The (Harrisburg) Patriot News: Facts, logic missing from immigration debate
Today The Patriot News of Harrisburg lamented the death of the immigration bill. (This was obviously written before the apparent resurrection of the bill.)
This section of the editorial particularly caught my eye:
Andy in Harrisburg
This section of the editorial particularly caught my eye:
Everyone would do well to take note of a recent study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that was outlined in the Washington Post. Although specific to North Carolina, it mirrors similar studies in Texas, Arkansas and other states.
Hispanic immigrants in North Carolina, both illegal and legal, paid $756 million in state taxes and contributed more than $9 billion to the state's economy in 2004. They are responsible for booming North Carolina exports to Latin America that have created 70,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, since most immigrants are young to middle-age adults, they won't collect Social Security or Medicare for years to come. And the sales taxes they pay and the income taxes deducted from paychecks help fund education, transportation and other public services.
But logic, not to mention facts, don't seem to matter much in this debate.
Andy in Harrisburg
Labels: immigration, The Patriot News
posted by ACLU of Pennsylvania at 6/15/2007 10:22:00 PM
3 Comments:
Again Andy, your sense of economics fails to consider that they use more in services than they put in. These people send billions back to Mexico, money never spend on the economy in the U.S. As below the poverty level workers, they get their entire income tax refunded, after filing a federal income tax return. They even get Earned Income Tax Credits, meaning they get money in addition to that. Those facts aren't take into consideration by the state, as they're only interested in their revenue sources. Studies have shown that people at their income level receive $3.00 in benefits for every $1.00 they contribute, so your facts don't impress anyone.
Forget about amnesty for your friends, if the recent legislation against sanctuary cities in House this week is an indicator on how they'll vote on the Senate bill. According to Tancredo's bill, federal homeland security funds will be denied those cities which pass ordinances against helping ICE.
Amnesty is dead, and workplace inforcement will insure there is no future work for illegal aliens. With the death of amnesty, and rulings in favor of cities like Hazleton, there will be no place for illegal aliens to hide. Tell your friends to keep their bags packed and prepare for a visit from ICE.
Andy, you'll never win this argument on the basis of economics. Your only hope is appealing to the charitable side of human nature, as the poor never pay the same share of taxes as the middle class. Adding additional poor to social programs and the tax rolls only causes the middile class and the rich to pay more in taxes to make up for the entitlements that the poor take advantage of. You'd only have a case if we didn't have a graduated income tax and entitements to support the poor. The only real beneficiaries are the employers who make a higher profit from cheap labor. Get real Andy. People in this blog try to teach you economics, but your seem to have ADD, as you don't seem capable of retaining anything and tend to repeat the same tired old arguments on a regular basis.
Low income illegal aliens usually don't make purchases of new and expensive consumer goods, but only necessary subsistence level purchases. Their refrigerators, automobiles, TVs, etc. are second hand goods, so they their not big contributors to sales tax. Illegal aliens are the source of high hospital costs paid by citizens, as illegal aliens stick the hospitl, aand ultimately the citizen, with the bill. They can't afford good housing and in many cases occupy housing in numbers that exceed the zoning codes, so they don't contribute much in the way of property taxes which are the main source of support for our schools. Taxes don't begin to make up for what illegal aliens take out of a community. Employers are subsidized by the taxes our citizens pay to make up for the burden these people put on our society. It's getting expensive for citizens to live in North Carolina, and illegal aliens are part of the problem. Dream on Andy. Try, try again, but it's hopeless to justify the presence of illegal or amnestied aliens on the basis of tax contributions.
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