The Heritage Foundation released a pivotal report today  which calculates that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion.

Some highlights from the report:

• If amnesty is enacted, the average adult unlawful immigrant would receive $592,000 more in government benefits over his lifetime than he would pay in taxes.
• The lifetime fiscal deficit of amnesty — benefits minus taxes — would be $6.3 trillion, and that’s a conservative estimate.
• When those granted amnesty retire and collect Social Security, they would draw $3.00 out of the pot for every $1.00 they paid in.
• In 2010, the average unlawful immigrant household received around $24,721 in government benefits and services while paying some $10,334 in taxes. That means that each illegal immigrant household today costs taxpayers $14,387 per year. Amnesty would provide unlawful households with access to over 80 means-tested welfare programs, Obamacare, Social Security, and Medicare. The fiscal deficit for each household would soar.

In their 93-page report, Heritage welfare expert Robert Rector and domestic policy scholar Jason Richwine break down the cost of amnesty to the U.S. taxpayer. Even accounting for the phased approach to implementing government benefits that some amnesty advocates favor, the long-term cost is astronomical. Continue Reading »

FBI/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom

News reports that suspected Boston bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received large amounts of welfare benefits draw “attention to the policy principle that immigrants should be net contributors to the government and society and should not be a fiscal burden on American society,” The Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Sheffield argues.

As ABC News reports,  the time Tamerlan was receiving state aid “coincides with the years Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly became more radicalized. He was interviewed by the FBI in 2011 after Russia flagged Tsarnaev for his potentially dangerous views.” At the time of the bombing, neither of the brothers was receiving benefits.

Sheffield continues: Continue Reading »

Photo: NewsCom

The federal budget for 2014 should accomplish six things, Heritage Foundation experts explain. These are laid out in our Saving the American Dream plan:

1. Balance the budget in less than 10 years, without raising taxes, and keep the budget in balance thereafter;
2. Swiftly overhaul entitlement programs, including Social Security, to guarantee economic security to seniors while making the programs affordable;
3. Repeal Obamacare in its entirety;
4. Fully fund defense;
5. Cut discretionary spending; and
6. Roll back recent tax increases with a sweeping, growth-oriented tax reform plan and caps taxes at the historical average of 18.5 percent.

So does Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) new budget proposal, released today, measure up? Continue Reading »

Even though the federal government is expected to run a $750 billion deficit this year, liberals continue to resist any spending cuts. Relying on Keynesian economics, they argue that these cuts would hurt the economy.

Heritage Foundation economist J.D. Foster explains that this simply isn’t true: Continue Reading »

February 4 has come and gone without a budget proposal from President Obama. This is the fourth time and the third straight year that the president has missed this legal deadline.

What’s the hold up? When asked, Press Secretary Jay Carney just shrugged his shoulders and said that the administration favors “substance over deadlines.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Emily Goff says there’s more to it:

Translation: There’s nothing to see here.

However, Obama’s budget request is something worth seeing, because it shows his priorities—namely how he proposes to solve our twin crises of spending and debt. Now Americans may have to wait until March to see the President’s plan.

Continue Reading »

More than 70 percent of federal money goes to programs that create dependency on government, Heritage Foundation economist Bill Beach explained Tuesday on Fox Business.

According to a recent report Beach coauthored with Heritage’s Patrick Tyrrell:

• 128 million Americans now receive benefits from one or more federal assistance program. That’s more than 41 percent of the population.
• Between 1988 and 2011, the amount of the U.S. population that receives assistance from the federal government grew by 62 percent.

In fact, these numbers may underestimate the scope of the problem. They explain that the Census Bureau Current Population Survey is “well known to undercount those receiving Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, State Children’s Health Insurance, higher-education support, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.”

Every year, Heritage publishes the Index of Dependence on Government to provide lawmakers with accurate information about the number of Americans who rely on government.

How do you think we can address government dependency?

While lawmakers negotiate ways to avoid the Taxmageddon tax increases and the so-called fiscal cliff, they are ignoring the real issue at hand: runaway entitlement programs and interest payments that account for more than half of federal spending.

Combined with interest payments on the debt, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (including Obamacare) are driving the United States toward fiscal collapse.

The Heritage Foundation’s Romina Boccia explains: Continue Reading »

Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) spoke today at The Heritage Foundation’s Bloggers Briefing about the fiscal cliff and their removal yesterday from influential House committees.

Amash and Huelskamp have earned 91% and 92%, respectively, on Heritage Action’s conservative legislative scorecard.

Watch the video of their remarks:

Politico reported on the event this afternoon.

Heritage holds the Bloggers Briefing each week as a forum for conservative bloggers.

On initial examination, the House Republicans’ counter-offer to address the looming “fiscal cliff” tax hikes and spending cuts “appears little more than categorical, preemptive capitulation,” Heritage Foundation experts Alison Fraser and J.D. Foster argue.

First, the proposal fails to address the real source of our nation’s fiscal crisis: massive overspending, especially on rapidly-expanding entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Continue Reading »

Today’s policy fight over the fiscal cliff reflects in part a failure by lawmakers to successfully negotiate, Heritage Foundation policy expert Stuart Butler writes in an overview of the dynamics of the ongoing debate.

He urges lawmakers to learn from arms negotiators, labor arbitrators and other deal-makers. They employ techniques that recognize and address the other side’s deeply held concerns, follow procedures for discussion, and seek win-win situations.

For example, he suggests that conservatives can exploit divisions in the liberal coalition to move forward a deal on entitlements: Continue Reading »