#67 | Posted by skizziks at 2009-06-25 03:32 PM
....however.....saying that it is the illegal immigrants who are at fault, because the idiots in California cannot pass a balanced budget, is just a form of buck-passing....
skizziks, the reason the opposition to subsidizing illegal aliens is referred to as racist, or introduce other pejoratives, is that there is from the perspective of most of us, little compelling rational basis for having admitted the illegal aliens here through a porous phoney system that's supposedly is designed to prevent their entrance, and laws and practices that enable them to remain here and benefit from among other things state subsidized education for their children, health care, and various and sundry other expensive benefits.
skizzix, few of us "blame" the illegal aliens. They found an opportunity and are generally trying to imporve their situations. Few of them have any malicious intent to inflict harm on Americans by their presence and actions.
The presence of illegal aliens is similar to a resultant in a vector. There are several "pulls" of varying strength that have combined to foster the continued presence of illegal aliens here, ranging from exploitive employers (note the construction and fast food and meat packing industries as examples), advocate groups experiencing "empathy," and calculating politicians who view this group as future voters who will be aligned with their party insuring them an irremovable grip on power (and the incidents such as wealth that flow from such control).
This, however, does not negate the actual cost to California, where 25% of the 6.8 million K-12 students require English as a Second Language (ESL) programs due to lack of familiarity with English. More than 50% of K-12 enrollment statewide is Hispanic, and it predominates even more in Southern California. How you can dismiss such cost as not a significant factor in California's budgetary crisis, boggles the mind.
There are of course, a plethora of other costs, not itemized ranging from welfare to a disproportionate use of the criminal justice system (apprehension, judicial processing, incarceration), rent subsidies, food stamps, welfare, free lunches, WIC, and access to and use of the health care system (which has also greatly compromised the emergency care facilities function), etc. Again, how you can arbitraily dismiss such exorbitant costs as not a key factor in California's economic malaise, boggles the mind.
Are the politicians in bed with the unions so that State employees receive more than twice the equivalent wage in the private sector for the same jobs? Yes. Is the symbiotic relationship between the politicians and the unions resulting in the State going the GM route to unsustainability?
Is the unwillingness of the politicians to curtail "benefits" to be compatible with State income, also a factor? Yes.
There are many reasons for the disastrous situation in California. That does not negate the massive inpact of illegal aliens and their offspring on the system in terms of costs, which are not offset by their relatively low incomes. There is a negative budgetary impact as a consequence of their presence. Your summary dismissal of aliens as a significant factor is unjustified.
