The Economic Impact of Immigration

Immigrants = ?

 

I find it amusing that a chart talking about "Economic Impact" doesn't mention any of the positive economic impacts of immigration.

I also like the quote about how immigration reform would increase GDP by "at least 0.84%". Fascinating, given that no one has agreed on what immigration reform would look like. I would imagine that putting up a big electric bubble around the US would have a substantially different impact from opening up the borders with no checks at all.

 

Undocumented aliens are not immigrants legally. The chart title is misleading. The immigration policy has always been a part of the engine that keeps US going.

 

I agree and would be curious to see how some of the stats were arrived at regarding food stamp and Medicaid assistance.

Also even if someone is paid in cash doesn't mean they don't pay taxes as they still pay sales and other non-income taxes.

 

Maybe reform comes in the form of building that great fence to protect everyone from the brownies.

 

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/cost-of-illegal-immigrants/

Honesty and facts are better than distortions and propaganda.

 

Even if we take these garbage numbers to be real - conspicuously and deliberately absent is the $8 billion in payroll taxes contriibuted by undocumeted workers on an annual basis with no corresponding promise of repayment. Not to mention all the other taxes that they pay (income, sales, property etc) on a direct or indirect basis.

Most tea partiers probably contribute a lot more of a net drain on government bottom lines than a lot of undocumented workers.

 

The numbers are very one-sided, and obviously have an agenda, but no more so than the argument that portends illegal immigration is somehow a boon to society because we get to take their money and keep it.

Once we warm up to "awww, illegal immigration isn't such a bad thing is it?" don't you think that the next initiative will be "how do we get some of these illegal immigrants that payroll tax money back, they're a burden as they come into retirement with no social security, and they paid in, so rightfully it's theirs. It's in our best interest."

Also, I don't think I buy, or that even you buy, that last line of yours.

I'm all for finding a more efficient and expedient way to citizenship for those wanting to come here, but I can't say that I think we should encourage illegal immigration any more than we do.

 

The impact? The United States of America. We are all children of immigrants, excepting the few remaining Native Americans.

 

One of the sources listed on the graphic (vdare.com) is a white nationalist group...

 

Did it hurt pulling that statement out of your ass? Come on, really?

 

Not really, beating on the "get your government hands off my medicare" crowd is so easy it's child abuse and frankly kind of boring by now.

Speaking of child abuse, do you care to contest the figures?

 

What, figure is that? That illegal immigrants pay more in taxes than somebody who is politically affiliated with the tea party? If you've got figures, I'd love to be enlightened.

 

He was talking about the net +/-, not pure amount of taxes paid. Most illegal immigrants work with fake paperwork, so they pay into Social Security and FICA, but never get any of that money back. Tea Partiers pay the same kinds of percentages (unless they are wealthy and don't have to pay Social Security taxes on income over $106,000), but then get Social Security and Medicare benefits when they retire, illegals will get none of these benefits, so they contribute more to our system than they take out.

 

Well we can start with simple geography. The tea party movement is strongest in red states and other rural areas. So that's a pretty bad strike against them, since we know that these states are HUGE net drains on the federal budget, while us urban elite liberals are actually helping subsidize the rest of your medicare-full, government free lives.

Please investigate for yourself:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html

The net drains? Why it's the tea party heartland. Big strike against them.

We can also count on demographics. We also know that most tea partiers are middle aged and older and the older ones tend to rely a lot on social security and medicare. (Contrary to the NYT survey's determination of them as "wealthy", which didn't factor in age or the fact that they were 2-income families). So that's two strikes against them.

I've actually got a lot more figures saved up for the other side of the equation (contribution of undocumented workers) but I don't see the point in posting them as you'll likely just slink away licking your wounds. Why don't you try to come back with something.

 

Immigrant Fertility?

Interesting word choice there.

 

I love your logic. You're reasoning with political blinders on here. You're trying to equate a state's net taxes collected vs federal spending figure as if that is somehow an indicator of the people politically affiliated with the tea party movement on an immigration topic. So, let's look at the fiscal health of the blue states such as California, Illinois and New York. Does that tell us anything? And since you brought up medicare and seem to resent it, can I ask which politically affiliated party implemented medicare and most other social welfare policies?

The statement you made that I questioned has absolutely no way of being proven or disproven through any statistical data. You can only try to infer which you've poorly tried to do off a bias of people who presumably don't share the same perspective as you. I guess if I was old and had paid into a system my whole working life that politicians duped me into believing would always be there and the writing was on the wall that it wasn't, I'd probably be pissed off too.

 

So basically you have no facts or anything to support your assertions here? Are you even making any assertions? Why are you even posting?