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THE STAGGERING COST OF THE WELFARE STATE MEXICO AND THE LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEMOCRAT PARTY HAVE BUILT BORDER to OPEN BORDER’
According to the Federation
for American Immigration Reform’s 2017 report, illegal
immigrants, and their children, cost American taxpayers a net $116 billion
annually -- roughly $7,000 per alien annually. While high, this number is not
an outlier: a recent study by the Heritage
Foundation found that low-skilled immigrants (including those here
illegally) cost Americans trillions over
the course of their lifetimes, and a study from the National
Economics Editorial found that illegal immigration
costs America over $140 billion annually. As it stands, illegal immigrants are
a massive burden on American taxpayers.
Democrats Can Fund the World, but Not the Wall
There is nothing like a government shutdown to illustrate clearly the priorities of the two opposing sides to the standoff. On one side is President Trump, keeping a campaign promise to build a wall, to keep crime, sex-trafficking, drugs, and terrorism, not to mention the unfunded burden of illegal aliens, out of America.
On the other side are the Democrats, hell-bent on keeping 25 percent of the government closed for business rather than funding border security, a concept they wholeheartedly supported a decade ago.
Who's winning and who's losing the battle? If you watch cable news, it's clear that the president is on the ropes, having backed himself into a corner. Reality sings a different tune. How did we get here?
Donald Trump, announcing his candidacy for president in June 2015, rode down the escalator at Trump Tower and said, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best." He went on, "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
These were among his first pronouncements that day and have been a constant theme of his rallies and tweets since then – including this tweet from a few days ago.
Democrats were once in favor of border security, too. Many, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006. This provided for, "Operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States."
Now, because it's 2019 and Trump is president, Democrats are conveniently against border security. This is a common theme of Democrats, frequently for something before they are against it. Remember John Kerry and the Iraq War?
The current fight is over a mere $5 billion in funding for a wall – or a "fence" if the term "wall" is offensive, but a physical barrier between two nations, controlling who and what traipses from one country to the other. The federal budget is $4.4 trillion, meaning wall funding represents about a tenth of a percent of the budget, a rounding error. What else are Nancy Pelosi and colleagues spending money on? How about foreign aid?
The 2019 federal budget requests nearly $27 billion in foreign aid for economic development, health, humanitarian assistance, peace and security, and other objectives. This is over half the cost of securing "[t]he entire international land and maritime borders of the United States" something Democrats were keen about in 2006.
The Secure Fence Act of 2006 budgeted $50 billion over 25 years to control America's borders. Unfortunately, Congress appropriated only $1.4 billion and forgot about the rest. The foreign aid request above was for one single year. Two years of the foreign aid budget spent instead on U.S. border security would create the type of physical borders so common in the countries we are generously supporting.
Fund the world, but not America.
It's instructive to compare the current administration to the past one, since the media treat the last administration as the Second Coming and the current administration as the Fourth Reich.
In 2012, Congress appropriated $40 billion in foreign aid, a billion more than what was requested. In 2013, the amount went up to $43 billion appropriated. The following year, 2014, $42 billion was appropriated.
Let's look at what was actually spent on foreign aid in Barack Obama's final year of 2016: $31 billion total – more than half of what America needs to insure its own "peace and security."
Countries receiving American taxpayer largess include Pakistan, $687 million, the same country that provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden. Seven point two billion dollars went to Afghanistan, with not much to show for it other than its opium products finding their way through our unsecure southern border.
Five hundred seventy million went to Syria, a country where I thought Obama was calling for regime change. Even China received $20 million. I thought China was our geopolitical and economic adversary! A few hundred million each went to most African countries, quickly adding up to the grand total of $31 billion.
This is not to say that all foreign aid is bad, as clearly, it is not. America is the most generous nation in the world. Much of our foreign aid is lifesaving. Much of it is also wasted or filling the Swiss bank accounts of foreign thug leaders – or worse, finding its way into the bank accounts of those who appropriated the money from the U.S. Treasury.
How else to explain members of Congress living in multimillion-dollar mansions or having net worths in the tens of millions while earning a congressional salary of under $200,000 per year?
An old proverb says, "Charity begins at home." Even the Bible reinforces the idea in 1 Timothy 5:8: "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
American taxpayers are footing the bill not only for foreign aid, but also for illegal immigration, which costs U.S. taxpayers $115 billion a year.
Then there is the human toll, from Kate Steinle to police officer Ronil Singh. Or the previously deported illegal alien who viciously raped a woman in New York. Or another previously deported illegal who raped a child in Philadelphia.
Don't forget illegal drugs. Heroin and cocaine aren't produced domestically and instead transit our southern border. How much Chinese fentanyl is arriving through Mexico?
The United States gives about a million dollars a year in aid to Hungary, the same country that was able to fund the construction of "a second fence on the border with Serbia to keep migrants out."
Congress is happy to give money to countries to secure their borders, but House Democrats refuse to spend a dime for the same security measures in their own country.
Shameful, but the shutdown is illustrating Democrat priorities, especially for Pelosi-Schumer Democrats. Let's have the debate. Where do taxpayers want their hard-earned money to go? To foreign countries so they can secure their borders and protect their citizens? Or should some of that money stay here, providing safety and security for Americans?
Trump will get his wall, either through an eventual budget deal or via the military on the basis of national security. The shutdown may simply be Trump's way of exposing Democrat priorities, which are not for those they are elected to represent or the constitution they swore to support and defend.
Democrats may believe that the shutdown is a way to insulate themselves against exposure of their real priorities, but the longer the shutdown goes on, the more their insulation melts away.
Gavin Newsom’s First Act as California Governor: More Healthcare for Illegal Aliens
2:32
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s first act in office was to propose extending state healthcare benefits to more illegal aliens.
On Tuesday, shortly after being sworn in, Newsom — who ran on the proposal of providing healthcare to everyone in California, though he struggled to explain how he would pay for it — signed an executive order taking steps in that direction.
In his first executive order, Newsom directed the state to create a single government purchaser for prescription drugs to increase negotiating leverage with pharmaceutical companies. Alongside the order, Newsom proposed extending Medi-Cal — the state’s version of Medicaid — to illegal aliens up to the age of 26, rather than 19.
Breitbart TV
The governor’s forthcoming budget, his office said, “will make California the first state in the nation to cover young undocumented adults through a state Medicaid program.”
That would cover 138,000 “young people in the country illegally,” according to the Associated Press.
“Undocumented young adults should not have to worry about losing their health coverage when they turn 19,” the governor’s office added, saying that the budget proposals, to be presented later this week, would defend Obamacare from “recent federal attacks” and “bring the state closer toward the goal of health care for all.”
In his inaugural address, Newsom promised “sanctuary to all who seek it” — a reference to California’s status as a “sanctuary state” for illegal aliens that refuses to help enforce federal immigration law.
That policy continues to be a lightning rod for national criticism after the murder last month of Corporal Ronil Singh, a legal immigrant and police officer who was allegedly shot and killed by an illegal alien during a traffic stop.
In addition, Newsom’s new budget “proposes increasing the size of the subsidies for families who already receive it, and it would make California the first state to make subsidies available to middle income families,” his office said.
To pay for the expansion of those benefits, Newsom is proposing that California restore the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, which was canceled by President Donald Trump at the federal level.
To pay for the expansion of those benefits, Newsom is proposing that California restore the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, which was canceled by President Donald Trump at the federal level.
Schumer also sent a letter to President Trump and to congressional leaders asking for legislative changes that he argues would make it easier for states, including California, to develop a single-payer healthcare system.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Sheriff David Clarke (Ret.)
Enabling Criminal Aliens
Source: AP Photo/Noah Berger
The murder of Newman California
Police Corporal Ronil Singh allegedly by an illegal alien with a criminal past
is the latest high-profile killing of an American citizen that contains nearly
every element in our illegal immigration discourse.
Singh,
33, legally immigrated to the United States, became a U.S. citizen, and then
became one of Newman’s finest citizens serving as a police officer for twelve
years. Singh’s legal entry into the U.S. added value to our country. Sadly,
this husband and father of a 5-month-old son was allegedly murdered by an
illegal criminal alien gang member on Christmas Eve.
This
tragedy was preventable.
Singh’s
suspected murderer had “prior criminal activity that should have been reported
to ICE,” Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson had said. “Law enforcement
was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with
(Cpl.) Singh… the outcome could have been different if law enforcement wasn’t
restricted or had their hands tied because of political interference.”
California
is a state that provides a safe harbor for people illegally in the country.
California boasts its status as a sanctuary state in violation of federal law
and the supremacy clause in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. California
cities have passed laws prohibiting local law enforcement agencies from
cooperating with law enforcement officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) with the apprehension of illegal immigrants even after they
have committed a crime. Many of these illegal criminals continue on to murder,
rape and rob U.S. citizens post-release from a local jail under the
catch-and-release policies before notifying ICE officials.
Currently,
the threshold for immediate deportation proceedings is set too low.
Catch-and-release instead of being detained pending an immigration hearing is
like unleashing a dangerous animal into a public space. Eventually, we’ll be
dealing with an avoidable catastrophe.
Typically
the definition to detain involves only crimes such as murder, rape, and armed
robbery. That’s about it. Serious drug dealing or gun possessions are not
considered crimes of violence under this strict definition. Neither does
burglary or the severe crime of driving under the influence of alcohol. As we
have seen over and over through the cost of American lives, many additional
crimes pose equally great risks to our communities should these illegal
criminal aliens be released without detaining for ICE.
Burglary
is a felony and as far as I am concerned a crime of violence. It’s not merely a
property crime that results in minor victimization. It involves forced entry.
It is a category Part I crime by FBI statistics. Part I crimes are serious
felonies. Anybody whose home has been broken into suffers a traumatic mental
experience. I have seen it when investigating burglaries. People who once felt
safe in their homes lose that sense of security after their home is
burglarized. Their kids have nightmares; adults sleep with one eye open and
every little noise in the house startles them. It takes a long time to heal.
Burglary costs Americans an estimated 4 billion in property loss every year,
but this does not include the psychological damage. The fact that many states
allow residents to use deadly force to stop intruders means that a burglary
could end violently for the intruder. It will if it happens at my home and I am
there.
Another
offense that is marginalized by sympathetic lawmakers is driving under the
influence. It is not merely a traffic offense. Tens of thousands of people are
killed and maimed by impaired drivers every year. I have arrived on the scene
of crashes involving impaired drivers. Seeing lifeless and mutilated bodies is
not pretty. This is why most states take it so seriously that a first offense
is a crime punishable by imprisonment. Many make a second and third offense a
felony. It’s worth mentioning that the illegal alien who allegedly murdered
Cpl. Singh had two prior arrests for DUI and was being stopped by Cpl. Singh
for suspected driving under the influence again.
A
recent Pew Research study on crimes committed by illegal aliens indicates it’s
time to take this seriously. The study shows that
the bulk of those arrested in 2016 and 2017 had prior criminal convictions. It
indicates that in 2017 illegal immigrants with past criminal convictions
accounted for 74% of all arrests made by ICE which is a 30% increase from the
year before. The study points out that those with no previous conviction
increased by 146% compared to a 12% increase of those with a past criminal
conviction. They have demonstrated a propensity to victimize. This conviction
rate includes nearly 60,000 arrested for drunk driving and approximately 58,000
arrested for dangerous drug dealing (opioids). The other classification of
convictions are as follows:
Assaults:
48,454
Larceny:
20,356
General
Crimes: 17,325
Obstructing
Police: 14,616
Burglary:
12,836
These
numbers are not insignificant. Nobody takes the time to point out to the
criminal alien apologists that the cost associated with these crimes include
police and court costs, incarceration costs, property loss and damage, medical
costs, psychological trauma, lost work time and increased insurance rates
adding up to billions of dollars. Therefore, the policy on when to deport and
for what reasons also needs to reflect these costs to the American people. The
time to deport is before they go on to serious offenses, not after.
Redefining
what constitutes deporting a criminal alien is needed. By changing the
definition from what is considered a ‘violent act’ to a ‘serious act’ would be
more inclusive of the dangerous crimes I have highlighted in this article. Our
laws need to reflect the protection of the American people not sympathy for
criminal aliens.
Is
it not asking too much for people in the country illegally to obey all of our
laws, not just a select few? Neither you nor I would be granted this courtesy
if we were even lawfully in a foreign country with a valid passport and
committed a misdemeanor crime not involving violence. Deportation would be
certain and swift with no release pending a deportation hearing.
It
is time for U.S. policy to change. The American people should not have to
accept such great risks when they don’t have to. They should not have to stand
by idly before a criminal illegal alien victimizes another American citizen.
It
is bad enough that our criminal justice system is soft on crime when it comes
to people legally in the country but when that same leniency is granted to
criminal aliens it’s a problem, and it’s time to recalculate our generosity.
The
position of most politicians in Washington D.C., except for a few Democrats who
are sympathetic to all illegal migrants, is that concerning deportations we
should deal with the criminal aliens first. An overwhelming majority of
Americans agree. Nobody wants to be victimized by a criminal, nonetheless, ones
who should have been deported.
When
we water down the standard for what is criminal behavior, we are heading toward
a very dark place. Crime is crime. Period. This should be the standard for
automatic deportation for criminal aliens.
Once
we get the criminal illegals out, a wall is required to prevent these thugs
from running back in and continuing to victimize Americans like Cpl. Singh who
hours before his death stopped home to visit his family on Christmas Eve,
kissing his wife and child for the last time. The picture of him with his
family taken just hours before his death should serve as a grave reminder to
all who want to hug a criminal illegal alien that at any moment they can lash
out and kill an American, and that it could have been avoided if Congress had
its priorities straight and put politics aside to do what’s right.
NY Times: ’40-Year’ Flood of Immigration Turns Orange County
Blue
2 Jan 20191,184
4:50
The New York
Times admits a “40-year rise in the number of
immigrants” living in Orange County, California has transformed the region from
a “fortress of conservative Republicanism” to a Democrat electoral sweep.
The Times notes in a piece titled
“In Orange County, a Republican
Fortress Turns Democratic” that the rapid demographic changes of the county —
which now has a more than 30 percent foreign-born population — has swiftly handed the region over
to Democrats.
Breitbart News reported that
Orange County’s booming foreign-born populations of mostly Asian immigrants and
migrants from Central America coincided with Democrats sweeping the midterm
elections in an area that gave birth to President Richard Nixon.
The Times now acknowledges the
demographic changes are at least partially responsible for the diminishing
Republican representation in Orange County:
There was a steady decrease in white voters in the seven
congressional districts that are in and around Orange County between 1980 and
2017, according to census data. In
1980, whites made up 75 percent of the population in the district where Mr.
Cisneros won. By 2017, that number dropped to 30 percent.
[Emphasis added]
The county’s immigrant population grew five times as fast as the
general population between 1980 and 2000, and while the pace of
immigration has slowed, the
Latino and Asian populations continues to increase, driven by
the children of immigrant families born in the United States. [Emphasis added]
…
“You went from a solid Republican county to one in which
Republicans were just barely the majority, and it
fell pretty quickly in the past two years,” said Ms. Godwin. “You have had continued demographic changes.
This is a county that went from majority-white to having a majority that are
Latino and Asian-American. So that has gone hand-in-hand — particularly
with the rising Asian-American population — to voting more Democratic.” [Emphasis
added]
In a series of charts, Times reporters Robert
Gebeloff and Jasmine C. Lee. reveal that while Orange County has become less
and less Republican, the foreign-born population has grown significantly, the
share of college graduates has peaked, and the white American population
has fallen drastically.
HOME
TO DIANNE FEINSTEIN, NANCY PELOSI, KAMALA HARRIS AND GAVIN NEWSOM
Adios,
Sanctuary La Raza Welfare State of California
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator, October 19, 2017
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
A fifth-generation Californian laments his state’s ongoing economic collapse.
By Steve Baldwin
American Spectator, October 19, 2017
What’s clear is that the producers are leaving the state and the takers are coming in. Many of the takers are illegal aliens, now estimated to number over 2.6 million. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that California spends $22 billion on government services for illegal aliens, including welfare, education, Medicaid, and criminal justice system costs.
BLOG: MANY DISPUTE CALIFORNIA’S EXPENDITURES
FOR THE LA RAZA WELFARE STATE IN MEXIFORNIA JUST AS THEY DISPUTE THE NUMBER OF
ILLEGALS. APPROXIMATELY HALF THE POPULATION OF CA IS NOW MEXICAN AND BREEDING
ANCHOR BABIES FOR WELFARE LIKE BUNNIES. THE $22 BILLION IS STATE EXPENDITURE
ONLY. COUNTIES PAY OUT MORE WITH LOS ANGELES COUNTY LEADING AT OVER A BILLION
DOLLARS PAID OUT YEARLY TO MEXICO’S ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS. NOW MULTIPLY THAT BY
THE NUMBER OF COUNTIES IN CA AND YOU START TO GET AN IDEA OF THE STAGGERING
WELFARE STATE MEXICO AND THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAVE ERECTED SANS ANY LEGALS VOTES.
ADD TO THIS THE FREE ENTERPRISE HOSPITAL AND CLINIC COST FOR LA RAZA’S “FREE”
MEDICAL WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT $1.5 BILLION PER YEAR.
Liberals claim they more than make that up with
taxes paid, but that’s simply not true. It’s not even close. FAIR estimates
illegal aliens in California contribute only $1.21 billion in tax revenue,
which means they cost California $20.6 billion, or at least $1,800 per
household.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
Nonetheless, open border advocates, such as Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg, claim illegal aliens are a net benefit to California with little evidence to support such an assertion. As the Center for Immigration Studies has documented, the vast majority of illegals are poor, uneducated, and with few skills. How does accepting millions of illegal aliens and then granting them access to dozens of welfare programs benefit California’s economy? If illegal aliens were contributing to the economy in any meaningful way, California, with its 2.6 million illegal aliens, would be booming.
Furthermore, the complexion of illegal aliens has changed with far more on welfare and committing crimes than those who entered the country in the 1980s. Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens. Granted, those statistics are old, but if you talk to any California law enforcement officer, they will tell you it’s much worse today. The problem is that the Brown administration will not release any statewide data on illegal alien crimes. That would be insensitive. And now that California has declared itself a “sanctuary state,” there is little doubt this sends a message south of the border that will further escalate illegal immigration into the state.
"If the
racist "Sensenbrenner Legislation" passes the US Senate, there is no
doubt that a massive civil disobedience movement will emerge. Eventually labor
union power can merge with the immigrant civil rights and "Immigrant Sanctuary" movements
to enable us to either form a new political party or to do heavy duty reforming
of the existing Democratic Party. The next and final steps would follow and
that is to elect our own governors of all the states within Aztlan."
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
Indeed, California goes out of its way to attract illegal aliens. The state has even created government programs that cater exclusively to illegal aliens. For example, the State Department of Motor Vehicles has offices that only process driver licenses for illegal aliens. With over a million illegal aliens now driving in California, the state felt compelled to help them avoid the long lines the rest of us must endure at the DMV. And just recently, the state-funded University of California system announced it will spend $27 million on financial aid for illegal aliens. They’ve even taken out radio spots on stations all along the border, just to make sure other potential illegal border crossers hear about this program. I can’t afford college education for all my four sons, but my taxes will pay for illegals to get a college education.
https://spectator.org/adios-california/?utm_source=American+Spectator+Emails&utm_campaign=6e1b467cf4
If
Immigration Creates Wealth, Why Is California America's Poverty Capital?
California
used to be home to America's largest and most affluent middle
class. Today, it is America's poverty
capital. What went wrong? In a word:
immigration. According to the U.S. Census Bureau'...:
The Golden State is peddling fool's gold lately.
California used to be home to America's largest and most
affluent middle class. Today, it is America's poverty
capital. What went wrong? In a word: immigration.
According
to the U.S. Census Bureau's Official
Poverty Measure, California's poverty rate hovers around 15
percent. But this figure is misleading: the Census Bureau measures
poverty relative to a uniform national standard, which doesn't account for
differences in living costs between states – the cost of taxes, housing, and
health care are higher in California than in Oklahoma, for
example. Accounting for these differences reveals that California's
real poverty rate is 20.6 percent – the highest in America, and
nearly twice the national average of 12.7 percent.
Likewise, income
inequality in California is the second-highest in America, behind
only New York. In fact, if California were an independent country,
it would be the 17th most unequal country on Earth, nestled comfortably between
Honduras and Guatemala. Mexico is slightly more
egalitarian. California is far more unequal than the "social
democracies" it emulates: Canada is the 111th most unequal nation,
while Norway is far down the list at number 153 (out of 176
countries). In terms of income inequality, California has more in
common with banana republics than other "social democracies."
More
Government, More Poverty
High
taxes, excessive regulations, and a lavish welfare state – these are the standard
explanations for California's poverty epidemic. They have some
merit. For example, California has both the highest personal income
tax rate and the highest sales tax in America, according to Politifact.
Not
only are California's taxes high, but successive "progressive"
governments have swamped the state in a sea of red tape. Onerous
regulations cripple small businesses and retard economic
growth. Kerry Jackson, a fellow with the Pacific Research Institute,
gives a few specific examples of how excessive government regulation hurts
California's poor. He writes in a recent op-ed for the Los
Angeles Times:
Extensive
environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions make
energy more expensive, also hurting the poor. By some estimates,
California energy costs are as much as 50% higher than the national
average. Jonathan A. Lesser of Continental Economics ... found that
"in 2012, nearly 1 million California households faced ... energy
expenditures exceeding 10% of household income."
Some
government regulation is necessary and desirable, but most of California's is
not. There is virtue in governing with a "light touch."
Finally,
California's welfare state is, perhaps paradoxically, a source of poverty in
the state. The Orange
Country Register reports that California's social safety net is
comparable in scale to those found in Europe:
In California a mother with two children under the age of 5 who
participates in these major welfare programs – Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), housing
assistance, home energy assistance, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants and Children – would receive a benefits package worth $30,828
per year.
... [Similar] benefits in Europe ranged from $38,588 per year in
Denmark to just $1,112 in Romania. The California benefits package
is higher than in well-known welfare states as France ($17,324), Germany
($23,257) and even Sweden ($22,111).
Although
welfare states ideally help the poor, reality is
messy. There are three main problems with the welfare
state. First, it incentivizes poverty by rewardingthe
poor with government handouts that are often far more valuable than a
job. This can be ameliorated to some degree by imposing work
requirements on welfare recipients, but in practice, such requirements are
rarely imposed. Second, welfare states are expensive. This means higher taxes and therefore slower economic
growth and fewer job opportunities for everyone – including the poor.
Finally,
welfare states are magnets for the poor. Whether through domestic
migration or foreign immigration, poor people flock to places with generous
welfare states. This is logical from the immigrant's perspective,
but it makes little sense from the taxpayer's. This fact is why
socialism and open borders arefundamentally
incompatible.
Why
Big Government?
Since
1960, California's population
exploded from 15.9 to 39 million people. The growth
was almost entirely due to immigration – many people came from other states,
but the majority came from abroad. The Public Policy
Institute of California estimates that 10 million immigrants
currently reside in California. This works out to 26 percent of the
state's population.
This figure includes
2.4 million illegal aliens, although a recent study from Yale University suggests that the
true number of aliens is at least double that. Modifying the initial
figure implies that nearly one in three Californians is an immigrant. This
is not to disparage California's immigrant population, but it is madness to
deny that such a large influx of people has changed California's society and
economy.
Importantly,
immigrants vote Democrat by a ratio higher than 2:1, according to a report
from the Center
for Immigration Studies. In California, immigration has
increased the pool of likely Democrat voters by nearly 5 million people,
compared to just 2.4 million additional likely Republican
voters. Not only does this almost guarantee Democratic victories,
but it also shifts California's political midpoint to the left. This
means that to remain competitive in elections, the Republicans must abandon
or soften many conservative positions so as to cater to the center.
California became a Democratic stronghold not because Californians
became socialists, but because millions of socialists moved
there. Immigration turned California blue, and immigration is
ultimately to blame for California's high poverty level.
California,
the Shithole State and Getting Worse by the Day.
By Wayne Allyn Root
Gateway Pundit,
California is Exhibit A. It’s filled with
immigrants. Ten million to be exact. Many of them illegal. Guess which state
has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or
West Virginia, but California- where nearly one out of five residents is poor.
That’s according to the Census Bureau.
While California accounts for 12% of America’s population, it accounts for one third of America’s welfare checks. California leads the country in food stamp use. California has more people on welfare than most countries around the world.
. . .
If immigration is so great for our country and illegal aliens “contribute a net positive” to society…how do you explain what’s happening in California?
I haven’t even gotten to the taxes. The income taxes, business taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes are all the highest in the nation. Why do you think that is? To pay the enormous costs of illegal immigration. To pay for the education costs, healthcare costs, police, courts, lawyers, prisons, and hundreds of different welfare programs for millions of California’s illegal aliens and struggling legal immigrants too.
But you haven’t heard the worst yet. California- the immigrant capital of America- is filthy. Perhaps the filthiest place on earth. Filthier than the slums of Calcutta. Filthier than the poorest slums of Brazil and Africa.
NBC journalists recently conducted a survey of San Francisco. They found piles of smelly garbage on the streets, used needles, gallons of urine and piles of feces- all near famous tourist attractions, fancy hotels, government buildings and children’s playgrounds.
While California accounts for 12% of America’s population, it accounts for one third of America’s welfare checks. California leads the country in food stamp use. California has more people on welfare than most countries around the world.
. . .
If immigration is so great for our country and illegal aliens “contribute a net positive” to society…how do you explain what’s happening in California?
I haven’t even gotten to the taxes. The income taxes, business taxes, sales taxes and gas taxes are all the highest in the nation. Why do you think that is? To pay the enormous costs of illegal immigration. To pay for the education costs, healthcare costs, police, courts, lawyers, prisons, and hundreds of different welfare programs for millions of California’s illegal aliens and struggling legal immigrants too.
But you haven’t heard the worst yet. California- the immigrant capital of America- is filthy. Perhaps the filthiest place on earth. Filthier than the slums of Calcutta. Filthier than the poorest slums of Brazil and Africa.
NBC journalists recently conducted a survey of San Francisco. They found piles of smelly garbage on the streets, used needles, gallons of urine and piles of feces- all near famous tourist attractions, fancy hotels, government buildings and children’s playgrounds.
Bienvenidos a Mexico:
California's ballot-harvesting, sure enough, is borrowed from Mexico
In an extraordinary investigative piece on
how ballot-harvesting works by Steve Miller, published on Real Clear
Investigations, we learn an amazing amount of information about how
ballot-harvesting works and why it's so closely connected to election fraud,
skewing elections in directions they normally wouldn't go. Themust-read
piece is focused on how Texas
is dealing with the seedy issue, enforcing the law, prosecuting more than twice as
many cases of electoral fraud as
California, even hampered as Texas is by weak penalties for violators. But a
little detail stands out much deeper into the piece: Ballot-harvesting, which
is at the root of considerable fraud of all kinds, is a practice specifically
borrowed from Latin America, with a very
impressive Latino analyst, K.B. Forbes, who
has electoral experience in both countries, citing Mexico. Here's the passage:
The practice
has its roots in Latin America, said K.B. Forbes, a political consultant
and Hispanic activist who has served as an elections observer in Sonora,
Mexico. “In the Latin culture, they have colonias, which is ‘little colony,’
literally,” he said. “In these, they sometimes have the equivalent of a
precinct boss, and that’s how people move up. The [politiqueras] deliver the
vote and when the candidate moves in, the theory is that they get a good post
inside the government.”
That brings up California, where
ballot-harvesting is perfectly legal, and normal voters have to wonder how the
heck that happened. Ballot-harvesting has been a disaster for Republicans in
California, with all conservatives now shut out from any representation in
once-red Orange County. Most congressional elections there showed Republican
candidates in the lead on election night in the last midterm, but all of them
flipped to Democrats as the Democrat-led ballot-harvesting brought in votes and
votes and votes from supposed precincts, harvested by their political
operatives, until the result went the other way. (This by the way, didn't
happen in districts where Democrats held a small lead, nothing flipped in their
cases and ballots did not keep rolling in).
If ballot harvesting is a practice
imported from Mexican politics, what does that say about California politics,
whose legislators would embrace Mexican electoral practices over the U.S.
standard? As I mentioned earlier, Mexico has been called "a perfect
dicatorship" by none other than
Nobel Prize-winning literary lion Mario Vargas Llosa, owing to the continuous
power of the Mexican Partido
Revolucionario Institucional (or
P.R.I.), which up under a decade or two ago, had a hammerlock monopoly on
Mexican politics, winning every single election in what was then a one-party
state. That's a system so bad people emigrated illegally from that country to
get away from it. Now, the cultural practice is right there waiting for them in
California, albeit, virtually nowhere else.
And like the P.R.I.'s Mexican electoral
practice of ballot-harvesting, it's noteworthy that the ruling Democrats of
California also are famous for doling out the goodies to the loyal voters.
They've promised amazing things to California's illegal immigrant population,
with the latest thing free heath care. California's insurance commissioner, the
respected non-partisan Steve Poizner, was, conveniently, ballot-harvested out
of office after an election-night lead several days after midterm by utterly
leftist Democrat Ricardo Lara who openly declared his support and big plans for
free health care for illegals. He's tried it before in the legislator and now
he's going to do it this time through the executive. California's incoming
governor, of course, is all in for the goody-slinging. In Mexico, they used to
pass out bags of beans for votes. In California, the prizes are considerably
higher, and they go well beyond free health care. I've already noted the
weird similarities to how California is run, and P.R.I-style politics here.
Any wonder California is going way out of
its way to welcome illegal immigrants? "You're all welcome here," as
Gov. Jerry Brown famously said. California already hosts a quarter of the
nation's illegals, and with middle class families now moving out due to high
living costs and punitive taxation, the California P.R.I. likes new bodies
coming in who have a lot of needs, which keeps the congressional seats numerous
and the federal funds flowing.
It all makes a normal person wonder about
the weird closeness of California officials and their Mexican counterparts,
too. Newsom has already paid a visit to Mexico to discuss the caravan with the
Mexican government in Mexico City (not Tijuana, where he would have gotten a
earful from the generally conservative and more dissident-oriented Tijuana
locals), and he has declared he plans to withdraw National Guard troops from
the U.S. border. With his party now embracing the P.R.I's style of governance
and having some unnaturally close ties to Mexican officials (I've seen it
myself at Los Angeles functions as a guest of the Mexican government), it looks
like a growing merger of Mexican and California politics.
Mexico knows how bad the system is, and
its citizens did rebel against it with a Trump-like leftist president, Andres
Manuel Lopez-Obrador, who won on a vow to end corruption. One can safely take
that as a sign that Mexicans are trying to move away from that kind of
politics, which of course would include ballot harvesting. California, on the
other hand, is moving toward it, embracing what Mexico is trying to reject.
That speaks pretty poorly for the sorry state of affairs in California. It's
only great for the rulers and those they patronize, until the money runs out.
Until then, clarification about
California's Mexico borrowings need to stand as an incentive to other states
about what not to do.
It Pays to be Illegal in California
It
certainly is a good time to be an illegal alien in California. Democratic State
Sen. Ricardo Lara last week pitched a bill to permit illegal immigrants to
serve on all state and local boards and commissions. This week, lawmakers
unveiled a $1 billion health care plan that would include spending
$250 million to extend health care coverage to all illegal alien adults.
“Currently,
undocumented adults are explicitly and unjustly locked out of healthcare due to
their immigration status. In a matter of weeks, California legislators will
have a decisive opportunity to reverse that cruel and counterproductive fact,”
Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula said in Monday’s Sacramento Bee.
His
legislation, Assembly Bill 2965, would give as many as 114,000
uninsured illegal aliens access to Medi-Cal programs. A companion bill has been
sponsored by State Sen. Richard Lara.
But that
could just be a drop in the bucket. The Democrats’ plan covers more than
100,000 illegal aliens with annual incomes bless than $25,000, however an
estimated 1.3 million might be eligible based on their earnings.
In addition,
it is estimated that 20 percent of those living in California illegally are
uninsured – the $250 million covers just 11 percent.
So, will
politicians soon be asking California taxpayers once again to dip into their
pockets to pay for the remaining 9 percent?
Before
they ask for more, Democrats have to win the approval of Gov. Jerry Brown, who
cautioned against spending away the state’s surplus when he introduced his $190 billion budget
proposal in January.
Given
Brown’s openness to expanding Medi-Cal expansions in recent years, not to
mention his proclivity for blindly supporting any measure benefitting
lawbreaking immigrants, the latest fiscal irresponsibility may win approval.
And if he
takes a pass, the two Democrats most likely to succeed Brown – Lt. Gov. Gavin
Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – favor excessive social spending and are actively courting
illegal immigrant support.
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