Welcome to America, Here’s Your Check
As the United States Government sets in motion its plan to offer amnesty to over 10 million illegal immigrants, I have been wondering this past week why the financial ramifications of such a bill have not been discussed in more detail. Those in favor of the amnesty bill claim the “undocumented immigrants” come here to live the American dream, they fail to realize however, that as a Country we no longer reward success and hard work. Our current entitlement programs guarantee those who do not support themselves a lifetime of suckling at the Government teat. Just last week Congress approved a $2.9 trillion budget for fiscal 2008, with more than half being allotted for entitlement programs.
The Heritage Foundation broke down the financial implications of the immigration bill yesterday, and the results are very frightening. The Heritage Foundation concluded that for fiscal year 2004 low-skill immigrant households received $30,160 per household in immediate benefits and services. For the same fiscal year there were 4.5 million low-skilled immigrant households in this country.
The White House has released Ten Key Myths About the Border Security and Immigration Reform Agreement in an attempt to defend this horrendous bill and garner public support. They claim it to be a myth that illegal immigrants will come onto the welfare rolls, relying on employment qualifications for a Z visa status as proof this will not happen. However, as the Heritage Foundation states:
“In reality, the present welfare system is designed primarily to provide financial support to low-income working families. Moreover, welfare is only a modest part of the overall system of financial redistribution operated by the govÂernment. Current government policies provide extensive free or heavily subsidized aid to low-skill families (both immigrant and non-immigrant) through welfare, Social Security, Medicare, public education, and many other serÂvices.”
Red State also counters this claim:
“Illegal immigrants will come onto the welfare rolls. Amnesty will give illegal immigrants entitlement to welfare benefits for most of their lives. Illegal aliens will become Z-visa holders. While they are in Z-visa status, amnesty recipients will have access the free medical care under the Medicaid program, but would not be eligible for other welfare programs. After five years in Lawful Permanent Resident status, the amnesty recipients will be eligible for nearly all 60 federal welfare programs including food stamps, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy families, and will remain eligible for the rest of their lives.”
The wealth distribution in this country has already grown to disastrous levels, with those making over $100,000 paying 82% of the total taxes collected. On the opposite side of the spectrum, those earning under $40,000 pay little to no federal taxes while at the same time using more Government resources.
Spending for entitlement programs has increased from less than one-third of total federal spending in 1962 to more than one-half in recent years. If an additional 10 million new low-skilled workers are added to our entitlement programs, the only way to offset the increased costs would be to increase revenues through taxes.
It is time we demand the United States Government not only close the borders, but the check book as well.
Sphere: Related ContentIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
From a Wall Street Journal editorial
May 24, 2007
Immigration and Welfare
One basic flaw in the Heritage analysis is that, as a study by the Immigration Policy Center points out: “The vast majority of immigrants are not eligible to receive any of these [welfare] benefits for many years after their arrival in the United States. . . . Legal permanent residents cannot receive SSI [Supplemental Security Income], which is available only to U.S. citizens, and are not eligible for means-tested public benefits until 5 years after receiving their green cards.”
Illegal immigrants are also ineligible for any kind of federal welfare benefits — with the exception of emergency health care. Many of the Congressional proposals to legalize this population would not allow these workers to collect welfare until waiting up to eight years for a green card and five years after that.
The “welfare” charge is also refuted by the experience of the federal welfare reform passed 11 years ago. That law reduced the welfare eligibility of new immigrants on the sensible grounds that the magnet for America should be work, not a government handout. Ron Haskins, an architect of that reform and the author of a 2006 book on its consequences, concludes that “the use of welfare by noncitizens has declined rapidly” in the wake of that law.
Between 1994 and 2004, the percentage of immigrant households collecting traditional cash welfare payments, supplemental security income, and food stamps fell by about half. The decline in welfare use was more rapid for immigrants than for native-born Americans. The exception has been Medicaid, thanks to states that have increased immigrant eligibility for the state-federal program in recent years.
However, immigrants have a positive financial impact on the most expensive federal entitlements: Medicare and Social Security. This is because immigrants generally come when they are young and working. Seventy percent of immigrants are in the prime working ages of 20-54, compared to only half of the native-born American population. Only 2% of immigrants are over 65 when they arrive compared to 12% of natives.
As a result, most immigrants contribute payroll taxes for decades before they collect Social Security or Medicare benefits. The Social Security actuaries recently calculated that over the next 75 years immigrant workers will pay some $5 trillion more in payroll taxes than they will receive in Social Security benefits. These surplus payments more than offset the costs of use of other welfare benefits received by most immigrant groups
When speaking of “welfare” I was using it as a general term encompassing welfare itself, along with Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy families and any number of other handouts our country offers.
In addittion, the children of these 12 million illegals who are allowed to stay here will be citizens from birth, and entitled to ALL welfare programs.
In addition to the numbers in the report being wrong because immigrants (PARTICULARLY illegals) use less welfare, ther are a number of other problems with it.
1. Taking only direct tax payments as their contributions is a measure that would show most of us (certainly most of us with kids in school) as a burden. Their landlords pay taxes, the people and businesses that they buy good and services from pay taxes, and their employers pay taxes.
2. Adding an immigrant does not mean that the cost of running the military goes up, it does not mean that interest on the national debt goes up, and it does not mean that the costs of Federal R&D goes up. Adding an immigrant makes divides up these expenses easier, not harder. Some other expenses, like road maintainance, do go up with the number of users, but grow at a lesser rate–the number of Spring time pothole to fill is affected by the amount of traffic AND the severity of the Winter.
Mark,
Although you are correct in stating the landlord does pay taxes, you must realize many of these un skilled immigrants do not have a lease and pay their rent in cash. Very few landlords have the integrity to report these funds to the IRS.
Also keep in mind we are not refferring to taking in an immigrant, this is about making an illegal immigrant legal. the majority of the illegals are currently earning less than minimum wage. The moment they become legal, they will demand the minimum wage. At that point their employer will most likely fire them and give the job to someone who speaks English.
The only solution to immigration if for our Government to first enforce the laws which are currently on the books, not make new ones. Do you really believe that because of this bill illegals in the country currently will go home, pay a $5,000 fine then come back?
Apr 24th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
[…] had written about this previously with regards to the disasterous immigration bill President Bush was trying to push through Congress. At the time, I noted that for fiscal year 2004 low-skill […]