Political Quotes

“Likewise, an article dated June 6, 2013 in Commentary debunks the myth that immigration would bankrupt the Medicare trust fund. The title of the article is notable: ``Message to Congress: Immigrants Pay More Than Their `Fair Share' of Medicare.'' According to the article, ``it turns out that closing the borders would deplete Medicare's trust fund.'' In fact, ``over a seven-year period, immigrants paid in $115.2 billion more than they took out. Meanwhile, native-born Americans drained $28.1 billion from Medicare. In other words, immigrants are keeping Medicare afloat. And it's non-citizen immigrants who make the biggest contribution. On average, each one subsidizes Medicare by $466 annually.'' It concludes that ``Scare- mongering about the cost of immigration has become a staple of political debate . . . But our findings indicate that economic fairness, not just morality, argues for immigrants' rights to care.'' The goal in this bill is to encourage undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows so we can bring them into our legal system and then do what all Vermonters tell me, what Americans everywhere tell me: Play by the same rules. I mean, that is a sense of fairness we should agree to. If we create a reason for people not to come out and register, this is going to defeat the purpose of this whole bill. It makes all of this work: the hearings, the hours and days and weeks of markups and consideration, makes it for naught.…”