February 8, 2008
The Worst Thing You Can Find?
Rep. Tom Tancredo is back. His Presidential campaign is over, he is not seeking reelection, he can now worry full time that somewhere an illegal alien is happy.
I get emails from the Center for Individual Liberty. I think I signed a pro war or support-the-troops petition once and I have been on the mailing list for some time. I guess we see eye-to-eye on the war, but I haven't agreed with anything they've included in their emails. Today's subject is "Warning Illegals May Still Get Rebate Checks Under Stimulus Plan" And it seems Rep. Tancredo is unhappy. Even though they amended the bill to not purposefully send checks to illegals, there might be a slip up or two:
Here's what else Tancredo has said of the Ensign Fix:"Unless language is added to the package that both expressly prohibits the issuance of rebate checks to illegal aliens and directs the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to share information and work together to prevent these payments from being made to illegal aliens, we will not address this glaring deficiency in the stimulus legislation."
I will shock and astound ThreeSourcers when I say that I am not seeking direct subsidies to the undocumented. But this stimulus bill is nonsense on stilts. In quicksand. With a plate-balancing monkey on your back.
The depreciation provisions may actually help a little, but the rebates are bad from every angle. They won't help, and the deficit they exacerbate will preclude extending tax cuts that do help. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
But to single out immigration as the problem with this legislation highlights the depravity of the Tancredo crowd. It's like worrying whether burning your house down is an efficient use of matches.
I think I need to map a another map. S-2205
I wish people would look at this stuff before they cast a vote. Casting a vote for somebody is more important than signing a "power of attorney." By voting for somebody you agree to give that person the power to write the laws we all live under. If you vote for an open border person and they open the borders they did so legally because you gave them the power.
Sorry for using "you" in a finger pointing way, but I just don't understand how an American can give more rights to people who violate the laws and are not citizens than they would give to their fellow americans, their families, their own children.
Posted by: At The Water Cooler at February 8, 2008 12:53 PMEverybody whacks at me for my immigration position, AtWC, feel free.
I cannot see the map when I follow the link.
Posted by: jk at February 8, 2008 1:14 PMI have no problem with anyone, citizen or legal resident or illegal, getting tax money back. Whoever gets money back will either spend it or save it in the real economy. Ideally that's less money in the hands of government, but as we know, government won't cut spending...
Forget illegals. They're a red herring. The problem is when *anyone*, citizen or legal resident or illegal, gets a rebate check when the amount exceeds whatever the person paid in taxes.
There's no equivocating: it is patently absurd for those who pay no income taxes to receive (more) money from the rest of us, whether welfare or the "rebate" farce.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at February 8, 2008 1:29 PMjk, not pointing my finger at you, but somebody voted these #$%^##@ into office.
Perry Eidelbus, I have the same issue thanks for bringing it up. As it made me think about the head of household credit (which I believe acts like a credit to the money you paid in) ... I think people on welfare get it. I am using welfare loosely to include everybody who gets a check from the state without doing work, people who have no documents do get those.
Posted by: At The Water Cooler at February 8, 2008 1:45 PMTaking it a step further, even if one's "stimulus rebate check" does not exceed his tax payments for that year it is still income redistribution unless it's in the same proportion as his taxes paid. But as Ragnar Danneskjold taught us, any chance you have to get ANY of your money back - take it!
"Nonsense on stilts" yes, but I'll take mine please. Thank you very much. Now, would I turn it down if it meant none of these abominous checks would be mailed? Yes, but if we're making up such wondrous notions why would we stop there?
Posted by: johngalt at February 8, 2008 3:33 PMPerry and jg are a little too sanguine here. Swell to get some taxes back, but you're paying for them to write and mail the checks, you're paying for all the fraudulent ones, and you're paying for all the ones paid to those who did not pay that much in taxes.
And if you're over the income limit, you not gettin' nothin'. I don't think Ragnar is quite down on this.
Posted by: jk at February 8, 2008 4:05 PMI think you misunderstand my point, jk. I'm only saying there's no problem with anyone getting tax money back -- provided they had paid taxes. This whole "illegal" thing is a red herring, to mask that retirees and welfare recipients.
Don't let my previous comment deceive you. I accept no redistribution whatsoever, even to the point that I think a "flat" percentage-based tax is wrong. If you saw me in real life, your hair would blanche white in a second, once you heard my ranting about the bleepity bleep bleep bleeping taxes that are being stolen from me, and given to bleepity bleep bleep bleeping bleepers.
Each year of my adult life, I grew angrier as my income grew and the percentage stolen (euphemistically called "taxation") grew. I am positively livid over what I paid last year, and that people who aren't working are literally living off my hard labor. Last year, I paid as much in taxes as a person can earn all year round, and I'm not talking about someone making minimum wage. Yet with the taxes, I feel like I'm not advancing in salary.
Remember, even the Mafia charges either just a head tax or a flat tax.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at February 11, 2008 1:21 PM | What do you think? [7]