At a Cost of $5T, This isn’t Just Nativism, Ruben
By Repair Man Jack Posted in Immigration — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Cross-Posted at: THE MINORITY REPORT
The debate over the new Senate Immigration Reform Bill hasn’t even gone a week yet, and the race card has come down. Ruben Navarrette claims the primary objections to the entire project are related to “cultural anxiety.” He thinks we’re afraid of becoming a Hispanic nation.
“The same day, the Census Bureau reported what many Americans already know: The United States is becoming a Hispanic nation. Hispanics are the nation's largest minority with 44.3 million people and they account for almost half the growth in the U.S. population. Meanwhile, since 2000, the white school-age population dropped 4 percent, and the white population shrank in sixteen states.”
This analysis has some, limited merit. There are diseased individuals who refer to recent immigrants, even those here legally, as “One of them.” However, nativism happened when “one of them” meant being Polish, Irish or Italian. Hispanics are not facing anything worse than any other immigrant group that ever came to America.
That being said, Navarette gives me every impression that he would be just as bad of a cultural bigot if somehow the tables were turned. Whatever point Navarette may have scored by tearing into living, breathing straw men like Patrick J. Buchanan, and then conflating their views with those of every other opponent of the Senate immigration fiasco, was rapidly given back on this own goal.
“(That reminds me. Memo to the low skilled: "Grow up. Stop complaining. And go get more skills. Then you won't have to suffer the humiliation of being driven out of the market by folks with a sixth-grade education who are here illegally and don't even speak English.")”
I don’t dislike Navarette personally for disagreeing with my position on this particularly poorly done piece of legislation. I perhaps need to explain myself in the simple language of people like Ruben. His logic seems to operate one step below the level of automation.
Memo to Ruben Navarette: “Find some basic humility and learn the same respect for others that you so piously demand for yourself. Being a differently pigmented rectal orifice does not make you any more diverse than Patrick J. Buchanan. We don’t hate you for your cultural background. It’s the condescension, Stupid!”
Ruben Navarette posits his unfair attack on immigration bill opponents in a climate of utter uninformed fantasy. Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation has done the math for less skilled workers like Navarette.
According to Rector’s numbers, the US Government acquires an additional $500K in lifetime deficit (for the sake of this estimate, lifetime = 25 years of welfare expenditures) for every current illegal alien given a class Z visa. Assuming a conservative estimate of 10M illegals currently, and assuming the bill’s security features work so well that no new illegals ever get in, that’s a bill of $5T. According Navarette, only a Klansman on Jack Daniels would get worked up about that.
To put this financial disaster in proper perspective, the US Government currently owes about $8.8T in current obligations. If we assume our budget will balance every year for the next 25 years, with the exception of this immigration bill’s new expenses, we will have a deficit on the order of $13.8T. All alone, this bill adds 36% to the US national debt. Who, other than a silly bigot, would get bent out of shape over that?
Ruben Navarette opines that our current immigration bill would be a slam dunk if it weren’t for pernicious nativism. He virtually ignores objections based on cost and feasibility. He sees an increase of $5T in the US national debt as an excuse used to prop up the lame arguments of unskilled workers. The man’s mischaracterization of the Senate Immigration Bill’s opponents is simply ludicrous.