I had the opportunity to meet Congressman Ryan in person during our state's gubernatorial campaign and I told him that, before reducing things like Social Security entitlement, the Congress should examine entitlements that we are paying out to immigrants. Many of these stem from our overly generous "family reunification policies" allowing landed immigrants' family members to be sponsored and receive SSI payments and/or local safety net payments. Add in large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers, plus victims of domestic abuse among the illegal immigrant population. I told him I would send a copy of a New York Times article that covered a sample population of elderly immigrants from India, who have been sponsored by their families, but have never been part of the US workforce.

Well, what do you want to see the feds cut? Social security payments? Or, ongoing programs that extend taxpayer handouts to clients from all over the globe? The 1996 welfare reforms were to have addressed this concern, and some of it has been, but it is still likely a significant issue. The new Congress will be discussing entitlement reform in earnest with heated discussion, I am sure.

Rep. Ryan directed me to his chief of staff who is taking comments, Andrew D. Speth;
speth@mail.house.gov



The Magazine
Roadmap Rules
Nov 13, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 10 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ ... tml?page=2


The calls were unexpected. Early in 2010, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, began receiving requests for information about the Roadmap for America’s Future, his ambitious plan to reform entitlements, taxes, and spending. Ryan, a Republican star, is no stranger to press inquiries. But these were coming from an unexpected source: Republican candidates for Congress who were looking for solutions—any solutions—to America’s fiscal crisis. Ryan estimates that he sent about 100 copies of the Roadmap to interested candidates. “We didn’t plan that,â€