Rightwing Senator Seeks Wealth
Transfer from U.S. to Mexico

right-wing Republican wants to implement a Marxist-style plan to transfer wealth from American taxpayers, sending it south of the border "to reduce the wealth gap" between the U.S. and Mexico.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, has introduced legislation to make grants of U.S. tax dollars for roads, telecommunications facilities, and education programs in Mexico. The bill, S. 2941, parallels plans developed by the influential Council on Foreign Relations to integrate the populations and economies of the two countries with Canada in a "North American Community."

The CFR plan, reported last month in Middle American News, calls for creation of a "North American Investment Fund," which the CFR said is "designed to channel resources for the purposes of connecting the poorer parts of [Mexico] to the markets in the north." Cornyn's bill, S. 2941, creates a grant-making entity that is given the CFR's suggested name, "North American Investment Fund."

Cornyn, who was attorney general of Texas when George W. Bush was governor, is a close political associate of the president. He is a long-time Republican and boasts formidable conservative credentials, including a 100 percent rating for his Senate votes in 2004 from the American Conservative Union. In addition, he was a featured speaker at the 2004 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., and has written articles for the right-wing Republican newspaper Human Events.

Cornyn is a staunch supporter of mass immigration to the U.S. from Mexico and has introduced legislation in the past offering amnesty to illegal aliens. He was a cosponsor of S. 1387, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003, which, had it passed, would have conferred legal green cards on illegal alien applicants who had worked in the U.S. for 3 years or more. Cornyn also voted in committee to award illegal aliens cut-rate tuition at college and universities.

The stated purpose of Cornyn's wealth-transfer legislation is to "promote economic and infrastructure integration" with Mexico and Canada, "promote education and economic development in Mexico," and "to reduce the wealth gap between Mexico and Canada, and between Mexico and the United States."

Although the bill's title uses the word "investment," the newly created fund would disperse American tax dollars through outright grants, not investments. "The Fund shall make grants for projects to carry out the purposes described..." says Section 4 of the bill.

Besides integrating the economy of Mexico with the U.S., the CFR's plan also calls for eliminating border controls between Mexico and the U.S., and merging the two countries with Canada into what it calls a "security perimeter" within which populations of the three countries could move about freely without border scrutiny. The purpose is to create a "seamless North American market" for transnational corporations, guaranteeing what the CFR calls "the extension of full labor mobility to Mexico."