Amnesty will cost American taxpayers at least $6.3 trillion in welfare and other public benefits, the Heritage Foundation has just announced.
Former Sen. Jim DeMint, now president of the foundation, made the announcement at a news conference this morning.
The report was authored by Senior Research Fellow Robert Rector, who said if the current reform proposal is adopted, illegal aliens granted amnesty would be eligible for over 80 different welfare programs during the course of their lives.
Among the many polarizing and wrong-headed assertions that Barack Obama made in his second Inaugural Address was one that stands outs vividly against the backdrop of the current tug-of-war over government spending:
In his quest to get the debt ceiling raised, President Obama issued a threat in his Wednesday press conference that troops won’t get paid and veterans’ pension payments will be delayed. He warned of delays in Social Security payments as well. It’s important to understand that these comments constitute a threat (which may or may not be a hollow one). Obama is not stating some inescapable reality, to which he along with the rest of us is subject. If retirees and vets see a delay in their payments, it will be because Obama himself decides to hold the payments up. Moreover, Obama is not caught in a trap when it comes to paying the troops; Continue reading
Earlier today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released a letter to President Obama with the House’s counter-offer to President Obama’s fiscal cliff proposal. From the letter, seen at the Speaker’s website:
With the fiscal cliff nearing, our priority remains finding a reasonable solution that can pass both the House and the Senate, and be signed into law in the next couple of weeks. The best way to do this is by learning from and building on the bipartisan discussions that have occurred during this Congress, including the Biden Group, the Joint Select Committee, and our negotiations leading up to the Budget Control Act.