Speech #1090137573

President. I speak in opposition to the budget point of order. I have heard a lot of arguments in opposition to this bill. and I guess when all else fails and we are moving toward passing comprehensive immigration reform. there is an opportunity to raise yet one other objection. which is a budget point of order. The fact is. if we did only a border security bill. if we just went about the fact of securing our border. which we must do. there is a cost associated with that. That doesnt come free. Securing the border costs money. Sending the National Guard to the border. increasing the number of Border Patrol. building vehicle obstructions and other barriers. electronic surveillancenone of that comes free. All of that has a cost. In fact. it is estimated it would cost about $25 billion. If we only did border security and did not concern ourselves with more comprehensive reform. that $25 billion would now be offset and it would be an outlay of a net $25 billion. Our bill raises over $12 billion in revenue. It collects $66 billion where the costs are estimated to be only $55 billion. according to the Congressional Budget Office. the arm of the Congress that is supposed to do this evaluation for us.