http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050113-125744-6487r.htmImmigration plan discouraged by GOP lawmakers
By Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 13, 2005
President Bush cannot push his guest-worker program for illegal immigrants and new foreign workers and still win reforms to Social Security or the tax code, congressional opponents said yesterday.
"There are a lot of ambitious plans, a lot of necessary reforms that need to take place, but this rush toward amnesty-light should not be one of the priorities," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, who called himself a friend and political ally of the president, but said Mr. Bush's immigration proposal would hurt his broader legislative agenda.
"It would just be sad for the president to tie his shoelaces together right out of the starting block," Mr. Hayworth said.
Mr. Bush, in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times on Tuesday in the Oval Office, said he will put his political muscle into passing a guest-worker program this year and predicted that he would succeed. He also said he will overcome opposition to his immigration plan, Social Security reform and major tax-code changes, just as he did when he won a sizable tax-cut package in 2001. <snip>