Illegal entitlement is not an option By Herman Cain

The New Voice ^ | Apr 19, 2006 | Herman Cain

[K-oneTexas]

'Illegal entitlement is not an option' by Herman Cain

The movement to grant amnesty and eventual U.S. citizenship to some 12 million illegal aliens has turned the issue from the sounds of silence to the sounds of entitlement.

The entitlement mentality did not begin in America, but it has flourished here in the last century. The American claim on entitlements to health care, retirement income and seemingly any "right" one can conceive was birthed from the womb of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, reared by Kennedy's New Frontier and came of age in Johnson's Great Society. U.S. citizens, fanned by the flames of those who encourage class warfare, are increasing their demands for government-redistributed income and programs that guarantee outcomes, not opportunities. Non-citizens are now voicing the sounds of entitlement to an easy road to citizenship.

The entitlement attitude that has been ingrained in millions of Americans has blinded them to the ineffectiveness and runaway costs of their favorite programs. The fiscal challenge in meeting the future demands of the Medicare and Medicaid programs is well documented, as is the coming bankruptcy of the Social Security system. Yet few elected officials dare to even utter those programs' names in public for fear of electoral retaliation.

Too many Americans also claim an entitlement to additional health care coverage from their employers. If they do not receive health care as a benefit, they believe the government should mandate it. The Maryland state legislature last year enacted a law requiring companies with over 10,000 employees to contribute 8 percent of total payroll to employees' health care. The legislature is now looking at ways to require all employers, including non-profit organizations, to pay a percentage of their employees' health care costs. Other states are considering the same plan.

Illegal aliens know they can receive free health care in hospital emergency rooms, paid for by U.S. taxpayers. A little publicized provision in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act set aside $250 million in taxpayer dollars to reimburse hospitals for costs associated with treating illegal aliens. In a twist of logic only Congress could conceive, hospitals are barred from asking an emergency room patient if they are in the U.S. illegally. The long-run cost of this provision will surely skyrocket as hospitals continue to submit claims on coverage of people who may be illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens living and working in the U.S. have now co-opted the entitlement mentality present in too many Americans. Worse, their demands for the right to vote, guaranteed by our Constitution to citizens only, and access to social services are encouraged by elected officials trying to buy their future votes. At recent rallies Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY), to name just two, argued that illegal aliens must be allowed to remain in the U.S. and put on the path toward full citizenship rights. In other words, let's skip the illegal part.

In addition to demands for voting rights, health care coverage and U.S. citizenship, many illegal aliens feel they are entitled to U.S. soil itself. Two groups that have helped organize the illegal alien rallies across the country, the Aztlan Movement and the Mexica Movement, believe it is American citizens who are in fact on their continent illegally. The Aztlan Movement seeks to create a separate nation comprised of northern Mexico and parts of the American Southwest, including California, Arizona and New Mexico. Members of the Mexica Movement, who waved signs at recent rallies that read "This Is Our Continent, Not Yours", seek to completely remove Americans from North America and surrender control of the U.S. to Mexico.

The entitlement and class warfare mentality fostered for a century by liberal presidents, congressional leaders, labor union leaders and heads of liberal organizations in fact obscures their real goal. They seek complete government control of our lives and our businesses, which ultimately can only be achieved with your vote. Since the inception of the income tax code in 1913, to the birth of the Social Security system in 1935 and the programs that have followed, the end goal is always bigger government. It is also important to remember that those who occupy the positions of power will try to achieve their goal by any means possible. If it takes convincing the public that our planet is somehow warming because we drive cars with the air conditioner running, then so be it. If it takes increasing entitlement spending programs to 100 percent of the federal budget, so be it. Whatever it takes.

The United States would never have become the United States had the litany of entitlement programs and the unnatural attitudes they foster been in place in the 1800s and early 1900s. This was the time when newly freed slaves struck out to work on achieving their own dreams, when American expansion and settlement headed west, and when millions of Europeans crossed the Atlantic for a hard but better life. The only thing promised was abundant opportunity, given in exchange for assimilation and adherence to the rule of law.

We must demand that our president and Congress secure our borders and our sovereignty as a nation of laws and citizen rights. To those who enter this country legally, welcome to America. Illegal entitlement is not an option.

© 2004 T.H.E. New Voice, Inc. | 825 Fairways Court, Suite 303 | Stockbridge, GA 30281 | (678) 565-5335

[K-oneTexas]

Another excellent article. You'll either like him or he'll get you mad but either way he makes you think. He is good, just like Dr Sowell and a few other authors we read on these pages.

[mtbopfuyn]

Illegal entitlement is not an option.

No, but it's a given.

[beaversmom]

Thank you for the ping/mail.

[beaversmom]

Mark Steyn has talked about the entitlement mentality that's even worse in Europe. One of the problems is the lack of Europeans having children. They have no stake in the future so it's get all you can for yourself now and forget about those that will be left. One more reason that we need to run, not walk, away from most things European.

[Bahbah]

Excellent, as always.

[King Prout]

thanks again, K1

PING

[neverdem]

The Hispanic Challenge (To America) A MUST READ Samuel Huntington (Long But Good)

The Mexicans are unlike previous immigrants. This Huntington article definitely needs to be read by everyone at least once! It should be linked on pertinent immigration threads. Here's an interesting link about Samuel Huntington:

"Strangely enough, despite the fact that he was buddies with Henry Kissinger at Harvard, he is registered as a member of the Democratic Party, and has written foreign policy speeches for Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, and Jimmy Carter."

THREATS AND RESPONSES: LEGISLATION; SENATE VOTES, 90-9, TO SET UP A HOMELAND SECURITY DEPT. GEARED TO FIGHT TERRORISM

Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, the president's chief Senate supporter in changing the Civil Service protections in the bill, acknowledged that Democrats had written 95 percent of the bill and acknowledged the paradoxical role of small-government Republicans like him in advocating for such a large department.

And which party is now making it useless.

Bush: Democrat killed immigration bill

In private as well as public, Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who heads the party's campaign effort, said they did not want to expose rank-and-file Democrats to votes that would force them to choose between border security and immigrant rights, only to wind up with legislation that would be eviscerated in future negotiations with the House, which has passed a bill limited to boosting border security.

Harry Reid: now and then

Path to Deportation Can Start With a Traffic Stop

[B-Cause]

Bump

Thank you for posting this article.

Does anybody have an opinion about the logic of charging our elected and appointed officials with a felony for misappropriation of tax dollars when the tax revenue is used to educate and care for illegal aliens? Looks like there is a massive case here for not using their authority in a fiducially responsible mannner.

[HonestConservative]

Thank you for the ping, K. Gotta try to remember to look for his show tomorrow.

[TigersEye]

If the illegal aliens are naturalized won't they demand health care, retirement bennies, paid vacation, family leave and sick days? In fact they won't have to demand it the law would require it wouldn't it? The employers will let them go and hire all new illegal foreign nationals who will be coming here in a ratio of 3-1, like last time amnesty was granted, because of what they see has just happened. Again.

[unseen]

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, reared by Kennedy's New Frontier and came of age in Johnson's Great Society.

The author must have forgot the Bush's Compassionate Conservative campaign. Bush a bigger spender that Johnson God help us all.

[unseen]

Yeah its called an election. throw the bums out and keep throwing them out until they get the message.

[socialismisinsidious]

That is what everyone says, but I don't think it is enough. So, we "throw the bums out" and what will we have?--Democrats. Even more socialist than what we have now.

We have to cut off the borders AND strangle our congresscritters via their power. Their power = OUR tax dollars. It is time for tax reform....get rid of the IRS, get rid of the stealth withholding, get rid of the socialist income tax. www.fairtax.org

Before it is too late.

[socialismisinsidious]

In fact they won't have to demand it the law would require it wouldn't it?

absolutely...and they will be let go and be entitled to unemployment benefits and of course welfare...it is a vicious cycle, but the congresscritters can't see past their vote pandering.

[unseen]

I agree with the fairtax but you can throw the bums out in the primaries. That way you can still have republican control just different republicans. N.C primary is 05-02 I will be voting for anyone that isn't in office. Even if the primary doesn't defeat them a strong protest vote in the primaries will send a clear wake up call to the bums.