Guest workers -- a cheap solution with a costly price-tag

By Aussiegirl

The indomitable Phyllis Shlafly tells us why all this cheap labor is really not so cheap. In Ukrainian we have a saying that goes something like -- "The stingy man pays double." Meaning that in the long run, what looks like a cheap solution actually turns out to be more costly. Looks like that's the case for this so-called immigration reform.

Phyllis looks beyond the so-called "amnesty" portion of the bill that seeks to legalize the 12 million or so illegal immigrants already here, and focuses on the millions of "guest workers" who are really more like permanent residents with a fast track to special privileges and citizenship.

Tell me that all these guest workers are not a convenient way for business in this country to get cheap labor without having to pay a realistic wage and in addition, getting away with forcing the government -- that's YOU and ME you know -- the hapless taxpayer -- getting stuck with the bill for health care and social services.

If these companies, represented by the Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street Journal, had to employ regular American citizens, they would be forced to provide benefits and living wages.

This way they have the best of both worlds. A large supply of cheap, malleable labor at bargain prices, and no burdensome benefits to provide.

In other words -- they get the benefit -- you and I are stuck paying the bills.

And we haven't even touched on the language problem.

Guest workers aren't cheap; they're expensive by Phyllis Schlafly:

The White House Web site is currently advertising, in both English and Spanish, Bush's congratulations (applaudo) to the U.S. Senate for passing what president called bipartisan (bipartidista) and comprehensive (integral) immigration reform (reforma). In fact, this Kennedy-McCain (aka Hagel-Martinez) bill might be the worst and the most expensive bill ever passed by the Senate, and it should be an embarrassment to any Republican who voted for it.

The media have reported on the sections that grant illegal residents amnesty (aka path to legalization or earned citizenship). But the media have censored out of their news reports the sections that are 10 to 20 times more costly and far more dishonest than playing games with the word amnesty. "

[...]The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill would import 7.8 million immigrants, and convert another 11 million current immigrants, legal and illegal, into U.S. citizens over the next decade. The Heritage Foundation estimates that 66 million new citizens will be added to the current population over the next 20 years. The number would accelerate as the racket called family chain migration allows more new residents to bring in more and more relatives.

The bill gives these temporary workers some preferential rights that U.S. workers do not have. These new temporary workers can't be fired from their jobs except for "just cause," they must be paid the prevailing wage, and they can't be arrested for other civil immigration offenses if they are stopped for traffic violations.

The bill assures the preference of in-state college tuition (something that is denied to U.S. citizens in 49 states), and certain types of college financial assistance will be available to illegals at the state's option. As minorities, they might even get affirmative action preferences in jobs, government contracts, and college admissions.

After the so-called temporary workers and their spouses become citizens, they can bring in their parents as permanent residents on the path to citizenship. Although the parents have never paid into Social Security, they will be eligible for Supplemental Security Income benefits, and in 46 states they will be eligible for full Medicaid benefits after five years. Siblings and adult children (and their families) will be given preference in future admissions.

The demographics of the so-called temporary workers are expected to be similar to those of the illegal immigrants already in our country. More than half will be high school dropouts, they will work low-paid jobs that require payment of little or no income tax, they are 50 percent more likely to receive taxpayer-funded government benefits than natural-born households, and they have a 42 percent rate of out-of-wedlock births (all of whom, of course, will be granted automatic U.S. citizenship).

Estimates of the cost to the taxpayers of this gargantuan expansion of the welfare state are at least $50 billion a year over the long term. U.S. taxpayers will pay for entitlements to these tens of millions of low-income families, including Medicaid, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Earned Income Tax Credit (cash handouts of up to $4,400 a year to low-wage households), public schooling and lunches, the WIC program, food stamps, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.