Odds and ends: Random thoughts on the passing scene

Commentary by James H. Shott
 
The Center for Immigration Studies released a detailed report that correlates high levels of illegal/legal immigrant poverty as contributing to the increase in welfare programs in the U.S.
 
A study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform shows that illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level. About $84 billion is absorbed by state and local governments.
 
Strong border control by the federal government, and eliminating federal interference with state efforts to control illegal immigration could substantially reduce this wasteful expense.
 

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The Heritage Foundation reported last year that “Texas created 37 percent of all jobs since the beginning of the economic recovery, more than any other state. Excluding New York and Pennsylvania, Texas has created nearly as many jobs as all other states combined.”
 
According to Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, “Texas is doing so well relative to other states precisely because it has rejected the economic model that now prevails in Washington. … Texas stands out for its free market and business-friendly climate.”
 
Among other factors, Texas has right-to-work laws, ongoing tort reform, has no state income tax, and has generally been a fiscally responsible state. As a percentage of its economy, the state’s budget is lower than the majority of other states.
 

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“I don’t think Mitt Romney understands what he’s done to people’s lives by closing the plant,” Joe Soptic, a former employee at GST Steel in Kansas City, said in a Democrat PAC TV spot. He says he lost his health care, and then his wife became ill and died shortly after that.
 
The Washington Post reports, however, that Republican candidate Romney left Bain Capital two years before the GST’s 2001 bankruptcy; Politico notes that Ranae Soptic died in 2006, long after the plant closed; and CNN reports that at some points during that time she had insurance through her own employer.
 
Hmmm.
 
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview with the Huffington Post recently that someone had called him to tell him that Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years. "Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying. "He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," Senator Reid said.
 
A very good friend of mine who lives and works in Washington, DC, called me after hearing this, and said that “ol' Harry has been seen frequently peeking in Nancy Pelosi's windows and eating at Chick-fil-A.” Well, that’s what he said.
 
Paraphrasing a popular saying, there are lies, damned lies, and the Obama campaign.
 

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Voter-registration forms being mailed to Virginia residents are addressed to dead relatives, children, family members in other states, non-U.S. citizens, people with similar names, existing registered voters and residents' cats and dogs.
 
These forms are among tens of thousands being distributed in Virginia by Voter Participation Center, a Washington-based national voter-registration group. The organization pre-populates the documents with key information, including names and addresses of prospective voters. This worries election officials, who say the mailings can create opportunities for voter fraud.
 
But, of course, Attorney General Eric Holder opposes requiring voters to show proof of their eligibility, saying that doing so would suppress voter participation.
 

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Anyone who has spent much time watching the Olympics likely believes that the success of the remarkable people on the American team is due to a lot of individual dedication and hard work. 
 
However, the success of American Olympic athletes and the success of American small businesses are analogous. 
 
Like business people who didn’t build the roads, and other infrastructure that they used to make their companies successful, the Olympic athletes didn’t build the training facilities or the fields and courts that they utilized to become successful in their sport, and they didn’t start the Olympic Games that they now participate in.
 
They didn’t earn those medals. Somebody else did that.
 

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Seeking to rally a crucial constituency, President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned women in swing-state Colorado that Mitt Romney and the Republicans “want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century.”
 
Ah, yes, the 50s, when health care costs were so low you didn’t need health insurance (and it wasn’t even available); where you didn’t call the doctor or go to the hospital unless you were really sick; where doctors made house calls; a day in the hospital cost tens of dollars; healthcare was about 5 percent of GDP; “prospecting” lawsuits didn’t exist ... some things back then were way better than today.
 
A new Congressional Budget Office report says that under Obamacare, 30 million non-elderly Americans will remain without health insurance in 2022.
 
Wasn't the whole reason for Obamacare destroying our healthcare system to insure the uninsured?
 
Cross-posted from Observations