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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (150464)	11/17/2010 8:06:24 PM
From: Little Joe	Respond to of 543056

The fact is nobody knows. So any discussion regarding the economic contribution of the undocumented vs. their burden is just a WAG. lj

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (150464)	11/17/2010 9:09:49 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543056

Laying the track for high-speed rail November 17, 2010 Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the second round of recipients selected to receive funding for intercity rail projects under the administration’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program on October 28, 2010. These projects will bring us one step closer to realizing the benefits of greener transportation. CAP has the story. The graph below shows the projects currently under development as a result of the High-Speed Intercity Rail Program’s funding, which includes Recovery Act funding and funding from the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. Some projects are in the planning stages while others such as California’s existing corridors (solid red) are already built and are being developed or expanded. The Milwaukee to Madison line and projects in Ohio will likely be canceled by incoming governors for those states (see “Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future”: New GOP governors kill $1.2 Billion in high-speed rail jobs). This is a shame, because these projects create jobs. The California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that building the corridor connecting San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento will create 600,000 (construction) jobs. Intercity passenger rail received $8 billion total from the Recovery Act, which is a huge increase in funding. It traditionally receives much less federal funding than highways and air travel. We’ve written in this space before about the Obama administration’s new emphasis on building high-speed and intercity passenger rail that connects communities and economic centers around the country, and complements highway, aviation, and public transit systems. But there are other benefits to high-speed rail: It spurs job creation, decreases dependence on fossil fuels, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Intercity rail, some of which is high speed, is also more energy efficient than commuter rail systems—and much more efficient than automobiles or aircraft when compared using British thermal units, or BTUs per passenger mile. A national high-speed rail system is a long way off, but even systems that connect a few major cities pay environmental dividends. The California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that their proposed system from Los Angeles to San Francisco will remove 12 billion pounds of carbon dioxide per year by 2030 because it uses electricity generated from wind, solar, and other renewable resources. And it will save 12.7 million barrels of oil by 2030. Those kinds of benefits combined with high-speed rail’s job-creation potential make the administration’s investments a worthy endeavor. climateprogress.org

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (150464)	11/18/2010 9:38:14 AM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543056

I don't buy the claims made in the article. It probably doesn't factor in the costs of things like extra school constuction/expansion, additional police, fire, hospital space and staff. Those kinds of articles simply tote up the amount of welfare services, like Aid to Dependent Children, etc., that illegals usually can't get access to. Actually, it's so easy for an illegal to get a fake birth certificate and then SS cards, many do manange to get food stamps. I don't think you can assume all illegals are paid in cash I don't assume that at all. Plus I never said that or alluded to it. approximately $80,000 more in taxes per capita than they use in government services I don't even think that statement would be true for the bottom 60% of the legal residents of this country. Not if one allocates costs properly, i.e. follows GAAP relative to cost accounting rules. Plenty of people are getting back more than they pay in. This is why state budgets are in trouble. I'd have to see the entire Texas Comptroller's disclosure and see how those numbers were derived to even begin to accept that particular claim. To start with, to pay property taxes that go to the schools, an illegal would have to be a homeowner and have had sufficient provable income to support a mortgage. The poultry and orchard businesses have brought illegals in by the truckloads in my area. For the first several years, they typically are living ten people in a rented house. They quickly overloaded the school system which led to all kinds of new school construction and/or portable classrooms. My area has even seen the construction of two new huge hospitals in the last decade, plus a wing added to a third. The effects of illegal Hispanics on my tri-county area, inc. crime, DUI rates, and driving w/o insurance, are well-documented and published in the paper. I know many people who won't eat any Tyson Foods product as a silent protest against it because Tyson is the most eggregious offender.