Posted on 09/25/2007 7:44:25 AM PDT by SittinYonder
Bedford The most important domestic issue in the 2008 presidential election is not health care, education or the economy, but immigration, which has an impact on all of the other issues and is tied to the survival of the America nation, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo said yesterday.
Tancredo, R-Colo., said neither party wants to the address the problem of illegal immigration. Democrats, he said, don't care because they see illegal immigrants as future voters while Republicans see them as future cheap labor.
Illegal immigrants may save their employers dollars in lower wages, but they cost the country billions in health care, affect public schools through bilingual education and make up more than a quarter of the population in federal prisons, according to Tancredo.
Even the environment is harmed the traffic of illegal immigrants flowing across the southern border, but the issue has been ignored there too, he said. "I don't ever see the Sierra Club going down there and saying, 'Look at what is happening to this pristine desert,'" Tancredo said in a "Politics and Eggs" talk at the Bedford Village Inn
But the issue of illegal immigration is most consequential when it comes to the idea of a common American identity, Tancredo said.
"If they haven't figured out which country they're going to be attached to here or which one they owe their loyalty, I would suggest they go back to whatever country they hold the other citizenship in until they figure it out," Tancredo said.
Tancredo called for an enforcement of the immigration laws, especially security along the border. When asked what he would do about the estimated 12 million illegal aliens already in America, Tancredo said many will voluntarily return to their native countries after the government cracks down on the businesses that hire them.
It’s the most important issue for me too. Tancredo has my support 100%.
On Taxes:
A growing chorus of economists and experts argue, and I agree, that the current income tax system is complex and unfair and should be replaced by a flat tax or national sales tax. Simplifying the process would dramatically reduce the costs of compliance, make American companies more competitive, and put billions back into the economy by encouraging investment.
-Tom Tancredo
Tancredo also spoke at the FairTax rally Tuesday, May 15, 2007 where he declared his support for the FairTax
Click for more on Tancredo on the issues.
Sittin, if you operate a Tancredo ping list, could you add me?
Tancredo has been #1 on this topic.
Agreed. He’s the only pol that isn’t just giving lip service to the issue.
Added!
Thank you
Tancredo is right, illegal immigration is affecting all the other issues, taxation, health, schools. All would be fixed if we had a wall and enforcement against employers.
What the Bush Administration and so many others seem to forget (as they sit with their calculators trying to project future votes) is that illegal immigration damages this country across the spectrum: healthcare costs; schools; taxes; crime and the war on terror.
But the thing that I like most about Tancredo is that he's a consistent conservative across the board. His policies - whether education (dissolve the federal school board!) or gun control or taxes (FairTax!) or anything else, Tancredo believes in the limited federal government established in our founding documents and laws.
At the GOP of Iowa Lincoln Day Dinner:
America is the last best hope of western civilization.
Everything we are, everything we have achieved in this nation is under attack - from Jihadism abroad to multiculturalism here at home.
Our leaders charged with the responsibility of defending our land, our culture and our sovereignty refuse to do their jobs. Every generation of Americans must face its test - a test passed at Valley Forge, at Gettysburg, on the Normady beaches, and on Flight 93. Whenever Americans see their country threatened or their flag falling, they act. This is their country; the country they built, that they fought and bled and died for.
Will our generation muster the will and the courage to do the same?
That is why I'm running for president. Because we are threatened; because we need a leader; because we cannot afford to fail.
This is our culture; fight for it. This is our flag; pick it up. This is our country; take it back.
-Tom Tancredo
Click for more on Tancredo on the issues.
Rudy will give them a biometric ID card when they get here, and that’s about it.
It has become the biggest issue here in our town too. The Mayor and City Council refuse to do anything at all about the illegals and in fact protects them and the employers (developers) who hire them. Three candidates are running against illegal immigration and have a chance to win one or two seats, but we need all three. The pro-illegal opposition is strong and laden with cash. YUK!
A lot of us who currently are of the round-'em-up-and-ship-them-home mentality would be willing to support some level of a worker program that would give this special interest what it wants if FIRST they would seal the border and make efforts to reduce the population of illegals already here.
If we need workers ... and with unemployment so low, I know that we do ... then that's fine. But what we do not need is outlaws running around unaccounted for.
Until the federal government respects its obligation to the citizens of this nation, no worker program will get through without heavy opposition from the voters.
I trust this guy far more than FT.
ping
It used to be effective to write to the politicians who were "representing us" and complain, and sometimes they would listen. Now I believe the politicians are being funded by the open borders/globalist lobby, and don't depend on our contributions anymore, nor do they care what we think. In other words, they have sold their souls, and will follow what their masters demand of them.
It should be every American's top concern.
Failure to properly reform our immigration policies is the gravest threat this country faces.
The US can survive anything else, but it will not survive the fragmentation caused by allowing thoughtless & wanton immigration.
Immigration Counters (Real-Time Data Resource Center)
The High Cost of Cheap Labor - Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget (2004 Study)
Yes, The Unpleasant FACTS about Cheap Labor ARE
>>Both studies found that immigrants used government services at a greater rate than native-born residents did. The New Jersey study found, for instance, that the typical immigrant family received about $4,044 annually in government services, about 11 percent higher than the average native-born family. At the same time, immigrant households paid about 8 percent less in taxes. The net result was that the average native household generated an annual fiscal surplus of $232 to government, while the typical foreign household was a net burden of $1,484. The gap was even wider in California, where immigrant households produced a net deficit of $3,463 each, because so much of that states recent immigration had been in the form of low-wage, low-skill workers.
Though the study did not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, it did break down foreign-born households by the regions of the world from which they had come. In both states, the study found the steepest deficit in Latin American households, which in New Jersey consumed 26 percent more in government expenditures than the average native-born family, but paid 38 percent less in taxes. By contrast, immigrant households in New Jersey that hailed from Europe or Canada actually consumed, on average, less in government services than the typical native-born family, and paid nearly as much in taxes.<<
Source: http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-08-29sm.html
When we end welfare and change labor laws I'll go for a work program. As long as we have Americans sucking up tax dollars and laws discouraging work, we don't need cheap foreign labor.
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