The slow-motion audits done by the Obama administration on a tiny fraction of the businesses employing illegal immigrants eventually result in some illegal immigrants losing their jobs. But they remain in the country free to seek other jobs using the fraud-promoting, I-9 employment eligibility verification process.
Millions of illegally employed illegal immigrants could have been removed if only Obama hadn't killed a rule pending when he came into office that made would have made Social Security mismatch employees fix that with the Social Security Administration if their employers wanted to have the “safe harbor” of not “knowingly” employing illegal immigrants, that rarely met requirement for actual prosecution of employers. The rule would have been a cheap but effective method to enforce the law against hiring illegal immigrants, but Obama doesn't want those laws enforced.
I downloaded Anthem's last rate increase submission a while ago from California Department of Insurance website and was shocked by range of rates for the same policy depending on the geographic area. There were 7 geographic rate areas and the highest had about 75% higher premiums than the lowest. I'm glad there will be geographic rates and I'm hoping there will be transparency regarding the variations that might lead to needed changes. The differences could be a useful guide for attacking the biggest health care problem: cost. There is considerable evidence that the practice of medicine evolves differently in different places and that there are large differences in spending unrelated to better health outcomes. One possible advantage of the kind of divided health care system we have is that better-performing outliers could point the way to improved practices. Of course there was no reason why the public shouldn't have known about the currently existing geographic variations and their potential for improving the system, other than the state of journalism.
The overwhelming amount of money spent in reported lobbying is coming from those who want amnesty, increased and easier immigration, and the ability to bring in foreign labor. Yet this reporter chose to only mention the money spent lobby that was reported by Numbers USA. That points to the country's most significant advocacy force on the issue, though one not listed at Open Secrets, the news media. The efforts of those at public radio, public television, as well as almost all media outlets, to push the immigration agenda of the elites is massive and ubiquitous. These news outlets have chosen to deny the country the opportunity to hear an actual debate, to the degree they can get away with it. Take notice of how many times there is little or no representation of those wanting immigration limited and legal in media coverage of the issue. They know their agenda is at risk were the citizens of the country able to hear such a debate.
We could require the bonding of foreign visitors, either by private bonding firms or by the visitor's government. That would help pay for the expense of enforcement against visa violators as well as create social pressure in the sending countries against visa violations, as their prevalence would raise costs for other people in those countries.
But the more fundamental problem really is that we have a government that represents the widespread belief among the elites that our immigration laws don't really matter, and that those who violate them ought to be rewarded for doing so. That is what is being pushed by these elites right now under what they call “reform,” a term that by definition is a function of what people believe is wrong and what will make it better. Violate the law by ignoring the terms of your visa and these elites seek to reward you with permanent legal residence and citizenship. And that's after the sufficient-in-itself rewards of non-enforcement in the interior and easy access to employment and other kinds of benefits available to those illegally in the country. It's like saying we “really” (wink, wink) don't want you to violate your visa (or other immigration laws) but if you choose to do so, we will work hard to reward you for that.
And Edward Alden is part of the elite who are the real problem, as is true with Diane Feinstein. Go see the CFR's “Independent Task Force Report No. 63” where Alden was project director and Jeb Bush, whose been all over the news media with his new book promoting amnesty, was a chair. Outside of task force member Robert C. Bonner's solo and sensible call for ending citizenship birth, the report was just another of the endless promotions for the elite's immigration agenda.
Diane Feinstein used to support the rule of law regarding illegal immigration until she went into back rooms with its promoters in the ag industry and reversed her position.
This Berkeley Journalism School graduate choose to use as experts someone from the Cato Institute and a lawyer that represents employers. I doubt she would have selected a right wing foundation and lawyer defending business for most topics but since she undoubted shares in their illegal immigration agenda, they served her purpose, which isn't journalism.
Illegal drugs and illegal immigrants are different problems. Illegal drugs are inherently outside the law and hidden. The government doesn't have to facilitate their use, as it facilitates life for illegal immigrants, for there to exist a demand that assures a supply. Illegal drugs will always be a battle and the success against them at the border is also detracted by resources taken up by combating illegal immigrants trying to get in, sometimes actually being used as sacrificial distractions to facilitate drug smuggling.
Border enforcement for illegal immigrants is largely just political theater. You shouldn't believe any politician that talks like illegal immigration can be controlled by what is done at the border. That will never work when what illegal immigrants can expect once in the country bears no coherent relationship to the notion that they shouldn't be here. Currently, those who are in the country in violation of our immigration laws need have little fear of being removed, have easy access to employment and other benefits of being in the country and could reasonable expect to receive the opportunity to permanently stay, eventually becoming citizens. If you don't want illegal immigration then you shouldn't listen to any politician that doesn't say explicitly how they will change that, without which, there is no reason not to expect illegal immigration to continue. And if the uselessness of the border-only enforcement game wasn't obvious enough, it is estimated that 40% of the illegal immigrants didn't enter the country illegally.
A professional golfer is a pretty ideal occupation for choosing a favorable tax domicile. For many high earners, that isn't as true. Avoiding paying any state income taxes as opposed to the 13.3% in California would be worth about $6 million on Mickelson's reported gross from last year. More for Tiger, whose already done it.
I believe that the Medicare tax just went up .9% for some and is now 3.8% and I think that would to most of Mickelson's income. But that with 39.6% federal and 13.3% state still only adds up to a highest combined marginal rate of 56.7%. So getting above that must include non-income taxes.
How about "journalists" start calling it legislation instead of 'reform'? Assigning some legislation the name "reform" implies some conclusion about what's wrong and what would make it better, which is the definition of the word. I could craft comprehensive legislation that didn't reward illegal immigration, brought it under control and didn't give business access to a never-ending cheap pool of labor to undermine the economic prospects of so many working people in this country. (That assumes we could begin to have a government that was willing to enforce the law.) There are plenty of people in this country that would consider that "reform", even if none of them are in the news media. What the news media wants to call "reform" is, first and foremost, massively rewarding illegal immigration, Those wanting that have to, out of political necessity, promise that they will begin to act differently than they have persistently acted over the last quarter century. But letting the people responsible for mass illegal immigration write legislation should be seen a crazy, unless you like what has happened. Then you are likely to get more of the same.
The car theft comparison was to illustrate the idea of separating the removal of a punishment for having violated the law from the ability to keep ill-gotten gains from the violations. So ignore car theft and just think about that when thinking about illegal immigrants, which are neither all Mexican nor are all Mexicans illegal immigrants. Illegal isn't racial, ethnic nor a nationality.
I'm well aware of our history, which doesn't change that we are sovereign nation separate from the sovereign nation of Mexico. We have a right to choose the immigration policies we want and not have people from other countries decide that as they please.
What's reasonable begs the question. We won't need to deport all illegal immigrants as long as we deport as part of a coherent enforcement agenda that makes it abundantly clear that being here illegally isn't acceptable. That's pretty much the opposite of the message some, including the President, want to send. And that can't happen with a snap of finger but rather will be something that is established over time through acting in a matter consistent with that message until the doubts about it fade away.
It's not amnesty, it's amnesty plus, where people are rewarded for their violations of our immigration laws, which are the defining criteria for obtaining those rewards. The word amnesty has its root meaning in “forgetting.” But it's not forgetting the violations of the law when they become the reason for permanently awarding the ill-gotten gains that were the reason for those violations. It's like someone who stole a pricy car wasn't just not prosecuted but was also allowed keep it at a steep discount. If you question whether the proposed “pathways” are a reward, ask yourself what the same deal would go for on the world market to people who have never violated a law in this country? It's been reported that people from China have been paying $50,000 to get here illegally. Permanent legal status with eventual citizenship has to be worth much more. But those in other countries that have not broken our laws won't be eligible.
I also find it remarkable that the voters of Arizona sent two open-border Senators to the nations capital where they will undo all the efforts done in their state to control illegal immigration. I understand the they both converted to border hawks for their campaigns, the border being the preferred locus misdirection political theater for politicians who don't really want to control illegal immigration. And, of course, McCain and Flake had huge amount of help that comes by way of the propaganda of open-borders media. Yet I still have to wonder what Arizona voters thought would happen when these two voted on immigration legislation.
68° A Few Clouds
With Immigration Reform Pending, Calls For An End To Workplace Audits
The slow-motion audits done by the Obama administration on a tiny fraction of the businesses employing illegal immigrants eventually result in some illegal immigrants losing their jobs. But they remain in the country free to seek other jobs using the fraud-promoting, I-9 employment eligibility verification process.
Millions of illegally employed illegal immigrants could have been removed if only Obama hadn't killed a rule pending when he came into office that made would have made Social Security mismatch employees fix that with the Social Security Administration if their employers wanted to have the “safe harbor” of not “knowingly” employing illegal immigrants, that rarely met requirement for actual prosecution of employers. The rule would have been a cheap but effective method to enforce the law against hiring illegal immigrants, but Obama doesn't want those laws enforced.
April 27, 2013 at 3:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Location Will Make A Difference In Price Of Health Insurance
I downloaded Anthem's last rate increase submission a while ago from California Department of Insurance website and was shocked by range of rates for the same policy depending on the geographic area. There were 7 geographic rate areas and the highest had about 75% higher premiums than the lowest. I'm glad there will be geographic rates and I'm hoping there will be transparency regarding the variations that might lead to needed changes. The differences could be a useful guide for attacking the biggest health care problem: cost. There is considerable evidence that the practice of medicine evolves differently in different places and that there are large differences in spending unrelated to better health outcomes. One possible advantage of the kind of divided health care system we have is that better-performing outliers could point the way to improved practices. Of course there was no reason why the public shouldn't have known about the currently existing geographic variations and their potential for improving the system, other than the state of journalism.
March 13, 2013 at 11:20 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lobbying Dollars Fly In Immigration Reform Debate
The overwhelming amount of money spent in reported lobbying is coming from those who want amnesty, increased and easier immigration, and the ability to bring in foreign labor. Yet this reporter chose to only mention the money spent lobby that was reported by Numbers USA. That points to the country's most significant advocacy force on the issue, though one not listed at Open Secrets, the news media. The efforts of those at public radio, public television, as well as almost all media outlets, to push the immigration agenda of the elites is massive and ubiquitous. These news outlets have chosen to deny the country the opportunity to hear an actual debate, to the degree they can get away with it. Take notice of how many times there is little or no representation of those wanting immigration limited and legal in media coverage of the issue. They know their agenda is at risk were the citizens of the country able to hear such a debate.
March 13, 2013 at 10:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Visa Overstays Present Challenge For Immigration Reform
We could require the bonding of foreign visitors, either by private bonding firms or by the visitor's government. That would help pay for the expense of enforcement against visa violators as well as create social pressure in the sending countries against visa violations, as their prevalence would raise costs for other people in those countries.
But the more fundamental problem really is that we have a government that represents the widespread belief among the elites that our immigration laws don't really matter, and that those who violate them ought to be rewarded for doing so. That is what is being pushed by these elites right now under what they call “reform,” a term that by definition is a function of what people believe is wrong and what will make it better. Violate the law by ignoring the terms of your visa and these elites seek to reward you with permanent legal residence and citizenship. And that's after the sufficient-in-itself rewards of non-enforcement in the interior and easy access to employment and other kinds of benefits available to those illegally in the country. It's like saying we “really” (wink, wink) don't want you to violate your visa (or other immigration laws) but if you choose to do so, we will work hard to reward you for that.
And Edward Alden is part of the elite who are the real problem, as is true with Diane Feinstein. Go see the CFR's “Independent Task Force Report No. 63” where Alden was project director and Jeb Bush, whose been all over the news media with his new book promoting amnesty, was a chair. Outside of task force member Robert C. Bonner's solo and sensible call for ending citizenship birth, the report was just another of the endless promotions for the elite's immigration agenda.
Diane Feinstein used to support the rule of law regarding illegal immigration until she went into back rooms with its promoters in the ag industry and reversed her position.
March 7, 2013 at 12:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
E-Verify Lessons From Arizona
This Berkeley Journalism School graduate choose to use as experts someone from the Cato Institute and a lawyer that represents employers. I doubt she would have selected a right wing foundation and lawyer defending business for most topics but since she undoubted shares in their illegal immigration agenda, they served her purpose, which isn't journalism.
January 26, 2013 at 11:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
The Quest For A Secure Border
Illegal drugs and illegal immigrants are different problems. Illegal drugs are inherently outside the law and hidden. The government doesn't have to facilitate their use, as it facilitates life for illegal immigrants, for there to exist a demand that assures a supply. Illegal drugs will always be a battle and the success against them at the border is also detracted by resources taken up by combating illegal immigrants trying to get in, sometimes actually being used as sacrificial distractions to facilitate drug smuggling.
Border enforcement for illegal immigrants is largely just political theater. You shouldn't believe any politician that talks like illegal immigration can be controlled by what is done at the border. That will never work when what illegal immigrants can expect once in the country bears no coherent relationship to the notion that they shouldn't be here. Currently, those who are in the country in violation of our immigration laws need have little fear of being removed, have easy access to employment and other benefits of being in the country and could reasonable expect to receive the opportunity to permanently stay, eventually becoming citizens. If you don't want illegal immigration then you shouldn't listen to any politician that doesn't say explicitly how they will change that, without which, there is no reason not to expect illegal immigration to continue. And if the uselessness of the border-only enforcement game wasn't obvious enough, it is estimated that 40% of the illegal immigrants didn't enter the country illegally.
January 25, 2013 at 11:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Mickelson To Discuss 'Drastic Changes' Over Taxes
A professional golfer is a pretty ideal occupation for choosing a favorable tax domicile. For many high earners, that isn't as true. Avoiding paying any state income taxes as opposed to the 13.3% in California would be worth about $6 million on Mickelson's reported gross from last year. More for Tiger, whose already done it.
I believe that the Medicare tax just went up .9% for some and is now 3.8% and I think that would to most of Mickelson's income. But that with 39.6% federal and 13.3% state still only adds up to a highest combined marginal rate of 56.7%. So getting above that must include non-income taxes.
January 23, 2013 at 5:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
San Diegans Rally For Immigration Reform
How about "journalists" start calling it legislation instead of 'reform'? Assigning some legislation the name "reform" implies some conclusion about what's wrong and what would make it better, which is the definition of the word. I could craft comprehensive legislation that didn't reward illegal immigration, brought it under control and didn't give business access to a never-ending cheap pool of labor to undermine the economic prospects of so many working people in this country. (That assumes we could begin to have a government that was willing to enforce the law.) There are plenty of people in this country that would consider that "reform", even if none of them are in the news media. What the news media wants to call "reform" is, first and foremost, massively rewarding illegal immigration, Those wanting that have to, out of political necessity, promise that they will begin to act differently than they have persistently acted over the last quarter century. But letting the people responsible for mass illegal immigration write legislation should be seen a crazy, unless you like what has happened. Then you are likely to get more of the same.
January 23, 2013 at 4:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Arizona's Role In The Gang Of Eight
Really 123-
The car theft comparison was to illustrate the idea of separating the removal of a punishment for having violated the law from the ability to keep ill-gotten gains from the violations. So ignore car theft and just think about that when thinking about illegal immigrants, which are neither all Mexican nor are all Mexicans illegal immigrants. Illegal isn't racial, ethnic nor a nationality.
I'm well aware of our history, which doesn't change that we are sovereign nation separate from the sovereign nation of Mexico. We have a right to choose the immigration policies we want and not have people from other countries decide that as they please.
What's reasonable begs the question. We won't need to deport all illegal immigrants as long as we deport as part of a coherent enforcement agenda that makes it abundantly clear that being here illegally isn't acceptable. That's pretty much the opposite of the message some, including the President, want to send. And that can't happen with a snap of finger but rather will be something that is established over time through acting in a matter consistent with that message until the doubts about it fade away.
January 23, 2013 at 3:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Arizona's Role In The Gang Of Eight
It's not amnesty, it's amnesty plus, where people are rewarded for their violations of our immigration laws, which are the defining criteria for obtaining those rewards. The word amnesty has its root meaning in “forgetting.” But it's not forgetting the violations of the law when they become the reason for permanently awarding the ill-gotten gains that were the reason for those violations. It's like someone who stole a pricy car wasn't just not prosecuted but was also allowed keep it at a steep discount. If you question whether the proposed “pathways” are a reward, ask yourself what the same deal would go for on the world market to people who have never violated a law in this country? It's been reported that people from China have been paying $50,000 to get here illegally. Permanent legal status with eventual citizenship has to be worth much more. But those in other countries that have not broken our laws won't be eligible.
I also find it remarkable that the voters of Arizona sent two open-border Senators to the nations capital where they will undo all the efforts done in their state to control illegal immigration. I understand the they both converted to border hawks for their campaigns, the border being the preferred locus misdirection political theater for politicians who don't really want to control illegal immigration. And, of course, McCain and Flake had huge amount of help that comes by way of the propaganda of open-borders media. Yet I still have to wonder what Arizona voters thought would happen when these two voted on immigration legislation.
January 23, 2013 at 9:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )