Last Friday, the U.S. Senate voted on a bill introduced by Sen. Rand Paul that would halt $5 billion in federal spending for welfare payments to non-citizens. It seems like a no-brainer that non-citizens should not receive these benefits. However, all the Democrats, along with 20 RINO senators, including both senators from Alaska, voted to continue making these benefit payments.
I am still trying to understand why there wasn’t unanimous support for Sen. Paul’s bill. It would seem obvious that a non-citizen shouldn’t be able to come to this country and receive money from our government when there are impoverished Americans who need help first.
Liberals will tell us that recent immigrants are barred from most welfare programs, but they really aren’t being honest. While there is a time limit on the prohibition of non-citizens receiving benefits, it doesn’t apply to non-citizen children. Also, some non-citizens can immediately receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children (Anchor babies) who are awarded U.S. citizenship and full welfare eligibility at birth.
Senator Sullivan will be forced to defend his support for this $5 billion government welfare program in the lead-up to November’s election.
According to the National Immigration Law Center, the benefits refugees are eligible to receive include SSI, SNAP, WIC, HUD Public Housing, Medicaid, CHIP, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). So many non-citizens take advantage of these programs that the Center for Immigration Studies says that 63% of non-citizen households receive some form of government assistance. Even worse, we know from the Somali daycare scandal that these government benefit programs are rife with fraud.
So, given all the waste in these programs for non-citizens, I am trying to figure out why our knucklehead senators want to spend another $5 billion in this way. It can’t be because we are running out of uneducated poor people in this country that we need to import more of them from overseas.
I am not surprised that Murkowski supported these programs. Despite being a Republican, she has a liberal worldview and, like all leftists, wants to solve problems with other people’s money. I don’t like her vote, but I half expected it.
Dan Sullivan is a little more difficult to understand. He at least pretends to be a conservative, but his support for this spending package is not something that a conservative Republican would do. Perhaps Senator Dan voted with the D’s because this is an election year, and he is afraid that Mary Peltola will criticize his support for President Trump. Maybe Sullivan made this vote as a price he paid to get Lisa Murkowski’s support for his re-election. Whatever the reason, Sullivan should have considered how this would be received back home.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
Forcing Alaskans to pay taxes to support unemployed non-citizen immigrants is a pretty hard sell. Non-citizen immigrants are a constituency that can’t even vote legally and should have no influence on Alaska’s senators.
Senator Sullivan will be forced to defend his support for this $5 billion government welfare program in the lead-up to November’s election. I am sure PACs supporting the Peltola campaign are already writing television ads about this, calling Senator Sullivan a sellout. When he debates Mary Peltola, she is sure to bring this up, and he had better start working on an explanation that he can deliver with a straight face.
As I said, there has to be something more to this. Can someone in the comments section please tell me why all the Democrats, and 20 of the RINO Republicans in the U.S. Senate would flagrantly waste the taxpayers’ money like this? Don’t they know it is going to anger the voters? It sure did for me.
The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.
20 Comments
The answer is simple. Offer to give free stuff and allow voting to low awareness people incentivizes people to vote for those that give them free stuff. Those same politicians keep themselves in power and they continue to leech off the builder class so they can continue to live lavish lifestyles on the backs of the producers. It is simply a system of political empowerment so they can have all the funds to go party with their friends on Little St James island.
Is it that hard to grasp or do people still think politicians want to do the right thing?
Bah!
Offer to give free stuff ….. “incentivizes people to vote”
Illegal’s getting this free stuff can’t vote.
Is Sullivan getting stupid?
A person born in the USA is not “awarded” citizenship. The center for immigration studies is a partisan institution that is anti- immigration. A “refugee” typically is a person applying legally for citizenship. A single instance of fraud does not prove a broad statement that all programs are fraudulent. Most people who receive benefits are working, immigrant or not. And don’t forget, we had a bipartisan reform package that was passing through congress prior to candidate Trump telling republicans to torch it. And I will assume your family didn’t sprout from the soil here, so you too are an immigrant. Finally the benefits of immigration for our economy and country are even touted by the Cato Institute, not a liberal institution, providing billions in tax revenue. https://www.cato.org/white-paper/immigrants-recent-effects-government-budgets-1994-2023
I think by now it should be obvious to all, our two Senators are lambs in sheep’s clothing. I’m not surprised by Lisa, I’m done with her. Dan is a bit more surprising, he probably figures without a primary he’s the only choice Republican in this state have as a choice. Maybe not, if our Republican senators are going to behave like liberal politicians with frivolous spending then maybe I should just sit this election out. It really doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
again this is poorly reasoned and full of bad information. I realize the Constitution doesn’t mean much to republicans anymore, but when a child is born on US soil they are citizens. Refugees are immigrants who are following the proper channels to become citizens. We all and our families have come from somewhere else to be here. Immigrant pay more in taxes and contribute more than old retired Americans who are sucking the life blood out of America. https://www.cato.org/white-paper/immigrants-recent-effects-government-budgets-1994-2023
yea those darn real americans. paying taxes their entire career
better deport them
right?
Sullivan is constantly pandering. Trying to trade free money to one special interest group or another for votes. He’s no better than the democrats.
The morally bankrupt Princess is a lost cause. And Dan Sullivan mostly is too, but not (yet) to her extent. Dan is a neo con. He loves his wars. He loves MIGA. He loves spending other peoples money. He does not offer or support solutions, as evidenced by this article. He is not a communist, but he is a version of what was in rightist politics. He is not the future- which is Christian nationalism.
yup.
RINO.
Voted for Biden’s Infrastructure bill.
Voted for Ukraine hundreds of billion$.
Dan is a Free Trade, Open Border, Endless Wars, Christian Zionist NeoCon.
This stinks Dan. Hope someone on your team is reading comments for you.
This makes me want to vote for one of Alaska’s own, Mary Peltola (we are a Native fam)
Why not elect Mary? She would vote for this stupid move just like you did.
You should still vote. Vote Libertarian, that’s what I do.
It is important for us to let Sullivan & other GOP folks know that although they let us down we still vote (just not for them)
Don’t give up voting …. don’t hand it to the Left.
Please
More Fraud, Waste and Abuse of medical and health care!! That five billion doess no one any good and only increases criminal activity of the medical industry. No Thanks!
Yes all these illegal aliens are living off our taxes and medical services.
Again from the Cato Institute study. Pull your head out of your….,
“The NASEM–Cato model shows the following:
Every year from 1994 to 2023, immigrants have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits.
Immigrants generated nearly $10.6 trillion more in federal, state, and local taxes than they induced in total government spending.
Accounting for savings on interest payments on the national debt, immigrants saved $14.5 trillion in debt over this 30-year period.
Immigrants cut US budget deficits by about a third from 1994 to 2023, and fiscal savings grew to $878 billion in 2023 (Figure 1).
Noncitizens accounted for $6.3 trillion of the $14.5 trillion debt savings.
College graduate immigrants accounted for $11.7 trillion in savings, while non–college graduates accounted for $2.8 trillion.
The cohort of immigrants entering from 1990 to 1993, just before data collection began in 1994, was fiscally positive $1.7 trillion, and was still positive after 30 years in 2022–2023 (Table 1).
Even including the second generation (see Box 1 for definitions), who are mostly still children who will become taxpayers soon, the fiscal effect of immigration was positive every year.
Immigrants in all categories of educational attainment, including high school dropouts, lowered the ratio of deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) during the 30-year period.
Without the contributions of immigrants, public debt at all levels would already be above 200 percent of US GDP—nearly twice the 2023 level and a threshold some analysts believe would trigger a debt crisis.8
From AI; The Cato Institute is primarily a libertarian think tank, which advocates for individual liberty, limited government, and free markets, positioning itself as distinct from both traditional liberal and conservative movements. It often supports liberal social policies while promoting conservative economic policies, making it a unique blend of both ideologies.
From Me; In the case of Illegal immigration, which means they shouldn’t be here. Cato is strictly looking at this as a liberal social policy, not a conservative economic policy. If the Democrats (USAID) hadn’t been stealing (fraud) the money designated for the undeveloped countries for over a decade, surely more, there’s a good chance this illegal immigrants would still be in their home country.
Think about it Mark would you feel responsible if some one broke into your house and made themself at home demanding you take care of them?
Are you making a distinction between legal and illegal? Vetted versus flown in by the plane loads?
Every illegal needs to go. We need to stop all legal immigration for some time. And if we resume, no more garbage cultures.
Can’t wait for Dunleavy to run against murkowski! Dunleavy who was just awarded the least popular governor in the country will be up against the least popular senator in the country!!! Imagine there campaign slogans. “ Vote for me, I’m the least liked!” Mike porcarros advertising company will have to step up his lies to even approach believability!
nope. that would be walz
Pointing out that non-citizen =/= illegal immigrant. Don’t lump them in like it’s all the same thing. You *do* realize that citizenship is the last stop in the road when you’re beginning as a legal alien, right? You don’t complete the immigration process after thousands of dollars and years of time to get a sticker… you get citizenship. Yeah. People doing the process legally should absolutely be eligible for most benefits. Also yes, if we cut down the illegal immigrants this wouldn’t be a problem anyway. Don’t be brain dead and lump those two groups together.