No remedy in handouts

Nancy Pelosi last week in yet another effort to justify allowing the droves of illegal immigrant children to remain within our borders reminded us that baby Jesus was a refugee as are these children from South America. I take offense with her overreaching parallelism. We don’t have the resources in this country to care for the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant minors, notwithstanding the multitude of illegal adults.

Former journalist and public policy analyst Roy Beck delivered a very compelling speech in 2012 regarding immigration that is relevant today, which I am in accordance with. There seems to be an impression among the global community that mass immigration would help reduce world poverty, which Beck and I disagree with. There are 5.6 billion people in the world who live in abject destitution, earning less than $2 a day, and each year 80 million more will be added to that population. America grants residency to one million legal immigrants per year and another million illegals – it is mathematically impossible for America to make a dent in world poverty through immigration.

Immigration has never been an effective means of alleviating human suffering in the world, instead, a more effective solution would be to help the people where they live. The brightest and most motivated individuals are those who seek to emigrate from their countries, but if they were to stay in their homeland rather than abandon it, they could apply their skills for the betterment of their country. The old adage still remains true: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime. This also applies to those who cross our borders illegally and those who abuse government assistance programs. We cripple individuals by simply giving them what they need, which breeds a culture of complacency and entitlement.

There are roughly 100,000 illegal immigrant children from South America, and Newsmax reported that for each of those minors it costs taxpayers between $250 and $1,000 each day. How are we expected to support this high cost? Additionally, it was reported last week that thousands of illegal immigrant minors failed to appear at their mandated deportation court hearings. Is this surprising? On top of that they were able to travel aboard commercial airliners without valid forms of identification, except for a single document stating their name, age, etc. How can we assume that the information presented on a piece of paper is authentic? They could be adults claiming they’re seventeen years old and from Mexico when in reality they could very well be terrorists from the Middle East. We have no certainty as to who these illegal immigrants really are or where they’re coming from, but in the name of humanitarianism we’ll let across our borders and disappear among the masses. Amazing.

Rarely deviating from his talking points, Obama delivered two similar speeches on July 12 and 23 regarding the middle class. He spoke of a college student’s comment that it’s getting more difficult for middle class families to afford college. And why is college tuition continuously increasing? Because financing is so readily available and college graduates will very unlikely be able to repay those student loans. In the meantime, everybody in the university system gets richer.

This is similar to what happened in the housing industry. Financing became readily available to homebuyers and lenders were willing to relax loan qualification requirements. Home prices, as a result, were pushed to disproportionate limits and inevitably the bubble finally burst.

Obama is delusional when he claims that unemployment is at its lowest rate and that job creation exceeds that of 1999. In all reality, this country is not prospering and unemployment hasn’t dipped. Instead, those of us who work are being beaten with increased taxes. Just this year for those in the top income tax bracket taxes raised from 35 percent to 39.6 percent; income payroll tax from 37.4 percent to 52.2 percent; capital gains taxes increased an astounding 15 percent to 28 percent; for those who earn over $125,000 a year, they are required to pay an investment tax of 3.8 percent. You would think that when we die we’re done paying taxes, but that is no longer the case. This year an estate tax was levied from zero to 55 percent.

I recently wrote a bonus check to one of my employees for $37,000. After taxes she cleared $17,000. Is it fair that we’re being so heavily taxed? I don’t think so. The government needs to take its foot off the necks of job creators, allow us to prosper and provide jobs, and, contrary to Obama’s belief, this is what will spur the economy from the inside out.

Ed Hoffman is the host of the Main Event on AM590 which airs Saturday 9:30AM- 10:30AM and Sunday 4:00PM- 5:00PM.