Rush Addresses Illegal Alien Issue

Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | January 6, 2004

[sweetliberty]

[Moderator's note: threads regarding immigration issues and border issues have been spiralling out of control for some time on Free Republic. This is going to change. Fair warning: this would be a very poor thread to engage in flame warring, flame baiting, or otherwise being needlessly instigative. If you have not yet read this thread, you may want to before engaging in the debate on this or other similar threads. If there are any questions regarding the new scrutiny of these threads, please take them to that thread rather than cluttering up these threads.

Up until last night, people had been very cooperative with this effort, and for that I was grateful. Last night, I think there must have been a full moon or something, but we'll get that straightened out.

Thanks, and happy Freeping.]

I started this thread because there has been much discussion here about Rush never seeming to address the illegal alien problem. Today he has been talking about it in the context of President Bush's meeting with Vincente Fox and the payment of Social Security benefits to illegals who have paid into the system even though they did so with false documentation.

At the moment he is talking about the increase in black Republican voters, but said he will get back to the illegal alien issue shortly and take calls. I thought there'd be interested FReepers that might be missing it.

[dmz]

The employers would just have to raise the wages for those jobs.
__________

Respectfully, a more naive sense of economics would be difficult to find at DU.

Our standard of living requires sources of cheap labor. It is the nature of free market capitalism to exploit markets, and labor markets are there to be exploited.

If the US were to pay prevailing US wages for all that we consume, the US would certainly not be in the position it occupies today.

[hobbes1]

Being ignored in that article, is what happens to the workforce if there are NO PEOPLE to do the Jobs.


NO Waiters,Busboys, and cooks, means no Restaraunt. No Lawn Dogs, means no Landscapers, NO Line Workers, No Factory Output.



Slow output is better than NO output at all.

[azhenfud]

You know, they wonder why those states have budget crises, yet continue to dole out freebies to the Illegaliens from left and right (really). We're fast becoming the Land of the Freebie, and the home of the slave.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Funny how nobody thinks about the mega farmers investing in a little capital.

They would if they were forced to. Take away their illegal labor and see how fast those machines start rolling off the assembly line. Large companies will do whatever it takes to keep the profits coming in.

[hobbes1]

``While immigration is projected to make a huge contribution to the growth in the U.S. working age population, this gain comes at a price, since the gap between the average educational attainment of the foreign- and native-born populations is large,'' the report said.

And that is in argument for immediacy, not against the idea itself.

Demography is Destiny.

[Lady Eileen]

Don't you just love this Welfare State.

[hobbes1]

Respectfully, a more naive sense of economics would be difficult to find at DU.

LMAO.....My thoughts exactly.

[Conservative_Nationalist]

That's a stupid reply. Are you saying we need illegal immigrants doing this work? The cost of produce would rise a little while the money that goes to these entitlement programs that these guys abuse could be given back to us. Anyone who thinks we "NEED" illegal immigrants for cheap labor is just completely ignorant.

[William McKinley]

You are going to vote for someone who won't even be voting for himself?

That's an unusual strategy...

[sarcasm]

The United States population would increase to 377,444,000 in 2100 with zero net migration

We are not running out of people.

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

It is the nature of free market capitalism to exploit markets, and labor markets are there to be exploited.

This is true, but you are failing to include ALL costs of this labor. You need to account for the cost to house, feed, educate and medicate the families of the laborers, and then add to it the detrimental impact of their wages leaving the country to support whatever family they may have left behind. The people exploiting this labor supply are the business owners, who can exploit the tax dollars everyone else has to pay to subsidize their low-cost employees.

LTS

[Regulator]

As Post 36 pointed out, the actual harvest labor cost in a head of lettuce is small. Most cost is added by the middlemen, shippers, and retailers.

The labor rates of lettuce pickers could double, and you would barely notice the price increase.

[hobbes1]

Are you suggesting we wait 96 years, to fix SSI, and or Mediscare.....The problem currently is the transition time from privatization and means testing versus retiring baby boomers.

the Problem is NOW. not in 2100.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

My experience reading these threads is always the same. Those who support the "migration" speak of work not getting done ("Americans won't do the work") and the cost of food skyrocketing. Not facts, just emotion. Failing that they move into charges "DU trouble makers" and "Bush haters " Failing that some of them move into bringing up xenophobia, racism and bigotry. Most of the pro "migration" folks fail to note that the oppostion distinguishes between legal and ILLEGAL immigration.

Those opposing "migration" in the form of ILLEGAL aliens have facts and sources for those facts. The arguments of the opposition to ILLEGAL "migration" in this thread are the best I've seen to date.

[sarcasm]

You were saying that we will be running out of workers The Bureau of the Census says that you are absolutely wrong.

[Lead Moderator]

Pretty racist thing to say.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

We need to let Rove and Bush know this is a mistake and that they better reverse their policies if they want our support.

They are probably looking at a different strategy, which is killing this as a campaign issue to be used by democrats. The problem is they're angering more on the GOP side than they'll ever gain from Hispanic voters. Most of the legal ones are against illegal immigration themselves.

[navyblue]

The problem is that many conservatives will support him and vote for him no matter what because they are afraid that if they don't it will lead to a democrat in power. But basically we have a democrat in office, he's just not a democrat like the ones around today.

I have voted Republican for more years than many of you have lived. But those Republicans have always shared my values. The present administration is deviating way off the course. I honestly would prefer to see a Democratic president (shudder) in office with a Republican majority in the Congress to rein him in. Bush, as he projects himself right now is much more scary. When I look back over the last 3 years and see how far to the left Pres. Bush has moved, it is scary. Sure! I give him an "A" for the war. But we have another war going on closer to home.

Yeah, I know! Heresy! Lemme hear it!

[azhenfud]

"Slow output is better than NO output at all."

That's not entirely so. This nation will ALWAYS have low wage jobs and plenty of workers to fill them. An Illegalien working for half the wage of a native undercuts and upsets the SoL/CoL relationship by artificially holding down wages.

It's also a fact that with lower wages - Illegalien or native, the lower income persons end up relying on some type of government assistance, they pay little or no taxes, and many "homes" with 12-15 "undocumented" workers are health hazards to the inhabitants and their surrounding neighbors (they are less likely to see doctors when ill and come in contact with others needlessly). Many seldom have any immunizations we take for granted and require legal immigrants to have. Who does that leave to pay for the immunizations to bring 8-12 million up to national health standards?

[Vinnie]

Today he has been talking about it in the context of President Bush's meeting with Vincente Fox and the payment of Social Security benefits to illegals who have paid into the system even though they did so with false documentation.

If we pay SS benefits to illegals I am NOT voting for Bush.

Absolutely not!

An illegal could work here for 4-5 yrs and then we pay him/her for the rest of his/her life? Not counting all the other SS bennys, survivor, medicare, disability.

Barbara Streisand !!