[quote=spdrun]I have quite a few conservative friends — some of them are even open minded enough to enjoy arguing about politics 🙂 As long as they’re respectful about it, and are truly conservative vs being bigoted, they’ll remain friends.
As far as religion, I’m more of an agnostic, but I’m seeing someone who’s a somewhat religious Catholic, went to see the Pope and all that. Tolerant, but religious nonetheless.
I disagree that safety nets and open borders are incompatible. Require ID for government services, don’t provide them to non-citizens. Open borders =/= open citizenship. There should still be a naturalization process.[/quote]
Who doesn’t enjoy arguing about politics? 😉
What about infrastructure costs? Who should have to pay for that? What about schools? Should we educate the children of illegal immigrants at the cost of ~$10,000/year? Who should pay for that?
I’ve long suggested that having a guest worker program here should incorporate a “benefits entitlement” card for the worker and all of his/her dependents. The employer should have to pay the cost of this card, and the cost of these cards should reflect the true cost of the public services and infrastructure being used by the guest worker and his/her dependents. All employers would be mandated to use the E-Verify system, or risk steep fines and possible forfeiture of their property.
If employers had to do this, the real cost of their employees would be made obvious, and they would quickly realize that they could hire American citizens for the same money or less. They are only hiring the illegal immigrants because taxpayers (and other workers) are subsidizing the costs.
