MILNET
Opinion The Big Money Scam
How Liberal Immigration Policy Is Hurting U.S. Economy
11/19/2007
"Globally, the tally is
huge: migrants from poor countries send home
about $300 billion a year. That is more than three times the global
total in foreign aid, making “remittances” the main source of outside
money flowing to the developing world." - The New York Times1
What is trade? It's a simple question. However sometimes
the answer
is not so simple. Trade deficit for instance. That is when
two
nations trade goodies but one side is dealing on a substantially larger
basis. If country A sells more in country B then country B sells
in
country A, you have a trade deficit situation for country B. Why
is
that important? Perhaps it comes down to economy sized issues
like
more of country Bs money is going to country A and is used in country A
to better their economy than in country B. So country B's economy
is
actually hurt by trading with country A. It's all about
comparisons
and long viewed thinking.
And when long view thinkers look at other market forces that effect the
trade between country A and B...such things as monopolistic activities,
or government subsidies or tariffs (fees attached like taxes to goods
from country B for instance), then you have an unfair market situation
on top of the more general issue of a trade imbalance.
But there is a kind of secret trade going on, a trade in dollars under
the counter, and larger than foreign aid. It too has adverse
impacts on the U.S. economy.
Trade, Aid, and
"Remittances"
Let's add the really big scam
to this discussion. When country A's
citizens receive money from their citizens who have come across the
border into country B, then that money is spent in country A. This
money is referred to as "remittances", a word not usually associated
with this new part of world economy -- invented to make it appear soft
and fuzzy. It is neither. It
improves the economy in country A and rips off country B.
Moreover, if
a significant portion of the money being sent out of country B is
earned without payroll taxes being assessed, then country B is not
receiving its due share of the worker's income. That's
income tax
evasion on a huge scale -- especially when it is clear that many of the
country A immigrants are illegal immigrants who are not on the tax
roles, and employers will be fined heavily if they try to collect taxes
from them. The illegal country A immigrants don't exist in the
official world, yet a significant portion of their money goes outside
country B and the illegal workers don't pay income taxes. Ouch, a
double whammy.
Worse, country B, having a large percentage of stupid bleeding hearts,
GIVE the citizens of country A who are in country B illegally, free
services such as schools and healthcare. They even provide free
food and any child born unto a country A person while living in country
becomes, automatically, a citizen. Of all the ridiculously clever
scams!!! And of course the politicians in country B are hoping to
find ways to allow the people from country A to vote in country B so
they can swell the ranks of their constituents! Quadruple whammy!
This Is Not A Theory
All too theoretical? Pay attention, this is a hit on country B's
economy and political landscape. We call country B the United
States of America.
Country A? Mexico. Or to be fair maybe it's mostly Mexico
with a
spattering of other south and central American nations. A few
immigrants from the Caucasuses too. The vast majority, however,
are
from Mexico. Nice country, also loves to sell tourists crummy
goods
and enjoy cruise ships disgorging tourists by the thousands once a week.
The point here is that Mexico's immigrants, legal and illegal, send
money home to be spent there. If it were only legal immigrants it
would be only a minor problem, since most legals (not all, let's be
real here!) pay income taxes. They pay their due to the U.S.
government.
Everyone in country also pay for food and lodging, so that works out
okay. It is the money that goes outside the country that is not
spent
in country. How much? According to a recent New
York Times article, we're talking
billions.
$300 Billions earned in the U.S. go outside the U.S. to help others
outside the U.S. Usually this money goes to families of immigrant
workers who work in the U.S. but have relatives "back home". The
NYT
article also points out that this is three times the global total in
foreign aid.
Liberal Stupidity
The Liberal establishment is chortling over this figure. Look how
good and wonderful
America is. I say look how stupid America is. I love my
country but
sometimes the things it allows are downright idiotic. We allow a
swiss
cheese border to let in millions (current estimate is 11.3 million and
rising about 1.2 million per year) of illegal immigrants who work under
the counter, pay no taxes and then send home money to their families
"back home". Their children swamp our school systems and our
emergency
rooms forcing us to spend millions nationwide on taking care of
them.
The only thing they do is consume.
Of course they pay sales tax and eat food they must buy here.
They pay
someone costs for lodging, and I suppose that landlord is paying taxes,
carefully skirting the issue that he or she is renting to a Federal
felon. And of course the hospitals pay taxes -- although it is
not
clear if the hospitals is not paying negative tax -- who do they charge
when indigent illegals can't pay for medical treatment? Isn't the
city, country or state eating the costs there?
Yet the liberals are very happy. They are doing everything they
can do
to make it possible for these illegals to vote, and pandering to them
by giving them drivers licenses that they can use to secure even better
jobs, purchase airline tickets and travel around the country, buy beer,
you name it. Why is this a problem?
Aside from the previously mentioned economic issues, there is
terrorism. Terrorists use the same ID to make Fake IDs, sign up
for flying
classes, create banking accounts that can be used to launder money
coming in from their financiers out of the country. Think this is
B.S.? That is exactly how the 9/11 terrorists operated.
Handing out
drivers licenses to illegals means that the terrorist saves money on
the costs of operations. Moreover, with Venezuela giving anyone
who
can say "Hola" fake identities and passports, any terrorist simply goes
there first before going to Mexico to cross the border illegally.
This is not fiction. This is the way the world we live in is
operating
today, and Congress continues to fail to act. This after repeated
pleas from activist groups (who are not liberal thus have no voice) who
point to arrest statistics that demonstrate the debacle at the southern
border, and homeland security officials who cite improvement despite
dismal overall results in controlling the border.
The Difficulty in
Border Closing Fantasy
Closing the border is not a difficult task, actually. It takes
investment. Investment in monitoring goes a long way. The
Minuteman
on the border effectively shut down a section of the border crossings
for sometime even after they were gone. Instead of Minuteman
volunteers, let's put some watchers there. You don't have to have
a
sworn, highly trained peace officer watching the border. You have
border patrol agents to do the law enforcement part of the job, use
unsworn, lower paid monitors to make reports that sends out border
patrol. Jees, this is not brain surgery.
Yes, it is nice to have predator drones patrolling the border, but
damn, they are REALLY expensive and take high tech trained crew to
support and maintain them. Has anyone done a cost analysis of
using
minimum wage "border monitor" persons on the job versus predator
drones?
Look. There are plenty of people looking for work along the
southern
border who live in the U.S. legally and might not like to have people
from the south coming across illegally. Pay them to simply watch
the
border. Hell there may be enough to pay them to hold hands from
one
end of the border to another! Cross that border fence, illegal!
Seriously, it doesn't take a fiscal giant or a tactical genius to see
that Congress is really not working the border effectively.
Perhaps
they are listening to the sworn officials -- cops, really. Cops
do
good work. But they also hate having anyone horn in on what they
consider their business. But when you can't afford having Cops
holding hands to close a border, then you must resort to lower paid,
less
capable personnel.
An Economic Boon
A combination of closing the border and sending home anyone who is here
illegally will put back billions into our nation's economy through
reduced services our taxes are paying for. And if those workers
are home in
Mexico or points further south, then billions of dollars being sucked
out of our economy will not be going "back home".
Some idiots will scream, "but that will drain our economy...we need
those workers." B.S. The illegal worker helping the
U.S. economy is
fiction. Employers save a few bucks by hiring illegals and that
money
goes under the mattress because it can't be accounted for. It
never
appears on the books and yes, it might be spent on fast food, but
seriously folks, it's impact on the economy is negligible. We
spend
more in services out of our taxes than any employer puts back into the
system due to the savings. It is greed based on false perception
that is driving the fiction of illegals
helping U.S. economy, and sadly, it is greed that vectors tax dollars
into the hands of illegals, many of whom send it "back home".
The Greedy Can't See
the Long View
You want to understand why many businesses support the
Liberals?
Perhaps looking at the connection between supporting illegals and
businesses that profit from that false economy. Why, for
instance, is
hostelry or agri-business so staunchly liberal? Perhaps it is due
to
the fact that a major percentage of their work force is made up of
illegals. Congress and the liberal establishment seem to ignore
that
fact.
Look too at how the Liberal establishment uses the threat of the race
card in this issue. Yet, how do illegals hide right in plain
sight?
It is a racial issue, but not of prejudice. It is called
infiltration. And when it comes to millions of dollars in service
costs and perhaps billions in lost economy sent "back home", then that
infiltration is not only working, but is a huge threat to U.S. economy
and security. When the Liberal establishment doesn't want you to
know about how effective the infiltration is, and cites how difficult
it is to handle the illegal problem, the immediately call anyone who
looks at this problem seriously as a racist.
I don't care if the people doing this to us are green, red, or
purple. I don't really care if they speak Klingon. The
problem is that THEY are doing it. And they hide among their
legal brothers and sisters, hidden by them either purposely or
unknowingly. THEIR government gives them pamplhets that tell them
where and when to cross the border, and even puts up aid stations in
the hot summer months to make it more humanitarian for them to
cross. Legal immigrants are joined by non-immigrants in helping
them cross too, providing places for them to stay until they can find
an unaccounted for job and skirt paying taxes and get onto the dole in
cities (called sancutary cities) that cater to illegals.
