Articles of Interest 5-24-07
530 Days until election day.
MORNING UPDATE:
TAXES, TAXES, TAXES…the Democrats are pushing hard…call your State Senator and State Representative….House Democrats will be pushing for a vote today or tomorrow.
Democrats are threatening to play the “class warfare” card by proposing a graduated income tax. Democrats want to raise Michigan’s income tax…again!
Attorney General Mike Cox and State Senator Roger Kahn are pushing the Governor to help seniors save on prescription drugs…common sense, lost in the political shuffle.
The Heritage Foundation released a report that spells out the 10 ways the Senate’s immigration bill undermines the rule of law. If we don’t stand for the rule of law, what do we stand for?
Ooops…Democrats “Double Standard”…Congressman Murtha
John Edwards, still the $55,000 for half hour speech “average” kind of guy?
If Democrats and John Edwards have it their way, his $400 haircuts will costs him $424 in Michigan! At least he can afford it!
THE REST OF THE STORY:
-House Democrats want to raise the state’s income tax. They feel that this is the easiest to accomplish, both from a political and revenue enhancement standpoint. They are also bringing in the “class warfare” card of having the “rich” pay more. The “rich” are our most “flexible” residents. Raising the income tax and inheritance tax on them is nothing less than an incentive to change your residency to Florida or many of the other states that don’t punish success.
We need entrepreneurs and successful business people to stay here, invest here, support our cultural institutions here and yes…pay taxes here. We don’t want to chase those people away as well.
We have those who have lost a job – leaving our state. Being one of the only states with unlimited welfare benefits we have welfare recipients – coming to our state. And now the Democrats want to chase away job creators and taxpayer and have them leave our state? These policies have consequences and no government has ever taxed itself out of a recession.
Michigan has the highest unemployment in the country.
Michigan is in a single state recession.
-Today a new coalition called Help Seniors Save Now announced the beginning of a grassroots campaign to continue to pressure Governor Granholm to improve and expand the Michigan prescription drug website, www.michigandrugprices.com. Inspired by Attorney General Mike Cox's recent investigation of prescription drug prices across the State of Michigan, Help Seniors Save Now has called on seniors and Michigan consumers to get involved and call the governor to urge her to enhance the Michigan Prescription Drug Website.
The group has also created a website, www.HelpSeniorsSaveNow.com, which encourages Michigan seniors and consumers to call the governor at 517-373-3400 and tell her to make prescription drug prices a priority. They have also created an online petition to keep the pressure on Granholm to improve and expand the prescription drug website from 30 drugs to 150 drugs.
Yesterday, Attorney General Mike Cox and State Senator Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), demonstrated their leadership on this important issue and announced legislation to mandate the governor improve the website. Help Seniors Save Now plans to continue its grassroots effort until the governor commits to making these changes. For more information on Help Seniors Save Now, go to www.HelpSeniorsSaveNow.com.
-The Heritage Foundation has prepared the first comprehensive analysis of the immigration bill I have seen. The most controversial component of the Senate's Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 is Title VI, euphemistically ntitled "Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status." It would create a new "Z" visa exclusively for illegal aliens. This title would change the status of those who are here illegally to legal, essentially granting amnesty to those "previously in unlawful status." This seriously flawed proposal would undermine the rule of law by granting massive benefits to those who have willfully violated U.S. laws, while denying those benefits to those who have played by the rules and sometimes even to U.S. citizens.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigration/wm1468.cfm
-The Democrats kept calling it a “culture of corruption” but ignored their own “little problems”. Now steps up Congressman Murtha…ooops…and the Democrats hypocrisy is exposed. Check it out:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/05/oopsdemocrats_d.html
-Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards continues to mascarade as the “common man” for the “average” citizen….talk about hypocrisy:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/05/john_edwardsjus.html
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aCh_kuGDT7ZM&refer=us
Michigan's Budget Crisis Puts Job-Starved State at Crossroads
By John Lippert and Mike Ramsey
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Michigan, bleeding jobs even as its Rust Belt neighbors begin to prosper, has an $803 million hole in this year's state budget that could force layoffs of government workers and cutbacks for schools and health care starting June 1.
That's when the state's cash flow will dry up, as it faces a fiscal crisis rooted in dependence on General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit. The three carmakers lost a combined $15.3 billion last year. Michigan and hurricane-ravaged Louisiana were the only two U.S. states to shed jobs in 2006.
The revenue gap also is a legacy of two decades of tax cuts. As they struggle to balance the budget, Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm and Republican lawmakers are arguing over what blend of tax increases and spending cuts is conducive to economic revival.
``We're at the moment when we will decide what the next Michigan will be,'' Granholm, 48, said in an interview. ``This crisis is a great opportunity to rise from the ashes, to diversify the economy in a way that builds on our natural strengths and history as the automotive capital of the world.''
Historically, Michigan and its auto industry rode the ups and downs of the U.S. economy. This time, it's different.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/OPINION01/705240302/1008
Granholm, Democrats choose taxes over government reform
A process that should be focused on making Michigan more competitive is turning in a direction that will leave the state less desirable to new businesses and residents and less affordable for those already stuck here.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state House Democrats are pushing for an increase in the state's income tax rate to erase the budget deficit. The income tax is the most easily comparable of taxes. At a 3.9 percent flat tax rate, Michigan's income tax compares extremely well with other states and gives it a rare advantage.
Pushing it to near 5 percent would throw that small edge away, particularly since fast-growing and highly attractive states like Florida, Texas and Tennessee have no income tax, and more than a dozen states across the country have either cut their income tax this year or are considering doing so.
State House could vote Thursday on income tax increase
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The Democratic-controlled state House could vote as early as Thursday on whether to raise the state's income tax.
But it was unclear late Wednesday if the proposal will impose a higher tax rate this fiscal year.
Some House Democrats said Wednesday night they were working on a preliminary understanding that they would try to balance this fiscal year's budget without a tax increase. That would mean a higher rate would not kick in until at least Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins.
Another version of the tax increase plan calls for it to take effect as early as July 1. That version would boost the current income tax rate of 3.9 percent to 4.4 percent. Yet another version calls for temporarily raising the income tax to 4.6 percent at a date to be determined.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/OPINION01/705240449/1069
IN OUR OPINION
Tax avoidance harms the state
May 24, 2007
As the Legislature continues to struggle over a necessary tax increase, the costs of delay are mounting:
• Michigan has gotten another downgrade in its bond-rating, so the cost of borrowing goes up.
• State employees have been given 30-day notice of lay-offs.
• Because of looming Medicaid cuts, people who run hospitals and nursing homes are asking themselves how they will stay afloat: "For the first time in our 128-year history, our board is exploring whether we can continue to operate nursing homes," Denise Rabidoux, president and CEO of Evangelical Homes of Michigan, said Wednesday.
• The Michigan Court of Appeals will shut down Friday and Tuesday, adding two unpaid days to the holiday weekend. This is the first of four two-day closures designed to keep the court budget balanced this year.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/NEWS06/70523080/1008
House sends revised business tax plan to Senate
May 24, 2007
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF
LANSING -- The state House sent a revised new business tax plan to the Senate late Monday night, in hopes of speeding up a bi-partisan agreement to replace the Single Business Tax.
But the House did not vote on any measures to raise the income tax or expand the sale tax to help balance a growing state deficit.
Spurred by news of Michigan’s worsening credit rating on Wall Street, House Democrats pushed through a second version of a business tax plan they sent to the Senate earlier this month. The largely procedural maneuver was aimed at putting the matter before a House and Senate conference committee more quickly, House Democratic leaders said.
Democratic leaders said uncertainty over the state’s business tax system was contributing to a drop in the state’s credit rating on Tuesday.
Senate leader open to reforms, talk of part-time Legislature
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The state's top Republican lawmaker gave some insight Wednesday on just how far he'd personally go to cut down the size of Michigan's government, saying he wants to discuss the possibility of a part-time Legislature as part of long-term reforms.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, a Republican from Rochester, continued to push for government cost-cutting as part of resolving the state's budget crisis. The state faces an $800 million deficit for this budget year and a hole that could be twice as large for the fiscal year that starts in October.
Bishop said he has been frustrated by parts of the ongoing budget negotiations. But he also said the talks are making "good progress." He has tentatively scheduled a Senate session for Friday and told Senate staffers to be available Saturday as lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration race the clock to prevent cuts to schools and Medicaid that could kick in June 1.
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/NEWS01/705240328
In the minority
State Sen. Mark Schauer has to spend a fair amount of time rallying the troops.
As minority leader of the Michigan Senate during the budget crisis, his main job in recent months has been holding together his 16 fellow Democrats, putting forward a united front against budget plans advanced by Senate Republicans.
It's a tough job because, even if Schauer does that, he still lacks the votes to push forward his own agenda.
"Even the thinnest of the majorities give the majority party a dominant position," said Craig Ruff, senior policy fellow with Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants. "And it's very tough, very tough, for the minority."
Despite the Bedford Township senator's limited power, many on both sides of the aisle in Lansing said he has fared well in his leadership role.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/NEWS01/705240365/1001/opinion
State warns of layoffs
Granholm sends official notices to employees' bargaining units
Chris Andrews and Derek Wallbank
Lansing State Journal
It's no longer a question of whether she'll be able to go out to dinner and a movie.
For Susan Bailey of East Lansing, the possibility of state layoffs has left her wondering how she'll pay her bills.
"I'm not married, I don't have another income," said Bailey, who works for the state Treasury Department.
Bailey is one of thousands of state government workers who aren't sure today whether they can count on full paychecks this summer.
The Granholm administration on Tuesday sent official notices to unions representing state workers warning them of possible layoffs on or after June 22.
The Civil Service Commission passed rules for laying off nonunionized workers in April.
There's talk of a partial government shutdown for four days after July 4. By splitting the days off over two weeks, the state could avoid unemployment claims.
http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/NEWS11/705240692/1028>
District plans $2.7 million in cuts
By Alison Bergsieker
High school athletes could pay $150 to participate in sports, more than 30 staff positions may be cut and many positions would be contracted to reduce retirement costs.
Those are among the items on the list of budget cuts proposed by Huron Valley officials, awaiting a vote from the school board to OK $2.7 million in cuts to balance the $90 million 2007-2008 budget.
Cuts would include staff positions, transportation, athletics and other school programs.
"Nearly 87 percent of the budget is spent on salaries and benefits," Assistant Superintendent Donna Welch said. "Salaries have stayed fairly stable to flat and some of that's due to reductions in staff."
Welch said reductions are based, in part, on the expected $122 per pupil funding cut that Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently announced.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1179931502174970.xml&coll=8
Do you know how your local tax dollars are spent?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
By Steve Gunn
John "Jay" Jurkas wants the public to know that top officials in Muskegon County government are making more money than citizens might suspect.
His brother, Muskegon County Sheriff George Jurkas, is one of those officials. And the sheriff says Jay is absolutely right.
If Muskegon County has the kind of money problems it claims to have, it should eliminate lucrative benefits for management, according to the Jurkas brothers.
Those benefits include deferred compensation matches of up to $6,000 per year, an unlimited carry- over of unused vacation time for department directors, and a car allowance for a few top officials.
With salaries and benefits all added up, seven selected county department directors cost taxpayers more than $1.8 million in 2006, according to Jay Jurkas.
With the same type of benefits added up, the 11 part-time county commissioners cost taxpayers $424,816 in 2006, Jay Jurkas said.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/POLITICS/705240325/1022
Gas gougers targeted
House votes to curb prices, but White House warns plan could result in some long lines at the pumps.
Deb Price / The Detroit News
WASHINGTON -- Although the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday aimed at curbing rocketing gas prices, it's questionable whether Washington has the political will, or the regulatory wherewithal, to give Americans relief at the pump.
Fifty-six Republicans -- including Michigan Reps. Candice Miller of Harrison Township and Thaddeus McCotter of Livonia -- threw in with 228 Democrats in voting for a bill written by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
The 284-141 vote is sure to play well among Americans who are paying an average of $3.22 a gallon ($3.42 in Michigan) at this weekend's start of the summer travel season. If all its supporters stay on board, the House could override a White House veto, should the bill get that far.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/AUTO01/705240372
GM, UAW cut deal on jobs bank
Automaker tells 400 from Flint, Lansing they must take buyout, learn new trade, move to find work.
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
About 400 General Motors Corp. skilled trades workers in Flint and Lansing assigned to the automaker's controversial jobs bank may be forced to learn a different job or go to work at a distant factory if they don't take a new buyout offer extended by the company.
GM's move to clear out the jobs bank -- factory workers who collect most of their pay and benefits despite being laid off -- was made possible by a first-of-its-kind agreement with the United Auto Workers.
Under the terms, which apply only to skilled trades workers in Flint and Lansing, GM can compel those who don't take the buyout to retrain for another skilled trade, move them to an unskilled production job and even relocate them to a plant in another city or state.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/OPINION03/705240338
Marney Rich Keenan:
Waiting for the state's other shoe to drop is painful
This morning on my 3 1/2 -mile running route, I started counting the for sale signs in our neighborhood. The count ruined the run: no endorphin high, no rhythmic stride.
In our subdivision of 1950s ranches in Bloomfield Township, every fifth house had a for sale sign on the front lawn.
The subdivision across nearby Wattles Road into Troy was even worse. One in four houses are up for sale.
On my street, the families who are selling their homes are leaving the state. I've known these families for years, meeting up at block parties, PTA meetings, as chaperones on elementary school field trips. We've raised our kids together.
Now they're making a new life elsewhere. One couple, whose two kids are the same age as our two youngest, are moving to Minneapolis. The dad, an attorney, found a better job. She's a radiology nurse, so she can find work there, and their kids will adjust just fine.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/BIZ04/705240373
Microsoft presence may grow in Mich.
Native's promotion at company could foster closer ties to software giant, include new jobs.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News
SOUTHFIELD -- The ascension of a local Microsoft executive to lead a significant business unit of the technology giant could result in a stronger connection between Michigan and Microsoft and lead to job growth at the company's Southfield office.
John Fikany, a Grosse Pointe native, will take charge of Microsoft's U.S. Commercial Sector Industries division on July 2. That division will now be based in Southfield, where Fikany works.
The $4.5 billion division represents about 10 percent of Microsoft's total business.
In his new role, Fikany, 45, told The Detroit News Wednesday that he will have a close relationship with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a fellow Michigan native. He said he would also work to tailor Microsoft technology to meet the needs of Michigan clients.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/COL06/705240441/1019/BUSINESS06
New public firm a bright sign for state
Bloomfield Hills' TriMas Corp. has ambitious plans
May 24, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Today, for a welcome change, the people ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange will be from a newly public company that hails from .... (drumroll please) ... Bloomfield Hills, Mich.!
Yes, a Michigan company going public, not private.
A company that wants to stay in Michigan, not leave.
One with ambitious plans to grow, not shrink.
TriMas Corp.'s executive chairman, Sam Valenti III, said that TriMas' return to the public equity market -- it was created in 1988 as one of several spin-offs from Taylor-based Masco Corp. and later sold to private buyout firm Heartland Industrial Partners -- will mark a new period of growth for the diversified manufacturer.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/BUSINESS04/705240440
Home-building is hot Up North, but sales are not
May 24, 2007
BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
HARBOR SPRINGS -- Michigan's two most-pressing real estate trends are colliding head-on in the postcard community of Harbor Springs, nestled along Little Traverse Bay.
One is the desire to own a cottage or retirement home Up North. Builders have added thousands of new homes in recent years in an arc from Traverse City up to Mackinac Island.
The hottest spot: Emmet County, the location of Harbor Springs, where builders took out more than 2,600 permits for new houses, condos and apartments between 2000 and 2006. Prices range from less than $100,000 for modular or starter houses to several million dollars for the biggest custom jobs.
The other trend, however, is as vexing as the building boom is hot: the inability to sell an existing house.
Even as home building continues to attract buyers, many existing houses in Harbor Springs have sat unsold for a year or more.
http://info.detnews.com/blogs/bloggers.cfm?id=finley&blogid=829
Wed, May 23, 2007 at 4:40 PM
What do liberals want?
I'm having a hard time figuring out what liberals want when it comes to energy conservation.
They say they want Americans to use less oil, and are in full combat mode against the auto industry to make it happen.
But now they're also screaming for cheaper gasoline.
Moveon.org, the far-left political action committee that helped bankroll the Democratic takeover of Congress last fall, are demanding that their toadies in Washington do something to reduce the price of gasoline. In Michigan, the state Democratic Party is badgering Attorney General Mike Cox to go after alleged "gas gougers."
But the result of rising gasoline prices is that Americans are driving less -- 5 percent less by the latest survey -- and that's exactly what liberals say they want.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/UPDATE/705240451
Metro Detroit needs more roads, report states
Andy Henion / The Detroit News
Unless more or bigger roads are built in Metro Detroit, it'll take commuters 50 percent longer to get to work by 2030, according to a report released today by a national nonprofit research group.
By then, predicts TRIP, rush hour will resemble the tangled mess seen in the San Francisco-Oakland and Washington, D.C. areas.
The study also found that 39 percent of Michigan's urban highways roads were congested in 2006, and that 38 percent of the state's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.
Of the three largest metro areas, Grand Rapids had the highest percentage of major roads in poor condition, with 34 percent, followed by Detroit's 32 percent and Lansing's 24 percent.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/052407/opi_20070524123.shtml
New move to repeal helmet law would be too costly for Michigan
Web-posted May 24, 2007
EDITORIAL
There is yet another move afoot in the Legislature to repeal Michigan's law requiring mandatory helmet use by motorcyclists in the state.
This time, the attempt to circumvent the law would allow motorcyclists the opportunity to buy their way into more danger with a $100 fee paid to the revenue-starved state.
House Bill 4749 was recently introduced by state Rep. Barbara Farrah, D-Southgate, and sponsored by no fewer than 60 representatives. It includes an interesting bipartisan group of Oakland County representatives. Among the local sponsors are James Marleau, R-Orion Township; Craig DeRoche, R-Novi; John Stakoe, R-Highland Township; Chris Ward, R-Brighton; Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills; Paul Condino, D-Southfield; Marie Donigan, D-Royal Oak; and John Garfield, R-Rochester Hills.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/OPINION01/705240451/1069
State can support troops by making college policies fair for their children
May 24, 2007
Go figure. Michigan is telling its young people how critical it is for them to go to college while the University of Michigan gives the back of its hand to a qualified young man whose father happens to have been transferred out of state by the U.S. Coast Guard.
And then state leaders wring their hands about our best and brightest young people leaving Michigan.
There is an inconsistency and unfairness to the admission and tuition policies of the state's 15 public universities with regard to military dependents that the Legislature ought to address in its next higher-education bill.
That should get the attention of the schools' governing boards in a system that generally holds sacred their autonomy.
Has anyone told these schools there's a war on?
NATIONAL STORIES
Democrats Face Critical Vote on Iraq War
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic presidential contenders on Capitol Hill will cast critical votes on the Iraq war this week, when lawmakers decide on a $120 billion bill to keep military operations afloat through September. The House planned to vote Thursday with the Senate to follow suit by week's end.
The legislation does not set the deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals many Democrats wanted. Unable to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to override one presidential veto because of such a deadline - or the threat of another - Democratic leaders announced Tuesday they would proceed to provide money for the war anyway because they wanted to support the troops.
"I believe as long as we have troops in the front line, we're going to have to protect them," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. "We're going to have to fund them."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110010114
Dems Want You to Take a Hike
The hottest domestic issue of the next two years: taxes.
BY PETE DU PONT
Thursday, May 24, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
The hottest domestic political issue of the coming two years will be federal income taxes.
The Democratic Party is for a big tax increase, via repeal of the Bush tax cuts. Its three major presidential candidates are for it (Hillary Clinton and John Edwards voted against the 2003 Bush tax cuts and Barack Obama against their extension). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are for it. Bill Clinton is for it because he believes the 2003 Bush tax cuts were "way too big to avoid serious harm." And the party's newspaper, the New York Times, is for it, stating that the 2003 tax cuts were "economically unsound" and would "increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars."
Republicans, arguing that the 2003 tax cuts have helped the economy grow, created jobs, increased federal tax revenues, and thus reduced federal deficits, are mostly against raising tax rates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052300315.html?hpid=topnews
Iranian Defiance Of U.N. Detailed
Nuclear Enrichment Continues, Report Says
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A01
Iran has again defied U.N. demands to suspend its nuclear enrichment programs, according to a report issued yesterday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, leading Bush administration officials to demand increased pressure on Tehran.
The IAEA report said that Iran has significantly accelerated its enrichment capability and has not provided a range of verification information to the agency. The IAEA's "level of knowledge of certain aspects of Iran's nuclear-related activities has deteriorated," the four-page document said. The report described the last 60 days of activity since an assessment in March led to the adoption of a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran. That resolution stepped up the sanctions initially authorized in December.
GOP Rivals Split on Immigration Measure
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The immigration fight in Congress has spilled over onto the presidential campaign trail. John McCain is trying to sell the skeptical GOP base on contentious Senate legislation while Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and other Republican rivals oppose it.
"This immigration reform is an issue of national security," McCain, an Arizona senator, said Wednesday, stressing more secure borders and what he called an urgent need for the United States to know the identities and whereabouts of millions of illegal immigrants.
In White River Junction, Vt., Giuliani derided the legislation as an inadequate "hodgepodge" that "kind of goes in 10 different directions without any central focus." And Romney, who says the bill amounts to amnesty for illegal immigrants, said in Tulsa, Okla.: "Let them apply like everybody else in the world."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010116
Immigration and Welfare
Most of them will pay at least as much as they collect.
Thursday, May 24, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
The immigration debate is roaring again, and we're happy to join the fun. One place to start is a myth that has become a key talking point among restrictionists on the right--to wit, that immigrants come to the U.S. for a life of ease on the public dole.
Leading this charge is the Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector, who argues in a new study that "the average lifetime costs to the taxpayer will be $1.1 million" for each low-skilled immigrant household. Hispanic immigrants and their families are a net national drain, he says, because they "assimilate into welfare."
Mr. Rector and Heritage have done some good social science research in the past, but this time they have the story backward: In most cases immigrants will pay at least as much in lifetime federal taxes as they receive in benefits.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/OPINION03/705240311/1008/OPINION01
Thomas Sowell
Immigration bill prizes amnesty over security
Whose problem is the immigration bill in Congress supposed to solve? The country's problem with dangerously porous borders? The illegal immigrants' problem? Or politicians' problems?
It has been painfully clear for years that the country's problem with insecure borders and floods of foreigners who remain a foreign -- and growing -- part of the American population has the lowest priority of the three.
Virtually every step -- even token steps -- that Congress and the administration have taken toward securing the border has been backed into under pressure from the voters.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20070522-085024-9073r.htm
Immigration inconsistencies
By Tony Blankley
May 23, 2007
Admittedly, as Emerson instructs, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Still, Washington at the moment seems to be suffering from notably "large" and "inconsistent" minds.
There is, of course, the hilarious inconsistency and largeness of John Edwards charging $50,000 to give a college speech on poverty; specifically noting that we live in two Americas, one rich (those who get paid $50,000 for a half-hour speech) and one poor (those who have to take out a long-term loan to pay for their college textbooks — and whose college payments paid for Mr. Edwards' $50,000 speaking fee).
Also, and now famously, there is Al Gore: the energy-gobbling, carbon-emitting, endomorphic carbon-based life form who morally condemns all who gobble energy and emit carbon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052301417.html
A Bill That Earned Its Doubters
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A31
Compromise is incessantly praised, and it has produced the proposed immigration legislation. But compromise is the mother of complexity, which, regarding immigration, virtually guarantees -- as the public understands -- weak enforcement and noncompliance.
Although the compromise was announced the day the Census Bureau reported that there now are 100 million nonwhites in America, Americans are skeptical about the legislation, but not because they have suddenly succumbed to nativism. Rather, the public has slowly come to the conclusion that the government cannot be trusted to mean what it says about immigration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/23/AR2007052301782.html
In the Democratic Congress, Pork Still Gets Served
'Phonemarking' Is Among Ways Around Appropriations Process
By John Solomon and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A01
When the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives passed one of its first spending bills, funding the Energy Department for the rest of 2007, it proudly boasted that the legislation contained no money earmarked for lawmakers' pet projects and stressed that any prior congressional requests for such spending "shall have no legal effect."
Within days, however, lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) began directly contacting the Energy Department. They sought to secure money for their favorite causes outside of the congressional appropriations process -- a practice that lobbyists and appropriations insiders call "phonemarking."
Politicians weigh renewal of Net access tax ban
State governments say they want to be able to levy new taxes on access and oppose an unfettered extension of the federal ban that expires this fall.
By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: May 22, 2007, 3:26 PM PDT
WASHINGTON--With only months left on a moratorium restricting state governments from taxing Internet access, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday began a debate over whether the ban should be made permanent or allowed to lapse.
At issue is the scheduled expiration on November 1 of a law, initially enacted in 1998, that says local governments generally cannot tax Internet access, including DSL (digital subscriber line), cable modem and BlackBerry-type wireless transmission services. The law also prohibits governments from taxing items sold online in a different manner than those sold at brick-and-mortar stores, but it does not deal with sales taxes on online shopping.
That's the way it should remain, some politicians said at a brief hearing here convened by a House of Representatives panel on commercial and administrative law.
Dodd, Romney Launch New TV Ads
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Christopher Dodd is taking on his Democratic presidential rivals - again. And Republican Mitt Romney is now highlighting his home state - with a bit of a sneer.
In new television commercials, the two presidential candidates are each addressing some of their biggest challenges.
For Dodd, that means directly confronting Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, pack leaders in the Democratic field. For Romney, it means acknowledging he once governed Massachusetts, a state conservatives consider a center of left-wing thought.
Dodd makes note of his support for legislation that would have cut off funds for the war in Iraq by March 31, 2008. In an ad two weeks ago he challenged other Democrats to join him.
Romney: ABC Story Puts Lives at Risk
NEW YORK (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized ABC News on Wednesday for its report about CIA plans in Iran, saying it could potentially jeopardize national security and endanger lives.
ABC News rejected Romney's analysis, and said it had given the CIA a chance to make the case that its report put people at risk, but the agency didn't respond.