Polls show that one of the biggest concerns the public has about illegal immigration is whether illegals are a tax burden. There is a lot of debate about that issue, with competing statistics on whether illegals contribute more in taxes and economic benefit than they cost in social services. But former Bush I Treasury official Bruce Bartlett noted in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal that states can reduce the burden of illegal immigration by their tax policies.
“Illegal aliens probably pay very little state income taxes, but close to their share of sales taxes,” he wrote. “Therefore, states that rely more heavily on sales taxes than income taxes are going to get more revenue out of their illegal aliens to pay for the expenses they incur.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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46 Comments
I agree 100%. We can get rid of income tax in Kansas and reduce property taxes for home and business owners if we go heavily on sales tax.
Tax free states like Florida, Nevada, Washington and Texas do this and those are the fastest economic growing states in the nation.
Oh, so that’s what all the flap about illegal aliens has been about; lets get rid of those awful property taxes, and impose sales taxes in their place! That way we can shift more of the tax burden onto the poor, who after all, only exist to carry burdens and blame!
I have a good friend who pays a lot more in property, income and SS taxes than the average American. She employs an illegal immigrant/alien to do her housework and childcare.
Kansas schools teach kids how to think simply. But the real world is complex. There are billions of tax revenues that should be partially credited to Mexican immigrants that are being ignored through simplistic, incorrect, thinking.
Most policymakers think that most Kansans are “intellectually challenged”. But maybe if we had a campaign to lose the TV’s and game consoles, and promoted studying and reading, young Kansans could become amazingly smart, i.e. capable of complex thinking.
I was thinking about the branch library issue. Here is my two cents: Google is trying to put a vast amount of library information online. The publishing industry is trying to stop this. The publishing industry has persuaded Congress and the Supreme Court to violate the Constitutional framers’ copyright concept.
Here is what the Constitution, Article II, Section 8, says about copyright law: The Congress shall have the power
To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times TO AUTHORS AND INVENTORS the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Here is a good example of an impeachible offense by the courts. Laura Ingalls Wilder died in 1938. She was AN AUTHOR. She bequeathed her copyright to a daughter who bequeathed it to a friend. Today, the friend of the daughter, whom Laura Ingalls Wilder never knew, has a share of Mrs. Wilder’s copyright, thanks to corrupt courts who violated the Constitution, who were primarily interested in enriching publishers, i.e. middlemen, who were NOT AUTHORS. A corrupt Congress passed an unconstitutional act that gave copyright “property right” to middlemen publishers for a period of 75 years after AUTHOR’s DEATHS.
Under a rational reading of the Constitution “for a limited time” can legally be defined as the life of an author. Under a rational reading, combined with constitutionally-compatible property rights law, that author may sell his or her right to a publisher, i.e. for the lifespan of the author.
Google executives are merely trying to give Kansans the power to do what New Yorkers have the right to do: read the New York Public Library’s holdings. But KANSAS representatives want KANSANS TO BE IGNORANT.
Sadly, some Wichitans WANT WICHITANS TO BE IGNORANT. “Let’s encourage Kansans to watch the boob tube, play video games, go to a new arena to see Hollytrash entertainment.”
So when all economy-linchpin aviation jobs in Wichita are sent to Asia by 2030, and when low-value work is “insourced” using Mexican laborers, and the Wichita economy implodes, you really don’t have a tenable complaint. You may not like it, but you’ve shot yourselves in both kneecaps.
So, you could have branch libraries that can tap into world-class information.
For hard-copy books and journals, you could build WSU’s library, combining its holdings with the central library. You could think SMART. You could set up a library shuttle-bus system to empower all Wichitans to visit a world-class hard-copy libary.
Oh yes…I love the concept that sales taxes are unfair on the poor. Yes, the poor spend a higher percentage of their total income on sales taxes than those who are weathier.
Sales taxes are based on what you buy. If you don’t buy things, you don’t pay sales tax. How is that unfair? There are food stamps and assistance programs galore for those who truly need it. Sales tax is probably the most equitable and fair tax that there is. We have the ability to determine how much sales tax we pay by determining how much we buy.
Nobody likes taxes..but to claim one tax unfairly targets one group of people is garbage.
I agree, property and business owners have been carrying the biggest burden for years, another example of how you get punished in our country if you try to make something of your life. Taxes need to be shared equally and sales tax is the way to go. Raise the tax on cigarettes and alcohol, also. As far as the poor, I serve the poor almost everyday of my life, and the ones that smoke can always find the money to buy cigarettes, I’ve even seen a woman but a pack with her vision card. If we raise the tax on cigarettes, maybe that will be more of an incentive for those who can least afford it to quit and save the taxpayers even more by not having to pay for their health problems caused by smoking.
Da,Punished? Shouldn’t the people who have used the society to enrich themselves be more than happy to give back a share to that society?I certainly enjoy the benefits of taxes; My kids and grandkids were educated, I have nice streets and highways to drive on, beautiful state parks, an art museum, Botanica, Cowtown, and a host of other things to enjoy. I know that if bad luck or illness should befall me, that there are safety nets in place to keep me from starving, Social Security to help my retirement and a police force and fire department and ambulance service, should an emergency arise. All these things cost money, and my taxes pay for them. There are, of course things you voted to spend tax money on that I would rather not, but that’s what happens in a democracy.I’m certainly willing to fork over my share of the bill. You people who don’t want to are trying to get a free ride at the expense of others!
Jed,You’re pro illegal immigration yet you have the balls to blame American citizens for wanting a free ride?
Best joke ive heard all day!
Shifting to sales tax to address the illegal alien problem will hurt the same poor Americans that the illegals already steal jobs from.
Little wonder some would further use this issue for the rich to get richer.
Better solution? Put a 35-50% tax on all funds wired to Mexico. Give Western Union a cut to administer it. Use the collected funds to further fund INS and SRS. This attacks the problem of the illegals coming here in the first place and sees to the burdens they place on society.
CruX,Illegal immigrants want a free ride? Do you have any idea the difficulties they suffer just to get here? And once they’re here, most of them put in a day’s work that you couldn’t begin to, and for wages you couldn’t survive on!
Jed?
What part of ILLEGAL immigrant do you not understand?
I say again, tax very heavily their hard won slave wages.
JR,Hey, I was around when Jim Crow laws made being black illegal, for all practical purposes. I certainly didn’t respect those laws, and I don’t respect our current immigration laws, which have their roots in racism.
Immigration laws are racist? Now I have heard everything. That is like saying laws against robbery are racist, or laws against murder are racist.
This is a country of laws. The laws exist for specific purposes. The laws about immigration are there to attempt to control the numbers of people entering this country. Granted, it is seriously flawed in practice, but should we just throw open our country to the 6 billion people on this planet? No…this country could not survive.
That is not racist..that is law.
Have you ever noticed that the people who scream racist the first and the loudest are usually the biggest racists themselves?
JedIt appears when you run out of arguments, back to the old stand-by RACISM. It’s growing kinda tiresum.
I have NEVER heard jed say he supports ILLEGAL immigration.
Never. He supports immigrants and PEOPLE, not illegal immigration. I know, damn him and his christian charity.
But please, feel free to distort the discussion any way to please. It makes such a better read to make jed the bad guy and to distort the truth of his positions.
I could go for a sales tax shift if food and prescription medicines are exempt the way they are in Texas. That takes a lot of the regressiveness out of sales tax.
Raptor, with all due respect, unless you exempt food and medicine, sales taxes are EXTREMELY regressive.
But then bushco and the preznit have given the most wealthy so many tax breaks that even the progressive income tax is now extremely regressive too. Tax the poor and exempt the rich. Reagan lives!!!!
Sales tax, with food and medicines exempt, would at least force the bushies to pay their fair share.
At least until the republicans and bushco control congress again and exempt humvees and yachts and such because they stimulate the economy…
Jed, I don’t mind paying my “fair share” of taxes, I just don’t think I should have to pay more than that. We need to take some of the burden off those who work hard to try and make a better life for themselves and give back some of the burden to those who don’t give a damn and expect the government to provide for their every need. Believe it or not, there are A LOT of spoiled “poor” people in this country. We have a government that has enabled too many people to be dependant on the system to take care of them and actually reward them for making bad choices, while those who show some abiltiy to delay gratification and work hard have been forced to carry the financial burden for everyone.One big lesson I have learned in life is that there are those who take and never give, and then there are those who give and never take. We need less people in the first group and more in the second, otherwise our country is going on a downward spiral. We can’t keep this up forever and expect to survive.A good solution is to have more voluntary tax, like revenue generated from the lottery, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, porno shops, and other “sin tax” sources. Then if people don’t want to partake, they don’t have to, and they’ll be healthier for it. I’d also go for an increase in sales tax on everything except food.
PS…..and medicine, good point Frmgrl.
Increase the sin taxes (cause if you REALLY want it you’ll buy it anyway). No taxes on food or meds.and I like JR’s point on taxing money wired to Mexico to help fund INS.
“We need to take some of the burden off those who work hard to try and make a better life for themselves and give back some of the burden to those who don’t give a damn and expect the government to provide for their every need.”
I am fine with that. Rich republicans first, we’ll follow.
And if you just taxed churches, you wouldnt need more tax increases on working folks.
Da,”We need to take some of the burden off those who work hard to try and make a better life for themselves and give back some of the burden to those who don’t give a damn and expect the government to provide for their every need.”You Betcha! But that’s not the poor, it’s the people in the upper brackets that are the nation’s welfare queens!I’ve been poor, and I’ve had dealings with some of Wichita’s wealthiest, and believe me, of the two, the poor work infinitely harder! For the last quarter-century, the breaks given to the rich add up to a welfare program for them that places the tax burden on the middle class, and that burden is slowly creeping down into poorer and poorer brackets. This is called a “trickle-down theory.” I don’t know about you people, but what’s trickled down all over me might be golden, but it’s hardly spendable! And it stinks!
Julie,I’ve said it before; the problem with sin-taxes is that they give the government a financial interest in keeping us sinning. While some of you might be addicted to cigarettes or booze or whatever, your legislators have definitely become addicted to the money!
UpNorth,Our immigration laws were founded in a period of extreme racism, with the intent to limit immigration among various “undesirable” ethnic groups, while encouraging northern European immigration. Various halfhearted attempts have been made to expunge the worst (or at least most visible) parts of it, but it still continues, with Denmark, for example, being allowed the same number of immigrants as the much more populous Mexico.
JedSo, What’s awrong with that?
I have an idea, lets ship all the bigots to Mexico, starting with Upnorth.
What’s a wrong with bigots? Sorry I have already been to Mexico I prefer the good ol US of A.Where is Charly Bunker when we need him.
Sigh…….
And as usual, any attempt to address the illegal invaders is spun off in different directions.Taxing consumption will hurt the very folks who already have to compete with illegals for jobs.
Taxing people who smoke or drink will not make the illegals go home.
Calling those who want the Mexicans to fix their own country “racists” will not fix Mexico.
Illegal invaders export back to Mexico about 20 billion dollars in wages annually. Tax those wire sent wages at say 40%. That is about 8 billion dollars in money kept in this coutry and not sent to Mexico. It removes the incentive for Mexicans to come here and the Mexican governments stake in encouraging them to do so.
I think what GFUN means to say is that it doesn’t matter if the government prefers to allow some people from some countries to enter the US while denying entrance to others. This makes sense, since we are a sovereign nation, and it is WE THE PEOPLE who decide who comes here and who doesn’t. Otherwise we would never have enacted immigration laws in the first place.
Im sick of the overblown rhetoric from the people who accuse people who support border enforcement and LEGAL immigration (because if you support ILLEGAL immigration you’re NOT SUPPORTING LEGAL immigration!) of racism. No one is going around lynching Mexicans or making them drink from separate drinking fountains, or teaching them in segregated schools or even police “Rodney King-style beating them or shooting fire hoses at them when they organize rallies with the intent to boycott America and hurt the American economy which they are leeching off of! So please, dont compare the pampered illegal Mexicans who broke the law coming here with the law-abiding black Americans who were marginalized in the past.
Immigration will cease to be a problem for America from the end of 2008 onwards.
John Titor
CruX,I beg your pardon, but those “law abiding black Americans” broke unjust laws as often as they could, and were arrested for it by the busload. That was the only way to get get civil rights issues before the courts and laws overturned! Please see Gandhi’s writings on passive resistance.While racism isn’t as universal as it was in the 1950’s and early ’60’s, it still lingers in dark corners and in unjust laws from the past. Also note how much more difficult it is to get streets fixed, and other public projects approved in northeast and north Wichita than it is in middle-class white neighborhoods. See Ian for an account of the survival of racism!
By 2010, the North American Union will consist of Canada, United States and Mexico. The currency will be called the Amero.
The globalists will further push the one world government further but fail in 2015 when opposing eastern powers take action.
John Titor
Damn you Titor!!!!!!!!
V.L.R.B!!
So the illegal aliens on average send $16,700 per year back to Mexico?
$16,700 per PERSON?
I thought they only did the jobs that Americans would not do.
The average worker at McDonald’s makes less than $10,000 per year.
I just want to say that pro or anti illegal immigration, racism is NOT the main factor in the decision. You can be pro-LEGAL immigration and that is still anti-racism.
I do worry that shifting sales tax to the poor is a bad move. Yes, the rich BUY more, but the poor buy what they NEED, and increasing the sales tax will make it harder to buy what they need.
So if you changed the sales tax so that food, medicines were exempt, I might go with that.
We don’t need to raise sales taxes or any other taxes. As has already been said on this blog, the sales tax hurts the poor folk most. Kansas has a tax on food for God’s sake. Unthinkable!These crazy numbers to send the illegals back are not believable.I like Gov. Sebelius’s idea to give illegals drivers licenses, Except when they show up for the license, put them on a Trailways bus and say Gotcha! Dopes.
Mom, as you may know, prescription medicines are exempt from the imposition of the Kansas Retail Sales Tax. I join with you in urging exemption of unprepared foods from the tax.
The use of a consumption tax to recover governmental revenues otherwise lost by those (whether “illegal aliens” or “self employed”) who do not properly report their income and pay taxes thereon makes sense to me.
http://fairtax.org/
We can put the IRS out of business!
outlander-From what I hear, the flat tax may be the way to go, BUT it seems to be a pipe dream. I’m not sure the average dope could get behind it, being a dope and all. The average Pol won’t like it because of the power it will take away. Taxers like to tax to control behavior.
out, won’t put IRS out of business; just shift its emphasis.
CPA’s won’t like it either.
fleet, flat tax, if an income tax, will mean CPAs will then become involved in the definition of income.
Say hello to your new neighbors! We won’t be illegal anymore once the NAU goes down. Everything will be legit! God bless president Bush! Viva Mexico!
Jed,You’re pro illegal immigration yet you have the balls to blame American citizens for wanting a free ride?
Best joke ive heard all day!
Posted by: CrusaderX | May 21, 2006 at 06:10 PM
WHO THE FUCK IS THIS!? I’M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS WHOEVER YOU ARE!
Oh, wait a minute, I did post that.My bad.
Wow, did a little googling for the NAU and it’s real.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union