Tag Archives: GOP

New Deficit Reduction Plan: Immigration Reform

Last week, we discussed how immigration reform including a roadmap to earned citizenship for the 11 MILLION undocumented immigrants already here would be an $832 BILLION cumulative boost to the economy over the next ten years. Today, there’s even more evidence that immigration reform is just what the economy needs.

Official government estimates show that reforming our immigration system to increase legal immigration will be a huge boost to deficit reduction efforts. A chart highlighted today by ThinkProgress and Quartz shows why immigration reform might be one of the smartest and most effective deficit reduction plans out there:

The OMB estimates (pdf, p. 56) that increasing immigration by 300,000 people a year, to 1.3 million, would be the equivalent of 0.6% of GDP in deficit reduction, or about $100 billion, each year between 2014 and 2088. Sounds like plan to tackle the debt to me.

In addition to underscoring the benefits of immigration reform, this also shows that deficit reduction does not have to come exclusively from the kind of painful austerity spending cuts championed by the GOP. Smart policy changes in areas like immigration can also help reduce our deficit and grow the economy.

BOTTOM LINE: Immigration reform will boost the economy, reduce the deficit, and help create new opportunities for all Americans, no matter where they were born.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Sequester cuts start causing massive delays at major airports, so of course the GOP unfairly blames President Obama.

Top Senate opponent of immigration reform loses it during hearing.

Amazing New York Times interactive on the Boston bombings.

Republicans who voted against Sandy aid now want it for West, TX explosion.

Kansas governor signs sweeping anti-abortion law, writes “JESUS + Mary” in his notes on the bill.

Former White House chief of staff, Chicago mayor: Sen. Heitkamp (D-ND) betrayed me on gun bill.

White House backs online sales tax plan.

GOP immigration dead-ender says DREAMers should self-deport.

Canadian police derail terror plot targeting New York-Toronto rail line.

Today is Earth Day — and the last day for comments on a draft environmental assessment of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Americans Like Equality

03/22/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Leading conservative commentator says DOMA is unconstitutional.

GOP Congressman: “The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out.”

Starbucks CEO: If you don’t like marriage equality then feel free to sell your Starbucks stock.

Michele Bachmann: Obamacare is “literally” killing people.

A GOP senator’s latest attack on immigrants.

Speaker Boehner promises another manufactured debt ceiling crisis in two months.

House Republicans pass budget plan that ends Medicare as we know it, raises middle class taxes in order to slash taxes on the rich.

Obamacare has saved seniors over $6 BILLION on their prescription drugs.

On government spending, the GOP faces a reckoning.

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A Trillion Dollar Boost

03/21/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

How a Path to Citizenship Will Boost the Economy

Reforming our broken immigration system and offering the 11 million undocumented immigrants already here a path to earned citizenship is morally right thing to do, but it’s also the economically smart thing. A new report out today from our colleagues at the Center for American Progress outlines how immigration reform will offer a tremendous boost to the economy — especially if reform includes the vital pathway to citizenship.

Here are some of the key numbers to know:

Cumulative increase in GDP of $1.1 TRILLION.
Cumulative increase in the income of all Americans of $618 BILLION.
Increase in federal taxes paid by undocumented immigrants of $91 BILLION.
Increase in state and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants of $53 BILLION.
Earnings of undocumented immigrants would increase by 25.1 percent, a cumulative increase in earnings of $515 BILLION.
Average annual increase in jobs of 159,000.

(All figures are the gains over ten years based on undocumented immigrants acquiring legal status in 2013 and citizenship 5 years later.)

As this handy chart shows, the sooner undocumented immigrants become citizens, the bigger the boost to the economy:

It’s hard to appreciate what some of these figures mean in real life, so here are some examples of the economic benefits of immigration reform:

Education: The GOP budget cuts education funding per capita by 47 percent; taxes from new citizens would fund 1.5 MILLION special education teachers.
Infrastructure: While the GOP budget slashes spending on roads, bridges, schools, airports, and other infrastructure, taxes from new citizens could rebuild the San Francisco Bay Bridge 23 times over.
College Affordability: The $91 BILLION in additional federal tax revenue paid by new citizens would fund more than 16 MILLION additional Pell grants over the next ten years.
Teachers: The $53 BILLION in additional state revenue paid by new citizens would fund more than 1 MILLION new K-12 teachers over the next years.

For more information on how immigration reform will boost the economy, check out the full report HERE.

BOTTOM LINE: Undocumented immigrants are makers not takers and putting them on a path to earned citizenship will help these new citizens and their communities and boost the economy by over $1 TRILLION.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

The GOP still won’t own up to its real problems.

Local TV news shows the painful consequences of the sequester cuts.

Another football player accused of rape, another community blames the victim.

Why Sen. Reid must include universal background checks in the Senate gun violence prevention bill.

Colorado governor signed gun law reforms today, will sign civil unions tomorrow.

Senators parrot NRA talking points to oppose gun violence prevention laws.

Not everyone is terrible: Steubenville-area women’s shelter receiving donations from around the world.

Iraq War architect says it’s “unreasonable” to question whether the war was worth fighting.

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War on Women, Budget Edition

03/14/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

Latest GOP Budget Marks Latest Attack on Women

Budgets are statements of values and priorities. Based on the GOP’s latest budget, apparently the interests of women are not a priority.

Here’s a look at how the GOP budget is bad for women and children.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

No, lowering taxes doesn’t grow the economy.

South Carolina GOP lawmaker suggest they blocked Medicaid expansion because Obama is black.

Is Texas turning blue?

Even Paul Ryan admits that we’re not facing a debt crisis.

Latest GOP budget gives millionaires at least a $200,000 tax cut.

It’s time for the Obama administration to lift its secrecy on drones.

The new pope’s views on LGBT equality.

Everything you need to know about the Steubenville rape trial.

President Obama evolves even further on marriage equality.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What the American People Didn’t Choose

03/12/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

6 Things Americans Did Not Vote for in 2012

Tomorrow, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will release the latest version of his infamous Republican budget plan — you know, the one that ends Medicare as we know it. As we await this plan, it’s worth considering a few things that voters did not choose in the 2012 election.

Paul Ryan: In selecting Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney put Ryan and his ideas front-and-center in the election. Voters said thanks but no thanks to Ryan and his radical ideas. Ryan even lost his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.
A Republican House of Representatives: President Obama was easily re-elected and Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate, so why are we stuck with a GOP-controlled House of Representatives? Gerrymandering. Democratic House candidates won more than a million more votes than Republican candidates, but districts drawn by Republicans for Republicans allowed the GOP to hold on to their majority. This isn’t even disputed by the Republicans. In fact, they brag about it.
The Middle Class Footing the Bill: The centerpiece of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s economic proposal was a tax plan that raised taxes on the poor and middle class in order to slash taxes for the wealthy. By contrast, President Obama proposed raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The GOP budget’s tax proposals is nearly identical to the Romney-Ryan plan rejected by voters in November.
Ending Medicare: Mitt Romney not only chose Paul Ryan, he wholeheartedly embraced Ryan’s controversial plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that stands to double seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs. Romney and Ryan lost key states with senior-heavy populations, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
Repealing Obamacare: Not only did voters not vote for the team that wanted to repeal Obamacare, Mitt Romney says that the president won because of Obamacare. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan to be unveiled tomorrow will once again call for repealing Obamacare — except for its $716 BILLION in savings from Medicare. Despite demonizing the president for the cuts throughout the campaign, Ryan’s plan keeps those cuts in order to to pay for new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street banks.
European-Style Austerity: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan proposed unrealistic draconian spending cuts, while the president proposed investments that will create jobs now and grow the middle class and our economy over the long run. The American people rejected the former and gave an Electoral College landslide to the latter. Nevertheless, the GOP budget plan will feature the kind of unrealistic draconian spending cuts that will make it impossible to make investments in the middle class.The GOP plan will slow down the economy and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs. It’s the same kind of austerity that has led to shrinking economies and record-high unemployment in Europe. Austerity isn’t working there and it won’t work here.

BOTTOM LINE: Paul Ryan and his policies were soundly rejected by voters last November. Instead of doubling down on extreme and unpopular ideas like ending Medicare as we know it and raising taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes on the wealthy, Republicans should come back to the table and agree to deal with our fiscal challenges in a responsible, balanced manner.