<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Apr 17, 2006, at 10:27 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Marta Russell wrote:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV> <BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The moral ground I see is that so many who come here wind up getting on government benefits.</DIV> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Actually they don't. Immigrants are young, and use few government services. They pay taxes - including Social Security taxes, often into phony accounts that are very unlikely ever to draw benefits. Their use of Medicaid is surprisingly small - a few hundred million dollars a year, according to CBO estimates. On balance, they contribute more to the fisc than they take.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Doug</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD">Not in my neighborhood. They are middle age people. "On balance in contributing to the fisc" doesn't really mean anything to me. I see the consequences of an overburdened system all around here. The emergency rooms are overrun with non english speaking legals or illegals. The public health care system is shutting down in LA. Emergency rooms are closing. What emergency rooms remain open require 12 hour+ waits to see a doctor. My disabled friends suffer because there are so many people on MediCal that they have cut doctor pay down to next to nothing and they don't get decent service. Its a bottom of the barrel thing. I don't care what the national stats say. What is happening on the ground here is real.</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD">Marta </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>