Do we just fold as a nation?
During the past months we have heard the major candidates explain how they would solve many of the problems faced by our United States.
In the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton won largely because of his slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid!” While that is even truer today, there is a more ominous fear, but no candidate has dared to say, “It’s immigration, stupid!”
Last week, at dinner with four friends, the conversation inevitably went directly to how to restore America to greatness.
There was a daunting list of issues, ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the rapid acceleration of the recession; our crippling credit card debt coupled with thousands of job losses and increased food and medical costs; and the rocketing prices of gasoline.
There was discussion about the mistakes made by the State Department, indeed most parts of the bureaucracy and those urgent needs — not being met by the moguls in Washington — for health, education and welfare. Each one of us had lived in a number of U.S. cities and in different countries during difficult eras. We realized as gas and food prices keep rising and as mortgages are foreclosed, banks will threaten to repossess more, not stopping at homes, but also cars and even furniture bought on credit.
These are the conditions that, failing dramatic government action, bring about food riots.
Already rumors abound on plans for guarding centralized food warehouses and for protecting convoys to distribution points in cities. Teams are trained to hand out the basics — all paid for under the mandate of security from terrorism.
What terrorism could be more feared than that generated by our hungry, jobless, now-impoverished neighbors. But as survival-related adults, we decided to offer those who want to be president a solution to many of these problems.
The overwhelming issue is illegal immigration.
Let’s look at some facts that underline how crucial this is.
A report by a long-established New York City bank concludes that our government has grossly underestimated the size of the illegal population. It is about 20 million people, more than double the government’s estimate of 9 million. They send home much of what they earn.
As a comparison, there are enough illegals to replace every U.S. citizen living in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and our very own Pittsburgh.
Our Congress helps companies outsource jobs offshore, while they authorize 182,000 legal immigrants each month. An estimated additional 100,000 illegal aliens arrive monthly.
Other reports show that an average immigrant household pays $10,664 in federal taxes and receives $13,326 in federal welfare and entitlement programs. To which we must add education, medical care, policing and prisons — and what happens when the illegals get old and get pensions?
And those familiar with the problems of law enforcement know that untold numbers of machete-wielding kids roam the streets of cities and towns organizing drug sales and prostitution. When caught, these young thugs may be deported — but return to the United States again and again. The cost of policing and prison services has risen to astronomical heights.
With high-cost fuel imports obliging the United States to spend hundreds of billions of dollars overseas already, this problem is so dire that the only solution is immediate and wholesale deportation of illegals. This would be both un-American and brutal. It is also unlikely that anyone would be willing to fill the back-breaking jobs now held by illegals.
Do we just fold as a nation?
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_563342.html
From a reader: I am quite worried. The illegals & other immigrants won’t leave if our standard of living takes a dive. They are used to it – they are USED TO LIVING IN SQUALOR!