I'm all for having a strong and effective safety net. My problem is with people who use that safety net as a hammock.
Seems like most liberals believe illegal immigration should "continue unchallenged." How is that any different than food stamps? It's people illegally receiving benefits from the United States, the only difference is that the illegal immigrants are receiving things like education and health care.
EXCUSE ME? From my perspective, big business wants that cheap-ass labor to keep their factories running and non-skilled labor force inexpensive. That's the REAL reason immigration reform hasn't been pushed. Because there's too much money in it. And unfortunately, that's neither an exclusive liberal or conservative issue. Both sides get paid.
And yet when you ask most liberals about illegal immigration, most of them are in favor of letting those people stay.
I wasn't really aware of this program. Thanks for pointing it out. Seems pretty smart to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIC
That's because there are segments of the American economy and industries that would be DESTROYED if you just picked 20 million working people off the streets of America and bussed them across the border. You think the economy is bad now? Not to mention the human element of uprooting folks, some who have been here almost as long as they have been alive, and shipping them to a place where they have no family, no resources, no chance. In my viewpoint, these people are here because they are trying to earn money to keep their familiies from starving. I don't blame them. They are simply taking advantage of a broken system. If you REALLY, REALLY want to make a dent in illegal immigration, make it illegal and HARSHLY PUNISHABLE for companies to employ them. Corporations and other medium to large businesses are the real devil in the illegal immigration issue.
I disagree with this. I think Pelosi pushing through Obamacare, behind closed doors for example, was an example of a power-hungry woman looking for something to have as her legacy. She was taking the gamble it would turn out to make her look good.
Why? Because people believe they are entitled to a cushy, high-paying job? Thank you for proving the earlier claims about people and their entitlement thoughts.
This is your second post where you admit the system is "broken", yet your alternative is either to do nothing or to do more of the failed policy. Odd.
I'd pay $4.00 for a head of lettuce if I knew someone wasn't being subjected to what amounts to unofficial slavery. One of the parts about illegal immigration that's never discussed is how these illegals are taken advantage of by their employers because they have no recourse. Making sure every person that is in this country is in here legally and is catalogued not only benefits the government and our citizens, but the immigrants as well.
How about we make it illegal to pay people, "illegals" or not, below the minimum wage? Let the workers complain to the authorities and stick it to the man that way.
When I lived in Klamath Falls the feds started a free breakfast program in the public schools. It was marketed and all kids were encouraged to come and get a hot breakfast before school. So most kids showed up and had the food. Come to find out the feds were considering every kid who showed up to be below the poverty line with parents too poor to feed them and they officially went on the rolls of families too poor to afford food. But the program was never presented that way to the people. We all found out about it later. So although 70% of the kids showed up for chow, only about 5% came from families too poor to feed them (as later determined by a local analysis). Those figures were used to promulgate social programs and spending by a certain political party...
Something like that. I just don't think a lot of people understand that if you remove many illegals that farming jobs are going to have to increase their wages since a lot of legal citizens think farm work is below them especially at the current pay for the hard labor involved. Which means food prices go up, probably a lot. I too have no problem, as maxie said below, paying 4 dollars for a head of lettuce to know that someone is being fairly compensated and treated well in terms of being covered for the work they do. I just don't think a lot of people will really like it once it becomes reality, if it does.
While I could make a very pointing post about how "illegals" are treated, they also are trained by activists on how to commit various types of fraud. I know as I have personally been at some of these 'meetings'. Most collect unemployment while working, get food stamps when they probably do not qualify, are taught how to rotate cars and properly elude arrest/convictions when they get drunk and hit a car or person (they have a fairly elaborate system of false testimony for each other...). It's an unusual situation.
