McCain Flat-Out Lies On Amnestied Illegals Being Required To Pay "Back Taxes"

Straight talk?

[NRO's Mark Krikorian:] Take look at Loophole 18 in Sen. Sessions' list ; it turns out that McCain's amendment only requires that those legalized illegals applying to trade up to regular, permanent immigrant status (a green card) show they've paid taxes on income earned after they were amnestied, i.e., while they had probabtionary status and then the Z visa. There's no back taxes requirement to get the Z visa and obviously none for the initial phase of the amnesty, which has to be granted by the end of the next business day after applying for it. In other words, there is no requirement that illegal aliens pay back taxes to receive amnesty.

[Mickey Kaus:] Meanwhile, McCain has returned to telling voters that under the bill illegals would have to "pay back taxes."

Personally I doubt the importance of this particular issue (when you're talking about costs of $2.3 trillion for millions of new low-income, high-benefits-needing amnestied immigrants, what's the real point of asking them to page back taxes on their meager earnings?) , but it seems my view isn't the prevailing one.

And John McCain is flat-out lying to trick those holding the prevailing view into thinking the bill addresses their concerns.

A list of all Senators, this time: Call, write, kvell.

Don't ask about the bill. Ask about the cloture vote. Let them know we understand that cloture is the critical vote and the vote on the bill itself is perfectly meaningless -- automatic passage -- and that we won't be fooled by yes-on-cloture-no-on-the-bill dodges.

posted by Ace at 09:41 PM

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