What they're saying …

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

May 26

Chicago Tribune, on federal

spending:

President Bush has threatened to veto any highway bill that arrives on his desk with a price tag above $284 billion. He wants to demonstrate that he is really, really serious about keeping a lid on federal spending.

The hope here is that he keeps his word.

But the president has never vetoed a bill, any bill, since he took office in 2001. So, up on Capitol Hill -- surprise, surprise -- Congress is taking this latest get-tough threat from the White House with a wink and a grin. ...

Technically, the House complied with the president's spending limit, passing a six-year highway package in March that tops out at $284 billion. But House members gave themselves wiggle room, a provision that allows members to reopen the package and raise the price tag down the road. The Senate passed a version this month that comes in at $295 billion. ...

The two chambers now will try to hash out the numerous differences in their two versions of the bill. Those are substantial beyond the price differential. ...

But here's the bottom line. If the president is serious about reining in deficit spending, as he claims to be, both the House and Senate versions are unacceptable. Unless the two chambers come up with a consensus that holds spending at $284 billion and doesn't employ trickery such as a re-opener provision, the president must veto it.

May 29

The Repository, Canton, Ohio, on female soldiers:

The U.S. House of representatives smartly rejected an effort last week by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to restrict the U.S. military's abilities to use female soldiers.

Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wanted to restrict the military from assigning women to any new ground combat-related jobs. Democrats and Republicans both put pressure on him to back down. So did the nation's military leaders.

The U.S. military is stretched thin in fighting the war in Iraq and keeping other commitments around the world. It is not a good idea to impose more unnecessary restrictions on the options that military leaders have. ...

May 31

Herald-Journal, Spartanburg, S.C., on port security:

One of the most difficult security problems for the United States is the millions of cargo containers shipped to U.S. ports every year.

It would be almost impossible to inspect all of these containers for terrorist weapons, bombs or even a nuclear device. ...

Instead, U.S. Customs Service inspectors search a sampling of them.

Now, a congressional inquiry has shown that a Customs Service plan to make that task more efficient might have made security less efficient. ...

The problem is that the government has doled out this low-security status too often without ever verifying that these companies are using better security precautions. About 5,000 applications for the program have been accepted, but customs officials have verified only 597 companies.

And so, a program designed to increase security and safety at ports may in fact be undermining that security. ...

There are no easy answers to this problem, but Washington will have to do better than simply trusting those who say they will be careful. ...

June 1

San Diego Union-Tribune, on U.S. immigration policy:

Americans have a once-in-a-generation chance to fix U.S. immigration policy, which is beyond broken. Currently, there are nearly a dozen immigration-related bills in Congress, and it seems likely that elements of each will be blended into a single, massive piece of legislation. Hopefully, amnesty won't be part of the final product. The country should not be in the business of excusing lawbreakers or doing for people what they should be doing for themselves -- such as taking the necessary steps to become legal residents. That is what renders totally unsound and unworkable bills such as the one proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., which provides a path to legalization for millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States.

In order for it to be worth the paper on which it is printed, any worthwhile immigration reform bill must have three essential components: a guest worker program that pairs willing employers and willing employees, a new and more punitive round of criminal penalties for employers that knowingly and defiantly hire illegal immigrants, and a tamper-proof identification card. ...

Without all three components -- guest workers, employer sanctions and an identification card -- immigration reform won't go anywhere. Things will continue on as they have for years, and Americans will have blown a historic opportunity to ensure otherwise.

-- from the Associated Press