Illegal immigration is not a ‘minor violation’ Re: “Illegal immigration should remain a minor violation,” From Readers, May 23
Examiner reader Glenn Farber cites “countless studies” which supposedly show the minor nature of illegal border crossings.
Illegal immigration does not “enrich this country financially, culturally and economically,” as Mr. Farber alleges. He must have missed the other countless studies showing that each illegal immigrant, on average, costs taxpayers slightly over $75,000 more than he/she contributes to our economy.
Social services such as education, health care and welfare (yes, many illegal immigrants receive welfare) aren’t free. The vast majority of illegal immigrants work under the table, which is unfair to taxpayers who don’t. Most Americans are all for legal immigration and against illegal immigration for a variety of good reasons.
Damien Kane
Rochester, N.Y.
No comparison between Scott Walker, Ike Leggett
Re: “Unions give Democrats a pass on concessions,” Local Editorial, May 19
The Examiner’s editorial comparing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s public employee union actions with those of Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is absurd.
In the first place, Wisconsin’s firefighter and teacher unions had agreed to benefit cuts to help reduce budget deficits, but Walker ignored these and pushed through an atrocity of a law basically rescinding — not restricting — their collective bargaining rights. For political, not budgetary, purposes Walker also laid off thousands of teachers and firefighters and used the savings not to reduce the deficit, but to give millions of dollars in tax breaks to his corporate sponsors.
Leggett did not attempt to rescind Montgomery County public workers’ collective bargaining, did not lay any of them off and gave no tax breaks to corporations. In fact, he did no more than what Wisconsin workers were ready to give up at the outset. So no wonder Maryland union reaction was muted compared with the outpouring of union opposition and disgust in Wisconsin.
Stanley J. Suser
Silver Spring
Lack of regulation got us into this mess
Re: “Rep. Tim Huelskamp: Family man, farmer, congressman,” May 12
I don’t doubt Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s sincerity nor earnestness. But sincerity and earnestness don’t prevent him from being wrong. And when the congressman says that government overregulation is one of the major factors threatening the future of our republic, he is not only wrong about tomorrow, he is also mistaken about our very recent past.
The lack of government oversight is exactly why we are facing the economic troubles we have today. Rep. Huelskamp needs to be reminded that it was the deregulation of Wall Street and the banking sector, plus the look-the-other-way attitude of government administrators in the Bush administration, that directly led to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression.
It’s very important that the congressman understand this, because if he thinks the solution is to continue the broken laissez-faire deregulation policies that got us into this mess, we are all going to be suffering a lot more than we already are.
Mark Mocarski
Bethesda
