Transcript for May 21

REP. NORWOOD: There won’t be anybody here less than two years that’ll have papers saying, “We all were here after 2000.”

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, well, I think—I understand, Charlie. We got a pretty good system in the Senate bill to document when you came and what status you’re in. If you don’t believe that works, why issue the tamper-proof ID card? I do believe, Charlie, that we could get a tamper-proof ID card as you described.

REP. NORWOOD: Yeah.

SEN. GRAHAM: That would honestly account for who’s in our country. They would get employed under our terms. This is doable if we’ll talk with each other. We’re the Republican Party in charge of every branch of the government. We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves. If we get this right, we do well in ‘06 and ‘08 and decades to come. If we blow this and let it not happen because we won’t talk to each other, then we will pay mightily in the short term and the long term. I’m optimistic our president’s going to lead us to a solution here.

MR. RUSSERT: Congressman Norwood, Governor of Arkansas Huckabee said this, “Defending President Bush’s stand on immigration,” he said, “that some anti-immigration Republicans are guilty of demagoguery and racism.

“‘If I were to say that some of it is driven by sheer racism, that would be true,’ said the potential Republican presidential candidate in 2008.”

REP. NORWOOD: Huckabee may run for president, I don’t know. I don’t have any comments to remarks like that.

SEN. GRAHAM: Tim, can, can I make a comment about that remark?

MR. RUSSERT: Sure.

SEN. GRAHAM: On the out—on the fringes, there are people who want deportation. There’s the “boil in oil” crowd. That’s a very small group of Americans. They’re not particularly Republicans, they’re just angry people. Charlie Norwood is one of my best friends and we don’t see it completely the same, but Charlie is driven by the concept that the law matters and you don’t reward people who break the law. I’m driven by the concept of the law mattering with a just result. If you don’t have a just, honest result, then the law doesn’t matter.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, when there was a vote on the amendment to make English the official language...

SEN. GRAHAM: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: ...Senator Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate said, “This amendment is racist. I think it is directed basically to people who speak Spanish.”

REP. NORWOOD: Dr. No is at work again. Who cares what he says? That’s the silliest comment I think I have ever heard in my life.

MR. RUSSERT: Can you get a deal with Senator Graham? Can you, in fact, have tough borders, a guest worker program, but also a humane policy for the 11 million illegal immigrants that are here and three million children?

REP. NORWOOD: Well, Lindsey and I, Lindsey and I could do that. I want you to be as concerned about American children that are involved with this, too. Not just the three million children that are here that are Mexican citizens or from—their parents are Mexican citizens and they happen to be born here. I’m worried about the, the, the Georgia citizen, the New Mexican citizen. I mean, part of what these 11 million people do is they’re drawing down on our social programs in a large way—meaning education, Medicare, Medicaid. The Mexican Consulates are putting the word out. “If you’re here illegally, go try to get on Medicaid and Medicare.” We have to deal with that. That is not the right thing to happen.

MR. RUSSERT: Are they paying taxes as well? And Social Security taxes as well?

REP. NORWOOD: I don’t think—I don’t know what they’re paying. Nobody else knows, either. None of them are paying much income tax, so I’m told by employers, because they all plead that they have 12 or 13 dependents. I don’t know about the Social Security part.

MR. RUSSERT: Congressman, can you get an arrangement with Senator McCain, Senator Kennedy, Senator Hagel, Senator Martinez, Senator Graham?

REP. NORWOOD: Oh, it’s possible. Lindsey and I could—I’m pretty sure Lindsey and I could come to an agreement. Where I come from is I want to do what the American people want us to do. They feel like that just a slap on the wrist for having broken is our law is simply not enough. What, what they’re talking about is like a bank robber who stole $100,000 dollars and we say to him, “If you’ll just turn yourself in, we’ll fine you $2,000 dollars and you don’t go to jail and you get to keep the $100,000 dollars.” What I want to do is not quickly have everybody leave, but orderly let them go home after working another—whatever Lindsey wants—two years, three years, and then come back in line. By then, we’ll have a good guest worker program. And I want to be humane to those people that are in line, too. Those six million people who are trying to get in here, let’s give them a chance to come and do some of the jobs you were talking about earlier.

MR. RUSSERT: We’ll find out. To be continued, Senator Graham, Senator—Congressman Norwood.

SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT: And we’ll have you back and see if we can resolve this even more.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah. Next week.

MR. RUSSERT: We’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

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