President defends ban on Cuba visits

[Mika]

-President defends ban on Cuba visits-
A Cuban American in California asked President Bush:
How can we trade with China and Vietnam, but not allow
visits to Cuba?
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14420706.htm

The man who posed the question told Bush that he emigrated from Cuba as a 9-year-old, but wants to go home to ``see my front door that was bullet-riddled when they were fighting Batista's guys.''

''I don't understand, how can we trade with Vietnam -- we lost over 50,000 Americans there -- how can we trade with communist China, we can't even go to Cuba?'' said the man, who was not identified by a White House transcript of the event at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine. ``And I think if the borders were opened up with Cuba and American enterprise got to go down there, I think Castro would fall like a rock off a cliff.''

-

Bush defended the ban, saying it was keeping money out of Castro's hands.

''Fidel Castro has got the capacity to arbitrage your dollars to the advantage of his administration,'' Bush said. ``You pay in dollars, he pays in Cuban money and collects the difference. So you go to a hotel in Havana, the money goes to the hotel, which has kind of got a deal with the government in order to be there in the first place, and the workers get paid in a currency that's worthless compared to the U.S. dollar. And he makes the balance.

''And so, in all due respect, I have taken the position that trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power, as opposed to the opposite,'' Bush said.

It appears that Bush is accusing Mr Castro of operating like oil companies.

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[cantstandbush]

1. Let the Mexican come but keep the Cubans out? Great policy?

[Mika]

2. Huh? Its Americans that are banned from Cuba (by the US gov)

If Cubans get to the US illegally they are granted insant legal status by the US Wet foot/Dry foot policy for Cubans only and the US's Cuban Adjustment Act.


The US's 'wet foot/ dry foot' policy (that applies to Cubans only) permits all Cubans, including Cuban criminals and felons, who arrive on US shores by illegal means to remain in the US even those having failed to qualify (or even apply) for a legal US immigration application.

Cubans who leave for the US without a US visa are returned to Cuba (if caught at sea - mainly in smuggler's go-fast boats @ $5,000 per head) by a US/Cuban repatriation agreement. But IF they make it to US soil, no matter who they are or what their criminal backround might be, they get to stay in the US and enjoy perks offered ONLY TO CUBAN IMMIGRANTS (via the US's Cuban Adjustment Act and a variety of other 'Cubans only' perks)

For Cuban migrants ONLY - including the aforementioned illegal immigrants who are smuggled in as well as those who have failed a US background check for a legal visa who make it here by whatever means - the US's Cuban Adjustment Act instantly allows any and all Cuban migrants who touch US shore (no matter how) instant entry, instant work visa, instant green card status, instant social security, instant access to welfare, instant access to section 8 assisted housing (with a $41,000 income exemption for Cuban expats only), instant food stamps, plus more. IOW, extra special enhanced social programs designed to entice Cuban expatriation to Miami/USA.

Despite these programs designed to offer a 'carrot on a stick' to Cubans only, the Cubaphobe rhetoric loop repeats the question "why do Cubans come to the US then?".

First the US forces economic deprivation on Cubans, then open our doors to any and all Cubans illegal or not, and then offer them a plethora of immigration perks and housing perks not even available to native born Americans.

But yet, more immigrants come from Mexico and the Latin Americas than do Cubans, and they have no such "Adjustment Act" like Cubans do. But they still pour in.

Plus, Cuban immigrants can hop on a plane from Miami to Havana and travel right back to the Cuba that they "escaped" from for family trips and vacations - by the hundred of thousands annually (until Bush's recent one visit every 3 yrs restrictions on Cuban expats living in the US).

Recognizing the immorality of forced starvation and forced economic deprivation is a good reason to drop the US embargo on Cuba, the US Cuban Adjustment Act, and the US travel sanctions placed on US citizens and residents. By lifting the US travel sanctions placed on US citizens and residents the Cuban tourism economy (its #1 sector) would be able to expand even faster, thereby increasing the average wage and quality of life in Cuba. It would make products, goods, and services even more accessible to both Cubans and Americans. It would reduce the economic based immigration flow from Cuba. And it would restore our own constitutional right to travel unfettered to see Cuba for ourselves.

[0007]

4. Could you expand your remark so I can understand where

you're coming from?

TIA

[expatriot]

3. Mr. Bush failed to articulate the difference between Cuba and China. nt.

[rodeodance]

5. but he can use the term 'arbitrage:

....''Fidel Castro has got the capacity to arbitrage your dollars to the advantage of his administration,'' Bush said. ``You pay in dollars, he pays in Cuban money and collects the difference. So you go to a hotel in Havana, the money goes to the hotel, which has kind of got a deal with the government in order to be there in the first place, and the workers get paid in a currency that's worthless compared to the U.S. dollar. And he makes the balance.

''And so, in all due respect, I have taken the position that trade with the country enables a tyrant to stay in power, as opposed to the opposite,'' Bush said.

[Mika]

7. So Cubans can't buy anything with their earned Pesos?

Funny, because when I've been to Cuba the peso is what Cubans use to buy food, drink, clothes, pay rent, etc etc.


Bush is a f-ing idiot.

[geomon666]

6. That money belongs to republicans. Understand?

Bush would rather see every last cuban die of starvation than hand them a single american dollar. He doesn't give a shit sir. About anybody.

[American Tragedy]

8. And the situation is different in China how...?

Hell, Saudi Arabia is much worse, and Bush loves them.

[Toucano]

9. a deal with the government in order to be there in the first place...

Oh, you mean a PERMIT?

I'll just open up a hotel in the United States. I'm sure I won't have to pay any permit or licensing fees or inspection fees. Oh, and I'm sure I won't have to pay any taxes. That's a "deal with the government."

Idiot.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Obviously, Bush doesn't have a good reason

so he's compelled to try to make one up and ends up sounding like an uneducated idiot.

[Judi Lynn]

11. A complete fool. If it weren't for Bush, it's very likely the travel ban

would already have been removed by now. It has been voted down several years in a row in Congress, only to be sabotaged and hijacked in committee by Cuban "exile" Congressmen (Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, and Robert Menendez) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and their supporters, Tom Delay, Chris Smith, Dan Burton, etc. They lost their powerful ally, Jesse Helms, when he retired.

If there's any way _Bush can be prevented from attacking Cuba, and refusing to give up the pResidency, it's very likely Congress' wish to remove the travel ban, and the embargo will finally triumph, one of these years, Diebold willing.

[matcom]

12. right. it has really kept Castro OUT of power all these long years

working great George :eyes:

[Mika]

13. US policy has been geared to foster support for Castro as Head of State

The more the US saber rattles agin' Cuba the more the Cuban people have rallied behind Mr. Castro. After all, he is the living Cuban revolutionary leader that has led the successful defense against the US for 46 years. This a 'mission accomplished' for the Miamicubano exile politicians (as well as most all R's and D's) in S Florida who need Mr. Castro as their opponent as part, if not all, of their campaign platform.

No Castro = no anti Castro industry (at taxpayer expense)