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.
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.
"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.
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'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.
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