Diaz-Balart move to tighten Cuba travel could pass in Congress

[flamingdem]

SNIP:

** More disgusting brinksmanship playing with people's lives and in this case family ties
*** However this could just be a last gasp by rightie wishful thinkers, so they don't look too pathetic

Diaz-Balart’s wording on Cuba was approved by a voice vote — indicating there was no strong opposition — in the House Appropriations Committee as an amendment to a bill funding the Treasury Department and other agencies for the coming fiscal year.

The bill is all but certain to be approved unchanged by the Republican-controlled House. The Democratic-controlled Senate usually does not draft its own version of the Treasury budget bill, leaving it to a House-Senate conference committee, with members appointed by congressional leaders, to craft a compromise.

House and Senate Democrats in the conference committee will try to strip the Diaz-Balart language out of the bill, said the Capitol Hill staffer, “but in a conference committee the leadership gives the orders, and on this one I don’t know if the Democratic leadership is willing to die for travel to Cuba.”

That leadership would include Sen. Bob Menendez, a powerful Cuban-American democrat from New Jersey who has steadily and harshly criticized Obama’s efforts to ease the Cuba travel restrictions.
What’s more, Claver-Carone said he has noticed a drop in Capitol Hill enthusiasm for easing regulations on travel to Cuba, amid reports that some Cuban-Americans are travelling to the island repeatedly.
“When the same people are going to Cuba two and three times and even more times a year, that starts to take the edge off the humanitarian intent” of easing the travel restrictions, the lobbyist said.

Obama’s veto threat also rings hollow, the Capitol Hill staffer said, because he needs both the funding bill and Menendez’s support in Congress as well as for raising money and campaigning in Florida and New Jersey for the 2012 presidential election.

He also noted the Cuba language was the last of the three sections of the Treasury bill that Obama threatened to veto in the five-page declaration the White House issued last week. The other sections he opposes cover issues with far more resonance across the nation — Wall Street reforms and consumer protection measures.
“Would Obama really veto the bill and risk de-funding Treasury?” the staffer added. “This all seems like too much brinksmanship.”

[Judi Lynn]

1. He has learned underhanded behavior very well from his brother.

They'd better make the most of it now, the travel ban is STILL not long for this world. They are going to lose, and lose completely, in the end, with no compromise by them possible.

Idiots.

[roody]

2. "two and three and even more times a year"

I'd invest in some airline stocks!!

[flamingdem]

3. Because some Cubanos are taking TVs to Cuba and making a few hundred

now and then, Diaz-Balart says Cuban families must be separated..

The ridiculous thing, repeated for 50 or so years, is how they drag their family dramas and history into our lives and freedoms. grr.

[Billy Burnett]

4. Cubans were getting TVs to Cuba and some were making money before.

Problem with the newest and current set-up is that it has put a dent in the aforementioned black marketeers running the supply lines prior to the regulation changes. You know ... the Castro "haters".