Eric Rhoads' Blog
Piolin Interviews President Obama
LOS ANGELES -- February 21, 2009: President Obama put in a call to Univision Radio's Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo last week, and began by saying, "I promised you that I would be on the show when I was President, and here I am on the show."
Sotelo pointed out that Obama had promised to join him in the studio at KSCA (La Nueva)/Los Angeles, to which the President replied, "Well, I haven't gone to Los Angeles yet, but I should get credit for keeping my promise this way."
Obama talked about the just-signed economic stimulus bill that, he said, is "going to put people back to work and provide health care to people who don't have it.." He added, "We signed the Children's Health Insurance Program. Now legal immigrants are able to get health care for the first time, which is something that the Latino community had been arguing about for almost a decade." Obama explained the positive results he expects to see from the stimulus package and the housing program also announced last week.
Sotelo then turned the topic to immigration, pointing to the contributions Hispanics make to American society and saying, "We need your help."
Obama responded, "Well, as I've said every time I’ve been on the show, Piolín, we're going to make sure that we begin the process of dealing with the immigration system that's broken. We're going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to be naturalized, who want to become citizens, like you did, that they are able to do it; that it's cheaper, that it's faster, that they have an easier time in terms of sponsoring family members. And then we've got to have comprehensive immigration reform. "
Obama said he is "very committed" to reform and said he expects to be speaking with legislative leaders within the next several months to begin woring on legislation.
Obama said that, politically, immigration "is probably tougher now that it was, partly because of the fact that the economy has gotten worse. So what I've got to do is I’ve got to focus on the economy, I've got to focus on housing, and make sure that people feel a little bit more secure; at the same time, get the various immigrant rights groups together and have them start providing some advice in terms of what strategies we're going to pursue in Congress."
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(2/24/2009 9:23:12 PM) To Native American: I'm not sure if this will reach you at all but I would really like to know the source from where you got your information. Not because I don't believe you or think that you're wrong, but mostly because I was to verify for myself if what you're saying is true or not. I've seen numerous postings of this particular comment and it's just something that I would like to know for sure if it's true before I go and try to argue with someone also using this information. Thank you. P.S. - Or if anyone else can verify this information for me that would be great and much appreciated |
| - Grace |
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(2/23/2009 5:48:33 AM) Undocumented immigrants, which is the politically correct way of saying "illegal aliens" pay taxes because they work in this country and their bosses are SUPPOSE to take taxes out of their pay. To say they are denied rights or anything is to put them in the same category as naturalized citizens. They are not. No one in America is forced to work here. You have the freedom to live elsewhere and work. Wherever that elsewhere is, you will have taxes taken from your pay. Does that mean you receive benefits, health care and everything else that naturalized citizens share? No. And that should be the stand that we Americans should take. It is one of the benefits of becoming an American citizen, not remaining an "undocumented immigrant". |
| - Jim |
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(2/22/2009 9:14:05 AM) Undocumented immigrants paying more taxes than you think Eight million Undocumented immigrants pay Social Security, Medicare and income taxes. Denying public services to people who pay their taxes is an affront to America’s bedrock belief in fairness. But many “pull-up-the-drawbridge” politicians want to do just that when it comes to illegal immigrants. The fact that Undocumented immigrants pay taxes at all will come as news to many Americans. A stunning two thirds of Undocumented immigrants pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. Yet, nativists like Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., have popularized the notion that illegal aliens are a colossal drain on the nation’s hospitals, schools and welfare programs — consuming services that they don’t pay for. In reality, the 1996 welfare reform bill disqualified Undocumented immigrants from nearly all means tested government programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization. The only services that illegals can still get are emergency medical care and K-12 education. Nevertheless, Tancredo and his ilk pushed a bill through the House criminalizing all aid to illegal aliens — even private acts of charity by priests, nurses and social workers. Potentially, any soup kitchen that offers so much as a free lunch to an illegal could face up to five years in prison and seizure of assets. The Senate bill that recently collapsed would have tempered these draconian measures against private aid. But no one — Democrat or Republican — seems to oppose the idea of withholding public services. Earlier this year, Congress passed a law that requires everyone who gets Medicaid — the government-funded health care program for the poor — to offer proof of U.S. citizenship so we can avoid “theft of these benefits by illegal aliens,” as Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., puts it. But, immigrants aren’t flocking to the United States to mooch off the government. According to a study by the Urban Institute, the 1996 welfare reform effort dramatically reduced the use of welfare by undocumented immigrant households, exactly as intended. And another vital thing happened in 1996: the Internal Revenue Service began issuing identification numbers to enable illegal immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers to file taxes. One might have imagined that those fearing deportation or confronting the prospect of paying for their safety net through their own meager wages would take a pass on the IRS’ scheme. Not so. Close to 8 million of the 12 million or so illegal aliens in the country today file personal income taxes using these numbers, contributing billions to federal coffers. No doubt they hope that this will one day help them acquire legal status — a plaintive expression of their desire to play by the rules and come out of the shadows. What’s more, aliens who are not self-employed have Social Security and Medicare taxes automatically withheld from their paychecks. Since undocumented workers have only fake numbers, they’ll never be able to collect the benefits these taxes are meant to pay for. Last year, the revenues from these fake numbers — that the Social Security administration stashes in the “earnings suspense file” — added up to 10 percent of the Social Security surplus. The file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year. Beyond federal taxes, all illegals automatically pay state sales taxes that contribute toward the upkeep of public facilities such as roads that they use, and property taxes through their rent that contribute toward the schooling of their children. The non-partisan National Research Council found that when the taxes paid by the children of low-skilled immigrant families — most of whom are illegal — are factored in, they contribute on average $80,000 more to federal coffers than they consume. Yes, many illegal migrants impose a strain on border communities on whose doorstep they first arrive, broke and unemployed. To solve this problem equitably, these communities ought to receive the surplus taxes that federal government collects from immigrants. But the real reason border communities are strained is the lack of a guest worker program. Such a program would match willing workers with willing employers in advance so that they wouldn’t be stuck for long periods where they disembark while searching for jobs. The cost of undocumented aliens is an issue that immigrant bashers have created to whip up indignation against people they don’t want here in the first place. With the Senate having just returned from yet another vacation a |
| - Native American |
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(2/21/2009 11:57:15 PM) We have to do it as fast as we can. USA needs imigrants to go trough this crisis. If everybody has papers, everybody can pay taxes and help this crisis goes way |
| - sandro |
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