[Vision2020] [Bulk] Fw: FW: info you may want to consider before you cast your vote

[Paul Rumelhart]

I can't let some of this go without a comment or two.

lfalen wrote:
> This email comes in three parts:
>
>  Part 1
>
>  In just one year.  Remember the election in 2006?  Thought you might
> Like to read the following:
>
>  A little over one year ago:
>
>  1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 ½ year high;
>  2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
>  3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
>
>  Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
>
>  1) Consumer confidence plummet;
>  2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
>  3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
>  4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value
> Evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
>  5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion
> Dollars;
>  6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
>
>  America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
>
>  Remember it's Congress that makes law not the President.  He has to
> Work with what's handed to him.
>   

According to Wikipedia, President Bush has vetoed ten separate pieces of 
legislation since the 2006 Congress went Democratic.  The President 
doesn't make the law, but he can push whatever he wants through a 
Republican controlled Congress and halt anything he wants from a 
Democratic controlled one if they don't have an overwhelming majority.  
Which puts the blame for all this squarely on his shoulders, in my book.

I hate to bring this up, but perhaps our economic woes are in some way 
tied to the estimated $1.2 trillion dollars that have been spent on a 
war that was originally thought would only take a total of $50 billion 
dollars to win.

>  Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates
>
>  It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above
> Think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest
> President
> Ever.  If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal
> The Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the
> Categories above can't wait for it to happen.  This is like the movie
> The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and
> they
> Don't even know what happened.
>   

$1.2 trillion dollars to fight a war nobody wants, and we lower taxes at 
the same time.  Not the wisest move ever.

>
>
>  PART 3:
>
>  You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?   Read this:
>
>  Boy, am I confused.  I have been hammered with the propaganda that it
> Is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.  I now
> Find that to be RIDICULOUS.
>
>  I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again
> Until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading
> Them.  I have included the URL's for verification of all the following
> Facts.
>
>
>  1.      $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal
> Aliens each year by state governments.
>  Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77 
>
>  2.      $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance
> Programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal
> Aliens.
>  Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html 
>
>  3.      $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal
> Aliens.
>  Verify at:  http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html 
>
>  4.     $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary
> School education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a
>  Word of English!
>  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
>
>
>  5.      $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the
> American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
>  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
>
>
>  6.  $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
>  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
>
>
>  7.  30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
>  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
>
>
>  8.  $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare
> & social services by the American taxpayers.
>  Verify at:  http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html 
>
>  9.  $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are
> caused by the illegal aliens.
>  Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
>
>
>  10.  The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's
> two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens.  In particular,
>  their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in
> the US
>  Verify at:  http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
>
>
>  11.  Du ring the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal
> aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500
> illegal
> aliens from Terrorist Countries.  Millions of pounds of drugs,
> cocaine,
> meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U.S. from the Southern
> border.
>  Verify at: Homeland Security Report:  http://tinyurl.com/t9sht 
>
>  12.  The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of
> mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average
> cost of  between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year
> period.'
>  Verify at:  http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
>
>
>  13.  In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back
> to their countries of origin.
>  Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm 
>
>  14.  'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex
> Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.'
>  Verify at:  http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml 
>
>  The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
>   

There is a lot to be skeptical about in these numbers.  For one thing, 
almost two-thirds of the amount that is "costing us too much" is the 
amount ($200 billion) that is supposedly being lost to American 
workers.  You can't compare this with government spending.  Besides, 
it's a wash, because that $200 billion dollars is saving those robber 
baron tightwads that are paying those illegal aliens under the table 
that same amount of money.  Similarly, they are also counting $45 
billion that is being sent back to their countries of origin.

Also, some of the programs mentioned, such as WIC, are for the children 
of illegal aliens which happen to be full US citizens.  I'm also 
skeptical about the $90 billion dollar number for welfare in point 8, 
since illegal aliens aren't eligible for welfare.  Sure, there is 
probably some fraud, but it puts some doubt on whether or not that 
number could be known let alone accurate.

Besides, to believe the $338.3 billion dollar a year number, you would 
have to believe that each individual illegal alien costs the US 
$22,553.33 a year, since there are roughly 15 million illegal aliens 
according to what I could find on the net (varied between 10 million and 
20 million).  I find that hard to believe.  Might be true, who knows, 
but I'm skeptical.

The worst part about this illegal immigration thing is the hatred that I 
see in these kinds of treatises.  It's not the fault of the people 
trying to save a buck by hiring illegal laborers, it's the fault of 
these desperate people who risk their lives crossing a desert and 
evading border patrol so that they might make enough to keep their 
family alive that is bringing this great country down.  This country was 
formed on the backs of immigrants.  They should be our strength.  So 
instead of trying to fix the problems that are in the way of allowing 
these people into the country legally in the first place or cracking 
down on the employers that are drawing these people here, we demonize them.

>  Are we THAT stupid?
>
>  If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message.  If, on the
> other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope
> you
>  forward it to every legal resident in the country including every
> representative in Washington, D.C. - five times a week for as long as
> it
>  takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and
> enforcement thereof.
>   

They do seem to be keeping up with their promise.  You can't turn a 
corner on the Internet without running into this exact same message on a 
blog somewhere. 

Paul