Immigration:  Strength in Diversity

“Hope I die before I get old.”  Remember that line from the classic rock band  The Who? If you do, you’re probably on Social Security and Medicare right now. You have reached America’s Safe Haven.  Don’t feel too smug though. When those programs were created, no one expected that you would chug along until your 90’s. And as fertility rates go down, there are fewer people working to pay for your retiree benefits (no, you have not paid for those benefits in full). This is a problem.

That’s why Paul Ryan cries “entitlement reform!”  In case you don’t get the code, that  means cuts to Social Security and Medicare ...  Or, as he said, women need to have more babies. But don’t expect the government to subsidize your childcare.

 There are other ways to increase the tax base. Investing in productivity, to get more with less, is one. Infrastructure spending would reap great rewards.  Build that tunnel, and watch our region grow!  

But what about immigration?  We already know it is a canard to say immigrants take jobs from working Americans.  We already know that immigrants have a higher level of educational attainment than Americans, (even those from s**hole countries). We already know that immigrants are self-selecting go-getters regardless of their education level, willing to pack up and go to a strange country to attain a better life.  We already know that growth occurs when highly skilled workers, many of them immigrants, cluster in cities with great universities, to create virtuous circles of growth and innovation. We already know that we cannot fill skilled and semi-skilled jobs in this country without immigration. 

And we already know Leonard Lance’s record on immigration-– he agreed with Trump’s decision to revoke DACA, and he has a history of opposing immigration reform.  So ask him, how does he plan to fund your Social Security and Medicare? By cutting it? By encouraging women to have babies? By spending the money we just gave away on infrastructure?  Or by doing what made America great in the first place – promoting strength through diversity?

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