Does Senator McCain's actions support his mantra as a Washington maverick, a fierce enemy of big spending, and one who tells it like it is? A review of the Kennedy / McCain Comprehensive Reform bill calls  to question the character of the real John McCain.

  This bill, which McCain championed, bears all the characteristics of the classic beltway insider. This bill was brokered in the back room by McCain and thirteen other powerful powerful Senators. Their influence was used to by-pass the normal committee review of the bill which was carefully crafted to reward special interest groups and pander for the Hispanic vote. All serious attempts correct its serious and enumerable flaws through amendment on the Senate floor were severely chastised. So much for John McCain's self professed image of a maverick! 

  The bill, as proposed, would provide a permanent track to citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million illegals currently in country and was estimated to cost the U.S. taxpayer 2.9 trillion dollars over its first ten years. No fiscal conservativism here! These cost escalate rapidly over the subsequent  ten years as the 40-80- million additional immigrants are admitted under the bills chain migration provisions. In view of this bill Senator McCain might  find it very difficult to defend his image as the fierce enemy of big government spending.

  When the American public voiced an overwhelming outcry in opposition to this bill Senator McCain became the principal lobbyist who carried the bills water to the National television networks in an attempt to defend the bill. His defense was a litany of untruths, half truths, misinformation, and artful dodging. This continues to typify his position as he campaigns for nomination as a presidential candidate. He now claims that "he has heard the people' and adopted a position of border security first. He has not however denounced his continued intention to move forward on the underlying concept of granting citizenship to the illegals currently in country. Nothing has changed but the rhetoric.  

  Over the course of the presidential primary campaign Senator McCain has struggled mightily to put the best possible face on his immigration reform plan and while he has carefully avoided any discussion of the more indefensible provisions of this bill he distorts the facts adressing the most  simplistic issues.

  He indicates that all criminal aliens would be deported but thats not quite true. Only certain classes of criminal offenders would be deported under the bill, and even those are extended a provision to appeal their deportation if they can demonstrate that it would create a "hardship. Criminal gang members would not be deported if they pledge to sever their participation in the gang.
  He argues that "its not really an amnesty bill" as applicants would be required to pay a very significant fine, demonstrate proficiency in English, and prove that they had been in the U.S. for a minimum of four years. Again, these claims are a little misleading: 
  The "very significant fines" imposed by this bill are approximately equal to the cost experienced by those who enter the country through the legal system for obtaining citizenship and unlike the legal applicants the illegals are given ten years to pay such fines.
  Neither is English proficiency a requirement as applicants are merely required to provide documentation that they have enrolled in an English learning program. 

  While a requirement in the Kennedy / McCain bill exist that only those applicants who had resided in the U.S. four years or more would be eligible to apply for citizenship status the bill stipulates that a note signed by four non relatives would be acceptable evidence of their prior presence. This provision when coupled with the stipulated eighteen to thirty month enrollment period presents an open invitation to additional illegal entrants who will stream across our borders with such a fraudulent note in hand. The probability that they will slip through the system and gain permanent residence is predictably quite high as the bill further imposes a time limit of one day to complete the required back ground checks for criminal history and duration of residency.

  While these issues represent only a small sample of a myriad of the the unfair, unworkable, and unaffordable, aspects of the bill they should serve to warrant your concern. A more thorough examination of the Kennedy McCain Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill clearly suggest that every loophole, waiver, and favor, has been extended to the benefit of the illegal entrants and their special interest at the expense of the American taxpayer and legal applicants who have stood in line for years pending their admission to citizenship. Some might argue that they merely represent oversights, incompetence, or misdirected compassion on behalf of those who crafted the language but the discerning may conclude that a more sinister agenda gave birth to this legislation and that it says a lot about the duplicity of John McCain and the Washington cabal who wrote it.