August 21, 2006

Senate Immigration Bill: $126 billion in spending over 10 years

[UPDATE: see below]

Friday evening, the Congressional Budget Office released their estimate of just how much the Senate's massive illegal alien amnesty would cost us financially: $126 billion over 10 years:

Supporters of the legislation cautioned that the CBO's total needs to be put into context. For instance, most of the $78 billion in discretionary spending that the Senate bill authorizes through 2016 would fund law enforcement measures that conservatives are pushing for anyway.

Yes, but there is a small difference: in that case we'd have millions fewer new immigrants, millions fewer amnestied former illegal aliens and millions fewer new illegal aliens.

Amnesty supporters are clearly scared:

"Most people recognize there is going to be a price tag for fixing a broken immigration system, no question about that," said Ben Johnson, director of the Immigration Policy Center, which favors the Senate bill. "It still comes down to the moral question of 'How do we create a new, workable immigration policy?' "

In the long run, tax revenue generated by new workers would ease the baby-boom generation's burden on Social Security and offset virtually all the additional spending, said James Horney, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The report "will be problematic," he said. "People who don't like the bill will jump on the 10-year number. But I hope others will look at the longer term and realize in the end, the answer is still the same. It's all a wash."

Well, not really for the reasons pointed out above.

Given all the horrific details buried in the bill, and given the costs associated with it, and given the hugely negative impact it would have had on the U.S., is there any reason to trust its authors or supporters?

UPDATE: Our fiscal department has finally informed us that there's a difference between "cost" and "spend". The bill would apparently increase spending by $126 billion, but some of that would be offset by income. The title has been adjusted accordingly. Supposedly: "the net cost of the bill, after taking into account the projected increase in tax revenue, is $83 billion over ten years, or 0.2 percent of projected spending." That percentage is inaccurate, unless he's refering to total federal spending.

UPDATE 2: There's a little more in "Immigration bill sticker shock", including this fun quote from John Young, co-chairman of the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform:

"In my opinion, the fairer question is: How will illegal immigrants impact the costs of healthcare, local education, and social services without passage of comprehensive immigration reform? ...Had we solved this problem in a truly comprehensive way in 1986 ... we would not have the daily news reporting outright shortages of farm labor threatening the very existence of agricultural industries coast to coast".

Posted to Immigration at August 21, 2006 09:03 PM

Comments

I wouldn't trust them to do anything but lowball the estimated cost, since it involves feeding the sacred foreign criminals within the borders.
Amazingly, though, there admitting that there is a significant cost to waiving hordes of hostiles in.
The vicious effrontery of suggesting that morality is on the side of this massive increase in the aggression on the citizenry, especially on the net taxpayer, makes me shudder.

Posted by: John S Bolton at August 22, 2006 02:44 AM

From the WaPo article:
"The CBO study, released Friday evening, not only details the Senate bill's cost but also enumerates the plan's impact on the population. By 2016, CBO researchers estimate, more than 16 million people would either become legal permanent residents under the bill or attain some other legal status. That total includes 4.4 million legalized undocumented workers, 3.3 million guest workers and 2.6 million family members brought in through the new programs. By 2026, the addition to the U.S. population would jump to 24.4 million."

John, we've already caught 'em in a lie! The lowest estimates of illegal aliens is 8 million. This is the number tossed about by GWB. Even if a person takes that number seriously, does anyone really believe that only somewhat more than half will take the opportunity to become legal? The true figure is probably upward of 20 million AND their immediate families (spouses and minor children) can come to the US almost immediately. Equally true for the immediate families of the "guest-workers". The costs noted above are bargain basement figures.

Remember in the 1986 amnesty, we were initially told that 1 million would be affected. It turned out to be 2.7 million who got amnesty - plus the chain migration.

Posted by: D Flinchum at August 22, 2006 03:36 AM