Another illegal immigration nasty to WSJ

Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 17:42:01 -0700 (PDT) From: "Arnold Nelson" Subject: WSJ editorial of Thursday, May 24, 2007 To: "WSJ Letters" <wsj.ltrs@wsj.com>
Forty years of reading The Wall Street Journal has convinced me that you have the finest newspaper in the United States. The philosophies behind virtually all your editorials are a big reason for this opinion. So it is really depressing to see you go editorially berserk on illegal immigration, as these items from your Thursday, May 24, 2007 editorial: "Immigration and Welfare ".... In most cases immigrants will pay at least as much in lifetime federal taxes as they receive in benefits. "... most immigrants contribute payroll taxes for decades before they collect Social Security or Medicare benefits...." No wage earner (obviously not including the self-employed) has ever paid a penny in Social Security taxes. That monthly check representing his 'contribution' has been written on the employer bank account since inception in 1935 - that is, a tax on employers for each person they employ. Starting in 1943, the same is true to considerable extent to withheld employee income taxes. The employer is the one who writes the check every month to the Feds. If that check's not in the mail, it's the employer who could get jail, never the employee. Maybe in the beginning, the employee needed to cough up a little out of his own pocket at tax day, but that is more than made up for by the trick finally taught to the great majority of wage earners: deduct more than is due, so they get a 'refund' at the end of the year. So the employer must send in a bigger check (higher tax) but the employee gets the difference. "... immigrants who receive paychecks have their income taxes withheld...." Is there an echo in here? "Perhaps most important, immigrant earnings and tax payments rise the longer they are here.... Those earnings wouldn't be increasing if most immigrants were going on the dole. They are instead assimilating into the work force, growing their incomes as their skills increase." Hej, WSJ: Ever hear of welfare queens? Two more howlers: "Many of the Congressional proposals to legalize this population would not allow these workers to collect welfare until waiting up to eight years for a green card and five years after that." 'Many' of the proposals...? That means plenty of them WOULD allow illegals to collect welfare.... Waiting 'up to' eight years? Heck, waiting five minutes is 'up to' eight years. Arnold H. Nelson 5056 North Marine Drive Chicago IL 60640773-677-3010 ah_nelson@yahoo.com