MY LORD, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE TALKING ABOUT? CA ALONE
PUTS OUT $22 BILLION PER YEAR IN SOCIAL SERVICES TO ILLEGALS, AND COUNTIES PAY
OUT EVEN MORE ON TOP OF THAT! LOS ANGELES COUNTY’S WELFARE TO ILLEGALS COST
$600 MILLION PER YEAR, PRIMARLY TO ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS…. AND STILL THE JOBS IN
L.A. ONLY GO TO HISPANICS!
*
Republicans
estimate immigration bill could cost taxpayers billions, Rubio challenges claim
Published April 04, 2013
FoxNews.com
Senate Republican staffers estimated Thursday
that the annual cost to taxpayers of legalizing illegal immigrants could be in
the billions, if they use their status to apply for federal benefits from
Medicaid and ObamaCare. The claim, though, was challenged by Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio, a key Republican engaged in immigration bill talks.
Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee --
responding to an emerging immigration proposal that includes a path to
citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants -- had estimated that the cost
could total up to $40 billion in 2022, "just for Medicaid and
ObamaCare."
"The net costs would be enormous and
only increase once citizenship is granted," the office of Alabama Sen.
Jeff Sessions, top Republican on the committee, said in a statement
Thursday. The estimates were crunched by budget committee Republican
staff.
Payments from Medicaid and subsidies from the
federal health care law represent just a fraction of federal government
benefits that a green-card holder or U.S. citizen can apply for.
But Rubio spokesman Alex Conant disputed the
numbers, saying in a statement late Thursday that it's simply too early to
provide cost estimates.
"Since we don't yet have a legislative
proposal, it's not possible to come up with anything resembling an accurate
calculation about the potential fiscal impact of bipartisan immigration
reform," he said.
Conant added that Rubio is concerned about
the "potential fiscal impact" of the bill and will request an
"in-depth" budget analysis.
"Senator Rubio has been clear that he
will only support legislation that prohibits undocumented immigrants from
receiving any federal benefits, and in our negotiations, the Democrats have
gone along with that demand -- even agreeing to a partial repeal of ObamaCare
to bar undocumented immigrants benefits. In the long-term, there's no question
that modernizing our broken legal immigration will be very good for our
nation's economy," he said.
Rubio, R-Fla., a key member of the "Gang
of Eight" which is drafting a proposal, has stressed that he would ensure
there are limits on benefits being applied to these individuals. He told Fox
News in January that the first phase for them would be to get a nonimmigrant
visa -- not a green card -- "and you don't qualify for any federal
benefits under that. You don't get federal benefits."
Their eligibility, though, would change once
they get a green card.
Sessions' office voiced concern Thursday that
a law -- which dates back a century and was renewed by Congress in 1996 --
meant to prevent immigrants from taking root in the U.S. only to live on the
government dole would not be applied here.
That law is supposed to turn away those
immigrants who are likely to become a "public charge." But the
statement Thursday claimed nothing in the current plan would apply to those
already in the country before they are granted legal status.
Further, numbers recently provided by the
Department of Homeland Security indicated the "public charge"
standard is not aggressively enforced. The department found just one case for
most of fiscal 2012 where the claim was leveled at an immigrant. "However,
the charge was later withdrawn," DHS reported.
The department blamed "data entry
quality" for not having complete information on how many immigrants became
public charges.
Despite widespread reports and speculation
about the immigration bill being drafted, a bill has not yet been introduced.
Senators are working out the details in hopes of bringing it before Congress in
the coming weeks.