Fine ideas all, but remember that we also have to pay for everything. Make sure your ideas include plans to pay for this or that. And sure we'll save billions in the long run, but these things have to be paid for up front.

There's plenty of pork, but getting the politicians to cut it is another thing entire.

Marshall Neal

Hireing illegals is aready supposed to be against the law. Too bad Bush and co. (and corp. and LLC, etc)don't want those laws enforced.

I like the rest, though.
Too bad the RNC wants basically amnesty- they just endorsed Bush's "Temp. worker program."

Hey....anybody ever lived in Southern California? The hiring of illegals has been going on for many, many decades. I lived in San Diego for 10 years and every morning there would be groups of men standing at certain corners. Trucks would come by and pick up one, two, ten....and off they went to work. This is not a problem that was "caused" by Bush.

Unfortunately, to make $25 in wages for a day, is a lot more than they can get in their own country. And once they are "in" they end up getting free medical care (That was an issue in California when I moved there in 1984 - and it still is.) It's a little hard to completely stop traffic of illegals along hundreds of miles of open territory. How do we accomplish that? Fence - they cut through/dig under/go around.

Just trying to blame a particular administration doesn't do justice to the problem - and it is a problem. Especially now that we have terrorists that could use the same entry methods. We have incursions of the Mexican Army with heavy automatic weapons apparently protecting drug shipments into the US.

So how do we handle it? Put thousands of INS agents out checking every truck with workers in it? We'd get some hits and maybe some fines, but sooner or later we'd stop a truck that had legitimate workers and then we'd have a huge outcry of violating their civil liberties. It's almost a no-win situation. And they've been struggling with it since before the 60's....

I agree the border must be controlled, but not sure a wall is the most cost effective way to go. We have the technology (have had for years) to see people that cross our border. What we need is an immediate and authoritative response to illegal crossings.

I would say NO foreign aid or favored trade status to Mexico until they control their side of the border.

I'm not sure how the National ID issue would go over. I can see the Libertarians balking and they lean toward the GOP on most issues. Personally, I have no problem with a National ID, because I've carried a National ID card (of sorts) for over 39 years. I would also tie voting privileges into the card system.

I wouldn't allow any money to be wired out of the US without a passport and visa or green card.

Those are my tweaks to this topic. I'm a bit more of an authoritarian than most, so tempering or moderating my input is probably in order.

Perhaps I should clarify: I'm not advocating a national ID, but a national minimal standard for identification. Is that the same thing?

For example, to get a NC ID, you can use your apartment lease to prove residency and an original birth certificate to establish your proof of age and ID, and neither requirement proves you are in America legally.

I'm pushing for whatever minimum standard proves you are in the United States legally to obtain a certified ID, and then saying you can only legally work if you have this kind of ID.

I do like your additional idea of only allowing money to be wired with valid ID better than my original punative tax idea, but I was trying to offer something to the Democrats. ;-).

CY, I understand the concept for a national standard by which to establish citizenship for ID purposes (e.g. drivers license, voter's card, etc.) It is clear we must make some sort of move to differentiate legitimate citizens from illegitimate aliens.

As for the Democrats; I think showing them the door would be an adequate gesture...