Posted on 05/22/2007 5:29:33 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
Robert Rector stirred up the puddin' inside the beltway yesterday.
Who is Robert Rector? He is the Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation specializing in welfare, poverty and marriage. He is a leading and respected authority in Washington on poverty and the U.S. welfare system.
Yesterday Heritage released a special report written by Rector and Christine Kim titled "The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer." You can read the entire report right here [pdf], or you can click here for the executive summary.
You aren't going to hear very much about this report from the mainstream media. John McCain and Ted Kennedy, the architects of the amnesty bill, are going to do their best to ignore it.
So ... we'll tell you right here. What we don't tell you can be learned by clicking on the links above.
First .... There may be a common perception out there that these illegal aliens actually contribute to our economy by "doing the jobs that Americans won't do." Not so. Illegal alien households cost the American taxpayers billions of dollars a year. Try $89 billion.
The Heritage report points out that at least 50 percent and maybe as much as 60 percent of illegal alien households lack a high school education. This makes them low-skill households.
Here's where the numbers start to get interesting --- or depressing, if you will.
Do you know what a "distributional deficit" is? That's the difference between what you pay in taxes to government and what government spends on you and your household. The paper will give you the details, but low-skilled immigrant households in the U.S. received about $10,000 more in government benefits than does the average U.S. household. What's the figure? About $30,160 every year in immediate benefits and services for every low-skill immigrant household. To compound the distributional deficit, low-skill immigrant households pay less in taxes than do the average U.S. Households. These low-skill immigrant households pay about $10,573 a year in taxes. Subtract this from the amount government spends on them and you have a deficit of $19,588.
Let's carry these numbers for our wonderful illegal -- soon to be legal -- households out a few years. Rector says that the average adult lifespan for each head of household is about 60 years. The research shows that this distributional deficit will continue throughout this life span for low-skill immigrant households. The total? About $1.2 million for each low-skill immigrant household.
In 2004 there were 4.5 million low-skill immigrant households in the U.S. More math: Multiply the average net distributional deficit of $19,588 per household and you get a total deficit of $89.1 billion .... per year!
Ask yourself .. can this country afford this? Can we afford an amnesty bill that will legitimize and legalize these illegal-alien households, and millions more to come? No. The costs are financially unsustainable.
Why isn't this more of a part of the immigration debate?
bump
Since when do liberals care about the cost of subsidies?
Isn't this another way of explaining "income redistribution"? Taxing me out of my hard-earned money so it can be given away under the guise of any of the plans of the welfare state? I will admit stating it in the terms used here as "distributional deficit" seems to bring it into sharper focus. No wonder McCennedy wants to ignore it.
Don’t let facts get in the way, after all LaRaza had a veto over our own legislative process.
America in 1910 could have absorbed this many folks, but with all the social (ist) benefits that we now grant, this bill is Fiscal suicide.
Neal knocks another one out of the park. He is always getting the meat of issue.
Some idiot was on one of the talking head shows the other morning exclaiming “Illegals DO pay taxes, they pay sales tax!”
LOL! By that standard, so do drug-dealers and pimps. Oh, the twisted logic that idiot uses!
At $19,588, the average annual fiscal deficit for low-skill immigrant households was nearly twice the amount of taxes paid. In order for the average low-skill household to be fiscally solvent (taxes paid equaling immediate benefits received), it would be necessary to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, all means-tested welfare, and to cut expenditures on public education roughly in half.
What do you think of the idea of seizing the top 10% of Mexican territory for those illegals. Then let them homestead it. Run it as a territory until they qualify to be a state.
...........EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT..............
THE GREAT PAYOUT!
Options:
End welfare handouts. For anyone. Not just illegals.
End Socialist inSecurity.
End the increasing Nationalisation of our medical care industry.
Criminal prosecution, not just fines, for employers who knowingly hire illegals. Hard to prove in court, but not impossible. Accidents happen and people can be scammed, but some employers don't even bother with the pretense. Put them behind bars.
End dual-language programs for government documentation and in schools. For recent LEGAL immigrants, encourage immersion style language courses. Ask college students working in linguistics or even charity/clergy groups to hold classes. It was the Russian orthodox church in Minneapolis that helped my grandparents pick up enough English to get by back in the 50's.
Seal the border as best as we can and allow private property owners on the border to protect their property. With deadly force if necessary.
A lot of the above suggestions require no additional bureaucracy, would be effective, and wouldn't cost us one additional dime. It'd be legal, Constitutional, and make sense.
Don't look for government to fix this one. They won't. They have a vested interest in keeping the illegals game up and running.
Human food for the social security monster? (They see dead people.)
LOL! Perhaps we should move to a national sales tax and just eliminate property taxes, income taxes, etc. Sounds good to me!
If this is not a wake up call toward a coming revolution...the government better pull their heads out of their REAR ENDS.
Absolutely. And you can bet the illegals who obtain amnesty will become a large and powerful voting block for more entitlement programs. This plan spells the death of the middle class.
Hell, it’s already under way, aided and abetted by the TRAITORS in Washington!
Money talks. I just got a request for money from the RNC yesterday. I sent the envelope back with no check and a strongly worded note about how I will not support the party so long as it continues to sell out our security and conservative principles.
Contact the RNC and express your outrage:
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Contact the NRSC to express your outrage:
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Contact the NRCC to express your outrage:
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