US Senate Watch - Immigration Bill is BackDollars and "Sense" on Cost of AmnestyBy Carolyn CormeyHere we go again! The 2007 Comprehensive Immigration is back, with Senators rubbing painful arms twisted hard by President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Senate Leaders are coming back with a "plan" - not to truly analyze every detail of this Bill for unintended consequences, not to factor in costs to all government agencies, retirement, medical care and welfare programs for years to come, not with a plan on how our broken INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) will be able to perform mandated 24 hour background checks and integrate 12-20 million illegal aliens and keep track of them (with broken computer systems). No - our Senate Leaders are coming back with a "Plan" to pull all sorts of clever, procedural, "shenanigans," doing their very best to shut down any further examination of and amendments to this seriously flawed Bill (with all sorts of intended and unintended consequences we will be paying for - for years). They just get the Cloture Vote passed and then get the Bill passed! Money, spending OUR money - seems to be no object (or consideration) to our Senators who NEVER let the cost of anything interfere with what will build their political party's power base or satisfy corporate donors in their home states who influence their votes far more than constituents who voted them into office. According to the US National Debt Clock website, our DC Legislators have spent us into a NATIONAL DEBT OF $8,808,400,000,000 (8 Trillion, 808 Billion, 400 Million Dollars) increasing at an average of $1.15 Billion per day since September, 2006. "The estimated population of the United States is 302,201,867 so each citizen's share of this debt is (about $30,000)." The Heritage Foundation estimates that we will pay $2,600,000,000,000 (2 Trillion, 600 Billion) to cover just the retirement benefits of 12 Million illegal aliens if this amnesty bill becomes law. Our government has no idea on how many illegal aliens there are so - we could be talking 20 Million. . and then, there are their dependants. . . When asked on the "talk show circuit" about the costs for this program, our Senators glibly say that taxes paid by the illegal alien Visa holders/citizens will offset the costs. This is simply one of the many mistruths that seem to easily roll off the tongues of those we elect and send to Washington. Our Senators are well-aware that most of the 12-20 illegal aliens are low-skill immigrant workers that will need far more from our government in financial aid for themselves and their families - than they will ever pay in taxes. National Review estimates that on average, each low-skill immigrant creates a net cost (benefits minus taxes) of approximately $17,000 per year for us tax payers to pay - before they receive retirement benefits. If the un-skilled worker has a large family, it could be a lot more per year. While the Congressional Budget Office has done a limited cost estimation, before this latest immigration bill was brought to the Senate Floor for a vote, a full-blown, detailed financial impact study should have been done by our government and provided for citizen group reviews to see if it included costs in every sector or if it was a "puff piece" done in the "two sets of books" Washington DC Accounting practices. If a serious financial impact study was done by our government, it certainly was not made available to us and perhaps even not to most of our US Senators who are so "caught up in the moment" that money is just another cumbersome hurdle to be "jumped" after the Bill passes. It certainly seems like the timing of this Bill is out of whack with the reality of what kind of money we have left after the huge, daily financial drain (a seemingly bottomless pit) of supporting the war in Iraq . . . leading many of us to ask, WHY NOW? WHY DO WE HAVE TO IMMEDIATELY "SOLVE" THIS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WITH A SOLUTION GUARANTEED TO CREATE EVEN MORE PROBLEMS AND EXPENSES? Can't we wait, study and prepare?
Florida's US Senator Mel Martinez (Republican) up for reelection in 2008 The "good news" is that your calls to Senator Martinez about the Immigration Amnesty Bill are being listened to and tallied by staff members - that is, if you reach his Washington DC Office voice mail when it is not full and rejecting messages. The "bad news" is that even though Senator Martinez's Press Office confirms that there have been an overwhelming number of calls daily from Florida voters, almost all of them asking him to vote against this legislation - it does not matter to him nor will it sway his vote committed to passing this Amnesty Bill. I was told by the Press Office that Senator Martinez was elected to the Senate to do what he thought was right and he thinks that it is right to pass a comprehensive immigration bill right now. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. I seem to remember that when Senator Martinez was running for the Senate and asking for our votes there was a lot of talk about his representing us - his Florida constituents - who voted to send him to Washington to get the things done that Florida Voters wanted done. But I guess many of us got this wrong. It seems that it is not about what Florida residents feel are highest domestic priorities, (fixing: Social Security, Medicare, emergency health care facilities, health insurance coverage for 47 million uninsured US Citizens, education, bringing back US jobs into the USA, lowering our National Debt) it is about what Senator Martinez feels is HIS highest priority, providing immediate legal status to 12-20 Million Illegal Aliens, also called Amnesty and an accelerated pathway to a permanent Z-Visa that can be renewed as long as the Z-Visa holder wishes to stay and work in the US. Florida US Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat) not up for election in 2008 Senator Nelson's Press Office would not respond to either calls or emails asking about how the huge number of Florida constituent calls about this Immigration Bill (almost all of them asking him not to vote for it) will influence his vote. Since he voted for last year's Amnesty Bill, did not come back to Florida during the Memorial Day (week) recess to gather our opinions about this Bill and voted in favor of Senator Reid's Cloture vote to end debate and amendments leading to a final vote for passage AND he voted AGAINST an amendment to make English the official language of this country . . . we will each have to figure out for ourselves - how important constituent voter opinions are to him when weighed against the influence of Democrat Leaders and Corporate Donors? Earlier this week in front of TV cameras, he railed against government agency processing failures in the Passport Fiasco demanding to know "who's accountable and why this mess has happened as it is . . . who's miscalculation . . . (and said) you know when somebody points a finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you." Perhaps Senator Nelson should use this experience to look at the capacity of INS to handle an even larger amount of illegal aliens than imagined (which is very possible! If Senator Nelson votes to pass this Bill, (using the illustration Senator Nelson used) the finger he points at government failures in illegal alien processing - will leave three fingers pointing back at him. Both our Florida incumbent Senators may do well to remember the fates of Speaker of the House, Tom Foley and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle - who thought that as incumbents and even more so as "Leaders" that their reelection was secure, so secure that they could ignore the opinions of their constituents in favor of following their own personal agendas. Neither their political party leadership nor their corporate donors could save them from the wrath of their constituents at being ignored and disrespected - and they were thrown out of office at the next election. Last week a number of Senators wrote President Bush a letter calling on him to enforce existing border security laws "regardless of whether the Senate passes the immigration reform bill." Describing border security as "vital," the group says it's "the best way to restore trust with the American people and facilitate future improvements of our immigration policy." Last October President Bush signed a law authorizing 700 miles of Border Fencing (only 13 miles have been built so far) but there were loopholes written into the legislation that allowed Homeland Security to "redirect" those funds under certain conditions, mostly left up to . . . Homeland Security to decide! Border fencing along the California/Mexico Border around San Diego has drastically cut the number of illegal aliens crossing the border in that area. However within the last few days, Democrats in the House have gone about quietly changing border fencing Rules to now require all sorts of environmental and "neighborhood" approvals in an effort to make building border fencing slower and more difficult in this Bill as well as the 700 mile fencing legislation that passed last year. Now - what could possibly be motivating Democrats and a few Republicans to go behind the scenes to impede Border Fencing while loudly expressing their support of Border Security? Perhaps those corporate donors who finance their campaigns are not that anxious to stop the flow of cheap labor. Hmmmmmmm I wonder? Call and let our Senators tally your opinion 202-224-3121
|