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Every tax is a pay cut. Every tax cut is a pay raise.
Citizens for Limited Taxation |
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| Affectionately known as Jorge Bush | Wednesday, January 12, 2005 |
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| Alfred Robert Casimiro | Weymouth paper |
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President George Bush - known affectionately south of the border as
Jorge (Hor-Hay) Bush (Boosh) - is surely a clone of Vicente Fox, the
president of Mexico.
How else can you explain President Bush's willingness to do the bidding of Fox and the Mexico government on such important national issues as the war against terrorism, Social Security, and job growth? El Presidente - excuse me, President Bush - declares a global war on terrorism, yet leaves our southern border unsecured; he wants to reform Social Security for future generations of Americans, yet his Treasury Department is recommending a potential giveaway of billions of dollars to illegal aliens from Mexico; he trumpets job growth for Americans, yet allows jobs to be taken from Americans. On the global war on terrorism, this is what President Bush said to mark the three-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack: "We will continue to do everything in our power to defeat the terrorist enemy and to protect the American people." Why then, has he not moved to secure our border with Mexico? There are 8,000 to 10,000 illegal aliens streaming across our border every day. Most of these are Mexican nationals, but there are now so many non-Mexicans among them that a new category - Other Than Mexican (OTM) - was created. Time magazine reported in a September 2004 article "Who Left the Door Open?" that an estimated 190,000 OTM's from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, in addition to Latin Americans from Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela had come across the border in 2004. California Congressman Elton Gallegly has said that 44,000 OTM's were posing as Mexicans. Many of those violating our border are known to be drug runners, criminals, and some are very likely to be terrorists. Not only has President Bush not taken any positive steps to secure our borders, he intervened personally to block strong border security measures proposed for the new office of the National Intelligence Director (NID). The U.S. House had a strong terrorist control and immigration section in their bill that would have, among other measures, added 2,000 border patrol agents each year for five consecutive years, starting in 2006, but pressure from the White House and U.S. Senators, most notably Senators Susan Collins of Maine, and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, plus an unrelenting barrage of criticism from the popular press forced the House conferees to take these measures out of the final version of the bill that passed the Congress in December. On Social Security, President Bush had this to say when he met with the Social Security trustees on December 9, 2004: "Social Security is one of the greatest achievements of the American government, and one of the deepest commitments to the American people." If the President truly believes this, why is the Treasury Department pushing a Totalization agreement with Mexico that could take billions of dollars from the Social Security system and send it to recipients in Mexico? Totalization is a bilateral program the United States has with 20 other countries that allows Americans working abroad to get credit for the social security taxes they pay while working in those foreign countries. It is reciprocal, so employees of foreign companies who come to the U.S. to work for a few years will get credit for the taxes paid to the U.S. government. This means when they retire, those social security tax payments are used to determine their social security benefits. The current system works well. There is symmetry between our system and the systems of the other countries, and the number of people and the costs involved are relatively minor. The agreement with Mexico, however, would be one-sided as there are relatively few Americans working in Mexico compared to the millions that are, or have worked, in the United States. The cost estimate given by the Social Security Administration (SSA) is "$78 million the first year, rising to $650 million (in constant 2002 dollars) in 2050." The Government Accounting Office (GAO), at the request of the U.S. Congress examined the proposed Totalization agreement and concluded, "The cost of such an agreement is highly uncertain." The costs of this program could escalate dramatically if Congress approves President Bush's guest worker program. Millions of Mexicans who worked here illegally would become legalized under the President's plan and very likely would then claim the taxes withheld during their unauthorized work time as credit toward social security benefits. This would cost billions of dollars at a time when we are uncertain how to pay retirement benefits to future American retirees. Finally, what about the President's vaunted job creation program for the American worker? Job growth has been a constant theme of the Bush presidency, with Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao reporting in December 2004 that employment in the United States is at an all time high of 140 million, with 2.5 million new jobs having been added in the one-year period ending August 2004. But, it is not as rosy as it may appear. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) backgrounder "A Jobless Recovery?" reports there has been an increase in unemployed Americans while the number of employed immigrants has increased. From March 2000 to March 2004 the number of unemployed Americans increased by 2.3 million, while the number of employed immigrants, which includes both legal immigrants and illegal aliens, increased by 2.3 million; half of the increase of employed immigrants in the CIS report are estimated to be illegal aliens. Of the 34 million in the United States who are foreign-born, 10.4 million are from Mexico; of these, approximately 5 million are illegal aliens. The President's solution? A guest worker program that would "match willing worker with willing employer." - from anywhere in the world. Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth has accurately dubbed President Bush's program "Amnesty-Lite." We have had several amnesty programs, most notably the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), and they have only led to higher numbers of illegal aliens crashing our borders. We now have an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the country. So, we have a President - Bush - who professes great concern for the security of our nation, and retirement and job security for Americans, and yet, undermines all these programs with stunningly reckless initiatives to accommodate the demands of his friend President Fox of Mexico, and the Mexican government. Habla usted espanol?
A.Robert Casimiro |
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Send comments to:
hjw2001@rcn.com
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