have a problem with some special curriculum for them as well. But I think they should be taught bi-lingually from an early age, however this is not the case. There is no english being taught and no incentives to push these children to learn English. They can go right through to Middle School in special classes that are taught in Spanish. They are not being forced or enticed into learning the English they will continue to progress through school going into another Spanish taught Curriculum. That is where I have a problem, more effort needs to be made in teaching English.

I have a close friend that is a teacher that teaches the Spanish curriculum to kids that do not speak English. We have had this debate several times and have come to the agreement that while teaching children curriculum in Spanish is not inherently bad, it is the process that is flawed. There needs to be more incentive to learn the English Language in these programs.

[Adam D]

Originally posted by bfp
1. Make tax cuts permanent.

Yeah, that's where Reagan failed. The problem with making tax cuts permanent is that it cripples the federal government, especially in times of need, such as (legitimate) war or more severe economic downturn. The only way to allow the federal government to continue to operate at it's current levels (and in particular at it's growing rate thanks to Bush) is through deficit spending, which is an absurd thought. Trying to float the government on hundreds of billions of dollars in loans may not be harmful today, but each year afterwards it will demand a larger and larger national debt and more deficit spending because more and more of the budget will have to be put aside to pay the interest (not to mention the principal) of these loans. And that's a negative affect on the federal budget that will last for decades.

2. Close the borders now.

Really...perhaps we should build a big wall? Nothing like good old fashion right-wing racism to help blame Jews...I mean immigrants for the problems of the nation.

3. Deport all illegal immigrants now.

Certainly from a legal aspect, this should be done, but economically it would be a complete failure. First of all, it would be impossible to catch and deport every single one. Second, even if you could, consider all of the jobs that illegal immigrants take that are being "robbed" from hardworking Amerikans like yourself, that Amerikans simply will not do.

4. Eliminate bilingual education in all states.

We certainly wouldn't want people in this country speaking anything but the language of moden imperialism, would we? Most of the industrialized world teaches students more than just their national language, and more than just English for the purpose of business transactions. The US, in it's isolationist arrogance, fails to see the importance behind multilingualism.

5. Require health tests for all recent foreign born immigrants

If I'm not mistaken, these are already required of immigrants to obtain legalized status.

6. Eliminate as many entitlement programs as possible.

Let's start first with corporate welfare, corporate tax incentives, public sector funding and R&D of private sector initiatives, and federal no-bid contracts. I assure you a quick look at the federal budget would find hundreds of billions of dollars MORE being spent in these entitlement programs than any to help the poor. Moreover, if you remove the "safety net" then what do you expect all of these poor people to do for food? I guess "faith-based initatives" are the answer, right? There are two little points of truth that never get attached to this right-wing spewing against social programs. First, the actual amount spent on these programs are one of the smallest items in the budget. Second, Republicans will never, ever eliminate these programs because they know that if they did, every person removed from these programs would vote every Republican out of office.

7. Reduce the number of Federal Employees.

You'll have to get the bureaucracy-increasing Republicans out of office first.

8. Oil Drilling on U.S. Soil.

Didn't we just go to war in Iraq for access to more oil?

9. Tort Reform "STOP LAWYERS"

Yes, we can't have the poor and middle class defending themselves from corporate tyranies.