Not all population increases are good population increases. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304537904577277242682364690.html "From the mid-1980s to 2005, California's population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000..." While 70% of the population increase receives medicaid benefits, only 1.5% of the population increase pays income taxes.
That's what I was getting at. Illegals are not stupid they know how to game the system. They tell their buddies this information. If you run across the border and pop out a kid, now you have an anchor baby that is entitled to Medicaid ( because they were born on US soil no mind the parents are illegal ) and by nature the kid of the illegals gets Medicaid now they get it to as the parents, even though they are illegal. So I know people that are US soil born American Citizens in CA that can't even get Medicaid, because they have no kids, yet illegals can because they popped out an anchor baby. And these same illegal parents work under the table clean homes, doing grunt work, pay no taxes and Western Union their money back to south of the border. Talk about a fucked up system.
The root of the problem is that there should be no meaningful barrier to workers going back and forth across the border given the trade realities of NAFTA. Get rid of the movement-of-labor impediment, which anybody supporting "free trade" should be in favor of, and most of these issues go away in fairly short order.
When will the xenophobic Republicans learn. If California wants to go bankrupt, let them. I've known some excellent legal immigrant workers from Mexico and abroad. I also know Americans that game the system exploiting their union protection. Anyone that wants to work here and contribute to society should be let in. Those too lazy to work should be kicked out or sent to the bleeding heart states like California. There is a reason why our population in Texas is booming and you can live the good life on a very modest income here. Check xenophobia at the door and let people who want to work, work.
I wish there were a futures market in delusional government budget projections that I could bet against this crap. It would be a nice change from always being on the paying end of their stupid policies. California is the epitome of a high-tax welfare state. What an abject failure. Hopefully I'm out of here by end of 2014. Since there will be a $1 billion surplus by then, the state won't need my money.
And the politicians will be back at the trough soon enough. They never run out of wonderful things to do with people's income. -burn8