Posted by
Edward Rourke on Thursday, December 25, 2008 3:39:37 AM
The debt exploding governmental power grab from all these bail outs is greasing the skids toward socialism. The colossal amount of money involved has over shadowed an equally pressing and immediate danger to our economy and to our society in general. That is the ever increasing cost of illegal immigration. The rapid increase in the combined cost of these 2 things is threatening to bankrupt the nation.
Illegal immigration is tolerated by some (including many Republicans aka RINO's) because it is said that they perform the function of doing necessary jobs that Americans won't do. It is also said that they use their money to purchase consumer goods helping to spur the economy. The problem is these arguments fall flat when measured against the true cost of illegal immigration.
First of all is it true that Americans won't do jobs currently being performed by illegals? No it is not. Generally speaking Americans won't take jobs that pay below market wages like illegals will. However this, like the rest of the economy in general, is largely a measure of supply and demand. Take away the army of illegal immigrants and you'll find that businesses will still have to fill these jobs. These businesses would have to raise salaries in order to attract workers. In the case of the Agriculture Industry this would have the effect of causing an increase in the price of consumer goods it the marketplace. This however would be money well spent. the cost to the US economy from illegal immigration is far more than an increase in the price of lettace. Keep in mind that one of the supposed benifits, that illegals use their money to buy consumer goods, is not quite accurate because they tend to send a portion of their money back to their home country. Americans doing the same job at a higher wage would be buying even more consumer goods with their increased salary, all of which would be staying here.
However the hit the economy takes due to illegal immigration goes much deper than this. The added costs illegals add in the area's of law enforcement, education, and health care are literally blowing the doors off the budget. The higher cost to law enforcement is do to the fact that illegals have a higher rate of running into trouble with the law. They also tend to have large families with low incomes who are not home owners. This means they are stressing school budgets where ever they are in large numbers. No where however is the budget busting power of illegal immigration more prevalent than in the area of health care. Their shear numbers are threatening to swamp the system. Also, because so many illegals are uninsured, they are driving up health care premiums of the insured to cover the difference.
Democrats view the issue slightly differently than Republicans. Democrats view illegal aliens as future constituants, regardless of the costs. For this reason don't expect Barak Obama and the Democrats to slow down the tide any time soon.