By Allan Wall
10/16/2011
Candidate Michelle Bachmann has pledged to build a border fence if elected president:
Representative Michele Bachmann gave one of the great stem-winding speeches of her campaign Saturday about the burdens illegal immigration places on American taxpayers, and she signed a pledge to build a “secure double fence” along every foot of the border with Mexico.
Citing figures from two conservative groups, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Heritage Foundation, Mrs. Bachmann said illegal immigration cost the country $113 billion a year, with the highest costs coming from education. Stating that 50 percent of illegal immigrants who are heads of households don’t have a high school diploma, she said such households receive “taxpayer-subsidized benefits” of $43,084 a year …
… “People are very upset across Iowa about illegal immigration,” she told reporters after her speech. “People have asked me about it at every stop I’ve gone to.’’ …
During her speech, she told the audience … that the law Mr. Perry signed allowing children of undocumented families who graduated from a Texas high school to attend a state college on in-state tuition violated a 1996 federal law. “We have a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in our colleges and universities,” she said, adding that Texas taxpayers subsidize illegal immigrants’ in-state tuition to the tune of $25.9 million annually."
Bachmann Goes After Perry on Immigration and Pledges Border Fence, by
Trip Gabriel, New York Times, Oct. 15th, 2011
Not to be outdone, candidate Herman Cain has called for an electrified fence on the border:
"Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Saturday that part of his immigration policy would be to build an electrified fence on the country’s border with Mexico that could kill people trying to enter the country illegally.The remarks … drew loud cheers from crowds of several hundred people at each rally … Mr. Cain added that he also would consider using military troops “with real guns and real bullets” on the border to stop illegal immigration.
The remarks were among the most pointed yet by Mr. Cain about illegal immigration …
It is not the first time that Mr. Cain has floated the idea of an electrified fence …
In his remarks on Saturday, Mr. Cain appeared to go a step further. … Mr. Cain said that part of his plan would be to “secure the border for real” with a fence.“It’s going to be 20 feet high. It’s going to have barbed wire on the top. It’s going to be electrified. And there’s going to be a sign on the other side saying, ‘It will kill you — Warning.’” At an earlier rally … he added that the sign would be written “in English and in Spanish.”
Edward Wyatt, New York Times, Oct. 15th, 2011
The next day, however, Herman Cain said he'd only been joking:
"That’s a joke,” Mr. Cain told the journalist David Gregory during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he was asked about the electrified fence. “That’s not a serious plan. I’ve also said America needs to get a sense of humor.”
Cain Says His Deadly Fence Plan was 'a Joke'
Susan Saulny and Sarah Wheaton, New York Times, Oct. 16th, 2011
So does that mean that Cain is against a fence, or for a fence but not an electrified fence?
Does Cain realize that he’s running for president and everything he says can be analyzed, examined and used against him?
In the future, maybe Herman Cain could tell us when he’s serious and when he’s joking.
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