Amnesty Price Tag? $6.3 Trillion

80 different welfare programs to be made available to illegals

WND

John Bennett

Amnesty will cost American taxpayers at least $6.3 trillion in welfare and other public benefits, the Heritage Foundation has just announced.

Former Sen. Jim DeMint, now president of the foundation, made the announcement at a news conference this morning.

The report was authored by Senior Research Fellow Robert Rector, who said if the current reform proposal is adopted, illegal aliens granted amnesty would be eligible for over 80 different welfare programs during the course of their lives.

The $6.3 trillion amount is calculated by first adding the cost of Obamacare, Social Security, and those 80 welfare programs that amnestied illegal aliens will be eligible for, over the average life span. That amount is then reduced by the estimated taxes that would be paid, resulting in the $6.3 trillion dollar figure.

By way of comparison, the total government debt is $16 trillion, so the cost of amnesty is equivalent to 40 percent of the nation’s total debt.

Rector emphasized repeatedly that $6.3 trillion dollars is a “very, very low estimate.”

The $6.3 trillion estimate assumes that there are only 11 million illegal aliens in the country, and that there will be no growth in the cost of welfare benefits.

A typical illegal alien household, if amnesty were granted, would receive three dollars in benefits for every dollar they pay in taxes.

Heritage has provided WND with a link to the report, which is posted online.

Rector’s research has played a crucial role in major policy debates. Rector was an author of 1996 welfare reform bill. His 2007 study on the amnesty proposal that year “helped kill the McCain-Kennedy amnesty push,” as Mark Krikorian wrote in National Review.

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Reposted with permission.