Thread: More Bang for your Buck

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/ ... 8676.shtml

More Bang for your Buck
By Marty Lich
MichNews.com
Jul 11, 2005




Illegal immigration is in the spotlight today. It is in Ireland’s spotlight, it is in London’s spotlight and it is in America’s spotlight. It has been brought to the forefront by specific terrorist acts and demands solutions while it lies on the National Drawing Board of Big Problems.

I began getting vocal again when Colorado brought up the notion of instate tuition for illegal aliens here, long before 9-11. To me, it seemed to be rewarding the lawbreakers while disregarding the welfare of the law-abiding and that notion made me irate. Not irate because I want NO ethnic diversity in MY American colleges but because I cannot afford to pay higher college tuition fees for my own children. I and other American taxpayers fund the differences between in-state and out of state college tuition fees. The differences are large, not small. These dollar differences that taxpayers pay for out of state vs. instate tuition average around $12,000 more a year per college student. The politicians never discuss the money aspect when they discuss the need to educate illegal aliens to prevent them from becoming welfare cases in our country. Then again, why would they? They do not fund this, we do. The American families pay this extra expense.

And as the years have rolled by, the entire scenario of illegal immigration has played out in more knowledge by me and less respect, again by me, for those in control who disregard it. Knowledge is power but it is also disheartening.

I have thought long and hard about a surmountable solution to what appears to be an insurmountable issue. An issue that grows by 3 million people a year.

The reality is, instate tuition, health and welfare issues, corporations and the right to work, both legally and illegally, in our country keep rearing their Ugly Heads as the One Big Issue. For me, the Big Issue is not about the non-citizen families, for me the Big Issue is security here first and money second. Which leads to the question of what to do about it. Feasibly, realistically, could, would, America begin doing as Ireland did and round up each and every person residing here illegally? Unlikely at best, and maybe impossible at worst.

That leaves our country, our citizens, and our politicians with a dilemma. No one is happy. No one likes the present day approach and no one has one single answer to beat all others.

So we address all the little issues, instate tuition, the right to drive while being illegal in our country, the right to health care, the right to welfare regardless of the legal right to reside here. All these puzzling problems are being addressed one at a time. Rather than addressing each tiny piece to the puzzle why are we not addressing all the little pieces in one large box with a picture?

I look at it this way. My unhappiness stems not from the people that are here, and not from the work they do or do not do here, but from the cost handed to me as a taxpayer, the cost given to me as a parent of school children and the loss of a way of life that was my future in America. Our future that gleamed of hope, promise, and an even better way of life for my children. Not unlike what these illegal immigrants need, want and dream of while living here.

I am a realist. I look at all the sides and I look to all possible solutions. We need a workable resolution, so where do we start while still preserving our country, our future, and our lives?

I will ask you all in complete sincerity, if illegal and legal immigration did not take away from your child’s education in our public schools, if allowed illegal immigration did not strip you of your local hospitals that have closed due to un-reimbursed non-citizen patient care, if it did not add to your escalating health insurance costs, nor take away from your retirement future of Social Security, and lower your wage expectations, and if it did not overtax an already overtaxed system of welfare, would it bother you if illegal aliens, verified as not terrorist affiliated (and most are not) guest workers resided among you?

I will be truthful here, I would not care. If my life, my job, my health care, my country and my child's education were not affected in the least, I would not even broach the subject. But today all those serious life needs in America are affected in a detrimental way. To me, this is the real issue at stake. Three basic items; my life, my country and my future.

So what is an answer that carries more bang for our buck? I do not believe it is stopping in-state tuition, nor stopping the right to work. I believe it is a matter of stop the financial support. Stop all immigrants’ rights to free anything that is funded by taxpayers. If it is government aid in the form of WIC grocery checks, health clinics, FEMA, USDA school lunch programs, and even assistance from private non-profits such as Catholic Charities or the Salvation Army, say no. Revert back to the immigration laws of the 1960’s and the rules regarding immigrants allowed entry in the United States. The days of no public charges for immigrants. Rescind the Constitutional Amendment XIV and stop the automatic birthright citizenship to children unless one parent is a legal American citizen.

The problem would self-correct. How many illegal aliens and immigrants, even working for $8.00 dollars an hour, cash, could afford their utility bills, their grocery bills, school fees for their children, their rent, their gasoline, and of course, afford even instate college tuitions for their adult children? Things Americans pay for. I am willing to bet, although I do not gamble, that few could. That if we reinstated the old American Immigration policies most would self-deport. All by themselves. No raids. No roundups. Without the United States taxpayers to shoulder the burden of financial support, bailing out the employers by providing welfare services and health care for their minimum wage employees, most of their employees would return home. These companies would have to fill their job openings with fair wage American employees. Our hospitals would stop closing, or extorting more federal taxpayer money as bailouts, and our government personal would find they had ample school buildings, ample teachers and adequate school test scores, thus satisfying the No Child Left Behind law. The few people that remained here without any tax money to finance their stay would be the self-supporting people we want in America. Hardworking, just putting food on the table people. The type of families America was founded on.

Our country was not built upon the backs of welfare recipients. This nation became what she is today because of hard workers, many of them immigrants, who were self-reliant. It is time to return that and to do so require very little from our states, our government, and our law enforcement. Simply stop the financial aid in every form.

* No Social Security number verified as valid, no free public school, which includes bussing and meals. And no ESL offered regardless.

* No Social Security number verified no further treatment at any hospitals, health care facilities or health clinics. Stabilization only to prevent immediate death.

* No verified Social Security number, no TANF or other public aid services rendered.

* No Social Security Number that is verified, no aid from non-profits.

* No citizen parent with a verified Birth Certificate, no United States birth-right citizen children.

Rather than looking to the result, look to the cause. Address the root and we will solve the equation.



It is that simple.



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Email: MartyInCol@juno.com



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Economic costs of illegal immigration

Immigration is a net drain on the economy; corporate interests reap the benefits of cheap labor, while taxpayers pay the infrastructural cost. “Modest overall gain for the economy from immigration ($1 to $10 billion a year) have found that it is outweighed by the fiscal cost ($15 to $20 billion a year) to native taxpayers."

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Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment XIV

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States

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TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 14 > Sec. 1601.

Sec. 1601. - Statements of national policy concerning welfare and immigration

The Congress makes the following statements concerning national policy with respect to welfare and immigration:

Self-sufficiency has been a basic principle of United States immigration law since this country's earliest immigration statutes.

Despite the principle of self-sufficiency, aliens have been applying for and receiving public benefits from Federal, State, and local governments at increasing rates.

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Public Charge law change May 1996

August 22, 1996, the President signed PRWORA, known as the welfare reform law. The welfare reform law and its amendments imposed new restrictions on the eligibility of aliens, whether present in the United States legally or illegally, for many Federal, State, and local public benefits.

8 U.S.C. 1601-1646 (as amended).

Excellent post! Marty Litch hits the nail squarely on the head here.

I remember a conversation that I had with my Scots grandfather during the Johnson administrations 'Great Society' flap. We were against it. He said when able bodied men and women are allowed to sup from the public trough then a new slavery has begun. The slavery of the working people in this country whose money will be stolen by the government to fulfill promises that they had no right to make.

I thought that with the burgeoning bureaucracies that we were already enslaved simply by the overload of government workers that we were forced to pay for..never mind many of these bureaus were overlapping, wasteful and obsolete.

So now we have people flooding here from other nations to sup from the public trough, which should not be there. Period. Only the truly disabled and children in orphanages should recieve any welfare assistance.

My own grandmother who had provided a son for WWll, a son for Korea, grandsons for VietNam, could not recieve a single dime in help when she grew too old and ill to work. Because she had a little house paid for...she had to sell her little house and once she'd spent every dime of that money she was taken to a nursing home where she spent her last days penniless. ( The family helped of course, I'm talking about aid from the state or federal governments.) O..and her ggrandsons are in Iraq...

You asked the question if I would mind if these folks were here even if they weren't a financial burden. Yes. I would. The culture clash is too much....we don't fit with them and they don't fit with us. Originally we allowed the entry of northern Europeans...and they fit with us...we were all comfortable together. We had the same work ethics, held the same religious beliefs...it worked out just fine. This will never work...there will always be tensions and always the cry of 'racist' if they don't recieve things that they are not now nor would ever be 'entitled' to....and with the emotional and mental blackmail would soon have themselves in a 'class' above American citizens.

Just my two cents worth.

RR