Immigration, $70 billion goes poof, who benefits from the tax cuts, inflation and 15 sell out Democrats.

The Senate has done as expected and gave Bush pretty much of what he outlined in his speech. The House is still another story, despite Karl Rove's little visit to make nice to House members.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate agreed to give millions of illegal immigrants a
shot at U.S. citizenship and backed construction of 370 miles of triple-layered
fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday. Prospects for legislation clearing
Congress were clouded by a withering attack against President Bush by a
prominent House
Republican.

"Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty,"
said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the lawmaker who would lead House
negotiators in any attempt to draft a compromise immigration bill later this
year.

The President's signing of the 70 Billion tax giveaway to the very wealthy and the grinning Republican leaders that attended should be the death knell of the GOP's control of Congress. Still thinking that he's addressing the same gullible people that he sold his original tax cut theory to, the President went on to repeat the mantra of tax cuts help everyone. Of course we know better now.

"The opponents of these tax cuts were wrong when they voted against them the
first time," Bush said, referring to Democrats who opposed tax cuts passed by
the Republican-controlled Congress in 2001 and 2003. "They've been wrong to
oppose the extension of tax relief in the face of overwhelming evidence that the
tax cuts have helped grow the economy and create millions of new
jobs."

Bush said the tax cuts have benefited Americans at all income levels.

This bill is so obviously skewed to the rich, the they have replaced a deduction of up to $4,000 in college-tuition costs, with a $4.3 billion tax break for the oil companies. We all know how they're struggling right now.

Are those tax cuts really helping all Americans? Not according to Eric J. Weiner who says;

Unfortunately the wealth created isn't exactly being spread around. That's
because in George W. Bush's America we've been giving money hand over fist to
our richest citizens in the form of steep tax breaks, while making life
increasingly difficult for our middle and working classes.

According to an analysis
of the administration's tax policies published last month in the New York Times,
if you earned more than $10 million in 2003 your annual tax bill was reduced by
just shy of $1 million, but if you made less than $50,000 it was reduced by
about $435. Particularly egregious has been the cut in taxes on capital gains,
or income from investments, 70 percent of which in 2003 went to the wealthiest
two percent of taxpayers.

And from my perspective, Weiner's right and Bush's full of it.

Oh, and let's not forget inflation. Just one more thing for the working class to have to worry about, along with high energy prices and food and shelter and the other basic necessities of living.

The Labor Department's consumer price index, which gauges changes in retail
prices, jumped a bigger-than-expected 0.6 percent last month. This means that
over the past 12 months, the CPI has increased 3.5 percent. The big problem for
consumers, of course, was energy costs, which have soared nearly 18 percent over
the past year.

And lastly, a little reminder of the 15 Democrat Congressmen that sold out the people and made all this possible by voting for the cuts.

John Barrow, Melissa Bean, Dan Boren, Ed Case, Bud Cramer, Henry Cuellar, Lincoln Davis, Harold Ford, Bart Gordon, Jim Marshall, Jim Matheson, Mike McIntyre, Charles Melancon, Collin Peterson, John Salazar