The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand monetary sovereignty, do not understand economics. Cutting the federal deficit is the most ignorant and damaging step the federal government could take. It ranks ahead of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
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Congress has been debating immigration reform, and like all political “reforms,” the word means different things to different people. Health insurance “reform” means federally provided, affordable insurance to everyone, or to no one, or somewhere in between. Budget “reform” means cut spending, increase taxes, both or neither. Tax reform means make taxes simpler or fairer or lower or higher.
But what does immigration reform mean? Does it mean fewer or more immigrants? Does it mean an easier or more difficult procedure? And more importantly, what is the goal? Is it to:
–Protect our nation from terrorists and other enemies?
–Protect American workers from competition?
–Protect America from crime?
–Save our limited resources?
–Keep American white? Or Christian? Or English speaking?
–To relieve an overcrowded America?
–Just keep Mexicans out?
For example, consider Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who wants to end automatic or “birthright” citizenship for all children born in the United States. What is the benefit to America? He says it’s to prevent non-citizens from coming here on a visa, and intentionally having a child, thereby circumventing immigration laws. Aside from the probability the number of such people is small, what is the problem? What if some women do that? Who has been harmed? How has that diminished America?
Or consider those Republican lawmakers from southern states and lawmakers who wish to copy Arizona’s harsh law. They would give police the massive job of screening all suspects for immigration status. Why? They claim the undocumented immigrants are too costly, using medical and educational facilities without paying taxes. But how true is this really? What percentage of undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes? And what would be the police costs and the court costs and attorney costs and the logistic costs of pursuing all these people, trying them and deporting them, only to have them return again and again? And what would be the cost in human suffering, or do we now consider undocumented immigrants to be something less than human?
These lawmakers claim their goal also is to protect their states from crime, but do undocumented immigrants cause more or less crime than citizens?
Rather than allowing the xenophobes, who wish to create a “fortress America,” to coopt the word “reform,” perhaps those, who still belief the words on the Statue of Liberty, might wish to define reform in our own terms. How about if “immigration reform” means make immigration much faster and easier? How about recognizing that going through danger, cost and effort is prima facie evidence of people who truly want to be Americans, and such desire might make them more loyal and more devoted to our nation than those lucky enough to be born here?
Surely, we can protect America without building a North Koreanesque barrier. Is Mexico our enemy? Are the great open plains so crowded? Is the American worker too weak to compete? Are resources truly limited to a Monetarily Sovereign nation that at the snap of an finger, can spend trillions on the world’s greatest war machine? And don’t immigrants actually contribute to our resources? My immigrant parents did.
Yes, let’s have immigration reform. Let’s open the welcoming arms of a great, confident, powerful America, rather than hiding behind the barbed wire curtain of a crouching, fearful, mean spirited bunch of petty losers.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com
No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Rodger, I think that the person in the street “immigration reform” means restricting immigration to legel immigration.
The reason that the US has an illegal immigration problem is because there is a demand for cheap labor and employers run very little risk in hiring illegals. The way to end the influx of illegal immigrants is to put a high price on hiring illegals along with strict enforcement, so that hiring illegally is no longer cheap.
Of course, business is very opposed to this, so the rules are rarely enforced and regularly flouted. Moreover, to get Americans to perform the labor that illegals do would require a wage inducement far higher than that being paid now, driving prices of many goods and services much higher.
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“The way to end the influx of illegal immigrants is to put a high price on hiring illegals along with strict enforcement, so that hiring illegally is no longer cheap.”
Another way is to help more immigrants become legal. Our laws are overly restrictive and Byzantine.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Yes, we need a sane guest worker program and a path to citizenship for those performing extremely well and making positive contributions.
The present condition of “migrant worker” by day and “illegal immigrant” by night is insane.
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What makes the US and Israel so entrepreneur friendly? Its their history.
http://haphazardcontemplations.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/what-makes-an-entrepreneurial-society/
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I agree with you completely. I dont’ understand this characterization of immigrants as a bane to the American taxpayer–as if they don’t work or pay taxes! THey want to be here–most have some kind of job–so let them become legal. What’s the problem? Immigration is what keeps our population from declining like that of European countries. It sickens me that everytime there is some kind of economic downturn it is blamed on the poor and/or immigrants who are so inummeratble that they will bankrupt us by using all our services and living off our charity because they don’t want to work and improve themselves. So sad!!
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If you go to borders states, the entry points for drug trafficking, I have little doubt there are serious crime and violence problems. Legalize marijuana and I think you remove most of the crime aspect from the “immigration problem”
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Pure non-sense. Our government will never know how many illegals are in the US, nor will anyone else. So stop the magic dust thinking. The real issue is, especially on our southern border, people who exit their homeland to live in ours do it for freedom. Their homeland is pure and simple crap. Also, our southern border is a conduit for drugs smuggling and human trafficking. That alone is worth the price of a fence let it real or virtual. Illegals do pay taxes, but many take cash only. Do you think for moment the sheet rock guy has a w2? Get real. I will say this, our southern border friends do the work most Americans are no longer skilled to perform, plus they work very hard and do great work. Now more truth, the housing bubble main causes was giving many of those illegals home loans they could never pay. I know of 2 in my neighborhood. Arizona, Nevada, and California have the highest foreclosure rates and its because so may illegals walked away from their homes. Printing more money isn’t going to stop bad people from hurting good people. Cancer can be treated, if caught early, but the cause of cancer is peoples lack of morals.
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I never knew border-crossing aliens were the cause of the housing bubble. And to think: Nevada isn’t even a border state.
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“I never knew border-crossing aliens were the cause of the housing bubble. And to think: Nevada isn’t even a border state.” Let’s not be so naive. Country Wide and IndyBank both catered to illegals. They hired hispanics who had the education to work the loans. I know from the hispanics who lost their homes in my neighborhood because their sub-prime loans became real, both got caught up in that scheme. Do you find it a bit puzzling that no geographic troubled home loan information has never been made public? Don’t you also find it a bit odd that over 1 M illegals are caught yearly on our southern border, but an estimate 3 -4 M never get caught. The number exist, ask around. And finally, the 5 big financial institutions who are the main cause of the housing mess all have people working for the government. Ask around.
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I know plenty of people who are American citizens who walked away from their homes in CA where I live because they could. So, let’s not make it seem that the illegals are the tipping point for the foreclosure problem. Blaming a group of people for our country’s woes, is wrong because it took a WHOLE bunch of different people to make this mess we are in. It is JUST illegals or JUST the poor on welfare or JUST the “greedy unions” and their pensions. We are all a part of this, so we ALL have to deal with it. IF you want to blame people–blame the BANKS and the CEOs of those banking and financial groups who were so GREEDY they did stupid things because they thought the party would last forever. I blame them–and those people AREN’T illegal or on welfare or a minority.
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OK, let me make this a bit clearer. The illegals are victims. They were and still preyed upon by really bad people. Now let’s get this greedy bank stuff straighten out, the number of banks who made the majority of the bad loans is 5. BOA is #1. I’ll let you research who are the other 4. In all 5 cases, those banks have close ties to our government and goldman sacks.because of these people we have QE and the further devaluing of our dollar. Print all you want, because goldman is making money off it.
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Jason, you are correct that prohibition has been proved not to work, and in fact to cause crime. So for the only mildly harmful drugs, i.e. tobacco, alcohol, marijuana et al, I agree: They should be legal and regulated.
Then there is the question about what to do with heroin and cocaine, since outlawing them doesn’t work and legalizing them might cause worse problems. I don’t have a solution for that. I suspect legalizing with regulation could be a direction.
In any event, none of this has anything to do with our immigration policies. Making someone wait only one year rather than ten years to become a legal citizen will not exacerbate the drug-crime problem. In fact, it would reduce crime simply by reducing the number of illegal aliens, while saving money used for enforcement.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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thank you for this great article. I left the Republican party over this issue a number of years ago. Anyone who claims to be for free and open markets, and then claims that working people can ever possibly be a negative drain on the economy are either morons or liars – I think the GOP may fit in both of those categories.
In a free market, the more people who work, the more wealth is created. More wealth means more people can find jobs. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are a net positive to our country…period. Liberalize the immigration laws more can come and get legal a whole lot faster.
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What is the goal of pro-immigration lobbyists? Is it to:
–Subject the nation to terrorists and other enemies?
–Subject the nation’s workers to increased competition?
–Subject the nation to increased crime?
–Increase consumption of the nation’s limited resources?
–Make the nation nonwhite/non-Christian/non-English speaking?
–To overcrowd the nation?
–Just get as many Mexicans in as possible?
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jorma,
I think the goal is to be an American, not the bullcrap Americans who think patriotism requires carrying a gun, waving a flag, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but the true, moral Americans who understand what made America great:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Sounds pretty vague. But then again, I’m not Murican.
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