Guest post by Karl Denninger
Marco Rubio has repeatedly claimed he "wants more" from the Amnesty Bill now moving through Congress.
Yes, folks, it's an amnesty bill. Let's cut the crap and call it what it is, because only through calling something what it is can we debate it.
"Legalization" of those who are here illegally today is amnesty. I don't care whether it leads to citizenship now or later, the fact of the matter is that it rewards criminal activity by allowing those who stole from Americans and their resources to keep what they stole and remain here in America.
There is no restitution. There is no penalty of consequence. There is nothing except benefit for them and a gigantic magnet pulling even more illegal immigrants to America.
America is a nation of immigrants. I'm the offspring of immigrants and odds are you are too. Unless you're 100% native American, you are a son or daughter of immigrants, directly or a few generations removed. Even if you can trace your heritage to the original colonists,
you are the product of immigration.But your parents, grandparents or other ancestors probably came here legally -- unless you're Hispanic. Then the odds are that your parents, grandparents or perhaps even you personally came here illegally.
Everyone wants to talk about "compassion" for the millions who are here already. But that's exactly identical to apologizing for bank robbers after you disarmed the guards and allowed millions of people to rob banks. After the fact you now want "compassion" for those who took the money?
And let's not kid ourselves -- that's exactly what happened. These people have come here, they have consumed our resources, they have suckled at the teat of government. They don't pay taxes and by and large they don't cover their own costs. They have children who go to our schools, get free or reduced-price food that they rest of us pay for, they evade the taxation that pay for those schools, they show up in our hospitals with no money and no medical insurance, they drive on our roads with no insurance and when they wreck and injure or kill us by doing so our insurance bills go up to cover the uninsured motorist -- them.
The correct way to deal with this problem is to demand that every single one of these people either leave or pay back twice what they got. You dropped a kid into our schools for the last five years? The per-pupil cost in your district is $8,000? Cough up $80,000 (twice the $40k cost) as the fine for forcing us to support your child's education through your crime, plus double the cost of any other social benefits you've received, pay all of your back taxes for every penny of under-the-table "wages" you've earned and then go to the back of the line and apply for residency.
Of course none of these folks have $80,000. If they did they wouldn't have come here illegally in the first place.
And that's the problem, in a nutshell. They came here because they could "get" rather than earn. That's theft and fraud and until we call things what they are we cannot make progress.
The Libertarians want to argue that there should be "free movement of human capital." Fine -- I'm good with it when, and only when, there is utterly no means to access any taxpayer service for those who cross borders in this fashion and anyone who tries it is immediately charged and prosecuted for felony grand theft. But not one second before.
The Democrats want to argue that this is about compassion? Fine -- see above. Put a stop the magnet games and handouts and I'm ok with it.
In the early 1900s when millions of people came through Ellis Island there was no welfare system. You either worked hard and earned a living, assimilating into our culture, learning English and strove to become educated or you starved. Yes, there were groups that provided help but it was voluntary; Churches and other groups, most faith-based, did indeed provide help to those who couldn't help themselves and that's fine. But there was no Section 8 housing, no WIC, no Food Stamps and no free medical care.
You worked or you starved.
Now there is such a system and it is not only abused it is why these people come in the first place. Jose the roofer shoots a nail through his foot and you get the bill for that accident because Jose has no medical insurance or money and his "employer" isn't paying workman's comp insurance either because he's working illegally. Then Jose goes home and screws his wife or girlfriend, she gets pregnant and you get the bill for the prenatal care and birth because he has no money and neither does she, and they both access that care under EMTALA when things get ugly.
Try that crap as a US Citizen in Mexico. Go there on "vacation" and try to work. Forget it -- you'll go to jail. Get hurt and want the Mexican hospitals to treat you for free. Forget it -- you'll die. Think I'm kidding? I'm not -- I'm a diver and there are myriad warnings about exactly that risk if I choose not to carry dive insurance for recompression treatment. If I get bent in Cozumel I better either have a policy that will cover it outside the United States that the recompression chamber will accept or the ability to pay in cash before I get treated or I will be left crippled or even be allowed to die in agony -- literally.
This crap must stop and no bill that fails to put a 100% hard stop to it can be supported. What we have now is theft and fraud against the American people and ratifying that will simply bring more theft and fraud. We proved this the last time around when the promise was made to secure the border and stop the infiltration of people coming here for the benefits rather than to provide labor and advance our economy. We were told the flood of illegals would cease; it instead accelerated.
I want a strong, vibrant economy that is open to all who wish to come here and contribute on the same terms as Americans. That means assimilating into America -- becoming Americans. It means an end to groups like "La Raza." If you wish to be an American there is no hyphenation in your identity and there is no subgroup to which you belong -- you choose to speak English because that is the language of the nation, you choose to live under the political and legal system of our country, you integrate into our society and you cut the crap about being "special", "different" or having a right to get a pass on the laws and customs that the rest of us all live under and with. Period.
If your first act was to break the law by setting foot on our soil in an act of furtive evasion of said law and you then accessed our vast resources under the table you must (1) admit your sin and theft of that which did not belong to you, (2) make full penance for every dime of cost you imposed on us at a penalty rate in recognition and admission that what you did was wrong and (3) go stand at the back of the line behind all those who did neither of those things.
Marco Rubio refuses to face this because he's "afraid" of Hispanic reaction, as are others. But he's pandering to the wrong constituency. The people he's pandering to and afraid of are not citizens and cannot vote -- at least not without committing even more felonies. Hispanic people who are here legally and are citizens are broadly (and rightly!)*****ed off that there are millions of others who look like them that (1) damage their relationship with the rest of America by association and (2) are cutting in front of the line of their friends and family members who wish to come to America legally, willfully bearing the costs of citizenship to obtain the benefits.
The Democrats simply want to pander for votes and think they can turn the 20+ million illegals here into a new voting block by finding ways to give those who came here unlawfully the franchise.
That sort of thinking is exactly identical to giving bank robbers a controlling vote on whether bank robbery ought to be illegal.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense would discern that such a vote would destroy banking overnight.
The Democrats lack that common sense.
Does anyone on the other side of the aisle possess it?
Karl Denninger writes at Market Ticker.
