American family.
That is $2 to $3 billion federal dollars
annually for an indefinite number of years. He
claims it is
for the state's expenses incurred by
undocumented
Mexican immigrants.
Wilson's demands create even more problems.
Should
families in other states pay for the 4 to 5
billion hours of
labor performed
annually by undocumented immigrants to
the immeasurable benefit of California's
urban business,
its agri-business, and its wealthier families
who have used,
and are using, the undocumented for low-paid
maid and
gardening services?
Strangely, in this scenario, the governor
never speaks of
the federal government's payment to
California of well
over 2.2 billion dollars under the U.S.
Immigration
Reform and
Control Act and the State Legalization Impact
Assistance Grants, one-half billion dollars
in 1994 alone!
Furthermore, this program has reduced the
number of
undocumented immigrants in California by
1,600,000!
Surely Wilson knows that, in addition the
immigration
reform monies, Washington already spends
more than
$500 million per year to support California
agriculture,
where many of the undocumented may be
found.
Washington's agriculture tax dollars are the
equivalent of
$6897.00 for every one of the 85,000 farms in
the state. In
point of fact, California's farming interests
receive more
money annually from the federal government
than they
pay the state in property taxes. This is
totally unjust to the
state's homeowners, many of whom, certainly,
would enjoy
homes whose property taxes were federally
subsidized
each year.
While promoting himself nationally,
Wilson is foisting
upon the American public one of the most
incredible
distortions in the annals of American
politics. To fully
understand the governor's politics, let's
glance at recent
American history. For example, recent
American
presidents have had their "devil"
against which they
claimed to be fighting to save the U.S.
Kennedy had the
Communists at our borders; Johnson, the
Vietnamese
Communists and the domino effect; Reagan, the
Russian
Communists and the evils of Grenada in our
hemisphere;
Bush, the Iraqis and potential control of
U.S. sources of
oil, as well as Panama's drugs. The only
recent president
who does not seem be fighting a monumentally
evil force
on the edge of destroying
"America," is the current
president, William Jefferson "Bill"
Clinton. In this sense,
like Jimmy Carter before him, President
Clinton has
created a vacuum.
Newt Gingrich, for one, is moving to fill this
void by saving
America from the nation-destroying evils of
"liberalism"
and the "politically correct." He
believes that he is really,
really correct politically, and that the
"politically
correct" have been incorrect
all along.
Where does all this leave Pete Wilson? Why,
without a
devil to fight! After all, the Cold War is
over. The U.S. is
doing "free enterprise" with
North Vietnam. The U.S.
trades with China. Oil flows freely
from the
women-stomping dictatorship of Kuwait. And
Gingrich is
fighting internal evils. Has the world
isolated Pete Wilson
politically?
Enter stage south, the evil
Mexicans!
They will destroy California (read U.S.) if we
don't watch
out! Pete Wilson is into big-time politics.
He has created
his
"devil."
The main vehicles promoting the ambitions of
Pete Wilson
are The Budget of the State of California,
1994-95, and
Summary of the Budget, 1994-95. Here, the
governor
proclaims to the
nation that some 2,000,000 Mexicans have
invaded the state and, having done so, do
nothing. They
are leeching parasites attached to welfare,
the health
system, the schools, and the state's
prisons, he claims.
"Seven-hundred-thousand new jobs need to
be created to
support illegal immigration costs,"
of over 2 billion
dollars, trumpets the governor in his 1994-95
Summary of
the Budget. In this way, he says that not
only do they do
nothing, they pay nothing, and "the hard
working citizens
of the state," must absorb
these costs!
It is incredibe that Pete Wilson has not told
the nation that
his fabricated "devil" also works
hard and pays taxes.
Nowhere, in his documents, commercials,
or press
releases, does he mention the taxes that
undocumented
California workers pay each year to
California. Yet,
according to
official California records, the undocumented
immigrants pay state income taxes, state sales
taxes, state
and
local property taxes, state vehicle license and
registration fees, state excise taxes, state
gasoline taxes,
state lottery revenues, and local sales
taxes. In a report
issued by the governor's own office to
the General
Accounting Office of the Federal Government,
California
estimated the taxes paid to the state by
undocumented
immigrants, primarily Mexican, as ranging
from a low of
$528 million to a high of $1.4 billion per
year, with a
median of around $900 million. Obviously, the
governor is
saying one thing to the federal government,
and exactly
the opposite to the people of
California.
In addition, California's undocumented
workers are
paying taxes to the federal government.
These taxes are
for income, excise, Federal Insurance
Contributions Act
(FICA), unemployment insurance, and
gasoline.
According to the GAO, this produced federal
revenues
estimated at $1.3 billion for 1992
alone!
It is clear that undocumented workers in
California have
paid at least $2.2 billion yearly in state
and federal taxes.
This amount roughly equals the costs
incurred as
announced by the governor.
Extrapolating from taxes paid, undocumented workers
in
California contribute between $13 and $15
billion to
California's economy while they perform over
four billion
hours of labor each year.
But, irrespective of how much in taxes the
undocumented
pay, the structure of wages paid in
California cannot
support the process of continually increasing
government
spending (34 to 55 billion since 1985, a 62%
increase!),
while simultaneously keeping the lower
echelons of the tax
base static.
Specifically, if the lowest wages in
California were to
increase from $4 per hour to $6, the taxes
paid by the
undocumented would total between $3.5 and
$5.5 billion,
thus paying for all expenses and easily
leaving a healthy
surplus for the state. It is clear,
therefore, that most of
Wilson's problems concern not the
immigrant's social
status or country of origin, but the wage
structure in
which they labor. Obviously, to
eliminate the
undocumented workers (deport to Mexico) and
replace
them with domestic workers at $4 an hour,
will not solve
California's problems as long as the wage
structure
remains the same. The faces will change, but
the economic
problems will continue, or become even
worse.
In this scenario, Governor Pete Wilson is
promising a tax
cut!
All in all, the day may yet come when
Californians will
give retroactive thanks to the undocumented
immigrants
for having saved their state from even
more severe
economic problems and a more onerous deficit,
much as
the immigrants in the east coast did
historically. After all,
over 4 billion hours of labor at the lowest
of wages, $14
billion into the state's economy, over $2.2
billion paid in
taxes, all in one year, are not the work of
"evil devils" who
are out to economically destroy
California.
This being the case, Pete Wilson's
xenophobia is
irrational. It appeals only to those who have
irrational
fears. Or, it appeals to those who want to
use xenophobic
politics for domestic political
ends.
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