On the Golden Coast Monday President Obama pushed an immigration reform policy that he claimed, would help grow the economy and strengthen families.
With Thanksgiving just days away, Obama also wanted to share something he was thankful for: Speaker of the House John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) voiced desire to make progress on immigration reform.
“I believe there are a number of other house republicans who also want to get this done. Some of them are hesitant to do it in one big bill like the Senate did, that’s okay. This is Thanksgiving—we can carve that bird into multiple pieces.”
More than 11 million illegal immigrants would receive amnesty under the Senate passed immigration bill. Obama touted that economists predict the bill would boost the economy and shrink deficits, if passed.
The Heritage Foundation revealed a different outcome in an October paper:
“Today, the typical illegal immigrant is 34 years old, has a 10th-grade education and lives in a household that already receives $14,387 more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. After an “interim” period of 13 years set by the Senate bill, that typical household would become eligible for the full panoply of welfare and entitlements.
This imbalance would add to the financial stress on the nation's retirement security programs. These are the same programs that federal actuaries say will be strained soon to the point of collapse, without adding millions of beneficiaries whose claim on the benefits began when they entered or stayed in the country illegally.
Amnesty and the welfare state simply don't mix. As Nobel winning economist Milton Friedman once observed: “It is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. You cannot have both.”
While Democrats usually seem eager to blame former president George W. Bush for everything, Obama seemed to turn to him this time for back-up:
"I want to remind everybody, to his great credit, my republican predecessor President Bush was for reform. He proposed reform like this almost a decade ago. I was in the senate; I joined 23 senate republicans back then supporting reform. It’s worth remembering that the senate bill that just passed won more than a dozen republican votes this summer."
Perhaps this is because Obama's name seems to be turning the public away, as everything from his approval ratings to his character have taken take a nose dive in recent polls.
“Everything is looked through a political prism. And look, let’s be honest, some folks automatically think ‘if Obama’s for it, then I’ve gotta be against it. Even if before that I was for it.’
You know some people forget that I’m not running for office again, Michelle doesn’t forget, so you don’t have to worry about this somehow being good for me this is good for the country. It’s the right thing to do for the American people.”
Both sides agree that immigration reform is important for the future of America. However more consideration of the outcomes of such a bill should be considered before merely passing it for the sake of progress.