I missed
this on Friday, but it seems kind of important. Here's the
deal: The Senate immigration bill has a provision that requires
illegal immigrants to pay back-taxes before applying for
citizenship. But Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution says that
bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. Bill Frist
has an easy fix for this: attach the immigration bill to a tax bill
that started in the House, and send that to the conference
committee. Harry Reid, however, won't agree to this, saying that
the problem is no big deal -- "technical in nature" are his words.
(Apparently, Reid meant his oath to uphold the Constitution to
apply only to the general spirit of the document, not the actual
specifics.) Refusing to allow the Frist fix almost guarantees that
a member of the House will introduce and pass a blue-slip
resolution to send the bill back to the Senate before it makes it
into conference. Reid's goal seems to be to block any immigration
bill from passing before November.
topics:
Taxes, Harry Reid, Constitution, Immigration
